Excellent overview.
So much of what we have done throughout the pandemic — the excessive hygiene theater and the failure to integrate ventilation and filters into our basic advice — has greatly hampered our response. Some of it, like the way we underused or even shut down outdoor space, isn’t that different from the 19th-century Londoners who flushed the source of their foul air into the Thames and made the cholera epidemic worse.
The problem with the CDC was for more than the last 1.5 years it became a heavily politicized organization which wasn’t science driven anymore. I heard through discussions that (not unlike many other government-related/associated organization) the CDC had some significant changes early on in the Trump era (not all if them at the top but also at lower but still critical level) which pretty much prohibited any science-driven decision-making (including determination that Covid is airborne related and many other topics (also outside of infectious diseases). It is not a coincidence that Eric Landers is now overseeing anything science-related and that he is now working on the cabinet-level
I think Zeynep Tufekci’s NY Time piece makes a strong case that politics was not a primary reason for the prolonged fixation of the CDC and WHO on droplet transmission. And the CDC’s problems predated Trump.
I am not sure if I agree with him on this topic
Agree
(She’s one of my favorite science writers and is skilled at making complex information accessible without dumbing it down.)
Did you actually read the article? In many ways the CDC scientists prioritized experimental over empirical data and let their prejudices blind them to reality. There’s nothing political about that.
These recommendations would be more grounded in science if anywhere close to 10 percent of Covid transmission were occurring outdoors. But it is not. There is not a single documented Covid infection anywhere in the world from casual outdoor interactions, such as walking past someone on a street or eating at a nearby table.
… some 30 million American adults who are open to getting a Covid vaccine have not yet managed to actually do so. Their ranks are larger than the hesitant — more than the 28 million who said they would probably or definitely not get vaccinated, and than the 16 million who said they were unsure. … They are, for the most part, America’s working class, contending with jobs and family obligations that make for scarce discretionary time.
In related news, you can now get vaccinated in the NYC subway, and (here’s the surprising part) people actually are.
Makes sense, loys of busy working people are there anyway.
News of the usual demographic imbalance in social circumstances, this time in the percentage of people who’ve been vaccinated, is, sadly, not a surprise.
I’ll also comment that, following the example of NYC vaccinating in subway stations, sites set up in similarly public, daily-life, routinely visited places, with good hours for everyone (maybe 24/7), would surely help in any community or city.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden administration’s senior adviser on the pandemic, said … “You can’t inhibit people from doing the things they want to do, which is one of the reasons they wanted to get vaccinated in the first place, because other people are not getting vaccinated."
I’ll be wearing a mask for the foreseeable future.
So, who do we trust on this? The CDC or a poll of epidemiologists? It’s certainly not clear at this point. In the past I’d have immediately said “the CDC, of course”, but not so much anymore. In any case, I no longer personally feel the need to wear a mask outdoors, except in a crowd. Maybe not even in a crowd to protect myself, but wearing one in those circumstances to protect others in case I’m asymptomatic (and to make others in the crowd feel more comfortable), even though I’m fully vaccinated and 14+.
Ultimately its your own decision if you want to wear mask for a longer period of time to protect you. I think the current cases with the MLB Yankees team is a good reminder that vaccines don’t provide a complete protection from Covid (but a high likelihood of protection from death and hospitalization). And so depending on your own circumstances it might be beneficial to continue wearing mask, e.g. kids not vaccinated yet etc. In addition, I think that still wearing a mask in public is a support of those who aren’t vaccinated yet.
At this point I’m opting for caution: for my safety and that of others.
Add in the stuff with the Yankees breakthrough cases, the new Indian variant and what’s happening with that in the UK, and … I just don’t feel comfortable being around others, vaccinated or not.
Maybe I’m too pessimistic.
I don’t know.
But I am discomforted by the CDC decision and lack confidence in the logic/motivation behind it.
Also what makes the CDC think anti-vaxxers will keep masks on in public? most of them are anti-masks too…
Given everything I know at the moment, there’s no rational reason for me to wear a mask, and performing irrational hygiene theater pisses me off.
If some people choose not to get vaccinated, wear masks, or take other rational steps to avoid infection, well, it’s a free country. When those people are the only ones getting hospitalized and dying, maybe they’re reconsider.
That’s exactly why I don’t understand the decision from CDC at this point. Nobody can/will control if somebody without a mask was vaccinated or not which ultimately will mean that a lot of not vaccinated people will from now on run around without mask in public and potentially infect people who aren’t vaccinated yet or can’t get vaccinated yet, e.g. kids under 12. Overall stupid and unnecessary decision.