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A charitable take: They didn't read their own manuals, which is extremely common in US Federal Government agencies, and really any large bureaucracies. A less

by JPKab 5y ago

A charitable take: They didn't read their own manuals, which is extremely common in US Federal Government agencies, and really any large bureaucracies. A less charitable/borderline hostile take: Biden is extremely likely to not run for re-election (due to his health), and has some extremely ambitious legislation he is pushing which will cement his legacy. He and his advisers don't believe they will maintain control of the House of Representatives in 2022, and are justifying many of these changes with the crisis of the pandemic. If the pandemic doesn't appear to be a crisis, the odds of this legislation being passed are lower. Probably the most frustrating part of all of this is the fact that the April job's numbers (1 million jobs predicted, actual was a 1/4 of that) were hand-waved away with "people can't work when their kid's schools are shut", as if the administration hasn't helped justify schools remaining closed in certain states. (I live in Colorado, a blue state, and our schools have been open since January with no issues, as opposed to Oregon, where they are still closed.)

y-c-o-m-b 5y ago
> as opposed to Oregon, where they are still closed This is false. I live in Oregon and my kid's school has been open since February. Both our elementary school and middle school are dealing with a minor COVID-19 outbreak too and they're small schools in a very wealthy city (median household income is over 110k), so I question the authenticity of your "no issues" comment regarding Colorado schools. EDIT: just checked, our local high school has more than double the cases of our elementary and middle school combined. Yeah I'm really doubting the "no issues" part, but I guess "issue" is relative
- JPKab 5y ago
  You "question the authenticity" of my statement. I'm sorry, but this is part of the misinformation. Of course there are positive cases of COVID in schools, and of course high schools (my son is a freshman) have higher rates. This is explained by the science, which clearly shows that high school age groups have dramatically higher rates of transmission. It's more about the risks. All of the teachers in Colorado were prioritized for vaccines. They are all vaccinated in my county (Jefferson County, which has almost 600,000 residents). Which leaves the bigger question: What's the risk to the students, and to the people they can spread it to? To the students, the data clearly shows that it's minimal, unless they have comorbidities. According to the CDC's latest data, here: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics 350 people between ages 5-17 have died of COVID in the US. This age group represents 16.3 percent of the US population, or roughly 56 million people. You were correct that I was wrong about Oregon. My brother's kids are still out of school because his wife is terrified of them catching covid, and she kept them remote. They are ages 5 and 7, respectively. She's been one of the most extreme overreacters in the pandemic. She lived like a shut in for 8 months, and she's healthy and in her 30s. Now onto the question of the danger the kids pose to the public by spreading covid to their families or vulnerable people. At this point, the majority of Americans over 60 are vaccinated. Vulnerable people were prioritized. Which is why you aren't seeing news reports of droves of people dying in Colorado as a result of schools being opened. All of these decisions represent trade-offs, but too many in the US public seem to not understand relative risk. I am safer if I wear a helmet when I drive my car than otherwise, but I'm not going to, for the same reason you don't.
pjc50 5y ago
Has everyone forgotten that Trump was president for the first year of the pandemic, during which many of the CDC actions we're criticising happened?
- patrick451 5y ago
  No, we haven't. Failing to shut down the CDC power grab was Trump's biggest failure. Not firing Fauci changed me from an enthusiastic Trump supporter into a reluctant one.
  - nate_meurer 5y ago
    Trump did far worse than simply not fire Fauci. Trump made Fauci a living martyr (yes, sorry, I can't think of a better phrase). The things Trump did and said regarding the pandemic were so consistently and profoundly idiotic, they made the bumbling bureaucrats around him look like sages. And his empty threats and blustering emboldened them, and amplified the worst of the covid scolds in opposition. Everything we can fault Fauci for is equally on Trump's head.
    - patrick451 5y ago
      I would have preferred that Trump (or any president) ignore Covid altogether. I'm of the view that viruses are none of the federal government's concern.
- JPKab 5y ago
  My comment had absolutely nothing to do with Trump or previous CDC policy. I thought he was a terrible president and a horrifically inept manager. But his presidency broke so many people's brains that folks like yourself immediately read into any criticism of Biden as being motivated due to somebody being 'on the other side'. I really don't care for the childish game of red blue sectarianism. Complex topics require nuanced discussion. But instead it turns into the most base instinct form of information filtering, where folks look at who you are friends with or who you follow on Twitter and immediately dismiss any opinion you have based on that. It's incredibly low brow and anti-intellectual and I can't believe it's become such a popular form of debate on the left, like it already was on the right.

by JPKab 5y ago

y-c-o-m-b 5y ago

> as opposed to Oregon, where they are still closed This is false. I live in Oregon and my kid's school has been open since February. Both our elementary school and middle school are dealing with a minor COVID-19 outbreak too and they're small schools in a very wealthy city (median household income is over 110k), so I question the authenticity of your "no issues" comment regarding Colorado schools. EDIT: just checked, our local high school has more than double the cases of our elementary and middle school combined. Yeah I'm really doubting the "no issues" part, but I guess "issue" is relative

JPKab 5y ago
You "question the authenticity" of my statement. I'm sorry, but this is part of the misinformation. Of course there are positive cases of COVID in schools, and of course high schools (my son is a freshman) have higher rates. This is explained by the science, which clearly shows that high school age groups have dramatically higher rates of transmission. It's more about the risks. All of the teachers in Colorado were prioritized for vaccines. They are all vaccinated in my county (Jefferson County, which has almost 600,000 residents). Which leaves the bigger question: What's the risk to the students, and to the people they can spread it to? To the students, the data clearly shows that it's minimal, unless they have comorbidities. According to the CDC's latest data, here: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics 350 people between ages 5-17 have died of COVID in the US. This age group represents 16.3 percent of the US population, or roughly 56 million people. You were correct that I was wrong about Oregon. My brother's kids are still out of school because his wife is terrified of them catching covid, and she kept them remote. They are ages 5 and 7, respectively. She's been one of the most extreme overreacters in the pandemic. She lived like a shut in for 8 months, and she's healthy and in her 30s. Now onto the question of the danger the kids pose to the public by spreading covid to their families or vulnerable people. At this point, the majority of Americans over 60 are vaccinated. Vulnerable people were prioritized. Which is why you aren't seeing news reports of droves of people dying in Colorado as a result of schools being opened. All of these decisions represent trade-offs, but too many in the US public seem to not understand relative risk. I am safer if I wear a helmet when I drive my car than otherwise, but I'm not going to, for the same reason you don't.

pjc50 5y ago

Has everyone forgotten that Trump was president for the first year of the pandemic, during which many of the CDC actions we're criticising happened?

patrick451 5y ago
No, we haven't. Failing to shut down the CDC power grab was Trump's biggest failure. Not firing Fauci changed me from an enthusiastic Trump supporter into a reluctant one.
- nate_meurer 5y ago
  Trump did far worse than simply not fire Fauci. Trump made Fauci a living martyr (yes, sorry, I can't think of a better phrase). The things Trump did and said regarding the pandemic were so consistently and profoundly idiotic, they made the bumbling bureaucrats around him look like sages. And his empty threats and blustering emboldened them, and amplified the worst of the covid scolds in opposition. Everything we can fault Fauci for is equally on Trump's head.
  - patrick451 5y ago
    I would have preferred that Trump (or any president) ignore Covid altogether. I'm of the view that viruses are none of the federal government's concern.
JPKab 5y ago
My comment had absolutely nothing to do with Trump or previous CDC policy. I thought he was a terrible president and a horrifically inept manager. But his presidency broke so many people's brains that folks like yourself immediately read into any criticism of Biden as being motivated due to somebody being 'on the other side'. I really don't care for the childish game of red blue sectarianism. Complex topics require nuanced discussion. But instead it turns into the most base instinct form of information filtering, where folks look at who you are friends with or who you follow on Twitter and immediately dismiss any opinion you have based on that. It's incredibly low brow and anti-intellectual and I can't believe it's become such a popular form of debate on the left, like it already was on the right.