Thread: Public Comment on HICPAC Concerns 🧵

1/ I’m here not to address HICPAC directly, but to speak to those listening—healthcare professionals, patients, and advocates—who are committed to public health and safety.

Let me highlight several critical concerns. 2/ Members of HICPAC and the organizations they represent have significant financial conflicts of interest.

This issue, documented in a complaint submitted to the HHS Office of Inspector General, raises serious questions about the integrity of their guidance.

"Prevention of COVID-19 is of utmost importance. For several years, many in our society largely based their COVID recommendations on a one infection and done strategy. We now know that many are coming down with multiple bouts of the disease.1/
kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/… "We were told that severe outcomes were hospitalization and death, otherwise you had a mild disease. Now we are faced with crippling long COVID which has ravaged many in our society. In the United Kingdom, long COVID affects as many as 33.6% of healthcare workers.
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Effective Oct 1, 2024-March 31, 2025, NJ Hackensack Meridian Health is requiring all patients, visitors and staff wear masks during patient encounters at all of its patient care facilities (e.g. hospitals, physician offices, rehabilitation facilities, etc)
hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/patients-an…
About Hackensack Meridian Health

"...a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.
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What if schools could prevent sick days, teacher shortages and lost IQ points? A new COVID safety course lights the way

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via @ABCaustraliaabc.net.au/news/2024-09-2… "As a parent, I want my son to be safe at school, so that was a key part of my motivation to do this," says Mr Kinner, the Brisbane creator of COVID Safety for Schools, a free online course that aims to correct misinformation and teach school staff and parents how to reduce ..
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Mask bans are dumb, dangerous | Editorial

"What if a troublemaker simply decides to disguise his face with large sunglasses and a hat, instead? Are we going to criminalize sunglasses and hats, too?
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nj.com/opinion/2024/0… "Even with an exception for people who wear masks for medical reasons, it’s a threat to personal freedoms, because it leaves it up to the cops to decide whether someone has a legitimate medical reason for wearing a mask at a public gathering.
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As COVID Surges, the High Price of Viral Denial @TheTyee
"Although the media routinely dismisses all COVID infections as an inconsequential nuisance, that’s not what the science says.
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thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/… "An important new Nature study, for example, has now proven that the spike protein of the virus can bind with a blood protein, fibrin, setting off a chain of blood clots resulting in chronic inflammation and brain damage.

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Town urges curfew over mosquito-spread disease that kills up to 50% of people

Eastern Equine Encephalitis is very rare in the US, but when it strikes, it's bad.

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arstechnica.com/science/2024/0… "A small town in Massachusetts is urging residents to stay indoors in the evenings after the spread of a dangerous mosquito-spread virus reached "critical risk level" The virus causes Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), which kills between 30 and 50 % of people who are stricken 2/

No Amount of Hand-Washing Can Make COVID-19 a Seasonal Virus

"The selection of words modulates the message...terms such as “seasonal”, “like a cold”, and “like the flu” can be selected by writers to...lull the reader into a false sense of security...

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whn.global/scientific/no-… "COVID-19 is not primarily a respiratory infection. This virus can cause a systemic disease with far-reaching effects on the body, particularly blood vessels. Once SARS-CoV-2 enters the body, the virus can affect the ...blood vessels, causing inflammation and damage.
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The Risks of Killing a COVID Early Warning System via @TheTyee

"In Ontario, the government is rolling back its detection program. Doctors are speaking out about what’s at stake.
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thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/… "COVID-19 is surging in parts of North America and Europe, and even played a role in ending the presidential campaign of 81-year-old Joe Biden, who was infected for the 3rd time last month.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday the Ontario government shut down its early warning system. 2/

With Millions Suffering, Long COVID is Devastating the Economy

"Over 15 million American adults—about 1 in 17—are currently living with long COVID, according to the CDC. While some have tried to claim that long COVID is gradually...
1/
by @SalvMattera
whn.global/with-millions-… "...getting better, there’s not much evidence to suggest that’s the case. In fact, since the CDC began tracking long COVID in 2022, more than 5% of American adults have consistently reported long COVID symptoms at any given time."

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Long Covid expert: all infections have "prolonged consequences"
"If it seems like everyone you know is sicker now than ever before, it's not just your imagination. A recent analysis by Bloomberg and Airfinity revealed...13 communicable diseases...
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boingboing.net/2024/06/20/lon… "—including tuberculosis, measles, pertussis, polio, influenza, RSV, chickenpox, invasive group A streptococcus, mycoplasma pneumoniae, parvovirus B19, dengue, and cholera—are "surging past pre-pandemic levels in regions across the world."
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Blood–brain barrier disruption...with long COVID-associated cognitive impairment

"Using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, we show BBB disruption in patients with long COVID-associated brain fog.

nature.com/articles/s4159…
"brain regions with reduced volume in patients with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection"

Important News from CDC on HICPAC Infection Control recommendations:

"Based on the significant interest in the draft recommendations, CDC is taking a proactive step of communicating back to HICPAC some initial questions and comments...
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blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare… "In addition, CDC is working to expand the scope of technical backgrounds of participants on the HICPAC Isolation Guideline Workgroup .. in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) regulations and guidance.
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"Long Covid: NHS legal action launched by family of girl

"The mother of an 11-year-old Aberdeenshire girl with long Covid has launched a legal action against their health board, in what lawyers claim is the first case of its kind in Scotland.
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bbc.com/news/uk-scotla… "Helen Goss, from Westhill, is seeking damages from NHS Grampian on behalf of her daughter, Anna Hendy.
"The action claims the health board is responsible for "multiple failings" in Anna's treatment and care.
"NHS Grampian said it would not comment on individual patient cases.
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Handwashing, Gloves, and Masks: Oh My!
In 1847, German obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis saw that obstetric patients died of childbed fever at a much higher rate than those treated by midwives...he suggested to his colleagues that they wash their hands
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whn.global/handwashing-gl… ..before examining their new mother patients. His idea was ridiculed and ignored. Patients continued to suffer unnecessary illness and death until Louis Pasteur’s experimental confirmation of germ theory in 1861 was disseminated and accepted in the medical community. ..
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"Covid is everywhere, and I’m wearing a mask again – why is that so weird?

"Spain has made mask wearing mandatory in hospitals and health settings as the country faces a wave of Covid and flu infections. A junior doctor says she thinks Britain should do the same

1/ "As of this week, masks are mandatory in Spain’s hospitals&health centres as the country experiences a surge in Covid, flu & other illnesses. As the UK navigates a similar surge this winter, Chidera Ota, 29, explains why she’s started wearing a mask while out and about.

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"What Companies Can Do Against Long Covid
By Britta Domke

"Many companies are overlooking the significant risk posed by Long Covid, a decision that could have serious repercussions. With a few targeted measures, it's possible to make workplaces largely safe from coronavirus. 1/ "Deserted workplaces, everyone's out with Corona: For businesses, this wave of illness often translates into considerable revenue losses.
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New from Canada:

Canadian adults testing positive or suspected COVID-19 by June 2023 is 64%, 45% one infection, 14% two, 5% three or more. Likely underestimated

1 in 9 (11.7%) reported long-term symptoms, nearly 1 in 5 (19.0%) of those infected.

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www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quoti… Of those still having long-term symptoms, 79% had them for six months or more, including 42% for one year or more. Those who reported a resolution of long-term symptoms, 74% had them for fewer than six months, and 93% experienced them for less than a year.

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Work From Home: A 21st Century Revolution

Work From Home (WFH) is now mainstream. Office occupancies rebounded since the beginning of the pandemic, but current data shows occupancy has only reached 50% and is declining in certain cities

New Report ⬇️
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whn.global/newsletter/wor… The pandemic propelled Work From Home (WFH) into the mainstream as the risk of infection drove individuals, employers, and governments to adopt WFH when hospitalizations and deaths were skyrocketing.

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Important news on infections and safety in Healthcare:

HICPAC is the subject of Gross Misconduct Complaint filed with HHS Inspector General against HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, CDC Director Mandy Cohen, HICPAC Federal Officer Alexander Kallen. 1/

whn.global/hhs-complaint-…
Background:

The membership composition of CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Advisory Committee (HICPAC) currently stands in violation of the Federal Advisory Committees Act (FACA) and the Committee’s own Charter and has been in violation for a number of years.  2/

Something must be happening now when a three year old paper about pervasive damage from COVID to blood vessels in children is suddenly in the news. This damage has many consequences that appear over time.

When will people act?

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Report:
thesun.co.uk/health/2451937… "Blood vessels are channels that carry essential nutrients, like oxygen, to all the organs in the body. They also carry waste products away.

"Damaged blood vessels can cause blood clots, ‘leaky’ vessels and reduced blood flow

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