CDC Director: Impending Doom

[dvcgirl67]

I think she just got emotional (and frustrated). With the vaccines getting out there, we are so close to being at a point where we have some relative assurance against not getting too sick if we catch it, but we're not there yet. It's got to be incredibly frustrating to be working on a pandemic, see hope on the horizon (the horizon equating to maybe 2-3 months), yet seeing some areas throw out mitigation measures, gather in tight spaces, and think "we're all good now" and at the same time, seeing those variants tick up and evade the vaccine in some cases. It would probably make me cry in frustration also.

I agree...it came across more as frustration and a plea for patience to me. I welcome the idea that we're hearing the truth, period. There's clearly concern about the speed of vaccines versus the increase in cases we're seeing now in several states in our nation. She was simply saying....or pleading....just hold on a little longer.

I remember, way back in late February of 2020 when Nancy Messionier, who serves as Director for the National Center for Respiratory Diseases and Immunization....at the CDC no less, gave a briefing to reporters, where she told the truth. She said that she'd had a discussion with her family about the coming pandemic and how it would change their lives. She told Americans to prepare for disruption to our daily lives and that things could "get bad". There were no tears, just her scientific opinion on what was coming. She was right. Her comments hit the news and the stock market fell by 1,000 points that day.

And then, the doctor who had prepared literally her entire career for exactly this crisis.....was sidelined. We never heard from her publicly again. Until recently. So I can give the new CDC Director a pass for going off-script and delivering a sentence or two with some frustration. 550,000 deaths later....a bit of frustration makes perfect sense.

The good news is....at least we're not Brazil. Their president fired pretty much everyone in the last few days....their Foreign minister, Justice minister, Defense minister, and heads of every military branch....because they all refused to align with Bolsonarao's handling of the pandemic. And his handling of the pandemic has been pretty epic alright. He's called Covid..."a measly flu".....called his people "whiners and sissies".....and they're going through a massive third surge which is causing the collapse of their health system.

 

[mmouse37]

Throughout the past year my biggest takeaway is that the powers that be want us in fear. Maybe they feel that is the way to get us all vaccinated but I can't help but feel every single time there is a glimmer of hope the media and professionals report a dire outcoming. Maybe I am just a glass half full kinda gal but this constant fear mongering hasn't worked for me. It has made me question motives. I feel hopeful more than anything, especially with the amount of people getting vaccinated. Lets focus on the positive gains we are all making.

Of course we all still need to be vigilant but don't constantly sensationalize everything.

A little hope goes a long way.

MJ

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

After the last several years...expecting a person of authority to communicate professionally and not in a ”tabloidy” manner made me chuckle.

As for the CDC Director...I don’t think that putting a bit of fear into our citizens is “tabloidy”. It might sound slightly alarmist/emotional to some, but I wouldn’t say tabloidy. She has a duty to inform the public and tell the truth. I’d file it under”refreshing “.

Well, sometimes the truth is scary.....and since a big chunk of the country is walking around and acting like we're over this pandemic, that's it's done.....putting a little fear out there is a part of her job in this instance. In my mind it's better than acting like we're all good. It's not just her job to "put the facts out there".....she's allowed to state her opinion on the state of the pandemic.

Reminds me of Governors who, prior to a big hurricane making landfall......tell citizens who are contemplating staying in their waterfront homes and not evacuating.....that if the water level rises above their roofline and they then decide to call for help....we won't send anyone to save you. Same thing....meant to scare people into making the wiser/smarter decision.

I recognize that expecting our fellow Americans to make smart decisions these days can be a high bar, but I don't fault her for using some emotion to make an appeal for patience. We barely saw Dr. Redfield when he was running the show. What we did see of him....was well, not all that great. He seems to be a shell of a man these days.

I agree...it came across more as frustration and a plea for patience to me. I welcome the idea that we're hearing the truth, period. There's clearly concern about the speed of vaccines versus the increase in cases we're seeing now in several states in our nation. She was simply saying....or pleading....just hold on a little longer.

I remember, way back in late February of 2020 when Nancy Messionier, who serves as Director for the National Center for Respiratory Diseases and Immunization....at the CDC no less, gave a briefing to reporters, where she told the truth. She said that she'd had a discussion with her family about the coming pandemic and how it would change their lives. She told Americans to prepare for disruption to our daily lives and that things could "get bad". There were no tears, just her scientific opinion on what was coming. She was right. Her comments hit the news and the stock market fell by 1,000 points that day.

And then, the doctor who had prepared literally her entire career for exactly this crisis.....was sidelined. We never heard from her publicly again. Until recently. So I can give the new CDC Director a pass for going off-script and delivering a sentence or two with some frustration. 550,000 deaths later....a bit of frustration makes perfect sense.

The good news is....at least we're not Brazil. Their president fired pretty much everyone in the last few days....their Foreign minister, Justice minister, Defense minister, and heads of every military branch....because they all refused to align with Bolsonarao's handling of the pandemic. And his handling of the pandemic has been pretty epic alright. He's called Covid..."a measly flu".....called his people "whiners and sissies".....and they're going through a massive third surge which is causing the collapse of their health system.

If this were last spring you'd def. have more ground. But we're not in last spring. We're in this spring. And it just isn't going to work the same way with people. Fear only works for so long.

As far as discussing the past administration and tabloidy manner she was put into her position by the current administration. Doesn't make sense your comment about the past administration with respects to her behavior unless you're calling into question the current administration and their decision making skills and their expectations of professionalism but you weren't so you're just coming across as a political jab against the past administration. I say that respectfully it's just it didn't make sense when the past administration didn't appoint her. As far as "It's not just her job to "put the facts out there".....she's allowed to state her opinion on the state of the pandemic." you may want to rethink the wording of that because I don't think it comes across like you want it to.

At this rate refreshing would just be someone explaining things flat instead of trying to be the perkiest of perky or the gloomiest of gloom. I understand how she may feel so I don't think we should be knocking her as a person. She must be feeling the weight of all the pressure put upon her by the current administration to be the ones to get the U.S. on a better track with the pandemic response because really all they have right now is the comparison to the past administration and their handling. That must but tremendous on the pressure front to be better. That said a rise in cases means you instill the public with confidence that the vaccinations are important, you instill in the public to keep up mitigation efforts and you do it in a way that is as impartial as you can. And you stick with that. This is the nation you are speaking to and you can't afford to go off script.

Her comments and the way she did it, even if she had the most frustration in the world, only serves to make people more entrenched in their behaviors. The people who are still not engaging in just about any activity will only dig in further to do this. Hopefully those people are getting out to get vaccinated though and hopefully they aren't delaying medical treatment and hopefully they have some social interaction for their mental well being. The people who are presently engaging in all sorta of risky behavior are not going to suddenly stop because of her words and tone. And hopefully those people are getting vaccinated and practicing some mitigation techniques.

We're in a precarious situation here and what you really want is to bring people together in the middle not push them further apart because as a nation we should really be sick to death at this point of the pushing done to us.

 

[Christine]

Throughout the past year my biggest takeaway is that the powers that be want us in fear. Maybe they feel that is the way to get us all vaccinated but I can't help but feel every single time there is a glimmer of hope the media and professionals report a dire outcoming. Maybe I am just a glass half full kinda gal but this constant fear mongering hasn't worked for me. It has made me question motives. I feel hopeful more than anything, especially with the amount of people getting vaccinated. Lets focus on the positive gains we are all making.

Of course we all still need to be vigilant but don't constantly sensationalize everything.

A little hope goes a long way.

MJ

It's funny the different perspectives and how people come away with things. I appreciate all the data, the warnings, and the possibilities, but I've never felt "fear." Or nothing noteworthy anyway; just a feeling like "dang, this is what "could" happen." I personally enjoy knowing what the worst outcome would be. No it's not pretty, but my mind likes to have that information and make decisions with it which is not the same as overreacting by any means. I do that with everything challening in my life, including a previous cancer diagnosis. The type of cancer I had had a 90% or higher survival rate, but I still wanted to know the flip side. Scared me a bit, but allowed me to also be better in the decisions I made.

I've seen the "fear mongering" claim made on social media many times and I don't see it that way. I see it as not-so-pretty facts. I'll take that any day over government denial about a situation (re: Brazil above).

 

[RamblingMad]

We're doomed. It's not 100% effective for adults.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/he...ases/281-9278cb21-6b14-4746-a2b7-91725282c24b

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It's funny the different perspectives and how people come away with things. I appreciate all the data, the warnings, and the possibilities, but I've never felt "fear." Or nothing noteworthy anyway; just a feeling like "dang, this is what "could" happen." I personally enjoy knowing what the worst outcome would be. No it's not pretty, but my mind likes to have that information and make decisions with it which is not the same as overreacting by any means. I do that with everything challening in my life, including a previous cancer diagnosis. The type of cancer I had had a 90% or higher survival rate, but I still wanted to know the flip side. Scared me a bit, but allowed me to also be better in the decisions I made.

I've seen the "fear mongering" claim made on social media many times and I don't see it that way. I see it as not-so-pretty facts. I'll take that any day over government denial about a situation (re: Brazil above).

Fear mongering (which I dislike that term) is usually used when the wording and inflection are beyond a certain point. It's not normally about putting everything out there and letting someone form their opinion and viewpoint.

I realize it's a sensitive topic so I am trying to be respectful here on this next part. I wasn't there in your doctor's office but if your doctor (and who knows maybe that's how it happened) walked in and said "right now I’m scared." and then proceeds to describe while seemingly choking tears down (which is not a judgment just a descriptor) saying they've seen your type of cancer diagnosis with other people and watched what it did to them and their loved ones and started discussing morgues, I'm willing to make that bet that your outlook on your situation would likely be different than what I'm assuming more what happened with the doctor explaining what the 10% non-survival rate meant in non-impartial way. I could be totally wrong with these assumptions absolutely.

 

[RamblingMad]

Some more doom and gloom.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...e-seats-as-travel-rebound-builds?srnd=premium

 

[Christine]

Fear mongering (which I dislike that term) is usually used when the wording and inflection are beyond a certain point. It's not normally about putting everything out there and letting someone form their opinion and viewpoint.

I realize it's a sensitive topic so I am trying to be respectful here on this next part. I wasn't there in your doctor's office but if your doctor (and who knows maybe that's how it happened) walked in and said "right now I’m scared." and then proceeds to describe while seemingly choking tears down (which is not a judgment just a descriptor) saying they've seen your type of cancer diagnosis with other people and watched what it did to them and their loved ones and started discussing morgues, I'm willing to make that bet that your outlook on your situation would likely be different than what I'm assuming more what happened with the doctor explaining what the 10% non-survival rate meant in non-impartial way. I could be totally wrong with these assumptions absolutely.

Of course, and I watched the CDC director's speech and wouldn't compare it at all to the description above. Not even close. I sensed hope (we are so close to good things) and then frustration (at how close we are and yet how little compliance/care there seems to be out there). I sensed pure frustration. Wouldn't even equate it to a doctor giving someone bad news about cancer. My equation with that is that I do want to know the bad.

Now, in fact, going back to my cancer diagnosis even with my "great" outlook, my doctor said to me "I have 5 children. If you were one of my children I would tell you to go the extra mile and do the XX procedure." All while looking at me fairly solemnly. Not unlike Walensky, TBH! But I really appreciated his heartfelt care and concern and, yes, his emotion spurred me on to take a more radical approach. Glad I did because if I took the halfway approach, I would have ended up with a recurrence a few years later.

We all have our opinions and how we perceive things, so there really is no right versus wrong way to do things. I am appreciative that Walensky showed her human side and her fears. I doubt it will move any hardcore COVID deniers off their positions and maybe emotion and frustration will cause some people to dig in, but it's honest and I appreciate the honesty.

 

[VandVsmama]

We're doomed. It's not 100% effective for adults.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/he...ases/281-9278cb21-6b14-4746-a2b7-91725282c24b

That's 0.01% of the vaccinated population in Washington state which had "breakthrough" cases of COVID after they were fully vaccinated.

I think I'll gamble on the vaccine odds instead.

 

[DisLiss]

My state is not doing well in the vaccination department. We still are working on the 65+ folks. I imagine states like mine on top of concerns in regards to variants are part of why some people are still very concerned.

 

[quandrea]

And this is why we will never ever be out of this. No one cares about their neighbors, just themselves.

Sadly the pathetic world we inhabit today. Covid has been a wake up call for me about just how awful this world and its people are.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Walensky showed her human side and her fears. I doubt it will move any hardcore COVID deniers off their positions and maybe emotion and frustration will cause some people to dig in, but it's honest and I appreciate the honesty.

I think that was my point though. I think people in this thread are just saying if she was hoping to change people's behaviors it missed that opportunity. You may appreciate what you perceive as straight up honesty. But are you the one she needed to convince? Based on what you've written you aren't. And the people she needed to convince? They are likely to dismiss her as being over the top (this thread and some of the silly headlines I've seen already are proof of that as well as other comments when public officials say things certain ways).

What you and other posters are more talking about, that you appreciate the way she talked is more about currying favor with the public that in your viewpoint you liked her. Currying public favor and changing public behavior are not one in the same.

 

[GAN]

Throughout the past year my biggest takeaway is that the powers that be want us in fear. Maybe they feel that is the way to get us all vaccinated but I can't help but feel every single time there is a glimmer of hope the media and professionals report a dire outcoming. Maybe I am just a glass half full kinda gal but this constant fear mongering hasn't worked for me. It has made me question motives. I feel hopeful more than anything, especially with the amount of people getting vaccinated. Lets focus on the positive gains we are all making.

Of course we all still need to be vigilant but don't constantly sensationalize everything.

A little hope goes a long way.

MJ

There is some truth to what you say for sure -I think everyone wants the facts but there is no need to sensationalize anything. But, I'd ask if a year ago you were told 500,000 Americans will lose their lives in the coming year ....you wouldn't be concerned? I would have considered that to be a pretty dire outcome -not necessarily for me personally, but for the people who live in my Country. That would be the definition of a dire outcome in my opinion. People put so much weight on media anyway -can't we come to our own conclusions? Only fools would believe everything they hear on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, etc ...not saying they never tell the truth but they clearly have target audiences. People need to educate themselves -talk to your Physician.....

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

I think that was my point though. I think people in this thread are just saying if she was hoping to change people's behaviors it missed that opportunity. You may appreciate what you perceive as straight up honesty. But are you the one she needed to convince? Based on what you've written you aren't. And the people she needed to convince? They are likely to dismiss her as being over the top (this thread and some of the silly headlines I've seen already are proof of that as well as other comments when public officials say things certain ways).

What you and other posters are more talking about, that you appreciate the way she talked is more about currying favor with the public that in your viewpoint you liked her. Currying public favor and changing public behavior are not one in the same.

Unfortunately she was never going to the change the mind of someone who feels the opposite way no matter what she said, so it doesn't matter what she said or how she said it. People who never took the virus seriously will not be swayed now, over a year into this. Critics are going to critique the message regardless. They don't want to hear it.

 

[luvsvacation]

I haven’t felt any doom or gloom since about this time last year. There were about 2 weeks during the last half of March last year where I was concerned because everything was moving so quickly and shutting down and I figured those in the know must know far more than us and it must be bad if they were going to such extremes. I waited for the “bad” to start and then nothing...life went on. I was expecting hundreds of thousands dead per week and life to be like scenes from the movie contagion. And none of that happened. I went back to normal very quickly, as did almost everyone I know. We live in a state that never had any mask mandates. We’ve spent the last year living normally, eating indoors, having get togethers and weddings and I don’t know a single person who has had any bad affects from covid, no one who has even been hospitalized. I know probably 30+ people who have tested positive, some felt virtually nothing, some felt like crap, not a single one has been in the hospital or had long term problems. And many of them were elderly and people with multiple health issues. From what I’ve personally seen I see no reason for talk of gloom and doom. This is not said to make light of anyone who has lost someone. Obviously people have died of Covid, and any loss of life is always tragic, especially when it’s someone you love. I’m sorry for those who have lost someone, just as I’m sorry for those who have lost someone to cancer or heart disease. But I just can not see covid as being the end of the world that some seem to think it is...it’s an illness, some unfortunately will succumb to it, but the vast majority will go on, that’s how life works.

 

[Christine]

I think that was my point though. I think people in this thread are just saying if she was hoping to change people's behaviors it missed that opportunity. You may appreciate what you perceive as straight up honesty. But are you the one she needed to convince? Based on what you've written you aren't. And the people she needed to convince? They are likely to dismiss her as being over the top (this thread and some of the silly headlines I've seen already are proof of that as well as other comments when public officials say things certain ways).

What you and other posters are more talking about, that you appreciate the way she talked is more about currying favor with the public that in your viewpoint you liked her. Currying public favor and changing public behavior are not one in the same.

I get it. I'll go on and say that I doubt that there's anything anyone can do or say to appeal to those people. They have made up their mind to be intransigent, they've made it political, and they are dug in. She could have given the most Mr. Spock, fact-laden speech on the planet and they would have still been outraged at her.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Unfortunately she was never going to the change the mind of someone who feels the opposite way no matter what she said, so it doesn't matter what she said or how she said it. People who never took the virus seriously will not be swayed now, over a year into this. Critics are going to critique the message regardless. They don't want to hear it.

Agreed to an extent but it's also why it's more important IMO to appeal to those groups whether you want to or not. She's preaching to the choir really so what net effect will happen? You don't have to convince so and so to get on board, you need to convince so and so on board. You may not like having to do it, you may not even think you'll be successful but you need to get to your target audience And the target audience is not going to listen when you just play into their hands which is what she did. You've got to outsmart them (perhaps a hard task but it's the task more at hand right now).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I get it. I'll go on and say that I doubt that there's anything anyone can do or say to appeal to those people. They have made up their mind to be intransigent, they've made it political, and they are dug in. She could have given the most Mr. Spock, fact-laden speech on the planet and they would have still been outraged at her.

Understood I responded to the other poster before I saw your reply but my reply to the other poster fits here too.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

It prevents infection in some, lessens the effects of an infection in others. This was known before. No vaccine is going to be 100% effective.

This was extremely irresponsible, IMO. The vaccine is not 100% effective, and to say that it is? The general public will run with this and then the whole impending doom that we are discussing will be in fact true.

First, nobody said 100% effective. Second, this is NEW information. Pfizer has 95% efficacy overall (not including variants), but now also has 90% protection against getting it all. Those are two different stats. Did you read the CDC release at all? If you had, you’d see all of this.

 

[luvsvacation]

I get it. I'll go on and say that I doubt that there's anything anyone can do or say to appeal to those people. They have made up their mind to be intransigent, they've made it political, and they are dug in. She could have given the most Mr. Spock, fact-laden speech on the planet and they would have still been outraged at her.

As one who she would never convince no matter what she said I want to say this. For myself this is not political at all. I know people want to make it political, but I’m about the most politically neutral person I know. I will not be convinced that it’s doom and gloom because that is NOT what I see in the world around me. I see life going on normally in all the circles I run in and I see nothing bad happening. Someone’s words won’t convince me to believe differently from what I see everyday. Maybe if I was staying home I’d feel that that was the only reason I was safe. But I’m out and about mingling with various different friend and family groups, eating together, sharing drinks, doing everything I have all my life and I’m still safe, everyone I know is safe. No amount of words or pleas will convince me I need to be afraid. Those words don’t mesh with what I’m living.