⚠️ San Fran supervisors again trying to end remote public comment access 📱 Register public comment for CDC HICPAC's next meeting 📃 Guide to public comment on disability access in healthcare ✒️
Responding is Losing: When debunking is a gift to disinformation purveyors.
When: November 2-3, 2023 — Where: Teleconference Only
The Oral Public Comment Request Submission Period — will open October 2, 2023, and close at 11:59 pm on October 23, 2023.
The Written Public Comment Submission Period — Will open November 1, 2023, and close at 11:59 pm on November 6, 2023.
“If you were not selected in the lottery for oral public comment, please submit your written public comment to HICPAC@CDC.GOV. The written public comment period will open November 1, 2023, and close at 11:59 pm on November 6, 2023. All written public comments received before or after the comment period opens or closes will not be added to the meeting minutes.”
The Board of Supervisors is yet again trying to do away with remote public comment. The hearing will be MONDAY, October 16th, at the Rules Committee. The meeting starts at 10am Pacific Time, and this is the 4th item on the agenda. If you are a constituent, call your supervisor to let them know you want to keep remote public comment.
We can’t meet the opposition halfway to Hell on public health or science
Trying to implement policy that’s halfway between Qanon and reality is not rational, and it’s costing people’s lives, because what the government recommends has direct impact on what a lot of healthcare providers do, what insurance covers, and what the public and healthcare workers believe is real.
Where is the ad campaign for the new vaccines? Where is the public information drive to inform people about the risks of multiple covid infections? These risks are especially increased for those unvaccinated or not recently vaccinated. And a “risk condition” includes things like being over 50 or having ever smoked.
Those of us who are aware about what the public needs to know need to both inform our elected representatives, and insist that they implement effective public messaging. The White House has a contact form, and so do your representatives.
Write your reps. Do it now.
🗞️ In the news
🇨🇦 CTV News Montreal - Up to 10 per cent of Quebec health-care workers affected with long COVID - The Canadian Press Staff - Sept. 21, 2023 A fifth said they had missed at least four weeks of work in the past year, twice as many as among workers without long COVID. A similar proportion consider themselves to have a "poor or very poor" ability to perform the physical or intellectual demands of their job. The majority of cases of long COVID in health-care workers were detected in employees who had been infected with the virus since the emergence of the Omicron variant, who had been vaccinated, and whose state of health had not required hospitalisation.
🇬🇧 Hospital trust apologises for telling staff not to test for Covid-19 - Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust said it prioritises the wellbeing and safety of its patients and staff - Black Country - By Kelly Ashmore, 10 OCT 2023 A hospital trust has apologised for telling staff they "should not be testing for Covid-19". An email sent by Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust said testing for the virus could "result in having to remain at home for longer than their symptoms persist". The communication sparked outrage online after a screenshot was posted on social media site X, formerly Twitter. It was branded a "callous approach to staff and patient safety", leading many to question whether it was a hoax. In bold writing, the email said: "Staff should not be testing for Covid-19". The message continued: "The IPC team have been receiving many reports of staff testing positive for Covid. In line with national guidance, staff should NOT be taking LFDs. "Instead, they should respond to their own symptoms and stay at home if they feel unwell. Testing for Covid can result in having to remain at home for longer than their symptoms persist." The email went on say "full guidance" was attached as a document.
🇺🇸 Kaiser Permanente reaches a tentative deal with health care worker unions after a recent strike BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Updated 11:30 AM EDT, October 13, 2023 The strike for three days in California — where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located — as well as in Colorado, Oregon and Washington was a last resort after Kaiser executives ignored the short-staffing crisis worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, union officials said. The coalition had given the company notice that another strike from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 was possible and the Oct. 31 expiration of a contract covering the Seattle area would enable another 3,000 workers to join picket lines. Their goal was to bring the problems to the public’s consciousness for support, according to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Some 180 workers from facilities in Virginia and Washington, D.C., also picketed but only on Wednesday.
🇮🇱 The Times of Israel - Education Ministry announces return of COVID-era distance learning. By Gavriel Fiske 10 October 2023In a separate notice, the ministry announces the creation of a special office to help integrate students and parents who have been displaced by the fighting, with the aim of providing educational and psychological support while they stay in emergency or absorption centers. Since the start of the hostilities Saturday, most of the residents from communities bordering the Gaza Strip have been evacuated. In addition, the current massive callup of IDF reservists has drawn from teaching and administrative staff, leaving educational institutions countrywide shorthanded.
⚕️ Paxlovid may reduce the chance of long Covid. Why don’t doctors prescribe it more? Experts who study and treat long Covid agree that Paxlovid seems to lower the risk of lingering symptoms. Some long Covid patients regret not taking it. Oct. 12, 2023, 9:21 AM EDT By Aria Bendix “Research definitely backs up that it helps prevent lingering symptoms — it helps prevent long Covid,” said Ashley Drapeau, director of the Long Covid Clinic at the GW Center for Integrative Medicine. Some patients who took Paxlovid during their illness also seem to have less severe long Covid symptoms overall than those who did not, according to Drapeau. But doctors who treat people for active Covid infections say they aren’t widely prescribing Paxlovid, since the medication interacts with several common drugs and is only approved for people vulnerable to severe illness — older adults and people with underlying medical conditions. Data from the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System indicates that just 30% of patients who qualify for Paxlovid are being prescribed it, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the system’s chief of research and development.
This is NOT fine
Responding is Losing: When debunking is a gift to disinformation purveyors.
The Florida official who pushes propaganda against vaccines and manufacturing doubt is using anti-vax woke-washing and to call vaccines “anti-human” appears to be a case of Accusation in a Mirror, which should give everyone a big heads up that this is dangerous rhetoric.
The problem is that a person debunking the anti-vax assertions actually then undermines and manufactures doubt in the vaccines by suggesting that vaccines, which have already been approved for all Americas 6 months and older, could "legitimately be debated" as needing to be restricted to only the high risk.
Why would a doctor undermine an already approved and recommended vaccine this way in the process of supposedly debunking anti-vax assertions????
There's no legitimate debate for "young healthy people" to not get vaccines. The new vaccines are recommended for Americans 6 months and up. And vaccination is crucial for children.
Sadly the person who seeded doubt while “debunking” has done it before. This doctor led me to momentarily believe Florida man’s anti-vax “study” was real a year ago because they chose to lead with the lie by posting the study in the first tweet of a tweet thread which was all that showed up on my twitter timeline at first, of course. Leading with the lie gets all the troll farms to boost the “debunking” because it helps boost their message in the process, so I can see how avoiding the truth sandwich is appealing if you want a high level of “engagement” on social media. But this is what is called “a gift to rivals” for manufacturing doubt.
Shown in color against the Taxonomy of Influence Strategies are nine of 23 plays that are typically employed to meet and mitigate competitive influence programs and operations. Despite their popularity, this subset is notably defensive and often helpful to rival actors. Shown in gray are nine other plays that are often ignored by responding players but more capable of creating and maintaining strategic advantage in narrative conflicts. When competitors ding your reputation or dis your brand it's a reasonable impulse to fight back, especially when the messages they're making are mistaken or deceptive. But be careful. The plays that often inspire response are usually better at scoring points than winning games. Here's why: DEFENSIVE PLAYS Whether it's conservative policies, inexperience at narrative knife fights, or a bias for taking the proverbial high road, responders typically run plays that frame, divert and press (shown in color). These are influence strategies that do more to defend and maintain a status quo than shift it. Accordingly, responders avoid plays that probe, freeze or provoke (shown in gray). These are better for beating rivals, not simply beating them back. A GIFT TO ENEMIES If this is you, beware. Rivals will welcome you to their arena. And why not? A competitor with weak plays draws attention to the game but does little to steal a victory.
He(a)rd Scuttlebutt… pandemic grapevine 🍇🌱
I was disturbed by Kara Swisher, in an interview on PBS FRONTLINE Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover, who seemed to be conceding that Elon Musk was right in the end about the virus not being dangerous, even while admitting how many people have died from the pandemic virus. She seemed to think his assessment was merely premature. Hundreds of TESLA workers got covid because of the factory being opened prematurely without adequate mitigation, and we have no idea how many TESLA workers have suffered after effects in the form of Long Covid or covid complications as a result, and since then, considering people working in unmitigated workplaces are still getting covid, still getting complications, and still sometimes dying of covid. Later in this documentary Kara Swisher admits she initially thought Elon Musk would be great for Twitter, and added that Elon Musk asked her for her ideas about what to do with Twitter.
Michael Shellenberger was also interviewed in this FRONTLINE documentary and I suspect that he actually almost claimed that the whole point of free speech is the right to spread misinformation. He stopped himself but he began to say “the right to sprea…” and then stopped short and said “one person’s misinformation is another person’s point of view.”
Anti-vax disinformation and climate contrarianism are not a “point of view” - they’re lies, often deliberate lies put forth by people with a monetary investment that benefits from the lies. And the right to free speech has the purpose to protect the right for the public to speak out for redress from the government, it was not, to my knowledge, meant to protect the sales of snake oil… or oil.
I listened to a recent episode of a podcast: Hidden Brain - How to Spot a Scam. One of the well-known manipulative techniques they mention that someone running a scam uses is that they make the target feel special - the victim is shined on to feel very special about the attention or interest. This is something I’ve heard again and again over the years. Being aware that nobody is immune to being tricked is essential in defending against all the pandemic profiteering out there target marketing everyone who’s concerned. Stop and consider, and ask questions before handing over your money for anything.
"You should get a COVID-19 vaccine even if you already had COVID-19.”
