Daniela Jampel Profile picture
May 30 14 tweets 3 min read
I spent about half an hour today chatting with a high level employee at NYCDOHMH and I'm still kind of processing it, but my main takeaway was that if we let these people continue to call the shots we are going to be dealing with restrictions for a very very very long time. 🧵
The thinking is that we don't know the long term effects of covid, so we need to continue protecting people. But won't we not know the long term effects for a very long time? Are we going to continue these restrictions for 20 years? No clear answer to that.
I asked about the cab mask mandate. I was told we need to protect people. I asked until when? Forever? No answer. I asked point blank, People think it's forever. Is it forever? No answer.
This person was desperate for the under-5 vaccine, & was happy toddlers continued to be masked. Don't you know dozens of vaccinated people who got covid, I asked. She did. So why are you so desperate for this vaccine? She told me the vaccine reduces chances of long covid. What?
But the pediatric vaccine efficacy was so low, I said. I told her that there were 0 hospitalizations in the control arm of the ped vaccine trials. She didn't know that. Wtf. This person works in public health and didn't know the ped vaccine reduced deaths from 0 to 0?
There is a continued sense of aggrievement, that we'd be in a different & better place if we had all acted properly. If we had focused on getting comfortable masks and normalized masking. According to her, wearing a mask wasn't a big deal, why couldn't more people do it?
This was actually shocking to me. We live in NYC. Everyone wore masks everywhere, even outdoors, for a year!! And now no one does, because masks suck. But according to PH, if we had just done a little better at "normalizing" masks, we'd all still be voluntarily wearing them.
But that wasn't even the most shocking part. This person was telling me, over and over again, that it was so interesting talking to me because she hadn't met a single other person with my views. She admitted she was in an echo chamber. This is a huge problem.
People in PH still think they are doing god's work, protecting people who are too dumb to make their own decisions, & if we had all just acted a little better the pandemic would be over. And they think that everyone agrees with them. It is completely divorced from reality.
And after I typed this out I read this amazing article by @VPrasadMDMPH, in which he makes the point I'm making but way more eloquently. It's normal people vs experts and the experts are really screwing this up. vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/memorial-day…
I'm adding more because I'm still processing.

Toward the end, I asked what she would like done, now. She thought for a while and said, Universal healthcare.

So yeah I definitely think that there is a sense of, The pandemic isn't over, I didn't get my post-pandemic utopia yet!
I also brought up that 20% of NYC had covid in the past two weeks. Isn't that great news?

She was not happy to hear this (again wtf why am I sharing this info with PH people). "Oh I hope that's not true. That's so sad" ....
"Why sad?" I said. "It's great news! Hospitalizations didn't go up!"

She didn't care about low hospitalizations. According to her we don't know the long-term effects of covid, and what she cared about was preventing every single infection.
When I brought up that we also don't know the long term impact of child masking, she replied that eventually there will be studies and we'll know. So congrats, parents of toddlers in NYC, your kids have been drafted into the experiment arm of this study.

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More from @daniela127

May 13
We did when instead of giving new moms paid time off to support breastfeeding, we stuck a pump in their hands and said, "You figure it out." It is now, at most, "breastMILK is best." And there is very little evidence that breastmilk is better than formula.
New moms are guaranteed time to pump at work but that time doesn't have to be paid. So a shift worker who takes 45 mins to pump, needs to stay at work 45 mins longer. Is it better to give your baby breastMILK or is it better to get home earlier and spend 45 mins with your baby?
Read 4 tweets
Mar 25
When the dust settles & we're able to have a rational convo abt closed schools & prolonged child masking, many will claim they were always against it. Luckily people like @GiniaNYT are willing to go on the record as a school closure & mask proponent. 🧵
nyti.ms/3Lhzu0i
Let's start with @GiniaNYT's article last year, in which she highlighted @drkysr, who claimed *in May 2021* that reopening schools was white supremacy. No pushback from Ginia, obviously. nytimes.com/2021/05/07/nyr…
The problem, according to @GiniaNYT was not the union's ridiculous rules (live remote instruction required only 100 mins a day; the 2 case rule). The problem was that the City failed to invest in remote learning. Can you show me a school district that "optimized remote"?
Read 11 tweets
Dec 12, 2021
Kids did everything right. They "stayed home to stay safe" (even though they were never at risk); they "masked up" (even the littlest kids, those learning how to speak & read); they got vaccinated. And we are still actively making their lives worse, smaller, because we can.
In my neighborhood, the annual (outdoor) children's Halloween parade was canceled "because COVID." Meanwhile, NYC's Village Halloween Parade went forward. npr.org/2021/10/29/104…
Everywhere you go adults are packed into bars and restaurants, eating, drinking, and socializing freely. Children sit outdoors in 40 degree weather, 6 feet apart, on buckets if they're lucky, to eat a silent lunch. If they're allowed indoors, they eat on the floor.
Read 12 tweets
Oct 27, 2021
Does anyone remember this #flattenthecurve graphic from March 2020? It's been a while so I want to revisit it. A thread.
In March 2020, we were told that we had to take extreme measures to "flatten the curve" and avoid overwhelming our hospital system. That was the goal. Eventually most of us would get covid, but we had to do what we could to avoid all getting it at the same time
And then at some point, a bunch of people decided that their personal goal was no longer communal (avoid hospital overflow) but personal: avoid getting covid, for as long as possible, possibly forever. Everyone wanted to be the person who made it through this without getting it.
Read 8 tweets
Oct 27, 2021
PSAL athletes have mandated vaccination and are still subject to arbitrary, senseless rules that are hindering their ability to compete, showcase their talent, and be recruited.

@NYCMayor can you please cha he these rules to allow our @NYCSchools
athletes to compete? 🧵
I spoke to @Coachlanese13 last night about the city's restrictions on PSAL. Right now, PSAL can only compete against other PSAL athletes. So our public school athletes cannot participate in state competitions, because athletes from other cities and towns will be there.
The city is hosting multiple state championships throughout this year. Athletes from around the state will be allowed to compete against each other, except if they go to NYC public schools. An elite NYC athlete is losing their chance to compete & to earn a state title.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 9, 2021
Ahem.

SURVEILLANCE TESTING DOES NOT KEEP SCHOOLS OPEN. IT KEEPS THEM CLOSED.

Thank you.
I honestly, and in good faith, do not understand how testing asymptomatic kids keeps schools open. Finding asymptomatic cases requires classrooms to quarantine and keeps healthy kids out of school. I am willing to entertain good faith arguments to convince me otherwise.
Read 4 tweets

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