📝 Petition to halt NIH from engaging in junk studies for Long Covid 😷 Tell the White House: Provide Free N95 Masks! Require in healthcare! 💉 Vaccine disinfo AND misinfo are both bad
Many clinically vulnerable people just spent the third holiday season in a row social distancing because physical safety has to be prioritized before partying with friends & family.
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 Petition: NIH must stop Long COVID trials on debunked, damaging therapies and fund strategic therapeutic research.
It is neglectful that RECOVER would choose to focus on exercise and forms of CBT when there are dozens of drugs available waiting to be tested that could lead to better outcomes and/or more clues as to the pathophysiology of Long COVID. It is a waste of taxpayer money, limited resources, and crucial time to be testing harmful, debunked hypotheses.
By STRATEGIES FOR HIGH IMPACT
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-nih
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
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/freen95s/
USA Petition: Require masking in all healthcare settings
Just in time for flu season, with 300-400 US residents dying from COVID-19 daily, the CDC revised its infection control guidelines regarding mask-wearing in healthcare settings, from hospitals and clinics to home care providers and nursing homes. The new guideline recommended masks only need to be worn in healthcare settings when COVID Community Transmission rates are high, based on the CDC map. This change is dangerous, unethical and based on flawed data.
By the People’s CDC
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/require-masking-in-all-healthcare-settings/
How it started:
The Oaklandside: Christmas carol protesters call on Mayor Schaaf to reinstate mask mandate at city buildings by J.R. Stone, December 14, 2022
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.
How it’s going:
The Oaklandside: Masks are required again in Oakland city buildings - Masking is an effective way to prevent the spread of COVID and other respiratory viruses. by Darwin BondGraham and Jose Fermoso December 21, 2022
“We’re gonna protect our workers, our city employees, and our people who visit our city buildings [to] make sure that we’re going to minimize the risk,” Kalb said on the City Council call yesterday. Kaplan thanked the disability protesters during the meeting for continuing to keep city staff aware of their concerns around unmasking.
👏 🙌 👏
Here’s are some letters with references you can repurpose for your local advocacy. It’s worth a try!
Essential Services Need Mask Requirements, A letter to send to government representatives, healthcare providers, transit authorities, store managers, and community leaders.
People’s CDC: The change in mask guidelines for healthcare is dangerous, unethical and based on flawed data, Please join us by signing our petition to advocate for masks in healthcare settings.
🗞️ In the news
😷 The New England Journal of Medicine: Lifting Universal Masking in Schools — Covid-19 Incidence among Students and Staff (Our results support universal masking as an important strategy for reducing Covid-19 incidence in schools and loss of in-person school days. As such, we believe that universal masking may be especially useful for mitigating effects of structural racism in schools, including potential deepening of educational inequities. Conclusions: Among school districts in the greater Boston area, the lifting of masking requirements was associated with an additional 44.9 Covid-19 cases per 1000 students and staff during the 15 weeks after the statewide masking policy was rescinded.)
🇨🇳 Al Jazeera: Elderly leave cities as COVID infections surge in China By Frederik Kelter 24 Dec 2022 (Across China, those who can afford it are getting their elderly relatives out of the major cities to protect them from succumbing to the wave of COVID-19 that is currently battering the country. “The COVID situation is really bad right now,” 24-year-old Shuwen Lu told Al Jazeera over a WeChat connection from her home in Beijing. Lu, who is also currently fighting a COVID infection, told how her grandparents were helped out of Beijing to a small village where the family has a house. “Had they stayed in the city, they might soon have joined the countless elderly people that are dying right now,” Lu said.)
🇨🇳 SpyTalk: How China’s Cell Phone Spies Track Covid Protesters - US firms helped build Beijing's ubiquitous surveillance systems by Matt Brazil (Though the party leadership rapidly (maybe too rapidly) eased the “zero Covid” restrictions that prompted this popular anger, those who spoke up soon learned who was boss. A rough pattern of police response developed, with some similarity to the way some other protestors have been treated. Mere participants were summoned to police stations to explain themselves and sign statements saying they would never do it again. One demonstrator, perhaps typifying others, had tried to disguise himself with a balaclava and clothing change but was quickly tracked down by police. He was surprised at how easily authorities had picked him out of a large crowd, evidently using his phone data and their urban surveillance system. Leaders of the protests were treated more harshly. At least one—the man who may have led the first “step down” chants in Shanghai—was apprehended at work and has since disappeared. He, too, thought he might not be identified.)
🇺🇸 AccuWeather: Buffalo buried in record-setting snowfall amid deadly lake-effect blizzard The frigid conditions have resulted in three deaths thus far, and AccuWeather meteorologists say the travel-snarling snowstorm is far from over. By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Published Dec 23, 2022 11:50 AM EST | Updated Dec 24, 2022 (On Saturday morning, two fatalities from the storm were announced by Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, with both occurring in Cheektowaga, about 7 miles east of downtown Buffalo. The deaths were categorized as "emergency medical events that responders could not get to.")
🇺🇸 Economic Policy Institute: Child Tax Credit expansions were instrumental in reducing poverty rates to historic lows in 2021 by Elise Gould (Child poverty reached its lowest level on record, as calculated by the Supplemental Poverty Measure (a measure that includes both cash and noncash benefits). This new historic low is largely thanks to the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), a key component of the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) that has since expired. Without additional action by Congress to renew the expanded Child Tax Credit, we should expect higher child poverty in future years.)
🥫 Food Safety News: USDA has future plans to consider whether Salmonella in chicken should be dealt with By Coral Beach (The USDA is beginning to consider whether or not to consider if Salmonella in poultry should be considered a problem. The department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced that it is “considering a regulatory framework” for a new strategy that would allow the agency to consider controlling Salmonella in poultry products. The goal, if things move forward, is to reduce human illnesses. Every year at least 135,000 people are sickened by Salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those illnesses, one-fourth are caused by the pathogen in chicken.)
This is NOT fine
Many clinically vulnerable people around the world just stayed home for the 3rd holiday season in a row because the risks of exposure are too high and our governments and communities have failed to take the public health measures to reduce the risks, and so many have had to choose physical safety over socializing in person.
He(a)rd Scuttlebutt… pandemic grapevine 🍇🌱
During the Swine Flu pandemic in 2009 I knew wealthy families who pulled their kids from school for weeks through the holidays, avoided anywhere crowded, and did all their Christmas shopping online that year. If getting sick was no big deal, I don’t think they’d be doing that, never mind with a new virus with very worrying long term effects, and all the weird epidemics going on.
Anti-vaxers will apparently try everything under the sun. There's now some kind of campaign to undermine trust in vaccines by asserting wrongly that Novavax is a miracle drug. When the wild promises fall through I guess they figure people will then turn anti-vax The other vaccines were never foolproof against transmission, and neither is Novavax proven to stop transmission. It’s great to have more options, and I really do hope it pans out well and more people are served by the existence of Novavax. But presently, whatever I could get on time, and in a safe location, is the right vaccine booster for me, so that’s how I made my choice. I would not take more vaccinations than is recommended, and I would not make my vaccination choices based on someone popping off wild claims on social media.
There is evidence that the vaccines may reduce the likelihood of transmission. But Virginia Department of Health's Dr. Laurie Forlano was on Government Exec podcast claiming with pat statement that the vaccine point blank prevents transmission, no caveats or explanation of this. Public health professionals, of all people, should understand that the public sees words like “prevents” as a binary. Either it stops transmission, or it doesn’t. If there’s anything in between this needs to be explained clearly and assertively or people will get covid, assume they got it from someone unvaccinated, and go over to see grandma’s house believing the vaccine will outright prevent them from spreading it, and when it doesn’t, they are then set up to believe anti-vax rhetoric dismissing all benefits of getting vaccinated. Not a good situation.
I’ve heard that many “still coviding” type groups are picking up more engagement lately, including singles groups and parent oriented. There are many such groups on Facebook and Discord. There are many people still taking precautions.
It is scarcely necessary to say that one whose tactless remarks ride rough-shod over the feelings of others is not welcomed by many. — Emily Post