32 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – July 18 2022”

  1. Jeremey Faust’s email this am is exceptional. He is now charging for access to daily articles. I won’t pay $7.99/mo….at least yet…..but took screen shots of some of the email. The link is below.

    He discusses cases now compared to last winter. His section re boosters is thorough. I wish others would be as thorough and forthcoming.

    https://imgur.com/a/Cx9wtXR

      1. Because whoever is in charge just doesn’t get it.

        As I have said, I have given up! People are doing whatever they want with no regard to reality!

        1. As usual I agree. And have given up also. I just do what is best for me and for anyone around me and sigh.

      2. FWIW, Boston and Worcester now are highly recommending indoor masking. I “don’t” think there is an actual mandate though.

  2. Philip, it’s INCORRECT to say that monkeypox has only infected gay/bisexual men. First, children and women have come down with confirmed monkeypox. Small numbers thus far, but still. Second, in Africa, monkeypox infects all sub-populations pretty much equally. This is NOT a STD. Sex is certainly a prominent vector, but it’s by no means the only one. Transmission occurs by way of close contact, including contact with a person’s bed clothes/sheets.

  3. A new Covid-19-related (?) low in cheap business practices. Was invited to speak at an October conference that includes “hundreds of paid registrants from the C-suite world of insurers and pharma” (quote from person who spoke to me). I told them I would consider, but first need to know about honorarium and travel/accommodation reimbursement. Not only did I get NO response to that request. Today, I received a notice “thanking [me] for agreeing to speak …” I haven’t yet agreed to speak. In today’s notice was a registration form for me with a “discounted rate for speakers.” $500! So, not only are they not paying people to speak, they’re charging them to speak. You have to be a sucker to ever speak at these events. Talk about exploitation.

        1. It would be great if they didn’t have speakers. It frustrates me that more don’t group together to stop this sort of nonsense. We have the power.

    1. Uggh! In a similar vein I received an email last week with hearty congratulations that I had been selected as one of “2022 Most Inspiring Women’s Leaders” and then a pricing sheet for the related advertising which starts at a mere $3,000. Although the website and magazine do exist this pay-to-play “awards” stuff makes me cringe.

    1. Could not agree more!!! Although I haven’t commented a lot recently I still read both sides of the blog and it is so incredibly informative and helpful in navigating the bs around both weather and Covid! Thanks TK – for showing up every. Single. Day.

        1. Thanks Vicki! I am often lurking and learn so much every week from this community. Enormous appreciation to all, but especially on the covid side of the blog to you & Joshua – this is my place to get real info re: the pandemic- not unlike the other side of the blog which provides real info re: weather.

  4. I suppose masks in schools will reopen another can of worms come fall. Can officials re-mandate them?

      1. Agree. And that blame pats in good part on parents who have no clue what they are talking about but put tremendous pressure on committees

  5. They’ll get speakers from academia. I used to be an academic and wasn’t permitted honoraria with the exception of travel and hotel reimbursement. They’ll also get top-level corporate folks who will be able to get big deals done at the conference – C-suite executives from pharmaceutical and health insurance companies. Or, they’ll get a few consultants who are in sales, marketing, and commercialization. For them it’s a networking opportunity. For me, it’s not.

    I’ve done more than 100 conferences in my career, and only once did I get an actual paid project (and that was like pulling teeth). Interesting discussions at these conferences, sure. People liked to hear what I had to say. But, nothing I say is immediately monetizable (is that a word?). And most of it isn’t monetizable at all.

    The public and not-for-profit healthcare sector have been hollowed out. In America, right now, healthcare is pretty much entirely about money. Care is almost an afterthought in the sense that the system is always attempting to squeeze out every last nickel and dime. All the stakeholders are profit maximizers in some capacity; from hospitals to physician clinics to drug companies to insurers to specialty clinics.

    Read two articles today on a topic I specialize in – antibiotic resistance. It’s depressingly familiar. Pharma isn’t interested in investing in developing new antibiotics to target resistance. Why? There isn’t enough money in it for them. So, when I write about antibiotic resistance, or speak about it at a conference, people are interested. But, there’s zero money in it (unless I was a bench researcher/biochemist in a laboratory).

  6. Depressingly familiar. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/18/1111766924/conservative-bloc-litigation?

    By the way, the face of this movement – AG of Texas (probably a criminal – he’s been indicted) – has said he’d like to pursue legal avenues of prohibiting gay marriage, sodomy, interstate travel for abortion, abortion pills, and transgender rights. He’s also not pro-life, unless it’s in the womb. He’s in fact very much in favor of the death penalty, and he opposes all mask and vaccine mandates of any kind (including traditional childhood vaccines). We’re living in a very strange world. I feel like I’m on a train hurtling forward towards a concrete barrier at 220mph, and I’d like to get off the train but can’t.

    1. We can blame these folks….but maybe we need to look at those who placed them in power and keep them there.

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