I wanted to address some questions about my recent piece on a retracted college recommendation letter. Our Lady of Mercy president Pam Baker has contacted staff and Mercy alums, claiming the article contained falsehoods and misinformation. 1) First, Pam Baker declined multiple requests at an interview. No one from Mercy agreed to be interviewed. Instead, a spokesperson talked to me via phone, then sent a list of statements related to individual points I was raising. They would not agree to a follow-up conversation. 2)

ROC tweeps: health commissioner Dr Michael Mendoza broke some real news on Connections today. My colleagues will have more later for @WXXINews.

But to sum up: big news on rapid testing.

1) Mendoza says that a while back, Monroe county put in a big order for rapid Covid test kits. The goal was to have the supply before Thanksgiving.

Didn’t happen. New goal is before Christmas.

2)

One more point:

There is a growing nihilism that I find dangerous. "Delta is too contagious; we can't make a difference; stop looking for villains."

It's not about finding "villains." We should be kind, and understand that some mitigation measures are buying time for hospitals.

https://twitter.com/evandawson/status/1425801628284825601

From Yong:

"Louisiana, Florida, Ark, Miss, Bama, Mizzou show that Delta is capable of inundating hospitals, especially in largely unvaccinated communities...Health-care workers are burning out and facing a backlog of sick patients whose care was deferred during previous surges."

Short thread about whether vaccinated people can transmit Delta to others. Too often I'm hearing, "Vaccinated people can transmit just like unvaccinated people." This is, for the most part, wrong.

1) The best data we have indicates that if you are vaccinated, and become infected, you will be able to transmit this virus to others... only for a very short window. Despite what has been (mis)reported, this does not equate to vaxed people spreading Delta like unvaxed people.

2)

A Friday plea for kindness and empathy.

On this (really absurd) ongoing debate about masking.

1) If you have actually felt anger when you see someone wearing a mask, you have been suckered by the culture wars. You have been duped by Tucker Carlson and his ilk. You have been stoked into exactly the kind of rage that George Carlin often warned about.

2)

Got maybe the best email I've received in about a year today. Just at the right time.

Host 500 hours of live radio per year and you will get plenty of haters (easy to disregard), criticism (helpful), and trolls (annoying).

Then you get an email like this:

1) A nurse explained that a Black couple came in for vaccines. She writes:

"While my patient wasn't particularly into getting his vaccine, his girlfriend enthusiastically shared that she was all signed up and couldn't wait to get hers...

2)

Can I vent a bit?

Check out how Bari opens her post and her piece. "Everyone knows" something is wrong. Everyone.

Bari likes to complain that The Left demands ideological conformity, total agreement.

She's doing the same here.

1)

https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1362883819808772098

Bari is saying, effectively, "Everyone MUST agree with me. If you don't, you are morally deficient, backward, or corrupt. You can not have integrity. You can not simply hold a different view."

I see this kind of attitude a lot these days!

2)

On November 2nd, a short thread on the difference between Biden support and Trump support.

1) Last winter, I had a hard time finding any actual Biden Democrats. It was easy to find enthusiastic Sanders supporters; Buttigieg supporters; Warren supporters. Even Klobuchar. Biden, whew, that was not easy.

(But I found a few! Thanks @BurdsIVue and @SFrankel2015)

2)

On Friday I was out sick for the second time in seven years.

This pandemic is messing with us, and making for some very hard situations.

1) On Thursday night I went out to dinner for the first time since February. Went to Supernatural Lake, outside, wide open space and air. Big tables.

The entire drive down to dinner, I wondered: Is my neck fat?

I mean, I ran five miles today!

Something was weird.

2)

A brief thread about hydroxychloroquine, from the perspective of a journalist.

And from the perspective of someone who knows someone fighting for their life with COVID.

1) 2) My parents' next-door neighbor is on a ventilator, fighting to survive. Came down with COVID more than a week ago.

His condition deteriorated quickly. Doctors decided to try a few things, including hydroxychloroquine.

It's all about buy-in now. We have work to do! You might think, "I'm staying home. I'm doing my part." But you have friends or relatives who are resisting.

I suck at math, so here is some basic stuff that helped me. Maybe it will help them! 1) 2) "There are ten cases today. This is a big town! Ten cases is not the end of the world!"

Without physical distancing, cases double every 3 days.

In one month, 10 cases becomes... 10,240. (!)

I hope you'll check out our @WXXINews story on how a local suburban district handled a Black History Month project that went wrong. I want to provide a little background.

(Thread.)

wxxinews.org/post/pittsford… 2) Pittsford is one of the highly ranked districts in New York State. Like many suburban districts, it's mostly white: 78% white students, and 99.4% white teachers, according to the latest numbers we have.

There are 481 teachers in the district. 478 are white. One is black.

Excuse this thread. Here's a central question regarding health care in the United States.

If your deductible is $6,000, do you actually have health insurance?

NPR reports that high deductibles cost lives. People don't go to the doctor, or go too late.

npr.org/sections/healt… 2) How many people have high-deductible plans, you ask?

CDC says that in 2016, 39% of Americans with private plans were on high deductibles.

By 2018, the number had risen to 43%.

We're on track to have half the insured country on high deductibles.