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.

  • NoLeftLeftWhereILive [none/use name, she/her]
    ·
    1 day ago

    I am not entirely sure what is going on with people, but I spent this morning yet again in a mandatory in person meeting. At least three people were visibly sick or saying like they are "coming down with something". This has been going on since August now.

    But the real kicker is the way a young person pipes up with "It's the weirdest thing, I have been having such intense migranes in the past weeks after I had the "summer flu". I had migraines as a kid, but never as an adult. It's the weirdest." Then several other people piped up to voice their new such weird and mystical health issues.

    And there I sit, listening to this same stuff in some form week in and week out. And keep thinking to myself that maybe it's my autism or maybe it's something else, but how do these people not put two and two together, even now. Or ever. I get that they are underinformed, but still.

    And I suppose the mask is like this for most, not trauma but just gone entirely as an option. Covid literally does not exist for most people anymore. Or something. I don't know anymore.

    • Infamousblt [any]
      ·
      1 day ago

      It's just lib brain. Everything is always lib brain. Libs do not see cause and effect, they do not see the material world. Things just happen to them and within them and around them and those things are totally unconnected to each other and that's where their thinking about things ends.

    • barrbaric [he/him]M
      ·
      1 day ago

      Lib views are determined by a combination of what their authority figures say and what their peers say. If this comes up against a conflicting material reality, this may spark change, but this is unlikely, especially if that change would require the liberal to actually do anything, even something as trivial as wearing a mask. The authority figures and all of their peers are saying COVID is over, and so, in the mind of the plague rat liberal, it is over.

      Also, just curious if anyone else has had the same experience as me, but I'd never even heard of a "summer flu" until like 2023, and it's always just seemed like absolutely transparent cope about what is clearly COVID.

      • Ivysaur [she/her]
        ·
        1 day ago

        It is incredible to me the mental gymnastics people will go to in order to forget not even a decade ago when people were by and large absolutely 100% not sick this often. This is what tells me they know what they’re doing. They understand what’s happening, but have chosen the comfortable(?) lie until the curtain falls. If you can remember your favorite old tv show, you can remember what life was like before now. It wasn’t this, and there is a very clear through-line of cause and effect.

      • NoLeftLeftWhereILive [none/use name, she/her]
        ·
        1 day ago

        Yeah no summer flu existed before. Or constant allergies. Or blood pressure meds for people in their 30s. Or Christmas flus for that matter.

        I also love the levels of splaining they will go to to prove their covid isn't covid. Educated adults who very well know you don't get sick from being cold straight up say things like "got the sniffles because I was out in the cold too long" and similar mental acrobatics. And the longcovid stuff is: aging (in people in their 30s), genes, stress, bad luck. It's never covid.

    • CommunistBear [he/him]
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      1 day ago

      Unironically my partner has had persistent migraines for like 2-3 weeks in a row now and I wasn't sure what the problem was. Them getting covid at least 6 times hasn't even crossed my mind as an option