Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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YellowKing
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by YellowKing »

Smoove_B wrote:So doing what I can on a personal level and just hoping it "works out" isn't a viable strategy; it's not helping the people in India. It's not helping people around the US that still want to be vaccinated but are having problems or are hesitant. It's not helping children.
When I say do what we can on a personal level, I don't mean do things only for ourselves. I mean take individual action. For some that may be limited to just wearing a mask in public and following guidelines. For others, it may mean holding conferences and actively educating or volunteering at vaccination clinics.

I guess my point is preachy Atlantic articles aren't helping either. The people who get it get it, the people who don't, don't. We need to be shaping human behavior through policy, not shouting at them incessantly about how doomed everyone is.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by TheMix »

Blackhawk wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 9:58 am Enlarge Image
I like it. Not sure about the colors, but if that's the team colors, I'll wear them with pride.

Black Lives Matter

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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Isgrimnur »

Totally clashes with lime green.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

YellowKing wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 11:23 am I guess my point is preachy Atlantic articles aren't helping either. The people who get it get it, the people who don't, don't. We need to be shaping human behavior through policy, not shouting at them incessantly about how doomed everyone is.
We've been trying that route (policy, education) but numerous states (and communities) have dismantled mask regulations and gathering limits. Right now (like seriously, right now) they're ramping up to to fight the inevitable next stage when the vaccines get through final approval. And as mentioned earlier, it doesn't in any way address the Tucker Carlsons of the universe that are actively working against all of our efforts. We haven't seen this type of targeted disinformation campaign since (checks calendar) Donald Trump was President.

So I understand that as a random individual you can "get it" and do what you're able to to support what public health is doing (continuing to wear a mask, continuing to maintain distances, getting vaccinated, etc...) but in the bigger picture there are agents actively trying to sabotage the continued response. I've never (seriously, never) seen so much push back from public health against the void. Other than a few groups, the so called "Vaccine War" has been raging for 20+ years and collectively we've been largely silent. Now academics, practitioners, adjacent field researchers, and any number of other public health supporters are all pushing back on all the nonsense being floated, especially after last year. It genuinely feels like a nonstop information war and the idea that the "Meh, fuck it" attitude is winning is really, really depressing both personally and professionally.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Blackhawk »

TheMix wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 11:29 am
I like it. Not sure about the colors, but if that's the team colors, I'll wear them with pride.
It was the closest they had to Ookla orange-and-black.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

Here's a perfect example. Australia is freaking out because out of nowhere, they had a case of COVID. Try to think about that for a second - a single case. I can't even imagine.


NSW COVID-19: "Our health detectives have managed to identify the source of this case" GOOD NEWS
Once they started piecing it together, the community responded by showing up and getting tested to see if there were other cases.

They figured out (quickly) what happened and then immediately (government officials) responded:
New restrictions for NSW over the weekend - no singing or dancing (except weddings), <20 people inside homes, mask-wearing indoors (supermarkets etc) compulsory. All until Monday. Restrictions just for greater Sydney, not the whole of NSW
Now imagine the exact same thing happening here and your Governor telling people that gatherings indoors are now limited to under 20, masks are mandatory at stores and other indoor locations (because mask requirements had been removed).

Americans would be losing their minds. "Mah freedoms! I demand the right to sing and dance in a bar, as the Founding Fathers intended - it's Thursday and I was going to party all weekend!"

We have a real problem here and the agents of chaos are stoking the fires and continuing to press the divide - because they want to win voters in 2022 and 2024 at all costs.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

Blackhawk wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 12:03 pm
TheMix wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 11:29 am
I like it. Not sure about the colors, but if that's the team colors, I'll wear them with pride.
It was the closest they had to Ookla orange-and-black.
Made me LOL. Good stuff. :D
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by malchior »

Smoove_B wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 11:35 am Other than a few groups, the so called "Vaccine War" has been raging for 20+ years and collectively we've been largely silent. Now academics, practitioners, adjacent field researchers, and any number of other public health supporters are all pushing back on all the nonsense being floated, especially after last year. It genuinely feels like a nonstop information war and the idea that the "Meh, fuck it" attitude is winning is really, really depressing both personally and professionally.
I hate to say it but welcome to the 21st century. This has been going on the entire time in different areas of the political landscape here and overseas. It's the sort of thing that you generally don't see until your profession is on the firing line. In this case, the entire point is to drive inaction for a variety of reasons. There are a lot of bad actors in and out of the country participating in this effort but we've seen it in economic, immigration, health care, and cyber security policy for years now.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Isgrimnur »

If you’re not a part of the solution, there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

So, just a bit more and then I need to decompress. Here's a perfect example of what I was saying earlier about what's happening. Over the last ~10 days I've had two separate requests from extended family about coming to my house and/or joining them in a shared house over the next two months as part of vacation. Other extended family members are telling me about how they've just booked a week long vacation to the Caribbean. Then I see this article. The picture header alone filled me with dread.

I get that I'm not normal or an average person under current conditions. I get that people aren't likely keeping tabs on what's happening around the world or even outside their immediate bubble with respect to COVID. But I also can't even begin to think about hosting guests in my house, dining in restaurants or going to concerts much less processing what's happening in India right now. It just feels like all of a sudden there's a significant number of people that are just moving on - they're vaccinated (or are fine with not being vaccinated) and they're trying to go back to whatever it was they were doing in February of 2020. I don't know how to do that - and it's not just because I'm living with a unvaccinated child and a partially vaccinated adult. It's not over; not by a longshot. Better? Absolutely. But not over.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Octavious »

My friend already kicked off his yearly memorial day party for this year. He's the kind of person that always has to be surrounded by 9,000 people so this is not surprising. His soul has been dying the last year. :lol: I'll be 100% vaccinated by then, but it doesn't seem like the best idea in the world...
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Isgrimnur »

Don't JADE to those people in your family when you tell them no.
To avoid circular conversations, don't JADE - Justify, Argue, Defend, or Explain.
...
Given this understanding, the practice of having a debate with someone who has strong biases can actually have the counter-productive effect of reinforcing their biases, as they repetitively remember and state the facts from their own point of view. This is what makes the idea of JADE - Justifying, Arguing, Defending or Explaining - such a bad idea.

Instead, it is recommended that on any given issue, state your point of view once and once only. Provide any clarifications that are asked for. Anything more than this is likely to be counter productive.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by LordMortis »

Isgrimnur wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 12:50 pm Don't JADE to those people in your family when you tell them no.
To avoid circular conversations, don't JADE - Justify, Argue, Defend, or Explain.
...
Given this understanding, the practice of having a debate with someone who has strong biases can actually have the counter-productive effect of reinforcing their biases, as they repetitively remember and state the facts from their own point of view. This is what makes the idea of JADE - Justifying, Arguing, Defending or Explaining - such a bad idea.

Instead, it is recommended that on any given issue, state your point of view once and once only. Provide any clarifications that are asked for. Anything more than this is likely to be counter productive.
I don't know what's productive and what's not but for my sanity that's the direction I headed a while ago. Only I'm not so clear headed and more than a little passive aggressive so after once and only once I tend to also become disinterested and what is it the kids call it? Aloof.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by YellowKing »

Thanks LM - I didn't see that original article Isgrimnur posted, but that's kind of what I was getting at. I've stopped trying to convince anyone of anything, and I'm just focusing on doing right by me and mine.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

That JADE stuff is good. Thanks.

Unrelated, "It's just like the flu"

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused nearly 6.9 million deaths across the world, more than double the number officially recorded, a new analysis from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimated.​
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Isgrimnur »

Smoove_B wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 3:40 pm That JADE stuff is good. Thanks.
Glad to help.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Kraken »

But back to the pressing question, Will Mass. achieve herd immunity?
Massachusetts’ coronavirus vaccination campaign has been among the most successful in the country, with 57.3 percent of residents — 3.9 million people — having received at least a first shot of the vaccines as of earlier this week, according to federal data.
...
In a Twitter thread earlier this week, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, noted that Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and South Dakota have already reached about 70 percent population immunity, when you count immunity through infections. “They might get to 80 percent before long,” he wrote.

“We won’t be done even if we get to 80%,” Jha added. “We’ll need to monitor variants, vaccinate the world, continue testing, etc. . . . But this is all manageable. We’ll settle into a new equilibrium as we do with many viruses.”
80% is the magic number that experts are now coalescing around.
How depressed should we be if we can’t reach herd immunity?

If herd immunity is never achieved, said BC’s Landrigan, “COVID will continue to smolder in the population — endemic transmission — and we will have to hope that no new, resistant strain of the virus emerges.”

Still, the benefits of vaccination are clear.

Even if Massachusetts doesn’t attain herd immunity, Jha wrote on Twitter, as the state gets into summer and fall, “infection numbers will be low, vaccinated folks will be mainly safe, and with better treatment infections may become less problematic. And life will return to a recognizable normal. And that’ll be good.”

Bhadelia, from BU, cautioned, “We need to drive the number down through vaccination this summer because it’s possible cases may go up again during winter due to possible seasonality of this virus.”
So we're doing better than most of the rest of the world, but
“We don’t live in a microcosm,” said Boucher, the Tufts physician. “You can’t say we have herd immunity when people come in and out.”

Even if Massachusetts does well in stopping COVID-19, the virus could make its way back into the state if it is still circulating around the country and the world, the experts said.

But, Hanage said, “If population immunity can be kept high enough, then it won’t cause large outbreaks.

Bhadelia noted that if the virus keeps getting imported into the state, chances increase that it will encounter people who cannot mount a good immune response, and that new variants will reduce vaccine effectiveness.

“At the end of the day, we’re all connected,” said Dowdy, from Johns Hopkins. “As long as the virus is transmitting in one jurisdiction, reintroduction and outbreaks will be a possibility in all jurisdictions.”
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by gbasden »

Smoove_B wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 9:22 am
There is truth in that post. If you don't like it, that's fine. But that doesn't mean it's wrong. In the same way that declaring that everything is fine right now (locally, nationally, globally) makes it fine. Maybe it's because I'm tapped into this like I'm mainlining from a fire hose. Maybe it's because I still have a teen in my house that's not vaccinated. Maybe it's because I'm not planning vacations like multiple extended family members, but the OP is tapping into a growing sentiment.

And I didn't even get into whatever the hell Tucker Carlson is doing right now on his "news program", telling people to stop getting vaccinated and to not vaccinate their kids when they're able. Seriously, F Tucker Carlson.
Hard agree. Especially with your sentiments about Tucker. But yeah, I've seen countless examples of people who demonstrated that they have absolutely no empathy or willingness to think about anyone other than themselves.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Alefroth »

Smoove_B wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 3:40 pm That JADE stuff is good. Thanks.

Unrelated, "It's just like the flu"

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused nearly 6.9 million deaths across the world, more than double the number officially recorded, a new analysis from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimated.​
This should cause some head explosions among Covid-deniers.
In the United States, the analysis estimated COVID-19 related deaths of more than 905,000.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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Alefroth wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 8:22 pm
This should cause some head explosions among Covid-deniers.
In the United States, the analysis estimated COVID-19 related deaths of more than 905,000.
Why? Is it harder from them to deny ~900K than it is to deny ~600K?
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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Defiant wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 8:48 pm
Alefroth wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 8:22 pm
This should cause some head explosions among Covid-deniers.
In the United States, the analysis estimated COVID-19 related deaths of more than 905,000.
Why? Is it harder from them to deny ~900K than it is to deny ~600K?
I wouldn't know that, but they already rage that the death count includes people that die from car accidents and gun shots.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Jaymon »

Who's Covid Anyway?
Where the facts are made up, and the numbers are irrelevant.



thats is what going on inside of "their" heads. spouting numbers at them is just a waste of breath.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

I'm guessing this is what the summer will look like here in America:
“When you look at our hospitals right now, there are about 150 people with COVID in those hospitals. None of them have had the vaccine,” said Hamilton County health commissioner Greg Kesterman.

The exact breakdown of numbers shows in Southwest Ohio there are 142 hospitalized with COVID-19, 36 are in the ICU, 28 are on ventilators. Zero have been vaccinated.

At St. Elizabeth in Northern Kentucky, there are 28 COVID patients, 7 are in the ICU. Zero have been vaccinated.

“This is what we expected to see. This is what the data showed. This is why the science is leading us in this direction,” said UC College of Medicine Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum. “It should be a wakeup call to people who said, ‘I’m not sure about this vaccine.’”
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Blackhawk »

Just have each town round up all the non-vaxxers in a small, enclosed area. Have them put their money where their mouth is (there won't be a mask in the way, after all.) That way we'll actually achieve herd immuity, one way or another.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Blackhawk »

Seriously, "The American People" should win the Darwin Award this year.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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Smoove_B wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 11:41 am
“This is what we expected to see. This is what the data showed. This is why the science is leading us in this direction,” said UC College of Medicine Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum. “It should be a wakeup call to people who said, ‘I’m not sure about this vaccine.’”
I think we have enough evidence to know this will not be a wakeup call answered though.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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A Misleading C.D.C. Number. We have a special edition of the newsletter on a misleading C.D.C. statistic.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines last month for mask wearing, it announced that “less than 10 percent” of Covid-19 transmission was occurring outdoors. Media organizations repeated the statistic, and it quickly became a standard description of the frequency of outdoor transmission.

But the number is almost certainly misleading.

It appears to be based partly on a misclassification of some Covid transmission that actually took place in enclosed spaces (as I explain below). An even bigger issue is the extreme caution of C.D.C. officials, who picked a benchmark — 10 percent — so high that nobody could reasonably dispute it.

That benchmark “seems to be a huge exaggeration,” as Dr. Muge Cevik, a virologist at the University of St. Andrews, said. In truth, the share of transmission that has occurred outdoors seems to be below 1 percent and may be below 0.1 percent, multiple epidemiologists told me. The rare outdoor transmission that has happened almost all seems to have involved crowded places or close conversation.

Saying that less than 10 percent of Covid transmission occurs outdoors is akin to saying that sharks attack fewer than 20,000 swimmers a year. (The actual worldwide number is around 150.) It’s both true and deceiving.
This seems crazy to me. Why would the CDC use a stat like that? How does that benefit public health?
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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My initial guess is that there's some inherent ambiguity as to what constitutes "outdoors" (is a garage that's only open on one side 'outdoors'? Is a tent open on two sides 'outdoors'? Etc.), and probably a couple other judgment calls as well. So they pick a threshold that's high enough that it's impossible to be technically wrong.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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More and more GOp governors are ending COVID help programs.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

Kurth wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 4:42 pm This seems crazy to me. Why would the CDC use a stat like that? How does that benefit public health?
I haven't read the article, but from an occupational health and safety perspective, when we write policy there is typically going to be a safety factor baked into an exposure. In short, whatever the data is telling us in terms of a measurable impact (acute, chronic) on human health, they will typically add a 10x factor in terms of what is considered "safe" to be exposed to.

I'm not sure why it was communicated in this way, but it could have been a function of that - scientists adding in that additional safety factor. That being said, I'm also not sure why they'd do it (if that's what they did), other than remaining consistent with other regulatory recommendations. I can't say I've seen it for infectious disease control - normally we're talking about cancer causing chemicals or mutagens - trying to reduce occupational illness and disease in workers.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Kurth »

Smoove_B wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 5:14 pm
Kurth wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 4:42 pm This seems crazy to me. Why would the CDC use a stat like that? How does that benefit public health?
I haven't read the article, but from an occupational health and safety perspective, when we write policy there is typically going to be a safety factor baked into an exposure. In short, whatever the data is telling us in terms of a measurable impact (acute, chronic) on human health, they will typically add a 10x factor in terms of what is considered "safe" to be exposed to.

I'm not sure why it was communicated in this way, but it could have been a function of that - scientists adding in that additional safety factor. That being said, I'm also not sure why they'd do it (if that's what they did), other than remaining consistent with other regulatory recommendations. I can't say I've seen it for infectious disease control - normally we're talking about cancer causing chemicals or mutagens - trying to reduce occupational illness and disease in workers.
That’s pretty much what the CDC said: We’re just being conservative.
There are limited data on outdoor transmission. The data we do have supports the hypothesis that the risk of outdoor transmission is low. 10 percent is a conservative estimate from a recent systematic review of peer-reviewed papers. CDC cannot provide the specific risk level for every activity in every community and errs on the side of protection when it comes to recommending steps to protect health. It is important for people and communities to consider their own situations and risks and to take appropriate steps to protect their health.
But that is messed up. You can’t suggest that a risk is orders of magnitude off and shrug it off as just being careful. The NYT article said it better than I can:
Erring on the side of protection — by exaggerating the risks of outdoor transmission — may seem to have few downsides. But it has contributed to widespread public confusion about what really matters. Some Americans are ignoring the C.D.C.’s elaborate guidelines and ditching their masks, even indoors, while others continue to harass people who walk around outdoors without a mask.

All the while, the scientific evidence points to a conclusion that is much simpler than the C.D.C.’s message: Masks make a huge difference indoors and rarely matter outdoors.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

Kurth wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 5:31 pm But that is messed up. You can’t suggest that a risk is orders of magnitude off and shrug it off as just being careful.
...except, as I said it's what we do all the time in occupational safety in health. And not once (seriously, not a single time) has someone said to me in a working environment, "Well, I know the TWA for trichloroethylene has a safety factor of 10x, so we both know the level you're measuring isn't really that dangerous."

But again, I agree, I wouldn't expect John Q. Public to be even remotely familiar with that practice, so I can understand the push back - it doesn't look good. However, it's coming from a position of not being able to control any number of variables and acting out of an abundance of caution. It's not an attempt to be deceitful or manipulative. Instead, it's consistent with past (and current) practice.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Blackhawk »

Erring on the side of protection — by exaggerating the risks of outdoor transmission — may seem to have few downsides. But it has contributed to widespread public confusion about what really matters. Some Americans are ignoring the C.D.C.’s elaborate guidelines and ditching their masks, even indoors, while others continue to harass people who walk around outdoors without a mask.

All the while, the scientific evidence points to a conclusion that is much simpler than the C.D.C.’s message: Masks make a huge difference indoors and rarely matter outdoors.
I don't see how that particular exaggeration would lead directly to any of that.

CDC: "It's less than 10% outdoors!"

People: "Less than 10%? What does that even mean? We'll just have to play it safe and take off our masks at the restaurant! "
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Kurth »

Blackhawk wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 6:50 pm
Erring on the side of protection — by exaggerating the risks of outdoor transmission — may seem to have few downsides. But it has contributed to widespread public confusion about what really matters. Some Americans are ignoring the C.D.C.’s elaborate guidelines and ditching their masks, even indoors, while others continue to harass people who walk around outdoors without a mask.

All the while, the scientific evidence points to a conclusion that is much simpler than the C.D.C. ’s message: Masks make a huge difference indoors and rarely matter outdoors.
I don't see how that particular exaggeration would lead directly to any of that.

CDC: "It's less than 10% outdoors!"

People: "Less than 10%? What does that even mean? We'll just have to play it safe and take off our masks at the restaurant! "
I saw the hypothetical conversations going more like:

CDC: “Less than 10% of COVID transmissions occur outdoors.”

Some People who are Scared Shitless of COVID: “Holy shit! There’s up to a 10% chance of contracting COVID outdoors. I knew I was right to keep wearing my two masks while walking my dog outside by myself on a windy day. What the hell is wrong with these people I see running outside without even one mask on? Selfish fucks who don’t care about anyone but themselves. Probably Trumpers.”

Some People who are COVID-deniers: “I knew the CDC was full of shit. If they’re exaggerating the percentage chance of contracting COVID outdoors, what else are they lying to us about? The COVID death toll? The effectiveness of vaccines? And you know, some people are saying that many of the leaders in the CDC used to work for Dominion. See a pattern here? Trust no one. Live free or die.”
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Kraken »

Last week, after the CDC softened its recommendation to wear masks outdoors, the Boston Globe interviewed some people who were wearing masks on the Common. Their responses fell into three categories: (1) IDK if everyone else has gotten the word yet, so I don't want to appear incautious; (2) I'm afraid people will mistake me for a trumpster; and (3) I just feel more comfortable wearing my mask.

When I went to pick up our food at the takeout window tonight, the server complimented my mask. I said "Thanks, I expect to keep wearing it for a long time." She (a 20-something) said "Yes! They've become a fashion accessory and I just feel better when I'm wearing one." She got a good tip. :)
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by stessier »

SC governor issued an executive order allowing parents to out of of masks in schools. Our county said the order was unclear and self contradictory and all students are still required to wear masks. School ends on June 3rd.
On Tuesday, Gov. Henry McMaster issued Executive Order 2021-23, which empowers South Carolina parents to decide whether their children should wear masks in public schools throughout the state.

The governor’s order also explicitly prohibits any county or local governments in the state from relying on prior orders or using a state of emergency as the basis for a local mask mandate and bars all state agencies, local governments, and political subdivisions from requiring what has commonly been referred to as “vaccine passports” for any reason.

With regard to mask requirements in public schools, the governor has directed DHEC - in consultation with the S.C. Department of Education - to develop and distribute a standardized form a parent or legal guardian may sign to opt their child out of mask requirements imposed by any public school official or public school district.

“We have known for months that our schools are some of the safest places when it comes to COVID-19,” McMaster said.

"With every adult in our state having the opportunity to receive a vaccine, it goes against all logic to continue to force our children – especially our youngest children – to wear masks against their parents’ wishes. Whether a child wears a mask in school is a decision that should be left only to a student’s parents.”

Concerning local ordinances, the governor’s executive order explicitly prohibits any county or local governments throughout the state from relying on prior orders or a state of emergency as the basis for a local mask mandate.

“With the COVID-19 vaccine readily available and case numbers dropping, I will not allow local governments to use the state of emergency declaration as a reason for implementing or maintaining mask mandates,” McMaster said.

“Everybody knows what we need to do to stay safe – including wearing a mask if you’re at risk of exposing others – but we must move past the time of governments dictating when and where South Carolinians are required to wear a mask. Maintaining the status quo ignores all of the great progress we’ve made.”

Additionally, the governor’s order prohibits any local government, state agency, state employee, or any political subdivision of the state from requiring South Carolinians to provide proof of their vaccination status as a condition for receiving any government services or gaining access to any building, facility or geographic location.

As McMaster recently said: “Vaccine passports will have no place in South Carolina. The very idea is un-American to its core.”
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Blackhawk »

A while back I found out that while masks were required 'in school', our school interpreted that as 'while passing in the hall and at events' and if kids were in their seats it didn't apply, at which point it was up to individual teachers to decide whether masks should be required. That was when I switched my son from cloth masks to KN95s and had a talk with him about wearing them regardless of the teacher. And it included the comment that should he ever be told he wasn't allowed to wear a mask in class, he'd come to me about it. That never happened, thankfully.
Kurth wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 11:17 pm Some People who are COVID-deniers: “I knew the CDC was full of shit. If they’re exaggerating the percentage chance of contracting COVID outdoors, what else are they lying to us about? The COVID death toll? The effectiveness of vaccines? And you know, some people are saying that many of the leaders in the CDC used to work for Dominion. See a pattern here? Trust no one. Live free or die.”
I don't hold the CDC responsible for irrational conspiracy theorists. Had they given a precise number down to the correct significant digit, people like that still would have found a way to twist the information to fit their narrative. As others have said, the real number is a lot more complicated than a single number, and when you're dealing with safety, you provide a buffer. Your magic show sparks might shoot five feet? You keep the audience back fifteen.
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Smoove_B »

Haven't read it yet, but I figured I'd at least share it here - the first official comprehensive review of the COVID-19 pandemic, as written by an independent panel of 13, created out of the WHO.
Their report, COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic, concludes that the world has failed to take pandemic threats seriously and build structures that can respond to fast-spreading pathogens. Countries relied on WHO to keep it safe but didn't equip it with the resources to do so. “For many years, [WHO] has been given new tasks without sufficient authority or resources to undertake them fully,” the authors write. “In this pandemic, the efforts of its leadership and staff have been unstinting but structural problems have been exposed.”

...

The report also takes aim at some of WHO's own decisions. For example, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) should probably have been declared by the time of the first meeting of WHO's Emergency Committee, on 22 January 2020, the authors write, instead of a week later, after a second meeting. And WHO could also have done more to warn of possible human-to-human transmission early on, even when that hadn't been proven to occur, they argue.
The tone:
“The combination of poor strategic choices, unwillingness to tackle inequalities, and an uncoordinated system created a toxic cocktail which allowed the pandemic to turn into a catastrophic human crisis,” the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) writes in its report, which was presented today.

To do better next time, the group proposes a top-to-bottom overhaul of the pandemic preparedness system, including the creation of a new global health council akin to the United Nations Security Council and more money and power for the World Health Organization (WHO). “Pandemics pose potential existential threats to humanity and must be elevated to the highest level,” the authors write.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Post by Kurth »

Blackhawk wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 7:21 am I don't hold the CDC responsible for irrational conspiracy theorists. Had they given a precise number down to the correct significant digit, people like that still would have found a way to twist the information to fit their narrative. As others have said, the real number is a lot more complicated than a single number, and when you're dealing with safety, you provide a buffer. Your magic show sparks might shoot five feet? You keep the audience back fifteen.
Ok, but the correct analogy would be, "Your magic show sparks might shoot five feet? You keep the audience back 500 feet."

That's the order of magnitude with this exaggeration and why it puts the CDC's credibility at risk and, from where I sit, a really bad communications strategy.
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