The New Yorker has published a disturbing article by Emma Green (’The Case For Wearing Masks Forever’) on the political activists in America demanding we lockdown forever in the name of racial justice. They sound like textbook left-wing loons, but we know from bitter experience that these post-Christian, quasi-religious cults have a nasty habit of infecting state bureaucracies, particularly in public health – and that already appears to be happening with respect to this cult. Here how the article begins:
Last December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it was shortening the recommended isolation period for those with covid-19 to five days. Getting exposed to the virus no longer meant that people needed to quarantine, either, as long as they were fully vaccinated and wore a mask. It was a big moment, and it occurred just as the Omicron variant was surging. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, a Professor of Urban Policy and Health at the New School, was livid.
Fullilove, who is Black, has spent her career studying epidemics: first aids, then crack, then multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. She has seen how disease can ravage cities, especially in Black and working-class communities. From the beginning, Fullilove was skeptical of how the federal government handled the coronavirus pandemic. But these new recommendations from the C.D.C., she said, were “flying in the face of the science”. Not long after the announcement, she sent an e-mail to a Listserv called The Spirit of 1848, for progressive public-health practitioners. “Can we have a people’s CDC and give people good advice?” she asked. A flurry of responses came back.
What emerged was the People’s C.D.C.: a ragtag coalition of academics, doctors, activists, and artists who believe that the Government has left them to fend for themselves against COVID-19. As governments, schools, and businesses have scaled back their covid precautions, the members of the People’s C.D.C. have made it their mission to distribute information about the pandemic – what they see as real information, as opposed to what’s circulated by the actual C.D.C. They believe the C.D.C.’s data and guidelines have been distorted by powerful forces with vested interests in keeping people at work and keeping anxieties about the pandemic down. “The public has a right to a sound reading of the data that’s not influenced by politics and big business,” Fullilove said.
No one is in charge of the People’s C.D.C., and no one’s expertise is valued more than anyone else’s. The problems of “the pandemic and its response are rooted in hierarchical organisations”, Mary Jirmanus Saba, a filmmaker and one of the volunteers, told me. Roughly 40 people come to each weekly meeting, but many more are involved. (This spring, after a few of the group’s organisers published a manifesto of sorts in the Guardian, several thousand interested people reached out, Fullilove said.) The group sends out a weekly Weather Report – put together by a team composed, in part, of doctors and epidemiologists – summarising data about transmission rates, new variants, and death rates. They’ve published explainers on testing, masks, and ventilation, among other topics, typically with a call to action: call the White House, call your congressperson, demand free tests and treatment for all. On their Web site, they recently posted a guide for safer gatherings, which recommends that all events be held outdoors with universal, high-grade masking. The organisation has nearly 20,000 followers on Instagram, and it prides itself as a resource for various groups, including people who are immunocompromised and want to find a way to protect themselves and activists who are trying to lobby their local government for more covid restrictions.
Although the group has been scathing in its critiques of the C.D.C., it has received support from respected institutions in the public-health world. It has also received blue-chip funding from organisations such as the Kresge Foundation, which focusses on expanding opportunities in American cities, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of the most influential health-focussed philanthropies in America, which gave the group a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. As it happens, Robert Wood Johnson’s C.E.O., Richard E. Besser, is a former Acting Director of the C.D.C.
Fullilove would neither confirm nor deny whether there are any current C.D.C. employees involved with the People’s C.D.C., but, in a recent Webinar, Edgar Rivera Colón, who often serves as the group’s meeting facilitator, claimed that there has at least been some moral support: “We have comrades that are within the C.D.C. who are saying to us, ‘Go ahead with your bad selves.’” The volunteers don’t necessarily agree among their bad selves about what, exactly, their larger goal is – whether their project is a protest, an act of mutual aid, or an exercise in shadow governance. What’s clear is that the People’s C.D.C. interprets evidence about this stage of the pandemic, and what we should do about it, differently than the C.D.C. and the White House. Their goal is to provide the public with an alternative source of information. The organisation is part of a much broader ecosystem of left-wing public-health groups that advocate more persistent mitigations: there are support communities for those experiencing long covid, including Survivor Corps, which has almost two hundred thousand members on Facebook; research groups like the U.K.’s Independent sage, which reviews the British government’s pandemic policies; and nonprofit activist groups such as Public Health Connected, which provides resources to health-care professionals. This constituency is loud on Twitter, and they are influential in the press.
Influential in the press. Just let that sink in.
Green goes on to give a name to this cult – although the one she comes up with could equally apply to climate activists:
The People’s C.D.C. talks about ‘science’ as proof that the members’ position is correct, when in reality they’re making a case for how they wish the world to be, and selecting scientific evidence to build their narrative. It’s a kind of moralistic scientism – a belief that science infallibly validates lefty moral sensibilities.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The New York Times published a piece on Boxing Day entitled ’The Last Holdouts’ about the poor, benighted souls who still believe we’re in the midst of a dangerous pandemic and insist on wearing industrial grade masks on the rare occasions they come out from under their beds.
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COVID is the new devil and these religious zealots, like all religious zealots, are hellbent on saving us from their devil.
One problem with these loons is that they sometimes succeed in driving the discussion their way, so that the moderate position becomes one that was previously considered almost as insane, but now becomes the compromise, moderate position.
Libertarians need to make more noise.
So does that mean that if one does something wrong, they can just say “Covid made me do it!”?
I suggest to give them and their Instagram group a piece of land and let them try out their ideas there and amongst themselves only.
It would be most interesting, if that land was next to the Amish, but I’d also be fine with the Falklands or so and forgetting about them then.
Whatever else one might think about them, my impression is that the Amish don’t mind hard work. Not sure we would observe the same work ethic among this lot.
They are living off a civilisation that they may have made a contribution to, but so did many others. If you want to start picking and choosing then you can found your own civilisation with your own crap science and communism or whatever and see how rich and safe it makes you.
Aeh. I have the highest respect for the Amish.
My proposal was for them to be the by now always needed ominous control group, and I have no doubt who would then come out on top.
Totally agree. They’d knock it out of the park.
I also thought it would still be common knowledge around here that they gave and give a fig about lockdowns, vaccines and masks, hence primarily their perfect fit as a control group to these lunatic Covidians.
I don’t get the beard but no mustache look: it means you still need to shave every day but look like a complete twat.
The origin of that was back in the 19th century, mustaches were associated with either 1) the wealthy, and 2) the military. And the Amish are against both wealth and the military, so it was a statement against both to refuse to grow mustaches. Yes, really.
And indeed they have.
Indeed, the best thing about living in an actual free country is the freedom to either 1) leave, or 2) start one’s own intentional community far, far away from everyone else. But I don’t see these crazy cultists actually doing that anytime soon. They would rather demand that everyone else follow their inane and insane whims. While having the unmitigated chutzpah to also ask for handouts from the rest of us as well, since their cult could never be self-sustaining for long.
To the Branch Covidians: Just get us out of your starry eyes, and be on your way!
As for the Amish, they certainly proved that herd immunity was the best strategy all along. They had some excess deaths for 2020, to be sure, but no worse than the rest of the USA, and for 2021 they probably did better than the rest of the country. I have FAR more respect for the Amish than I do for the Branch Covidians!
And make sure that the land only has renewable energy. See how they get on.
Western populations really seem to be living in two entirely separate, mutually exclusive movies. A Venn diagram with two circles that no longer overlap, and are steadily moving apart, like a cell that has divided.
Personally I like living in the happy, funny, feel-good movie. A bit of dark humour is fine, but spare me the serious, worthy, fearful misery-fest that they apparently thrive on.
“They believe the C.D.C.’s data and guidelines have been distorted by powerful forces with vested interests in keeping people at work and keeping anxieties about the pandemic down“. WTF. Seriously, what f*in planet are these people iving on?
I know one thing with absolute certainty – I will never comply with any of this BS ever again and I’m prepared to face whatever consequences for non-compliance.
Fullilove aka Fullacrap needs to get a life. Preferably on a desert island with others of a similar ilk, well away from civilisation. Surrounded by sharks…and no boats. A humanitarian monthly drop of booster jabs could be arranged to keep the occupants happy…
Let them colonize the Mars.
100% Blast these certifiable, ignorant, pathetic, moaning, self-absorbed buggers where the sun don’t shine. Stop polluting the air space of rational folk.
Beautifully worded. My supply of English expletives is unfortunately somewhat limited. I could try a German version:
Fickt euch ins Knie, ihr durchgedrehten, eingebildeten und ebenso jämmerlichen wie egozentrischen Flachwichser.
Well when you’re a committed space cadet what else could one expect?
Very elegant prose BTW. You had me at “F*ck you in the knee”
Amen to that! “Fick dich arschloch” also worse as well, lol.
There are some on here Mogs who fully understand restraint, fortunately you are not one of them.
Elon Musk should give them all a free one-way ticket there, lol.
Corona-logic from the article (paraphrase) People not wearing high-grade masks infringe on my human rights! They want me to stay locked in at home forever!! (Because – for very good reasons!!! – I don’t dare to go out when they’re not wearing them!!!!) aka I‘m the rightful world dictator and everybody else has to play the roles I assign to them in the public drama of MY lunacy!
In the face of this, instead of calling for something seriously violent (like Beat them up until they shuts up), I like to repeat my old suggestion for dealing with young and healthy masking maniacs: Approach them and place well-used chewing gums behind their masks.
LOL
You can sure that anybody demanding anything in the name of equity is toxic, and should be treated as such.
Indeed, “equity” is the most heavily abused word in the entire Newspeak language.
Followed by “diversity” and “inclusion”.
Yes, then there is a whole slew of made up ‘isms’ and ‘phobias’ some of which, for example so called islamophobia, are perfectly sane and rational responses to a clear existential threat.
This bizarre cult is fortunately few in number and dwindling every day as more and more people are regaining their sanity.
They have no understanding of the impact of their proposals on human immune health.
I suggest that their plans would make their health significantly worse.
If they wanted to improve health in their communities they could simply campaign to reduce fast food and lower sugar consumption.
No, no, definitely no! What are you talking about? Improve health by eating more healthily, getting exercise and – oooohhh noooooo!!! – worst of all, taking some personal responsibility for your own health? That is so barbaric!
Why go through any effort when a needle and a couple of pills will soothe the ills caused by a poor lifestyle?
Seriously though, where has this unhinged fear of illness come from? The number of people whining about having a cough or a sore throat or having to stay home in bed for a few days. No one likes coming down with a bug, but it’s part of life, you get over it and get on with life. Why is this now deemed the end of the world? Soft times make weak men all right.
And those weak men go on to make hard times, and the cycle continues….
Thanks Jane. Nailed it
.
I’ve found a simple ‘visual’ can sometimes help the hard of understanding…
I have a really simple one for the climate loons as well, junior school science class material. A bit out of context here, but then… maybe not.
Indeed. The ancient Greeks called it “Anacyclosis”, which also dovetails with the Tytler Cycle as well.
Monkey Pox never arrived so they keep reheating Covid.
Stand in the Park Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am From 1st January 2023
Make friends & keep sane
Elms Field (near Everyman Cinema and play area)
Wokingham RG40 2FE
They really need to rename “Wokingham”, so as not to confuse it with the woke cult!
“People’s CDC” sounds like they belong in the People’s Republic of China. Or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Or perhaps the People’s Temple at Jonestown, and drinking the Kool-Aid. Then they can really be one with the universe! And never have to worry again.
“I just drank a fifth of Kool-Aid, dare me to drive?”
“Equity” is far and away the most heavily abused word in the entire Newspeak language!
That’s a very well co-ordinated headline picture and so very inclusive:
a white body, a brown body, a negro body and a chinese body.
How very inclusive.
Unfortunately, there’s always been mentally disturbed people we used to put them behind lock and key now they are among us.
Alas