😷 Saskatchewan Letter Campaign for Masks in Healthcare ⚕️ACIP Vaccine Meeting April 19th 💉 Action: May 12th Washington, DC 🗓️ Petition to WHO on duty to communicate airborne transmission
Biden pushes federal workers' butts in seats downtown for The Economy. Healthcare workers gleefully celebrate being free to spread the virus to high risk children at Stanford Children's Hospital.
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)
Saskatchewan CANADA Letter Campaign: Restore COVID-19 Mask Requirements in Medical Settings
By Take Action Against Covid: Without mask requirements, SHA homes and facilities are a hazard to immunocompromised and high risk staff, patients, and visitors. This is an issue of equity and supporting the rights of vulnerable and disabled people.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/taac-keep-masks-in-medical-settings
Global Petition: We ask WHO to urgently promote broad awareness of aerosol transmission
by covidisairborne.org: WHO has a duty to communicate all relevant and available scientific information to the world. Its influence on public health authorities must be used to shift practical guidance toward educating and mitigating the risk of airborne transmission.
https://www.change.org/p/we-ask-who-to-urgently-promote-broad-awareness-of-aerosol-transmission
USA Action: May 12th Washington, DC STILL SICK, STILL FIGHTING: #MILLIONSMISSING 2023
By ME Action: #MillionsMissing 2023 will be held at the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC on May 12th that will feature an art installation and press conference. We will also have a press conference that will be livestreamed at 11am PT/2pm EST that you will be able to watch on our social media channels.
https://millionsmissing.meaction.net/protest2023/
Another ACIP Meeting April 19th
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/index.html
I’ve been checking every few days since I heard the announcement and they don’t yet have a docket for public comments, but you can Request to Make an Oral Public Comment.
Any member of the public can submit a written public comment to ACIP. The docket, identified by Docket No. TBA, will be opened to receive written comments on TBA. Written comments must be received by April 19, 2023, using the Federal eRulemaking Portal
I wrote my reps to complain about not being able to make a public comment sooner. And I suggest writing to reps about access to the vaccine boosters. I have a form!
I also highly recommend submitting a comment. At this point, I see the propaganda mill is now pushing the idea that if vaccine boosters aren’t recommended, why should anyone get vaccinated at all? Both the restricting and the clouded communication coming out of ACIP is simply terrible.
I will be submitting the following comment:
Scientific evidence indicates the vaccine should ideally be allowed, available, and fully covered by public funds or insurance, twice a year. If it’s restricted based on anti-vax right-wing political ideology or Great Barrington Declaration eugenics strategies, it WILL create barriers for vulnerable people, and will discourage many from getting vaccinated at all. This is not appropriate and I expect public agencies to act in the interests of human lives.
My post on this issue:
🗞️ In the news
🇺🇸 Spotlight PA: Pa. faces a shortage of benefits workers as health coverage for thousands is on the line. by Katie Meyer of Spotlight PA | April 3, 2023 (Though the department was still sending out reenrollment packets during the pandemic and workers aren’t totally out of practice with the process, Keenan said, things will be very different for caseworkers once they’re actually dealing with people who could lose benefits and need to appeal. “During the pandemic, many CAO staff retired,” Keenan said. “That means that many of the workers are new to the role and inexperienced. On top of that, they’re likely already flooded with work since so many positions remain unfilled.”)
🇺🇸 Government Executive: The Biden Administration Tells Agencies to Scale Back Telework. Federal employee unions and career agency HR leaders reportedly were left out of the development of a new Office of Management and Budget memo that instructs agencies to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work at federal offices.” by Erich Wagner, APRIL 13, 2023 (The memo, sent to agency heads by OMB Director Shalanda Young, at various points tries to juggle responding to critiques of telework—both from Republicans and local leaders like Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, who blamed some of the city’s economic difficulties on underutilized government buildings—and preserving the practice as a valuable tool to boost productivity and recruit and retain qualified workers. “Agency workforces are generally expected to increase meaningful in-person work—that is in-person work that is purposeful, well-planned and optimized for in-person collaboration—while still using flexible operational policies as an important tool in talent recruitment and retention,” Young wrote.)
🔊 Who What Why: The Loudest Voice: Who Is GOP COVID-19 Expert Jay Bhattacharya by Walker Bragman 03/29/23 (Bhattacharya, who is currently suing the Biden administration over its alleged role in his censorship, should be a familiar name to anyone who read the previous House reports on the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response. He is featured prominently as a one of the people whose contrarian and often disastrously wrong takes helped inform one of the world’s worst responses to the pandemic. Readers may also recognize Bhattacharya for his work with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), his Wall Street Journal and Newsweek op-eds, his various speaking engagements, and his frequent Fox News appearances.)
This is NOT fine
Healthcare workers gleefully celebrating being free to spread the virus to vulnerable child patients — no regrets, no conscience?
Stanford Children’s Hospital reportedly had an “Unmasking our Smiles” event ceremony Friday April 14th to celebrate unmasking and spreading the virus to vulnerable hospitalized high risk children at the hospital, where many will die under their unethical care.
Reminds me so much of another terrible celebration.
He(a)rd Scuttlebutt… pandemic grapevine 🍇🌱
“He was rehearsing for a show to do in Los Angeles with a full band” Nash told Meredith. “After three days of rehearsals he felt a little sick. And he’d already had COVID and he had COVID again. And so he went home and decided that he would take a nap, and he never woke up."
Serious questions for healthcare workers who want to be unmasked at work.... Do you WANT to be sick? Even if you don’t give a shit about your patients, why would you want to be chancing getting sick a lot? Makes zero sense.
“The pandemic is not over, and our leaders need to say so.”
James G. Lertola, LTE in WaPo, March 2023