I don’t disagree with you at all. But in an especially precarious and politically fraught time, isn’t it itself American exceptionalism to think we are able to go around saving the world?
We literally wouldn’t be able to do it. Just because there is money, doesn’t mean it’s viable (which I know you know, just saying for emphasis). It is political suicide right now and we can barely get the jobs bill passed, which would super help the global south because they bear the greatest burden of climate change, right?
I mean, it completely sucks. All of it sucks. No disagreement. I just can’t blame American govt (for once) for not pushing harder for it.
The one upside I see in vaccinating American children first is the trust it conveys in the vaccines. In previous situations I’ve read that people in Africa have felt untested vaccines or treatments were being rolled out and they were being used a guinea pigs, which led to people not wanting to use them. If the vaccines have been widely used in America, including on children, and proven effective, I hope at least it will make people more willing to take them.
I do think instead of offering incentives to Americans to get vaccinated we should be spending that money to send the vaccines to people who want them.
Stepping away from trying to fix supply issues in poor countries on an internet forum for a second…
World Health Organization is recommending masking inside for vaccinated individuals due to delta variant, even though the CDC said their recommendations are not changing.
“People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, told reporters last week.
I would like very much if people stopped shitting on anti-vaxxers now, lol. It’s absolutely punching down at this point and always was IMO. And like, I completely understand why they are so confused and afraid and suspicious. Messaging like this gets tossed around and taken out of context and people who were already scared go “SEE?!” and think it’s proof they shouldn’t get the shot. I’ve been having a lot of interesting talks IRL about this with random people who aren’t vaccinated. A lot of people don’t trust any of it and I see why. They super distrust the media and I feel like they aren’t wrong and the messaging is all over the place. I really can’t stand how the issue of vaccination refusal being talked about by highly educated people who live in a total cultural bubble. It’s so insulting. Anyway, off my soap box now.
I’m just laughing because “people cannot feel safe” is a…given. We should just print that on birth certificates. I am such a huge fan of vaccines and most of my (personal) giving a shit flew out the window February 2021 (outside of avoiding being actively dangerous to others). Totally agree the messaging is not and has never been coherent. Everything is completely overwrought or alarmingly downplayed.
Comparing the WHO guidelines which cover close to 200 countries, including those where vaccination is basically nil and where the vaccines offerred don’t confer a ton of immunity against the delta variant, to the CDC covering the US with over 50% vaccination and good results shown against delta strain so far, seems like an unfair set up.
I was thinking about the Astrazeneca vaccine is not effective against Delta and is one of the most common Covax vaccines, and most common in many other rich countries - but not in use in the US. Definitely uneven comparison.
I agree, this is super mixed messaging.
“Why get the vaccine, it doesn’t even work.”
Since the (mRNA) vaccines seem to be super effective against serious illness, people probably should feel safe.
But they should also feel the need to mask for the good of their fellow man, since they could still be sick and spreading an extremely dangerous variant.
But from what I can tell, everyone is still reporting the risk of serious illness from the delta variant, to vaccinated people, is really quite low.
Bahaha! I totally agree. I’ll wear a mask wherever I’m asked to wear one, like my gym still has that rule and that’s fine, but I don’t feel at all compelled to keep masking in general for the greater good of mankind. I think it does way more for the greater good to see vaccinated people getting back to normal life, and to promote a unified message that the vaccine works and is safe, than to see people continue to mask as if we’re still in peak pandemic and vaccines don’t work. When I talk to anti-vaxxers I just stay super positive about how I’m just glad to get back to everything I like without worrying, and that does seem to get a positive response.
IDK, I just don’t like the assumption that people who aren’t masking all the time don’t care about other people. It’s also funny how much people (who are not part of this group) are referencing disabled and immunocompromised people now as proof that we have to keep masking everywhere. Like…don’t act like y’all care about us now, lol, you never have before! People were fine getting vaccinated ahead of us and found ways to justify it just fine, lol, but now they’re worried. It just feels false to me, like we’re being used to prove the validity of other people’s anxieties. This came up when I was hanging out with some fellow para-sports friends recently so I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I’m sure others feel differently since no group is a monolith, but that’s my general feeling about it.
I should clarify- that where I’m at, you rarely see a mask anywhere at all.
I have no issue not having a mask outdoors, even when somewhat near people (like at the park), and I’ve been indoors for short periods of time without a mask.
But I mask in any building I’ll be in for more than 10 minutes, or anytime I feel people are too close to me. I think that’s reasonable. I also tend to wear a mask as an example to my unvaccinated children, but for the most part, like easily 95%, other people’s kids are no longer wearing masks anywhere here. (And I gave up with trying to get my kids to wear them at daycare.) I KNOW they aren’t vaccinated.
That’s totally fair! I think people have to manage it for themselves according to personal comfort. I wasn’t referencing you specifically, fwiw, you just reminded me that I have been hearing an extreme of this a lot IRL (i.e. you don’t care about people if you aren’t still masking). I get the sense we are in opposite types of places, lol, so that probably changes things too! Like, I haven’t heard anyone yelling about people wearing masks trying to hurt people or make it so fewer people get vaccinated, but I hear the reverse (that people unmasked are just callous/hateful/whatever). It feels like some people in my area got addicted to being in a continual state of disaster or something.
Here is strange, some burbs are still mask zones and some aren’t. Like, the suburban Aldi I go to is all masked up but then the suburban import place I go to isn’t. I went way out of the city during peak pandemic to an area where no one was masking (heavily Amish/Mennonite). It was kind of strange! I felt like we were in the land that time forgot, lol. We wore masks even though hardly anyone else was, but no one said anything snarky about it. Perhaps they are a sensitive group when it comes to people wearing odd things though, haha. Maybe they’re like, “well shit I’m in a bonnet so…I can’t really talk…”
I should also note that we literally did go from one disaster to another in my state. The same week we lifted pandemic restrictions we had a historic record-setting heat wave and even more rounds of historic wildfires. We still have downed trees across the state from our historic ice storm in February, and had entire towns and forests burned to the ground last year when 2/3 of the state population was under evacuation orders and air quality so bad it went past the top of the AQI scale for hazardous , and still have big sections of our highways not functioning, taken by landslides from last season’s fires while we’re trying to fight this season’s fires. And now we’re in official drought in a state that isn’t usually in drought until late August.
We have had more once-in-a-lifetime climate disasters in my state in the past year than most humans saw in their lifetime. it’s hard to get out of disaster mode when you literally are jumping between disasters.
I think it can be hard to get out of disaster mode in general, even if you’ve only experienced one disaster! I wish people were talking about this pattern more because I think it could help alleviate some of the more intense stress. I don’t think it’s a thing people talk about a lot, but it’s like you get used to a life/death crisis and so then that type of crisis feels natural and easier than normal, even though it isn’t easier long term. Getting over that hump requires a specific mental transition IME, and a degree of just, comfort with discomfort and trust that it’s ok even if it feels like it isn’t.
I know I feel like this whenever I start going out in the world again after a surgery or scary/big injury. It’s easy for me to make excuses to stay inside longer because it’s “not safe yet” but I can tell at some point that deep down I’m just afraid of getting hurt again, because I’ve been through something big and life/death feeling. And it’s true in a way, right? Because when you go out you can get hurt again. I have gone out too soon and then gotten knocked to the ground (literally) and set back weeks or months physically, so it’s not like the risk is all false or anything, but it’s like a choice you have to make. Sometimes risking it is the right move and sometimes it isn’t. I think tools to navigate this would be so helpful for people, rather than aiming for zero risk, stoking the fear, or causing more division between people.
My work has offered resilience development on a monthly basis for a year, I’m hoping it will help with stuff like this. I’ve never heard of training like this, it starts a month from now so I don’t have a lot of details yet.
I will say that my initial reaction to seeing the email was a bit of a temper tantrum foot stomp “I don’t wanna be more resilient! I just want things to stop sucking!”