I dunno, really pulled their punches on the whole face-touching thing…
So, about that upcoming State of the Union speech; when is that? Like April? Oh, Tomorrow you say?Report
Musing: Watching this made me miss Portlandia.
But I get why they had to cancel… they had a tiny window of 2011 – 2015 where they could do genuine satire from the left by the left on the left. By 2018? Rumors of treason.Report
Yeah, it seems like there is about to be an about-face on Covid policies at the official level.
“You know how politicians were constantly photographed around people who were masked? And you know how you ingrates thought that was bad? Well, those people don’t have to be masked anymore!”
Now I, personally, am *DELIGHTED* with this change. There’s a new Batman movie coming out and it’s getting pretty good reviews and I would LOVE to see it in the theater. Seriously, I can’t remember the last movie I saw in the theater. It probably was Last Jedi or something like that. It’ll be good to be able to go out *MASKLESS* and watch a movie *MASKLESS* and know that Covid is over.
Interesting link. Interesting to me on two fronts. First, that even in announcing a change in the methodology, they don’t release the methodology, so the Jason Salemi is trying to reverse engineer how they are arriving at the stats; and second because tracking outcomes vs. incidence has long been an argument that would get you put on the wrong side of the right side.
But honestly, the rest of the country has been doing this since at least June 2021 – including all of the politicians, which is why JB is right above… this is attempting to bring the Performative class into alignment with the rest of the nation by removing the Masks for Thee but not for Me dynamic.Report
I didn’t dig too deep into it but it did stand out that I had to go look for it. That’s poor communication if I’m being charitable… something worse if I’m not.
As to whether this is the right move, heck if I know. I’m increasingly over ALL of the back-and-forth with this. We all want things to get better but then we all get fussy when they do get better. Maybe it is just a collective exhaustion but I’m just over it.
In this area, masks in schools are going away. And suddenly the folks who’ve been picketing to unmask kids are up in arms… “Oh, suddenly Covid just disappears because the Governor signs a piece of paper?” Like, you got what you want… why are you still complaining?
If folks want to analyze motives… have at it. I just don’t care anymore.Report
“Oh, suddenly Covid just disappears because the Governor signs a piece of paper?”
Well…it ain’t the non-maskers saying that, see? It’s the people who were, up until that pen hit the paper, talking about how COVID was going to kill us all and masks were a vital part of the defense against it and going out in public with your mask under your nose meant that you personally thought every disabled person in American ought to be turned into compost.
“oh, well, I never did that!” A: yeah, sure you didn’t, and B: the people saying “oh, now you’re okay with this” aren’t talking to the Reasonable Nuanced Opinion-Holders Who Just Followed The Science, they’re talking to the dude who dressed up like the Grim Reaper and got on national TV, they’re talking to the mayors who ordered cop to bust up parking-lot church services, they’re talking to the doctors who are just so sad and upset and are exhausted from watching a husband cry as his comatose wife dies on the other side of a glass wall…but he’s still not allowed to go in there, no sir, it’s his wife but it’s their job.Report
“Well…it ain’t the non-maskers saying that, see?”
Actually, that is exactly who it is. It’s like the dog that chases the car and finally catches it… now what? Some of them were so motivated by their opposition to… whatever… that when that opposition is removed, they’re not sure what to do anymore.Report
*sigh*
It ain’t the non-maskers saying that COVID just disappears because the Governor signs a piece of paper, dudeReport
*Sigh*
Yes. It. Is.
In my neck of the woods, folks have been protesting to get kids unmasked in schools.
Then it was announced — by Democratic leaders — that school mask mandates were being lifted.
Those same protestors responded by criticizing the change, saying it was just political pandering and not based on anything.Report
Covid is not over yet – case counts form Omicron are significantly down and no new variant has yet arisen to take its place. Vaccination, social distancing and masking worked, but cutting any of them back too soon (as we did after Delta) means it will roar back in some form.
Plus the CDC guidance is more nuanced then you seem to think it is, mostly because scientists – when we are allowed to speak – do so in a language that is nuanced and full of uncertainty.Report
The scientists say that masks work and are utterly necessary? Well! Science has spoken, JAYBIRD. Put your fucking mask on.
The scientists say that cloth masks aren’t worth shit? Well, science is always full of nuance and uncertainty, JAYBIRD.Report
As I keep reminding you, cloth masks work, and the tight weave cotton ones work better then other cloth types. Not as well as N 95s or KN95s, but they work. They have worked, and will work again.Report
Philip, there’s currently a war going on and Biden needs all of the support for his new policies as he can get.
Why are you trying to undermine him at this critical juncture?Report
You’d think that they’d have someone make that point in the SNL skit.
New variants? Sure… but they can, did, and will come from anywhere in the world… so until rest of the world is somewhere near 85% vaccinated, there’s no point pushing public policy further than Free, Easy and Ubiquitous.
That’s where science meets politics. Have we streamlined the FDA/CDC approvals for ‘updates’ to the mRNA sequencing? Have we pre-assessed the manufacturing process to transition to updates with (or without) a major re-assessment of the process as if it’s a new thing? To what extent is it (or isn’t it) different with the kinds of approvals we’ve baked in on previous science? What’s the risk profile of updating mRNA as 2.0 vs. mRNA that seems like an entirely new thing?
I genuinely assume that all of the above is being contemplated/updated … but that’s the reporting direction we need our energies focused… not on masking. Esp. since science now tells us that the primary benefit of masking is with proper N95 filtration to the individual wearing the mask from aerosol spread – rather than the original guidance that cloth masks were a communal project at reducing droplet spread.
The problem is that so much of the ‘science’ was mismanaged by the CDC that there’s no good path to walk back to reasonable public policy that doesn’t also look like, well, an SNL sketch.Report
The messaging was not handled well. The science is and was fine.Report
You know what Batman is most famous for? The mask.Report
I wonder how many people died because they thought cloth masks would protect them from breathing in covid aerosol particles.Report
I wonder how many people died because they though horse dewormer would protect them better then vaccines.Report
If either were knowable, I’d make a gentleman’s wager with you that far fewer people died from that (and I’d throw in injecting bleach and fish tank chemicals) than died from thinking their CVS mask was a magical forcefield against covid.Report
Looks like there are, gasp, *POLITICAL* calculations at play.
In a recent memo, Biden's polling firm had some advice for Democrats: Declare victory against Covid and stop talking about restrictions or you'll lose the election. https://t.co/K6mFBMMUbBpic.twitter.com/PhaL1UKxch
The studies I’ve seen said that the types of mask were important. Like, U-SL-T and U-DL-T masks were bad (U-SL-T masks were worse than nothing!) but N95 masks were good.
So I’m pleased that Biden looked at the science and reached an eminently reasonable conclusion.Report
“Masks being unpopular are making mandates going away.”
I think simultaneously most of the online criticisms of this sketch were silly (that is, those from the right) and that this sketch really didn’t work because it was a bit too scattered and/or scared to adhere to a consistent point of view – which could have included the view from nowhere. Despite some decent sight gags and over the top reactions, it was probably the weakest bit of the night, even with them going to the drying up well of broadway parody again. (And a really short weekend update)Report
As comedy, it wasn’t that funny. The chuckles were the husband telling his wife to not talk about the mask story, anything from Keenan (but that’s always true), and the Thanos bit (that they kept throughout the rest of the skit).
But as a cultural signal? That was interesting as heck.Report
Yeah, we needed Fred and Carrie for it to be funny.Report
Does anyone actually watch SNL and expect to laugh anymore?Report
For current SNL it was pretty funny.
And compared to a Clare Briggs cartoon, it was Richard Pryor on the Sunset StripReport
Here is an example of SNL using the same background premise much more effectively in terms of both humor and ‘truthyness’
The best was the Tom Hanks Black Jeopardy sketch a week and a half before the 2016 election.Report
I thought that sketch was great the first time I saw it… then I watched the other sketches and saw that there was the additional gag that Tom Hanks was the *FIRST* white person to get a question correct on the show.Report
Ya know, SNL airs in Canada, but doesn’t make the Youtube clips available in this country. I’ll never understand it. On the other hand, we probably get more SCTV clips here.Report
I dunno, really pulled their punches on the whole face-touching thing…
So, about that upcoming State of the Union speech; when is that? Like April? Oh, Tomorrow you say?Report
Musing: Watching this made me miss Portlandia.
But I get why they had to cancel… they had a tiny window of 2011 – 2015 where they could do genuine satire from the left by the left on the left. By 2018? Rumors of treason.Report
Yeah, it seems like there is about to be an about-face on Covid policies at the official level.
“You know how politicians were constantly photographed around people who were masked? And you know how you ingrates thought that was bad? Well, those people don’t have to be masked anymore!”
Now I, personally, am *DELIGHTED* with this change. There’s a new Batman movie coming out and it’s getting pretty good reviews and I would LOVE to see it in the theater. Seriously, I can’t remember the last movie I saw in the theater. It probably was Last Jedi or something like that. It’ll be good to be able to go out *MASKLESS* and watch a movie *MASKLESS* and know that Covid is over.
Whew!Report
https://twitter.com/JasonSalemi/status/1497701027113410565
This is explains how the change worked.Report
Interesting link. Interesting to me on two fronts. First, that even in announcing a change in the methodology, they don’t release the methodology, so the Jason Salemi is trying to reverse engineer how they are arriving at the stats; and second because tracking outcomes vs. incidence has long been an argument that would get you put on the wrong side of the right side.
But honestly, the rest of the country has been doing this since at least June 2021 – including all of the politicians, which is why JB is right above… this is attempting to bring the Performative class into alignment with the rest of the nation by removing the Masks for Thee but not for Me dynamic.Report
I didn’t dig too deep into it but it did stand out that I had to go look for it. That’s poor communication if I’m being charitable… something worse if I’m not.
As to whether this is the right move, heck if I know. I’m increasingly over ALL of the back-and-forth with this. We all want things to get better but then we all get fussy when they do get better. Maybe it is just a collective exhaustion but I’m just over it.
In this area, masks in schools are going away. And suddenly the folks who’ve been picketing to unmask kids are up in arms… “Oh, suddenly Covid just disappears because the Governor signs a piece of paper?” Like, you got what you want… why are you still complaining?
If folks want to analyze motives… have at it. I just don’t care anymore.Report
“Oh, suddenly Covid just disappears because the Governor signs a piece of paper?”
Well…it ain’t the non-maskers saying that, see? It’s the people who were, up until that pen hit the paper, talking about how COVID was going to kill us all and masks were a vital part of the defense against it and going out in public with your mask under your nose meant that you personally thought every disabled person in American ought to be turned into compost.
“oh, well, I never did that!” A: yeah, sure you didn’t, and B: the people saying “oh, now you’re okay with this” aren’t talking to the Reasonable Nuanced Opinion-Holders Who Just Followed The Science, they’re talking to the dude who dressed up like the Grim Reaper and got on national TV, they’re talking to the mayors who ordered cop to bust up parking-lot church services, they’re talking to the doctors who are just so sad and upset and are exhausted from watching a husband cry as his comatose wife dies on the other side of a glass wall…but he’s still not allowed to go in there, no sir, it’s his wife but it’s their job.Report
“Well…it ain’t the non-maskers saying that, see?”
Actually, that is exactly who it is. It’s like the dog that chases the car and finally catches it… now what? Some of them were so motivated by their opposition to… whatever… that when that opposition is removed, they’re not sure what to do anymore.Report
*sigh*
It ain’t the non-maskers saying that COVID just disappears because the Governor signs a piece of paper, dudeReport
*Sigh*
Yes. It. Is.
In my neck of the woods, folks have been protesting to get kids unmasked in schools.
Then it was announced — by Democratic leaders — that school mask mandates were being lifted.
Those same protestors responded by criticizing the change, saying it was just political pandering and not based on anything.Report
Oh, I know how the change worked, Kazzy.
Thank you, though.Report
Covid is not over yet – case counts form Omicron are significantly down and no new variant has yet arisen to take its place. Vaccination, social distancing and masking worked, but cutting any of them back too soon (as we did after Delta) means it will roar back in some form.
Plus the CDC guidance is more nuanced then you seem to think it is, mostly because scientists – when we are allowed to speak – do so in a language that is nuanced and full of uncertainty.Report
The scientists say that masks work and are utterly necessary? Well! Science has spoken, JAYBIRD. Put your fucking mask on.
The scientists say that cloth masks aren’t worth shit? Well, science is always full of nuance and uncertainty, JAYBIRD.Report
As I keep reminding you, cloth masks work, and the tight weave cotton ones work better then other cloth types. Not as well as N 95s or KN95s, but they work. They have worked, and will work again.Report
Philip, there’s currently a war going on and Biden needs all of the support for his new policies as he can get.
Why are you trying to undermine him at this critical juncture?Report
You’d think that they’d have someone make that point in the SNL skit.
Might have made it a lot funnier!Report
The Vaccines work. That’s it, that’s the policy.
New variants? Sure… but they can, did, and will come from anywhere in the world… so until rest of the world is somewhere near 85% vaccinated, there’s no point pushing public policy further than Free, Easy and Ubiquitous.
That’s where science meets politics. Have we streamlined the FDA/CDC approvals for ‘updates’ to the mRNA sequencing? Have we pre-assessed the manufacturing process to transition to updates with (or without) a major re-assessment of the process as if it’s a new thing? To what extent is it (or isn’t it) different with the kinds of approvals we’ve baked in on previous science? What’s the risk profile of updating mRNA as 2.0 vs. mRNA that seems like an entirely new thing?
I genuinely assume that all of the above is being contemplated/updated … but that’s the reporting direction we need our energies focused… not on masking. Esp. since science now tells us that the primary benefit of masking is with proper N95 filtration to the individual wearing the mask from aerosol spread – rather than the original guidance that cloth masks were a communal project at reducing droplet spread.
The problem is that so much of the ‘science’ was mismanaged by the CDC that there’s no good path to walk back to reasonable public policy that doesn’t also look like, well, an SNL sketch.Report
The messaging was not handled well. The science is and was fine.Report
You know what Batman is most famous for? The mask.Report
I wonder how many people died because they thought cloth masks would protect them from breathing in covid aerosol particles.Report
I wonder how many people died because they though horse dewormer would protect them better then vaccines.Report
If either were knowable, I’d make a gentleman’s wager with you that far fewer people died from that (and I’d throw in injecting bleach and fish tank chemicals) than died from thinking their CVS mask was a magical forcefield against covid.Report
Looks like there are, gasp, *POLITICAL* calculations at play.
I wonder if this policy change will kill more people than TEXAS HAVING BACK ALLEY ABORTIONS BUT YOU NEVER HEAR ANYBODY TALK ABOUT THATReport
Color me surprised.Report
I’ve been reading a lot of comments online about how masks not only don’t work but are actually worse than nothing, so this makes a lot of sense.
Chalk up another win for Biden.Report
The studies I’ve seen said that the types of mask were important. Like, U-SL-T and U-DL-T masks were bad (U-SL-T masks were worse than nothing!) but N95 masks were good.
So I’m pleased that Biden looked at the science and reached an eminently reasonable conclusion.Report
“Masks being unpopular are making mandates going away.”
“Finally, the government show some sense.”
“No, it’s Democrats doing it.”
“Those murderers!”Report
I think simultaneously most of the online criticisms of this sketch were silly (that is, those from the right) and that this sketch really didn’t work because it was a bit too scattered and/or scared to adhere to a consistent point of view – which could have included the view from nowhere. Despite some decent sight gags and over the top reactions, it was probably the weakest bit of the night, even with them going to the drying up well of broadway parody again. (And a really short weekend update)Report
As comedy, it wasn’t that funny. The chuckles were the husband telling his wife to not talk about the mask story, anything from Keenan (but that’s always true), and the Thanos bit (that they kept throughout the rest of the skit).
But as a cultural signal? That was interesting as heck.Report
Yeah, we needed Fred and Carrie for it to be funny.Report
Does anyone actually watch SNL and expect to laugh anymore?Report
For current SNL it was pretty funny.
And compared to a Clare Briggs cartoon, it was Richard Pryor on the Sunset StripReport
Here is an example of SNL using the same background premise much more effectively in terms of both humor and ‘truthyness’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h_N80qKYOMReport
Okay.
That was okay.Report
The best was the Tom Hanks Black Jeopardy sketch a week and a half before the 2016 election.Report
I thought that sketch was great the first time I saw it… then I watched the other sketches and saw that there was the additional gag that Tom Hanks was the *FIRST* white person to get a question correct on the show.Report
Ya know, SNL airs in Canada, but doesn’t make the Youtube clips available in this country. I’ll never understand it. On the other hand, we probably get more SCTV clips here.Report