Holiday cheer depends on community care. 🎊 Air pollution may boost risk of Long-Covid. 😷 Many still don’t know how masks work.
Arizona prisons pandemic nightmare as seen through letters sent via outside advocacy organizations.
Congress needs to ensure telehealth access continues for patients.
✏️ My letter to reps:
Telehealth services via Medicare must not expire. Telehealth service should be a permanent option for all patients, and covered by all insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid.
Please feel free to repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Many people still don’t really know how respirator masks work.
It’s really no wonder people are susceptible to anti-mask propaganda undermining masks as an effective way to control the spread of aerosol transmitted diseases when the fact is, public health leadership has failed to properly explain to the public how respirator masks work.
I invite people to read the various ways people have misunderstood how masks work that I’ve heard about — and in some cases understandably misinterpreted concepts they’ve seen online about respirator masks. Sometimes wrongly people think that masks have a self-destruct time limit, or that there’s some time to infectious dose with or without a mask, when neither of these ideas are accurate. Those mask chart meme infographics that have circulated on social media and forums for years now have led people to think as long as they go outside every 30 minutes they can “reset the time” they’ll be safe in an infectious environment.
Unfortunately a lot of these misunderstandings feed into all or nothing fatalism propaganda. And a lot of stuff out there doing armchair science get into the weeds in ways that simply foster more confusion.
The physics hasn’t changed on respirator masks. There are no guarantees and nothing is perfect but the N95 mask still does the job.
The Astounding Physics of N95 Masks by MinutePhysics “By electretizing the fibers in an N95 mask, they gain a long-lasting ability to attract particles, which means they capture about 10 times as many particles as regular fibers.”
🗞️ In the news
CIDRAP Air pollution may boost risk of longer-term long-COVID symptoms, research suggests Mary Van Beusekom, MS DEC 3, 2024 "We previously found that air pollution exposure is linked to a higher risk of severe COVID-19 and a lower vaccine response, but there are very few studies on long-COVID and the environment,” senior author Manolis Kogevinas, MD, PhD, of ISGlobal, said in an institute news release. While air pollution may not directly cause long COVID, it could make the infection more severe, which raises the risk of lingering symptoms.
Indoor Air Purification Improved Pulmonary Health in Kids — Trial included school-age kids in Chinese city known for severe air pollution by Jennifer Henderson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today December 2, 2024"The respiratory benefits in children observed in our findings underline the importance of indoor air quality improvement to safeguard the respiratory health of children," they noted. "Clinicians are advised to emphasize the importance of implementing air purification interventions in environments where children spend their time frequently, such as homes, schools, and daycare facilities, to reduce exposure to high levels of particulate matter pollution," they added. "Air purification intervention may help prevent the onset of allergic diseases (e.g., allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma) and contribute to the alleviation of respiratory symptoms among children."
Arizona prisons pandemic nightmare as seen through letters sent via outside advocacy organizations.
The letters reported by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington report lack of PPE, lack of testing, and lack of humane treatment in the pandemic.
II: Records reveal allegations of Arizona prisoners suffering rampant mistreatment and neglect during COVID By Sara Wiatrak - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington October 1, 2024 Another parent described how their son had to use a piece of a t-shirt as a mask, and was denied an actual mask “because he does not go outside the prison.” One family member sent a complaint that a physician’s assistant in one of the facilities was actively blocking the inmates from seeing the doctor, while another described a particularly egregious situation where an inmate’s medications were not refilled, sending the inmate into a withdrawal and causing him to throw out his back while vomiting. She said that the last time she intervened for the inmate, the facility health administrator retaliated by sending the inmate for a “surprise epidural” knowing that the previous four they subjected him to had worsened his condition. [...] Another inmate wrote that same day about the lack of testing and officers’ dismissive conduct, another glaring theme in the documents: “[The doctor] states on record there’s around 60 positive covid cases here and not recorded due to not being tested[.] it is well over 100. There’s nothing being done about this… there’s no protocol nor safety measures for inmates yet [sic] alone the officers. It is obvious the officers spread covid and continue to do so every minute.”
From: (REDACTED) To: dshinn @ azadc.gov Subject: Re: Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2022 8:21:09 PM Good afternoon Mr Shinn Fully vaccinated asymptomatic inmates who agreed to be tested for COVID, and have subsequently received positive results, have all been moved from quarantine and SEGREGATED TOGETHER LOCKED DOWN. As they are asymptomatic there is no treatment. (REDACTED) is fully vaccinated, tested and, is asymptomatic, told he will be moved if positive, and WILL NOT HAVE LEGAL ACCESS. However, hundreds of actually sick inmates with symptoms, and who refused testing, have not been segregated. If anything, those inmates, not fully vaccinated and sick, or fully vaccinated and sick, should be segregated. This is because sick inmates need treatment not inmates who are asymptomatic. Furthermore, segregating and denying legal access, when it is clear, courts have refused to recognize a COVID exception to court deadlines, needs to be examined. If you believe segregation of positives in groups is proper, that is for the courts to decide, but I ask appropriate action be taken to ensure legal access. I have contacted the Attorney General and counsel. Your assistance in this matter will be highly appreciated. Kind regards (REDACTED)
Eric Adams didn’t wear a mask to do his alleged lawbreaking.
Disgraced NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who should’ve resigned months ago after being charged for crimes, is trying to capitalize on the health insurance CEO murder, and using it to push anti-mask ideology. I can only think that the motivation here is to demonize masks so badly so they get completely banned, leaving high risk disabled and elderly people out of sight and unable to interact in public, thus not reminding anyone of danger posed by pollution and infectious diseases threats that are continuing and increasing, and largely unmitigated.
NYC mayor says suspect identified in UnitedHealth executive's murder, NY Post reports - Reuters - Updated Sat, December 7, 2024 at 5:33 PM EST Yahoo News Adams was quoted by the Post as saying the police were withholding the suspect's name for now to deny him any advantage. “We don’t want to release that now,” the mayor said. “If you do, you are basically giving a tip to the person we are seeking and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all. Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask."
The suspect was pictured maskless seen in numerous security video stills published in a plethora of news articles all over. So why focus on the mask? The masking is a distraction. Let us remember that Eric Adams wasn’t wearing a mask when he allegedly was involved in corruption and bribes. Perhaps if he went to prison he’d start appreciating the benefits of masks for preventing the spread and effects of disease.
Holiday cheer depends on community care.
Quote:
“All social media platforms incentivize misunderstanding and conflict while presenting the illusion of communication and networking. What we’ve been able to do in terms of organization and education has been in spite of the intentions rather than because of them.”
— Jared Yates Sexton on social media 2:02 PM · Apr 3, 2024