Write to the elected representatives that represent you. These are the elected officials that are on the ballot for your district. Don’t waste time writing to elected representatives in other states or in other places. Politicians care about their own constituents — people who are eligible to potentially vote for them, and who they are elected to represent. Representatives disregard contact attempts from people who are not in their district. Writing to government agencies, outside their prescribed application or public comment processes, is also not typically helpful. Writing anonymous letters or posting anonymous comments on social media are also generally not effective. Representatives care about what their actual verifiable constituents care about.
This constant reelection pressure means that MoCs are enormously sensitive to their image in the district or state, and they will work very hard to avoid signs of public dissent or disapproval.
There is a dangerous new government policy being proposed which could harm healthcare workers and patients across the country. Instead of strengthening infection control policies in healthcare settings to protect workers and patients from infectious diseases, the CDC is planning future guidance which could lower healthcare infection control standards.
HICPAC meets up to 8 times a year at CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. Meetings are open to the public and time for public comments is allotted on the agenda. See the Meeting Information page for planed meeting dates and registration information.
Maintaining masking requirements for HCP during all direct clinical encounters may marginally reduce the risk for transmission from HCP to patient or from patient to HCP. Those potential incremental benefits, however, need to be weighed against increasingly recognized costs. Masking impedes communication, a barrier that is distributed unequally across patient populations, such as those for whom English is not their preferred language and those who are hard-of-hearing and rely on lip reading and other nonverbal cues.
This woke-washing tactic is being used to promote anti-mask arguments and gin up opposition to N95 use in healthcare settings. Erica Shenoy might just be vain and maybe wants people to see her face, but she claimed in an Annals of Internal Medicine op-ed that dropping masking for infection control in healthcare is needed so that patients would be able to lip read - the innuendo being that masking is somehow discriminatory toward the hard of hearing. This is astonishingly foolish woke-washing since lip reading only has a 30% to 40% accuracy rate. Even trained professional lip readers only attain perhaps 60% accuracy. Doctors should surely never depend on lip reading for receiving critical medical advice with such a large potential for miscommunication.
Lip-reading on its own isn’t enough. It is estimated that only 30% to 40% of speech sounds can be lip-read even under the best conditions and extra information is usually required to understand what is being said. So while it can be an important skill for children with a hearing loss to have, relying on lip-reading alone will not be enough for your child to develop good communication skills.
Lip-reading is a notoriously tricky business with professionals only able to decipher what someone is saying up to 60% of the time. "Machine lip-readers have enormous potential, with applications in improved hearing aids, silent dictation in public spaces, covert conversations, speech recognition in noisy environments, biometric identification and silent-movie processing," wrote the researchers.
I’m not feeling isolated, Erica. I don’t pine longingly to see my doctor’s lips because I’m not a weirdo. I have my own family and so does my doctor. I have neighbors and friends and hobbies, and a life to live. And I’d like to continue with all that by avoiding viruses disrupting my life on top of whatever else I need to see the doctor about. My doctor and I don’t need to stare at each other’s unmasked faces in the exam room. I go there for healthcare. And most of us certainly don’t want to get covid if already in a state to need the hospital. It’s obviously bad to add covid on top of another condition — you’d think a doctor would know about comorbidities, or has heard of the often repeated “underlying conditions” reference, or as the CDC describes it, People with Certain Medical Conditions who are at higher risk of covid complications.
If you’re travelling to a malaria-endemic area, a mosquito net should be on your list of essential travel supplies. Malaria is transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito that bites humans from dusk to dawn. The Anopheles mosquito is stealthy and silent. They don’t buzz so you can’t hear them approaching. This means you are a prime target when you are most vulnerable — asleep. Bed nets are a key defence against malaria, but they also offer protection from other diseases such as filariasis (known for massive swelling of the limbs) and other insects and arachnids like ticks, beetles, flies, and spiders. Remember that in malarious areas, insecticide-treated mosquito nets are required in bedrooms without tightly-fitting window screens or broken screens Bed nets are not required in buildings with sealed windows and central air conditioning.
Signing a covid waiver for legal liability is required for attending “packed to the brim” APHA event. “Packed to the brim” seems like a peculiar choice of words for what they know is going to be rife with the spread of infectious disease. And we know that they know the virus will spread there, not because they are public health experts, but because they spell it out in the legal covid waiver that attendees must agree to, as shown by @danaludwig. It stipulates attendees “risk exposure to and contraction of potentially dangerous diseases and viruses” and that “APHA makes no representations that it has taken any safety precautions that relate to infectious diseases or exposure.”
Many insurers have implemented changes in response to the pandemic. These have included price increases, new exclusions and other risk reduction measures. Further, insurers classified the COVID pandemic as a “known event” in January 2020. This classification is assigned after an unexpected or unforeseen event occurs, and it removes future coverage in many instances.
I went to a doctor's office today (wearing N95 like about half of the other patients) and none of the medical staff were wearing any masks at all. The staff required each patient to sign this waiver acknowledging how dangerous Covid-19 is, and how they might infect us!
HCP [Health Care Personnel] entering the AIIR [Airborne infection isolation room] soon after a patient vacates the room should use respiratory protection. (See personal protective equipment section below) Standard practice for pathogens spread by the airborne route (e.g., measles, tuberculosis) is to restrict unprotected individuals, including HCP, from entering a vacated room until sufficient time has elapsed for enough air changes to remove potentially infectious particles (more information on clearance rates under differing ventilation conditions is available). We do not yet know how long 2019-nCoV remains infectious in the air. In the interim, it is reasonable to apply a similar time period before entering the room without respiratory protection as used for pathogens spread by the airborne route (e.g., measles, tuberculosis). In addition, the room should undergo appropriate cleaning and surface disinfection before it is returned to routine use.
Use respiratory protection (i.e., a respirator) that is at least as protective as a fit-tested NIOSH-certified disposable N95 filtering facepiece respirator before entry into the patient room or care area. See appendix for respirator definition.
That is focused on two things. One, we do not know the extent of contribution that environmental virus might pose. And so the glove and gown use is with an eye towards ensuring that we don't accidentally transmit infection that way. Eye protection is something that we, I think, culturally for a generation or more, have been lax about. I think that's, frankly unacceptable in routine times, given that influenza spreads wildly across our community every year. And so this, as well as for routine practices, is an opportunity to firm up our use of eye protection. It's not about there being necessarily target epitopes in the conjunctiva. It's the fact that our eyes drain into the back of our throats and if you're trying to keep respiratory viruses out of your throat, then protecting your eyes makes sense. Nose and mouth, similarly, need to be protected. We use respirators in this context because of the very likely possibility of a contribution of near range inhalation. This is something we've talked about with every concerning respiratory infection over the past 20 years. And that is the idea that when we cough or breathe, we generate a range of particle sizes. Some of them are big and splashy and can land directly on us. But if you're not within line of sight or ballistic range - but within about six feet - it's conceivable that somebody can be generating small particles with infectious material in them, that could drift in and be breathed and entrained in what you're inhaling. For that reason, a surgical mask that's a nice barrier against ballistic impact, isn't as good of a device. The fact that there's a half-inch gap on either side of your face really doesn't protect against inhalation. And so that's why we recommend respiratory protection. There is - there's always discussion of the available published evidence and ongoing generation remedies, that question what is the relative benefit of a mask versus a respirator. And I think the jury is still out. It seems to be fairly close, when we've compared respiratory infections across the board. But then again, there's always a question of adherence. And what we see is that people are much more likely to adhere correctly to surgical mask use than to respirator use. So that behavioral component is a bit of a question mark. We also are hearing early information about public issues that are upcoming that might show a lean towards maybe a little bit more protection with a respirator. So, I think we as a profession will continue to have to navigate that grey zone. But for the time being, that is the recommendation that we made during the containment phase.
Engineering controls involve isolating employees from work related hazards. In workplaces where they are appropriate, these types of controls reduce exposure to hazards without relying on worker behavior and can be the most cost-effective solution to implement. Engineering controls for SARS-CoV-2 include:
Installing high-efficiency air filters.
Increasing ventilation rates in the work environment.
Installing physical barriers, such as clear plastic sneeze guards.
Installing a drive-through window for customer service.
Specialized negative pressure ventilation in some settings, such as for aerosol generating procedures (e.g., airborne infection isolation rooms in healthcare settings and specialized autopsy suites in mortuary settings).
Administrative Controls
Administrative controls require action by the worker or employer. Typically, administrative controls are changes in work policy or procedures to reduce or minimize exposure to a hazard. Examples of administrative controls for SARS-CoV-2 include:
Encouraging sick workers to stay at home.
Minimizing contact among workers, clients, and customers by replacing face-to-face meetings with virtual communications and implementing telework if feasible.
Establishing alternating days or extra shifts that reduce the total number of employees in a facility at a given time, allowing them to maintain distance from one another while maintaining a full onsite work week.
Opponents have said the changes, detailed in a presentation in June, are based on a flawed evidence review and omit key infection control tools. Some have called attention to a CDC approval process that they say is sometimes inscrutable to the public.
Nathanael Nerode: “Loeb 2022 has been debunked multiple times and I have emailed the debunkings to you. And in addition Loeb failed to disclose a conflict of interest. Loeb was personally responsible for preventing Canadian nurses from getting access to KN95 masks which may well have injured and killed them. He did not disclose this conflict of interest; this makes all of his work suspect. In addition many of these studies listed there, including Loeb 2022 contained protocols that assumed the droplet dynamic which is now discredited and known to be false.”
“OSHA has a statutory responsibility, statutory requirement to have an open and transparent process like we are having today to just determine what the standard should be. CDC is a black box. We have no idea how these recommendations are determined. Unfortunately, until there are, there are Freedom of Information Act requests or Congressional inquiries. So given all those things, it's really incumbent upon OSHA to develop standards, and to say these are the standards that every employer covered by the standard must follow.”
Internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press show there were deliberate decisions to withhold vital information about new mask manufacturers and availability. Exclusive trade data and interviews with manufacturers, hospital procurement officials and frontline medical workers reveal a communication breakdown — not an actual shortage — that is depriving doctors, nurses, paramedics and other people risking exposure to COVID-19 of first-rate protection. Before the pandemic, medical providers followed manufacturer and government guidelines that called for N95s to be discarded after each use, largely to protect doctors and nurses from catching infectious diseases themselves. As N95s ran short, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified those guidelines to allow for extended use and reuse only if supplies are “depleted,” a term left undefined. Hospitals have responded in a variety of ways, the AP has found. Some are back to pre-COVID-19, one-use-per-patient N95 protocols, but most are doling out one mask a day or fewer to each employee. Many hospital procurement officers say they are relying on CDC guidelines for depleted supplies, even if their own stockpiles are robust.
But the decline of in-person shopping and work, combined with factory shutdowns in places like China, disrupted the economy. A 2020 report from the corporate consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found the hardest-hit industries would take years to recover. One sector in particular that took a big hit was the fossil fuel industry. Oil demand fell sharply in 2020, placing the global economy on uncertain footing. Before long, business-aligned groups — particularly those connected to fossil fuels — began targeting the public health measures threatening their bottom lines. Chief among them were groups tied to billionaire Charles Koch, owner of Koch Industries, the largest privately held fossil fuel company in the world. The war on public health measures began on March 20, 2020, when Americans For Prosperity (AFP), the right-wing nonprofit founded by Charles and David Koch, issued a press release calling on states to remain open.
tweet by @jackmurphylive says “If covid had been left to do it’s thing our nation would have become as a result, healthier, fitter, and younger - ie stronger. 10:32 PM 11 December 2021
I came across a particularly aggressive anti-mask account on twitter in early 2021. He made a ridiculous capitalist fever dream argument to justify duping people into unmasking and getting sick, and maybe dying, for business interests. It seemed so blatantly ridiculous. Tweet from @reubenR80027912 dated 1019 am May 7, 2021 says Main Street is Very simple. Do 3 things PSA campaigns that you won’t die if vaxxed. Remind people kids aren’t a risk. Remove masks everywhere so people don’t constantly live in fear. Voila. Roaring economy. Spending is about freedom from fear. Quote-tweet from same account on February 22, 2021 says There’s something to the Mad Men pilot and covid. Telling people they’re more likely to die in a car accident than covid doesn’t matter. Nor do vax stats. Happiness is freedom from fear, a billboard that screams whatever you’re doing is ok @ DKThomp
The upside down call is coming from inside the house. And if the CDC pretty much just sanctions punitive measures against students to prevent masking in school, and disseminates anti-science nonsense immunity comments, how can we trust they won’t start pushing that we all need to breathe dirty air too? I don’t know what’s going on at the CDC, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s an awful lot of people who burrowed in from the Trump administration, because they all sound the same as the people in 2020 who said the elders should sacrifice themselves on the altar of The Economy - that people should just get back to work as the virus spread.
Knowing that COVID-19 has not gone away, some people are not yet prepared to let their guard down, according to a working paper distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Some 13% of U.S. workers said they will continue social distancing as the economy opens up and cases fall, and another 45% said they will do so in limited ways. Only 42% said they plan a “complete return” to the activities they participated in before the pandemic.
COVID-19 Vaccination and Mask Requirements. Health care workers were praised for their self-sacrifice in caring for sick patients at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but then they were fired if they objected to receiving COVID- 19 vaccines with or without complying with onerous masking requirements and regardless of whether they already had the virus and had gained natural immunity. With the disease being endemic and constantly mutating, vaccines and universal masking in health care facilities do not have appreciable benefits in reducing COVID-19 transmission throughout the community. Moreover, more recent COVID strains pose fewer health risks than the earlier strains, and the pandemic has been declared to be at an end. CMS should:
- Announce nonenforcement of the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate on Medicaid and Medicare hospitals.
- Revoke corresponding guidance and regulations.
- Refrain from imposing general COVID-19 mask mandates on health care facilities or personnel.
-Pay damages to all medical professionals who were dismissed directly because of the CMS vaccine mandate.
COMMENT ON MEDPAGE TODAY: With guidelines like that it just sounds as though CDC is attempting to ensure its own future existence (due to all the distrust and the post-pandemic public outcries for its dismantle/demise or at the very least a complete overhaul) by creating conditions absolutely ripe for starting as many potential epidemics as it possibly can, starting from within the hospital setting where it can spread easily into the community, thus going into the business of population reduction/control instead of infection control.
My name is Chloe Humbert. I don't want to be forced into exposure to multiple infections when I need to seek healthcare. I almost died from infection twice in my life because of inadequate investment in healthcare in 2 different countries. If we are to be forced into preventable exposure to covid and other diseases in healthcare settings, against our will, the goal of this forced infection needs to be spelled out, along with clearly stating the known consequences so the American people can say whether we want to bear those consequences. You can’t just rip away the freedom of individuals to protect ourselves from disease, and not have a clearly articulated reason, because the masks off, let it rip plan sounds an awful lot like the “natural herd immunity” garbage we heard in 2020 and the American people said no to that already. There are other names for this ideology and it’s a pseudoscience that patriots like my father, my uncle, and my step-father, all fought in a war to protect us from 80 years ago. Do not make guidelines that give cover for genocidal negligence in our hospitals and nursing homes. People in healthcare settings need to wash their hands and put on a mask and have air quality engineering controls to prevent disease spread in healthcare. Universal masking and broad use of N95 respirators in healthcare and essential spaces is a simple and valuable investment to save lives and that’s what I think we should do as a civilization.
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Public Comments to CDC HICPAC - The only time they have to listen to us. (Maybe)
“If you really want to look at the true impact on society, it's much more important to see who gets sick and who doesn't, who requires hospitalization, or doesn't," Fauci said on 12/21/21. [1]
They want people to eliminate themselves. By removing safety where people are most vulnerable, that expedites it. The vague "vulnerable" are an avoidable expense and an obstacle to pleasure and profit.
This is the AIDS crisis backwards. No one is saying "seroconversion". It takes years for HIV to become AIDS though it might seem "just like a cold" at first.
[1] "U.S. mulls reducing COVID quarantine time amid Omicron surge" by David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu, December 21, 2021
Public Comments to CDC HICPAC - The only time they have to listen to us. (Maybe)
“If you really want to look at the true impact on society, it's much more important to see who gets sick and who doesn't, who requires hospitalization, or doesn't," Fauci said on 12/21/21. [1]
They want people to eliminate themselves. By removing safety where people are most vulnerable, that expedites it. The vague "vulnerable" are an avoidable expense and an obstacle to pleasure and profit.
This is the AIDS crisis backwards. No one is saying "seroconversion". It takes years for HIV to become AIDS though it might seem "just like a cold" at first.
[1] "U.S. mulls reducing COVID quarantine time amid Omicron surge" by David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu, December 21, 2021
https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/us-mulls-reducing-covid-quarantine-time-amid-omicron-surge-2021-12-21/