Thread by @laurieallee

So, if I were the president, here's what I would do about Covid:
a thread

1. Pay people to get vaxxed. This is cheapest, fastest way to get numbers up. Consider it another stimulus tied to vaccinating. (and retroactive!) If corporate America balked, I'd tell them to sit down.

Here's what I mean:

https://twitter.com/laurieallee/status/1421203657568120834

Next, I'd just completely stop trying to squash ivermectin. Other countries use it for Covid. Pretending half the country doesn't know about it (& possibly already have it) is dumb. Drs use drugs off-label all the time. It has a 40 yr safety record. We need all weapons for delta.

Again, not OTC, only if doctor and patient are both willing to try. I personally know three people who said it worked for them. I know people pretending to have scabies in order to get it. It was the first drug I made note of early in the pandemic because drs in Japan used it.

Speaking of drugs, I'd do another warp speed type push for antiviral R&D. Vaccine-only approach is deteriorating. Vaccines are necessary, but we can't ignore variants cutting into effectiveness. We need layers of attack against delta -- vaccines are major tool but not only one.

As for the us vs. them aspect of this pandemic: red vs. blue, mask vs. no mask, vax vs. no vax, we need a national campaign on the level of WW2 Uncle Sam Needs You to combat it. NOT the hideous "Pandemic of the Unvaccinated." Whoever this admin hired for PR needs to be sacked.

Next, stop dismissing vaccine-hesitant as loony. Stop shouting SAFE AND EFFECTIVE and actually listen to the stories of vaccine injury & side effects. Sometime best argument is not LA LA LA NOT LISTENING but "It's a risk, but here's how Covid is a bigger risk." Then show them.

Another thing... Ronald Reagan made it impossible to ever sue a vaccine maker. This has to be overturned. Obviously this is a terrible selling point for "trusting the science" and no other industry gets this free pass.

This pandemic needs bold, clear leadership from the top along the lines of FDR's New Deal Works Program. Create a slew of jobs that force people to stay home. Buy up the N95s from the US companies now forced to close and send every American a supply of masks that actually WORK.

For god's sake have a remote option for schools. This is just utter stupidity at this point.

Look at what zero Covid countries are doing and learn something. Going hard and fast against delta and the next variants will ultimately pay off more than what we are doing now. You know how only taking a little antibiotic makes superbugs? We're basically making super variants.

If we have to do short lockdowns, PAY PEOPLE. Really pay them serious money for their inconvenience. You know the level of bailouts for business and banks? That level. Again, corporate America just sit down for a while. You made out like bandits in 2020.

Fire the CDC director & every public health person involved in manipulating stats, fudging truth & telling people to unmask (& free-fall spread delta) as a way to convince the people who already weren't masking & didn't want the vaccine to wear a mask & get vaxxed.

By politicizing EVERYTHING we've made this a no-win situation. I remember after the hurricane a few yrs ago in Houston, people forgot politics & just saved each other. I believe we could join to fight Covid with bold, unifying leadership. Trump was divisive. Biden is divisive.

I'm old enough to remember when news anchors didn't act like characters on Gossip Girl or Vampire Diaries. There is no way Cronkite would have called someone an idiot on air. If I were president, I'd appear every single night & inform the public. Like FDR's fireside chats.

I would also tell my press secretary that hiding the fact that we have breakthrough Covid infections while simultaneously accusing "the other side" of dishonesty is bullshit. Transparency, transparency, ugly unvarnished and multi-nuanced transparency only.

I'd make safe kids vaccines priority one, before boosters. I'd make a federal mask mandate for all over 2. A cohesive, nationwide approach to handling this with the full acknowledgement that it SUCKS, but would suck more if we let more variants loose. And $$$ softens blow.

Speaking of vax, remember when Salk made the polio vaccine basically open source? We need to do that. We need to let other countries manufacture our vax, & we need to look at theirs -- like Covaxin. We could be the good guys of the world. Use the troops for rollout.

And if corporate Pharma gets pissy, I'd tell them to sit down. They're going to make a freaking fortune treating long covid and we know how much they love lifestyle drugs you take forever.

We are being destroyed by lack of leadership, misinformation, idiotic food-fight-in-high-school-level cable news, Hatfield/McCoy political rivalry & half-baked plans that even if they were working as planned (AND THEY ARE NOT) would not solve this. We need bold action.

Are you listening @POTUS? @VP? You guys wanted to be as bold as FDR, right? Well... get to it.

One last thing... people STILL talk about Covid as a "bad cold" for the vaccinated. I saw a big YouTuber call it "the sniffles." All people need to be educated, and I would make it part of nightly addresses to the nation. ANY Covid infection comes with these known risks:

micro clots
other vascular problems
cardiovascular changes/arrhythmias/heart inflammation
loss of brain gray matter
permanent loss of smell/taste
diabetes
hypertension
increased stroke risk
loss of IQ/cognitive disability
Long Covid

That's just what we know now.

Somehow this got put in the wrong thread. But I stick by it:

https://twitter.com/laurieallee/status/1421242797202427907

Ok, last one -- even though I didn't talk about proper ventilation for all public schools, buildings and homes -- including the cheap DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box. Google is your friend.
But this:
Every American needs to memorize it.

https://twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1421252646304980995?s=20

#GetVaccinated AND #WearAMask N95 or better AND avoid crowds AND #COVIDisAirborne so it's all about not breathing other people's air. #ventilation is key.
We do this to suppress transmission, prevent infection while we vaccinate enough for community immunity.
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