Send the message: We need a program that gets covid vaccines to everyone. 💉 The struggle for accessible voting in Pennsylvania. 📬 It was never about "learning loss".
“Emory Center for Ethics” welcomes MAGA trucker convoy adjacent anti-vax glad hander.
The end of free covid vaccines for uninsured adults in the U.S. is an unacceptable state of affairs.
✏️Write reps prompt - My letter to reps, state and federal:
It’s unacceptable that the CDC’s Bridge Access Program ended prematurely and now COVID vaccines are no longer free for uninsured adults. We need a program that gets covid vaccines to everyone.
Please feel free to repurpose for your own letters to reps.
More info and suggestions: People’s CDC Act for Free Vaccines.
Luzerne County manager pressured to reverse decision that would’ve made it harder to safely vote by mail in some Pennsylvania towns.
WVIA - Luzerne County will not provide drop boxes for mail-in ballots By Sarah Scinto | WVIA News Published September 19, 2024 Crocamo said all of the locations had security issues, such as "lack of oversight." "I am particularly concerned about the potential for illegal activities," she said.
They claimed security risks, and that the drop box in a Mountain Top, Pennsylvania assisted living old folks home "lacks oversight"? And I thought well then somebody better check in on the senior citizens living there? What place could have better oversight to begin with than a facility with 24 hour staff on duty and probably already existing video surveillance?
Those of us who live in northeastern Pennsylvania could easily guess this is probably about Hazleton. Hazleton is infamous for an anti-immigrant ordinance in the aughts under Mayor Lou Barletta, who went on to serve in the U.S. Congress representing parts of Luzerne and Lackawanna County. I'm pretty sure this is about election denial conspiracies and anti-immigrant sentiments toward Hazleton. It doesn't really make sense for voter intimidation at mail ballot dropboxes considering that conservatives have been for many months running ads here in northeastern Pennsylvania, targeting Trump fans, telling people to vote for Trump by mail. Republicans embraced mail in ballots again in Pennsylvania. Trump has only recently reversed and started fear mongering again about mail ballots. But the reporters covering this should've certainly asked Romilda Crocamo if she's admitting that she has concerns about conspiracy theories leading to vigilantism. It should be determined exactly what security matters in this "political climate" are of concern. And then deal with those concerns if they're at all valid. Voter disenfranchisement of elderly & disabled citizens, or exposing the high risk to crowded polling locations, is not the answer.
Obviously I wrote to my elected representatives as soon as I read about this, because it’s a disability justice issue. And I obviously was not the only one. The state attorney general is reported to have sent a letter to Luzerne County, and the ACLU of PA filed a lawsuit. The drop boxes will be deployed.
Drop boxes back in Luzerne County, lawsuit hearing canceled By Sarah Scinto | WVIA News Published October 7, 2024 at 10:55 AM EDT Luzerne County voters will be able to use ballot drop boxes in November once again. County Manager Romilda Crocamo has reversed her decision and said she will deploy the drop boxes "as a result" of correspondence from the state Attorney General. The American Civil Liberties Union was due in court today on a lawsuit they filed against Luzerne County on behalf of voters and voting rights group In This Together NEPA. They alleged Crocamo broke with state election code by pulling the boxes without a vote from the county board of elections. That hearing has been canceled and the motion withdrawn as of Monday morning. According to a statement from ACLU, the group withdrew the motion after Crocamo "agreed to restore mail ballot drop boxes."
🗞️ In the news
As bird flu outbreak expands in California, dairy farms report it’s worse than they expected By Brenda Goodman, CNN Updated 2:45 PM EDT, Tue October 8, 2024 “These reports only increase my worries that this virus, if left unchecked will cause severe harms to human health,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, who directs the Pandemic Center at Brown University. “Many people have been far too dismissive of the threat posed by H5N1 on farms, wrongly assured by a handful of cases that have been mild. But epidemiologists know that the more people who become infected, the more likely we will see severe outcomes,” Nuzzo wrote in an email. “I have seen little that abates my worry that this virus will eventually cause hospitalizations or deaths,” she added.
Mask mandates returning to several Bay Area counties Fox local KTVU Staff October 10, 2024 at 9:20 PM The local health orders require masks to be worn in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and other healthcare facilities, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
📍Note: ProPublica reporters looking to speak to people experiencing delays with Medicaid and Food Stamps in Texas because of the backlog that has occurred since the federal government lifted “pandemic-era” protections last year.
Schools dismiss early for Trump rally in Scranton - so where are the b.s. “learning loss” op-eds on this issue?
PA Homepage: Scranton School District dismissing early for former President Trump’s visit - by: Vivian Muniz - Posted: Oct 7, 2024 The school district announced Monday that due to former President Trmup’s [sic] visit to Scranton on Wednesday, October 9, schools will be dismissing early to accommodate traffic concerns. The district said concerns over congestion that may interfere with student transportation were the reason for letting school out early, as well as other safety and security concerns.
I think it’s a good idea to let the kids out of class early for safety reasons. But I want everyone to refer to this the next time someone says that any early dismissal for health and safety reasons, such as infectious disease outbreaks or a head lice infestation, is supposedly an unacceptable “burden” and will lead to that debunked “learning loss” propaganda, or whatever other woke-washing argument they use, like kids not getting their school meals. Remember that there have been multiple op-eds suggesting kids should never be dismissed early, not even for bomb threats!! But when a Trump rally is in town - it’s fine, right? I don’t expect we’ll see a bunch of op-eds lamenting this early dismissal. (And there shouldn’t be.) But it just goes to show that all those op-eds saying kids shouldn’t be sent home with lice or covid or even when there’s a bomb reported in the building… it’s b.s. and it’s not really about the kids or the learning. But we already knew that of course when some states made it legal for schools to use cafeteria staff or school bus drivers as substitute teachers during covid outbreaks to avoid needing to go remote, because of business interests hostile to remote options. It's all ridiculous because of course safety should come first, and of course kids aren't going to lose the game of life because they missed a half day of school because of some rally being in town, and not definitely not because they needed to get treated for lice.
Traffic changes, early dismissals for Trump stop in Scranton By Sarah Scinto | WVIA News Published October 8, 2024 at 3:33 PM EDT Both the Scranton and Dunmore school districts will release students early on Wednesday. In the Scranton School District, elementary and high school students will be dismissed at 10:50 a.m., and students at Intermediate Schools will leave at 11:30 a.m. All after-school activities and sports will also be canceled. In Dunmore, the Dunmore Junior/Senior High School will dismiss at 11:15 a.m. followed by the Elementary Center at 11:30 a.m., according to post from Director of Transportation Michelle Kokindo. She said breakfast is not served on early dismissal days, but lunch will be provided to students before they leave.
“Emory Center for Ethics” welcomes MAGA trucker convoy adjacent anti-vax glad hander.
Important Context - Emory Welcomes Contrarian Doctor Who Questions COVID Vaccines and Praises RFK Jr. - “How ‘ethical’ is inviting someone like that?” Walker Bragman Oct 06, 2024 Hosted and organized by the Emory Center for Ethics, the event promises “to analyze the ethics, science, policies, coverage, and communication about COVID-19 in order to provide lessons for ongoing policy (e.g. annual vaccine boosters and seasonal mask mandates in healthcare facilities) and future pandemic preparedness.” Prasad will be speaking with Dr. Carlos del Rio, chair of the university’s department of medicine, and the moderator will be Gerard Vong, an associate professor and director of the Master of Arts in Bioethics program at the school. Emory is the latest prestigious university to host a pandemic-related public health discussion featuring prominent medical contrarians. On Friday, Stanford University’s department of health policy held a health policy symposium with panel discussions stacked with fringe medical voices and right-wing political operatives. Prasad participated on a panel. Weeks earlier, Johns Hopkins held a similar conference hosted by its Carey Business School. Some of the same voices participated.
There are currently no public health level “restrictions” for covid. And most references to “lockdown” are revisionist history or deliberate disinformation. There is hardly anywhere masks are required with blanket general mandates outside of surgical operating rooms and apparently only some cancer wards. The truth is, if masks were required in more places, we’d have a lot less people sick all the damn time. There are still people dying of covid. Kids keep getting sick, people keep getting Long Covid, and there are continuous absences and sick leaves at many workplaces I hear about. The Great Barrington Declaration “let it rip” strategy of Scott Atlas et al, has become the public health failure of most nations now. And yet these right-wingers persist in their campaigns against public safety.
Why are these people having so many “events” lately promoting MAGA public health policy? John Hopkins on September 11th, Stanford on October 4th, and Emory on October 7th. Is it a coincidence that the trucker convoy was protesting covid restrictions that really no longer existed by that point, and they are still holding symposiums with a laundry list of contrarians criticizing public health mitigations for covid, and the “Urgency of Normal” crew are still publishing PR pieces disguised as science opinions — in 2024 — lamenting “the absence of strategies for exiting” so-called restrictions that were almost totally exited 3 years ago!
I think it’s pretty obvious by now that these people are in fact the academic wing of MAGA, and these events and journal op-eds are akin to trucker convoy rallies and Qanon PR. These “symposiums” and “policy discussions” seem like they are in fact campaign events for Donald Trump’s upcoming election. Vinay Prasad has had funding from some people funding “school choice” politics and the right-wing agenda to undermine public schools. All of these policy priorities hostile to the public good are connected with that 900+ page book documenting the Project 2025 agenda.
Vinay Prasad is not just a doctor who defers medical evaluation of various comments to Joe Rogan of all people. He’s a cancer doctor who denied that wildfire smoke is unsafe to breathe, among making other shocking and bizarre comments. His weird justification for this notion that wildfire smoke pollution is fine to inhale when it’s well known to definitely be a health hazard, was the assertion that he can smell salmon cooking in the oven. Someone needs to tell him to install an exhaust fan for his health. It’s quite clear the connection between being against climate mitigation and also against pandemic mitigation — it’s right here in one contrarian — and repeated in others.
Quote:
“Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste.” - Voltaire