Biden's new mask guidance too little, too late for parts of the country, officials say

[brooklynite]

Politico

A summer of freedom from lockdowns and face coverings is being punctuated by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warnings to wear masks again. And officials in some states hardest hit by the Delta variant can already predict the public’s response.

Health experts and local leaders in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Washington state told POLITICO they expect the latest warnings and recommendations will be brushed off by a crisis-weary public that’s been whipsawed for a year and a half by sometimes conflicting federal orders and scientific evidence.

“The messaging is complex. The masks came down and people don’t want to wear them again,” said Tom Frieden, who was CDC director in the Obama administration.

The Biden administration might be in a stronger position had the CDC this spring not told vaccinated Americans that it was safe to remove their masks. Instead, the turnabout is providing fodder for critics and conspiracy theorists who say they’re proof that vaccines are overrated and that the government is winging it.

[riversedge]

1. what a damn mess. and I do blame mostly the RW media and Republicans.

[CentralMass]

9. Are the right wingers controlling the CDC's decisions and communications ?

[riversedge]

13. NO, but if had fewer cases, they wuld be no need for CDC having to backtrack. [masking in some plac

[CentralMass]

14. And if the CDC had not lifted the mask recommendation this surge likely would not have ocurred,

[Phoenix61]

16. The people who weren't masking before

weren’t listening to the CDC anyway. They are the same ones who couldn’t be bothered to get the vaccine. The people who were listening to the CDC got their vaccine, enjoyed going mask free for a bit and are back to wearing a mask.

[Ms. Toad]

30. They may not have been listening to the CDC

But they were listening to local mask mandates. We went from 90+% masking to

[LisaL]

21. I doubt we could have stopped the surge, but presumably

it would have been smaller if we didn't lift mask mandates.

[rockfordfile]

23. No. The mutation Delta is what's spreading like wildfire

That's the fault of right-wing governors and idiots not getting the vaccine shot.

[Ace Rothstein]

29. Just like the mask mandate worked back in the fall/winter and stopped that surge.

[CentralMass]

36. In the area where live we went from everyone wearing masks in stores and drive thru's etc to

Last edited Sun Aug 1, 2021, 02:16 PM - Edit history (2)

Almost no one wearing them in matter of days.
You can't convince me that this didn't rapidily change behavior when it comes to mask wearing.

[Ace Rothstein]

48. But how would have wearing masks stopped this surge when it didn't stop previous surges?

Especially with a more contagious variant.

[CentralMass]

49. These surges of the winter lead to more governments and businesses implementing mask rules.

I'll use Oregon as an example
Admittedly this is my opinion an speculative but although we had some of the first recorded cases here in Oregon our governor was one of the first to implement a mask mandate. As a result IMO. Oregon ranks 49th in the number of Covid death per million population and 47th in covid death per million.

If your premise that masks don't help prevent surges why is the CDC back tracking now ?

[Ace Rothstein]

51. My premise is that mask wearing wouldn't have stopped this wave.

That was the claim in the original post I had responded to. We've had numerous waves with widespread mask wearing and social distancing. The longer this goes on though, the more I'm questioning if mask wearing is just security theater like the TSA.

[LisaL]

2. Who knew it's hard to put toothpaste back into the tube?

NT

[CrackityJones75]

3. politico?

Thought we didn’t post RW propaganda here.

[brooklynite]

5. It's not, so.....

Also, is there something factually wrong with the story?

[Hekate]

7. That's a very handy chart. Thanks.

[Bristlecone]

17. Great chart. TY

https://www.adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/

[ChazII]

45. Another thank you for this chart. n/t

[Wingus Dingus]

4. Buying some KN 95's this week, not sure how things are going to go.

Hopefully it will be overkill, but I'll need them for a plane trip anyway.

[Hekate]

6. Politico is wrong in this: in NO way is this Biden's fault. He's done what he said he would...

… by going with the science and telling the truth. He’s made sure we all have access to free vaccinations.

The RW propaganda machine and the fcking morons who believe them cannot be reached by normal means. They think “Science” can and will proclaim a thing to be irrevocably true — like their Bible-thumping preachers — and they get all bent out of shape when it turns out that scientists work with available facts, and what’s available can change and grow.

By now I am pinning my hopes on governments and businesses with enough brains and clout to mandate that all their employees get vaccinated or pay for their own damn weekly tests.

[brooklynite]

8. Politico is not saying it's Biden's fault; they're reporting what Health Officials said.

Health experts and local leaders in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Washington state told POLITICO...

Some people seem unhappy reading news they don't like.

[Pobeka]

10. The title of the article pretty much blames Biden.

Lots of people don't read much past titles. Politico did pretty much screw up the title, intentionally or unintentially...

[brooklynite]

12. "Officials Say"

[Phoenix61]

18. Wanna bet every single one of those local leaders

is a repub. Look at what DeSatan is doing. He’s bucked the CDC every single step of the way. They are looking for someone, other than themselves of course, to blame for what’s going to be a bloodbath for the unvaccinated.

[brooklynite]

20. CXare to take a stab at "Washington State"?

And did you miss the quote from a former Obama official?

[Phoenix61]

22. Did you miss "leaders in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee

and Washington.” Because the first 4 lean hard right. Just saying.

[brooklynite]

28. I believe your phrase was "every single one"

[Phoenix61]

42. I should have said almost every political leaders.

Upon careful reading I couldn’t find any quotes from any political leaders. They are all from health officials. Out of the states mentioned, Gov Inslee seems to be the only one trying to keep everyone alive.

[dsc]

24. they aren't supposed to be mere stenographers

heck, a computer could do that, they are supposed to not repeat lies, that would be helpful.

[GoodRaisin]

46. I think "unhappy" with the news is not the correct characterization of the reaction.

Disagreeing and being unhappy aren't necessarily synonymous. It seems people are disagreeing with the title of the news article, which blames Biden. I'm not unhappy with the news but I do disagree with the title, which is a fair disagreement. The rest of the article puts the blame squarely on the CDC so why put Biden in the title? Politico should have put CDC in the title instead of Biden and then nothing would be wrong with the news being presented. But, this title is slanted.

[Raven123]

11. BS. Biden admin was is a no win situation.

You can’t tell folks to get vaccinated and then give them no reward (and I am not talking about lotteries). Bottom line is this surge was gonna happen, and worse than it had to be because some folks never wore masks weren’t going to get vaccinated. What were we suppose to wait for?

I saw Mitch McConnell’s vaccine pitch today. It’s good. Where the heck was he and the rest of the GOP for the last several months on this issue? Did they think that after all the misinformation, their constituents were going to listen to the Biden administration? If anything should have been bipartisan, the vaccine effort was it. They dragged their feet, secretly hoped for success and planned on savaging Biden, claiming the entire effort was too expensive and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The crisis is the inability of the GOP to work with Biden on anything

[FloridaBlues]

15. One minute this virus was raging in India next minute it's here raging this country

The only good thing is vaccine rates are going into arms more rapidly now than a few weeks ago.

[rockfordfile]

27. Need better travel restrictions.

[Mad_Machine76]

19. Too Little, Too Late?

For what? The headline reads a bit apocalyptic. And it’s not Biden’s fault.

[Ms. Toad]

31. We hit 100,000 cases on Friday. Is that apocalypitic enough for you?

If not, try this: We will hit an average of 200,000 cases /day within two weeks. School will start shortly - with many schools not requiring masks for 0-12, who are unable to vaccinate (facing a variant that seems to be more dangerous to children). It is too late to stop the former (although it might slow a bit), and it is unlikely that the flip-flopping will convince local school districts to change positions.

The CDC was too focused on rewarding people who got vaccinated to give proper weight to the delta variant, human nature, and the risk to 0-12 year olds.

[Mad_Machine76]

38. That definitely sounds bad

I guess that deaths and hospitalizations are what I think more of in terms of apocalyptic. As far as blame goes more should be on DeathSantis though IMHO. Barely had any mitigation efforts, dropped them early, and is now actively preventing mitigation.

[Ms. Toad]

43. Those lag by 2-4 weeks,

But I'm really not expecting them to be as bad, in proportion to the cases this time. We've gotten better at figuring out how to save people. But hospitals are already starting to be overwhelmed.

[dsc]

25. The original sin here was not to have vaccine passports

Scientifically the CDC was right in May to say, ditch the masks if you are vaccinated. The problem is that behaviorally that wasn't going to work unless you had a way to prove who was and who wasn't vaccinated. Given that, the CDC should have said, we will allow all to go unmasked once the percent of vaccinated people reaches x%, where x is the estimate of herd immunity.

[Ms. Toad]

32. Agreed. n/t

[Demsrule86]

40. Red states were not following mask rules no matter what the CDC said.

[Renew Deal]

26. I don't think it's that complicated.

Put on a mask. Was that so hard?

[Ms. Toad]

33. Unfortunately, ocean liners don't turn on a dime.

It is too late to stop meeting, or exceeding the level of the winter surge. We'll almost certainly hit 200,000 cases/day, on average, within 2 weeks.

[GulfCoast66]

34. There was not one damn thing Biden or the CDC could to control the virus where it is raging.

I’m in Florida. Mask mandate are now illegal. As are any other mitigation methods.

The story is the same in almost all republican controlled states. The president has no power in this area.

The CDC was in a no win lose-lose situation. We have several really good vaccines. They assumed everyone would get it ASAP. But 40% of Americans have decided vaccines are a liberal ploy. So now they are dying.

I say open up fully. I’ll still mask and be careful. Not like last year because I’m vaccinated and won’t be in the ICU if I get Covid. But let all the trumpers get it to their hearts contest.

I now know several people with Covid. One is in the hospital on oxygen. Ever one of them are trump voters and unvaccinated. Fuck them.

[Sogo]

35. Grown ass adults don't need to be told anymore

what to do to protect themselves and others. It's nobody's fault but their own.

[Hugin]

37. Nah, let's not turn this into something President Biden did or didn't do. The fact of the matter is

We're seeing a surge because less than half of Americans are too stupid (not including those who for what ever valid reason are unable and are also victims of the stupiding) to take a free vaccination available to all of them since April.

[Demsrule86]

39. Like those States were ever going to listen...we should add politico to the DU banned list...

definitely a right-wing source.

[brooklynite]

41. See #5...

Politico reports on political news to an audience of political professionals. Skewing public opinion would be a meaningless effort because the public doesn't read it.

[Johonny]

44. Biden did get the vaccine to every single adult

just a bunch of idiots didn't take it. Not really his fault there.

[CentralMass]

47. Even now as of July 31st less then 50% of the country is fully vaccinated.

From 2019 numbers there are ~48 million children under 12 who are not yet eligible for the vaccine yet. You don't put the cart before the horse.

[Johonny]

50. It's not his fault people didn't take it

His goal was to make it available and it was.

Children under 12 aren't adults which my post was about . . .