I need someone to explain this to me: the concern was that mandating masks would reduce the confidence that things higher on the hierarchy of controls were not effective. Well, let’s see:
They did not eliminate SARS-CoV-2 from workplaces, so that level is infective 1/
They couldn’t replace SARS-CoV-2 with a less harmful virus, so Substitution is ineffective 2/
They didn’t ensure the ventilation and filtration of air was optimized to remove SARS-CoV-2 and plexiglass barriers installed do not sufficiently block aerosols, so engineering controls are ineffective 3/
Their administrative controls were social distancing, sanitizing surfaces and handwashing, which are not super helpful for airborne contaminants, so that was ineffective 4/
It seems like concerns that those controls were ineffective would have been *true*. That means implementing PPE to protect workers?
Oh, they didn’t do that… because they preferred that workers not be alerted that the higher levels of controls were insufficient? Seems bad. /end
*ineffective… but also infective 🙃
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I don’t know why, but today I’ve been thinking about the bad faith politicians who claim, falsely, that healthcare is failing because of the HCWs who couldn’t work due to vaccine mandates while nobody in power stands up for the HCWs who can’t work and are disabled by long COVID
Colleges, associations and medical leaders are mostly silent on this, while I know so many excellent doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals who are devastated to not be able to help patients because they are too sick themselves
They will comment on the system failures, the short staffing, the lack of resources, the burnout, but never long COVID, because that means admitting that healthcare workers are *still being disabled NOW* by complete removal of safety measures in hospitals.
It’s so wild to me that the Tokyo Olympics were postponed and held without audiences because everyone was concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on athletes and visitors and then this time they just weren’t worried about it. So a bunch of athletes and visitors just got COVID-19.
In 2021, vaccines were widely available, people wore masks, but new variants continued to circulate. Now in 2024, vaccines are less available, people don’t wear masks, so many more new variants are circulating and we know more much more about the bad long-term impacts.
They keep calling it the first post-COVID Olympics and it’s got way more COVID than any other Olympics before it.
I think it's time to write an explainer about air quality ratings and what they actually mean!
This will detail: 1. Particulate counts 2. US Air Quality Index (AQI) 3. Canada's Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) 4. What this actually means for our health
🧵
1. Particulate counts
PM2.5 refers to tiny particles equal to or less than 2 microns (μm) in diameter. These are very tiny particles that are so small that they can get stuck deep in your lungs. Measuring the amount in a space can be shown in µg/m³ or ppm.
2. US AQI
The US AQI takes the measurements of Ozone, particulate matter (PM) , carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) to come up with a 0-500 rating representing overall air quality. They are grouped into 6 categories to make general statements.
Reminders:
- Kids don’t need to get sick to be healthy
- Viruses are bad. They can cause damage to our bodies+long-term issues
- The need you think kids have, to get exposed to germs to teach their immune system, is what vaccines are for
- COVID is worse than many other viruses
This was prompted by a convo I had with a friend’s family member today when she asked me about my mask and why my friend’s family wears them. We had spent chatted a bit before about music and her being a band teacher and I showed her how to cool her townhouse with multiple fans.
We had a good rapport and she seemed to take what I had said very seriously. I also emphasized that I had learned a lot from my friend, and that her expertise and knowledge was very important and relevant. I hope she sees my friend’s efforts in a new light.
Something I learned by getting to know people over the past year and them getting to know me is that people who don’t pay attention to Covid or the climate crisis or any of the other existential concerns we face are extremely concerned about stuff that I never worry about 1/
People are worried their kids getting abducted inside indoor recreation facilities, homeless people being dangerous, sunscreen toxins, not being able to to find camp for their kids over the summer, whether their kitchen renovation will still be on trend 2/
I’ve read and learned about a lot of stuff so I know that most children are harmed by adults they know and things in sunscreen aren’t necessarily harmful because they sound like something else that is harmful. I know that homeless folks are just people who don’t have homes 3/
Reminder that McKinsey also came up with “economic endemicity” aka the “move to endemic” and other such rhetorical tools for the manufactured end of COVID. That’s why there’s now always more COVID than “during COVID”
McKinsey helping governments “solve” their pandemic spending problems with justifications for the end of COVID protections was just another part of their role in marginalizing the working class for the benefit of their corporate clients
It’s worked so well that the majority of people now *refuse* to take steps to protect themselves from contracting COVID, let alone demanding their governments and healthcare providers take reasonable steps to prioritize public health and infectious disease control