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Aaron Astor Profile picture
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9 Dec, 4 tweets, 1 min read
What schools still do this? Silent lunch? Facing the same direction? This is “deep cleaning” and “face shields” level of stupid.
Who exactly creates idiotic policies like this? School principals? Superintendents? Public Health officials? Teacher unions? Mayors? Where does this stupidity come from?
If "Defund Public Health" takes off as a slogan, shit like this will be the reason why. It's bad enough to institute an inane policy like this. It's even worse to keep it without declaring that it will be imminently repealed.
And no, I don't want public health to be annihilated as a result of this continued insanity. But the pressure to remove all power from public health authorities - including over things we take for granted as necessary for public hygiene - will be enormous as long as this goes on.

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More from @AstorAaron

Aaron Astor Profile picture
7 Dec
My political worldview on social matters developed in the early 1990s in reaction to the Reagan-Bush years. That's why I have long been a civil libertarian, esp. re: crime, drugs, safetyism and "family values" morals legislation. I bet a lot of younger GenXers are similar.
What I mean by "younger GenXers" applies to older millennials too. So, basically, people born in the 1970s and early 1980s. Much of that instinct solidified in opposition to the Christian Right apotheosis under W (and early Iraq War hyper-"patriotism" excess).
This is a big reason I am so adamant about convincing fellow Dems to pull back from ultra-safetyism around covid, esp. re: mandated NPIs. I know many conservatives view it all as a natural progression of "leftism." But the liberal-tarian in me has never accepted safety panic.
Read 5 tweets
Aaron Astor Profile picture
7 Dec
How many people complaining about having to show a vax card at a restaurant also complain abt having to show a driver's license to prove you are 21 to order a beer? Because there is a straight line from the MADD hyper-vigilance of the 1980s and drug war to vax surveillance today.
Milk carton kids, "dangerous" rock music lyrics, abstinence only sex-ed, DARE, MADD, Life360, helicopter parents, take shoes off at the airport - all provide illusions of safety and control against a variety of physical and "moral" threats. Covid safety theater is the next act.
The point isn't that these things weren't addressing actual problems. It's that they were largely performative gestures that encouraged people to snitch on one another, or view fellow citizens (or your own children) as threats.
Read 4 tweets
Aaron Astor Profile picture
16 Nov
Summary of studies shows, again, that natural infection confers robust immunity against reinfection. It's time for US Public Health officials to acknowledge prior infection-induced immunity. Any mandates should count previously infected as "immune" along with fully vaccinated.
Can't get any clearer than this: 0-7% of people become reinfected. Several large-scale studies included here.
It should be obvious but I'll say it anyway: This does NOT mean if you are unvaccinated that you should go out and try to get infected! This is solely about how those who were infected before vaccines were available (or just who got infected before now) should be designated.
Read 7 tweets
Aaron Astor Profile picture
16 Nov
Great thread rounding up newer studies on vaccine effectiveness v. infection and transmission since Delta arrived. Did VE drop bc of Delta? Or bc of waning effectiveness? Or both? And by how much? Read the whole thread!
One point mentioned in this thread that is lost in much discussion: For vaccinated people, the relative effectiveness (for infection) v. Delta is only slightly diminished compared to Alpha. But the absolute risk is much higher. You can see that in the many breakthrough charts.
Look at the blue line above. It stays far below the black line. Relative VE is still very strong! But note that blue line jumps from 8.47 weekly cases per 100k in June (pre-Delta) to 121.4 per 100k in late August (peak Delta wave). That's a 13X jump in ABSOLUTE risk for vaxxed.
Read 10 tweets
Aaron Astor Profile picture
15 Nov
With all this logistics talk, I am introducing my class today to the 19th century development of manufacturing and logistics in one state: Pennsylvania. Especially important were the Schuylkill and Lehigh Canals linking anthracite coal to Philly and to NYC via NJ's Morris Canal.
The Pennsylvania Canal was authorized around the time NY's Erie Canal opened. In many ways, it was Pennsylvania's answer to New York, connecting the Del. River to the Ohio River like the Erie connected the Hudson to the Great Lakes. But it was a tougher engineering feat in PA.
Like with the Erie Canal, the PA Canal (and its branch canals) was surpassed by a railroad roughly along the same route (with some separate tunnels to cross the mountains). What made canals so important was not just the speed of inland shipping. It was the growth of canal towns.
Read 8 tweets
Aaron Astor Profile picture
14 Nov
Every time I read about some logistics issue - truck driver shortages, clogged ports, ag export problems, etc. - I do a quick Google search to see if this is a US-specific problem or something everybody is struggling with around the world. Every time it's global. As is inflation.
Some examples: Here is Europe's truck driver shortage. ft.com/content/e8ca2a…
Clogged ports affecting trade between Singapore and Piraeus, Greece. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 9 tweets

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