States like Alaska, FL, & WV initially led the way in vaccinations, while some said they wouldn’t trust a rushed “Trump vaccine.” Now those same states resist a “Biden” vax effort.
Politicization- by everyone- has hurt our chances of broad immunity. cnn.com/2021/06/04/hea…
I’ve often said, you can win an election by appealing to 51% and shaming the other 49% but you can’t beat #COVID19 that way. And you can’t decide one day to flip engagement and trust on like a light switch. This is going to take a while, and there has to be earnest effort.
We’ve waited too long to see true & aggressive outreach (workplaces, primary care offices, churches) vs lottery and beer giveaways.
I’d love to see Biden in more conservative states praising the Govs + ones that are doing well. And less talk of “red states” doing poorly…
You can get page clicks and eyeballs by continuing to blame everything on Trump and on people’s political affiliations, but there is zero proof that parsing by politics does anything other than drive people away- the very people we say we need to reach community immunity.
But sincere, aggressive, cooperative outreach and a true plan to address misinformation without shaming the target audience (and all these things have been lacking) can help us to the finish line.
#VaccinesWork - but not without trust, engagement, cooperation, and love. 💪🏽❤️
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B.1.617.2 - AKA the India variant- is coming. And it’s primed to disproportionately decimate black and brown communities (d/t lower #covid19 vaccination rates, urban + crowded living settings, and more prevalent comorbidities) if we don’t step up our vax game ASAP...
Why aren’t we seeing more tangible vaccine access and outreach efforts at federal, state, and local levels? Especially while in the midst of easing public protective measures? This is yet another example of privilege and institutional bias.
An important point about hesitancy in minority communities, and the idea that people who won’t jump through hoops to get one either really don’t want it, or don’t deserve it...
Many of us get claim summaries in the mail, barely looking at them before throwing them away. But they reveal the deep inequities and flaws in our system. This is one I recently received for my wife. You must look beyond the summary- insane as it is- to see the real problems. 🧵
$31,000 billed- for a single medication?! How is that reasonable? But insurance only paid 13 cents on the dollar. So what if you didn’t have insurance? Well you’d be billed the entire amount, which both insurer and healthcare institution tacitly agree is 87% too much...
You don’t have $31,000? Well a collections agency can buy your “debt” from the healthcare institution- who may end up with almost as much as insurance would’ve paid them anyway. The debt collector agrees to settle with you for half of what you “owe” ($15k), and keeps the margin.
Honest question that has bothered me for quite a while. When the headline or the framing of the article is more (or solely) about the interviewer and his/ her questioning than the responder and his/ her answers- is that really objective “news”?
Put another way, should the goal of “news” tilt towards “this is what person of interest X” thinks on the subject of the day, vs “this is the awesome question our reporter asked to own person X”? Because it frustrates me to see more headlines about the reporter vs the subject.
I mention this is because I’ve got friends on both “sides” who are blind to it. But you can go to the websites and see it clearly at any point in time. Do people really care about the pithy question- or the answer? And what does it say about us if we focus on/value one vs other?
I understand many are concerned about lack of ability to verify who is vaccinated, but it became pretty clear that “passports” were unlikely to be tolerated/ implemented in most public settings. IMHO the missed opportunity was not focusing more on level of spread as a criteria.
It’s really about your state/ community/ facility’s defense (ie masks, distancing, and overall vaccination plus prior infection rates) vs #COVID19’s offense (local spread). That’s a logical and evidence based way to decide about lifting or creating/ enforcing requirements.
Examples: if high viral spread and/ or low vax rate in the community- makes sense to keep state and local mask mandates. Are you a business that’s willing to have a vax mandate for employees or somehow verify vax status of those entering? Then say no mask if you’ve been vaxxed.
Mask wearing is confusing, frustrating, and becoming less necessary as more get vaccinated. But viral transmission is still high in 1/3rd of the counties in this country (home to almost 42% of the population) so officials are hard pressed to relax public health measures...
With no way to tell if one has antibodies (from immunization or infection), officials are left to look at community vax rates plus overall viral spread. Once vax rates are high enough (they aren’t yet) and/ or community spread is low enough (it isn’t yet), mask benefits will ⬇️.
Here’s the bottom line- protecting public health & safety is hard. Officials must make guidance and rules for the outliers vs averages /those acting safely- especially when one persons actions can affect the entire community. Want to see masks go away? Support ⬆️ vaccinations!