“Public health” is operating, but with the wrong information and the wrong solutions to solve the wrong problems, because those calling the shots have the wrong goals.
We need to call for real public health, because we can’t go on with this upside down version that only gets worse. The debunked misinformation campaign1 seemingly premised on the confused assertion that most of society has been under mask mandates, lockdown, or at least social distancing, for over two years straight when that’s quite obviously not the case anywhere. It’s led many to rightly mock that premise.2
The Terrible Truth
But I think there’s a misunderstanding about this adulterated pack of lies. This theory is definitely not based in any science and is completely without any reality. But I think the false concept being floated is actually worse than most realize. People are being convinced to blame all disease mitigation. They are being propagandized into blaming, and resenting, the people who have in fact been isolating or otherwise taking precautions to avoid sickness. It’s the only explanation that fits. They’re blaming the people who are masking.
@jovip7430 on twitter 9:41 PM · Nov 24, 2022
“I tried to explain to an extended family member (gently & respectfully) that covid can cause immune system issues after she continuously complained about her young kids sick x3 months. Today she posted about how they have all had RSV, pneumonia, colds, flu, ear infections, following covid & said that covid was NBD for her family compared to all of these other illnesses. Complaining that covid precautions “ruined” her children’s immune systems. Everyone is chiming in, “yeah my kids immune systems are ruined from stupid covid precautions too” People are seriously unable to connect the dots. I should also mention that these people have been covid-deniers from the start who refused masks, vaccines, social distancing etc. do you see my point here? They took no covid precautions & are now blaming the constant illness. on the covid precautions, that they never took! Blaming “immunity debt” when they continued to live as though it was 2019 throughout all of this.”
They have connected dots – but all wrong. They’ve been given different dots to connect, and they’ve connected them. They are NOT blaming their own covid precautions (that they didn’t do) for ruining their children’s immune systems. They are blaming OTHER people’s covid precautions for ruining herd immunity for their children. And it seems that’s why they want everyone else to unmask and get infected – as if that’d be a good thing when it’s obviously not doing good for the people, especially not the ones winding up in hospital or six feet under. But somehow they want more spread. Why?
Because “immunity debt” is the new “herd immunity” – because it’s all the same thing. Various and sundry disinformation purveyors have cycled through it all as their assertions have fallen apart again and again, to land here at yet another wrong. Who knows what will be next? It’s like a cognitive test puzzle: (there is no natural) herd immunity, (misuse of a word with gusto) robust immunity, (pandemic of the unvaccinated didn’t work so make it worse with infection) hybrid immunity, or (playing pretend) super immunity, (up against the nonexistent) wall of immunity, (wait what now) population immunity, (no safety) herd safety, and now (we didn’t cull enough yet) immunity debt…
The Blame Motivation
People have been told to blame the infections in their kids on other people taking precautions. And this is why they are okay with the reversal of mitigations, and in some cases are demanding it. What “public health measures” will they demand next to reverse other people taking precautions if they think this way? That if those cautious people would’ve just “gotten it over with” (and maybe died) we’d be “back to normal” by now somehow because they now believe the viruses “must have their due” or something like that. This is evidenced by their remarks about how it’s “just delaying the inevitable” (such as death, yes) – and their obsession with criticizing people who choose to take precautions – while at the same time blathering on about “personal risk calculations” and wanting “respect for all choices”3 – as if anyone actually wants all bad choices in play all the time.
But do those pushing this bizarro world public health herd death agenda even intend for all choices to be respected? Will they really follow any science?
Public Health is Political
Since wearing masks or respirators can prevent spread of COVID-19, people who have a household or social contact with someone at risk for getting very sick with COVID-19 (for example, a student with a sibling who is at risk) may also choose to wear a mask at any COVID-19 Community Level. Schools and ECE programs should consider flexible, non-punitive policies and practices to support individuals who choose to wear masks regardless of the COVID-19 Community Level.
The CDC itself released guidance in October which states quite clearly that schools and daycares may have punitive measures to prevent children from masking, or reprimand them for wearing masks.4 So not only is there hounding and harassing from peers and strangers, but the call is coming from inside the house. The guidance says that schools should CONSIDER “non-punitive” policies – just consider. But the official policy is that it’s totally within their norms for public health that schools would and could consider banning masks outright for all but those who actively claim a household member is high risk. Who even knows who’s high risk? And who’s going to be in charge of the schools making these decisions after those disturbing scenes we’ve seen at school board meetings? Or the school boards that are being taken over by gun-promoting right-wing extremist phone companies,5 or stormed by people propelled by right-wing think tank money to go scream furiously opposing books, masks, history lessons, and vaccines.6 And those bad actors have official rubber stamp after rubber stamp by people in supposed public health leadership joining in to help push this absolute fascist trash.
It’s not stopping at schools. The right wing phone company that already took over 2 school boards in Texas has plans to take over other political offices. An NPR report on All Things Considered radio program7 states that in Florida, “Three newly-elected members of the public hospital’s board are so-called “health freedom” activists who are opposed to COVID vaccines and treatment protocols for the illness. A Florida hospital has become the latest front for political activists eager to challenge protocols for treating COVID.” It sure seems like these people believe in “public health” and imposing it – but it’s their bizarro world reverse version of it. This is a political takeover against healthcare emergency response and pandemic mitigations.
Bad Theories, Bad Goals
And all of them pretty much sound just like the people who said everyone should do their duty to get society to the infamous and nonviable herd immunity. It’s all the same distorted picture, preying upon people who have in many cases misunderstood the meaning of immunity entirely. They keep using that word, but I do not think it means what people think it means.
The adherents of the absurd and repulsive Great Barrington Declaration, all their bogus focused “protection” talk, and their shameless promotion of deliberate infection, exploits these misunderstandings, and information gaps left void by an absence of public health goals that would bring salubrious policies. They use advertising techniques and cognitive biases to trip people up so it doesn’t matter that there’s no “getting it over with” since there’s no lasting immunity, or in fact it might even harm the immune system8 – as was found with measles.9
It doesn’t even matter that “delaying the inevitable” is quite obviously the right thing to do. Almost every living creature spends a lifetime delaying illness, injuries, and death. Why would we even have healthcare and doctors if we didn’t want that? Of course we should delay injury & death as long as we can.
Dishonest Advertising
It doesn’t actually have to make logical sense to convince people – it just has to feel true.10 And they make it feel true by continuously bringing out the same themes, the same words, repeating the same concepts, to achieve the reiteration effect11 When that takes hold, it seems that garbage starts to look like rainbows. The immune system doesn’t work like a muscle,12 but it’s a familiar enough concept with exercise and bodybuilding, so it’s very popular in the wellness influencer spaces where there’s big money in confirming people’s fantasies about being in control over their lives and in total control of their bodies, even against a dangerous virus that’s been killing and disabling reluctant millions.
The people buying into this stuff and pushing it in their circles have already been convinced to allow themselves and even their children and others to become infected. People have been infected by many unsafe workplaces with employers who refuse to take even minimum measures. Some have even been let down by unions who decided not to stand up for safety precautions. Many have been persuaded that since they have to take risks at work, why shouldn’t they have a good time at restaurants and concerts and gatherings. Professionals have been cajoled that their careers and their social networks depend on them attending in-person conferences, disregarding the fact that they are often superspreader events. And elders have been convinced that it’s worth risking their very lives to see their family in settings and situations that needlessly ignore pandemic realities for seniors.
And so people need someone to blame other than themselves. Enter those who step in to use this opportunity to convince them not just opposition to all precautions, but also opposition to anyone taking them. Just look at the trolling comments on so many pro-mask posts on social media and the replies which prompt you to wonder “Why do they care so much and so badly about whether someone masks or isolates?” Yes, why do people care so much they’re willing to spend hours bothering people on social media? Why does someone’s cousin shame them for not coming to the family dinner out of state? Why would someone’s own friend become hostile to someone high risk who’s social distancing or masking? Why would other parents shame someone for keeping their kids safe?
There really is no other explanation in that some people have been convinced that everyone needs to surrender & succumb to “the inevitable” in order to “move forward” and get infected. That’s what Dr. Romero actually said, promoting this thoroughly debunked unscientific right-wing propaganda at a CDC media briefing: “these children, if you will, need to become infected to move forward”13 Again rubber stamping far right anti-science propaganda. Why?
And it doesn’t stop there. In a webinar meeting with the Philadelphia Inquirer,14 Ashish Jha, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said that “while the evidence that a high-quality, well-fitted mask reduces transmission is clear, he thinks policy decisions should be up to local governments” – and he can be heard in the video, misleading with imprecision – asserting an incorrect claim that there are no studies to say masks work well. We know masks work because respiratory protection has been standard workplace safety for all sorts of air contaminants.15 But further, a systematic review and network analysis of randomized controlled trials showed that “Eleven out of 16 RCTs that underwent a pairwise meta-analysis revealed a substantially lower infection risk in those donning medical face masks (MFMs) than those without face masks.”16 An analysis in Greater Boston Area School Districts found that “Before the statewide school masking policy was lifted, there was no statistically significant difference in case rate trajectories between school districts. However, weekly and cumulative case rates were significantly higher in students and staff in school districts that removed masking requirements, compared to districts that had not yet lifted requirements.”17 During the Delta surge an NIH study found mandatory masking in schools reduced cases.18 And a study of mortality modeling across 44 countries shows “face mask mandates were associated with lower COVID-19 deaths rates than the rates in countries without mandates.”19
Ashish Jha does give animated advocacy on air purifiers to the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, there’s a distinct propaganda campaign even trying to malign the HEPA filters on social media. A well known pandemic minimizer professor in Europe attempted to argue against HEPA filters by asserting the false claim that you can’t filter air like you filter water. HEPA air purifier filters were developed by the military to filter radioactive particles out of the air in the event of contamination.20 They do work to clean the air. This is not in question at all. But again, the actual reason being floated for why not clean the air? The answer is again the failed and false herd immunity via encouraging sickness and deaths. The arguments are sometimes that HEPA won’t be “perfect” at removing the virus, seemingly unaware that less virus is always better to improve odds against transmission. But when it comes right down to it, it’s always about infecting everyone to let the chips fall where they may and see what terrible happens.
The upside down call is coming from inside the house
And if the CDC pretty much just sanctions punitive measures against students to prevent masking in school,21 and disseminates anti-science nonsense immunity comments,(footnote 13) how can we trust they won’t start pushing that we all need to breathe dirty air too? I don’t know what’s going on at the CDC, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s an awful lot of people who burrowed in from the Trump administration,22 because they all sound the same as the people in 2020 who said the elders should sacrifice themselves23 on the altar of The Economy – that people should just get back to work as the virus spread.24
Cognitive Dissonance
And for those who have been convinced by this, they clearly feel compelled that they must convince everyone around them to back them up, that they’re making the right decision. They want to be comforted by social support that they’re correct to allow their children to get viruses repeatedly, and that this is in fact community minded. That this is public health, community care, and being a good citizen – to get your kids sick to serve. Then it’s easy to ignore the sinister immoral implications of allowing a contagion to spread, and perhaps even killing people for some made up version of the greater good. And to this end some people twist themselves into pretzels to use every crude DARVO tactic25 they can cook up.
But what purpose does this all serve? And why do they need to pressure everyone?
The Economy as a false god
They want to drive every last segment of the population who’s been taking precautions to “get out there”26 and into full economic participation to serve The Economy.27
Ron Klein, White House Chief of Staff: “Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff: Well, look, it’s first and foremost an accomplishment of the American people, their resilience — the president talked about that today — their ability to take everything that the past few years, that the Omicron variant has thrown at them, and be back at work and fight on and help grow this economy, our business sector, our workers, everyone coming together to do this.”
Everyone. They want everyone in the pool, and I suppose that’s not worked out so well. As it turns out a great many people are not buying into this scheme, and they’re continuing “Long Social Distancing.”28
Knowing that COVID-19 has not gone away, some people are not yet prepared to let their guard down, according to a working paper distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Some 13% of U.S. workers said they will continue social distancing as the economy opens up and cases fall, and another 45% said they will do so in limited ways. Only 42% said they plan a “complete return” to the activities they participated in before the pandemic. The study, titled “Long Social Distancing,” estimated that unwillingness among workers to be in close proximity to others — which in many cases is prudent, especially for those who have underlying conditions or elderly relatives — reduced labor participation by 2.5 percentage points in the first half of 2022 compared with what economists would normally expect to see. That translates to $250 billion in potential annual output, representing a drop of nearly 1 percentage point.
Many workers are willing to risk any downsides of working from home and eschew feeding the fossil fuel industry with long commutes just to risk serious illness at the office and maybe kill their elderly father. The “proximity bias” that leads some employers to show favoritism to employees physically closer working in the office isn’t a deterrent. People want remote work. And as it turns out, the people are taking at least some sensible steps to avoid the dangers posed by fully engaging in the economy. They’re at least not going to restaurants or the megabucks generating superspreader conventions.29 And some people will still wear masks, reminding everyone else that yes, the risk is still present! Which apparently is an anathema to the business class who figure that danger, especially to children, will lead people to stay out of the marketplace. But instead of getting on board with removing the danger, they would rather hide it, regardless of the human cost.
A conservative foundation ran an ad campaign specifically targeting liberals to convince people on the left to reject masks30 and face exposure to the virus. Those well informed and rightfully cautious people require more than a little gaslighting. The lefties and the liberals need a lot more than “abstract verbalizations about personal liberty”31 to convince them to give up health and weeks of their lives to being sick just to serve The Economy. So the full weight of social pressure has to be applied to convince everyone from every angle. The messaging needs to have the power of inundation and repetition from multiple sources.32 Leadership, people in positions of power over others, and from peers. But precaution adversaries can manipulate by setting it up as a compromise, or outright threatening33 people and their representatives into capitulation. I saw someone on twitter mention knowing a lawyer who doesn’t mask because the attorney is afraid it will adversely affect the conservative judge’s behavior toward their clients.34
“I think he is using us as pawns. You’re not looking at the prevalence of covid coming back, being in and out. I just think it is a weird stance to take not considering your workers,” Lee said. For his part, the mayor wants city workers to ‘lead by example’ by returning to the office full-time. Meanwhile, at a Wall Street ‘power breakfast’ Wednesday morning, Adams encouraged business leaders to bring private-sector employees back to the largely empty Manhattan buildings. A move he calls critical to New York’s economic recovery. “It’s time for all of us to be on team New York to get our city back up and operating and it starts with city employees,” Adams said. “We need to see people in the Duane Reade’s of the world. We need to see them in the coffee shops and the luncheonettes. And if they’re not here, those businesses can’t survive,” small business owner Leon Adams said.35
Employers are complicit in driving the push to get butts in seats downtown for the economy. But if it was only just that – it’s not. Social media is full of stories about people in the service industry getting tipped less when they wear a mask at work. Early in the pandemic I heard numerous stories about employees forbidden from masking.36 I’ve been writing to the Biden administration about my concerns on this matter since February 2021, and I have yet to have anybody allay my concerns about this.
Let’s reject the lies
The bad actors in seemingly positions of esteem pushing this garbage are not repeating these lies because they think all our kids would be protected now if they got infections last year or whenever. They are pushing this because they want others to believe the hospitals would not be overloaded if all the disabled children were done under a year ago. That’s why they want your kids unmasked too. They think if you can’t survive you don’t deserve to survive, because that’s the mindset a cruel society demands, and they believe society must be cruel. What they mean by immunity debt is really eugenics debt. It will result in herd death, because the supremacist’s twisted idea of “survival of the fittest” never actually works in practice quite like they think in their elitist delirium – because life is simply not fair and there’s no justice ordained this way. It’s nothing but a grotesque hoax theory that plays on the greed of those who believe they deserve a higher status. They are drinking their own kool-aid, sure, but that doesn’t mean they won’t drown others in that sickening cocktail first.
At a bare minimum, healthcare facilities need universal masks to be ethical,37 including pharmacies,38 and essential services need mask requirements39 to even consider them equitable or accessible. These things shouldn’t be controversial at all, if you have reasonable information.
We can’t just be complacent and hope that what measures we have today will be there tomorrow because public health has become lies and confusion. We can’t even count on being allowed to protect our health as individuals when there are people who’ve been bamboozled with comforting lies, intoxicating hopium, and toxic anti-science, who want to prevent others from protecting themselves, and be judging arbiters of who should live and who it doesn’t matter.
We need all the tools. But the people funding anti-mitigation propaganda don’t want any mitigations whatsoever. They seem hell bent on getting rid of everything from masks to treatments to even air purifiers in schools. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter why they’re doing this, we have to make sure we are louder. We’re already in the majority – 58% of people want to avoid sickness.(footnote 28) We just have to be seen.
And sometimes we are seen, and we are heard. And there is salubrious success, like we see in the case of the Christmas caroling protest40 and the subsequent reinstatement of the mask mandate in Oakland public buildings.41
Restoring real public health is possible.
References:
1
Many children were already exposed to and infected with RSV in 2021. In fact, the positivity rates for RSV were higher in 2021 than they are now in the United States. Additionally, RSV infections only provide partial immunity, and individuals remain susceptible to repeat infections throughout their lives. Unfortunately, the CDC appears to be promoting this idea of “immunity debt” as the reason behind the current surge in respiratory viruses and hospitalization, especially among children. During the CDC’s Nov. 4 media advisory, the agency explicitly stated that because of a lack of immunity, “these children, if you will, need to become infected to move forward because it’s a disease [RSV] very common in children.” However, claiming that children need to become infected to clear their “immunity debt” provides little benefit to children, ignores individual risks for severe infections (particularly among immunocompromised children), and disregards the science about the virus.
2
@wsbgnl on twitter 7:32 PM · Dec 5, 2022
“I’m truly amazed at the quantity of discourse premised on the notion that the large majority of the population spent two straight years in intense social isolation.”
3
Pandemic Memes Collection – Covid is Airborne
“Respect all choices” – EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) says after relaxing pandemic mitigation measures.
4
Since wearing masks or respirators can prevent spread of COVID-19, people who have a household or social contact with someone at risk for getting very sick with COVID-19 (for example, a student with a sibling who is at risk) may also choose to wear a mask at any COVID-19 Community Level. Schools and ECE programs should consider flexible, non-punitive policies and practices to support individuals who choose to wear masks regardless of the COVID-19 Community Level.
5
A conservative Texas-based phone company is planning a takeover of political offices in the US state, starting with public schools. Patriot Mobile, which calls itself “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider”, has been fueling an extremist conservative movement taking over curriculum in public schools across Texas. Leigh Wambsganss, the executive director of the company and its political arm, proudly declared victory in 11 out of 11 school board seats in the last election cycle in school districts around the Dallas-Fort Worth area on behalf of the company and conservative American Christians.
6
The updated CDC guidance signals the Democratic party’s shift from beating the virus to surrendering to it as a fact of life — including in schools. The new approach was likely shaped by a number of factors, including declining COVID numbers, concerns about far-reaching public COVID fatigue, and the fact that many of those now most at risk of severe disease have refused to get vaccinated for non-medical reasons. But the end of school masking is also in part due to a campaign by right-wing business interests, including the dark money network of oil billionaire Charles Koch, to keep the country open for the sake of maintaining corporate profits. These interests have been meddling in the education debate, first pushing to reopen schools and then fighting in-school safety measures, even as COVID case numbers were rising and children were ending up in hospitals. For nearly two years, these groups have been promoting questionable science and creating wedges between parents, teachers, and administrators in order to get America back to work — even at the risk of the nation’s children.
7
Three newly-elected members of the public hospital’s board are so-called “health freedom” activists who are opposed to COVID vaccines and treatment protocols for the illness. A Florida hospital has become the latest front for political activists eager to challenge protocols for treating COVID. While most of the 6,000 hospitals in the United States are privately-run, about 200 are controlled by publicly-elected board members, according to Larry Gage, former president of the National Association of Public Hospitals. Typically, those elections usually have nothing to do with national politics or culture war issues. But with seats opening on the Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s board earlier this year, a group of political activists opposed to COVID protocols saw an opportunity. Now, the hospital has three new board members who question the effectiveness of vaccines and spread medical misinformation. While they’re a minority on the nine-person board, their victory has thrown the hospital board’s typically quiet meetings into chaos.
8
In summary, our data indicate an ongoing, sustained inflammatory response following even mild-to-moderate acute COVID-19, which is not found following prevalent coronavirus infection. The drivers of this activation require further investigation, but possibilities include persistence of antigen, autoimmunity driven by antigenic cross-reactivity or a reflection of damage repair. These observations describe an abnormal immune profile in patients with COVID-19 at extended time points after infection and provide clear support for the existence of a syndrome of LC.
9
Before the children contracted measles, their blood contained antibodies to many common pathogens. “These were really healthy kids,” Mina says. After the disease, the children lost, on average, about 20% of their antibody repertoire. Some fared much worse, losing more than 70% of their immunity to viral pathogens, the researchers report this week in Science. They did not see the effect in their controls: five unimmunized children who never contracted measles over the course of the study, as well as more than 100 other children and adults. They also saw no loss of antibodies in children after they received a vaccination against measles.
10
The Decision Lab: Why do we prefer things that we are familiar with?
The mere exposure effect can result in suboptimal decision-making. Good decisions are made by evaluating all possible courses of actions based on their effectiveness, not their familiarity. When deciding between alternatives, we shouldn’t be choosing the familiar option, we should be choosing the best option. This is because sometimes the best option is not the most familiar one. Sometimes the most effective course of action is the one that is unfamiliar to us. Moreover, sticking with what we know limits our exposure to new things, ideas, and viewpoints. This limits the range of choices we are able and willing to consider when making future decisions, and narrows the perspective from which we make them.
11
Illusory truth effect, Wikipedia
The illusory truth effect (also known as the illusion of truth effect, validity effect, truth effect, or the reiteration effect) is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure. This phenomenon was first identified in a 1977 study at Villanova University and Temple University. When truth is assessed, people rely on whether the information is in line with their understanding or if it feels familiar. The first condition is logical, as people compare new information with what they already know to be true. Repetition makes statements easier to process relative to new, unrepeated statements, leading people to believe that the repeated conclusion is more truthful.
12
But there is no evidence that an individual is worse off for having avoided earlier infection. “Immunity debt as an individual concept is not recognised in immunology,” Dunn-Walters says. “The immune system is not viewed as a muscle that has to be used all the time to be kept in shape and, if anything, the opposite is the case.” The constant onslaught of common pathogens such as cytomegalovirus, she adds, means the immune system begins to malfunction and slacken with age. She rejects the idea that infection is somehow good for health, saying vaccination is a far safer way of building population immunity.
13
“So we’re seeing more RSV because in the last past two years, we’ve not seen infections in children as we have previously. And so these children, if you will, need to become infected to move forward because it’s a disease very common in children.”
14
Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole, who also participated in the Inquirer Live discussion, said she strongly supports a decision announced Thursday by the Philadelphia School District that students returning from winter break will be required to wear a mask in schools for 10 days. “What they’re trying to do is what we want them to do, to keep kids in school and if kids have COVID they can’t come to school,” she said.
15
OSHA: Safety and Health Topics Respiratory Protection, Respiratory Protection
Respiratory protection is addressed in specific OSHA standards for general industry, maritime, and construction. This section highlights OSHA standards and documents related to respiratory protection.
16
“Eleven out of 16 RCTs that underwent a pairwise meta-analysis revealed a substantially lower infection risk in those donning medical face masks (MFMs) than those without face masks (RR 0.83 95% CI 0.71-0.96). Given the body of evidence through a systematic review and meta-analyses, our findings supported the protective benefits of MFMs in reducing respiratory transmissions, and the universal mask-wearing should be applied-especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
17
Before the statewide school masking policy was lifted, there was no statistically significant difference in case rate trajectories between school districts. However, weekly and cumulative case rates were significantly higher in students and staff in school districts that removed masking requirements, compared to districts that had not yet lifted requirements. We estimate that lifting of school masking requirements was associated with an additional 44.9 (95% CI: 32.6, 57.1) COVID-19 cases per 1,000 students and staff over the 15 weeks since the lifting of the statewide school masking requirement, representing nearly 30% of all cases observed in schools during that time.
18
NIH: Mandatory masking in schools reduced COVID-19 cases during Delta surge
Schools with mandatory masking during the Delta surge had approximately 72% fewer cases of in-school transmission of SARS-CoV-2 when compared to schools with optional or partial masking policies, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study included more than 1.1 million students and over 157,000 staff attending in-person school across nine states: North Carolina, Wisconsin, Missouri, California, Washington, Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas and Texas.
19
This study’s significant results show that face mask mandates were associated with lower COVID-19 deaths rates than the rates in countries without mandates. These findings support the use of face masks to prevent excess COVID-19 deaths and should be advised during airborne disease epidemics
20
One of the most efficient ways to clean up indoor air pollution in a house is with a special filter that was developed during the Manhattan Project and is now used to keep the air clean in Silicon Valley computer chip plants, hospitals and the Kennedy Space Center. Called HEPA — for High Efficiency Particulate Absolute — the filter comes in portable units that can be moved from room to room. Larger models attach to central air conditioning or heating ducts and can clean a whole house. Whichever way it is used, HEPA filters earn very high marks for removing minute particles of various indoor pollutants and dust from the air. “HEPA is very efficient,” says Kevin Teichman, program manager of infiltration, ventilation and indoor air quality at the Department of Energy. The average filter captures about 25 percent of particles, Teichman says, compared to the near-perfect 99-plus percent for HEPA filters.
21
Since wearing masks or respirators can prevent spread of COVID-19, people who have a household or social contact with someone at risk for getting very sick with COVID-19 (for example, a student with a sibling who is at risk) may also choose to wear a mask at any COVID-19 Community Level. Schools and ECE programs should consider flexible, non-punitive policies and practices to support individuals who choose to wear masks regardless of the COVID-19 Community Level.
22
A higher-than-usual number of Trump administration political appointees — some with highly partisan backgrounds — are currently “burrowing” into career positions throughout the federal government, moving from appointed positions into powerful career civil service roles, which come with job protections that will make it difficult for Biden to fire them. While this happens to some degree in every presidential transition, and some political appointees make for perfectly capable public servants, Biden aides, lawmakers, labor groups and watchdog organizations are sounding the alarm — warning that in addition to standard burrowing, the Trump administration is leaning on a recent executive order to rush through dozens if not hundreds of these so-called “conversions.” The fear is that, once entrenched in these posts, the Trump bureaucrats could work from the inside to stymie Biden’s agenda, much of which depends on agency action.
23
And Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, himself a former radio talk show host, went on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to argue that older Americans would willingly sacrifice themselves to keep the economy afloat and prevent the country from sliding into a depression.
24
Kudlow discussed the outbreak Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” saying Americans should remain calm. “I don’t want to downplay anything. Worry about the effect on human beings, for heaven’s sake. But I’m just saying, let’s not overreact. In many ways, America should stay at work,” Kudlow said. The epidemic has led to major cities and factories being shut down in other countries, including Italy and China. Many big companies in the United States, including Amazon and Facebook, are encouraging employees to work from home. Kudlow said it does not appear the outbreak will spread widely in the U.S.
25
Perpetrators use DARVO because it works. In one study researchers found that targets of DARVO were more likely to blame themselves. Self-blame is associated with self-silencing. In another study, researchers found that observers of DARVO tended to doubt the credibility of the true victim, believing the perpetrator instead. There is not yet systematic data on what makes certain institutions and certain people more likely to DARVO. Yet, there appear to be relevant characteristics associated with other types of harassment, and the field of medicine checks all the boxes: high prestige, male-dominated institutions and industries, hierarchical leadership structures, inadequate safeguards for employees and trainees, and a climate which tolerates harassment.
26
The Pfizer earnings call: profits driven by surges
At the 2022 1st quarter Pfizer Inc earnings call, Angela Hwang said with the removal of mask mandates and the emergency period, “That means that people are going to get out there. We know with all of that, infections are going to increase, and that’s the role that PAXLOVID can play.” Hwang also said they’re “intently focused” on working with governments, and that there’s “a lot of confidence that there is a demand for PAXLOVID” and that they “anticipate further surges” of infections.
27
Ron Klein, White House Chief of Staff: “Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff: Well, look, it’s first and foremost an accomplishment of the American people, their resilience — the president talked about that today — their ability to take everything that the past few years, that the Omicron variant has thrown at them, and be back at work and fight on and help grow this economy, our business sector, our workers, everyone coming together to do this.”
28
Knowing that COVID-19 has not gone away, some people are not yet prepared to let their guard down, according to a working paper distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Some 13% of U.S. workers said they will continue social distancing as the economy opens up and cases fall, and another 45% said they will do so in limited ways. Only 42% said they plan a “complete return” to the activities they participated in before the pandemic. The study, titled “Long Social Distancing,” estimated that unwillingness among workers to be in close proximity to others — which in many cases is prudent, especially for those who have underlying conditions or elderly relatives — reduced labor participation by 2.5 percentage points in the first half of 2022 compared with what economists would normally expect to see. That translates to $250 billion in potential annual output, representing a drop of nearly 1 percentage point.
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The meetings industry generates a whopping $330 billion annually in the United States, according to a soon-to-be-released study. The Events Industry Council’s Meetings Significance Survey is the long-awaited follow-up to the group’s inaugural research, first put out in 2014. The latest study, which reveals a $50 billion increase in total revenue since then, is based on data from Oxford Economics, Longwoods International, the National Travel and Tourism Office, and hotel-data provider STR. In total, the study surveyed 1,300 planners, 9,000 domestic business travelers, 50,000 international travelers and 11,000 hoteliers.
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Twitter from @theSGLF: State Government Leadership Foundation (SGLF) Feb 9, 2022
Our latest ad is making an impact and liberals are now agreeing with what conservatives have been saying all along: mask mandates do more harm than good.
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Personal Motives (a) The ordinary cItizen very probably has no immediate personal motive for committing simple sabotage. Instead, he must be made to anticipate indirect personal gain, such as might come with enemy evacuation or destruction of the ruling government group. Gains should be stated as specifically as possible for the area addressed: simple sabotage will hasten the day when Commissioner X and his deputies Y and Z will be thrown out, when particularly obnoxious decrees and restrictions will be abolished, when food will arrive, and so on. Abstract verbalizations about personal liberty, freedom of the press, and so on, will not be convincing in most parts of the world. In many areas they will not even be comprehensible.
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This propaganda feedback loop demonstrates the power of inundation, repetition, emotional/social contagions, and personality bias confirmations, as well as demonstrating behaviours of people preferring to access entertaining content that does not require ‘System 2’ critical thought. Audiences encountered multiple versions of the same story, propagated over months, through their favoured media sources, to the point where both recall and credibility were enhanced, fact-checkers were overwhelmed and a ‘majority illusion’ was created.
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“In the August meeting, they were pounding on the windows,” said board member Darshana Patel. “So little by little it’s been escalating — they’ve been antsy and escalating their hostility and aggression toward the board.” In several states and districts around the country, protestors have been disrupting school board meetings. They’re opposed to mask policies. Vaccine mandates. LGBTQ rights. Sex education. Removing police from schools. Teaching about race and American history, or sometimes, anything called “diversity, equity and inclusion” or even “social-emotional learning.” The protests aren’t ubiquitous, but they’re widespread and intense enough that the National School Boards Association asked President Biden to step in, and Attorney General Merrick Garland then directed the FBI to help.
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Alyssa Harad @alyssaharad Replying to @nohomelikeplace 3:06 PM · Dec 14, 2022
I know a lawyer who won’t mask in court bc they feel it prejudices conservative judges against their clients. It’s real.
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“I think he is using us as pawns. You’re not looking at the prevalence of covid coming back, being in and out. I just think it is a weird stance to take not considering your workers,” Lee said. For his part, the mayor wants city workers to ‘lead by example’ by returning to the office full-time. Meanwhile, at a Wall Street ‘power breakfast’ Wednesday morning, Adams encouraged business leaders to bring private-sector employees back to the largely empty Manhattan buildings. A move he calls critical to New York’s economic recovery. “It’s time for all of us to be on team New York to get our city back up and operating and it starts with city employees,” Adams said. “We need to see people in the Duane Reade’s of the world. We need to see them in the coffee shops and the luncheonettes. And if they’re not here, those businesses can’t survive,” small business owner Leon Adams said.
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On March 31, Florida emergency room nurse Naomi Moya took a big risk. Though her hospital didn’t allow staff to wear N95 masks when treating patients who were not diagnosed with the coronavirus, Moya brought one from home and put it on to protect herself. A supervisor noticed the N95 right away and ordered her to remove it. “I have my own supply,” Moya recalled saying. “It’s protection for me and you and my coworkers and the community and my family when I come home.” The impasse was polite, but both sides held firm. Thus, at the height of a pandemic, when there’s a shortage of nurses, Moya stepped away. She and the hospital agreed that she would go on unpaid leave.
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As healthcare workers, patients, parents and caregivers, we urge public health officials and healthcare organizations, including hospitals, clinics, physician and dentist offices, nursing homes, and home health care services to require masking in all healthcare settings, and to provide masks (ideally N95 respirators) for everyone in those settings. The recently revised CDC guidance, which permits patients and staff at healthcare institutions to remove masks when “levels of Community Transmission” are not “high,” is dangerous, unethical and based on flawed data.
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Petition to Drug Stores: Stop In-Store COVID Exposure & Transmission!
It is not acceptable to require staff and customers to get exposed at essential service locations when this can be prevented. Pharmacies should be a safe location with infection control prioritized. WE NEED A DRUG STORE MASK REQUIREMENT!
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Essential Services Need Mask Requirements
A letter to send to government representatives, healthcare providers, transit authorities, store managers, and community leaders.
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Protesters used an unusually merry tactic outside Oakland City Hall Tuesday to draw attention to their cause: singing Christmas carols with lyrics demanding the city reinstate its mask mandate inside city-owned buildings. The protest was organized by Senior and Disability Action, a Bay Area nonprofit that advocates for seniors and disabled people’s rights, and recently has been protesting to draw attention to traffic safety issues in Oakland. Mayor Libby Schaaf ended the nearly three-year-old mask mandate for city employees and visitors inside municipal buildings, including libraries, on Nov. 28.
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“We’re gonna protect our workers, our city employees, and our people who visit our city buildings [to] make sure that we’re going to minimize the risk,” Kalb said on the City Council call yesterday. Kaplan thanked the disability protesters during the meeting for continuing to keep city staff aware of their concerns around unmasking.
