Tim Walz does Return To Office. 🤯 Republican plan to create more chronic illness. 💡 People should be worried about polio.
Anti-vax anti-mask covid contrarian running for office in Kitchener, Ontario Canada.
The Trump administration is cutting off funding for health departments across the US by falsely claiming there’s no covid anymore.
CIDRAP Pediatric long-COVID levels hold steady in US, result in activity limitations - Stephanie Soucheray, MA February 4, 2025 Of note, among children currently experiencing long COVID, 80.0% (95% CI, 62.8% to 91.7%) had activity limitation of some sort that they did not have prior to contracting COVID-19.
CIDRAP Long-COVID study shows high rates of cognitive change Stephanie Soucheray, MA December 23, 2024 The high rates of sleep disturbances and cognitive changes, including brain fog and memory loss, were the most significant findings. Social support negatively correlated with psychological distress, with those who reported more social isolation during their long COVID illness having worse mental health outcomes.
More people will be missing school and work because of chronic illness. We all know that’s what’s going on, even if people don’t attribute it directly to covid, it’s a known cause of short staffing and school absenteeism.
NBC News - CDC is pulling back $11B in Covid funding sent to health departments across the U.S. “Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary," federal health authorities wrote to funding recipients this week. March 25, 2025, 3:18 PM EDT By Brandy Zadrozny "The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a statement. "HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."
Of course the pandemic isn’t over, or people would’ve stopped getting sick with covid. And we know that people just keep getting sick with covid. Everyone knows it.
Vaccination could curb the risk of chronic illness from covid, but that’s being defunded so… expect more chronic illness in America.
My letter to reps:
Nowadays covid vaccine uptake is in the basement, so we're probably going to have more people, including children getting complications and chronic illness. It's also evident in the absenteeism at schools because of chronic illness in kids. Everyone knows everyone's getting sick all the damn time and then having problems after covid. And now the CDC has pulled funding for public health. What do you expect will happen because of this? Covid is also the elephant in the room with job staffing issues as well. Everyone's sick all the time, sick days, sick leave, or forced out of work because of major health problems after covid infections. Everyone knows this. And the government has just dropped the ball because apparently elected officials are scared of needles and a little piece of fabric placed over your nose and mouth so you listen to fringe kooks like RFKJr who tell you to ignore solving problems because it’s easier. Maybe get over your fear of needles and do what’s right for health in America.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
I’m not the only one who’s been warning that this is all about eugenics ideas fueling MAGA and it’s absolutely the case that these people claim to want to stop chronic disease but what they really want is, for example, to shame people for not signing up for some wellness guru profiteer’s sketchy program with some kind of shakes and supplement pills from who knows where, in place of science-based medicine from a cardiologist.
🗞️ In the news
NBC NEWS - HHS taps anti-vaccine activist to look at debunked links between autism and vaccines, sources say - David Geier has repeatedly claimed that vaccines cause autism. Working alongside his father, he’s published a number of studies on the subject that have since been retracted. March 26, 2025, 2:56 PM EDT By Erika Edwards and Brandy Zadrozny The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to hand over multiple sets of vaccine safety data to a discredited researcher with a history of spreading misinformation that vaccines cause autism, according to two sources familiar with the plan. Both learned about the matter during recent meetings at the CDC but were not authorized to speak about it publicly. David Geier, who shows up in the Department of Health and Human Services’ directory as a “senior data analyst,” will reportedly analyze the data. Geier has repeatedly claimed that vaccines cause autism — a link that’s already been fully debunked. “If this individual is involved, then it draws into immediate question the validity of any analysis that comes out of this work,” said a former CDC official who was told of the plan before recently leaving the agency. Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting CDC director, called Geier a “deeply irresponsible choice” to lead this effort as he has “no medical degree and a long history of pushing discredited theories about vaccines and autism.”
CIDRAP - Flu in US continues to decline but still packs a punch - News brief March 21, 2025 Lisa Schnirring Flu hospitalizations this season reached their highest level since the 2010-11 flu season and have been dropping since the middle of February, with declines last week seen in all US regions. The 17 additional pediatric flu deaths reported last week push the national total to 151. Of the latest deaths, 15 were due to influenza A and 2 from influenza B, and of 10 subtyped influenza A viruses, half were H1N1 and half were H3N2. The previous two flu seasons saw 187 and 207 pediatric flu-related deaths, respectively, for the full season.
Important Context Chris Rufo’s Big Right-Wing Score The right-wing operative landed a huge prize from a major right-wing funder. Natalie Jonas Mar 21, 2025 The prize is bestowed on individuals who champion the work and mission of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation — “to restore, strengthen, and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism,” the press release noted. The organization has been a major funder of climate change denial, islamophobia, and COVID-19 misinformation. The second Bradley Prize winner was announced on March 20 — Cornell professor and classicist Barry Strauss. The third recipient will be announced on March 25 and all three winners will be honored in Washington D.C. on May 29. Previous winners of the prize include Stanford health economist and COVID contrarian Jay Bhattacharya, who is now Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is best known for his advocacy of a pandemic herd immunity strategy reliant on mass infection. Since 2020, he has worked to sow doubt in the mainstream consensus on pandemic mitigation measures and even vaccines.
The New Republic - Malcolm Ferguson/ March 27, 2025 RFK Jr. Plans Mass Purge at Health Department Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ready to slash thousands of jobs at HHS. HHS has been a target for Elon Musk and DOGE since Trump reentered the Oval Office, and has received much ire from the right for its Covid-19 policies.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz does Trumpian Return To Office.
We all know that RTO is fossil fueled and caters to commercial real estate to get butts in seats downtown for The Economy. This is NOT a progressive move and Walz should be shamed harshly by Democrat voters in Minnesota for acting like a right-winger on telework.
Gov. Walz announce change to state telework policy By WDIO Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced an update to the state’s telework policy for state workers. The change would require most state agency employees to work in-person for at least 50% of their scheduled work days. This would go in effect on June 1, 2025. “This approach balances the flexibility of telework with the workplace advantages of being in office,” said Gov. Walz. “Having more state employees in the office means that collaboration can happen more quickly and state agencies can build strong organizational cultures more easily.”
That collaboration nonsense is all bullshit and we all know it by now. Anti-telework is just collaborating with right-wing business interests. It's about megalomaniacal middle-manager and making sure that the fossil fuel companies get enough people paying to commute as their AI hyped up power plant dreams start circling the drain.
Write reps. My letter to reps:
Maximum Telework wherever possible should continue and be expanded for our future, in order to promote disability accessibility, stop infectious disease spread, and prioritize our move away from squandering fossil fuel energy on pointless and unhealthy commutes. Working from home works, it’s been shown to be equal or superior for a range of positions. It's going to need to work even more if we want a functional future civilization and the essential job positions filled. Prioritize and promote telework for all, now, and going forward.
Feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul pushing Trumpian faschy anti-mask law.
I thought New York was a liberal enclave? Anti-mask is right-wing nonsense. Democrat voters in New York should be shaming Hochul immediately for this right-wing anti-mask maga bullshit.
Gothamist - Gov. Hochul is pushing a last-minute mask ban in state budget talks By Jimmy Vielkind and Jon Campbell Mar 19, 2025 Gov. Kathy Hochul is reviving her push to restrict the wearing of masks in public, urging lawmakers in state budget talks to bring back some form of a previous ban, Gothamist has learned. The Democratic governor told members of the state Assembly and Senate this week that some form of partial ban on public face coverings to improve public safety is among her top policy priorities, according to four lawmakers. The governor didn’t include masking restrictions in her formal budget proposal and hasn’t put forth details on what she wants, the lawmakers said.
Anti-vax anti-mask covid contrarian running for office in Kitchener, Ontario Canada.
Matt Strauss, an online anti-vax influencer, is running for office in the Federal Conservative Party in Kitchener South-Hespeler in the election on April 28, 2025, which could decide whether Canada embraces anti-science and capitulates on maybe becoming the 51st state of America.
Controversial medical officer critical of mask mandates resigns from Haldimand-Norfolk job Haldimand-Norfolk's board of health will begin looking for a new medical officer in February Cara Nickerson · CBC News · Posted: Jan 11, 2023 8:57 AM EST | Last Updated: January 11, 2023 He previously said on social media he'd sooner give his children COVID-19 over a Happy Meal, and when he was initially brought on as acting medical officer of health in September 2021, the Ontario Liberals called on the health minister to veto his hiring. Norfolk mayor Amy Martin confirmed that Strauss has resigned, and said the "board of health will be meeting in February to address the next plans on how we're going forward." Martin, who was elected mayor last October and is the chair of the joint Haldimand-Norfolk board of health, said she will not comment on Strauss at this time, as "Dr. Strauss is still an employee until April 1st." In Sept. 2021, following Strauss' appointment as medical officer for the region, Martin said she regretted voting him onto the board. "Simply put, [his comments are] not reflective of my position on COVID-19," Martin said in Sept. 2021. "They are not reflective of the leadership our communities, both Haldimand and Norfolk, are in need of." Strauss has written multiple articles in recent months explaining his critique of masking and vaccine mandates.
If you think the possibility of Conservatives siding with Trump is silly, someone in Canada actually told me they thought Trump's idea of making Canada the 51st state sounded good and might bring some culture to Canada. We've certainly got some type of cultural revolution going on here, but I'm not sure why anyone would want tech tycoon culture when the idea is to put us all into company towns without democracy. On the other hand another Canadian told me they signed up with the reserves and was ready to lay down their life to defend Canada against an American invasion. I personally think annexation threats should be taken seriously under the current political climate, and given the evidence and actions of the American President, and the American Canadian right-wing alliance with things like the trucker convoy protests and anti-vax bullshit.
We were wrong for thinking convincing people was the answer.
In this interview with Jared Yates-Sexton, Danielle Moodie also admits that it was wrong to believe just explaining things would fix things. The both of them admit that they tried to alert people what was happening and even if it failed, it's clear now that wasn't a great strategy after all. We can stop beating ourselves up and thinking it was just a matter of spreading word hard enough. There are Trumpers who've had their wives taken away by ICE and they don't regret their vote, and people who've lost a child to measles who still say it's not big deal and they still wouldn't vaccinate their kids.
We know now that there's no apparent tipping point where things just go the right way naturally because nobody opposes common sense. That's obvious now. We can move on with a positive vision, working with the people who want the good things for all of us, and overcome the naysayers.
Can we please end loser leftism and extol the public good? Stop thinking "if only we could convince people" of something, that things would change. Just stop that. It's not about explaining. Chloe Humbert Mar 19, 2025
Beware the stigma around sick and disabled children, and others.
Some disinformation narratives suggest that the high risk disabled and elderly are holding up herd immunity, or even maybe dangerous criminals using masks as a “disguise”. There have been periodic weird suggestions being pushed that immunocompromised and disabled children or children who get sick with covid or long covid will become violent because of not being at in-person school — even though there’s no evidence that illness, childhood cancer treatments, accidents, disabilities, remote schooling, or homeschooling, have ever made children violent. This disability discrimination seems to have been boosted by Paul Elias Alexander publishing with the right-wing Brownstone Institute suggesting there’s some link between absence from in-person school, wearing masks, and violent youths. This is not a real thing.
CIDRAP - Tests show emotional, behavioral problems in adolescents with long COVID - Mary Van Beusekom, MS A clinical survey of 85 pediatric long-COVID patients in Bavaria, Germany, reveals high levels of fatigue, loss of motivation, difficulty concentrating and maintaining attention, worsened mood, and greater anxiety.
Further, there seems to be a tendency for people with Long Covid to react to having their suffering inappropriately minimized or worse wrongly attributed to moral or emotional failings – by throwing mental illness under the bus. The brain is a physical organ that can be affected by some infections, and mental illness is a condition in the brain. Emotions also originate in the brain. So beware anyone characterizing anything as purely psychological, because they're talking about superstition or metaphysics or something supernatural – that's not medical science.
Ableism takes many forms unfortunately.
Anyone citing pandemic profiteering anonymous accounts on the app formerly known as twitter should stop.
Anonymous covid influencer accounts on “X” (twitter) who post affiliate links to bogus & junk covid products should be dumped as information sources of any kind. Friends don’t let friends wallow in grifty misinformation getting information on cesspool social media platforms. Don’t do it, and discourage it.
People should be worried about polio. And a lot of other preventable infectious diseases.
NOW people are worried about polio because it causes paralysis… in less than 1% of people who get polio, when of course they decided covid isn’t bad, even though people are getting cardiac complications and maybe 8% of people get long covid from covid. It’s not really surprising Joe Rogan is platforming some right-winger who thinks polio is no big deal, a large amount of the left seems to not realize that covid is more serious than polio.
I think the fact that people can’t wrap their head around the fact that covid is really actually more serious than covid is that heart attacks, fatigue, and various chronic illnesses associated with long covid are less cosmetically visible compared to needing a cane. It’s stigma.
And hey, maybe if people didn’t go along with the minimization of covid we wouldn’t have ceded so much ground to give away on polio and measles, and all the rest of the dangerous but preventable infectious diseases. Because guess what - infectious diseases are preventable — you prevent transmission.
Reporter looking for people with local stories on vaccine access impacted by the federal government being anti-vax.
Brandy Zadrozny @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social March 28, 2025 at 10:30 AM Hi friends, help me boost? Looking to talk to people who work in child vaccines (providers, schools, health depts, clinics, data folks or coalitions, etc.) who might have insight or experiences to share about how their work has been impacted the last couple of months. Don't reply just DM me please!
Bluesky bio has a signal number.
NBC bio: https://www.nbcnews.com/author/brandy-zadrozny-ncpn858391
Quote:
"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
— John Maynard Keynes