AND in fact, ALL states have re-opened weeks before these protests emerged with the idea that risk can be managed in many settings. 3/
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Replying to @gregggonsalves @michaelbd
And in fact, outdoor settings, masked are far, far less risky than re-opening places that operate daily in close quarters, with high density of people. That is why re-opening is being triaged. 4/
2 replies 2 retweets 35 likes -
Replying to @gregggonsalves @michaelbd
I think the frustration stems from a sense that the triaging, both legal and (as it were) rhetorical, has been shaped by political bias. The George Floyd memorial service on Thursday was indoors, and some high-profile attendees were not wearing masks.
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Replying to @JamesSurowiecki @michaelbd
And assumes there is also a position of neutrality, free from political bias. Yes, the memorial indoors, with some in attendance not wearing masks wasn't great. But we've also had weeks of the President modeling bad behavior and policies and how we're all arguing about not-that.
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I think there are few legitimate complaints here. There should have been greater explicit discussion that it was always a trade-off and that "essential" activity is not a universal definition. Plus, should have been more acknowledgement of the emerging evidence on outdoors/risk.
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Replying to @zeynep @gregggonsalves and
Public health folks probably should have spoken out more when people in parks/beaches were shamed (not by public health people always! But still) even into May and June. I personally would never risk a pool party but went to a protest myself. But both do risk transmission chains.
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Replying to @zeynep @gregggonsalves and
Plus, personally, I think it's unconscionable that we did not let people visit their dying relatives with whatever PPE they could personally muster, if or a few minutes, or with the promise of quarantine afterwards. We did that to break transmission chains, I get it but...
3 replies 7 retweets 27 likes -
Replying to @zeynep @gregggonsalves and
I think there is something to the current complaints, and there was an issue not always with what many public health people were saying, but perhaps what they weren't saying (or being heard) as loudly, that harm-reduction was a viable message, that it was always about trade-offs.
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Replying to @zeynep @gregggonsalves and
Then I agree that the argument that racial justice is a public health emergency, that outdoors is low-risk, followed by extensive discussion of harm-reduction (masks/drums) and call to limit/ban tear-gas, kettling, indoor detention etc. is valid. But that holds for other things.
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Yes, and many, many of us, including
@JuliaLMarcus@EpiEllie have been talking about how to do harm reduction across the board, not just for protests!2 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
I know! I linked to it, and added mine to my piece on protesting during a pandemic. I loved the other pieces, too. But I think it's fair to say that there wasn't as loud an attempt to provide harm-reduction guidance on broader range of activities. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/i-cant-breathe-using-tear-gas-during-pandemic/612673/ …pic.twitter.com/FoxCBXFR0S
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Replying to @zeynep @gregggonsalves and
It's not that the harm-reduction framework was absent, but it wasn't as loud as it should have been; we didn't stand up as much as we could against the beach/park other scolding; did not produce enough detailed guidelines on for a broader range of activities.
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Replying to @zeynep @gregggonsalves and
“as loud as it should have been” is the problem but it stems from the fact that public health practitioners have generally not been part of the national conversation before the pandemic. We are slowly being listened to but now people complain they didn’t hear what we said before.
2 replies 1 retweet 11 likes - Show replies
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