Six on History: The 'Rona
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MIT professor Sherry Turkle says re-entry into society is harder than we think
"It’s often the case that the hardest part of any big task is nailing the final details. This is true for a lot of things, from packing up a house to move to rolling out high-speed Internet access. It’s easy to buy a ticket and fly to New York City; it’s a lot trickier to navigate your way from JFK to a specific address in Astoria.
This is called the last-mile problem. It also applies to wide-scale vaccination efforts, in which ordering and obtaining millions of doses of vaccines (as the Trump administration did) is relatively easy compared with getting those shots in arms, as the saying goes. The Biden administration is justifiably proud of its expansion of vaccine access in the past several months. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain had lamented the Obama administration’s errors in distributing a vaccine to deal with the H1N1 virus in 2009; the coronavirus vaccination program has been much bigger and much smoother.
On Wednesday, President Biden gave a speech in which he offered some possible solutions.
“The vaccine is free. It’s convenient and it’s increasingly available,” Biden said. But he’d also heard concerns that people couldn’t take time off work to get the vaccine. So, he said, he was “calling on every employer, large and small, in every state to give employee the time off they need with pay to get vaccinated and any time they need with pay to recover if they’re feeling under the weather after the shot.”
That is a good solution to the problem of people not having the time or flexibility to get vaccinated. But it seems increasingly clear that this is not the problem that is preventing the country from administering those last-mile vaccinations.
Since the government halted the deployment of one-dose shots from Johnson & Johnson on April 13, the daily averages of people receiving their first doses and of people newly completing their vaccination regimens have declined. On April 13, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seven-day average of first doses received was about 2 million. A week later, the average had fallen to 1.5 million. For completed vaccinations — meaning, in the past week, second doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines — there was a similar but smaller decline.
We know one obvious reason this might be the case. There remain a lot of Americans who say they don’t plan to be vaccinated at all. In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll completed last month, older Americans and those with serious health conditions were more likely than Americans overall to both report getting the vaccine and wanting to get it. They were joined by Democrats and college graduates, more than two-thirds of whom said that they’d received or would soon get a dose.
Last week, we pointed out the correlation between support for President Donald Trump in 2020 in a state and lower rates of vaccination. Recent analysis by the New York Times showed that this correlation trickled down to the county level as well.
But there’s another important correlation at play. In Quinnipiac University polling released last week, respondents were asked if they planned to get a vaccine and if they were concerned about a new surge in coronavirus cases. Groups that were least concerned about a new surge were also least likely to get a vaccine — led by Republicans.
Sure, we could boost the number of vaccine recipients if it were mandatory, but even then only another 6 percent of Republicans say they’d get a shot. Plus there’s an emerging market in counterfeit vaccination cards that appear to be focused to at least some degree on eventual requirements from businesses or employers.
"At Penn, therapists also target particular cognitive deficits through regular mental exercises, aiming to stimulate growth of neurons and strengthen their interconnections in affected areas of the brain. Alexandra Merlino, a speech-language pathologist who conducts post-COVID cognitive rehab at the clinic, might ask patients with word-retrieval problems to listen to a podcast and summarize it—concisely and in concrete terms. “Pronouns are not allowed,” she told me. She encourages patients to practice in everyday life, too, by participating more in discussions with friends.
To improve memory, Merlino might have patients remember a short grocery list. Over time, her memory-impaired COVID-19 patients can go from recalling three items to six to a dozen or more, both by strengthening the memory center of their brain and by learning to compensate for their acquired deficits. “We teach them tools like association and categorization to remember items,” she said.
Because many people with long COVID are hypersensitive to external stimuli, they must also practice their recall in real-world conditions, such as the noise and bright light of a supermarket. Sunglasses or earplugs can help them reduce disruptive stimuli at first, but Merlino tries to gradually increase their exposure. “Maybe they would bring the earplugs and sunglasses,” she said, “but for a few minutes they may try to grocery shop without them and only put them on when they start to experience symptoms.”
People can also offset their cognitive symptoms by entering appointments in reminder apps, recording important details in memory journals, and making lists of the steps required to complete a task. “Many of these people have never had memory or organization problems before,” Merlino said, “but suddenly they need to function in the here and now.”
Read: Late-stage pandemic is messing with your brain
"Called Xupermask and made of silicon with athletic mesh fabric on the sides, it is a joint venture between Will.i.am and Honeywell. It fits snugly around the bottom half of the face and comes with three dual-speed fans, a Honeywell HEPA filtration system (which the company is careful to say is not medical quality), as well as noise-canceling headphones, LED lights for nighttime, a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth capability. It allows you to play music and take calls, has a seal over the nose to keep glasses from fogging and makes the wearer look sort of like a sci-fi rhino warrior.
It’s not exactly subtle.
The mask costs $299, which is very expensive for a simple face mask but the average top-end price for noise-canceling headphones (less than Sony and Bose, more than Apple). It was designed by Jose Fernandez, the Hollywood costume designer who created the SpaceX suits for Elon Musk and worked on “Black Panther,” “The Avengers” and “X-Men 2.” And it is going to be sold in direct-to-consumer, Supreme-style drops.
It’s a bet, in other words, that hypebeast culture will embrace the mask. Coming just as vaccines are being more widely distributed and just as states like Texas, Indiana and Mississippi are relaxing mask mandates, the debut represents either the future of face masks or a yet another fashion-tech misfire.
Judging by the Consumer Electronics Show, the answer may be yes.
“We are living in sci-fi times,” Will.i.am said. The pandemic, he said, “is straight out of a friggin’ movie. But we are wearing masks from yesterday’s movie. So I wanted to make a mask to fit the era that we’re in.”
That means, in part, learning the lesson of the sneaker. (Well, and the smartphone. The sneaker and the smartphone combined!) ... "
"As the 2020-21 school year nears its end, a group of parents is asking that the Charleston County School District remove the requirement for students to wear masks on campus.
Over 50 parents and students protested the rule in front of the district office building during a school board meeting on April 26 with signs and microphones in hand. The goal is to get the district to make masks optional, said Jessica Zeigler, a parent who attended the gathering.
“All teachers are vaccinated who want to be,” Zeigler, whose daughter is a kindergartner at Carolina Park Elementary, said in an interview. “Anyone in the state of South Carolina who wants to be vaccinated can be. So it’s no longer life or death. Let’s let our children have the gift of normalcy.”
Despite the availability of vaccines, medical officials say it’s not the right time to get rid of mask requirements in schools. And the scientific community agrees they are effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 when properly worn.
Of those who showed up to protest mask-wearing, 24 spoke during the public comments section. Because of the large number of speakers, each person was limited to one minute in the interest of saving time. That time limit angered many of the speakers, some of whom were escorted out of the building by district security.
The Charleston parents weren’t alone in their efforts. A Dorchester District 2 board meeting the same night also had a group of parents speaking out against the mask requirement. And Berkeley County School District officials expect a group of “anti-maskers” to speak to the district’s board meeting on April 27.
Those who spoke in Charleston shared concerns about the masks causing setbacks for their children’s social development.
“This is the most precious time in childhood,” said Matt Whisnant, a parent of two CCSD students. “We’re taking valuable, irreplaceable time away from children. They need to see each other’s faces. They need to see their teacher’s faces. People need to be able to understand them.”
Whisnant and others shared concerns about adverse health effects as a result of the masks, including restricting a child’s ability to breathe.
Dr. Allison Eckard, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina who works with CCSD and other districts across the state, said there have been no credible studies that prove masks negatively affect a person’s health.
“There is no difference in (people’s) carbon dioxide levels with or without a mask,” she said. “It’s because masks allow exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide through the sides of the mask and front of the mask and they keep respiratory droplets in, which is what we are aiming for.”
Despite the large crowd, the Charleston County School District remained steadfast in its decision to require masks through the rest of the current school year. The decision is in line with nearly all other districts in the state aside from Berkeley County, which “strongly encourages” masks on campus rather than requiring them. That district allows principals to make the final policy decision, and some have required wearing masks.
It’s too early for CCSD officials to determine whether masks will be required in the fall, but that is a possibility, Chief Operations Officer Jeff Borowy said. If parents and students are diligent about wearing masks and limiting social gatherings now, there will be a higher likelihood of a school year without masks, Eckard said.
Eckard added that health officials expect vaccines to open up to people ages 12 and older in the coming months.
“There is a very good chance that we will not have to wear masks going into next school year,” she said. “At this particular time, the cases are still exceedingly high.”
After several parents voiced concerns around students being required to wear masks in schools, Dorchester District 2 staff is discussing additional methods for allowing more mask breaks for students throughout the school day.
The district currently requires all staff and students to wear a face covering. Exceptions are made in situations, such as small classes with special-needs children.
According to the district’s face covering guide, students are also allowed to take breaks from wearing the masks when outside and social distancing of 6 feet can be maintained. The next step is to see what additional opportunities can potentially be crafted for students to have time to remove their masks, Superintendent Joe Pye said.
At the school board meeting on April 26, multiple parents stepped forward to protest the mask requirements in schools. One of them, Phillip Hall, said he believes that the face coverings are giving his sixth grade child nosebleeds.
“We want to be able to look the public in the eye and say we are doing what’s best for kids,” he said.
The district’s data shows that the number of cases among students and children have been on the rise in recent weeks. Students who are 16 years or older started receiving vaccines at schools April 27. Until then, no students in the district were able to be vaccinated at school.
Most of the spread among children is linked to gatherings outside of school when people are not wearing masks, Eckard said.
The number of positive cases among students per week has nearly doubled since the end of March, while the number of cases among staff declined to single digits in the past month. Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait attributes the trend to the district’s efforts to vaccinate employees.
“It appears that there is a correlation between when the vaccinations began and the reduction in the employees’ rate of infection,” Postlewait said. “However, for students, we’ve seen the fourth straight week of increase in infections.”
"Republicans are opening a new front in the pandemic culture wars, attacking efforts by the Biden administration to develop guidelines for coronavirus vaccination passports that businesses can use to determine who can safely participate in activities such as flights, concerts and indoor dining.
The issue has received an increasing amount of attention from some of the party’s most extreme members and conservative media figures, but it has also been seized on by Republican leaders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate.
Other Republicans have used more inflammatory rhetoric, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) calling the passport idea “Biden’s Mark of the Beast” and some conservative activists comparing it with Nazi policies to identify Jews.
The hyper-charged rhetoric is directed at a nascent initiative between the Biden administration and private companies to develop a standard way for Americans to show they have received a coronavirus vaccination. The idea behind the passports or certificates is that they would be a way to ensure that people could return to normal activities without risking further spread of a virus that has killed more than 550,000 Americans.
Unlike some of the recent attacks from conservatives focused on cultural or economic issues that centered on children’s books and “Satan Shoes,” this one focuses directly on the Biden administration and taps into a long-standing warning from the right: that a powerful federal government will try to control the population.
“There’s been this pent-up opposition to lockdowns and mask mandates and so this is building on that,” said David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Now there’s this suggestion that if you don’t get a vaccine, you might not be able to do — we’re not quite sure what. I can see how there’s a market for that concern.”
The attacks also focus on an area that’s been a strength for Biden: his handling of the pandemic. Under Biden’s watch, vaccine distribution has significantly ramped up and, according to federal survey data, reports of vaccine hesitancy are decreasing. Covid-19 deaths have also plummeted from January highs, in part because larger portions of older Americans have been inoculated. But there’s been an uptick in infections in recent days as states have relaxed coronavirus restrictions.
The discussion around a passport has been led by various industries, including airlines, entertainment venues and sports leagues. Biden administration officials have repeatedly said there will be no national mandate.
Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist, said the fierce opposition from many in the party spawned organically and called the news that the White House is working with the business community on vaccine passports or certificates “a trial balloon that went over like a lead balloon.”
“A healthy distrust of government when it comes to health care is nothing new,” said Gorman, who used to work for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “It’s a line of messaging that has been very successful to Republicans going back to Obamacare and the like.”
The current fervor over a vaccine passport feeds into existing conservative narratives that Democratic administrations try to track and control the population.
“This is a very old concern — this idea of globalized elites with a sinister plan for the world who are going to take away American sovereignty,” Matzko said.
“They want us to be seen, we can’t escape them, we have a mark, whether it is a passport, or a chip or a bar code,” Matzko added, explaining the various manifestations of this theory. “It’s kind of outlandish.”
The conservative attacks were launched after the White House took on a more significant role coordinating a private-sector-initiated vaccine passport effort — with administration officials preferring to refer to it as “vaccine verification” — as aides work with dozens of federal agencies to identify what vaccination data is available and how the passports could best be deployed, said five officials with knowledge of the efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private deliberations.
Some federal agencies are actively working to help provide vaccine passports to their staff or people who use their services. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides health care to millions of military veterans, is “implementing a VA-issued vaccine credential,” according to slides obtained by The Post.
A wide range of private-sector and nonprofit organizations, including Microsoft and the World Health Organization, have been pursuing a range of possible systems, with IBM working with the state of New York to pilot one passport.
Biden administration officials have said they’re trying to strike a delicate political balance: help coordinate the ongoing push for vaccine passports without it being perceived as government-driven or as White House overreach.
“From a Federal perspective, vaccines and vaccine credentials are matters of individual choice — there is no mandate for either,” according to internal HHS slides obtained by The Washington Post. But the ubiquity of vaccine passports, driven by the private sector, “could become perceived as a Federal mandate even though there is none.”
White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients echoed some of those points Tuesday in a call with governors, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post.
“We’re not going to have any federally mandated, universal vaccine credential, and there will not be a federal database,” Zients said in response to questions by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), promising more information in the coming weeks.
Officials also have been holding calls with business leaders, seeking to gauge their interest in vaccine passports and understand new concerns as the issue has become increasingly politicized.
Asked about the project Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki described the administration effort as “focused on guidelines.”
Psaki also noted that there will not be a centralized federal database showing who in the country has received vaccinations and there are no plans for any federal mandate that all citizens have a vaccination credential.
She declined to provide any timeline about when federal guidance on the issue might be released.
A growing number of travel and entertainment businesses have said they will require customers to prove they have been vaccinated, but some major businesses have said they remain undecided.
Carnival Corp. spokesman Roger Frizzell said the cruise-line giant was “encouraged” by recent vaccination breakthroughs but closely monitoring the “evolving situation” before imposing vaccine requirements. Carnival’s fleet includes the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess, both of which became epicenters of coronavirus clusters in 2020.
Some Republicans are supportive of a passport program.
Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz said he’s working with the Bethesda, Md.-based de Beaumont Foundation, a public health organization, to survey voters on their reactions to vaccination passports, identify which messages were resonating and understand whether “passports” is the right term to describe the credentials.
“It’s been politicized in two different directions,” said Luntz, arguing that liberals worry that a passport would widen inequities around who has access to vaccines and that conservatives fear it would limit their freedoms.
Luntz said the growing politicization around the passports also threatened the entire initiative. “Unless the Biden administration tempers both sides down right now, they will find within days it becomes impossible to do. I’ve seen this movie and it doesn’t have a good ending,” he said.
Some Democratic pollsters also acknowledge the issue could have some resonance, depending on how Biden handles the situation.
Republicans do have concerns that Democrats, particularly in coordination with large technology firms, are seeking broad control over the citizenry, said Stan Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. “This will fit that narrative,” Greenberg said. “But that’s not America as a whole.”
He said it’s unclear where conservatives will wage battles over vaccination requirements, and he noted that schools and employers probably will require proof of vaccination.
“I just think it puts them into an incredibly marginal position,” Greenberg said.
One key to where the party goes on the issue of passports will probably be whether former president Donald Trump weighs in on the issue.
Barry Bennett, a former Trump adviser, said the paranoia is probably overblown, and instead likened the passport idea to the yellow fever vaccination card he shows when traveling to countries in Africa.
“For someone who travels international a great deal, I want to be able to prove in a secure format that I’ve been vaccinated so I can go see my clients,” Bennett said. “If you’re talking about having to show papers to get into 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee, I think that’s paranoia. I think people are talking past each other, which is typical Washington.”
