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The Biden White House decision to end the COVID Public Health Emergency represents a choice to normalize a permanent decline in length and quality of life without any compensating rearrangement in care and rights of ordinary people. #CovidIsNotOver #PandemicPolicy #PublicHealth
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In early 2022, we know from insider reporting and also a peer-reviewed article by former staffers, the Biden administration was wondering internally about how many hundreds of daily deaths were not really a big deal for Americans. The announcement suggests 500/day is OK by them.
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This move is not conditioned on or tied to an ongoing policy shift to protect Americans from a disease that is killing 200k Americans/year. –No mandatedn paid sick leave –No guaranteed free treatment or vaccination –No help w/ quarantine –No Long COVID care
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Nor is it paired w/ plan to minimize harm and wind down the deaths. –No mass vaccination campaigns –No comprehensive indoor air quality mandate –No major change to elder care –No parity in vaccine policy with other deadly diseases –No Warp Speed for nasal, pancorona nvaccines
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Nor does it offer the immunocompromised, who just lost Evushield, their last preventative pharmaceutical intervention, guaranteed access to public spaces through mask mandates at, say, pharmacies, grocery stores, airports, and train cars. Not even for 1 hour/week.
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Not does it institutionalize a right for people at high risk and people who'd rather not be infected annually to participate virtually in education, governance, and work.n
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Nor does it institutionalize any standards for minimizing the spread of respiratory diseases in workplaces, leaving many classes of workers permanently vulnerable to increased death and disease.
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If we are to take lives that are 2-3 years shorter as our new normal, we ought to at least do all these things. #CovidIsNotOver #PandemicPolicy #PublicHealth