Appreciate the revisit of this topic, this post sits a lot better than the first one. A couple things:
- IMO contact tracing is probably a lost cause. But rapid, at-home, preferably free tests are not. The government needs to get that going yesterday. That --along with vaccines being available for all age groups-- is our way out of this.
- For the most part, I think the health agencies (CDC, FDA, so on) mean well, but their guidance has seemed confused. This is especially true when they try to adjust guidance based on how they think people will act, e.g. in early 2020 when they fibbed and said masks weren't effective in an effort to prevent a shortage (good article: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-masks-and-the-experts). They should be straight with the public at all times- say what they currently know based on science and that the science might change. It's not wrong or inconsistent to have different recommendations for the delta variant vs OG COVID-- but until more recently they did a fairly bad job of explaining that.
Thanks, Snorf. You're probably right about contact tracing, but free rapid at-home tests is a terrific idea. We could make some gains with that, no doubt. I just don't know that we have the political will or savvy to make it so. As for agency messaging being a problem, absolutely. I think it's really been a factor in disintegrating public trust. Being straight-up and admitting error would help.
Very well-said. The fact that many people conflate any mistrust of "the experts" on this issue with being a wild-eyed maniac who thinks that the vaccine is going to make their testicles the size of oranges or let Bill Gates beam thoughts into their heads or turn them into Magneto or whatever delusion springs up among them next is deeply depressing. Overall people seem to have forgotten how to engage in any degree of nuance.
Beware pinning all your hopes on double jabbing everyone and the world will be normal again. I was double jabbed and caught it at a family funeral. Just give up let everyone get it and move on like a worse kinda flu. and deal with the consequences. It's not Ebola and 99.9% people will be fine after covid
May i add that I did 4 lateral flow tests after close contact with the people that gave me covid and they were all negative so don't rely on that either. The PCR showed a positive 3 hours after a negative lateral flow
I think it's important to keep in mind the logistical differences of kids unmasking around people they want to be around, and kids unmasking around the people they have to be around. When you unmask around family and friends, that potential spread is far more confined to the circles that those people willingly occupy. The intersection of those circles is more limited, but of course it does exist still. However, school is a massive melting pot of social circles, it stands to reason that the risk for rapid spread is much greater there.
I have no data to back this up, it's just the logical thread I've followed.
Appreciate the revisit of this topic, this post sits a lot better than the first one. A couple things:
- IMO contact tracing is probably a lost cause. But rapid, at-home, preferably free tests are not. The government needs to get that going yesterday. That --along with vaccines being available for all age groups-- is our way out of this.
- For the most part, I think the health agencies (CDC, FDA, so on) mean well, but their guidance has seemed confused. This is especially true when they try to adjust guidance based on how they think people will act, e.g. in early 2020 when they fibbed and said masks weren't effective in an effort to prevent a shortage (good article: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-masks-and-the-experts). They should be straight with the public at all times- say what they currently know based on science and that the science might change. It's not wrong or inconsistent to have different recommendations for the delta variant vs OG COVID-- but until more recently they did a fairly bad job of explaining that.
Thanks, Snorf. You're probably right about contact tracing, but free rapid at-home tests is a terrific idea. We could make some gains with that, no doubt. I just don't know that we have the political will or savvy to make it so. As for agency messaging being a problem, absolutely. I think it's really been a factor in disintegrating public trust. Being straight-up and admitting error would help.
Very well-said. The fact that many people conflate any mistrust of "the experts" on this issue with being a wild-eyed maniac who thinks that the vaccine is going to make their testicles the size of oranges or let Bill Gates beam thoughts into their heads or turn them into Magneto or whatever delusion springs up among them next is deeply depressing. Overall people seem to have forgotten how to engage in any degree of nuance.
Thanks Essex! Yeah nuance is just one of many casualties of our current social media fueled culture wars. RIP nuance, we barely knew ye.
Beware pinning all your hopes on double jabbing everyone and the world will be normal again. I was double jabbed and caught it at a family funeral. Just give up let everyone get it and move on like a worse kinda flu. and deal with the consequences. It's not Ebola and 99.9% people will be fine after covid
May i add that I did 4 lateral flow tests after close contact with the people that gave me covid and they were all negative so don't rely on that either. The PCR showed a positive 3 hours after a negative lateral flow
I think it's important to keep in mind the logistical differences of kids unmasking around people they want to be around, and kids unmasking around the people they have to be around. When you unmask around family and friends, that potential spread is far more confined to the circles that those people willingly occupy. The intersection of those circles is more limited, but of course it does exist still. However, school is a massive melting pot of social circles, it stands to reason that the risk for rapid spread is much greater there.
I have no data to back this up, it's just the logical thread I've followed.