The CDC’s HICPAC has proposed guidance that will weaken infection control in healthcare settings. They have a rather short period for written comments, “…opened November 1, 2023, and will close at 11:59 pm on November 6, 2023.” I presume that is Eastern timezone.
Below is the message I sent, including links to more information. Please take a moment and send an email yourself! hicpac@cdc.gov
Subject: Strengthen infection control guidance
To: CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC)
hicpac@cdc.gov
I am writing to join my voice with the National Nurses United (NNU), People’s CDC, and thousands of experts in public health — calling on HICPAC to strengthen the guidance on infection control and fully recognize the aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The proposed updates weaken the guidance and do not adequately follow the current science on transmission. This will put more healthcare workers and patients at risk.
I am also urging more openness and transparency in your processes. You should be seeking input from frontline workers and other experts in respiratory health. Draft guidance should be published along with the scientific evidence well in advance, with an ample time for the public to make written comments.
Thank you,
Gregor Morrill
Bookmarked: The Public Health Pledge
The border:none conference was in Germany last week followed by an IndieWebCamp event, so several indieweb people were there. In the chat, the amount of current Covid cases was brought up and a mention of how few were masked in a crowd of about 200.
My heart sank — a feeling I’m unfortunately getting more and more used to. I commented “in-person conferences may just be a thing of the past for me at this rate 🫠.” I followed that with an explanation that it’s the psychological and emotional weight of being in spaces like that. I have to psych myself up. It feels really isolating; the “alone in a crowded room” feeling.
Tantek helpfully tried to put a positive frame on it as “an interesting exercise in independence and not bowing to implied / perceived social pressure” and the idea that it can help train us to be independent thinkers. I’ve been thinking on that for a bit now. I think there is some truth to that, but I also feel pretty well-trained in that regard after almost 4 years of this.
For me, it’s important to remember that the context of this training is the nearly unmitigated spread of a virus with long-term health impacts. That’s a big part of the psychological weight. I can’t emphasize enough how important community care has become to me. It’s not just my health that I’m concerned about when I’m in a crowd. Looking around and seeing that the majority are not taking basic precautions (for whatever reason) really weighs on me. We know these precautions make everyone safer, but so many people have bought into the hyper-individualism of the moment.
I love the work that Clean Air Club is doing in Chicago, crowdfunding and trying to make concerts safer by providing free air purifiers. They posted a reel recently that I think explains the importance of being proactive in prioritizing Covid safety and accessibility. Here is a transcript of the audio (emphasis mine):
Going to shows the past few years, it seems like nobody is masking anymore. But the reality is that Covid cautious people are being pushed out of these spaces. There’s a selection bias at crowded events. If you do attend and choose to mask, you feel like the only one. But you’re not.
This is a classic paradox of inaccessibility. Because a space is inaccessible to Covid cautious people, they aren’t able to join. But because they aren’t able to join, it appears that there is no demand for Covid cautious spaces. It’s feedback loop that entrenches ableism in our music scene. Artists, event hosts, and venues most of all have an obligation to interrupt this loop.
Prioritize Covid safety.
This has me mulling over what policies I will promote if/when I’m in a position to organize in-person events again, as well as what I will request/encourage other event organizers to implement. I hope to write more on that soon.
Welp, the Instagram gods decided that this comment was spam/abusive and immediately removed it. My first guess is the fist emoji, but the common meaning of that is “solidarity,” especially in the context of an activism post like that. I tried to comment again without that emoji but got a generic “try again later” message. Maybe the automated system thinks it’s a misleading comment about IG features, but it’s not.
Today I tried commenting on someone else’s Halloween costume and got a more extensive message:
“Try again later. We restrict certain activity to protect our community. Based on your use, this action will be unavailable for you until 2023-10-31. Tell us if you think we made a mistake.
Learn more in account status (link)”
Of course that learn more link doesn’t work and only takes me back to the homepage. Seems pretty excessive for leaving a friendly comment on a mutual’s post — not even a stranger.
🔥 Awesome! Can I suggest adding the text for each image in the alt text? That makes it more accessible for screen readers. Can be set from the three dots menu, edit, then edit alt text. ✊
I realized this month has been 6 years of me living in San Diego. That’s wild. That’s the longest I’ve lived in one place since I left Indianapolis in 2011. Of course it hasn’t felt that long because I still feel stuck in time in 2020.
Like they say, write what you know.
Hello ...ladies.
I don’t remember how to do introduction posts, so there ya go, Bluesky.
Excellent movie. I should re-watch, it’s been a while.
I somehow missed that Jeunet had a new film last year, Bigbug. Watched it the other week on Netflix and enjoyed it.
I’m attending 2023-10-26 7:00pm–9:30pm.
Small moment of joy: I was helping We All We Got SD take things from storage to the park this morning. Another person showed up to help unmasked, but after they saw me masked, they put one on and told me how nice it was to see other people masking. They told me all too familiar stories about being one of the few masked at a big event. They’ve had COVID twice and can’t afford to get sick again.
It felt really nice and reminded me that that it’s not futile to mask up. Sometimes it might remind someone else to mask or make them feel less alone in doing so. Let’s keep each other safe! 💛
Ooh, it looks like Bridgy Fed now has support for at-mentions. Thanks @snarfed@indieweb.social!
Great post. No notes. What Elon Musk's X is getting right
I’ll have to check these out! I got to see Wet Leg at Music Box last year and they were a lot of fun. Also, I feel like I’ve *arrived* now that I have a hashtag! 😂
I joined the virtual Homebrew Website Club meetup last night and Pablo shared the post about his plans to expand his music tastes, “1000 Albums in 1000 Days.”
I have posted some “Music Monday” posts occasionally. It’s usually been when I’m particularly excited about a song or just when the mood strikes me. I was intrigued by Pablo’s idea and figured it could be a relatively easy task to listen to one distinct album each day(-ish), whether it’s new to me or not. I am always interested in finding good new music, so that will be part of the goal, but I think this will also help me go through the catalog of albums I haven’t listened to in ages and see how they hold up.
I’m keeping it simple for now, so not going to commit to 1000 albums or posting about each one I listen to, but I am sure I will share some of the high/lowlights.
Recommendations are always welcome! What are some of your favorite albums of 2023?
More adventures at the cardiologist’s office:
Again, no doctors or nurses were masked. One nurse had a couple big sneezes. There were a lot more people in the waiting room this time; only one of them was masked. I ended up waiting in the hallway for a bit since it was emptier and had better ventilation since it was close to an automatic outside door.
I didn’t work up the courage to ask the tech and nurse in the patient room to wear a mask (it’s such a weird, exhausting, psychological thing.) However, when I was checking out and scheduling my next appointment, I asked them to include a request in my file that people mask in the room. She seemed entirely pleasant about it as she made the note, so that’s a positive. We’ll see how it goes next visit. I expect I will still need to remind them when I get in the room, but I feel better having it on the record at least.