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.
-
-
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.
2 replies 0 retweets 7 likes -
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 -
Replying to @gregggonsalves @JamesSurowiecki and
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
1 reply 2 retweets 11 likes -
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.
1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes -
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 -
Replying to @EpiEllie @gregggonsalves and
I totally agree! But that's just something to take into account and try harder. Not fair, but here we are. I work on misinformation and wrote my first big Facebook isn't great for electoral politics piece in.. 2012. With Obama as example. Huge huge push-back. 2016, suddenly okay.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Public health did some, but I think could and should have tried harder to stem the tide of scolding that was on media and social media, and try to replace it with harm-reduction. Some tried (and love your work on it!). But the field as a whole didn't breakthrough on that part.
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes -
I know some people tried. But I think there was more to do. An open letter asking the scolding/shaming to stop with hundreds of signatures? Showing up en mass in replies of viral scolding tweets, or quoting them and stop? It's not a fair burden perhaps, but that's the reality.
0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes -
This Tweet is unavailable.
On the one hand, I agree it fell on too few shoulders, and your pieces were *stellar.* I shared them a lot! I don't think you or Ellie, personally, could have done more. On the other hand, I think the field as a whole could have done more. Open letters, collective guides etc...
-
-
Replying to @zeynep @JuliaLMarcus and
It’s important to remember there were so so many other epi & public health misinformation issues related to COVID that had to be countered too. Don’t drink bleach; masks don’t mean you can stop social distancing; anti-malarial drugs aren’t a magic cure-all...we had to prioritize.
0 replies 2 retweets 4 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.