The problem is, we’re not post pandemic.
Once more this time with feeling: stop saying "back during covid" (My unpublished Letter to the Editor.)
Also stop saying silly things like "back during covid times" and any of the other ridiculous bromides - that I’ve written about before.1
There was an article in my local newspaper, The Times-Tribune in Scranton Pennsylvania, about how Mayor Cognetti is allocating funds to a local community theatre operation that is still struggling to recover from the pandemic, in what the reporter describes as “what most would consider a post-pandemic world.” Said about the children’s performances: “people just are not coming out.”2 (The theatre owner at least referred to the pandemic in the present tense.)
Of course I wrote a Letter to the Editor, but it didn’t get published:
When reading “City plans ARPA community grants for arts organizations” (Oct 16, 2023), my first thought was, Well there’s your problem, we’re not "post pandemic”! The article states that the community theater operators “still feel the financial impact of COVID-19 in what most would consider a post-pandemic world” but then the article clearly depicts an ongoing pandemic. It’s true people “are not coming out” – because there’s still a threat to public safety! Many can’t risk getting seriously ill, and others limit exposure because they can’t afford to take more sick days from work with repeat covid infections. If covid was truly a thing of the past for most, would getting back to normal need to be mentioned so much? In Lackawanna County, Biobot wastewater monitoring shows recent virus counts are comparable to a year ago; so are covid-19 hospital admissions, according to The New York Times. Vaccine uptake was less than 20% here for last year’s booster yet there’s barely any advertising now about the updated vaccines available. Will any of that $500,000 Scranton is reallocating from the American Rescue Plan Act be used for public health or to make venues safer and accessible for senior citizens, disabled high risk, and immunocompromised community members? A gathering of kids at a theatre, possibly sick with covid from schools that don’t control spread can be risky. Without vaccine uptake, mask requirements, upgraded ventilation and air filtration, nor any indication infection control measures are even being looked at, it’s no wonder why so many seniors, high risk, and working people, don’t go to these performances. Well there’s your problem. We’re not post pandemic. Officials and community leaders need to prioritize control of airborne infectious disease for public health and safety.
When the CDC is warning that covid might overload the hospitals by the end of the month,3 it's time for everyone unsure about this to rethink this idea "it's over" or something has substantially changed. Did the CDC ever mention masking for the general public in flu season before the pandemic? I think they probably ought to have, but the fact is that wasn’t a thing. It’s a covid thing. Because covid spreads by aerosol transmission and the CDC has known this all along.4
And if people think that, well, it has already killed off the "dry tinder"5 and figuring eugenics (which is a pseudoscience ideology)6 will take care of things and it won’t affect the young, think again, the children's hospitals are already almost as full as they were this time last year.7 I wonder if CHOP's Doctor David Rubin is walking into a crowded venue8 (like a school classroom) this month ahead of spending time with beloved elder family members.
I’m waiting for the New York Times to stop it with their preposterously wrong “post-pandemic” headlines9 on ridiculously wrong articles, year over year.
And I’m still waiting on Biden 2020 campaign pandemic mitigation promises.10 We still need these measures — clearly we need them.
References:
Stop saying “post-pandemic” - Also stop already with things like ”during covid” or the euphemism “the next pandemic” or that ridiculously pretentious “the end of the pandemic era” and so forth. It’s played out and rude. CHLOE HUMBERT APR 28, 2023 One must accept that the pandemic continues. Covid isn’t over. But leadership needs to be saying it, and public health officials should be saying it too. Because we should consider this - if it was a thing of the past, why would people keep mentioning it? If things are back to normal, why do they have to keep announcing it’s time to get back to normal?
The Times-Tribune - City plans ARPA community grants for arts organizations BY JEFF HORVATH STAFF WRITER Oct 16, 2023 Michael and Sheri Melcher will be paying for the pandemic for the next 30 years. Forced to take disaster loans to support operations of the Creative and Performing Arts Academy of NEPA (CaPAA) and the Ritz Theater during the public health crisis, they still feel the financial impact of COVID-19 in what most would consider a post-pandemic world. That’s true of many local arts organizations affected by pandemic-era shutdowns, revenue loss and other challenges. Hoping to offer some relief, Scranton will use $500,000 in reallocated federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for a new round of community grants accessible to arts organizations. “Their recovery has lagged (behind) many other industries in this pandemic situation, so we’re being specific and deliberate about making sure that those organizations can access these updated grants,” Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said at a recent city council caucus. Michael Melcher, CaPAA’s artistic director, described the children’s theater program as strong, with participation exceeding goals and expectations. Concerts and other performances are a different story. “It’s a disaster,” he said. “We lost money on every single title that we have put on stage that was not a children’s production for the last four years, because people just are not coming out.” While details of the forthcoming grant program are still being finalized, Melcher praised the city for its efforts to support the arts locally. “I think a lot of folks want to put COVID in the rear view mirror, and so do we, but the reality of it is if you look around the community there are a lot of businesses — theater, non-theater — that really are still suffering every day from the impacts of this pandemic,” Melcher said.
CBS News - COVID and flu surge could strain hospitals as JN.1 variant grows, CDC warns healthwatch - By Alexander Tin - December 15, 2023 Hospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America's health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC's tracking shows. "COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly," the agency said in its weekly update. "Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas." The CDC has been urging people to get vaccinated as the peak of this year's mix of three seasonal respiratory viruses — influenza, COVID-19 and RSV — is nearing. In pediatric hospitals, the CDC says beds "are already nearly as full as they were this time last year" in some parts of the country.
Rizzi S, Søgaard J, Vaupel JW. High excess deaths in Sweden during the first wave of COVID-19: Policy deficiencies or 'dry tinder'? Scand J Public Health. 2022 Feb;50(1):33-37. doi: 10.1177/14034948211027818. Epub 2021 Jul 2. PMID: 34213362; PMCID: PMC8808224. Conclusions: 'Dry tinder' can only account for a modest fraction of excess Swedish mortality. The risk of death during the first COVID-19 wave rose significantly for Swedish women aged >85 but only slightly for Danish women aged >85. The risk discrepancy seems more likely to result from differences between Sweden and Denmark in how care and housing for the elderly are organised, coupled with a less successful Swedish strategy of shielding the elderly.
Eugenics as an ideology. Legal and political agendas have motivations to make semantic arguments that obscure eugenics and maybe that’s why we don’t have a separate word for eugenics as an ideological belief. CHLOE HUMBERT NOV 30, 2023 Adherents of this eugenics model are willing to risk themselves in the process, which confuses onlookers to think they must simply be mistaken or misled. But the reason they risk themselves, to the vagaries of pandemics, climate change, or any number of calamities that happen in a world where they too must live, is partly that a eugenics belief often incorporates the fantasy that one’s own self - or “their people” - will be the preferred deserving superior who will of course survive and benefit in this scheme by whatever reason be it the idea of a deserving lineage or some “awakening” or intellect.
CDC - Peak Season for Respiratory Diseases Is Near: There Is Still Time to Get Vaccinated - December 14, 2023, 5:00 PM EDT COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly. Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas. In some parts of the country, hospital beds for children are already nearly as full as they were this time last year. If these trends continue, the situation at the end of this month could again strain emergency departments and hospitals. Strain on the healthcare system could mean that patients with other serious health conditions may face delays in receiving care.
Safety for me, but not for thee: CHOP’s Dr. David Rubin by Chloe Humbert - Apr 22 2023 Doctor David Rubin himself directly contradicted the PolicyLab official public stance of promoting children spreading the virus in crowded classrooms while cases are high, when speaking of how he would behave to protect himself from crowded indoor situations — he would avoid such situations, he said.