Secondary Orality
#36 The way we take in information about infectious diseases and other current events.
Contents:
Legal Challenges
=>West Virginia vs. E.P.A.
=>Banning School Mask Mandates, Wins & Losses
Masking on Transit
Monkeypox
**FACES & THE FACELESS**
Infodemic
Air!
Mixed Messages: Infecting Our Way Out of the Pandemic
Children & Teens
Miscellaneous
Introduction: After several attempts to start this edition of the newsletter, it struck me the difficulty stemmed from a transition underfoot. We seem to be in a nine steps forward, eight steps back phase of both the COVID pandemic and history overall. (The cliche quantities of progress/regression are two steps forward and one back.)
Given the news that Facebook parent Meta corporation is seeking to conclude its practice of removing COVID misinformation [link→], it seems we need to optimize our human information intake systems. To make our habits more commensurate with the optimized digital distribution methods that we and our digital overlords ubiquitously brought forth at the tail end of the before times, habit adjustments are in order.
An unforgettable article that appeared in a 2007 New Yorker by the scholar Caleb Crain [link→] described how technology might both advance and obstruct our literacy. Crain said something about pre-literate information consumption, written about by Walter J. Ong, that in my experience describes the hangover feeling I have after the worst sessions of doom-scrolling borderless news consumption:
According to Ong, the best way to preserve ideas in the absence of writing is to “think memorable thoughts,” whose zing insures their transmission.
Indeed the more I consumed *strictly* through the small viewport in my smartphone, the more I realized I was attempting to store news in my head in an anxious way that raised my baseline irritability. My ambient, free-time thoughts drifted towards primarily being about the news item zings that alarmed me and made me mad. Recency took precedence over importance. These weren’t zings which spurred action, but rather nurtured toxic rumination, as if I had to go back to verify each article really said that. This budding notion of faulty consumption techniques was cemented a few years back when California was going in circles talking about the fact we have wildfires. The wildfire news coverage was stuck in place for years, which is not to say the reporters and fire crews weren’t working hard. Encapsulating this phenomena was a 2018 quote from an 18-year-old fire survivor from Santa Rosa, California, captured by Reveal News:
“Like, we get all these text messages from CNN and Washington Post, or, you know, all the media that’s telling us what’s going on, on a minute-by-minute basis, in the world. But here – my world was burning, and I heard nothing,” he said. “We deserved to know that there was a fire.”
- ‘My world was burning’: the North Bay fires and what went wrong [→]
After that local report published, California alert system clerks were re-trained, and more people are accepting they have to be prepared to respond to a wildfire. Signs abound that fire season preparation cycles are creeping further upstream, from packing pre-evacuation go-bags to trimming neighborhood tree limbs to managing forest floor duff via goat-grazings and prescribed burns.
Since Facebook parent Meta corporation announced this week it’s planning to transition its product from still images and text to untranscribed video, in an effort to compete with TikTok, it seemed an opportune time, along with the arrival of Monkeypox, tragic appearance of polio, and global summer resurgence of COVID hospitalizations to talk about zings.
Legal Challenges
=>West Virginia vs. E.P.A.
Jul 26 The Supreme Court Is Making America Ungovernable The West Virginia v. EPA ruling signals a future in which no one in power has the ability to tackle the biggest issues society faces. (Atlantic Monthly) - “Evidence of the extreme legislative clarity the Court now demands can be seen in two other cases the Court decided in the past year. Both involved the Biden administration’s efforts to stem the spread of COVID. ...the second arose out of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s rule requiring COVID vaccinations or testing by large employers.”
Jul 01 Opinion | The Supreme Courts E.P.A. Decision Is More Gloom Than Doom (New York Times) - “The Supreme Court decision is a bit worse than that, though, in how it restricts the E.P.A.'s ability to effectively regulate dirty energy rapidly off the grid without the explicit support of Congress. But this case was unusual in that it applied to potential powers rather than ongoing policy or law…”
=>Banning School Mask Mandates, Wins & Losses
Jul 23 Judge tosses Arizona suit over limits on virus relief funds (Seattle Times) - “The Treasury Department also wanted changes to a $10 million program [Arizona Gov. Doug] Ducey created that gives private school tuition money to parents if their children’s [public] schools have mask mandates. In a ruling earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Steven Logan concluded it was reasonable for the Biden administration to say that the money couldn’t be spent on efforts that would undermine compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines.”
Jul 26 Appeals court upholds Texas block on school mask mandates (KTAL NBC 6 Shreveport) - “Writing for the majority in a 2-1 ruling Monday, Judge Andrew Oldham said there are other options for schools to accommodate the children’s health concerns. He specifically mentioned vaccines, plexiglass barriers, use of hand sanitizer and social distancing.
‘It is plainly within the States power to remove one possible accommodation from consideration, so long as other reasonable options remain,’ Oldham wrote in the opinion issued Monday, rejecting arguments that the prohibition on mask mandates violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal law.”
Jul 28 CCSD awarded $57K in fees after dismissal of mask mandate lawsuit (Las Vegas Review-Journal) - “A federal judge has ordered two parents to pay about $57,000 in attorney fees to the Clark County School District after their lawsuit challenging a COVID-19 mask mandate was dismissed. Parents Monica Branch-Noto and Tiffany Paulson filed the lawsuit in August on behalf of their children. It was dismissed in December, and the school district filed a motion in January seeking attorney fees.”
🗄️ Dec 22 2021 Appeal dismissed in dispute over COVID masks for disabled students (Orlando Sentinel) - “A federal appeals court has dismissed a dispute about whether an order by Gov. Ron DeSantis to prevent school mask mandates violated laws designed to protect the rights of people with disabilities. … The motion and the dismissal did not explain the reasons. The case centered on an executive order that DeSantis issued July 30 to try to prevent schools from requiring students to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
May 21 MAGA Law: How the Trump Judges Twist U.S. Justice | Theyre overwhelmingly young, white, male, and extreme. And they’ll be in power for a generation (Rolling Stone) - “The hard right’s takeover of the Supreme Court is real, and is having real consequences. But despite that leaked decision that would overturn Roe, this takeover isn’t just about abortion, and its not just about the Supreme Court. In fact, Trump-appointed judges at all levels of the judiciary are remaking nearly every aspect of American law, from voting rights to environmental regulations, police accountability to LGBTQ and women’s equality.”
Masking on Transit
Jul 28 [Translated: ] Covid-19: Portugal keeps wearing a mask compulsory in transport (Le Figaro) - [Translated:] Portugal has decided to keep wearing a mask compulsory on public transport, at least until the end of August, to protect the most vulnerable populations from Covid-19, the government spokeswoman announced on Thursday.
Jul 28 BART reinstates mask mandate, effective immediately (SFGate) - “A BART spokesperson said Thursday free face masks are available at station agent booths and from all safety staff for those who need one.”
Jul 15 Calls to end masks on public transport (Portugal News) - “The Chega party has announced the delivery of a bill to make the use of a mask no longer mandatory in most places, including public transport, remaining only in health establishments or homes.... In the bill sent to newsrooms, Chega recognises that the mask was an important tool in the fight against the pandemic, but argues …”
Monkeypox
Monkeypox is often confused for a sexually transmitted disease but can be transmitted through cuddling, prolonged close-talking or shared linens.
May 20 CDC: Monkeypox May Present With Genital Sores, No Prior Fever (Medpage Today) - “Unlike prior cases, this recent outbreak of monkeypox does not always start with flu-like symptoms prior to the onset of rash, the agency noted, but ‘some recent cases have begun with characteristic, monkeypox-like lesions in the genital and perianal region,’ which may lead to the infection being confused with sexually transmitted infections, such as syphilis or herpes.”
Jul 26 Woman among monkeypox patients in Georgia (11 Alive WXIA-TV) -
Jul 30 In race for monkeypox vaccines, experts see repeat of COVID (Toronto Star) - “Moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version of the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into humans, public health officials are warning. Critics fear a repeat of the catastrophic inequity problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Jul 27 Doctors say search for monkeypox cases needs to look beyond men who have sex with men (CNN) - At home, a mid-30’s man diagnosed with folliculitis continued to help his wife with their five children, one of whom is a newborn. Despite antibiotics, the man’s bumps spread beyond the first pustules on his groin to his palms, arms, legs and face, sending him four days later back to the clinic for a second look. The clinic consulted Dr. Daniel Griffin who recommended they administer a monkeypox test, which days later came back positive, resulting in six lost days of opportunity for early treatment.
Jul 20 This New Jersey mom and daughter were exposed to monkeypox. Here's what happened next (Ashbury Park Press) -”Symptoms usually take three weeks after exposure to develop. Testing has increased over the past two weeks as several commercial laboratories have added the capability to analyze the swabs of skin lesions.” “For Erica, it was an easy call: She had a known exposure to a person who tested positive. A contact tracer from the New York City Department of Health alerted health officials in New Jersey that Erica and Cate had been exposed. She was eligible [for a vaccine].”
Jul 15 [Translated: ] Government becomes strict regarding monkeypox: 21 days surveillance of those who came in contact with the patient; First case found in Kerala yesterday (Dainik Bhaskar) - [Translated:] In India, citizens are advised not to eat meat from wild animals and not to use creams, lotions and powders made from animals from Africa. Stay away from bedding and clothing that has come in contact with sick people or infected animals.
Jul 29 CDC Page on Monkeypox (Internet Archive Wayback Machine) - “After zoonotic transmission, monkeypox spread from person to person is principally respiratory; contact with infectious skin lesions or scabs is another, albeit less common, means of person-to-person spread. African rodents and primates may harbor the virus and infect humans, but the reservoir host is unknown.”
**FACES & THE FACELESS**
Jul 27 Unvaccinated NY appeals judge will finally get the jab (New York Daily News) - Judge Rivera can now get vaccinated with the Novavax vaccine, she wrote in a statement shared Wednesday with the Daily News. “My doctors have confirmed that the recently approved Novavax Covid 19 vaccine does not present any health-related risks to me, and I am ready and eager to receive this vaccine as soon as it is publicly available.’”
Jul 30 Biden tests positive for COVID-19 again — just 3 days after he was cleared to exit isolation | Biden 'has experienced no re-emergence of symptoms,' says White House doctor (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) -
Jul 29 Deaths from COVID-19 in Florida take off amid undercounted cases in BA.5 surge (Palm Beach Post) - “Florida logged more COVID-19 deaths in the past two weeks than it has in months. The state's death toll climbed by an average of 452 each week from July 15 through Friday, Florida Department of Health figures show. ... That death toll does not include more than 3,000 fatalities between March and October that physicians labeled as COVID deaths, but the state Health Department did not.”
Jul 19 WHO: COVID triples across Europe, hospitalizations double (Toronto Star) -
Jul 07 Former inmate Paul Redd dedicated life to others (San Francisco Chronicle) - “Though he was vaccinated and had two booster shots, Redd tested positive for the coronavirus on June 16 and died three days later on Juneteenth, in his room at Canticle Farm in Oakland's Fruitvale district. It was two years and one month after his release from a 44-year sentence for a crime he said he didn't commit. He was 65.”
Infodemic
Like the slice of the population which insists the 1969 moon landing was staged, a few stragglers still insist masks don’t work. Most former anti-maskers, however, have pivoted to admitting either a) they don’t like wearing masks b) they’re afraid of people who don’t like wearing masks, c) they see masks as bad for business or, d) they believe we need to infect our way out of the pandemic.
PREBUNK: An indoor mask mandate curbs COVID transmission which in turn keeps classrooms filled.
Jul 27 [Misinformation] Dr. Scott Atlas: San Diego Unified's mask mandate is a 'sinful abuse of young people' - (KUSI 51 San Diego) - “Dr. Scott Atlas, MD, Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in Health Policy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and former member of President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, has been right about the severity of coronavirus since the pandemic began.”
DEBUNK: Scott Atlas insisted early on we need to infect our way out of the pandemic. See this NBC article for more information: Covid task force members worried about 'misinformation' being shared with Trump.
PREBUNK: This UCSF doctor is in the minority amongst her colleagues in disparaging a remote school district for temporarily mandating masks indoors. When a doctor speaks on twitter or to the media, that doctor is acting as a doctor-pundit and is not subject to malpractice liabilities or duty-of-care laws.
Jul 20 (Twitter.com/JeanneNoble) - SDUSD implementing non-evidence based infection control policies, not required by public health officials, and appearing almost eager to lock children out of in-person education. Dubious legality, ethically bankrupt.
DEBUNK: Until Dr. Noble insists all surgery on her and in her hospital take place unmasked – since surgical masks as she says in the tweet are “non-evidence based infection control policies” – it’s assumed by many the real reason she’s anti-mask is because she believes we need to infect our way out of the pandemic.
Air!
Jul 27 Schools install air quality meters to prevent spread of COVID (KGTV ABC 10 San Diego) - University of Colorado civil engineering professor Mark Hernandez says an installation in Colorado is among the largest serving as a national model for other school districts wanting to prioritize a healthy environment for students. "CO2 in particular, it tells us how stale the air is," Hernandez said. "If the air stale, there's a higher probability to see COVID because we exhale it."
Jul 15 Toronto Public Library begins CO2 monitor lending program to measure indoor air quality - Kelly Cutrara (The Kelly Cutura Show) - [8-minute Audio] Kelly talks to Dr. Kashif Pirzada, an emergency physician in Toronto.
Feb 24 3M scientists: This Corsi-Rosenthal box movement is legit (3M News Center) - “When 3M first noticed the DIY trend on Twitter, Filtrete Brand filtration experts started building and testing multiple versions of the box. DIYers were using 3M Filtrete Air Filters, so the lab experts did, too. They concluded the boxes were effective at capturing unwanted airborne particles, including viruses, [link ->] and serves as a good supplement to a more holistic ventilation strategy.”
Mixed Messages: Infecting Our Way Out of the Pandemic
Mixed messages about the virus getting milder with each mutation, and the belief that “endemic” is something to aim for, still appear in the press.
Jan 13 Debunking the idea viruses always evolve to become less virulent | The concept can be traced back to a theory from the late 1800s. (ABC News) - “The idea that infections tend to become less lethal over time was first proposed by notable bacteriologist Dr. Theobald Smith in the late 1800s. His theory about pathogen evolution was later dubbed the ‘law of declining virulence.’”...But over the past 100 years, virologists have learned that virus evolution is more chaotic.
Jul 23 [Translated: ] Covid-19: Passage to endemic will have to wait for next winter (Diario de Noticias) - [Translated:] After the sixth wave, the numbers of the covid-19 pandemic are falling, but researcher Miguel Castanho considers that it is rash to assume that Portugal has entered an endemic disease, a new phase that can only be confirmed next winter.
Jul 20 [Translated: ] Imposing COVID Restrictions Now Would Have Limited Effect, Chief Epidemiologist Says (Iceland Review) - [Translated:] COVID reinfections in Iceland are by far most common among those who were infected early in the pandemic: before the Omicron variant became widespread. ... Þórólfur expressed his hope that immunity against COVID-19 would continue to build up and infection rates and rates of serious illness would begin to decrease soon.
Jul 17 You'll likely catch COVID-19 again and again. Will each round feel milder? (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) - "From all the literature I've seen, when reinfections do happen with increasing frequency, they're not usually worse," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist with the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon. "And that's exactly what you'd expect, because that's how the immune system works."
Children & Teens
Jul 10 [Translated: ] Rio begins tomorrow to vaccinate 4-year-olds against covid-19 (Jornal do Brasil) -
Jul 15 25 million children missed routine vaccinations because of Covid (NBC News) - “This is a red alert for child health, said Catherine Russell, UNICEFs executive director. We are witnessing the largest sustained drop in childhood immunization in a generation, she said, adding that the consequences would be measured in lives lost.”
Jul 24 Some COVID orphans in California will get financial help (Capital Public Radio for California) - “In a small town in California’s Central Valley, a trio of siblings lost both their parents to COVID-19 within two weeks of each other in 2021. Their deaths made the oldest son a pseudo-parent to his teenage siblings overnight and forced the brothers and sister to figure out a future without their mom and dad.”
Jul 28 COVID-19 cases in children rising as new school year approaches (WPTV 5 NBC West Palm Beach) - “With back to school right around the corner, Fox-Levine is urging parents to get their kids vaccinated. …Fox-Levine's message to parents also includes recommending face masks in class.”
Jul 20 South Carolina seeing more cases of children with COVID-19, medical officials say. What to know (Herald Online) - “Clearly in the pediatric population, we have seen a rising number of children being infected with COVID-19, Lacroix said. Its much higher than what we had seen in the spring when we had higher COVID infections.”
Jul 21 Teenager with COVID-induced psychosis thought hospital staff was poisoning him (New York Post) - “This occurred just three days after he was discharged from the hospital, leading to his readmittance for an apparent mental health crisis.”
Thank you for your patronage. This newsletter was inspired by M’Kayla Robinson, a 13-year-old honor student with no pre-existing conditions we lost last August to COVID-19 [→].
Miscellaneous
Jul 04 New COVID-19 tests can identify variants in hours - study | Scientists at UT Southwestern have successfully developed a test than can "successfully differentiate between all current variants of the coronavirus." (Jerusalem Post) - [Big if true:] “Scientists from UT Southwestern Medical Center successfully developed a COVID-19 test that can determine within hours which coronavirus variant a patient was infected with, using data from a study they published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Clinical Chemistry.”
Jul 20 Polk County asks residents to report positive at-home COVID-19 tests to survey (KCCI Des Moines CBS 8) -
Jul 19 [Translated: ] Monopoly owner's profits more than double in the first half (Expresso) - In other news, Toys 'R Us is reopening.
Jul 18 Michael Mann WTF with Marc Maron Podcast (WTF Marc Maron) - [55:00] “I'd spent significant time, by this point, in Folsom [visiting prisoners incarcerated at the facility]...I knew the power of the human intellect in captivity. With people who have relatively strong egos, and the confinement makes them more intellectually aggressive.”
Jul 18 NJ pharmacists seek guidance on prescribing COVID-19 meds (NJ Spotlight News / NJTV PBS) - "Within our own board of pharmacy the regulations have not been set up to really give us the appropriate guidance on how we should approach that. So at this point, we're sort of in a holding pattern”
Issues will be less frequent moving forward as I pivot the mission of this project. Send feedback to tracingcovid [at] substack dot com.