Tag: CDC

Ominous Omicron

Ominous Omicron

by MichelleMcHatton

We blinked and a new coronavirus variant is upon us. And we know it won’t be the last. But Omicron is the latest and will probably be the one with us through 2022. So buckle up, get vaccinated and keep your facemasks on. You thought 2020 was bad? I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet, folks.

The emergence of Omicron has given the medical world stronger standing on pushing for the booster vaccination shots. Which may be all fine and dandy for some but it’s really left me with a lot of questions at this point. Which really causes me to hesitate in getting a booster shot myself.

First they kept telling the 65+ population to get the booster shots. Then, in my state, at least, they said, nope, now anyone 18+ can get it. But I’m still wondering when you’re going to let my 16-year-old get it. Her last vaccination shot was in May, so it’s been six months and she’s clearly eligible. Oh, but she’s not 18. Yet I remember all the harking on getting the 12-17 year-olds vaccinated. But now they can’t get booster shots?

And what are you going to do about the 5-11 year-olds once they become eligible for booster shots? When are you going to allow children under five to get vaccinated? They will surely become the first victims of Omicron.

And the question still remains: what happens when the boosters wear off? Because you, I, the CDC, the FDA, Dr. Fauci and the lamppost all know it’s only going to be a matter of time before they will.

It’s no surprise to me that Omicron has come for a visit. It’s no surprise to me that it has become a “variant of concern”. We should all be concerned about Omicron and any other variant that emerges.

Your best bet? Don’t plan on going to many places, stay home as much as possible and when you do venture out, wear your damn facemask. At the rate the world is going, we’ll be wearing those for the next fifty years. The days of living your life without a facemask, especially in a medical setting, are over.

A Mask For You, A Mask For Me

A Mask For You, A Mask For Me

by MichelleMcHatton

The CDC is a laugh a minute.

Two months ago it was “okay, vaccinated folks, whip off those masks and party hearty. But not you unvaccinated assholes, although we’ll turn a blind eye while you whip yours off too. Have fun! Especially when Delta gets you! PS: but if you’re on any public transportation or in a medical facility, you still have to wear a mask, no matter what. But it’s okay if you’re at a bar or a concert with 50,000 other fools. No masks needed”.

Now Delta has us, and the CDC, after much pressure and having wasted precious time, has issued new “guidance” that now vaccinated folks must wear masks, but only “when in areas with ‘substantial’ and ‘high’ transmission of Covid-19, which includes nearly two-thirds of all US counties.” Interestingly enough they didn’t mention unvaccinated people in this statement. Also, do most people know if their area is an area with “substantial” and “high” transmission? Do most people even give a fuck? I can assure you the unvaccinated ones don’t. So, it really wouldn’t shock me, with the stupidity of many people, that they would believe this statement says only the vaccinated need to wear masks and not the unvaccinated.

Today Walensky had the audacity to say the following: “In recent days I have seen new scientific data from recent outbreak investigations showing that the Delta variant behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause Covid-19,” HOLY FUCK! Ladies and Gents, your “head” of the CDC! Where has this bitch been for the past umpteenth months? Living under a fucking ROCK?????????? Has she not seen what has happened in India and the UK? That a fucking woman Down Under caught it from a person who just passed her by and didn’t even touch her???? Based on this crock that she “just” discovered this data the other day, when most of us have known it since before she declared “no masks” (and we all know she has known it too), she should pack her fucking bags and resign.

Instead of the CDC pussyfooting around and trying to save what little reputation they have left (which isn’t much), why don’t they just fucking say what they’re going to be saying sooner than later anyway:

EVERYONE PUT THE GODDAMN MASKS BACK ON NO MATTER WHAT THE FUCK YOUR STATUS IS, NO MATTER WHERE THE FUCK YOU LIVE!!!! BECAUSE DELTA IS HERE AND IT’S GOING TO BE HERE FOR A GOOD LONG WHILE!!!! ALONG WITH ANY OTHER VARIANTS THAT COME ALONG!!! IN FACT, DON’T BE SURPRISED IF YOU’RE WEARING MASKS FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS!!!!!! PS: YOUR VACCINES AREN’T GOING TO LAST FOREVER!!!!

At least they got the K-12 school thing right. Wouldn’t it only make fucking sense that all students wear masks, especially since a good percentage of them can’t even be vaccinated yet?

What Happened To Being In This Together?

What Happened To Being In This Together?

by MichelleMcHatton

The other day the CDC director declared that, because of the current rising of COVID-19 cases in the United States, the virus is “becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated”. She is very far from the truth.

The pandemic hasn’t changed. It’s always been there. It’s just changed variants. Also, the pandemic has always affected everyone. Only a year ago we were singing along to “We’re All In This Together” because we were in it together. And even then we weren’t because there were your “the virus is a hoax” people and your anti-maskers. But there were more of us than there were of them. Now with the creation of a vaccine and a mix of people either getting vaccinated or not getting vaccinated, the rise of cases in both unvaccinated and vaccinated people, the CDC and others, probably in frustration, because, hey, they actually believed everyone was going to get the vaccine, are pointing the finger at the unvaccinated.

Saying that what we are going through has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated is an unfair statement. Considering there are many people who have no choice but to not get vaccinated. Such as children under age 12. You want to blame the over 10,000 babies born every day in the United States for being unvaccinated? And don’t say infants don’t get the virus because they do. And how about the many adults who, for one reason or another, usually a medical one, have been advised to not get vaccinated. Such as this woman.

I know there are the regular people out there who could get vaccinated but won’t for their own personal reasons: it’s too new, it’s not FDA approved, it’ll magnetize me, Bill Gates will be able to watch me sleeping, whatever. That’s their choice. Just as it was the choice of many people to get vaccinated.

The problem really didn’t start with the choice of people either getting vaccinated or not. It started in May when the CDC director said that vaccinated people could go maskless. I really think it was her roundabout way to try to get the unvaccinated vaccinated. It was nice of her to have so much faith in humanity but she should’ve known better. Because what she did was give a free pass to everyone. And now, two months later, here we are with Delta cases going up and up all over the country, with no end in sight. We have an Olympics game about to start in a country that is under an emergency state due to Covid. And at this count, at least three athletes in the Olympic village have tested positive. And the games haven’t even begun yet.

In getting back to the masks for a minute, I always found it interesting how the CDC declared that masks must still be worn in a medical setting as well as on public transportation such as planes, buses, trains, taxis, etc. If they need to be worn in those settings, why shouldn’t they be worn in any setting? In essence the CDC is telling us it’s okay to go to that concert and stand in that crowded pit without a mask, mingle with the two people closest to you in that pit, but then when you get on a plane with those same two people and sit next to them, you need to wear a mask. That makes no sense.

I don’t feel this pandemic has become one just for the unvaccinated. It’s everyone’s problem. And Facebook isn’t to blame either because (1) you can block misinformation sites and (2) I know several unvaccinated people who don’t even use Facebook. I think the first blame lies with the CDC. I just think the CDC is using the unvaccinated as an excuse for their poor judgement in letting the masks go. How else do you explain so many vaccinated people getting infected? Other than maybe the vaccines aren’t as effective as we were told.

Waving The White Flag

Waving The White Flag

by MichelleMcHatton

Yesterday the CDC declared that if you’re an individual who has been fully vaccinated you no longer have to wear a mask indoors or outdoors and you don’t have to socially distance. Unless your local laws indicate otherwise. And most local laws are lax to begin with.

As of this writing if you peruse the CDC government site, you’ll find this information under a link that you can click on. There’s also a link that says “find a vaccine” if you are not vaccinated. The remainder of the site has not been updated since April 13 and it still mentions the prior facemask guidelines.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that the statement from the CDC yesterday was clearly their ploy to try to incentivize anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated and mainly to try to entice the ones who have no intention of getting vaccinated. Apparently the CDC doesn’t know that the ones who have no intention wouldn’t get vaccinated if their lives depended on it. They certainly don’t care if the CDC says you can go mask less if you get vaccinated. Because most of them weren’t wearing masks to begin with. And then CNN reported: If the CDC’s announcement isn’t enough to move people to get vaccinated, here’s another reason: Cleveland Clinic said Thursday that more than 99% of people with Covid-19 in its hospitals from January 1 and mid-April were not fully vaccinated. Well, duh. Of course they weren’t. The vaccines only started getting distributed in December, mainly to first responders and medical personnel and the majority of the population didn’t even become eligible for a goddamn shot until April. Also, if you were in the hospital with Covid, you weren’t going to be given a vaccine. Shit, I was eligible for a shot in February but couldn’t get one until the end of March because I couldn’t get a goddamn appointment. So fuck the Cleveland Clinic and their poor reasoning.

Which brings me to the next point, which every health official outside the CDC has also brought up: how the fuck are we going to know who has and who hasn’t been vaccinated? Covid tests at the door? Coughing tests? Facemasks wrapped around our arms? Facemask tan lines?

You can’t trust vaccination cards because so many non-vaxers have already secured fraudulent ones online. And would we expect businesses to stop and ask you for vaccination proof anyway?

Personally I intend to keep wearing a facemask as long as there are Covid cases. Although I am fully vaccinated I cannot afford to take the chance, whether it be slight or not, of getting Covid. Because I’m not going to know when I go to a store, a restaurant, a museum or anywhere that the person next to me who just coughed all over the place, who just spewed their saliva when they spoke, who just touched their mouth and then the doorknob, who is singing, who is laughing, and is standing right next to me, less than six feet away, is vaccinated. There aren’t enough, and at the end of the day, won’t be enough, fully vaccinated people in this country, or even the world, for me to fully believe that the person breathing down my neck is fully vaccinated. There have been so many instances during this pandemic where I have been in a store and the person in front of me has coughed or sneezed and although they were wearing a facemask, never took any other precaution. And I thought to myself “thank Christ I’m wearing a facemask”. In September at CVS I stood behind a man coughing his head off while wearing his facemask below his chin. I really felt bad for the woman standing in front of him.

Yes, I agree that it’s apparent the vaccines are doing something. The cases have dropped considerably and I’m lucky enough to live in one of the most vaccinated states. But, even as it says on the CDC website under the “What We’re Still Learning” section: How long Covid-19 vaccines can protect people. Because we don’t know. A good majority of us have taken a risk at not knowing if there will be any future side effects from these vaccines. But I guess it’s better than possibly dying from Covid. Again, we don’t know.

To me the CDC making their statement yesterday was their way of waving the white flag. They have given up. They know that we are at the end of the vaccine process for adults who want a vaccine, that the only ones left to get vaccinated will be children, if their parents allow them to, which I know many are not. They know herd immunity will not happen. And they know that Covid is not going away any time soon. I’m sure they even suspect another wave. And there very well could be one. But they can’t do anything else. So they tell the ones who have been vaccinated, and inadvertently the ones who have not, to take off their masks and party.

Until the next pandemic hits.

To School or Not to School

To School or Not to School

by MichelleMcHatton

It seems that everyone in government wants to stick their nose into deciding whether our children should be physically attending school come the new school year.  In other words, having school buildings open for children, teachers, office staff, custodians, food service, etc. to risk their lives in the face of coronavirus, all in the name of education.

The delusional SHITHOLE who calls himself “president” and the good-for-nothing “education secretary” Cruella DeVos can say what they want about their desire to have America’s kids to go back to school.  But in conclusion, there’s not a goddamn thing they can do about how it happens.  So if school district X wants to send their students back to school in a hybrid form (say two days at physical school, three days schooling at home), SHITHOLE and Cruella have no say.  SHITHOLE can threaten to take away funding.  Most of the funding the schools get comes from the state, possibly even the town (I know of such a district that relies on most of the funding for the school from the town itself).  So SHITHOLE and Cruella can fuck right off.

What these two idiots, and the rest of their idiotic “administration” need to consider is what happens if these kids go back to school and then suddenly many people get sick.  Including children.  Just because “stats” claim children don’t get sick, doesn’t mean that’s the case.  Many children have gotten sick from COVID-19 and some have died.  Children aside, if all the teachers that taught the children got sick, then who would teach the children?  Of course.  The parents.  At home.

On June 25, 2020 the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released a 20-page booklet that they call “DESE Initial Fall 2020 Reopening Guidance”. They state that their goal for the fall is to “safely bring back as many students as possible to in-person school settings, to maximize learning and address our students’ holistic needs. With the information provided in this memo, districts and schools should begin planning for a fall return that includes multiple possibilities, with a focus first and foremost on getting our students back into school buildings”.  The document also states that “districts and schools must plan not only for in-person learning, but also hybrid learning models (in which students learn in-person for some of the time and remotely for some of the time) and also full remote learning.  Remote learning may be a necessary option in the fall for some students who are unable to return to school due to underlying medical conditions and potentially for all students if COVID-19 forces widespread school closures in the future.”  They indicate that school districts need to have their plans presented to DESE by August.  But it doesn’t give a specific date.  Hope it’s before August 25, because that’s when my daughter returns to school.  That’s confusion number one for me.

Confusion number two are the discrepancies they present in physical distancing.  The document states that the “federal CDC has recommended maintaining a physical distance of six feet between individuals, the World Health Organization’s guidance states approximately three feet”.  Then under the “Distancing Requirements” section it states “As reviewed and advised by the Massachusetts COVID-19 Command Center Medical Advisory Group, schools should aim for a physical distance of six feet when feasible and three feet is the minimum distance allowed”.  So what the fuck is it?  Six feet or three feet?  How about we go halfsies and call it a day?

I may have missed it but the only time they mention a bus is when they indicate everyone needs to wear a face mask on the bus.  I don’t recall reading anything about how many kids they plan to fit on a bus or how they plan on sitting them on the bus.  Especially if they need to remain six (or three) feet apart.

It is being recommended that students are to be placed in “cohorts” and will remain in their “cohort” throughout the day.  Of course it doesn’t mention anything about the one kid in the cohort who is a bully and chooses to pick on all the other kids in the cohort.  Because you know that will be the case in many “cohorts”.  But that’s another topic for another day, isn’t it?

The guidelines suggest using alternative spaces in the school for teaching (i.e., cafeteria, library, auditorium).  Even teaching outside.  Yes, that will be great in January.  It is even suggested teaching at a different location off campus.  Anyone up for learning at the local Dunks?

I’m not even going to discuss the financial aspects, because apparently this document believes each school district and each school district family is loaded.  Families are to provide their own face masks, but there will allegedly be back ups at school.  Hand wipes.   Hand sanitizer.  Sanitizer I can find.  Wipes I haven’t seen since February.  Disinfecting wipes I haven’t seen since February either and although I know you can order the commercial brand, I hope schools realize that they are on at least a month’s back order.  And to be able to provide enough of these materials for people within a school for 180 days.  For some districts that cost will break them.

I can’t speak for other school districts but mine has laid off twenty-two educators.  I know many others have faced the same situation and that will put a burden on many as well.

None of us know what the new school year will bring.  Anyone physically going to school and getting COVID-19 will not surprise me.  Because that is a very likely scenario.  We can only hope for the best, hope for not many cases and hope for the best kind of education one can receive under this “new normal”.