ACDH to host drive-thru COVID-19 booster clinic Thursday - 9/22/2022

New Post has been published on https://aroundfortwayne.com/news/2022/09/15/acdh-to-host-drive-thru-covid-19-booster-clinic-thursday-20220922/

ACDH to host drive-thru COVID-19 booster clinic Thursday - 9/22/2022

A drive-through vaccination clinic next Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, will provide Allen County residents with free, newly available COVID-19 vaccinations.

Reducing Restrictions: The CDC Has Announced It’s Okay To Die Of The Coronavirus Now

If you’re one of the final holdouts who has remained strict about COVID precautions even as most of the country has done away with masks and social distancing, prepare to breathe a sigh of relief: After almost 3 years of COVID-19 upending our lives, the CDC has announced it is now okay to die of the coronavirus.

Finally, one less restriction to worry about!

CDC director Rochelle Walensky gave a press conference this morning to announce the major change in CDC recommendations, explaining, “Early on in the pandemic, every death from the coronavirus was a tragedy. Thankfully, due to remarkable advancements in being desensitized to widespread sickness and death over the past several years, we have reached the point where dying of the coronavirus has become fine. Similar to dying of the flu or in a car crash—other causes of mostly preventable deaths that we could do more to curb, but don’t because it’s sort of hard and boring—dying of COVID-19 is now completely okay we recommend that Americans begin incorporating passing away from this disease into their daily routines.”

According to CDC’s updated “How to Protect Yourself and Others” page, the CDC still recommends hand washing, getting vaccinated, and increasing ventilation as ways of mitigating COVID risk, but under the subheading “Dying of COVID-19” it now states “COVID-19 is a deadly disease, but dying from it is now fine. Currently, close to 500 people a day are still dying from it, but that’s OK, because it’s not quite as bad as 3,000+ a day, and as long as you don’t do the math of how many that adds up to in a week or a month it doesn’t seem terrible, really.”

This new guidance couldn’t have come at a better time for the thousands of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 who are hanging on for dear life, as now they now know that if they do end up succumbing to the disease, it’s perfectly okay. Additionally, the CDC has announced that anyone who has been taking life-altering precautions to avoid COVID-19, including the millions of Americans of an advanced age and those who have preexisting conditions that make them more vulnerable to the disease, now has the official go-ahead to not only contract COVID-19, but to succumb to it.

Yep, it was definitely time for the CDC to take this important step towards returning to normal! This announcement couldn’t have come soon enough!

Of course, some will say the CDC waited far too long to make dying of COVID okay, and others will argue they should have waited until daily deaths were down to like, 150 a day before giving the all-clear to dying of COVID, but after almost 3 years of trying not to die, this is going to be welcome news for the majority of Americans. While the CDC is unlikely to announce that it’s okay to die of monkeypox or polio anytime soon, hopefully we can eventually get there as a nation as well. If you’ve been avoiding dying of COVID, trust in the CDC’s updated guidance and give yourself a break from all that stress and anxiety, get out there, and die from it.

You mean a country that makes it harder for women to access birth control, access maternal healthcare, has maternal care deserts, has no mandated maternal leave as an increase in infant mortality?

The infant mortality rate in the U.S. rose last year for the first time in 20 years, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with significant increases observed in two of the top causes of death.

Between 2021 and 2022, infant deaths in the U.S. rose by 3 percent. or 5.6 fatalities per 1,000 live births. The mortality rate for newborns also increased by 3 percent, while the mortality rate for non-newborn infants rose by 4 percent. The CDC noted this goes against a nearly 20-year trend.

“The infant mortality rate for the United States rose 3% from 2021 to 2022, the first year-to-year increase in the rate since 2001 to 2002,” the agency’s report stated. “From 2002 to 2021, the infant mortality rate declined 22%.”

The mortality rate among infants born to American Indian and Alaska Native non-Hispanic and White non-Hispanic mothers rose significantly more than the overall change, the CDC noted in its report. The changes in mortality rates observed among infants born to Black; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; Hispanic; and Asian mothers were not statistically significant.

Four states were observed as having seen significantly increased infant mortality rates — Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Texas — while Nevada was the single state to see significant drops in mortality in 2022.

Across different age groups of mothers, the infant mortality rate was only observed to rise among women between the ages of 25 and 29 between 2021 and 2022. Mortality rates also rose for all preterm infants, those born before 37 weeks of gestation, as well as male infants.

Among the top 10 leading causes of infant death, two rose significantly last year: maternal complications of pregnancy and bacterial sepsis of newborns. The top cause of infant mortality in 2022 was congenital malformations.

The agency noted the dataset is provisional and has yet to undergo a more comprehensive review so the final numbers may be slightly different.

The U.S. has a higher infant mortality rate compared to other developed countries. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, America’s infant mortality rate is one the top 10 highest among its 38 member states, ranking higher than Canada, the U.K., Australia, South Korea and Japan.

Many countries have infant mortality rates that are drastically higher, with India and South Africa reporting more than 25 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.

I couldn't get a the whole map to download but i think this still makes the point

From the report by Beth Mole, posted 29 Feb 2024:

In a lengthy background document, the agency laid out its rationale for consolidating COVID-19 guidance into general guidance for respiratory viruses—including influenza, RSV, adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, and others, though specifically not measles. The agency also noted the guidance does not apply to health care settings and outbreak scenarios. "COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV," the agency wrote. The most notable change in the new guidance is the previously reported decision to no longer recommend a minimum five-day isolation period for those infected with the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Instead, the new isolation guidance is based on symptoms, which matches long-standing isolation guidance for other respiratory viruses, including influenza. "The updated Respiratory Virus Guidance recommends people with respiratory virus symptoms that are not better explained by another cause stay home and away from others until at least 24 hours after both resolution of fever AND overall symptom are getting better," the document states. "This recommendation addresses the period of greatest infectiousness and highest viral load for most people, which is typically in the first few days of illness and when symptoms, including fever, are worst." The CDC acknowledged that the eased isolation guidance will create "residual risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission," and that most people are no longer infectious only after 8 to 10 days. As such, the agency urged people to follow additional interventions—including masking, testing, distancing, hygiene, and improving air quality—for five additional days after their isolation period. "Today’s announcement reflects the progress we have made in protecting against severe illness from COVID-19," CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement. "However, we still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses—this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick." Overall, the agency argued that a shorter isolation period would be inconsequential. Other countries and states that have similarly abandoned fixed isolation times did not see jumps in COVID-19 emergency department visits or hospitalizations, the CDC pointed out. And most people who have COVID-19 don't know they have it anyway, making COVID-19-specific guidance moot, the agency argued. In a recent CDC survey, less than half of people said they would test for SARS-CoV-2 if they had a cough or cold symptoms, and less than 10 percent said they would go to a pharmacy or health care provider to get tested. Meanwhile, "The overall sensitivity of COVID-19 antigen tests is relatively low and even lower in individuals with only mild symptoms," the agency said. The CDC also raised practical concerns for isolation, including a lack of paid sick leave for many, social isolation, and "societal costs." The points are likely to land poorly with critics. “The CDC is again prioritizing short-term business interests over our health by caving to employer pressure on COVID guidelines. This is a pattern we’ve seen throughout the pandemic,” Lara Jirmanus, Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a press release last month after the news first broke of the CDC's planned isolation update. Jirmanus is a member of the People's CDC, a group that advocates for more aggressive COVID-19 policies, which put out the press release. Another member of the group, Sam Friedman, a professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, also blasted the CDC's stance last month. The guidance will "make workplaces and public spaces even more unsafe for everyone, particularly for people who are high-risk for COVID complications," he said.

But, the CDC argues that the threat of COVID-19 is fading. Hospitalizations, deaths, prevalence of long COVID, and COVID-19 complications in children (MIS-C) are all down. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe disease, death, and to some extent, long COVID—we just need more people to get them. Over 95% of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in the 2023–2024 respiratory season had no record of receiving the seasonal booster dose, the agency noted. Only 22% of adults got the latest shot, including only 42% of people ages 65 and older. In contrast, 48% of adults got the latest flu shot, including 73% of people ages 65 and older. But even with the crummy vaccination rates for COVID-19, a mix of past infection and shots have led to a substantial protection in the overall population. The CDC even went as far as arguing that COVID-19 deaths have fallen to a level that is similar to what's seen with flu. "Reported deaths involving COVID-19 are several-fold greater than those reported to involve influenza and RSV. However, influenza and likely RSV are often underreported as causes of death," the CDC said. In the 2022–2023 respiratory virus season, there were nearly 90,000 reported COVID-19 deaths. For flu, there were 9,559 reported deaths, but the CDC estimates the true number to be between 18,000 and 97,000. In the current season, there have been 32,949 reported COVID-19 deaths to date and 5,854 reported flu deaths, but the agency estimates the real flu deaths are between 17,000 and 50,000. "Total COVID-19 deaths, accounting for underreporting, are likely to be higher than, but of the same order of magnitude as, total influenza deaths," the agency concluded.

(say no to raw dough: CDC)

I fell for propaganda and was turned against those I have always wanted to root for

I wanted to send this to the CDC somehow, but the email contact form on their website has a character limit and I'm incapable of being concise. I thought this might be helpful for some people to see because it took me a while to reflect on.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, living in Florida, being young and trans and traumatized by the current political climate and dangers posed by the pandemic, I was swayed by likely a mix of propaganda and a fear and anger response to the amount of stress that time came with. I found myself trusting in the CDC less because of several things that I never fully examined until now recently. It was all just a mix of fear and hopeless rage about public health and my fears about our political climate, and much of that was directed at the CDC. Upon examining this recently, I think this was because I assumed the CDC had more power than it may actually have in enforcing public health. I thought isolation periods could be more solidly mandated, that mask wearing could be solidly mandated, and so on. I assumed the CDC had more control over when schools reopened for children (I now realize a lot of this is controlled by states individually or even more locally), and in my fear of the pandemic and distrust in the CDC sowed by being worried about the country as a whole, I even failed to fully weigh the consideration that virtual learning has a significant impact on Anyone’s mental health and that for children especially, social and emotional development should be fostered and that is an issue that gravely concerns mental health extending to the rest of their lives. I thought the CDC could require employers to keep allowing employees to have sick days when testing positive, so they wouldn't have to make a choice between risking their job and livelihood versus strangers’ physical health and possibly risking permanent damage or death for some with no way to tell (I'm grateful that the risk has been reduced so much by vaccines/boosters and being cautious with masking and washing hands, but I feel it is so important to allow isolation away from work when it concerns transmission and health and recovery). I particularly was swayed more into distrust when I heard that Delta airlines wrote a letter asking the CDC to update isolation periods for vaccinated individuals who would still be required to mask, believing there was no new data to give confidence to such a change in recommendations (10 day isolation period to 5 day isolation and next 5 days with a mask), but found there explicitly was reasoning given on the CDC update from that time available to view on the website’s archives (these have been very helpful because the time of all of this was an emotional traumatizing blur, so specifics are hard to remember). Before I examined this all more after the fact, this led me to believe that the CDC was influenced by economic concerns and the workforce instead of public health and keeping those workers alive and healthy, and furthered my distrust.

I am glad that now I have further examined where this distrust has come from and found that it was irrational on my part, and I regret that I carried on with this tainted view of the CDC for so long. I have struggled with this because I did have a strong trust in the CDC and felt more unsure of where I should find reliable information, knowing the CDC certainly has more expertise than I and has likely devoted a lot of time and research to any particular consideration I might come up with. I hope if others were similarly swayed by political propaganda that sought to utilize fear and stress from the pandemic, that they too come to reexamine how they came to think that way and find trust in this institution of scientists who are clearly passionate about public health and finding ways to keep all of us safe with many unpredictable variables to consider. I feel very ashamed that I allowed my trust in the CDC to be shaken to this extent. I hope scientific research, public health concerns, environmental concerns, and any crisis that requires humanity to understand facts and cooperate is taken more seriously and listened to from experts in each respective field and not turned into political opinions one way or the other. I am so devastated by all the damage COVID has done that feels like it could've been so preventable if this didn't become a political issue and remained a public health crisis to work through cooperatively. I have now come to see that I think the CDC did as much as it could through all of this with all of the consideration at the time and with its limited influence amidst political stress.

Thank you everyone at the CDC, I am sorry that I fell for this propaganda, and I would like to talk to as many people in my life about addressing propaganda and fully considering that no one is fully safe from falling prey to propaganda and biases we don't realize are tainting our full view. Thank you again so much for everything incredible that you have done for humanity. Be kind to yourselves everyone, shit has been so hard honestly.

A deadly bacteria outbreak in baby formula and an ongoing formula shortage stem from issues some economists characterize as “rot” in the nation’s economic system: prioritization of shareholder wealth and consolidation.

The embattled baby formula producer Abbott used windfall profits to enrich investors instead of replacing failing equipment that was likely injecting the dangerous bacteria into its infant nutritional products, financial records and whistleblower documents show.

Abbott detected bacteria eight times as its net profits soared by 94% between 2019 and 2021. And just as its tainted formula allegedly began sickening a number of babies, with two deaths reported, the company increased dividends to shareholders by over 25% while announcing a stock buyback program worth $5bn.

“Abbott chose to prioritize shareholders by issuing billions of dollars in stock buybacks instead of making productive investments,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist for the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic advocacy group. “It’s important that we have high standards for something as vital as baby formula.”

Abbott denies share buybacks hurt safety but the controversy has some economists calling for stricter anti-trust enforcement, bans on buybacks and limits on dividends.

The tainted product triggered a February recall of three popular Abbott infant formulas, including Similac, when batches likely tainted with the rare Cronobacter bacteria killed two infants and sickened two more. The FDA and CDC reported the babies “consumed formula produced at the Sturgis, Michigan” facility before they got sick, and the bacteria “may have contributed” to their deaths.

Abbott halted production at the Sturgis plant, the nation’s largest, but the company has since downplayed the controversy and claimed “there is no evidence to link our formulas to these infant illnesses”. Federal investigators said it was not clear either way. “Right from the get-go we were limited in our ability to determine with a causal link whether the product was linked to these four cases, because we only had sequences on two,” FDA’s food director Susan Mayne said in a media briefing on Monday, ABC News reported.

Regardless, the operation remains paused, and the deep cut into the nation’s formula supply is partly a result of consolidation: Abbott and three other companies control nearly 90% of the market, Mabud said, and Abbott alone makes 43% of US formula.

“When Abbott halted production that whole market was disrupted, and the result was desperate parents around the country couldn’t feed their babies,” Mabud added. “We don’t have a resilient supply chain, not for baby formula and not for a whole host of other goods.”

In the two years ahead of the recall, Abbott’s net profits jumped from $3.6bn to $7.1bn, its operating margins improved, and revenue in the US pediatric nutritional division increased by about 16%, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show. Company executives in earnings calls attributed the new pediatric nutritional revenue to market share gains and price increases, while COVID tests were a boon to the parent company.

The federal whistleblower complaint alleged some of the Sturgis plant’s equipment that caused the bacteria to get in the product “was failing and in need of repair”, and company management was aware of the issue for up to seven years ahead of the outbreak.

“A number of product flow pipes were pitting and leaving pinholes. This allowed bacteria to enter the system and, at times, led to bacteria not being adequately cleaned out in clean-in-place washes,” the report reads. “This, in turn, caused product flowing through the pipes to pick up the bacteria that was trapped in the defective areas of the pipe.”

The problems are not limited to ageing equipment, according to the whistleblower. Management at the plant also falsified records, improperly trained employees, and successfully hid health and safety risks from the Food and Drug Administration auditors in 2019.

Companies like Abbott are “using every product as a personal ATM” by cutting corners to maximize profits, said Moe Tkacik, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project.

In the short term, Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and authorized flights to import supply from overseas, while the FDA approved a deal with Abbott to bring the Sturgis plant back online within several weeks.

But long-term solutions will require more bold steps, Tkacik said, like a ban on buybacks and restrictions on dividends. She acknowledged such ideas are dismissed as “socialistic”, but noted buybacks were illegal until 1982 because they were considered a form of manipulation. Annual buyback program expenditures among S&P 500 companies are often exceeding research and development or other investment, Tkacik said.

Restrictions on dividends are reasonable for companies that receive federal funding or whose largest customers are federal programs, like Abbott, she added.

A spokesperson for Abbott said: “Stock buybacks are not impacting our ability to invest in or reopen our Sturgis manufacturing facility; in fact, our strong balance sheet has allowed us to invest in our facilities, including in Sturgis, and will help us make additional investments and more quickly restart the facility.”

The Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden on Wednesday requested information about Abbott’s stock buyback program.

Mabud said Congress and the President need to use the “wide array of policy tools that are on the table” to address consolidation, including breaking up companies when appropriate, empowering the FTC, taxing companies appropriately, and investing in diversification in consolidated industries.

“We need to make sure children can get the nutrients that they need – I think we can all agree on that – and these giant corporations … need to be held to account for the vulnerabilities that they’ve created and the quality of the product that they put on the market,” Mabud said.

CDC Rigs Its Own Monkeypox Case Reports by Not Including Questions on Airborne Transmission

CDC Rigs Its Own Monkeypox Case Reports by Not Including Questions on Airborne Transmission

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

This short and sweet post will have two parts. First, I will show that the CDC Monkeypox case report form omits amy questions about airborne transmission. Then I will show why that’s a bad idea, inexplicable given CDC’s previous documentation on this point.

Caveat: I am not saying that “Monkeypox is airborne.” To my knowledge, we don’t have epidemiological studies of the same quality we have with Covid; the kind with seat charts and diagrams of airflow (as in the famous Skagit Valley chorus study, but with many others); that is the kind of evidence I rate highest, most of all because such studies show me how to imagine the ground and what to do. However, we do have sufficient information not to rule out airborne transmission altogether, as I will show. That CDC does this a priori — and at the start of what we all hope is not the start of another global pandemic on the order of Covid — is mind-boggling, or would be mind-boggling if we had not, by this time, had plenty of experience with how “The Centers for Disease” operates. They have form. * * *

First, let’s look at the CDC case report, “OMB No. 0920-1011.” We have the “Short Form,” designed to be filled out by state or local health officials. We also have the “Data Dictionary Codebook” (same OMB number), which documents the database fields that will be populated by Short Form data entry. Both are embedded in the Appendix to this post. (The name “Short Form” suggests the existence of a “Long Form,” probably populating database fields unused by the Short Form, but if such a form exists, I haven’t seen it.

From transmission, the key section in the Short From is “History of Possible Exposures.” Here it is:

As you can see, the structured portion of the form (i.e. checkboxes and radio buttons) does not permit any representation of airborne transmission (certainly not a “fleeting contact” such as has occurred with Covid); airborne tranmission is ruled out a priori[1].

An interviewer desperate to somehow cram information about airborne transmission into the form could use the following text fields (“location of exposure,” “additional details”):

However, exactly because such data would be unstructured and unstandardized, it’s not likely to make it into any reports generated from the database.

We now turn to the Data Dictionary Codebook. As you can see, fields on the Short Form are mapped to fields in a database. Here is an example of how the documentation is structured:

As you can see, the basic structure is a series of field/value pairs, mutually exclusive (ORed radio buttons) or not (ANDed checkboxes). Hilariously, I found this field while searching for “air” (“prairie”); no such luck. “Prairie Dog” strongly suggests that the Data Dictionary dates from no later than 2003, when “All people infected with monkeypox in this outbreak became ill after having contact with pet prairie dogs. The pets were infected after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana. This was the first time that human monkeypox was reported outside of Africa.” But no doubt our thinking, and our fields, have been updated since that time.

We can also see from this example that the CodeBook contains many fields that are not used in the Short Form. Here is another example:

The word “mask” does not appear in the Short Form.

I scanned the entire codebook, and I can’t find any fields that would store data relevant to airborne transmission in the general case. (You can check my work in the Appendix.) For example, the famous Japanese 3Cs — closed spaces (with poor ventilation), crowded places (with many people nearby), and close-contact settings (such as close-range conversations), are highly structured and would lend themselves well to representation in a database. Here are more suggestions:

We can conclude, then, that CDC simply is not enquiring into airborne transmission of Monkeypox. They have ruled it out, a priori. However, if you go by existing literature — including from the CDC itself — there’s plenty of reason consider it a real possibllity. To that literature we now turn. * * *

First, from KHN, “CDC Posts, Then Deletes, Guidance On Airborne Risks Of Monkeypox“:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it removed the recommendation that travelers worried about monkeypox should wear a mask because it was causing confusion. Although public health officials have been linking many of the cases in this outbreak to close sexual contacts, monkeypox can also be spread through the air for short distances.

This is one of KHN’s handy wrap-ups. From the New York Times, “Monkeypox Can Be Airborne, Too.” So why not collect data on airborne transmision of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

Then there’s Nature, “How does monkeypox spread? What scientists know.” What we “know” seems solid:

Several studies… show that few people contract the disease from an infected household member with whom they didn’t have sexual contact. This finding, paired with the data about viral load, suggests that respiratory droplets and airborne particles probably aren’t the primary transmission route… If corroborated by further research [which CDC has decided not to do, because reasons], it could call into question whether people should isolate for the entire duration of infection, which might be difficult because the illness seems to take up to a month to resolve, she adds.

But what we “know” melts into air:

Even if the virus can be sexually transmitted, it’s unclear how large of a role this mode of transmission has, compared with simply being in close, skin-to-skin contact with a person or inhaling their respiratory particles [gawd, they can never say “aerosols”] — which also occur during sex.

Put more pointedly, during sex — hear me out — people share air, so any theory of skin-to-skin contact has an enormous confounding factor. So why not collect data on airborne transmision of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

Now let’s do a (frankly cursory) review of the literature on airborne transmission of monkeypox.

CDC, “Smallpox & Other Orthopoxvirus-Associated Infections.” Here is CDC scrubbing it:

CDC, “Hospital Respiratory Protection Program Toolkit“:

CDC, “Potential Exposure to Person with Confirmed Human Monkeypox Infection” (via):

CDC, “Monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo“:

Coughing and sneezing is possibly droplets (loogies, ballistic). Talking (like singing) certainly includes aerosols, i.e. transmission is airborne.

But wait, there’s more from the CDC:

GOV.UK, “High consequence infectious diseases (HCID)“:

And finally, Clinical Infectious Diseases, “The Clinical Characteristics of Human Monkeypox, and Risk Factors for Severe Disease.” Figure 1 lists the upper and lower respiratory tract symptoms — arguably related to breathing, not touch — the researchers studied.:

Oddly, the CDC’s “Short Form” has eliminated all these symptoms, even coughing:

Again, why not collect data on airborne transmision of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

* * *

In list form:

1) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

2) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

3) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

4) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

5) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

6) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

7) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

8) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

9) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

10) Why won’t CDC collect data on airborne transmission of monkeypox, if only to rule it out?

And so forth. One hesitates to use the word “farce” for CDC”s “science” here, if only because stronger words come to mind.

NOTES

[1] CDC might not be so strong on transmission, but hoo boy! Did they lavish attention on data structures for gender and race (although not, naturally, proxies for class like income or education level).

Catching right-wingers red-handed. I uncovered a barrage of bad journalism when several conservative news outlets scrambled to report about a single tweet concerning a two-year-old, voluntary document. Mind you, I haven't even had my journalism degree for a year yet. But who's really the noob?

Rand Paul vows to probe Dr. Anthony Fauci's 'secret trips' to the CIA before COVID-19 and says he's 'salivating' at a possible Trump presidency to hold federal agencies accountable for pandemic cover-up

Sen. Rand Paul told DailyMail.com he will continue his probe into the origins of COVID-19 by investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci’s secret ‘off the books’ trips to the CIA. The Republican from Kentucky – who is also a doctor – has been investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic for years. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Paul disclosed that Fauci, the former director of the…

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National Hispanic Heritage Month Blog by Dr. Fátima Coronado Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15) is a time to honor the Hispanic and Latino community’s achievements, culture, and contributions to the natiPosted in: Public Health and Safety https://www.hhs.gov/blog/2023/09/18/national-hispanic-heritage-month-blog-dr-fatima-coronado.html

ISDH: List of locations for new COVID-19 boosters available

New Post has been published on https://aroundfortwayne.com/news/2022/09/13/isdh-list-of-locations-for-new-covid-19-boosters-available/

ISDH: List of locations for new COVID-19 boosters available

Today, the Indiana State Department of Health announced that it has added locations that are offering the new bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccines to its map.

A detail view of a face mask on September 24, 2021, in Kohler, Wisconsin. Donald Trump and conservatives across social media are heightening awareness to potential mask mandates due to new cases stemming from coronavirus variants. Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

United States: Mask Mandate Comeback Sparks 'We Will Not Comply' Movement

— By Nick Mordowanec | August 31, 2023

will not comply' movement is slowly formulating across social media, spurred by Donald Trump's renewed focus on mask mandates and COVID-affiliated lockdowns that he initiated at the pandemic's inception.

Trump, in a video posted Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, vowed to reject any "fearmongering" of new coronavirus variants and if elected president pledged to cut federal funding for entities like schools and airlines that follow such protocols.

Trump was the individual who set the original mandates and lockdowns in motion, however, when coronavirus cases escalated exponentially starting in March 2020. At the time, he urged individuals to avoid bars, restaurants and other areas where 10 or more people were gathered in the hope that the virus would dissipate by that summer.

"'Do not comply' means your [sic] not going to go to work if your employer requires a mask as part of the 'mandate' not law; your [sic] not going to wear one at the Dr, Dentist, restaurant or stores," wrote one Facebook user. "Imagine if everyone did not comply how that would hurt our government or economy.

"If every American did not go to work or buy anything at all for one or two days things would get real. We are all slaves to our Government until we stop conforming to the demands and dollar."

New coronavirus variants now emerging with case spikes in certain parts of the United States include EG.5 and BA.2.86. Major companies like Pfizer and Moderna who were highly involved in the swift rollout of vaccines at the height of the pandemic are scheduled to release a new vaccine in mid-September to combat the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, pending approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A CDC spokesperson told Newsweek on Thursday via email that the center's advice for individual and community actions around COVID-19 is tied to hospital admission levels, which are currently low for more than 97 percent of the country.

"CDC continues to recommend that all people are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines and take steps to themselves and others," the spokesperson said. "Anyone may choose to wear a mask at any time."

Time may tell whether the discussion around mandates and lockdowns is alarmist considering that very few places in the country have COVID-related measures currently in place.

One, for example, is Morris Brown College, a small Atlanta-based historically Black college, which told students to adhere to mask-wearing for a two-week period due to an influx of COVID-related cases.

"Dear Atlanta College, Regarding your precautionary mask mandate... I have a precautionary Foot I'd like to shove up you're a**!" wrote comedian and former Saturday Night Live actor Rob Schneider on X, in response to the Morris Brown mandate. "But don't worry, it's just for the next 14 days! For your own protection! Ps. Students WAKE UP, SHEEPLE! SAY NO!"

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin released a video on X of her literally shaking her head when confronted with hypothetical mandates, even burning some masks outdoors.

Libs of Tik Tok, which has 2.4 million followers on X, is encouraging individuals to ignore all mandates and pledges to support impacted businesses—and even pay any fines for noncompliance.

One X user posted that she would ignore mandates instituted by Trump, President Joe Biden or anyone else.

"I won't mask again," the user wrote. "I don't care what Trump or Fauci or Birx or Biden or any other governmental agency try and push again. I won't deal with the anxiety mask wearing brings me again. Not going to cover my daughter's beautiful face or force her to deal with the frequent painful breakouts again. Nope. For my child, I say, never again."

Will The Flu Shot Protect Me From This Year's Flu?

110925-N-SF704-056.jpg (Photo credit: Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet) Short answer: maybe, depending on your age. Full answer:  Every year the CDC estimates the effectiveness of the vaccine.  This year’s estimate is 62% (Complete study abstract below).  If you look at the Lancet meta-analysis of all the studies, the average effectiveness rate is 69%.  So we’re not doing well even by the CDC’s…

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The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that as of August 12, COVID hospitalizations had increased by 21.6%. In comparison, during the week ending on August 5, hospitalizations had increased by 14%. On July 8, there were 6,454 confirmed COVID hospitalizations in the United States, but since then those numbers have nearly doubled, now sitting at 12,613 hospitalizations nationwide.

COVID Hospitalizations Now Up Nearly 22%

I know that we are all super over it. I know we all want to go back to our lives, and not think about masking indoors.

I feel it. I really do. And as much as I hate it, the reality is that Covid is still out there, still contagious, and it does not care if we are over it, or not.

I don’t agree with the minimizing “it’s just the flu” or “it’s just a cold” rhetoric. I suspect that’s coming from people who are tired, and really WANT Covid to be “just like _____” instead of what it is. But even if the rhetoric were true, I don’t want to get a cold, and I don’t want to get the flu. I don’t like feeling shitty. So I will continue to be cautious. I will continue to mask indoors, not because I’m modeling anything, not because I am afraid, but because I want to minimize my exposure risk to all airborne illnesses, even the ones that aren’t as unpredictable as Covid (and the Long Covid cases, which we still do not fully understand.)

Please be safe, take care of yourselves, and stay healthy.