#covid 19 vaccination drive

[townpostin]

Jharkhand CM Links Covid Vaccine to Recruitment Deaths

Soren alleges ‘defective’ doses still causing fatalities; BJP rejects claims Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren stirs controversy by linking Covid-19 vaccine to recent deaths during constable recruitment tests. RANCHI – Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has alleged that ‘defective’ Covid-19 vaccine doses administered during the pandemic may be responsible for recent deaths during constable…

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #25

June 28-July 5 2024

The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Is putting forward the first ever federal safety regulation to protect worker's from excessive heat in the workplace. As climate change has caused extreme heat events to become more common work place deaths have risen from an average of 32 heat related deaths between 1992 and 2019 to 43 in 2022. The rules if finalized would require employers to provide drinking water and cool break areas at 80 degrees and at 90 degrees have mandatory 15-minute breaks every two hours and be monitored for signs of heat illness. This would effect an estimated 36 million workers.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced $1 Billion for 656 projects across the country aimed at helping local communities combat climate change fueled disasters like flooding and extreme heat. Some of the projects include $50 Million to Philadelphia for a stormwater pump station and combating flooding, and a grant to build Shaded bus shelters in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Transportation announced thanks to efforts by the Biden Administration flight cancellations at the lowest they've been in a decade. At just 1.4% for the year so far. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg credited the Department's new rules requiring automatic refunds for any cancellations or undue delays as driving the good numbers as well as the investment of $25 billion in airport infrastructure that was in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The Department of Transportation announced $600 million in the 3rd round of funding to reconnect communities. Many communities have been divided by highways and other Infrastructure projects over the years. Most often effecting racial minority and poor areas. The Biden Administration is dedicated to addressing these injustices and helping reconnect communities split for decades. This funding round will see Atlanta’s Southside Communities reconnected as well as a redesign for Birmingham’s Black Main Street, reconnecting a community split by Interstate 65 in the 1960s. 

The Biden Administration approved its 9th offshore wind power project. About 9 miles off the coast of New Jersey the planned wind farm will generated 2,800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power almost a million homes with totally clear power. This will bring the total amount of clean wind power generated by projects approved by the Biden Administration to 13 gigawatts. The Administration's climate goal is to generate 30 gigawatts from wind.

The Biden Administration announced funding for 12 new Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs. The $504 million dollars will go to supporting tech hubs in, Colorado, Montana, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, New York, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. These tech hubs together with 31 already announced and funded will support high tech manufacturing jobs, as well as training for 21st century jobs for millions of American workers.

HHS announced over $200 million to support improved care for older Americans, particularly those with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The money is focused on training primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and other health care clinicians in best practices in elder and dementia care, as well as seeking to  integrate geriatric training into primary care. It also will support ways that families and other non-medical care givers can be educated to give support to aging people.

HHS announced $176 million to help support the development of a mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine. As part of the government's efforts to be ready before the next major pandemic it funds and supports new vaccine's to try to predict the next major pandemic. Moderna is working on an mRNA vaccine, much like the Covid-19, vaccine focused on the H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses, which experts fear could spread to humans and cause a Covid like event.

[smvdu]

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Dr. Anthony Fauci said behavior like that of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and other conservative figures is the reason he continues to receive death threats more than a year after stepping down from public service.

The nation’s former top infectious disease expert spoke to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday after he testified at a contentious congressional hearing on the origins of COVID-19.

Greene, a vaccine conspiracy theorist, sparked fireworks at the hearing with her antics, including by refusing to call Fauci “doctor” and calling for him to be prosecuted for “crimes against humanity.”

Fauci said incidents like this one typically cause a spike in violent threats against him.

“It’s a pattern, Kaitlan, that whenever somebody gets up — whether it’s news media, Fox News does it a lot — or it’s somebody in the Congress who gets up and makes a public statement that I’m responsible for the deaths of x number of people because of policies or some crazy idea that I created the virus, immediately, it’s like clockwork, the death threats go way up,” Fauci said.

“So that’s the reason why I’m still getting death threats, when you have performances like that unusual performance by Marjorie Taylor Greene in today’s hearing, those are the kinds of things that drive up the death threats because there are a segment of the population out there that believe that kind of nonsense,” he added.

Earlier in the interview, he suggested the hostility at Monday’s hearing was not productive, pointing out that he had “testified literally hundreds of times” before Congress during his nearly 40 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

He said the vitriol that played out in the hearing “was really quite unfortunate, because the purpose of hearings are to try and figure out how we can do better so that next time, if and when we are faced with a pandemic, we’d be better prepared and we could benefit, if mistakes were made, we identify them, and we try to correct them for the future.”

“That’s not what we saw today, as shown by the clip you showed with Marjorie Taylor Greene,” he added. “I mean, that was nothing about trying to do better, unfortunately.”

Until his departure from public office in 2022, Fauci was the lead advisor to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[halorvic]

The danger is clear and present: COVID isn’t merely a respiratory illness; it’s a multi-dimensional threat impacting brain function, attacking almost all of the body’s organs, producing elevated risks of all kinds, and weakening our ability to fight off other diseases. Reinfections are thought to produce cumulative risks, and Long COVID is on the rise. Unfortunately, Long COVID is now being considered a long-term chronic illness — something many people will never fully recover from. Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office that pioneered the synthetic biology industry and the development of mRNA vaccine technology, is the founder of Medio Labs, a COVID diagnostic testing company. He has stepped forward as a strong critic of government COVID management, accusing health agencies of inadequacy and even deception. Alvelda is pushing for accountability and immediate action to tackle Long COVID and fend off future pandemics with stronger public health strategies. Contrary to public belief, he warns, COVID is not like the flu. New variants evolve much faster, making annual shots inadequate. He believes that if things continue as they are, with new COVID variants emerging and reinfections happening rapidly, the majority of Americans may eventually grapple with some form of Long COVID. Let’s repeat that: At the current rate of infection, most Americans may get Long COVID.

[...]

LP: A recent JAMA study found that US adults with Long COVID are more prone to depression and anxiety – and they’re struggling to afford treatment. Given the virus’s impact on the brain, I guess the link to mental health issues isn’t surprising. PA: There are all kinds of weird things going on that could be related to COVID’s cognitive effects. I’ll give you an example. We’ve noticed since the start of the pandemic that accidents are increasing. A report published by TRIP, a transportation research nonprofit, found that traffic fatalities in California increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022. They also found the likelihood of being killed in a traffic crash increased by 28% over that period. Other data, like studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, came to similar conclusions, reporting that traffic fatalities hit a 16-year high across the country in 2021. The TRIP report also looked at traffic fatalities on a national level and found that traffic fatalities increased by 19%. LP: What role might COVID play? PA: Research points to the various ways COVID attacks the brain. Some people who have been infected have suffered motor control damage, and that could be a factor in car crashes. News is beginning to emerge about other ways COVID impacts driving. For example, in Ireland, a driver’s COVID-related brain fog was linked to a crash that killed an elderly couple. Damage from COVID could be affecting people who are flying our planes, too. We’ve had pilots that had to quit because they couldn’t control the airplanes anymore. We know that medical events among U.S. military pilots were shown to have risen over 1,700% from 2019 to 2022, which the Pentagon attributes to the virus.

[...]

LP: You’ve criticized the track record of the CDC and the WHO – particularly their stubborn denial that COVID is airborne. PA: They knew the dangers of airborne transmission but refused to admit it for too long. They were warned repeatedly by scientists who studied aerosols. They instituted protections for themselves and for their kids against airborne transmission, but they didn’t tell the rest of us to do that.

[...]

LP: How would you grade Biden on how he’s handled the pandemic? PA: I’d give him an F. In some ways, he fails worse than Trump because more people have actually died from COVID on his watch than on Trump’s, though blame has to be shared with Republican governors and legislators who picked ideological fights opposing things like responsible masking, testing, vaccination, and ventilation improvements for partisan reasons. Biden’s administration has continued to promote the false idea that the vaccine is all that is needed, perpetuating the notion that the pandemic is over and you don’t need to do anything about it. Biden stopped the funding for surveillance and he stopped the funding for renewing vaccine advancement research. Trump allowed 400,000 people to die unnecessarily. The Biden administration policies have allowed more than 800,000 to 900,000 and counting.

[...]

LP: The situation with bird flu is certainly getting more concerning with the CDC confirming that a third person in the U.S. has tested positive after being exposed to infected cows. PA: Unfortunately, we’re repeating many of the same mistakes because we now know that the bird flu has made the jump to several species. The most important one now, of course, is the dairy cows. The dairy farmers have been refusing to let the government come in and inspect and test the cows. A team from Ohio State tested milk from a supermarket and found that 50% of the milk they tested was positive for bird flu viral particles.

[...]

PA: There’s a serious risk now in allowing the virus to freely evolve within the cow population. Each cow acts as a breeding ground for countless genetic mutations, potentially leading to strains capable of jumping to other species. If any of those countless genetic experiments within each cow prove successful in developing a strain transmissible to humans, we could face another pandemic – only this one could have a 58% death rate. Did you see the movie “Contagion?” It was remarkably accurate in its apocalyptic nature. And that virus only had a 20% death rate. If the bird flu makes the jump to human-to-human transition with even half of its current lethality, that would be disastrous.

[gumjrop]

The Weather

In the US, 41 out of 54 states and territories are at high or very high COVID wastewater levels as of 1/18/2024. Ten states and territories have no data available. It’s important to note that levels of “moderate,” “low,” or “minimal” do not necessarily indicate a low risk of COVID exposure in our daily lives. Viral spread is still ongoing even if at lower levels, and precautions are warranted to protect ourselves and others.

Looking at the CDC’s national and regional wastewater data over time, we continue to see “Very High” levels nationally. It’s important to note that the last two weeks are provisional data, indicated by a gray shaded area on the graph, meaning that those values can change as additional wastewater sites report data. 

Although wastewater data does not provide the same level of detail as previous PCR-based testing data, wastewater monitoring is an important ongoing resource to inform us about the current COVID situation. While the provisional data tentatively shows a downward trend this week, time will tell whether this is a true decrease in the final data. A downward trend does not mean continued decreases are guaranteed or that protections should be relaxed. Multilayered protections help drive COVID spread lower, and relaxing protections can lead to a resurgence of viral spread.

Visit the CDC’s State and Territory Trends page to see available wastewater testing near you, including the number of wastewater sites reporting. Write your elected officials to let them know you want to keep and expand wastewater testing in your area and nationally.

Wins

In November 2023, the CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) passed a series of draft proposals that will further weaken already insufficient protocols employed within healthcare settings. HICPAC refuses to reckon with the airborne nature of infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, and does not propose crucial measures such as universal masking with well-fitted respirators, isolation periods, and ventilation. The People’s CDC has penned a letter to the ACLU alerting them of HICPAC’s irresponsible decisions, and the ramifications associated with them. We hope that by working together with the ACLU, we can implement public advocacy and legal actions in order to tackle this critical issue.

You can read the full letter here.

Johns Hopkins reinstated healthcare masking on 1/12/2024, in response to high respiratory virus levels. As with many other healthcare systems and public health departments that have restored healthcare masking when facing public pressure, we hope that universal masking can become a standard of care rather than a short term response to a surge. See “Take Action” below for more information.

Variants

JN.1, now the most prominent variant in the United States, is estimated to account for 85.7% of circulating variants by 1/20/2024. HV.1 is expected to drop to 5.3%, and all other variants are estimated to make up less than 2% each. Although ongoing viral spread allows opportunities for new variants to emerge, the latest 2023-2024 COVID vaccine boosters, COVID tests, and COVID treatments are still expected to be effective for JN.1.

Current updated booster uptake is low (as of January 19, 2024, the CDC reports that only 21.5% of adults and 11% of children have received it). It is not too late to get the updated booster, and to protect yourself against the latest variant! 

Hospitalizations

In the most recent week (ending January 13, 2024), we see a slight downward trend in new hospital admissions, currently at 32,861. We see a similar slight downtick in currently hospitalized patients with COVID , at 27,879. This most recent week shows a slight decrease in hospitalizations, although it is too soon to say whether hospitalizations for the current surge have passed their peak. Hospitals continue to be overwhelmed. The data also lacks information on hospital-acquired infections. We urge you to continue taking stringent precautions, such as donning a well-fitting respirator (e.g., N95, KN95) in all indoor spaces–and especially in healthcare settings.

Long COVID

Amid ongoing advocacy by Long COVID groups, the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held a committee hearing on “Addressing Long COVID: Advancing Research and Improving Patient Care.” The hearing included testimony from three Long COVID patients and four Long COVID physicians and researchers, bringing much-needed attention to the urgent need for funding for Long COVID research and treatments, and to the need for improved access to care for Long COVID patients. We recognize the community care modeled by some of the panelists and attendees who wore masks for the hearing, and we wish the senators on the committee would mask up as well. 

Take Action

Write your elected officials to let them know that Long COVID impacts all of us, and that we need ongoing support for Long COVID research and clinical care. Ask Senators to support bill S.2560, the Long COVID Support Act. Ask Representatives to support bills HR.1114 (Long COVID RECOVERY NOW Act) and HR.3258 (TREAT Long COVID Act).

Although some healthcare settings have reinstated masking in response to high COVID levels along with high respiratory virus activity, ongoing pressure is needed to restore, keep, and expand masking broadly. Use our letter template and toolkit to call or write your elected officials in support of healthcare masking.

Want to do more to support healthcare masking? Consider starting, sharing, or joining a local campaign. Check out work in Illinois, Maryland, and Wisconsin, just to name a few. Also, sign and share our letter to the ACLU asking them to join us in supporting safe and equitable access to healthcare. Sign on is open until 2/1/2024. 

[covid-safer-hotties]

COVID-19’s summer surge shows no signs of slowing down - Published Aug 17, 2024

Asurge in COVID-19 infections has swept the country this summer, upending travel plans and bringing fevers, coughs and general malaise. It shows no immediate sign of slowing.

While most of the country and the federal government has put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the virus is mutating and new variants emerging.

Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer tracks individual infection numbers, experts think it could be the biggest summer wave yet.

So far, the variants haven’t been proven to cause a more serious illness, and vaccines remain effective, but there’s no certainty about how the virus may yet change and what happens next.

The highest viral activity right now is in the West, according to wastewater data from the CDC, but a “high” or “very high” level of COVID-19 virus is being detected in wastewater in almost every state. And viral levels are much higher nationwide than they were this time last year and started increasing earlier in the summer.

Wastewater data is the most reliable method of tracking levels of viral activity because so few people test, but it can’t identify specific case numbers.

Part of the testing decline can be attributed to pandemic fatigue, but experts said it’s also an issue of access. Free at-home tests are increasingly hard to find. The government isn’t distributing them, and private insurance plans have not been required to cover them since the public health emergency ended in 2023.

COVID has spiked every summer since the start of the pandemic. Experts have said the surge is being driven by predictable trends like increased travel and extreme hot weather driving more people indoors, as well as by a trio of variants that account for nearly 70 percent of all infections. Vaccines and antivirals can blunt the worst of the virus, and hospital are no longer being overwhelmed like in the earliest days of the pandemic.

But there remains a sizeable number of people who are not up-to-date on vaccinations. There are concerns that diminished testing and low vaccination rates could make it easier for more dangerous variants to take hold.

“One of the things that’s distinctive about this summer is that the variants out there are extraordinarily contagious, so they’re spreading very, very widely, and lots of people are getting mild infections, many more than know it, because testing is way down,” said William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University.

That contagiousness means the virus is more likely to find the people most vulnerable — people over 65, people with certain preexisting conditions, or those who are immunocompromised.

In a July interview with the editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, the country’s former top infectious diseases doctor, Anthony Fauci, said people in high-risk categories need to take the virus seriously, even if the rest of the public does not.

“You don’t have to immobilize what you do and just cut yourself off from society,” Fauci said. “But regardless of what the current recommendations are, when you are in a crowded, closed space and you are an 85-year-old person with chronic lung disease or a 55-year-old person who’s morbidly obese with diabetes and hypertension, then you should be wearing a mask when you’re in closed indoor spaces.”

Schaffner said hospitalizations have been increasing in his region for at least the past five weeks, which surprised him.

“I thought probably they had peaked last week. Wrong. They went up again this week. So at least locally, we haven’t seen the peak yet. I would have expected this summer increase … to have plateaued and perhaps start to ease down. But we haven’t seen that yet,” he said.

Still, much of the country has moved on from the pandemic and is reacting to the surge with a collective shrug. COVID-19 is being treated like any other respiratory virus, including by the White House.

President Biden was infected in July. After isolating at home for several days and taking a course of the antiviral Paxlovid, he returned to campaign trial.

Biden is 81, meaning he’s considered high risk for severe infection. He received an updated coronavirus vaccine in September, but it’s not clear if he got a second one, which the CDC recommends for older Americans.

Updated vaccines that target the current variants are expected to be rolled out later this fall, and the CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older should receive one.

As of May, only 22.5 percent of adults in the United States reported having received the updated 2023-2024 vaccine that was released last fall and tailored to the XBB variant dominant at that time.

The immunity from older vaccines wanes over time, and while it doesn’t mean people are totally unprotected, Schaffner said, the most vulnerable should be cautious. Many people being infected now have significantly reduced immunity to the current mutated virus, but reduced immunity is better than no immunity.

People with healthy immune systems and who have previously been vaccinated or infected are still less likely to experience the more severe infections that result in hospitalization or death.

Almost “none of us are naive to COVID, but the people where the protection wanes the most are the most frail, the immunodeficient, the people with chronic underlying illnesses,” Schaffner said.

[follow-up-news]

The U.S. is experiencing more than four times as many whooping cough cases compared with last year — a spike that some experts attribute to post-pandemic vaccine fatigue. “With the increase in vaccine hesitancy that has been going on since the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re seeing outbreaks occurring in kids who are not vaccinated,” said Dr. Tina Tan, president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Babies are given the DTaP vaccine, which helps protect against three diseases: pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus. The vaccine works well against diphtheria and tetanus, but is less effective over time for pertussis. Advisors to the Food and Drug Administration met Friday to discuss the need for more robust and longer-lasting versions of the whooping cough vaccine. Until next generation vaccines are developed, boosters are recommended about every 10 years, starting in the tween years, as kids start middle school. It’s the tweens and teens whose immunity against whooping cough has waned that are driving outbreaks in many states, experts say.

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

Twice now I have tried to make a reblog reply about Walter and twice now Tumblr has eaten it. So let's try it this way @chaos-bringer-13

Allow me to take you back to the ✨QUARANTINE DAYS✨ and tell you the tale of a pumpkin that may or may not have housed a god

So back in good old 2020/21 we are in the thrall of the COVID-19 pandemic. My state in particular had super heavy quarantine restrictions, and as someone with lung issues, my mom and myself were not taking any chances. I haven't left my house in maybe 5 months. Nor have I seen any of my friends outside of video calls. Senior year of High School so far has sucked.

I'm talking to my friend, we'll call her Marie, and I mention off hand "Yeah I'm starting to feel a bit lonely." Now Marie has known me for a solid 8 years at this point. She knows my type of humor and attachment to what we would now and days call "skrungly" objects. She decides "hmm. I can fix this!"

Marie's mom (who was... certainly a human being) for some god forsaken reason decided to buy a white pumpkin and give it to Marie with the idea that she would harvest the seeds from it and plant them in the garden (why she did this instead of just buying pumpkin seeds I will never know). Instead of doing this, Marie takes this pumpkin and draws a realistic face on it that can only be described as similar to the handsome squidward meme. She drives to my house, sets the pumpkin on my doorstep with a note, and then FUCKING BOOKS IT.

I open the door to see this pumpkin with a note that reads "Hello Momther, I am Walter."

(Not the best photo but this is in fact Walter sitting in the dark in my front yard while Marie (not pictured) stands on my driveway holding a single candle and chanting).

Anyway immediately I take him inside completely smitten and unknowing as to what this pumpkin will create.

At this point of quarantine, we have gone back to classes but they are completely online. I decide that the best thing I could possibly do with Walter is set him on a stack of notebooks behind me so that when I turn my camera on he would be there... watching. Notably, one guy who never unmuted himself did so just long enough to ask "Void... what the fuck is that."

Needless to say I got endless entertainment from the reactions, but all good things have to come to an end. Unfortunately, I live in a desert and pumpkins simply don't survive. They typically would rot within a few days where I was living at the time, so my Mom told me to move it outside at least. I decide to put him by the front door. This front door has a little half wall that leads up to it. I put him on top of it facing the walkway so whenever a package is delivered the mailman would be faced with Walter and have to make eye contact before leaving the mail. I figure I'll probably get a couple more days out of him before he rots.

This is where it starts to get weird

Another week passes. Two. Unlike every single pumpkin I've ever had for Halloween, Walter shows no signs of rotting despite being exposed to the elements. The pumpkin is at this point about a month and a half old and still perfectly fine. Marie, our friends, and I all kind of laugh it off as a random one time thing and expect it to rot within another week.

IT. FUCKING. DOESN'T.

4 months into having Walter and he is still as good as new. Around this time the vaccines for covid started rolling out, so my friends and I get to see each other again. They are just as baffled as me about Walter. Of course, us being us, we have been referring to Walter like an actual person this whole time because that's just our humor. We give him little head pats and forehead rubs as we enter or leave my house and say hello/goodbye to him.

Also around this time, my mom and myself are beginning to prep for moving to another state. We have also started doing some in person classes again. I had been cleaning out my room one morning, and just so happened to leave a piece of sea glass in front of Walter as I left for school. I had a strangely good day. Managed to get an A on a test if I remember right. I come home, see the glass in front of the pumpkin, and start thinking. The next day I leave him something else. Another good luck day! I try this again and every single time I leave him an offering something good happens! I tell my friends about it and they start doing it too and experiencing the same results. We decide that he must be some god of luck inhabiting this pumpkin vessel and rewinding time on it to keep it from rotting.

At some point someone gave him an orange and I swear to god the pumpkin started getting orange marks on its forehead. He still wasn't rotting though! We decided that he obviously has been absorbing the power from the offerings.

Around this time I realise the I have somehow created a partially serious cult and decide I might as well lean into it. I actually enlisted the help of the neighbor kids to take this photo.

Time passes. Walter is about 10 months old now and still going strong. We have graduated highschool and I'm going to be moving in a week. I can't take Walter with me, so Marie decides she will take him. But first, she is going to help us move. It's a 6 hour drive. We put Walter in the passenger seat window so that all the cars passing us can see him.

After she helps us, Marie and Walter continue on to yet another state where Marie will be attending university. Walter is almost if not a year old when he finally starts to rot. Marie, in her dorm room mind you, makes a plaster cast of his head and redraws his face on it. To this day Walter hangs in his new, more durable vessel, guarding her spice cabinet.

By the end of Walter's reign, he had reached his 1st birthday, scared who knows how many mailmen, met 3 of my teachers in person, visited 3 USA states, and briefly had an instagram account.

[spooniestrong]

Make your voice heard and ask the CDC to:

Recommend updated 2024-2025 COVID vaccines for all ages AND

Strengthen our vaccine drive by recommending more frequent boosting (at least every six months) and more frequent updates to the vaccines, adjusted for the latest variants.

Submit a public comment using our sample language below.

You can also register to give Oral Public Comment at the upcoming June 26-28 online CDC ACIP Meeting at: https://www2.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/acip_publiccomment.asp 

Submit written comments and/or register to make oral comments at the meeting by Monday, June 17 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time.

It’s important to submit a personalized comment, which can be brief. Ideas for a personalized comment:

How you, your family, or your community would be impacted by fall vaccine eligibility being restricted to only high risk groups (such as older age or immunocompromised status)

Barriers to vaccination your have faced, particularly if your eligibility was questioned or misinterpreted by a vaccine provider

How out-of-pocket costs are a barrier to getting the latest vaccines

Also feel free to take inspiration from or borrow the language in our sample public comment below.

Docket No. CDC–2024–0043

Updated 2024-2025 COVID vaccines must be recommended for people of all ages, regardless of health status. A restrictive approach to eligibility would create undue barriers for vulnerable people and discourage high risk people from getting needed vaccine boosters.

The vaccine schedule should address waning efficacy in the months following vaccination [1-3] as well as emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 strains by recommending updated vaccination for all ages, at least every six months. Recent vaccination is also associated with a lower risk of developing Long COVID following a COVID infection [4] as well as a lower risk of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children (MIS-C) [5]. 

The CDC’s clear and unequivocal recommendation of updated COVID vaccination for all ages will influence what healthcare providers recommend, and what health insurances cover. Moreover, it will improve public awareness regarding the need for updated vaccination.

The CDC must ensure equitable and affordable access to updated vaccines and prevent limited access because of financial constraints or demographics. The CDC’s Bridge vaccine access program is slated to end August 2024 and must be extended to ensure uninsured and underinsured people have access to the updated vaccines this fall [6].

References:

1. Link-Gelles R. Effectiveness of COVID-19 (2023-2024 Formula) vaccines. Presented at: FDA VRBPAC Meeting; June 5, 2024. Accessed June 12, 2024. https://www.fda.gov/media/179140/download

2. Wu N, Joyal-Desmarais K, Vieira AM, et al. COVID-19 boosters versus primary series: update to a living review. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2023;11(10):e87-e88. doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(23)00265-5

3. Menegale F, Manica M, Zardini A, et al. Evaluation of Waning of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine–Induced Immunity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(5):e2310650. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.10650

4. Fang Z, Ahrnsbrak R, Rekito A. Evidence Mounts That About 7% of US Adults Have Had Long COVID. JAMA. Published online June 7, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11370

5.  Yousaf AR. Notes from the Field: Surveillance for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children — United States, 2023. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;73. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7310a2

6. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/bridge/index.html 

Full instructions for written and oral comment and meeting information can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/index.html

You can also register to give Oral Public Comment at the upcoming June 26-28 online CDC ACIP Meeting at: https://www2.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/acip_publiccomment.asp 

You must register by June 17 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time

CDC’s ACIP meeting information on the Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/24/2024-11439/meeting-of-the-advisory-committee-on-immunization-practices 

Vaccination with the latest updated vaccines continues to be foundational to a multilayered approach to COVID, providing protection against both acute disease and Long COVID. Far too few Americans have received the latest vaccines. Only approximately 22.6% of adults and 14.8% of children have received the latest 2023-2024 vaccines (as of June 1, 2024), which have been available since Fall 2023. COVID vaccination rates in both groups lags far behind influenza vaccination rates. Only 7.1% of adults aged 65 and older received the recommended two doses of the 2023-2024 vaccine (as of April 27, 2024).

Vaccine efficacy wanes significantly four to six months following vaccination, making updated vaccination important for all people as COVID continues to spread in our communities. Vaccine approaches that restrict access based on age or risk status put all of us at risk and leave those at high risk of severe consequences of COVID infection confused about whether they qualify to receive additional doses. A more frequent vaccination approach providing vaccination at least every six months as well as frequent updates to match current variants is needed to better protect all of us amid year-round COVID spread.

The CDC’s Bridge Access Program, which provides COVID vaccines to uninsured and underinsured adults free of charge, is due to end August 2024. The end of this program will unnecessarily put vulnerable people at risk, and public health officials must advocate for continuation and expansion of this program.

Submitted written comments or registration to make oral comments at the meeting must be received by the CDC no later than June 17 at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time

[9w1ft]

Hi! I'm a longtime kaylor lurker, but I saw you and your anons were trying to think through the reason for this Travis Kelce push and I thought I'd share some perspective as an American who's not exactly a football fan per se, but is from an area of the country where football is very popular so I'm kind of an ambient fan by default. I'm very sorry this got a little long, but I do think there are some really interesting dynamics at play here, but the tldr; is - broad appeal for the American premiere and politics.

There are some optics about Travis Kelce that are I think getting lost in the NFL-to-Swiftie translation that may be important. He's a famous football player, yes, but NFL fans skew heavily towards older men in non-urban areas, which also means NFL fans skew conservative. Travis Kelce promoted Bud Light when transphobes in America were boycotting the brand, and is also partnering with Pfizer for a public health campaign to promote the COVID-19 vaccine, which is very controversial for American conservatives. He's also known as a very stylish man (which is weird to say but is pretty uncommon among American athletes, especially white ones, and he's well-known for it) and before Taylor, all of his known/rumored exes have been Black or mixed (I could write an essay on the racial dynamics alone of this weekend, but... suffice it to say it's there and messy). I'd also heard rumors that he was closeted before he got together with Taylor, but I never really looked into them that deeply so I don't know how true they are, or whether they arose just because he dresses well and doesn't usually date white women (sad but true that for a portion of Americans, that would be enough to make them doubt his masculinity and therefore heterosexuality). Which kind of gets to my point - before this, a lot of the more conservative wing of NFL fans saw Travis Kelce as controversial, "beta", not sufficiently manly, despite the fact he is a champion football player. I know all of this sounds a little insane, please remember that these are the people electing Donald Trump and going after drag shows and banning books with LGBTQ+ people in them.

So, with that slightly more nuanced image of Travis Kelce, I think that makes the clearest takeaway from this weekend, at least for me, how extremely traditional all-American it was. Football player, blonde girl cheering in the stands with his mom, driving off in his convertible after the game, them making a point to correct the initial reporting that she had paid for people's meals so that he's the one renting out the restaurant for her. To be clear, this isn't really how Travis Kelce is normally seen, and already I've seen some hit tweets with people dunking on conservatives criticizing Kelce for being insufficiently manly by responding something along the lines of "uh, he won the Super Bowl and bagged the world's most famous pop star, I think he's doing okay" - so, reading between the lines, he's performed (specifically) white masculinity very successfully. And for Taylor, too, I think we've already seen a lot of people saying how she's finally with a "real man" - he's very tall, he's very athletic, he's American, I think a lot of the joking anti-Joe "he's got a real job" comments fall into this bucket as well. She is performing white American womanhood in a very specific way, a large part of which is that she's being framed as not the 'dominant' partner in the relationship in the way she was in her relationship with Joe (by virtue of their differences in wealth and success).

So I think this is re-orienting both of their images into a new, very traditional, Americana-inspired direction. I don't think this is a market Taylor has really gone after maybe since she moved into pop in the first place, but especially not in recent years, when she swung very hard into a much more urban liberal niche (basing herself more out of NYC and London than Nashville, associating herself musically and socially with people like the Haim sisters, Phoebe Bridgers, MUNA).

I don't think we can know exactly why she's leaning this direction yet, but if I had to guess it's more about the American documentary premiere. In Hollywood, typically for the biggest box office impact you want a "four-quadrant movie" - one that appeals to the four biggest demographic quadrants (male/female and under 25/over 25). Taylor Swift's fanbase skews female and young, with a solid presence over 25 as well, and like I said earlier, the NFL's fanbase skews male and over 25. I don't think showing up to a football game will make a bunch of NFL fans suddenly want to see her documentary on opening night, but it may make them more inclined to go see it with their girlfriends, wives, or daughters a few days later, instead of staying at home, and that would have a very big box office impact.

I also think she *might* be looking at the political optics, and wanting to not only move on from MH but also put herself in a kind of solidly centrist-liberal place (she likes good ol' American football but also the vaccine! she votes Dem but she's not one of those New York liberal elites, she eats chicken tenders with seemingly ranch! - truly seems like this is a couple tailor-made (or maybe Taylor-made ;) ) to appeal to swing voters), which I think is very much where she tried to position herself with Miss Americana as well and which seems relevant given her voter registration push recently and as we move into an election year. I'll be very interested to see if she does anything further politically, or says anything about politics in her documentary again. Between her voter registration effort and his Pfizer partnership and the timing of both, politics is actually the angle I'd bet on driving this.

hi! thank you for sharing these thoughts, it provides more context for everything! i do think it shapes her persona in the public eye, and it’s interesting to think how that might benefit her in ways other than a profit motivation

[darkmaga-retard]

The PCR test is responsible for more deaths than any test in history. It was a crucial weapon in misdiagnosing millions of patients.

By Dr. Vernon Coleman

The PCR test is responsible for more deaths than any test in history. It was a crucial weapon in misdiagnosing millions of patients. I recently reprinted an article I first wrote three years ago. But there is more to know about the PCR test which I will, in this article, show to be not only worthless but to be responsible for the deaths of millions. Since the flu of 2019 was selected to be marketed and promoted as a major threat to mankind, and the fake covid pandemic first became a weapon in the manufactured war driving us remorselessly towards Net Zero and the Great Reset, the PCR test has been the weapon of choice for those determined to create fear, to justify pointless and damaging lockdowns, harmful and futile mask wearing and toxic and useless vaccinations. It was always known that the PCR test didn’t work and wasn’t of any value in detecting the over promoted and oversold version of the annual flu known as covid-19.

Right from the start, the evidence showed that the PCR test was utterly useless in making diagnoses. It was, in fact, worse than useless since it created an epidemic of false positives. No test in history has ever been so misused or used with such malignant intent. And, of course, despite denials there is evidence that the PCR test has killed people. For the evidence please see my article entitled `The PCR Test Can Kill You…’ which was re-published here, on www.vernoncoleman.com, just a few days ago.

[mysteriousbeetle]

Batman vs COVID-19

Batman's strengths:

He has experience from Contagion/Legacy

He probably has access to high quality masks

He probably would have been able to make his own vaccine (this would not prevent him from getting it, it would just make it so his symptoms aren't as bad)

Batman's weaknesses:

Even if he had access to masks, he might not use them (as seen in Contagion and Legacy)

He has an unrelenting drive to fight crime (puts him in close contact with a lot of people)

Feel free to make your case!!

[mariacallous]

Six weeks after Li Wenliang blew the whistle in Wuhan on an emerging infectious disease in early 2020, cities around the world locked down and turned into hotspots. From Rome to Tokyo to San Francisco and Los Angeles, COVID-19 ripped through the most populated areas of the world. By the end of that year, America’s cities—Detroit, Boston, and New Orleans among them—had death rates from the virus 20 percent higher than other regions of the country.

In New York, where I serve as health commissioner, almost 50,000 residents died, the majority in the first three months, denting New Yorkers’ life expectancy by nearly five years. It was the steepest drop in lifespan in the world that year.

Public health institutions and the field as a whole learned much from our successes and failures during the pandemic. The critical nature of healthcare supply chains; supporting our public health workforce, especially at the front lines; the essential process of community engagement for healthcare promotion, vaccination, and disease prevention; the importance of combatting misinformation and disinformation online and in person; the need to tear down our data silos so we can make faster, better decisions. The list goes on and on.

However, as new threats arise and old ones intensify, there is still much to learn. Cities—concrete jungles that experienced the worst of COVID-19, and in some ways, struggled the most with the public health response in the early days of the pandemic—may be our best teachers on how to keep our world safe and healthy.

That’s because the sentinel cases for brooding public health threats, whether infectious or not, are often in cities. Cities are the canaries in the public health coal mine, for everything from mental health and homelessness, climate change to forced migration, substance use to sex trafficking. The way these challenges play out across our cities should not only drive national policy, but also serve as an important corollary for how to respond in less dense, less diverse, more rural areas. Yet when we consider the multilateral institutions where decisions are made and policymaking happens, cities rarely have any role in governance.

The reasons for city-as-public-health-epicenter are simultaneously obvious and not so obvious. For one, urban densification has accounted for the majority of population growth, even as land mass occupied by cities is growing. Today, around 56 percent of the world’s population live in cities—a percentage that experts expect will grow to 70 percent, with population doubling, by 2050. There is also the historic boom in airplane travel both domestically and internationally, which means communicable diseases (like SARS, swine flu, and mpox) can leap across borders faster than ever, quickly overtaking cities’ health systems.

An example of this in New York City in 2022 was when an old virus, mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), began circulating in explosive new ways among men who have sex with men. NYC had become the national and global epicenter.

Despite facing critical shortages of vaccine, in June 2022 we began vaccinating men who had the highest risk of getting infected, well ahead of the anyone else in the nation, including the federal government. This critical intervention to curb the virus’s spread helped bend the curve of mpox within a few weeks, by early August. Not only did our response set the tone for the rest of the national mpox response, it also influenced the way in which many other global centers responded.

The same happened with tuberculosis (TB), another old microbe—and one that remains a leading infectious killer in the world. Between 2022 and 2023, the U.S. has seen a dramatic 14 percent year-on-year increase in tuberculosis cases nationwide. NYC is once again at the country’s frontlines, with a 28 percent increase over the same period. The drivers of TB’s resurgence are manifold, but one is the shifting pattern of migration worldwide due to climate change, war, and economic and political instability.

NYC health officials again leapt into action. We not only increased investment into our TB program in response, but since 2014 have pioneered new and effective ways to control the disease including award-winning “video directly observed therapy” where a health worker observes the patient taking their daily medications. This telehealth protocol has now become a part of TB control guidance recommended by the World Health Organization.

But while cities like New York are battling disease threats with drive and innovation, a lack of formal representation in multilateral institutions means that cities are more susceptible to security concerns, bioterrorism, and economic disruption. Cities are largely expected to navigate their response to global health crises in silos, without a clear and dedicated means to exchange ideas between them. Moreover, they typically do not have a meaningful say in how their national counterparts navigate domestic responses or global deliberations.

That was New York City’s early experience during the pandemic.

As COVID-19 tore through our five boroughs in the early weeks and months—from Sheepshead Bay and Jamaica to Battery Park, Harlem and Hunts Point—New York’s public health authorities produced their own messaging campaigns; partnered with private corporations and others to source materials and protective equipment for healthcare workers to care for those in need; stood up a free testing network, and later; designed their own vaccine distribution system and engaged deeply with communities to promote vaccine uptake. These responses were—especially early in the pandemic—developed in the absence of clear national and international guidance, or resources. And our experience in the start-up phase of the pandemic response was not unique, with cities from Los Angeles to Chicago to Boston to Miami facing similar challenges.

If we don’t formally involve cities in our national systems for disease surveillance and public health response, we lose out. Best practices disappear into the archives. Innovative strategies collect dust in the pages of textbooks and journals. How can cities effectively respond to burgeoning health threats when institutional memory fades, and when protocols developed at national scale lack the specificity or practicality to actualize in our alleys or on our sidewalks?

A better strategy may pull from the discipline of political science: specifically, a concept known as “inclusive multilateralism.” This concept, which refers to the participation of non-nation states in multilateral institutions and processes, narrows the gap between the high-level authorities handing down policy decisions and the communities on the ground who are expected to make them come to life. It has allowed for civil society, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and other stakeholders to have a formal role in the most critical multilateral governance structures in the world, from international security to climate change bodies. It also creates a critical set of checks and balances, ensuring that special interests or anti-democratic actors, influencing national governments and elected leaders, do not have outsized sway in international decision-making by having representation of sectors outside of national politics.

In health, for instance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and malaria, among others, have since inception had official civil society and private sector representation on its governing board and country coordinating bodies.

There is a growing appetite for cities to have such a formal leadership role, not only to share local experiences, best practices, innovations, and data, but also to build collaborations for emergencies. In remarks made during an event honoring the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary in 2020, Secretary General António Guterres specifically called out the need to draw on the “critical contributions” of cities and regional governments. Similarly, the 2017 Partnership for Healthy Cities launch stated that “city leaders are uniquely positioned to drive policies and programs to help transform public health. And a recent McKinsey report suggests sizable potential impact through a global focus on city-level work, not just for pandemic preparedness, but for overall health. They estimate that influenceable interventions at the city level could add more than 20 billion years of higher-quality life at a global level, while offering a critical opportunity to address health disparities and inequities, an important underlying driver of differential outcomes from pandemic disease, let alone chronic health challenges.

Following these leads, it is time national governments and multi-national organizations formalize the role of cities in global health governance and security. One proposal is that relevant multilateral institutions—such as the World Health Organization or World Bank—could establish seats for cities on their Executive Boards or Board Committees. These seats could even have city government representation from both donor and implementer countries. Additionally, each region could add representation for cities on their subcommittees or local oversight bodies, for example U.N. Country Offices or Country Coordinating Mechanisms.

Now, as the global health community gathers this week in Geneva for the World Health Assembly – the annual gathering of the official governing body of the WHO—there is an opportunity ripe for the inclusion of the local jurisdictions who will be at the forefront of the next pandemic. Negotiations on the Pandemic Accord, the global treaty intended to set international standards of preparedness, cooperation, and communication between nations in advance of the next global communicable disease threat, are set to conclude this week. It is essential that real-world lessons and insights from cities are incorporated into this document, to ensure well-meaning agreements translate to real-world action on the ground.

There are already glimmers of hope.

In the last two years, Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, has invited New York City to attend the annual World Health Assembly, the official decision-making body for the WHO and the International Health Regulations. That inclusion has allowed us to share our hard-won experience with WHO and other officials, in regard to the forthcoming Pandemic accord, including our insights on building stockpiles of PPE, mobilizing the health workforce and managing health facility capacity, ramping up testing through public-private partnerships with commercial laboratories, building a rapid and locally-driven vaccination effort, and ensuring that equity and place-based work is incorporated at the start of a response, rather than in subsequent phases. And in return, we learned first-hand about many of the challenges faced by nations across the globe in pandemic response and disease surveillance, especially in light of a changing climate and critical health workforce shortages, and have incorporated learnings about the WHO’s data sharing capacities and early warning and advanced surveillance systems, into improving our own population health data system.

New York City’s presence at the World Health Assembly has also given us an opportunity to demonstrate our front-line expertise and innovation in mental health, urban preparedness, climate change adaption, data modernization, and emerging health issues related to the global migrant crisis, among other issues.

Designing formal mechanisms to include cities in deliberations of global scale will allow each of us to not only sound the alarm earlier, but also to better respond to emerging public health threats lurking in our streets and sewers. By ensuring that cities have a meaningful seat at the table in our global health governance models, we will be charting a better course for the world to respond to forthcoming crises.

[allthegeopolitics]

NFL star Aaron Rodgers has shocked fans by claiming that Aids was manufactured by the US government. Aaron Rodgers said the HIV/Aids pandemic of the 1980s was engineered to said drive sales of vaccinations. The New York Jets quarterback further claimed that the crisis was a “blueprint” for the COVID-19 pandemic and specifically blamed former chief medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci for the conspiracy.

Continue Reading

[queen-of-badomens]

Seeing The Old Guard on the Big Screen and Gina Prince-Bythewood in Person!

Last Saturday, November 5th, there was an event in Santa Monica, CA, US, where Aero Theatre would be showing The Woman King (2022) and The Old Guard (2020) and hosting a Q&A with director Gina Prince-Bythewood in person. I love these movies, and even though I’d already seen both (The Old Guard many times), I knew I had to go.

[Image of my ticket for the event, image taken by me]

For a few of my thoughts on the event, what I learned, and what it was like to see The Old Guard on the big screen, click below!

It was a free-to-attend event, only having to RSVP online, but seating would be on a first-come, first-serve basis, so I made sure to arrive early. Though, I perhaps ended up arriving way too early… In fact, my brother insisted I didn’t need to be there any earlier than 11:30 PM for the 1 PM event, but anxiety made sure I arrived at 10:30 AM, which was later than I had originally planned. There was absolutely no one there waiting, no one was even in the theater yet, but you know what? I was there, I was going to watch The Old Guard in a movie theater for the first time, and that was all that mattered. So I parked myself across the street with a pastry and a hot tea and watched until I saw life. Which, as it turns out… wasn’t until 11:30 AM, but my brother doesn’t need to know that…

Based on the marquee, The Woman King would be shown first, followed by the Q&A and ending with The Old Guard. I knew TOG would not be what drew most people to the event, and while I am a fan of both movies and Gina Prince-Bythewood, my main drive for getting up early and forcing myself to go to a crowded place was to see the The Old Guard on the big screen, something that was sadly denied to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This would be, as later confirmed by the moderator of the Q&A, the first time The Old Guard was to be shown in a theater to a public audience. I wished my online TOG family could’ve been there with me, but I hope I did my best to represent our collective love for it.

[Front of the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, CA, USA, image taken by me]

After checking our RSVPs and vaccination cards (I still wore my mask the whole time inside), they began letting us in at about 12:00 PM. By that time, a sizable crowd had gathered so I was happy to have gotten there early. Once inside, I had a fairly good choice of seating and chose a place not too far from the stage but not too close so I could enjoy the films without straining my neck and eyes. Also, since it’s an older theater without stadium seating, I also picked a centered seat so I would have a good view.

[The screen at the Aero Theatre, image taken by me]

The Woman King was shown first, and I enjoyed the opportunity to see it again. Especially with a crowd who clearly loved it and cheered loudly at all the great moments. It is a rousing film and a great action movie that has a lot of character driven moments, and I recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it to go if they are able. It tells a not-well-known story of African women warriors, the Agojie, of the Dahomey kingdom in the 1800s. And it truly accomplishes one of GPB’s goals as a filmmaker to “disrupt the genre,” something I’ll touch upon again in a moment.

After TWK came the Q&A, with Gina Prince-Bythewood strolling with swagger and yet also casually towards the stage to take a seat with the moderator, Mark Olsen of the L.A.Times. I was a little starstruck to see her in person, this visionary who helped craft these two amazing movies, but also happy to see how cool, calm, and collected she was. GPB had confidence without the overbearing ego and a quiet strength that I know she uses to fight for her vision.

[Gina Prince-Bythewood in the flesh! image taken by me]

While most of the questions were about the process of making The Woman King, a few questions touched on The Old Guard, making it clear why TOG was being shown in addition to TWK. And GPB’s answers showed me how TOG compliments TWK, how both movies create something unique and ground-breaking for the Hollywood industry that has long failed to tell diverse stories. So, now I want to focus on a few things from the Q&A and what they say to me about The Old Guard.

The moderator pointed out that TWK isn’t just a historical epic, it also functions as an action movie and a finely tuned character drama. This is something that I would argue is also true for TOG – it’s not just a summer action/comic book movie. It doesn’t feel anything like an MCU film but instead functions as a meaningful character drama, which is why I believe it has such a devoted fan base even two years after its release. Both TWK and TOG have awesome fight sequences worthy of numerous rewatches, but they also make time for quiet character moments, something that studios tend to cut in order to get to the action faster. But GPB comes from making deep character dramas, and she brings that to all her films, regardless of genre.

Getting into action is relatively new for GPB, but it’s something she wanted to do in order to make a film that her kids could see themselves in. But she had to get her foot in the door first, which began with filming the pilot for the Marvel TV show, Cloak and Dagger. According to GPB, having that little “Marvel” on her resume got her in to direct Silver and Black, a now defunct Sony “Spiderverse” project, which then led to her being hired for The Old Guard. Though, in the end, GPB said Skydance really hired her because they loved Love and Basketball, her first movie, a much beloved film and most definitely a character driven story. And I think that says a lot about what kind of movies TOG and TMK turned out to be.

[Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sanaa Lathan on the set of Love and Basketball, image taken from imdb.com]

The moderator also pointed out how TWK “works as a character drama, and it works as a super kick ass action movie. Like, those things don’t necessarily all go together, but don’t often get all those things in one movie, especially the way that you have like character beats happening within action scenes,” and he wanted to know how GPB managed to strike that balance. She said that Hollywood loves action movies because they bring in money, but in her pitch to the studio, she wanted to emphasize that it was more than just an action flick. That what she wanted for this film was for it to be “intimately epic,” and that for her “that meant that the quiet character moments were as seismic as the big set pieces, knowing that those two things had to work in tandem. You will not care about the action if you don’t care about the characters or there’s no stakes.” And I think that’s very true of the movie, but also something she definitely did with The Old Guard.

After all, some people might dismiss it as a dumb summer flick, but I think it functions as an “intimately epic” movie too. There are no world ending threat or giant CGI villains to fight – the climax is a shootout in a small set of an office/lab/penthouse – but still, the stakes matter in the movie because you care about the characters, because the filmmakers, led by GBP, took time to show those quiet moments that made us all such devoted fans of these characters. She made sure to show Andy meeting Celeste in the pharmacy, Booker talking about his son’s death, Joe and Nicky spooning in the background, and Nile listening to music to ground herself. GBP drops these little crumbs throughout the movie because she knows that “you have to care about these characters for it to matter.” That all pays off later, so that when Andy says, “Let’s go get this motherfucker,” you feel that line and are cheering as they make their way through the lab, mowing down everyone in their path.

GPB also talked about how important training was for all the TWK’s actors to go through that in order to develop and feel connected to their characters, but also for her as the director in capturing their performances. She said, “That helps me put character into the action because I show performance. I’m not cutting around stunt doubles, this is really them, giving me everything that I need.” And we know training was a big part of the actor’s preparation for TOG as well, so when it came time for the viewing of TOG, I made sure to pay attention and realized for the first time that for a lot of the action scenes, you can actually see the actors’ faces most of the time. And that absolutely makes the movie feel more alive and real. For two hours I wholeheartedly believed these immortal warriors existed.

[Still from The Old Guard, image taken from straight.com]

But it’s not just about strength and how bad ass the characters are – although make no mistake, they are tough as nails, and I would  personally love to see a story where Nanisca from The Woman King (played by Viola Davis) meets Andromache the Scythian (played by Charlize Theron) and they go on a tear–, GBP knows to show that vulnerability is strength. She personally has a “no crying rule on set” which she attributes to her athlete mentality growing up and also being a woman in Hollywood – you can’t cry as a woman, she explains. But she did mention that she broke her own rule and cried during her pitch for TWK, but it ended up getting her the job. Because Viola Davis said it meant that she could trust GPB as a director. I think that is a very powerful message, and something that is felt even in TOG, where these immortal warriors are compelling because they are permitted vulnerability and emotion.

The moderator said how TWK could have easily just centered around Viola Davis’s character, Nanisca, but GPB made sure to also tell the stories of the other women around her. When asked why that was important to her, GPB explained that she loved all the characters and wanted them to have more, and Viola supported that. Because Viola knew “that the better the whole ensemble is, the better the film.” And so GPB tasked the cast with coming up with their backstories, some of them coming up with such amazing stuff that GBP wanted to make movies just out of those backstories. And this really reflects in the film with how strong and layered the characters are, you truly care about all of them and their fates. It may be Viola Davis’s movie, but she shines because everyone around her is also shining. And I think that’s true of TOG too.

The Old Guard could easily just have been just about Andy and Nile, and though they are the main characters and focal points of the story, we know from interviews that the other actors, such as Marwan Kenzari, put a lot of consideration into their characters, such as collecting poetry that reminded him of Joe and Nicky’s relationship, even though they were secondary characters. They could have easily faded into the background and been forgettable, but there’s a reason that these characters have their own set of devoted fans even today. Their scenes are fewer but no less impactful and they help make a richer story. Even Copley, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, has a heartbreaking scene that explains why he, a seemingly good man, would sell these immortals to a heartless Pharma-bro. There are not just one-note characters, and together they make Andy and Nile’s stories stronger.

It’s deeply intentional that fans love and care about Izogie, Amenza, Nawi, Gezo, Ode, Malik, Joe, Nicky, Booker, Quynh, Copley, and even Celeste. Because Gina Prince-Bythewood wants to make character driven stories, and she succeeds in both of these films. If she had been allowed the budget, I know she would have shot more backstory flashbacks for all those characters. But, as she pointed out, studios often want to cut those moments to get to the action quicker.

Another connection that was a delight to learn about was that GPB used the same fight coordinator on The Woman King that she used on The Old Guard, Danny Hernandez. GPB told us that when she got TMK, Hernandez was her third call, because he is, according to her, “a genius.” So in terms of action, these two films really feel like siblings. And GPB was very grateful for having done TOG first so she could meet him and then have him work with on TWK. TOG also taught her, she said, what it takes to do good action – as many takes as you need and actors who are willing to give it. She explained, “And this sounds really basic and obvious, but if you did not shoot it, it's not gonna show up in the edit room.“ And it’s not just about action. We know that the famous Van Speech had numerous takes to get just the right one, the one that still makes us go nuts. Which again leads me to ask, Dear Netflix or Skydance, when are we getting BTS footage and the deleted scenes?!

[Charlize Theron with what I’m 82% sure is Danny Hernandez in the background, image taken from looper.com]

The moderator then asked her about a phrase he’d heard GPB use a few times – something I referenced earlier– which is that as a filmmaker, she wants to “disrupt the genre.” And he wanted her to talk about that and how she did that with TWK, to which GPB replied: “Sad reality is, disrupting the genre was literally putting black women at the center of it,” words which were met with thunderous applause from the audience. TWK is a unique movie in that it is a historical epic and centers on so many deeply complex black women. And in the same way that GPB disrupts the historical epic, she did the same with the hero’s journey in The Old Guard, putting Nile, as played by Kiki Layne, in a role traditionally inhabited by a long line of white male characters. GPB and Greg Rucka worked together to really bring that genre disrupting story to film, where Nile is like Luke Skywalker (to use a big pop culture reference), discovering a strange new power, leaving everything they formally knew behind, to follow a wise, old warrior who will guide them. And yes, I am saying that Andy is a more bitter, drunker Obi-wan. But in all seriousness, one could easily name a dozen other hero’s-journey stories about some white dude, but Nile makes it unique, to finally have a black woman inhabit that role in a major movie. Even with the multitude of comic book movies taking over Hollywood, The Old Guard has done something none of them have yet. (Though, Wakanda Forever may finally change that, I’ll admit. But hey, more cake, right?)

Finally, the moderator mentioned the sequel for The Old Guard, which drew loud cheers and applause, only to turn to disappointed “awws” when he mentioned that GPB wasn’t directing it, though that was soon followed by some good hearted laughs as she smiled sheepishly to the audience.

It was previously reported that GPB has a “no sequels rule,” and she explained that while, yes, she does, it’s because for each film, she puts so much of herself into that particular film in order to say everything she wants to say. So if she ends up wanting to do a sequel, it means she didn’t say everything she wanted with the first film. Which means something went wrong. She went into TOG knowing it was a trilogy, and she admires Greg Rucka and his “amazing mind,” but she had a personal connection to the arc of the first film so that was the story she wanted to tell. She explained it was just her personal thing and feels like she doesn’t have anything new to bring to the sequel. And while I am saddened that she did not direct the sequel, reigns handed over to Victoria Mahoney, I appreciated the thought GPB put into it and I respect her reasoning.

[Mark Olsen and Gina Prince-Bythewood, image taken by me]

With that, the moderator opened up questions to the audience, and though I tried to ask a question, I was sadly not picked (I planned to ask about TOG deleted scenes). Also, in the end, they only had time for three questions which were mostly focused on TWK and film making in general. Not to mention the one lady who took up a lot of time with her three part question that everyone else had a hard time following, so much that the moderator had to cut her off. If he hadn’t, I’m sure she would still be talking to this day...

As GPB made her way off stage, a large crowd gathered to get last minute questions in or just to shake her hand. I tried diligently to get to the front so I could give her a small gift bag of TOG fan made stickers, but it was nearly impossible and I was so nervous by then, I was literally shaking. So I handed them to a woman next to her and explained it was a present for Gina and then I ran off! I have no idea if they got to her, but if they didn’t, it’s okay, I might not take a gift from the panicking grown woman who hands it off and then runs for her life.

About half the theater cleared out after that, but a sizable portion stayed for the viewing of The Old Guard, myself included. Me and this other lady were probably the most excited people in the theater, her loudly declaring “You should stay! It’s a good movie!” to which I added, “She’s right! She speaks the truth!” Mystery lady who left before I could talk to you – are you on Tumblr? Hit me up, let’s be friends!

[Proof of TOG on the big screen, awkward image of the hotel concierge checking out Booker taken by me]

Then, I finally got to see The Old Guard as it was meant to be seen– on the big silver screen! And guys, let me tell you, it was freaking amazing. We were SO robbed of this experience and it is my fervent wish that somehow it gets a limited run around the world so people can experience it as well. I feel like I noticed more details and just fell in love with the story and the characters all over again. And I know there’s division when it comes to the soundtrack – some love it, others hate it – but I gotta say, in a movie theater, I think the song choices hit harder and work so much better. You may still dislike it, but I personally felt more emotionally roused in the church fight scene and during Nile’s elevator ride.

Also, it’s important to say that the people who did stay were a vocal group, and it was such a joy to be part of it! I feel like Joe comes off as snarkier with an audience, his lines definitely earning the most laughs and rounds of applause– let me tell you, the audience loved him laying into Booker. And his beautiful eyes as he teared up in the van scene really popped on a big screen. Actually, all the actor’s eyes were simply stunning. And as for audience reactions to certain sequences, I would say that the biggest winners were a tie between the Van Speech and Nile’s defenestration with Merrick. Both got huge cheers and applause. It was, as GPB would put it, intimately epic.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on that evening and please join me in a prayer circle for there to be a run of the first movie in theaters as we get closer to the release of the sequel. Thank you for reading! And go see The Woman King if you haven't! (and can!)