CDC Director Said Something Reasonable. The Internet Loses Its Mind. I Add Some Reason.
Stating the facts on the risk of comorbidities has some people very mad at Rochelle Walensky. I defended her. Let's see what comes of it.
Yesterday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky tweeted the following:
This appears to have been a clarification to the backlash from people who completely misconstrued her statement that over 75% of people who are dying from Omicron had four or more comorbidities.
Some have taken this to mean that Walensky thinks that people who are disabled are not worthy of saving from COVID-19, a clear distortion of her language and meaning.
The Independent, for example, ran with this headline:
My disabled life is worthy’: CDC prompts backlash for comments on Omicron deaths
This position conflates “medical co-morbidities” with “disabilities”. People w/pre-existing medical conditions, who are “unwell to begin with”, do not automatically fall into the “disabled” category. That said, many people who are disabled are also immunocompromised.
The reality is that most deaths from COVID-19 have been in the elderly and in people w/co-morbidities from the beginning; early on, it was clear that >90% of deaths in Italy were in people who had pre-existing medical conditions.
Walensky is not saying she’s encouraged that the death risk with Omicron is strongly biased toward people with four or more comorbidities; she’s celebrating that the risk is not high in people with 3, 2, 1 and 0 comorbidities. She’s saying it’s mild for most people. (Sames was true for every other form of COVID-19, but that’s not what’s happening here.)
The backlash to her comments forced Walensky’s hand to state that the CDC is, in fact, going to “protect people with comorbidities from severe COVID-19”.
Her statement, “CDC is taking steps to protect those at highest risk, incl. those w/ chronic health conditions, disabilities & older adults” is in keeping with a public health policy that engages with the facts.
Astute denizens of Twitter, however, took note that Walensky did not provide any specifics on CDC’s plan to “protect people with comorbidities from severe COVID-19”.
So I responded:
I then peppered responses to her tweet from people saying “you have abandoned my child” with invitations to ask an ethical physician about the science on early, aggressive treatments.
Let’s hope the people who feel abandoned can benefit from the hard work of ethical physicians.
The outraged mobbed of limited and emotional thinkers are always the loudest. This is tremendous problem for any society.
Her husband received 5 million grant from Fauci./US government-She is damaged goods and Ivermectin is our greatest weapon against the EUA protection the Pharmafia is hiding under LOL!