⛄️ Christmas caroling in protest to bring back masks 😷 Letter Campaign to Urge the White House to Provide Free N95s 🚂 Petition Extend paid sick leave to railway workers 🤒
#VigilAgainstCovid - an online campaign where people posted pictures of their doors in Australia to object to being stuck behind them to protect themselves & others.
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)
USA Letter campaign: Urge the White House and Congress to Provide Free N95 Masks!
The White House restarted its free rapid test distribution program, but this alone is not enough. The White House needs to also launch a program to mail free N95 masks to the public. Right now, in many cities and states across the country there is no distribution of free N95 masks to the general public. The federal N95 mask distribution program at pharmacies ended awhile ago. — By MandateMasksUS
USA - Petition: to President Biden: Extend paid sick leave to railway workers
On December 3, 2022, President Biden signed a bill to block the pending railway strike and force workers to accept the agreements which did not include the desired amount of paid sick leave, offering only one day of leave over the seven days rail unions were advocating for. — BY Daily Kos
Free and Fair Democracy PAC Iron PAC Other98 Rashida Tlaib for Congress Six PAC
USA Letter Campaign: THE PRESIDENT & U.S. CONGRESS: Help End the Pandemic: Support Covid Emergency Funding
The American people need you to wholeheartedly support money to weather the winter surge; to keep tests, vaccines, and treatments available to the American people; to research long COVID; and to develop next-generation vaccines to truly put this pandemic nightmare behind us. — by @mattbc
Christmas caroling in protest to bring back masks!
→ SDaction.org / Follow SDA on twitter & instagram ←
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.
🗞️ In the news
🕯️👃 National Library of Medicine: Bad candle reviews could help track covid-19 cases by Chris Stokel-Walker (The research “started out as a joke”, says Beauchamp, however, the team found a link between covid-19 cases and negative candle reviews. For every 100,000 new covid-19 cases a week in the US over the study period, the number of Yankee Candle reviews saying the product had no smell went up by 0.25 percentage points. A statistical analysis revealed this link wasn't a chance finding. The connection also persisted despite the study covering the beginning of the omicron wave in the US, spanning December 2021 to February 2022.)
🇺🇸 WTOP: Students with disabilities win dispute over masks in Va. public schools by Dick Uliano (The state and the parents reached a settlement Monday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, in which the state agreed that requiring public school teachers and students to wear masks is a reasonable modification, under the executive order, for students with disabilities who request the masking. The settlement also requires the state’s Department of Education to send guidance to school districts in line with the settlement.)
🇺🇸 The Multiracial Unity Blog IT’S SICKENING: Lack of Sick Pay, Leave, Insurance by Ellen Isaacs (It was estimated that five million people contracted swine flu in 2009 because of lack of sick leave. Temporary emergency paid sick leave for Covid through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 is thought to have prevented 400 Covid cases in each state. Capitalist enterprises may think they are saving money by not offering sick days, but they are actually hurting themselves as well as the society at large. Paid sick days lead to more preventive care, like vaccinations, and getting earlier treatment when ill and thus avoid preventable emergency room visits. This alone would save an estimated $1.1 billion annually.4 Workers who go to work sick are also 38% more likely to be injured on the job than those who can take time off, and the resulting loss of productivity at work is estimated to cost about $208 billion annually. Access to sick pay also reduces the chance of job loss by one fourth over five months, while a need for new workers increases bosses’ costs for new worker recruitment and training.)
🇺🇸 Bloomberg: Biden Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers Survives Supreme Court Appeal (The rule, issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, requires shots for workers in nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities that receive federal dollars. The requirement took effect April 15, covering about 10 million people.)
🪧 Railroad Union Votes Out Union President – 100,000 UK Nurses Strike – 500 Authors Protest HarperCollins (“(For nurses) the job is getting harder and harder all of the time for a salary that is worth less and less,” Patricia Marquis, director of the RCN in England told Reuters.)
This is Not Fine
This holiday a lot of people will not be able to gather with family, because a dangerous virus is being let to circulate widely, and many have family, friends, and neighbors who can’t, or won’t, take the necessary precautions to keep everyone safe, because their community isn’t facilitating it, and leadership isn’t recommending it.
He(a)rd Scuttlebutt… pandemic grapevine 🍇🌱
NYC Mask Guide lists over 20 museums and over 100 public spaces overall that still require masks in NYC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandatemasksny/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MandateMasksNY
The covid measures in Hollywood which have been quite stringent throughout, are not even good enough, ‘Wednesday’ Star Jenna Ortega Reveals She Had Covid While Filming Viral Dance Scene - on a dance floor with a lot of unmasked fellow actors. It’s been criticized as “grind culture” and it should be, because of labor exploitation and because exerting oneself during an active covid infection is dicey, and potentially spreading disease at the workplace is not ok.
The atomic unit of propaganda isn’t lies, it’s emphasis. — Adam H. Johnson