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Our public health officials are getting around to admitting the fallibility of public health officials.
Francis Collins, the former of the National Institutes of Health during the pandemic and current science adviser to President Biden, noted that he and his colleagues demonstrated an “unfortunate” narrow-mindedness.
This is a welcome, if belated, confession.
Not too long ago, anyone who said that epidemiologists might be overly focused on disease prevention to the exclusion of other concerns — you know, like jobs, mental health and schooling — were dismissed as reckless nihilists who didn’t care if their fellow citizens died en masse.
Now, Francis Collins has weighed in to tell us that many of the people considered close-minded and anti-science during COVID were advancing an appropriately balanced view of the trade-offs inherent in the pandemic response.
“If you’re a public health person, and you’re trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is,” Collins said at an event earlier this year that garnered attention online the last couple of days.
This is not a new insight, or a surprising one.
It’s a little like saying Bolshevisks will be focused on nationalizing the means of production over everything else, or a golf pro will be monomaniacal about the proper mechanics of a swing.
The problem comes, of course, when public health, or “public health,” becomes the only guide to public policy. Then, you are giving a group of obsessives, who have an important role to play within proper limits, too much power in a way that is bound to distort your society. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Getty |
Hospitals across the U.S. are reinstating COVID-19 mask mandates as the JN.1 variant becomes the dominant strain spreading throughout the country.
Hospitals in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Washington D.C. have all brought back divisive rules meaning masks are mandatory for selected people in medical settings. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control has recorded a 10.4 percent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations across America in the week leading up to December 16. There has been an increase of 3.4 percent in deaths related to coronavirus in the same period. Newsweek has contacted the CDC for comment via email.
Mask mandates have long been controversial since they were implemented during the coronavirus pandemic, which reached the U.S. in early 2020. Medical professionals and the CDC have consistently advocated for mask wearing, including outside of doctor's office or hospital. Currently, no state in the country has a mandatory mask policy for any indoor and outdoor setting.
This week, Mass General Brigham, the largest health system in Massachusetts, said that effective January 2, masks will be essential for healthcare staff directly engaging with patients in clinical-care settings until respiratory illnesses fall below a certain percentage. Patients and visitors are also strongly encouraged to wear masks, which will be provided by the hospital, and staff in hallways and common areas are exempt.
Mass General Brigham said that its policy is determined by the percentage of patients with respiratory illness symptoms presenting at emergency departments or outpatient clinics.
The mandatory masking rule is activated when this percentage surpasses 2.85 percent for two consecutive weeks and will be lifted once the rate falls below the same percentage for a week. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
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