It's difficult to get public money for Covid protection measures or health measures generally when a significant portion of the population and political powers reject the legitimacy and effectiveness of such measures.
I think I more or less said that, but in addition there's a large dollop of incompetence and cowardice on the part of the current administration and their allies in Congress and the press.
"On Tuesday, the CDC officially dropped the detailed, 1,800-word version of its new isolation guidance for people who have been infected by the coronavirus. So far, the best way I’ve got to sum it up is this: Hunker down for five days instead of the typical 10, then do what you want. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"Okay, sorry, that’s overly simplistic. Here’s the slightly longer version: You can leave isolation after five days, without a negative test, if you’re not severely sick; you’re not immunocompromised; you’re not in a correctional facility, in a homeless shelter, or on a cruise ship; and you feel that your symptoms are mostly gone, if you had any at all.
"Sorry, sorry. There’s actually more. If you do leave isolation after day five, the CDC would like you to, please, until you’re past day 10, still wear a mask everywhere you go, and not eat inside of restaurants, and not mingle with high-risk people, and not travel. Okay, fine, you may travel if you must; just don’t forget that mask. You can test out of isolation, by the way, if you like. First, though, you have to find a test—make sure it’s a rapid antigen test—and take it “towards the end” of your five-day isolation. Just please, still wear that mask until day 10, though remember that negative results can’t rule out infection, and that antigen tests tend to perform best when they’re taken repeatedly over a couple of days, and also, you don’t technically have to test at all."
That combines both incompetence and cowardice. Those guidelines were developed in part because major corporations were complaining that the 10-day quarantine period was economically unfeasible, and in part because the CDC was a mess. They throw the burden of combatting Covid onto the individual, and they perpetuate the spread of the disease by ensuring that people like retail and fast food workers, who typically don't have sick days and who have the most contact with the public, get back to work while they're still infectious, if they even stayed home at all.
And then you have administration figures, e.g. the president of the country, saying that the pandemic is over, with external allies such as Leanna Wen opining that the disease is simply something we have to live with and whatever protective action one takes is up to the individual. These are people who essentially have unlimited sick days and access to the very best medical care, unlike the low-wage workers who can't afford either. Our leaders and 'experts' have removed the disease from the social realm and made it the problem of people.
It's disgusting, and it has only gotten worse since those guidelines were released at the beginning of last year.
It's difficult to get public money for Covid protection measures or health measures generally when a significant portion of the population and political powers reject the legitimacy and effectiveness of such measures.
I think I more or less said that, but in addition there's a large dollop of incompetence and cowardice on the part of the current administration and their allies in Congress and the press.
How so?
"On Tuesday, the CDC officially dropped the detailed, 1,800-word version of its new isolation guidance for people who have been infected by the coronavirus. So far, the best way I’ve got to sum it up is this: Hunker down for five days instead of the typical 10, then do what you want. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"Okay, sorry, that’s overly simplistic. Here’s the slightly longer version: You can leave isolation after five days, without a negative test, if you’re not severely sick; you’re not immunocompromised; you’re not in a correctional facility, in a homeless shelter, or on a cruise ship; and you feel that your symptoms are mostly gone, if you had any at all.
"Sorry, sorry. There’s actually more. If you do leave isolation after day five, the CDC would like you to, please, until you’re past day 10, still wear a mask everywhere you go, and not eat inside of restaurants, and not mingle with high-risk people, and not travel. Okay, fine, you may travel if you must; just don’t forget that mask. You can test out of isolation, by the way, if you like. First, though, you have to find a test—make sure it’s a rapid antigen test—and take it “towards the end” of your five-day isolation. Just please, still wear that mask until day 10, though remember that negative results can’t rule out infection, and that antigen tests tend to perform best when they’re taken repeatedly over a couple of days, and also, you don’t technically have to test at all."
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/cdc-new-isolation-guidelines-confusing/621192/
That combines both incompetence and cowardice. Those guidelines were developed in part because major corporations were complaining that the 10-day quarantine period was economically unfeasible, and in part because the CDC was a mess. They throw the burden of combatting Covid onto the individual, and they perpetuate the spread of the disease by ensuring that people like retail and fast food workers, who typically don't have sick days and who have the most contact with the public, get back to work while they're still infectious, if they even stayed home at all.
And then you have administration figures, e.g. the president of the country, saying that the pandemic is over, with external allies such as Leanna Wen opining that the disease is simply something we have to live with and whatever protective action one takes is up to the individual. These are people who essentially have unlimited sick days and access to the very best medical care, unlike the low-wage workers who can't afford either. Our leaders and 'experts' have removed the disease from the social realm and made it the problem of people.
It's disgusting, and it has only gotten worse since those guidelines were released at the beginning of last year.
I guess if instructions aren't going to be mandatory which is probably politically impossible these days, it almost doesn't matter what they say.
"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
The politicization of science has awful repercussions. Shades of the Scopes "monkey trial".