A massive impact on our ability to fight the pandemic and on those effected by it depends on the Court. 1/
COVID-19 is a brutal virus. It has killed 200,000 people in the U.S. in 7 months.
It also does untold damage to the human body. That we know of blood vessels, limbs, heart, brain, gut, kidney, lungs & immune system can all be damaged. 2/
Because that damage can be immediate, chronic, recurring, or hidden in the body only to show up years later, COVID-19 is the ULTIMATE pre-existing condition. 3/
If Trump wins appoints a Supreme Court Justice and holds on to the White House or the Senate, we will revert back to a pre-ACA world of lengthy applications with a complete medical history & exclusions, denials & policy recissions.
Here's what that means. 4/
If you are one of the 6.75 million & growing who has had a diagnosed case of COVID, you would likely be uninsurable or uninsurable for any event impacting those organ systems. 5/
If you are one of the 20-40 million who has a case that hasn't been diagnosed, if you get a condition in the future, and you can be checked for anti-bodies, the insurance company could cancel your policy & refuse to pay your claims. 6/
Fighting this pandemic (or any other) becomes like tying a hand behind your back. Contact tracing, testing, therapies, and vaccines would all be impacted. 7/
The concept of contact tracing dies with the ACA at risk. No one will want to admit to public health authorities that they had COVID. Or their employers. Or anyone. They will keep it a secret.
This is how it used to be before the ACA. 8/
Payments for diagnostic testing, vaccines, and therapies will decrease detection, increase the spread and increase the death rate.
Without insurance, people put off treatment until much later in the cycle when it is more challenging to treat the virus. 9/
Not having universal coverage puts us all at risk with an infectious disease. Remember, if an infectious disease remains anywhere, it is primed to come back everywhere.
Add discrimination against people with COVID and you have a pandemic that will stay with us in the U.S. 10/
This means keeping your health secretive & avoiding care, while worrying that others have it but won't admit it.
11/
The impact of RBG's loss on the ACA is covered here. Should it go down, it is not easily remedied. Only with a Democratic sweep would it be assured. 12/
Trump is a man who doesn't care if people die from COVID (he knew they would and did nothing), doesn't care whether people have unemployment benefits (he did nothing to get a bill passed), and would be completely fine if you had no medical coverage-- now or ever. 13/
He doesn't believe we have an obligation to protect people and as someone who has always been pampered, doesn't know what its like to worry about not being able to get or pay for care.
And with 1000 people/day dying, a few more are hardly noticeable. 14/
Fighting a pandemic means aligning all your forces and resources, something we have clearly failed at to date.
The president enabled the virus to take off, Congress has shirked its responsibility, and now the Court can get in on the act. 15/
Protecting ourselves and each other means taking key precautions:
-physical distancing
-masks
-avoiding/closing hot spots
-voting up & down the ticket to replece the government that doesn't care about us.
/end
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“Ron DeSantis is taking the politics of being a bully to a different level,” Sykes tells me. “He’s decided he's going to move as hard and demagogically to the right as he can. He’s learned something from Donald Trump: you don’t need to be a nice guy.” 2/
Sykes says DeSantis is exploiting the culture wars in order to tap into Republicans’ grievances, and that the GOP sees the Florida governor as a “younger, smarter” but equally combative replacement for Trump. But DeSantis stands out from other conservatives for a reason. 3/
Some thoughts on using Twitter:
With Musk inviting back people who use the platform to threaten rape, to lie at scale & become whatever else his whims decide, here are some actions worth considering …
-Mute all advertisers in your feed. I’m not going to be a revenue source & don’t want those who advertise here to be encouraged.
-If you have a lot of followers or post a lot, consider moving the bulk of your content elsewhere. Post looks promising. (I’m @ASlavitt there.)
-I’m also on Mastadon to check it out & until Post is done with its waitlist & will eventually pick one.
-I continue to occasionally check the news feed here & promote things on Twitter minimally & will cross-post for a short time as people decide what they want to do.
COVID Update: It’s time for one as we look ahead to the winter.
The real question is whether we will have another 2021 with a lot of disruption— on a more modest wave— or nothing at all.
There is early data to help answer this question. 1/
Currently there are lots of Omicron sub-variants co-circulating around the globe.
Household names like:
BA.4.6
BQ1.1
XBB
While it’s all a little hard to follow, there’s something interesting about the nature of these variants. 2/
Variants: 1- These are all variants of Omicron. This is good. Better than dealing with a Delta variant emerging. Makes progression more closely resemble the flu. 2- Each are growing in different parts of the world without 1 being dominant. We could have a mix this winter.3/
NEW: COVID vaccines will now be recommended annually, with the flu shot.
I spoke to the White House yesterday about the plan. 1/
Rather than an ad hoc schedule which confuses many as to when to get vaccinated, the thinking is that an annual shot will result in many more people getting vaccinated.
They point to 2/3 of adults who take the flu vaccine vs 1/3 of adults over 50 who have been taking COVID. 2/
We have infrastructure, outreach, and habits that can be capitalized to get people their flu and COVID vaccines together.
This is the prime benefit.
But of course it comes with some questions they are preparing to address. 3/