Q&A: NIAID’s Jeanne Marrazzo speaks on bird flu, mpox, and succeeding Anthony Fauci
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An interview with the director of the NIAID, Jeanne Marrazzo, on bird flu, mpox, the post-Fauci era and more.

Jeanne Marrazzo, new leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, everyone:

Can I make a quick digression? We recently had a long Covid [research] meeting where we had about 200 people, in person. And we can’t mandate mask-wearing, because it’s federal property. But there was a fair amount of disturbance that we couldn’t, and people weren’t wearing masks, and one person accused us of committing a microaggression by not wearing masks.

And I take that very seriously. But I thought to myself, it’s more that people just want to live a normal life. We really don’t want to go back. It was so painful. We’re still all traumatized. Let’s be honest about that. None of us are over it.

So there’s not a lot of appetite for raising an alarm, especially if it could be perceived subsequently as a false alarm.

Edit - thanks for the help in bypassing the paywall.

  • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    18·
    1 month ago

    America will.never improve because Americans are literally the most spoiled, self centered, selfish, antisocial dipshits in the history of the world.

    If wearing a mask into a grocery store to stop a global pandemic was too big an ask what does anybody expect us to overc9me when there’s a real issue.

    Same with climate change, how many times have you seen people pitching about having to use plastic straws or reusable grocery bags.

    Americans are tough and smart and resilient, so long as they dont have to make LITERALLY any personal sacrifices.

    “The world is going to literally explode unless you skip going to this one specific movie showing, we will give you a full refund and a personal chariot to another showing at a later date” is a test 60% of the country would fail.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      1 month ago

      “The world is going to literally explode unless you skip going to this one specific movie showing, we will give you a full refund and a personal chariot to another showing at a later date” is a test 60% of the country would fail.

      This should be a site tagline because it’s painfully true. I think about 1/3 of Hexbears would fail it too.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      The treatbrained rage against social distancing and masking mandates shattered my hope of Burgerlanders ever collectively agreeing to do anything meaningful about crises ever again.

      • anarcho_blinkenist [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        The treatbrained rage against social distancing and masking mandates shattered my hope of Burgerlanders ever collectively agreeing to do anything meaningful about crises ever again.

        looking at just the most deranged loud reactionaries and their screeds and tantrums and ignoring the huge masses of people which did distance and mask, as well as the HUGE volunteer movement which undergirded the entire vaccination program, as well as ignoring in general the huge masses of people who have been and are organizing all the time for food distribution and food banking, and the communities that came together and literally chased cops who were trying to evict people during covid out of their town, and those distributing supplies in homeless communities, and who are helping each other in crises and always do (sharing generators, food, gas, water, entertainment, sending food on kayaks or handmade floating crates in floods etc.) as well as who literally travel into disaster regions to bring supplies and help and transport… and those organizing in labor and labor actions, and those coming together in masses for various local and nationwide protests and sit-in encampments and for socialist political organizing, for leftist firearm training, etc. etc.

        is really myopic and a misanthropic and reactionary attitude, and I’d urge you to reconsider taking these kinds of stances, Comrade. Maybe you’re speaking for yourself that you aren’t collectively agreeing to do meaningful things about crises, but that doesn’t mean that people didn’t, and aren’t still today. There are people in Hexbear who have talked about their and their friends’ organizing work and also their volunteer work in Carolina right now, as well as have shared links to pool resources for alleviation on top of the general mutual aid threads. Speaking in these myopic and reactionary terms actively impedes these collective acts from growing and being recognized within the communities you speak them, and actively inhibit awareness, inspiration, and growth in people to join those making the world better; by instead pushing essentializing and fatalistic narratives which only serve to drive people to become more insular and atomized and reinforce backwards-facing and misanthropic biases in ways that are not much different from how people get pulled into and into believing narrative frameworks in incel communities.

        People coming together, even in “Burgerland,” to do meaningful things for each other and their communities both during crises and outside of crises has happened and is happening all the time — and more and more people are joining not just symptom-alleviation activities and organizations but also organizations which help do so while targeting the core causes of the issues than ever before. More people have been interested in socialist organizing itself than have been in 3 decades. It is essential to not lose sight of that and to not believe or speak misanthropic untruths which only serve to undermine progressive movements and strengthen reactionary ones.