But many did not survive the first time. 🚨 Florida man is anti-vax. ⚕️ Doctors who spread misinfo have been free to do so.
Elite gambling in the stock market is a threat to public health.
📍Note: Public health has “public” in it for a reason.
Public health solutions require normalized adoption of mitigation methods across the broad public. Buying into stigma by seeking “discreet” solutions is individualist hopium. The known effective solutions to infectious disease require uptake of measures at a community level — such as high uptake of vaccines, normalization of respirator mask use, and adoption of air filtration in indoor spaces. Nothing is going to happen “behind the scenes” to save anyone in a secret “stroke of genius” by some prominent people, nor by randos disseminating “hidden knowledge” of special products. Anyone claiming that is is likely peddling a bamboozle.
My strategy remains as ever: use proven measures whenever possible, don’t waste money on potentially harmful devices or unproven potions, pester your elected representatives for public health solutions for the problem of disease spread, and be the change you want to see by rejecting stigma.
But many did not survive the first time.
I realize that some people think they’re being helpful or consoling somehow when they say “the country survived the first Trump term”, but it’s unthinkingly insulting to all the people who lost their lives, and the people who lost loved ones the first time around. And also everyone who’s been affected by preventable covid infections, because of Trump and the elite business class pushing infection from the start, poisoning the well on mitigation, and even blocking reasonable policies, which not only rigged the system against attempts at public health, but also set the tone for all that followed.
Of course many people who say this are being deliberately obtuse, and poisoning the well right now. Perhaps some of them are paid propagandists, paid by elites, who want, above all else, to quell panic. Their priority is not to not preserve life, humanity, and community, or to help people prepare for disasters. When elites panic, they act in their own interest, to preserve the status quo and reduce unrest which inconveniences them.
We don’t know for sure exactly who will perish and who will survive in a regime where public health is treated as the enemy and the intent is to dismantle society. But we have a pretty good idea about who’s more likely or less likely.
It’s still legal right now to tell someone to shove off if they’re being rude for whatever reason. And we don’t have to pretend awful things are mild. And we don’t have to obey in advance.
🗞️ In the news
CIDRAP Before RSV vaccine, virus caused substantial illness in US adults Stephanie Soucheray, MA, Nov 13, 2024 A new study published today in JAMA Network Open shows that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was associated with a substantial burden of hospitalizations, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and in-hospital deaths in adults in the years before vaccination was approved for use in the United States.
Important Context - Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump’s (Likely) NIH Pick Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a loud voice from the fringes. Walker Bragman Nov 16, 2024 The Stanford professor would likely be among the most extreme of the lot. While, as The Post noted, Bhattacharya has never held a position managing any position overseeing a large bureaucratic organization, he has been a central figure in an organized, well-funded campaign by the political right to undermine public health in America that has been raging since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhattacharya has spent years arguing in favor of “natural,” or infection-acquired, immunity and casting doubt on vaccines and government efforts to control the worst public health crisis in a century, bolstering the position of GOP politicians and right-wing dark money groups. He has even spread conspiracy theories about the very agency he is on the verge of leading, alleging that a small number of top bureaucrats have been using funding to stifle dissent.
Doctors who spread medical misinformation have been free to do so.
Covid contrarians repeating false information have not typically faced much in the ways of consequences. Anyone who makes claims of “cancel culture” or any kind of “silencing” of “opinions” by fringe covid contrarian doctors or anti-vaxxers is NOT telling the truth. Legal research has shown that doctors who have peddled in false covid claims have almost never been disciplined.
In Pennsylvania, and in Florida, zero physicians were ever penalized for misinforming patients or the public about covid.
CIDRAP - Medical boards almost never discipline doctors who peddle false COVID claims, legal researcher says - Mary Van Beusekom, MS, Nov 13, 2024 No New York physicians were disciplined for any misinformation offenses, and no Florida or Pennsylvania physicians were penalized for misinforming the public. "Even within the small number of actions involving misinformation, the data shows that boards are far more comfortable disciplining physicians for misconduct involving direct patient care than addressing erroneous public statements," Saver said in a UNC news release. "Yet false public communications may cause wider harm." "These findings suggest a serious disconnect between regulatory guidance and enforcement and call into question the suitability of licensure regulation for combatting physician-spread misinformation," he noted in the study. "In today's digital age, when a single physician spreading misinformation can influence thousands of people, our regulatory framework may need to evolve," he added in the release.
One should never assume that something really out there must be true just because a doctor feels free to say it. And it’s not wrong to seek a second opinion.
And doctors really need to shut up about their little myth of cancel culture - especially ones with lots of money, huge platforms, and government influence.
Who What Why - The Loudest Voice: Who Is GOP COVID-19 Expert Jay Bhattacharya? Walker Bragman 03/29/23 For his unconventional views, Bhattacharya has been showered with media attention, particularly from right-wing media — but not exclusively. He has been given column space in a number of publications to make his case. This brand building has allowed the professor to amass hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and establish himself as a prominent dissenting voice in the national discourse around public health measures. Bhattacharya has made at least 37 appearances on Fox News since the pandemic began, which other right-wing outfits like Breitbart and the New York Post have amplified. But he has appeared on CNN. He has also been quoted in many outlets from The Wall Street Journal to The New Yorker, The Washington Post to The Daily Caller. Beyond giving quotes to reporters, Bhattacharya has gotten to make his case himself, writing for a number of publications including the WSJ, The Hill, The Daily Mail, and Newsweek.
Seed oil panic is right-wing health misinformation.
I don’t know who needs to hear this but the whole seed oil panic stuff is a right-wing conspiracy theory based “health concern” that’s promoted mostly by masculinity grifters. Choose the oils you’re going to eat based on whatever you like - preferably actual health information, personal taste, or concerns about the farming sources with regard to the environment, labor issues, or geopolitical concerns. But these weird stories with ominous warnings about seed oils specifically from wellness influencers and crypto pushers who are also often covid deniers, are irrelevant. So no, that’s NOT “something RFK Jr. is good on actually” at all - it’s all part of the same medical misinformation landscape.
Anti-vaxxers and far-right intimidation. It’s the same picture.
Even after all that’s come out in recent times, the cumulative evidence still hasn’t been reaching a lot of people that the same people who are involved in right-wing intimidation, are the anti-vaxxers.
WIRED - Leaked Docs From Far-Right Militias Show History of Voter Intimidation Plans “All the state leaders should be getting their people out … to watch for ballot stuffing,” wrote the leader of the American Patriots Three Percent militia. “Our nation depends on this." Oct 11, 2024 2:18 PM Tess Owen The leaked messages from 2022 show how AP3 and other militias provided paramilitary heft to ballot box monitoring operations organized by “The People’s Movement,” the group that spearheaded the 2021 anti-vaccine convoy protest, and Clean Elections USA, a group with links to the team behind the 2000 Mules film that falsely claimed widespread voter fraud. In the leaked chats, People’s Movement leader Carolyn Smith identifies herself as an honorary AP3 member. AP3 is run by Scot Seddon, a former Army Reservist, Long Islander, and male model, according to a ProPublica profile on him published in August.
Florida man is anti-vax.
Ron Desantis - that Florida man. I’ve been seeing in some forums people claiming that Ron Desantis isn’t really actually anti-vax himself. But of course he is.
Ron Desantis has been anti-mandate all along. If you are anti mandate — that’s anti-vax because vaccination is a community level public health measure and a security concern. High uptake is what stems transmission. It’s how vaccines work best for everyone. So being against vaccine mandates is anti-vax.
Joseph Ladapo also said that vaccines are ‘the Antichrist of all products’ and tells all sorts of medical misinformation lies to the public. Making scientific claims but that are not science-based. I would think that invoking the antichrist would maybe be a hint that this isn’t about science.
Ron Desantis not only hired this guy to be Florida’s Surgeon General, Desantis was recommending he be appointed by the Trump administration federal U.S. Surgeon General.
Elite gambling in the stock market is a threat to public health.
RFK Jr. is a threat to public health, but elites gambling with healthcare on the stock market is also a threat to public health.
NBC NEWS - Vaccine maker stocks fall as Trump chooses RFK Jr. to lead HHS The stocks fell in the final hour of trading as reports emerged about Trump’s expected pick. Nov. 14, 2024, 5:00 PM EST / Source: CNBC By Annika Kim Constantino, CNBC The stocks fell in the final hour of trading as reports emerged about Trump’s expected pick. Moderna’s stock closed more than 5% lower on Thursday, shares of Novavax fell more than 7% and Pfizer’s stock ended more than 2% lower.
That includes treating Novavax as a memestock and doing the kind of harmful promotion and undermining that’s gone on because of it.
Making Novavax into a memestock is a threat to public health. All 3 vaccines approved in the U.S., from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax, are basically in the same ballpark with efficacy. Nov 11, 2024 Chloe Humbert Often people will hype the shit out of anything that is rosy about a particular stock and I suspect there are troll farms and probably botnets paid to do so, because that’s what people do nowadays in the information landscape and the internet of fakes. Many overly rosy posts about Novavax on social media include the stock symbol which is kind of a giveaway! There’s substantial money involved. Novavax is one of the most shorted stocks too. So there’s plenty of interest in manipulating online conversations and creating controversy about the product, in order to manipulate the perceptions, the automated systems monitoring social media for stock signals, and people trying to influence the stock market. I’m concerned some could be trying to orchestrate something akin to a pump & dump scheme. That would be really bad because it would mean that the volatility could harm the company. There may be people with some interest in just that, to see the company fail — the people shorting the stock.
Shopping Tip: They're working sick & contagious
I’m very sad that this holiday shopping PSA from last year is still applicable.
Quote:
"The more conversations I had, the more I understood the connection between people’s view of “crony capitalism” and their dislike of government. They didn’t oppose government per se. In fact, most favored additional spending on Social Security, Medicare, education, and infrastructure. Rather, they saw government as the vehicle for big corporations and Wall Street to exert their power in ways that hurt them." - Robert Reich