r/news • u/TheBodyPolitic1 • May 27 '23
Tally of covid-19 cases after CDC conference climbs to 181
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/05/26/cdc-covid-outbreak/249
u/KingBretwald May 27 '23
This doesn't include any Taxi drivers, airplane passengers, waiters, hotel staff, friends or family who also got infected.
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May 27 '23
The CDC under Walensky has become a center for corporate capture, incompetency and political cowardice. I have my second covid infection after being forced back to work, crammed into close working conditions. Thanks to CDC, Covid is over and that's the logic our CEO used to bring everyone back.
She literally is sweeping Covid under the rug and setting herself up for a legacy as one of the worst public health officials in recent history. CDC is incapable of messaging common sense public health measures. Of course, Delta Airlines CEO loves her, so there's that.
The CDC statement said the findings support data that coronavirus
vaccines, antiviral treatments and immunity from previous infection
continue to provide people with protection against serious illness. It
did not reference masking.
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u/heyheyhey27 May 27 '23 edited May 27 '23
Thanks to CDC, Covid is over and that's the logic our CEO used to bring everyone back.
If they hadn't ended it, would Americans really be acting different? The CDC might be stuck between a rock and a hard place here; continuing to push Americans to mask up and minimize interaction could be throwing their political/public capital down a black hole.
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u/RawrSean May 27 '23
I see your point, and agree with it. All around me, people are increasingly “done” with Covid. So, I feel like it’s the CDCs duty to take the high ground and stand firm with public health policy, without mandates. Regardless of compliance.
The CDC should say “not wearing a mask can lead to additional risk factors surrounding the Covid 19 virus”
Rather than making it seem not useful.
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u/Ksh_667 May 27 '23
people are increasingly “done” with Covid
Not sure covid is done with us yet unfortunately.
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May 28 '23
I'm happy to sacrifice myself for the cause. Do I get some recognition for helping all those who feel too self-conscious or less manly by wearing a mask?
My team is starting to get knocked over one-by-one with Covid this week.
Fuck the CDC.
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May 28 '23
False choice. This happened because of a seriously flawed public health response that had zero media. I see an TV commercial every 5 minutes for some bullshit bent penis meds, and in 3 years I can count on one hand the number of times I saw positive messaging about masking or other common sense health measure. Fauci's press conferences DO NOT COUNT as the same thing.
Idiotic marketing and publican relations.
Seriously, I lost one close family member, now I must choose between a confrontations with Texas MAGAs for wearing a mask or choose to go face first into a disease that can permanently disable me or kill me.
So sick of the 4 dimensional chess "what else could they do?" Bullshit
Instead they made people look like freaks for wearing a mask instead of protecting our backs with positive media exposure.
CDC should show strength and conviction instead of mealy mouthed corporate double speak.
She's as dangerous and bad as the virus.
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u/GTthrowaway27 May 28 '23
Idk where you live but I saw consistent Elmo ads about washing your hands wearing mask and keeping distance. In two different states, suburban and rural. And not even on Sesame Street type channels- talking late night TV etc
I still see billboards about masks being important.
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May 28 '23
Elmo ads? Seriously? That just proves my point.
In Texas there was almost near ZERO public health messaging from CDC (or any Govt. agency, state or federal).
However, there was a lot of messaging like this. Guess who was more effective at influencing public health policy?
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u/TitsUpYo May 28 '23
Yup. The messaging should have basically remained the same, but they kept buckling under the pressure. You know it is fine to say "We are still dealing with Covid-19 and the best practice is to be vaccinated and wear a mask; however, exercise your own judgment and evaluate what your risk tolerance is for yourself and for others. If you want to forego vaccinations and wearing a mask, that's your choice at this point, but you are going against best practices."
Instead it became "Pandemic's over! Pandemic's over! Do whatever the fuck you want as long as it means getting asses into work and fuck everything else. We are tired of being bullied, so we'll just let the monkeys run the zoo and fuck the science!"
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u/morbidbutwhoisnt May 28 '23
I saw those public health messages for like a month and then never again. Why not?? Crazy
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u/PeteButtiCIAg May 27 '23
Yeah, it's hard to blame the CDC when market necessities kept society from effectively quarantining for the entirety of the "official" pandemic. The CDC is failing for the same reason the virus stayed around - unchecked corporate control.
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u/10dollarbagel May 27 '23
But that's the thing, they clearly weren't market necessities. Bosses are bringing people who can and should work remote back into the office because they crave their little fiefdoms and don't care if it literally kills people.
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May 28 '23
This isn't a struggle between two ridiculous extremes. It is about positive messaging of proven public health measures so that it isn't all or nothing. It is about backing up the people who trust science and make the sacrifice to stay safe.
Masking up has become so political against the proven science people are literally bullied into doing the wrong thing by MAGA inspired nut jobs who won't listen to reason.
I literally had people sniffing, coughing in my face at work. "Allergies". Bullshit. You know, the invincibles! The true patriots! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! MAGA Uber alles!
Nature has a way of taking care of these people, just wish it didn't cause so much collateral damage along the way.
CDC deserves every bit of scorn and shame history will one day serve up.
For the want of basic positive public health messaging, CDC let thousands needlessly get sick and die. For political expediency.
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u/psychicsword May 28 '23
At some point we need to start living again and it is hard to get people to be both afraid of a virus and willing to do life things.
When people were afraid enough about the virus they didn't just mask up in public, they stopped going out in public. They stopped going to weddings, they stopped meeting up with families, they stopped dating, and they stopped socializing.
These are not independent variables. The amount of fear that is needed to get people to wear masks in public when feeling healthy is also enough fear to get them to stop living.
Vaccines worked and hopefully they will continue to work because I need to live again. I delayed asking my current girlfriend out for 2 years because of this virus and my fear of getting it. I burned out at work dealing with pandemic issues so hard that I'm still recovering.
So if you want you can still do what and the rest of us will do what we want.
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May 28 '23
False choices, false equivalences, nothing to do with the fact that more effective CDC messaging would make sure corporations don't just jam people back to work, that they encourage masking , testing, have the resources set up, we continue to track and keep data, etc.
Option 1. "Dear employee, please stay home if you have any signs of sickness, please feel free to use these proven safe guards to help keep our employes and their families safe, masking, hand cleaner, we've provided masks, testing resources, etc, etc, etc,"
MAGA. "NO WAY! YOU ARE VIOLATING MY FREEEEEEEDOM, COVID IS FAKE"
Option 2. "Dear employee, welcome back! Masks are NOT needed! Let 'er RIP"
MAGA. "YES!!!! WE OWNED THE LIBS!"
You better be afraid of the virus. I watched someone drown to death in their own fluids from this disease.
If you won't date because you can't find anything to do other than a crowded rave during a pandemic, well I guess you deserve each other.
The USA cannot handle nuance or abstract thinking. It's winner take all or nothing.
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u/psychicsword May 28 '23 edited May 28 '23
Option 1. "Dear employee, please stay home if you have any signs of sickness, please feel free to use these proven safe guards to help keep our employes and their families safe, masking, hand cleaner, we've provided masks, testing resources, etc, etc, etc,"
That is what people are doing near me anyway? That sounds like exactly what is happening with the Covid emergency being "done".
It feels like the "cdc is being too risky crowd" near me are demanding we all still wear masks even when feeling well, no one should be in offices at all, and people should still be isolating because it isn't over. They have horse shoed their views onto the other extreme. So I'm sorry I lumped you in with radicals that say many of the same things you did.
I'm guessing you must live in a different part of the country. We don't really have MAGA here but we have a lot of "it is going to kill you and you should be scared. It will kill you. I saw someone die of it" fear mongering. If you don't think that makes people do less and skip human interactions then I have a bridge to sell you.
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May 28 '23
It feels like the "cdc is being too risky crowd" near me are demanding we all still wear masks even when feeling well, no one should be in offices at all, and people should still be isolating because it isn't over. They have horse shoed their views onto the other extreme. So I'm sorry I lumped you in with radicals that say many of the same things you did.
This is the most MAGA thing ever and exactly makes my point about unwilling to understand nuance and abstraction and public health.
MAGA always goes straight to the extremes to paint people into a corner. Nope, not playing that shit.
In Texas no company wants to say anything about good public health for fear of workplace gun violence from MAGA extremists. This is a fact. Now companies considering triage and emergency training because fucking MAGAs can't keep their shit together.
We've seen them freak out about women's health, global warming, COVID, sexual orientation, pretty much anything the advancement of science reveals as being contrary to the emotional/religious/toxic supremacist views of MAGA adherents.
Well done. MAGA owned the libs. And killed a bunch of people, and a bunch more will continue to die and be injured with one of the most expensive painful torturous diseases ever. All because we won't properly message and support the science behind good public heath. Because we are cowards and babies who can't understand nuance, cause and effect.
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u/psychicsword May 28 '23
Ah so you were talking about your own views when you said "The USA cannot handle nuance or abstract thinking. It's winner take all or nothing."
I guess because I feel that Massachusetts has people with extreme views that even most Democrats are done with they all must secretly MAGA and full of toxic hate and secretly want Trump to be their daddy.
All because we won't properly message and support the science behind good public heath. Because we are cowards and babies who can't understand nuance, cause and effect.
Cause and effect isn't just limited to the direct impact of the virus. Children did far worse in schools and entire generations are behind where they would have been without the virus and the resulting school closures that lasted for a little over an entire year. Depression skyrocketed and the loneliness epidemic is also killing people.
Those are not non-issues either and many of them don't have vaccines to reduce the societial impact of the problems.
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u/mazzicc May 27 '23
What’s amazing to me is that I’ve been to several work conferences since 2022, and not had any outbreaks definitively tied to the conference itself.
The worst was the one in Vegas where a ton of people stayed for the weekend after and then maybe 10 total people got covid, and that was early 2022 where it was still a bit questionable.
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u/St3phiroth May 28 '23
It seems to be luck of the draw. My husband went to a conference in May of 2022. Everyone had to be fully vaxxed and test negative the day prior to the conference. Most people didn't mask because it was a lot of drinks and corporate dinners and such where you can't, and everyone was vaccinated and tested negative. (Obviously negative tests are only valid in that moment, not for the full week following.) Over 75% of the people at the event tested positive for covid after it was over.
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May 27 '23
Off topic but is there a good way to bypass the soft paywall for Washingtonpost links?
Or do I just finally cave and give them my email?
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u/Significant-Dot6627 May 27 '23
Archive dot org often works or clear your cache regularly or if on iPhone, click the font icon at the top right and choose Reader View when that’s an option
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May 27 '23
Oh l will have to try archive, thanks. Unfortunately I use Firefox on Android so no reader mode that I'm aware of
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u/deftoner42 May 27 '23
Make a burner email for things like that
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May 27 '23
Yeah I was just not even wanting to give them my burner email lol. I think I just need a couple burner emails
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u/Heiferoni May 27 '23
In times of rampant disinformation and misinformation, it's a huge disservice to sequester good reporting behind a paywall.
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u/zumera May 27 '23
Refusing to ever pay for news is exactly how we get “journalism” that doesn’t care about fact or reality.
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u/Heiferoni May 27 '23
I completely agree with you. Unfortunately paywalls leave a vacuum that's filled with complete trash.
The people who need good, trustworthy journalism the most are the ones who can't afford it/won't pay for it. The class divide deepens.
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May 27 '23
I agree. I wanted to see if this is a new strain or what. I am not sure why Washingtonpost links are allowed with their paywall but that's another rant for another day lol
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u/warren_stupidity May 27 '23
Sure. Now explain how news organizations survive financially.
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u/SicilyMalta May 28 '23
I donate to The Guardian. Everyone who can afford it should do so because it does not have a paywall.
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u/Heiferoni May 27 '23
I'm afraid I don't have an answer. It's clearly a difficult problem.
It doesn't make what I said any less true.
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u/warren_stupidity May 27 '23
Sure it does. Physical Newspapers have all but disappeared. Aggregators like google news and Facebook have undermined attempts to generate ad revenue from open online websites. The survivors like NYT and WaPo are surviving through a combination of subscription paywalls and ad revenue from their websites. They cannot make their news and provide for free.
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u/Heiferoni May 27 '23
I agree with you.
And locking reliable journalism behind a paywall excludes the people who need it the most, leaving them vulnerable to whatever free garbage is left out there.
The people who can afford good journalism get reliable news.
The people who can't get misled by free, ad supported trash and vote for people we don't like.
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u/warren_stupidity May 27 '23
I also agree with you that it is a problem. I just don't see any good solutions. Unfortunately the subsidies for 'free' news are coming from the fascist faction of the ruling class.
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u/10dollarbagel May 27 '23
This is legitimately hilarious. You had me going in the first half, not gonna lie.
There is rampant disinformation and I guess your solution is journalists do hard work for free and what, hope that all the money they need for food and rent magically falls out of the sky? The shameless sense of entitlement from redditors to the labor of journalists is truly wild.
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u/Heiferoni May 27 '23
No. There are more nuanced approaches.
NPR has figured out how to balance voluntary membership while serving everyone. I hear their staff earn enough to pay their bills.
I listen to Sam Harris, and while his podcast is paywalled, if someone sends a request, they're granted free access. Sam is making money hand over fist while turning no one away.
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u/10dollarbagel May 27 '23 edited May 27 '23
NPR has figured out how to balance voluntary membership while serving everyone. I hear their staff earn enough to pay their bills.
Who'd you hear that from? Probably not NPR seeing as they just laid off 10% of their total staff
Edit: Well so much for nuance, I guess. Time to pack it in and be confidently wrong somewhere else.
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u/finalremix May 27 '23
I use Bypass Paywalls Clean, but it got removed from the android repo in February, because... well, money, most likely.
Info here, since you can still install it.: https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B
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u/hurrrrrmione May 28 '23
12ft.io sometimes works for me, although other times it just repeatedly gives me a "request timed out" error message
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u/nonemoreunknown May 28 '23
I'm always looking for a go-to example to describe irony to people. Thanks.
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u/Scnewbie08 May 28 '23
They work for the CDC and they went into a building with 1400 other people from around the US and they didn’t think to mask? I’m very concerned.
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u/mysecondaccountanon May 27 '23
The CDC just is the CD at this point - Centers for Disease. Thanks CDC for making us disabled Americans have a significantly harder life and okaying killing us!!
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u/Hard2Handl May 27 '23
I worked in public health, pre-COVID.
Nothing is so fitting. The CDC is confidence-destroying organization.
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u/PensiveinNJ May 28 '23
They were just trying to control the disease by absorbing all the virus themselves. Brilliant work by our mainline policy makers.
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u/EmotionalAd5920 May 27 '23
and this is exactly as it should be. the crisis part and the extreme measures were because we didnt know what the best course of action was. i am under reacting to this? covid isnt an issue anymore.
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u/Upperliphair May 27 '23 edited May 27 '23
Covid is still killing about 1,000 Americans a week. That much community transmission is not great, but it’s especially not great in a country with no guaranteed sick or family leave.
Not to mention it makes public spaces dangerous and potentially inaccessible for disabled and at risk Americans.
So, yes. Either you’re underreacting, or you have a concerning disregard for the people around you.
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u/crummynubs May 27 '23
Covid is still killing about 1,000 Americans a day
Can you provide a source on that? Tracking websites have it under 100 per day
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u/TheBodyPolitic1 May 28 '23 edited May 28 '23
You changed the quote, it is about 1,000 deaths a week, (not a "day" as you wrote ) and here is your source
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u/Upperliphair May 27 '23
Several states are no longer tracking or reporting deaths. Iowa, Florida, and I think Mississippi, so the numbers for the last month or so are artificially low.
Even still, assuming 100 a day....that’s not great.
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u/crummynubs May 27 '23
100 a day is flu numbers.
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u/Upperliphair May 27 '23
During flu season. And that was only “acceptable” because it was the only disease regularly killing that many people.
We’ve now twice as many people dying, from viruses that are easily prevented by basic precautions.
Meaning public gathers are now twice as dangerous.
In other words, covid being “just another flu” is not comforting whatsoever. Our world is forever changed by this.
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u/dghughes May 27 '23
Sars-CoV-2 isn't the flu its effects aka covid are different than flu much worse. You may after an infection suffer long-term damage to the lungs, heart, kidneys, brain. Long covid is another possibility. Most people except vulnerable like babies and elderly can get over the flu is over in about three days.
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u/IKilledLauraPalmer May 27 '23
Totally agree. The risk profile is entirely different than it was in 2020/2021. This will likely continue to happen from time to time, but it is no longer worth taking extreme precaution as a matter of course.
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May 27 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/mdtopp111 May 27 '23
Literally. Take precautions when traveling and if you feel ill, stay home. It’s as simple as that now (unless you’re not vaccinated, in which case pay attention to your healthy closesly)
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May 27 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Gretchenmeows May 27 '23
I am currently recovering from Covid and it is not just another flu. I'm 29 and otherwise perfectly healthy and it still landed me in the emergency department last Monday. More people need to care about it.
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u/mczmczmcz May 27 '23
Okay. The virus is never going away. Can we please move on with our lives? Jesus Christ.
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u/TK442211 May 28 '23
Who would’ve thunk it? Getting sick after physically attending a conference hosted by an organization with “Disease” in its name.
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u/pegothejerk May 27 '23
Some stats for this conference and the findings:
Among 1,443 survey respondents (over 80% of the in-person attendees):
181 (13%) respondents reported testing positive for SARS-CoV-2
Of those who reported testing positive, 52% reported no known prior COVID-19 infection
1,435 (99.4%) of respondents reported at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose
49 (27%) of the respondents who tested positive received antiviral medications
70% of respondents reported not wearing a mask; the event coincided with a period of low COVID-19 Community Levels, where masking is not recommended in CDC guidance
None were hospitalized
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/s0526-eis.html