#Public Health Emergency

[thoughtportal]

Public Health Emergency ends.

Ventilation in Buildings

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html

[gwydionmisha]

Never forget that Antivaxxers have killed children with their lies before in Samoa 80ish miles to the west recently.

[foulwitchknight]

CW:overdose

[hislop3]

Unprecedented Spike in Cancer Deaths: New Study Reveals Alarming Trend - Friday Feature

TGIF! I’m going to take the bulk of my day today away from work. I’m hoping to spend the afternoon with my wife, running errands and then catching dinner somewhere. Before I step away, an interesting article on increased cancer deaths between 2021 and 2022 caught my attention. In doing a bit of research, an article by the same authors on cancer deaths in the U.K. (United Kingdom) across the same…

[uboat53]

Wow, Gorsuch went hard on this one. He's not wrong, though.

"The current border crisis is not a COVID crisis... Courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort. ... The States may question whether the government followed the right administrative steps before issuing this decision (an issue on which I express no view). But they do not seriously dispute that the public-health justification undergirding the Title 42 orders has lapsed."

Source

[alwaysbewoke]

AGAIN?!?!?

[tomorrowusa]

Four years ago today (March 13th), then President Donald Trump got around to declaring a national state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration had been downplaying the danger to the United States for 51 days since the first US infection was confirmed on January 22nd.

From an ABC News article dated 25 February 2020...

CDC warns Americans of 'significant disruption' from coronavirus

Until now, health officials said they'd hoped to prevent community spread in the United States. But following community transmissions in Italy, Iran and South Korea, health officials believe the virus may not be able to be contained at the border and that Americans should prepare for a "significant disruption." This comes in contrast to statements from the Trump administration. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Tuesday the threat to the United States from coronavirus "remains low," despite the White House seeking $1.25 billion in emergency funding to combat the virus. Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC’s Kelly Evans on “The Exchange” Tuesday evening, "We have contained the virus very well here in the U.S." [ ... ] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the request "long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency." She also accused President Trump of leaving "critical positions in charge of managing pandemics at the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security vacant." "The president's most recent budget called for slashing funding for the Centers for Disease Control, which is on the front lines of this emergency. And now, he is compounding our vulnerabilities by seeking to ransack funds still needed to keep Ebola in check," Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday morning. "Our state and local governments need serious funding to be ready to respond effectively to any outbreak in the United States. The president should not be raiding money that Congress has appropriated for other life-or-death public health priorities." She added that lawmakers in the House of Representatives "will swiftly advance a strong, strategic funding package that fully addresses the scale and seriousness of this public health crisis." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also called the Trump administration's request "too little too late." "That President Trump is trying to steal funds dedicated to fight Ebola -- which is still considered an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- is indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren't taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be," Schumer said in a statement.

A reminder that Trump had been leaving many positions vacant – part of a Republican strategy to undermine the federal government.

Here's a picture from that ABC piece from a nearly empty restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown. The screen displays a Trump tweet still downplaying COVID-19 with him seeming more concerned about the effect of the Dow Jones on his re-election bid.

People were not buying Trump's claims but they were buying PPE.

I took this picture at CVS on February 26th that year.

The stock market which Trump in his February tweet claimed looked "very good" was tanking on March 12th – the day before his state of emergency declaration.

Trump succeeded in sending the US economy into recession much faster than George W. Bush did at the end of his term – quite a feat!. (As an aside, every recession in the US since 1981 has been triggered by Republican presidents.)

Of course Trump never stopped trying to downplay the pandemic nor did he ever take responsibility for it. The US ended up with the highest per capita death rate of any technologically advanced country.

Precious time was lost while Trump dawdled. Orange on this map indicates COVID infections while red indicates COVID deaths. At the time Trump declared a state of emergency, the virus had already spread to 49 states.

The United States could have done far better and it certainly had the tools to do so.

The Obama administration had limited the number of US cases of Ebola to under one dozen during that pandemic in the 2010s. Based on their success, they compiled a guide on how the federal government could limit future pandemics.

Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm

Of course Trump ignored it.

Unlike those boxes of nuclear secrets in Trump's bathroom, the Obama pandemic limitation document is not classified. Anybody can read it – even if Trump didn't. This copy comes from the Stanford University Libraries.

TOWARDS EPIDEMIC PREDICTION: FEDERAL EFFORTS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN OUTBREAK MODELING

Feel free to share this post with anybody who still feels nostalgic about the Trump White House years!

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

Dozens of environmental, labor and health care groups banded together on Monday to file a petition to push the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare extreme heat and wildfire smoke as “major disasters,” like floods and tornadoes.

The petition is a major push to get the federal government to help states and local communities that are straining under the growing costs of climate change.

If accepted, the petition could unlock FEMA funds to help localities prepare for heat waves and wildfire smoke by building cooling centers or installing air filtration systems in schools. The agency could also help during emergencies by paying for water distribution, health screenings for vulnerable people and increased electricity use.

“Major disaster declarations really open up the broadest pockets of funding that FEMA has available,” said Jean Su, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, and the lead author of the petition. “State and local governments are severely ill equipped and underfunded to even deal with emergency measures.”

A Forecast for Heat

It’s been the hottest year on record, the Northeast is bracing for its first severe heat of the year and the Times is tracking extreme heat around the world.

The support of major labor groups like the A.F.L.-CIO and the Service Employees International Union is part of a broader strategy from unions to create protection for the tens of millions of people working outside or without air-conditioning during heat waves. Unions want the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to require employers to protect workers from extreme temperatures. The White House has pushed officials at the Labor Department, which oversees OSHA, to publish a draft heat regulation this summer. But major business and industry groups, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are opposed to any new requirements.

Labor groups and workers’ rights organizations hope that, if the petition to FEMA is accepted, there would be more pressure for employers to address heat in the workplace.

[factcheckdotorg]

👉🏽Did you know that the federal public health emergency for COVID-19 ended on May 11?

👉🏽What does this mean and how will it affect you?

👉🏽FactCheck.org and Factchequeado team up to explain how the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency might affect you. 👉🏽For more information: https://bit.ly/3qRKXPe

[grrlscientist]

Climate Change Could Make Fungi More Dangerous To Humans, published by NatureMicrobiology

by @GrrlScientist🔬 🦠 🛟 😷💉🧪

[hislop3]

15 Days to Slow the Spread: Remembered

On March 16, 2020, the Trump Administration released guidelines in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the corresponding public health emergency. Four years later, much was learned, much was missed, much could have played-out different, and much remains to be reconciled. Today, four years later, we live with economic and societal ramifications from the public health emergency and the varied…

[czedwardsblog]

Summer Reminder: M44s

From a 2021 twitter thread Summer reminder, since many are heading out into the national parks and federal lands: Be VERY careful with anything that looks like a sprinkler head or trash in the ground – it could easily be an M44 cyanide device. It can kill humans and dogs.Our tax dollars pay for this poison. An M44 device in the ground. It looks like a pink marshmallow on top of a sprinkler…

[astromechs]

the coworker i share an office with has covid again, internal screaming

[trendynewsnow]

White House Proposes New Rules for Over-the-Counter Birth Control Coverage

In a significant move aimed at enhancing access to reproductive health services, the White House announced on Monday its intention to propose new regulations under the Affordable Care Act. These rules would mandate that health insurers cover over-the-counter birth control without any out-of-pocket expenses for patients. This initiative is part of a broader effort to improve access to…

[alwaysbewoke]