📣 Treat Long COVID Act letter campaign 😷 Healthcare provider runs stigma-inducing ads on trains ⚠️ Project 2025 mentions public health 46 times
Immunocompromised people exist in society - including in places like healthcare, universities, and on trains.
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 Letter Campaign: It's Time to Support the Treat Long COVID Act as U.S. Disability Rates Hit an All-Time High!
By COVID-19 LONGHAULER ADVOCACY PROJECT, INC: We need your support to get the Treat Long COVID Act supported, in a bi-partisan fashion, across the nation. Millions need care, and assistance, which largely depends on medical documentation. The Treat Long COVID Act will help provide the framework we need to start moving forward with assistance and solutions for the Long COVID community, and beyond, improving patient outcomes.
USA Letter Campaign: Give us the boosts!
By Chloe Humbert: Vaccine boosters should not be denied to younger people! Americans need access to vaccine boosters more than once a year. Vaccine policy should be based on science and protecting human lives, not the economy, PR, or a political football or corporate nonsense.
A postcard to Joe Biden from Chloe in Scranton, the People’s CDC External Review of the CDC recommendation #10
I sent postcards but one can also send these messages through the White House Contact Page. And here are all 10 in the series.
🗞️ In the news
Insider - "I'm immunocompromised, so COVID-19 is still a big risk for me. When I got into grad school, I had to choose between my health and my education." Billy Lezra Aug 25, 2023, 2:35 PM EDT I had a choice: either decline to enroll in the graduate program and continue working remotely or embark on an opportunity that would facilitate future professional endeavors. Ultimately, I decided to pursue my education — with caution and fear. When I arrived on campus I noticed signs plastered everywhere that read, "Masks are recommended, but not required." I chose to wear N95 masks — which reduce transmission of the virus by 83% — but I was one of a handful of masked students in a sea of uncovered mouths. Attending classes made me anxious, and I Cloroxed my belongings and doused my hands in sanitizer. When I expressed my fear of getting sick, well-intentioned friends asked, "If COVID could kill you, why go to grad school?" This question pained me because it reinforced the idea that my immunocompromised status should prohibit me from pursuing the opportunities my peers had access to. The question also placed the weight of my well-being on my own choices rather than on the actions of systems and institutions.
Forbes - Where Have All The Masks Gone? By Judy Stone Sep 7, 2023 Several people told me they are avoiding care because they are afraid of getting Covid-19 in the hospital. They are especially angered that some healthcare workers refuse to mask, even when requested to do so. These patients believe this is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Pantea Javidan, J.D., Ph.D., a Stanford sociologist, concurs, noting, “A person with a disability who is at increased risk from COVID-19 can reasonably expect their healthcare providers to wear masks as an accommodation to mitigate potential infection risks. The ADA mandates that accommodations be provided unless it presents an undue hardship to the provider. In the current context of the pandemic, it would be challenging for healthcare providers to assert that wearing a mask imposes undue hardship.”
The Oakland Press - Union authorizes strike against Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital. Union accuses hospital of unfair labor practices. By Anne Runkle September 2, 2023 A union representing registered nurses and radiology technologists at Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital has voted to authorize a three-day unfair labor practice strike. The strike will begin at 7 a.m. Sept. 11, unless an agreement is reached before then, according to a release from Local 40 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. Negotiations between the union local and the hospital administration have been ongoing since 2022 under contract extensions, the release said.
Government Executive - OPM deputy defends administration's telework approach, touts ‘consensus-building’ in workforce policymaking. Rob Shriver argues the White House's calls to increase in-person work are consistent with the HR agency’s prior policies. SEPTEMBER 5, 2023 ERICH WAGNER Another focus for OPM early in the Biden administration had been on expanding workplace flexibilities like telework and remote work. Although some feds have perceived recent efforts by White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young to “increase meaningful in-person work” at federal agencies this fall as inconsistent with the administration's overall approach to telework, Shriver defended both his agency’s and the White House’s mandates as consistent with one another. “From my perspective, the discussion starts when the pandemic hit—with no notice, get everyone out of their offices and onto maximum telework to save lives—that was goal No. 1, and then we worked all through the pandemic and came to the period we called ‘reentry,’ ” he said.
Trump COVID Shot Ad Boosted Vaccination in Red Counties — Study authors advocate for using "messengers whose voices might carry special weight" by Rachael Robertson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today July 19, 2023 The researchers noted that by Fall 2021, "counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump experienced COVID-related death rates nearly three times higher than counties that voted heavily for Joe Biden." After the PSA period in Trump-leaning counties, they found that "counties that are less heavily Trump-leaning were more responsive to the ad." Vaccination rates varied among groups, but the uptake difference across the political divide was most stark. "Ninety percent of Democrats were vaccinated and only 60% of Republicans were and that gap didn't seem to be shrinking," said Larsen. "We felt like there's a chance here ... that if you target correctly with the right messenger that the political right would trust, then you can really make a difference and increase vaccines."
Reuters - Connecticut law ending religious vaccine exemptions for children is upheld. By Jonathan Stempel, August 4, 2023 A divided federal appeals court on Friday rejected a challenge to a Connecticut law that ended the state's decades-old religious exemptions from immunization requirements for children in schools, colleges and day care.The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said ending religious exemptions, while still allowing medical exemptions, was a rational means to promote health and safety by reducing the potential spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
This is NOT fine
I’m told these are all over public transport in Chicago, and the Chicago Family Health Center is a healthcare organization serving Medicaid populations. Having “forget these” over a woman of color wearing a mask seems an especially bad decision. Healthcare providers shouldn’t be stigmatizing medical tools.
There are too many examples of people trying to push one mitigation or health measure by crapping all over another one. That’s not public health.
He(a)rd Scuttlebutt… pandemic grapevine 🍇🌱
Amanda Blum has been posting tiktok videos talking publicly about some of the stuff I’ve been hearing about in a lot of groups formed around avoiding covid. Unfortunately there are people who start or join groups for various ulterior motives. If I think a group is really problematic, I leave or back well away from it, and find others more suitable. We have options. This is also why when I meet people I want to stay in touch with in some group, I get alternate ways of communicating with them other than a particular group or platform.
Project 2025 PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PROJECT Mandate for Leadership The Conservative Promise 2023 by The Heritage Foundation mentions the term “public health” 46 times. These people are very practical and goal oriented and understand how government works and how it can be made not to, and it’s worth paying attention.
Page 475
Refrain from imposing general COVID-19 mask mandates on health care facilities or personnel.
In HEALTHCARE. They specifically reference not wanting masks in healthcare.
Vaccines are mentioned 50 times — that’s more times than “DEI”, “transgender”, or even “woke” — and on page 156 when they refer to the COVID-19 vaccine, they put “vaccine” in scare quotes — which signals multiple anti-vax conspiracy theories.
It's very much that when you are dealing with bureaucracy if you know the combination to kind of get through all the doors of bureaucracy you're fine but if you're a normal person you're screwed cuz there is no way you're going to figure out what you need to do which as soon as I saw that I thought of security where yeah if you know the security magic words and you know how to talk to the industry and the people, you're fine, no big deal you can get anywhere you need to go. But if you're a normal person who kind of just shows up you're doomed.
— Josh Bressers on the Open Source Security Podcast Episode 372 – HHGG security, Episode 42 remaster part 1