Opposition to mask bans 😷 Study finds infections are bad for work attendance 🔍 Real suffering, dubious and expensive treatments.
Why is it the contrarians and the nonsense that seems to get published so much?
USA Letter Campaign to governors and state legislators - Protect the right to protect against allergies, dust and disease
Why is it the contrarians and the nonsense that seems to get published so much?
Why is it that all the covid contrarians, minimizers, anti-maskers, and anti-vaxxers publish in science journals & shove out proper looking content all the time, and meanwhile pro public health people and doctors who claim to care about the vulnerable seem more interested in being social media twitter hotshots and doing nothing else? Why aren’t more sensible people publishing stuff like the People’s External Review of the CDC for example? Why are debunks of nonsense relegated to twitter posts as twitter circles the drain and never really had most people looking at it to begin with?
Is it deliberate? Apparently it is deliberate. And I guess it looks like all the money to pay for this deliberateness is anti public health.
New York Magazine INTELLIGENCER - MAY 21, 2024 Why Scientific Fraud Is Suddenly Everywhere By Kevin T. Dugan Citations are so easy to game. So people are setting up citation cartels: “Yes, we will get all of our other clients to cite you, and nobody will notice because we’re doing it in this algorithmic, mixed-up way.” Eventually, people do notice, but it’s the insistence on citations as the coin of the realm that all of this comes from.
Good people with good intentions need to step up and publish more. I know it’s hard, but it’s the only way.
🗞️ In the news
Ars Technica - Dell said return to the office or else—nearly half of workers chose “or else” - Workers stayed remote even when told they could no longer be promoted. - Samuel Axon - 6/20/2024 Those who classified themselves as hybrid are subject to a tracking system that ensures they are in a physical office 39 days a quarter, which works out to close to three days per work week. Alternatively, by classifying themselves as remote, workers agree they can no longer be promoted or hired into new roles within the company. Business Insider claims it has seen internal Dell tracking data that reveals nearly 50 percent of the workforce opted to accept the consequences of staying remote, undermining Dell's plan to restore its in-office culture. The publication spoke with a dozen Dell employees to hear their stories as to why they chose to stay remote, and a variety of reasons came up.
Important Context - What You Need to Know About the WHO Pandemic Treaty With Georgetown Law Professor Lawrence Gostin Professor Gostin, who has been involved in the negotiations, shares his insights. WALKER BRAGMAN JUN 10, 2024 The pharmaceutical industry has been leveraging its political influence in countries like the United States to weaken any language that threatens its intellectual property—even for vital, life-saving medicines. Meanwhile, the treaty has also faced opposition from right-wing dark money groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Brownstone Institute, a far-right outfit founded to oppose COVID-19 mitigation measures. Brownstone and several other similar groups and anti-vaxxers protested against the treaty last month.
Reuters - Two dozen companies working to find bird flu vaccine for cows, US agriculture secretary says By Leah Douglas June 12, 2024 While wild birds were a major vector for bringing bird flu to poultry farms, the main risks to spread on dairy farms appear to be the movement of people and equipment, he said. "For dairy cows, it isn't about migratory birds, it's about cows moving, it's about people, vehicles and equipment that may have virus they don't even realize that they're carrying," he said. "That's why the biosecurity becomes just incredibly, incredibly important." A pilot program for bulk milk testing will be rolled out "in the very near future," Vilsack said. The program is meant to expand testing for the virus while enabling healthy herds to move across state lines without negative tests from each cow. Michigan and Idaho are among states that have expressed interest in the program, Vilsack said.
The Weekly Source - One in five Australian aged care homes now has the COVID-19 virus Jun 13 2024 Caroline Egan More than 3,000 of society's most vulnerable people, residential aged care residents, had the COVID-19 virus in the week to 7 June 2024, as another 49 residents died from the virus. There were 1,362 cases among staff, which will place further strain on aged care operators that are trying to meet care minute targets.
NZ Herald - Wellington Hospital opens first Covid-19 ward in three years, warns of spike in respiratory bugs Story by Georgina Campbell - 17 June 2024 Hospital and specialist services group director operations Jamie Duncan said a dedicated ward was opened to accommodate Covid-19 inpatients from May 31 to June 11. This is the first time the hospital has had a dedicated Covid-19 clinical area since 2021, Duncan said. “While a dedicated ward for Covid-19 inpatients is no longer required, we continue to see increasing numbers of people testing positive for respiratory illnesses.
MedPage Today - Here's What Is Wrong With the National Academies' Long COVID Definition — Overly broad criteria won't help patients in the long run by Leonard Jason, PhD June 14, 2024 We must learn from past experiences with other post-viral illnesses. Patients with ME/CFS have had to endure the losses of a debilitating illness and then be re-traumatized by the reaction of healthcare workers, friends, and even family members to their disease. This is due, in part, to an empathy breakdown causing stigma. Because 20% of the general population experiences fatigue, many feel their experience of illness is comparable to ME/CFS; so, an unwitting conscious or unconscious bias is that if they can cope with fatigue, why can't those with ME/CFS?
This is NOT fine
Real suffering — dubious and expensive treatments.
ABC News - Too many children with long COVID are suffering in silence. Their greatest challenge? The myth that the virus is 'harmless' for kids By Hayley Gleeson June 16, 2024 A couple of months later, having dug deep into the research on long COVID, Brett took Jack to Europe, where he underwent several cycles of an expensive blood filtering treatment called H.E.L.P. apheresis. The enormous cost — about $30,000 all up — should have ruled the trip out, but with the generous support of family and friends, they raised enough money to go. [...] The microclot hypothesis as a driver of long COVID remains just that, and some experts have warned there is little published evidence showing apheresis is an effective treatment.
Unfortunately I’ve seen some really heartbreaking stories, like one redditor family restaurant owner with ME type long covid conditions looking for treatment, who came to believe it was caused by getting vaccinated not the multiple infections they had, after seeking out the care of a covid contrarian attached to a right-wing anti-vax organization. People are being led in all sorts of directions when they’re desperate and looking for answers and relief.
I’ve heard of influencers who promise secret regimens for Long Covid or other chronic ailments, sometimes luring people behind paywalls and selling them supplements, treatments, or even just ritual regimens to perform. I recently rewatched The Inspector General with Danny Kaye from 1949, and the musical number about chronic illness and snake oil demonstrates how the same old tricks are not new.
The husband of Physics Girl recently made a remark that reveals that they’re probably inundated with such target marketing online.
He(a)rd Scuttlebutt… pandemic grapevine 🍇🌱
Study finds infections are bad for work attendance, and workdays lost were associated with being unvaccinated.
Not surprising at all.
Liam Townsend, Paddy Gillespie, Jonathan McGrath, Claire Kenny, PRECISE Study Steering Group , Colm Bergin, Catherine Fleming, Health Care Personnel Workdays Lost and Direct Health Care Salary Costs Incurred due to COVID-19 Infection in the Age of Widespread Vaccine Availability, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2024;, jiae223, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiae223 Published: 21 May 2024 Multivariable regression revealed that workdays lost were associated with incomplete primary COVID-19 vaccination course. Being unvaccinated, older age, and male were associated with increased health care personnel costs. Conclusions - Health care workdays lost remain a significant issue and are associated with health care system burden despite vaccine availability. These can be mitigated via targeted implementation of vaccine programs. Seasonal variation in health care workdays lost should inform workforce planning to accommodate surge periods.
Ableist mask bans raise questions of how they could be enforced, and also questions about why there’s not another way to deal with the issue of juvenile delinquent vandals.
The Press of Atlantic City - Ocean City raises, rejects banning masks on the Boardwalk - Bill Barlow Jun 17, 2024 Even in the discussion phase, Campbell said, the ordinance was to include exemptions for religious practice and health concerns. Some people continue to wear masks in crowds, and some people with compromised immune systems or other medical conditions always will. Campbell compared the proposed ordinance with a ban on backpacks on the beach and Boardwalk after 8 p.m., a move he supported. Where there have been issues with juveniles, he said, many carried fireworks, alcohol or illegal drugs in backpacks. “Whatever they had with them, the contents were in the backpack,” he said. Philadelphia had approved a ban on masks, he said, but that is not being enforced. In New York, there was a state ban on masks for more than a century, repealed during the pandemic. There has been discussion of reenacting that ban. Levchuk said he spoke with other members of council after some merchants raised the possibility of banning face coverings. “It seemed worth bringing it to the administration,” he said, specifically so that the matter could be researched. He said he would not push for an ordinance that would create hardships for the police or would raise questions of how it could be enforced.
Frankly the Wildwood backpack ban seems ableist to me. I remember going to Lollapalooza in 1992 and in our carpool group was a diabetic who had to carry a little backpack with supplies bigger than 8 inches.
Why can't they find another way to deter crime for pity's sake? In a time of security cameras everywhere, advanced monitoring capabilities, modern technology - why is it so much harder to deter or otherwise deal with juvenile delinquents and vandals than in the past, that we need all these authoritarian restrictions on your person?
Any mask is better than none, but there are vendors promoting dubious quality masks and counterfeits.
Someone trolled a blog post of mine on one platform with testimonial advertisement for masks that are NOT NIOSH approved, they’re not KN95s and not N95s, they have ear loops and the person with the testimonial was really stressing that it doesn’t mess up her hair and it feels like it fits tightly. And I can’t even find out if they’ve been tested at all or are anywhere near as good as even a surgical mask, but they advertise these masks as “medical” which I thought was interesting. I pointed out that I don’t appreciate my blog posts being used as a vehicle to promote goods of unclear quality and that ear loops don’t typically provide a very sure fit. The comeback was that ear loops are better than nothing. Yes, I agree, you’re better in any mask than none. But the fact remains that there are a lot of dodgy vendors who sell stuff online, not through advertising, which might get them in trouble, but through “testimonials” on blog comments and social media and reddit. And I don’t think saying hey, don’t get conned by masks that might not be effective is NOT the same as saying “fit tested N95 or nothing!” - it’s just not the same. But “both sides” keep getting pulled into these sit and spin strawman arguments that play well as "scissor statements" on social media and gets hotshots clicks and dopamine hits ramping up controversy, but it doesn’t advance science understanding or public health. It just distracts and divides up people who would otherwise be on the side resisting mask bans.
Alex Jones compared vaccinated people to dead cows.
On a recent episode of Knowledge Fight, which covers Alex Jones InfoWars show, they played clips from Alex Jones who said that he views people who are vaccinated the way he views coming upon the rotting corpse of a cow, and described that in lurid detail, churning up vile repulsive imagery to associate with people who have gotten vaccinated. This is crude but often used emotional manipulation to promote hatred and fear responses.
Alex Jones also made bizarrely large false claims about the number of people who’ve died from vaccination. The podcast hosts reviewing the claim did the math and said it would mean that 1 in 10 people you know had a fatal reaction, which of course is bonkers level false. The podcast also highlighted how Alex Jones still advertises colloidal silver as a health product, along with toothpaste without fluoride. Silver is not recommended as a remedy for anything. And if you’re not familiar with the fluoride conspiracy fiction, Angela Collier has a really good funny explainer about fluoride on youtube. This is a persistent myth that I’ve even seen asserted in my local newspaper in Letters to the Editor, and then subsequently debunked by a letter from a dentist. I was astonished the newspaper actually opted to publish the false claims without even an editor’s note, but they also publish sedevacantism that calls for people to be seen as religious enemies.
“Once mask mandates in healthcare were lifted, we got to see the disease-transmitting smiles of the doctors and nurses who were supposed to keep my son safe.”
— Christine Braile, Parent of a Son with Primary Immune Deficiency, public comment at the CDC HICPAC meeting in November 2023