It's my understanding that a lot of people in Tokyo were wearing facemasks in public for years before COVID due a combination of preventing other airborne diseases + heavy air pollution. It's a pretty normal thing there.
Honestly, again, aside from restaurants/bars, it's the *distancing* part which is the most disruptive to most of society. If "wear a mask" was the ONLY measure still recommended, stadiums, arenas, etc. could mostly return to normal, I would think.
My only real issue with wearing a mask aside from eating/drinking is that it fogs up my glasses in cold weather...but there are workarounds for that.
Again, not saying I'd wear it *all* the time after most people are vaccinated, but *most* of the time when around other people.
(at least for most of next year, anyway...after that, we'll see)
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📣 BREAKING: Open Enrollment Week 4 HCgov Snapshot Report: 523,999 #ACA enrollees; 2.9 million total via HCgov states: acasignups.net/20/12/03/2021-…
When adjusted for NJ & PA switching to their own state-based #ACA exchanges, HealthCare.Gov enrollments are still running 15.3% ahead of last year on a per-day basis.
Of the 36 states hosted via HC.gov, enrollment is ahead of last year in 34. North Dakota is nearly 30% ahead of last year.
The worst-performing states vs. last year so far are Kentucky & Alaska, at -4.5% & -1.5% respectively.
🚨 UPDATE: The Public Comment period for the #NBPP2022 starts *TOMORROW* (12/04) and only runs 26 days (instead of 30) thru 12/30...including Christmas.
We need to flood 'em w/comments to stop Trump from trying to kill HCgov on his way out the door.
The short version is this: Every year CMS issues a long, wonky document called the Notice of Benefit & Payment Parameters (NBPP), which is basically a bunch of tweaks to administrative details for the upcoming ACA Open Enrollment Period. 2/
Some of these are standard, like slightly bumping up the Maximum Out of Pocket cap for the following year. Some are good ideas, like adding a Special Enrollment Period for people who enrolled off-exchange but then have an income drop qualifing them for on-exchange subsidies. 3/
Last year she also proposed (and go through) both an #ACA reinsurance program *and* reinstatement of the individual mandate penalty to cut down unsubsidized premiums: acasignups.net/19/01/20/rhode…
"Change" could mean whatever sort of change the voter wanted it to mean.
"Yes We Can" was a similarly generic call for taking action. It wasn't tied to any one specific policy.
"Defund the Police" taken on its own would appear to mean...defunding the police.
"But it doesn't LITERALLY mean removing all funding from police departments!"
OK, but: 1. If you have to explain that...you've already lost. 2. There actually are some DTP activists who really do mean literally that, and they muddy up the water for the rest of the movement.
Bernie has been using the phrase "Medicare for All" for years...yet huge chunks of the population still assume "Medicare" means "current Medicare w/premiums, co-pays & deductibles" and that "...for All" means that it'd be voluntary, not mandatory.
Note: I wrote up my analysis of Medicare Extra for All (#MEFA) back in February 2018, and in May 2019 I wrote an analysis of the House bill largely based on it, #MedicareForAmerica, sponsored by @RosaDelauro & @RepSchakowsky. 2/
Full disclosure: From June 2019 - last month, I was contracted w/@AmProg to do part-time healthcare analysis. However, my analyses of both #MEFA & #MedicareForAmerica were done prior to this, and this thread is being written after my contract expired) 3/
"Rosen...is an American lawyer who is the current United States Deputy Attorney General. Prior to assuming his current role, he was a senior partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis and was the United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation."
"His nomination to become the second-highest law enforcement official was unusual, as Rosen had no previous prosecutorial experience. Attorney General William Barr had urged Trump to choose Rosen as his deputy."