š» Write the White House in support of telework for federal workers š¶ Doggies with outbreaks
Donāt risk your family and friends this holiday season on covid-test wish-casting. Take a test. And if itās positive, treat it as a positive.
Contents:
- Events, Actions, & Campaigns
- Pandemic field notes & āLiving with the virusā
- 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 Letter Campaign to the White House - Prioritize Telework for Federal Workers
By Chloe Humbert - Telework should be prioritized for our future, to mitigate climate change and infectious disease in the ongoing pandemic.
If you are in Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district be sure to thank Rep. Summer Lee for defending telework for federal employees in the second hearing on federal agenciesā āpost-pandemicā telework policies by the House Oversight and Accountability Committeeās subcommittee on government operations and the federal workforce.
USA Call/Write Congress S. 2767: SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act
Brian Higgins co-leader of S. 2767: āThe SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act would raise those caps, which have not been changed since 1984, to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples, and index them to inflation moving forward.ā
šļø In the news
Government Executive - Debate over federal telework fumes in House subcommittee. Agency HR officials defended their approach to workplace flexibilities and highlighted budgetary issues as bigger drivers of poor customer service. NOVEMBER 30, 2023 10:45 AM ET ERICH WAGNER Democrats on the committee defended agenciesā use of telework, arguing instead that insufficient fundingāand constant upheaval due to repeated congressional flirtation with government shutdownsāare more directly responsible for service delivery challenges. āI find it odd that weāre having a second hearing on telework and about concerns over agency productivity while teleworking, when this is one of the least productive sessions of Congress,ā said Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa. āThe dysfunction here is unprecedented. The claims against telework are unfounded and directly contradict what weāve seen in the federal workforce. In the last hearing, we already heard how easily NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and [the Homeland Security Department] were able to maintain operations by transitioning to telework during the pandemic, reducing costs and saving billions in taxpayer money.ā
Boston Globe - As holidays approach, advocates call for a return to universal masking in health care settings - By Felice J. Freyer Globe Staff,Updated November 20, 2023, 2:52 p.m. Dr. Theodore Pak, MD, an infectious disease fellow at Mass General Brigham who was a guest speaker at the news conference, said that patients commonly acquire COVID-19 in the hospital, but these cases rarely come to light in the United States because there are no systems to track them.
CNN - The threat of respiratory illnesses is underway, CDC director says, and hospitalizations are on the rise - By Brenda Goodman and Deidre McPhillips, CNN - Published 5:26 PM EST, Thu November 30, 2023 āRSV season is in full swing,ā Cohen told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. āFlu season is just beginning across most of the country, though accelerating fast, and while weāre seeing relatively low levels of Covid, Covid is still the primary cause of new respiratory hospitalizations and deaths, with about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every single week,ā she said.
Medpage Today - CDC Advisors' Infection Control Guidance Leaves Us Unprotected ā The guidelines will lead to unnecessary infections and deaths if approved by Jean Ross, RN, and Jane Thomason, MSPH November 29, 2023 In April 2020, RNs at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California were suspendedopens in a new tab or window when they refused to go into COVID patient rooms without an N95. That same month, Celia Yap-Banago, RN, who worked in the cardiac telemetry unit at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, died because she contracted COVID at work after her employer failed to screen a patient with active COVID symptoms and did not give her an N95. She had previously raised concernsopens in a new tab or window about the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) at her hospital. Her employer had allegedly moved PPEopens in a new tab or window from all units to one floor of the hospital so it was not available on her unit, which was not "supposed to" have COVID patients. Back then, the CDC gave healthcare employers flexibility to conduct their own risk assessmentopens in a new tab or window. Employers were following the CDC's crisis and contingency standards that said a surgical mask was acceptable. The result was an enormous number of avoidable COVID infections and tragic deaths among healthcare workers at a time when their care was so desperately needed. We Need Stronger Guidance - The committee's new recommendations propose to give employers the same kind of flexibility that we've seen lead to needless illness and death. The draft guidance lets employers decide whether to implement the recommendations based on their own risk assessment.
The dogs are NOT fine
Itās ātrickyā to identify and properly diagnose the illness separate from typical cases of kennel cough, said Dr. Cheryl Lagana, who practices at Abington Veterinary Center in South Abington Twp., Lackawanna County. āThereās not really a good diagnostic because we donāt really know what the causative agent is,ā she said. āSo while we do have a few coughing patients, we have no known, confirmed cases because thereās no way to diagnose them currently.ā Owner Wafaa Gad at Old Forge Animal Hospital, meanwhile, has seen ātonsā of potential cases ā 10 to 14 last week alone and significantly more than last year. āItās unusual; weāve never seen that much before,ā she said. āMy order (of amoxicillin) for the month is going in a week.ā The facility has never seen so much ācongestion and pulmonary and coughing and sneezing,ā Gad said, noting that all animals with the symptoms are up to date on their vaccinations.
A precautionary path is advised, even with pets:
Veterinary care poses a risk of COVID exposure, especially now that masks are often no longer required in veterinary offices. There is a shortage of veterinarians nationwide, which means we sometimes need to plan farther ahead for routine care, as vet offices may be booking several months out for routine appointments. I am very concerned about the impacts of Long COVID amongst my veterinary colleagues, which not only would have devastating personal impacts but may also compound the staffing shortages in this essential field. If your vet office requires masking, donāt forget to thank them! Although unmitigated human-to-human transmission under a let-it-rip approach is clearly driving our ongoing pandemic, mammals including dogs and cats can be infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID).
He(a)rd Scuttlebuttā¦ pandemic grapevine šš±
The local newspaper here in Scranton ran an op-ed that was hand-wringing about student āchronic absenteeismā in schools. They mentioned covid twice in the piece, both times to mention that they believe covid is a thing of the past, and to blame the pandemic for āmental healthā erosion. No mention of Long Covid, or physical post-covid complications. No acknowledgement that covid is still spreading and that many people arenāt even vaccinating their kids with the latest offering, so theyāre suffering full strength covid. In fact, rates of other vaccinations for kids starting school is lower now. This surely isnāt going to promote better attendance. Meanwhile people I know talk about having coworkers who are regularly out sick with respiratory illness, or out on sick leaves. Chronic absenteeism they call it. I call it a failure of public health.
A recent letter to the editor in the same local newspaper, written by a local author, suggested staffing understaffed election poll locations with compulsory unpaid labor from teens.
When I mentioned this to a friend, I was informed that apparently even stranger and more questionable teen high school projects have been happening in Texas. The reason for the poll worker shortages includes the covid risk for seniors who opt not to risk it anymore, and threats of politically motivated violence that drives away potential poll workers. Maybe we should try solving both of those problems before considering unpaid child labor putting youths at risk in politically charged adult situations, and maybe reject that idea on a bipartisan basis.
āThere started to be more random acts of violence in Kigali we'd hear an explosion I'm sitting in the living room I've got my daughter on my lap reading a story before going to bed and an explosion somewhere in the distance is there she doesn't jump I don't jump she just kind of goes ah when is this going to end so it's kind of kind of crazy when you look back how much we adjusted to those tensions.ā
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust: The story of Carl and Teresa Wilkens - Jul 7, 2015