📋 US Census to change disability data 🛳️ Cruise ship outbreaks (plural) 🤢 Chatbot healthcare disinformation 🫣
Trucker convoy covid measure protester now seen giving away disinfectant wipes to charity.
Contents:
- Events, Actions, & Campaigns
- Pandemic field notes & “Living with the virus”
- In the News (virus & adjacent media, science, news, and op-eds)
- This is NOT Fine section (gaslighting & other outrages)
- He(a)rd Scuttlebutt (the pandemic grapevine)
Bonnielin Swenor - (She/Her) - Disability Equity Researcher | Director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center
The U.S. Census Bureau is changing the way disability data is collected, which will reduce national prevalence estimates of disability from 14% to 8%. These changes have moved forward without the input of the disability community and have far-reaching, negative implications for disabled people. As disabled scholars and scholars of disability data, we are concerned with the limited empirical evidence to support these changes to the Census disability data collection methodology. We are asking the Census to stop efforts aimed at changing disability data collection. We urge you to share your perspective and: - Respond to the current Federal Register request for comment before December 19th We are also asking the U.S. Census Bureau to: - Make a plan to improve the inclusion of disabled people across the activities of the U.S. Census Bureau. - Support forming a National Taskforce on Disability Data to improve and expand disability data collection at the U.S. Census and across the federal government.
Letter recently sent to the Director of the U.S. Census - Scott Landes, Jean Hall, Eric Lauer, PhD, MPH, Maggie Salinger, Monika Mitra, and Peggy Turk
Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC): Notice of Meeting
Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a public meeting of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC). The EPA renewed the CAAAC charter on October 31, 2022, to provide independent advice and counsel to EPA on economic, environmental, technical, scientific and enforcement policy issues associated with implementation of the Clean Air Act of 1990. The CAAAC will hold its next hybrid public meeting; in-person at EPA Headquarters, Washington, DC and virtual on Thursday, December 7, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (EST). Members of the public may register to attend or listen to the meeting or provide comments, by emailing caaac@epa.gov by 5:00 (EST) December 5, 2023.
🗞️ In the news
CBS news minnesota - Wisconsin Senate approves amendment blocking church closures during public state of emergencies - November 7, 2023 The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted Tuesday to approve an amendment to the state constitution that would prohibit government agencies from ordering churches to shut down during a state of emergency. The amendment comes in reaction to a stay-at-home order Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued in 2020 to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The then-conservative-leaning state Supreme Court struck down Evers' order, but Republicans introduced the constitutional amendment to ensure similar orders cannot be issued in the future.
Government Executive - Return-to-office policies may bring potential federal workforce challenges Deltek posited in its contracting outlook for fiscal 2024 a potential talent crunch tied to the Biden administration’s return-to-office policies. NOVEMBER 3, 2023 by CARTEN CORDELL “There’s been a lot of conversation in Congress and in the Biden administration about getting government employees back into the office,” he said. “And, of course, if the government employee goes back, you can bet that the contractors that support them are also going to be required to go back into the office. And this, I think, does pose potential issues for the contracting community as you are competing for talent with commercial companies that are maybe more flexible with where people work.”
National Catholic Reporter - Pope Francis axes firebrand Texas Bishop Strickland, darling of right-wing Twitter - by Brian Fraga - November 11, 2023 The Vatican announced Nov. 11 that Pope Francis had effectively fired Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, a firebrand prelate who in recent years questioned the safety of the coronavirus vaccines, called synodality "garbage," and endorsed a video that attacked Francis himself as a "diabolically disoriented clown."
ChatGPT Quickly Authored 100 Blogs Full of Healthcare Disinformation — But Google Bard and Microsoft Bing had guardrails in place to thwart such prompting - by Michael DePeau-Wilson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today November 13, 2023 Though OpenAI's ChatGPT produced its disinformation with ease, two other generative AI programs -- Google Bardopens in a new tab or window and Microsoft Bing Chatopens in a new tab or window -- "did not facilitate the production of large volumes of disinformation related to vaccines and vaping," the researchers wrote, suggesting it "may be possible to implement guardrails on health disinformation." "The study shows that without proper safeguards, generative AI can be misused to create and distribute large volumes of persuasive, customized disinformation," Hopkins told MedPage Today in an email. "This poses a risk of being exploited by malicious actors, enabling them to reach wider audiences more efficiently than ever before."
This is NOT fine
NewstalkZB - 'Smell it down the hallway': Cruise from hell hit with mix of Covid and gastro - Lifestyle Author NZ Herald, Publish Date Mon, 13 Nov 2023, 1:32PM A cruise ship has finally reached port in Australia after its passengers and crew were subjected to two weeks aboard a floating Petri dish of Covid and gastroenteritis. Princess Cruises’ Grand Princess has arrived in Port Adelaide after an 18-day round trip to Queensland that saw the ship, which has the capacity for 2600 passengers and 1150 crew, ravaged by twin outbreaks. A 57-year-old passenger told the Advertiser they believed several hundred people could be affected. If the raw numbers were not horrifying enough, several passengers gave graphic descriptions of the environmental conditions aboard the Grand Princess. “We had a man two doors down from us who had Covid and gastro and we didn’t know about it, and you could smell it down the hallway,” one passenger told Nine’s The Today Show.
This reminds me of the piece I saw in the AARP magazine back in March.
He(a)rd Scuttlebutt… pandemic grapevine 🍇🌱
Covid contrarian trucker offers charity infection control supplies.
I’m pretty sure this is the same trucker Bob Bolus who wanted to protest covid “lockdowns” on the economy by “blocking down” the DC economy, saying "Ultimately, it may be the whole Beltway that's blocked down," Bolus told WJLA. "We're making a statement for you people." Now he’s got a surplus of disinfectant wipes he’s giving away to charity.
“It's also important to recognize that the optimal way to prevent transmission of microorganisms such as viruses is to use a combination of interventions from across the hierarchy of controls not just PPE alone. Patients being admitted for outpatient procedures or inpatient admissions must be tested for covid-19. Hospitals should continue to report all covid-19 positive tests to the CDC as well as percentage of positivity. Patients who test positive for covid-19 should be admitted into isolation and placed in negative pressure rooms.”
— Rita Valenti RN Public comment at the CDC HICPAC Meeting on June 8th 2023