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Whitney R. Robinson Profile picture
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18 Jan, 11 tweets, 4 min read
1/ I NEED #MLKDay this year

Confession: I’m usually bad at celebrating #MLKDay

Unlike some friends, I don’t volunteer

I don’t re-read key essays or listen to speeches - unless a friend texts me the link right into our group chat (I have good, high-quality friends)
2/ Mostly I just use it as a vacation day and mildly joke with @lriversiii about the bougie lives we have constructed for ourselves and our children (“Was this Dr. King’s dream?” 🤔😏🤷🏾‍♀️)
3/ But I kind of need it this year. I need the model of people like #MLK to show me how to keep hope in the midst of malevolence and violent disregard for the well-being of others.
4/ I need to know how to move forward & link arms in common destiny with people whose motivations or willful incompetence I cannot fathom.
5/ Despite it all, I believe in America. It is my home. It is my land. It is my birthright. I have no other.
6/ I love Black America. I love our diversity, our drive, our jokes. I love how we nurture joy and solidarity even amidst so much hostility and pain. And normally that everyday love and the rich history of my family & people - normally that’s enough to keep me buoyed...
7/ But this part year...
...this past year...
It’s been a heart-breaker.

I am going to keep going. Because I can. Because of the good and life I see around me. Because I believe in God. (Also bc of my kids. It’s a crutch — but it’s true)...
8/ But in going to slow down this year. Read. Listen. Remember.
9/ I started today with this story about a NYC police officer who helped save #MLK ‘s life in 1958. The officer recently died of #COVID19, adding more weight to an already bittersweet story. The story is good though, left me feeling more hopeful nytimes.com/2020/11/13/nyr…
10/ More amazing material in this 🧵
And an insightful critique of the usual activities organizations do to commemorate #MLK

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More from @WhitneyEpi

Whitney R. Robinson Profile picture
18 Jan
1/ Oh, Coretta!

“Coretta Scott King returned to the city where her husband had been assassinated three days after claiming his body. This was truly extraordinary. On a national level, she’s demonstrating that the civil-rights movement would not be deterred by...
2/ “... the death of its leader.

If she could, in the most nascent days of her widowhood, with small children at home mourning the loss of their father, show up to fight, so should everyone else.”
HT @Tiffany_L_Green
3/ This @AlexisCoe interview also reminds us what Dr. King and his family were advocating for in those harrowing days: labor rights - safe, fair working conditions and humane, equitable wages
Read 4 tweets
Whitney R. Robinson Profile picture
17 Jan
Does anyone know details of US fed govt contract w CVS & Walgreens to vaccinate nursing home residents and staff?

Do the companies get paid at actual vaccination, for meeting certain timelines, on a guaranteed contract regardless of vax rate?

How does it work? #COVID19
Y’all are great. Tl;dr - Big pharmacies get vaccine free & responsible for equipment, scheduling, administering & tracking. Paid mostly via insurance just like standard vaccination PLUS $14 extra for dose 1, $28 extra for dose 2. Sounds like no incentives or penalties for speed
But contract details not fully disclosed, it seems. In MS, state considering pulling out bc companies so slow: *1st* doses won’t be finished until MID FEBRUARY! Because they just didn’t hire enough people. Will CVS et al still get paid a minimum if states ends contract early?
Read 4 tweets
Whitney R. Robinson Profile picture
4 Jan
1/ As an epidemiologist, I’m immensely grateful for anyone systematically documenting those refusing #COVID19 vaccination in health care and #LTC...and asking & recording their reasons why...
2/ Vaccine hesitancy is a major barrier to US achieving enough immunization to avoid rolling waves of #COVID19 outbreaks for years. It is *so* important to take it seriously and craft effective responses & strategies (feds should have started months ago, but that’s past)...
3/ It’s critical to watch this closely in this first round of vaccinations in #LTC longterm care/nursing homes and healthcare bc we have the benefit of a denominator in these settings...
Read 13 tweets
Whitney R. Robinson Profile picture
25 Dec 20
Some observations from reactions to my thread from last wkend (thank you all. I really appreciate all of you): 1/
1/
1. Great question from @drjenndowd: Let’s say one is open to idea that some exposure & infection differentials in the population (left & right circles) are as great as age-susceptibility differentials (bottom circle):
How can I calculate this all out?

2/
Similar point addressed by the author of a great modeling paper on #COVID19 vaccination: we don’t have the data! 3/
Read 28 tweets
Whitney R. Robinson Profile picture
21 Dec 20
OK, bc of Stanford Med #COVID19 vaccine algorithm fiasco & N@te Silver’s recent tweet re: vaccine priority guidelines, I have to talk about one of my favorite topics! I even drew an illustrative Venn diagram! (I’m already imagining @rdpeng rolling his eyes. I’m sorry, Roger!) 1/
Key background 1: Because of limited supplies of #COVID19 vaccine, a federal advisory board making recommendations about the order in which people should get vaccinated (don’t get distracted: these recs are non-binding; real action is at state level) 2/
nytimes.com/2020/12/20/hea…
Key background 2: Infection fatality rates (IFRs) for #COVID19 increase markedly with age. Note the y-axis is on a log-10 scale. The IFR for COVID-19 for an 80 yo is literally ~1,000 times greater than for a 5 yo & ~100X greater than for a 40 yo
3/
Read 18 tweets
Whitney R. Robinson Profile picture
19 Nov 20
Been thinking a lot about this, especially the “for a paycheck” part. I have many relatives working in jobs where it’s impossible to distance, avoid closed spaces, etc. It is 100% a failure of govt (US senators esp) to provide money for businesses & workers to stay home...1/
But me getting on a soapbox about
the stimulus bill US should have passed this summer is neither here nor there for my relatives who need to make decisions today about work, even when they know perfectly well (thanks to yours truly!) that their work environments are not safe 2/
If I sat in my home office or in my empty campus office typing away about how “everyone should just stay home & this would all be over, The End,” I’d have no credibility with them. (They love me though, so they’d just 🙄 & quietly ignore my posts. 😂) 3/
Read 14 tweets

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