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Democrats may have to sacrifice something big for the climate

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Historic climate legislation may still have a chance. Success now hinges on Democrats, once and for all, figuring out exactly what it is Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) wants to bring him back to the negotiating table to pass a version of the Build Back Better Act. The party is running out of time to deliver on climate change, but first they need to find a break in the <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-energy/2022/01/21/the-climate-kinks-in-bbb-799982">frozen talks</a>.
When Democrats took control of the Senate a year ago, they had a mandate to ensure the United States would accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels and to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Without legislation, they underdeliver to a political base worried about the climate, a constituency they are counting on turning out in the midterms.
Though the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/13/22799436/build-back-better-senate-manchin-parliamentarian">original</a> Build Back Better Act is now <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/19/22845060/joe-manchin-climate-change-build-back-better-clean-energy">dead</a>, Congress still may have a shot at passing a bill to fund $550 billion for implementing clean energy incentives, funding electric vehicles and charging stations, instituting a fee on methane pollution, and helping the most vulnerable communities facing climate disasters.
On the eve of his one-year anniversary as president, Biden laid out one last path forward to breaking the Senate stalemate on the original bill. “It’s clear to me ... that we’re going to have to probably break it up,” Biden told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. “I’ve been talking to a number of my colleagues on the Hill — I think it’s clear that we would be able to get support for the $500-plus billion for energy and the environmental issues that are there.”
There’s still more wrangling ahead to get Manchin’s support, but the Senate is up against a clock that’s ticking down until the midterms. The Senate doesn’t have forever to figure this out or start from scratch, because it also has to confirm nominees to the administration and avert a government shutdown in February.
His vote, along with that of every other Democratic senator, is required to pass it using the reconciliation process, which lets Democrats bypass the Republican filibuster.
Manchin has said much work still lies ahead. On Thursday, he told CNN congressional correspondent <a href="https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1484219829452214280">Manu Raju</a>, “We will just be starting from scratch. The main thing we need to do is take care of the inflation. Get your financial house in order. Get a tax code that works and take care of the pharmaceuticals that are [gouging] the people with high prices. We can fix that. We can do a lot of good things.”
Biden suggested Democrats could reach a deal with Manchin and the other holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), with a slimmed-down version of Build Back Better, possibly by cutting back on the child tax credit and free community college. Importantly, Biden said that even with concessions to Manchin, they could preserve the climate provisions. Then Democrats might take another shot at passing these other priorities later this year.
For once, there’s surprising agreement from Democratic leaders that the climate priorities won’t be what are sacrificed in any dealmaking ahead. Biden has been firm on that, and Manchin himself said a <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/588180-manchin-expresses-openness-to-climate-action-amid-spending-bill?rl=1">few weeks ago</a>, “The climate thing is one that we probably can come to an agreement much easier than anything else. There’s a lot of good things in there.”
Other senators have rallied around the imperative that the US not spend another decade delaying billions in clean energy funds and climate adaptation. “I just came off the worst year ever on my farm,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said. “We need to do something on climate change. I think we spent <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/01/10/us-natural-disasters-cost-145-billion-in-2021---3rd-costliest-year-on-record/?sh=63ede07d4606">$144 billion</a> this year on disasters, and I don’t think that included crop insurance. So we need to do something on climate, too.”
There is no deal yet on what this slimmed-down BBB would look like, nor has Manchin suggested what he could agree to. And some pieces on climate change could still be cut: Manchin has criticized some provisions of the House bill, like a methane fee on gas producers responsible for excess pollution and tax credits that favor union-made electric vehicles.
But much of the work of negotiating a climate agreement has already been done. “There’s already been tough choices and compromise to get to to a place where 50 US senators and the president support the climate provisions,” said Jamal Raad, executive director of Evergreen, a climate group that has been advising Democrats on the legislation.
The biggest compromise was cutting out the single most impactful climate policy in the House bill, a clean electricity standard that required utilities to meet benchmarks for wind and solar adoption. The remaining climate policies include $320 billion to finance clean energy adoption nationwide. These tax credits are already priced out for the decade, meeting one of Manchin’s demands to account for the 10-year cost of proposals in the package.
Biden and congressional Democrats have hard decisions ahead. If Manchin is still negotiating in good faith, proposals will be on the chopping block. The tall order is getting every Democratic senator to come around to the idea that something will have to give to break through this logjam.
“We’re just too close to striking a deal on this transformative climate investment,” Raad said. “We need to find the biggest, most aggressive Build Back Better bill that we can pass, taking the climate provisions with whatever we can agree to on the health care side, and we need to get this done.”
More Senate Democrats have said this week they are open to giving Manchin what he wants to see this done. “We need to move to pass a package now that has 50 votes,” Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) <a href="https://www.axios.com/congress-biden-bbb-strategy-055c69bc-a2da-463b-ab32-eecb61c4197a.html">told Axios</a>. “The climate, justice and clean-energy provisions in Build Back Better have been largely worked through and financed, so let’s start there and add any of the other important provisions to support working families that can meet the 50-vote threshold.”
For progressive Democrats, following Biden’s suggestion to break down the bill is a hard pill to swallow. That requires choosing among proposals that would all help different American communities. As the Atlantic’s Rob Meyer <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/01/manchin-senate-democrats-climate/621225/">explained</a> last week: “The greatest risk of all is that Democrats continue to procrastinate. It’s easier, after all, to wheedle Manchin than it is to pick a favorite among favorite proposals.”
There’s also the chance that Manchin is not negotiating in good faith, and really does want to poison the bill by starting from scratch and tackling the national debt first. In that scenario, the decisions would be even harder. With the legislative path closed for climate action, activists would want to see Biden <a href="https://www.vox.com/22738414/democrats-manchin-climate-reconciliation-plan-b">gamble on aggressive executive actions</a> to address rising oil production and push clean energy, risking court interference. Democrats <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/climate/build-back-better-climate-change.html?referringSource=articleShare">can’t count on Republican votes</a> for climate action, but the <a href="https://grist.org/politics/if-build-back-better-fails-federal-climate-policy-may-depend-on-republican-cooperation/">agency budgetmaking process</a> can still be an opportunity to advance climate policies (this still requires bipartisan support).
So it isn’t just Biden and Democratic lawmakers who have hard choices ahead. Climate activists have also grown tired of seeing their demands shrink to a place where Manchin could support them. “We should pass climate legislation immediately, but we need to do so much more than that if we want young people across our country to have any faith in Democrats or our government going forward,” said Varshini Prakash, Sunrise Movement’s executive director.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/1/21/22892382/joe-manchin-climate-change-biden-negotiations-bbb">https://www.vox.com/2022/1/21/22892382/joe-manchin-climate-change-biden-negotiations-bbb</a>

vox Democrats may have to sacrifice something big for the climate

Historic climate legislation may still have a chance. Success now hinges on Democrats, once and for all, figuring out exactly what it is Se...

Big Food is ready to sell you more plant-based meat

Animal agriculture accounts for around <a href="https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/">15 percent</a> of global greenhouse gas emissions — yet lawmakers largely ignore it when crafting policy to combat climate change.
That neglect extends to the food industry more broadly, which for a long time has paid even less attention to its emissions than the energy or transport sectors. But as big fast food chains, grocers, and food manufacturers roll out sustainability plans, some are specifically committing to increasing and promoting their plant-based offerings, which are <a href="https://www.vox.com/22787178/beyond-impossible-plant-based-vegetarian-meat-climate-environmental-impact-sustainability">much less carbon-intensive</a> than conventional meat and dairy products.
Panera Bread kicked things off two years ago when it announced in January 2020 that it would make <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/panera-to-make-half-of-menu-plant-based-climate-change-2020-1">half of its menu plant-based</a> in several years, up from 25 percent vegetarian at the time. Earlier this month, Burger King UK went a step further by announcing a plan to make its menu <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59865780">50 percent plant-based by 2030</a> as a way to achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by <a href="https://carbon.ci/news/burger-king-uk-sets-science-based-targets/">41 percent</a> by 2030. And this week, McDonald’s <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mcdonalds-is-expanding-its-test-of-the-plant-based-mcplant-sandwich-to-600-more-locations-11642695186">announced</a> plans to trial its McPlant burger made with Beyond Meat in 600 San Francisco and Dallas-Fort Worth area locations starting February 14.
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The change has been swift. In a <a href="https://www.fairr.org/article/appetite-for-disruption-the-last-serving/">report</a> published late last year, FAIRR, or Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return — a nonprofit that lobbies food corporations to address the environmental and social risks of factory farming — found that the 25 companies it lobbies are all at work developing their own plant-based products, while seven of them have announced specific targets to expand their plant-based sales.
For example, Tesco — a UK-based grocer with locations across Europe — plans to increase plant-based food sales by 300 percent from 2018 to 2025. The company will achieve this, in part, by “[providing] plant-based proteins where a meat version is featured,” according to a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/04/exclusive-tesco-offer-non-meat-alternative-every-animal-product/?utm_content=telegraph">leaked letter</a> written by former CEO David Lewis.
“Like you, we realise the UK needs to reduce meat and dairy consumption,” Lewis said in the letter. The company recently told Vox it is now a third of the way toward reaching that goal.
On its face, this seems like big progress for animal welfare and the climate, and in many ways it certainly is. Pledges to dramatically increase plant-based food sales — if fulfilled — will introduce new products to a lot more people and further normalize alternatives to factory-farmed meat, eggs, and milk. And increased sales will help plant-based startups scale, which should bring down prices.
But as positive as these commitments are, they probably won’t make much of a dent in reducing Big Food’s greenhouse gas emissions or put fewer animals in factory farms, at least not in the short term. That’s because the pledges are additive, meaning they involve selling consumers more plant-based food but not necessarily less animal-based food.
For a while, it’ll be hard to tell if increased plant-based sales are making a difference on sustainability and welfare, according to Stacy Pyett, program manager of the Proteins for Life research program at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.
“Although we’re seeing significant growth in the purchase of [plant-based] products, we don’t see a corresponding decline in meat consumption across most of the wealthy world,” she said. That’s partly because that growth is starting from a very low baseline. In the US, plant-based meat sales <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22385612/plant-based-meat-milk-alternative-protein">grew 45 percent</a> from 2019 to 2020, but still comprise about <a href="https://mailchi.mp/cf613c018ffc/if-we-build-it-will-they-come?e=e40ee11a56">1 percent</a> of retail meat sales by volume.
And it’ll take a lot more than reducing the price of plant-based meat to affect animal meat production. According to <a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/blog/alt-meat-prices-beef-and-emissions">research</a> from the Breakthrough Institute, a tech-focused environmental think tank, co-authored with agricultural economists Jayson Lusk and Glynn Tonsor, a 10 percent reduction in the price of plant-based beef could increase plant-based beef consumption by 23 percent — but it would only reduce cattle production by 0.15 percent.
But successfully pressuring companies to actually displace their meat and milk with plant-based alternatives? That would be meaningful — and seems like the next logical step in the effort to reform factory farming.
There’s precedent in the food industry for what kind of impact true “displacement” commitments could have. Over the last 15 years, animal advocates have gotten hundreds of food companies to commit to switching all of their eggs to cage-free, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22331708/eggs-cages-chickens-hens-meat-poultry">now many are on track to follow through</a>.
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<figcaption>8,000 brown Leghorn and white Leghorn chickens roam about a cage-free aviary system barn at a California egg farm.</figcaption>
<cite>Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</cite></figure>
These corporate cage-free commitments — paired with state laws that ban cages — have resulted in about <a href="https://unitedegg.com/facts-stats/">95 million fewer hens</a> locked into cages in the US today than there were in 2010, making it a true example of positive displacement. And that number is expected to rise each year as companies fulfill their pledges and state laws go into effect.
A good model might be the auto industry. For years, automakers added new hybrid and electric models on top of their mostly gas-fueled fleets. But recently, many of the biggest in the industry, including Toyota, GM, and Ford, have pledged that at least <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2021/09/electric-cars-have-hit-inflection-point/620233/">40 percent of their new cars</a> worldwide won’t use gasoline by 2030 — meaning gasoline-powered cars will be taken off the road to make room for electric vehicles.
That could be a strategy for targeting our food system. And one way to carry it out is to pay attention to pledges that specifically call for a bigger ratio of plant-based to animal meat sales.
According to FAIRR, two UK grocers the organization lobbies are reporting on their ratio of animal-based to plant-based sales: 10 percent of Sainsbury’s total protein and dairy sales in 2019 and 2020 were plant-based, while 5 percent of Tesco’s UK dairy sales were plant-based in the last year and 12 percent of its protein sales (excluding dairy) were plant-based.
If 10 percent of a company’s protein and dairy sales are vegetarian now, why not lobby them to hit 20 percent by 2030? It’s the share of plant-based sales that ultimately counts for the climate and animal welfare, after all, not total sales — that is, assuming a company’s animal meat sales don’t significantly rise in tandem, which would offset climate or animal welfare gains made by an uptick in plant-based sales.
Jo Raven, senior manager of research and engagements at FAIRR, told me the organization will continue to engage the more plant-inclined companies so that they “are not just increasing the sales of meat and dairy alternatives alongside sales of traditional meat,” and that “there needs to be a shift in the actual composition of their [food] portfolio.”
She pointed to one example where a company has actually committed to making a sizable share of one of its categories plant-based: Unilever, which owns ice cream brands Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, Breyers, and Magnum, and pledged to make 20 percent of its ice-cream portfolio composition non-dairy by 2030 (it’s currently at 10 percent).
In an emailed statement, Matt Close, executive vice president of global ice cream at Unilever, told me that they’ll get there by adding new non-dairy flavors (Ben & Jerry’s recently added two new ones, for example). Even bolder are the 50 percent plant-based menu pledges by Burger King UK and Panera Bread. (Burger King UK aims to hit the target by 2030, while Panera Bread’s is unspecified but its CEO told Business Insider in 2020 it’s working to achieve this over the next several years.)
Like any other corporate pledge, these are non-binding and voluntary. Although the business world is starting to take climate change <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/26/climate-crisis-green-light">more seriously</a>, many sustainability pledges are either <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-company-emissions-pledges/">not met</a> or aren’t <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/business/corporate-climate-pledge-supply-chain.html">ambitious enough</a> to meaningfully reduce emissions. New laws and regulations are what’s needed to really move the needle.
While it’s hard to imagine governments taking bold action in the near future — if ever — to reduce meat and dairy production, there are rumblings. The Dutch government has introduced a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/15/netherlands-announces-25bn-plan-to-radically-reduce-livestock-numbers">$28.3 billion, 13-year proposal</a> to pay farmers to stop raising animals, raise fewer animals, or relocate their herds, all in an effort to reduce animal manure pollution by reducing the number of pigs, chickens, and cows by a third. Several governments have even entertained <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/11/20798683/meat-sin-tax-climate-change-animal-welfare-germany">imposing a meat tax</a>, though the politics of that are <a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-15-winter-2022/meat-vortex-alternative-protein">extremely challenging</a>.
But in the corporate realm, real progress will be determined by how much of these pledges become reality and how willing these companies are to juice up their commitments and be truly disruptive as <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22876360/climate-emissions-2021-coal-transportation">emissions continue to rise</a>.
“We need to be ambitious and bold,” Rachel Dreskin, of the trade group Plant Based Foods Association, told me. “I think a lot of food companies are going to come around to this, even those that have had the majority of their portfolios based in animal products — or historically all. I think the moment is now.”
One intermediate strategy grocers and other food companies could use to increase plant-based purchasing — given they’re not likely to reduce animal product availability anytime soon, if ever — is what Pyett calls “choice architecture,” or changing the environments where people eat and purchase foods.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1642810446_6296_158308" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23182522,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZAdU-fkjyMXSowX_nRidk-yGmtg=/0x0:6048x3958/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KMi3b4yPpWDZJM24RUX7lV4u5D4=/0x0:6048x3958/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/H2XNLj0ZLAUZRy_dsmPloaBRvGw=/0x0:6048x3958/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/957GBiMRRnuDFIMrczqTlGyxMFM=/0x0:6048x3958/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hFPVKmGDht4DKq5_gcmJMmi55IA=/0x0:6048x3958/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0jFl1wKAmjeP-KNO4rmNy3xLhTo=/0x0:6048x3958/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gwG66uXe_yo3FmmmkhKBUmqxPjM=/0x0:6048x3958/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/orBDxPMc59tUJU1Bh7pL5NntpBE=/0x0:6048x3958/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Lk30O3r-Zz0ikmaRl3pHx5-HSyM=/0x0:6048x3958/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="6048" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vZswXsMMaSCz2NGLIxzg4q14yR0=/0x0:6048x3958/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8JLwrX5oVk5pWtcO__kVKIZ3y4c=/0x0:6048x3958/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BabFFB8GkWXJaCu6vQ2-IlVxOmI=/0x0:6048x3958/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rppV8I3S5nkJVS3ZfjI9b9eYLKA=/0x0:6048x3958/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AsGdhGprUXOqtJudAZ_AO-d3rmc=/0x0:6048x3958/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LBSOSM6va_3ngs8kFl8OJVOmq9Q=/0x0:6048x3958/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/s5Ui_R39xZ6ytas3bv1JC-CLC30=/0x0:6048x3958/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3vN4x6xO6_w4Zgo4LVPYVJCML-4=/0x0:6048x3958/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nUdZQHWdwWx7WuueYrLBDJz-PWs=/0x0:6048x3958/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sTbQ1tYxRtD5UlljkFzDBX3mi6s=/0x0:6048x3958/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6048x3958):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182522/GettyImages_1183778247.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Plant-based Beyond Burger patties sit alongside various packages of ground beef for sale at a grocery store in New York City.</figcaption>
<cite>Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
A prime example of choice architecture at work is Kroger’s decision to sell its plant-based meats and cheeses in the conventional meat and cheese sections, rather than in a separate vegan aisle. “The research found that when plant-based meats were placed within the animal meat departments, sales increased by 23 percent versus being sold in a separate section,” said Dreskin, whose Plant Based Foods Association conducted in-store tests with Kroger.
Google’s <a href="https://onezero.medium.com/how-google-got-its-employees-to-eat-their-vegetables-a2206820d90d">move to put plant-based healthy foods</a> up front in its corporate cafeterias is another example.
A <a href="https://escholarship.org/content/qt3pq4t2mz/qt3pq4t2mz.pdf?t=qbcipg&v=lg">study</a> conducted by Hannah Malan at a UCLA dining hall, where students don’t have to pay extra for plant-based meat, found that heavy promotion of a burrito with Impossible Foods’ ground beef caused around a tenth to a quarter of students to choose the Impossible burrito, and about half of them chose it over animal meat. (Some students selected the Impossible version over the third option — a veggie-based burrito — but there was still a net increase in plant-based consumption.)
The environmental nonprofit World Resources Institute has <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/its-all-name-how-boost-sales-plant-based-menu-items">published research</a> into how small changes in marketing can nudge consumers to purchase more plant-based food. Three of its recommendations include mentioning the provenance of a dish, avoiding restrictive healthy language, and <a href="https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/19_Report_Playbook_Plant-Rich_Diets_final.pdf">mixing in</a> vegetarian dishes with meat-based dishes on menus, rather than relegating them to the Siberia of the “vegetarian section.”
Some of the grocers FAIRR is engaging with are working on choice architecture. In addition to selling plant-based meat next to animal-based meat, some have committed to better promoting plant-based foods in their stores. Last year Tesco dropped prices on dozens of its private-line vegetarian products to make them more accessible.
This “nudge” approach might be the best option for now. Even though there’s a lot of consumer excitement around plant-based foods, it’s still a niche category, so measurably reducing meat and dairy offerings in-store and on menus would likely backfire for any company that tried it.
Instead, Pyett says, “Policymakers and industry and retail need to collaborate and talk about what kind of food choice architecture we want to build — what should a supermarket look like to [help people] make the right, healthy choice?”
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22883795/food-industry-plant-based-vegan-meat-dairy-climate-pledges">https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22883795/food-industry-plant-based-vegan-meat-dairy-climate-pledges</a>

vox Big Food is ready to sell you more plant-based meat

Animal agriculture accounts for around 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — yet lawmakers largely ignore it when crafting policy...

The M&Ms are different now

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ezzU6-TQtZEfXl6ANZdhZCRA7J0=/0x272:3800x2262/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23183097/GettyImages_1262999657.jpg" /></div>
So far, 2022 has not been very different from recent years, in that every day America seems to wake to what I can only call immensely bad news. Omicron cases are sweeping the nation, and there <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2022/1/20/22889364/joe-biden-covid-19-omicron-plan-free-tests-masks">doesn’t seem to be a decent plan</a> for that. Britney Spears, the sweet but often suffering patron saint of 2000s pop, is finally free, but now <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/britney-spears-jamie-lynn-spears-instagram-rant-1235020176/">embroiled in a very public feud</a> with her sister. And oh yeah, did you hear, they’re getting rid of the go-go boots on the goddamn green M&M?
Outrage feels woven into the daily cloth of our country now. That’s just the way it is — we are perpetually angry, if not mildly irritated, almost all of the time. There are a number of reasons for that: political tensions, social media and its underpinnings of constantly being surveilled, the general feeling that things used to be better. In the midst of all this, there is something psychically bothersome about a new announcement from the Mars candy company, in which they say that going forward, their iconic M&M characters will have more “nuanced personalities.”
Except that we do not want more nuance. Nuance is what begets discourse, and discourse will always beget general unpleasantness.
The changes to the M&M characters are mainly as follows, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/m-m-characters-redesigned-progressive-world/">according to CBS</a>: The red M&M, who is generally known for being a pain, will be nicer. The orange one “will embrace his true self, worries and all,” whatever that means, and is being angled toward Gen Z. (You know, because he’s anxious.) The brown M&M will have shorter heels, and the green M&M will be reduced to a pair of sneakers (<a href="https://twitter.com/mmschocolate/status/615220459253141504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E615220459253141504%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fnews%2Fm-m-characters-redesigned-progressive-world%2F">still unclear if they are actually dating or not</a>). Yellow and blue appear to be coming out of this move relatively unscathed, although it’s unclear what makes them so much better than the rest of the gang.
According to Mars, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/12/mars-nestle-and-hershey-to-face-landmark-child-slavery-lawsuit-in-us">which has faced accusations</a> of human rights violations, these changes are meant to reflect a “more dynamic, progressive world.” It might seem that they have failed to see the progressiveness of their green M&M, their crown jewel, who for as long as the public can remember has been <a href="https://www.gawker.com/culture/they-made-the-green-mm-a-dumpy-slut">unafraid of her own sexuality</a>. However, it is obvious, and maddening for reasons I can barely articulate, that Mars knows the extent of her power and yet chose to downgrade her just the same.
Everything is political and everything feels personal now. Chocolate candy, tied to some of the happiest and simplest memories Americans have, is no different. Publicity stunts are not new, but years ago, no one would be expected to go along with the idea that the green M&M loves being “<a href="https://www.mms.com/en-us/experience-mms/characters?color=green">a hypewoman for her friends</a>,” especially since, IMO, she has the qualities of a very glamorous hater who tolerates the other M&Ms because she loves attention. Marketing executives seemingly love nothing more than to watch us shriek into our screens about their silly little decisions, and we fall for it every time. It is almost embarrassing how easily <a href="https://twitter.com/mmschocolate/status/1484286099426095108">consumers can be manipulated</a>, and also a little frightening how badly I now want to eat M&Ms.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22893919/green-mms-change-mars-candy">https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22893919/green-mms-change-mars-candy</a>

vox The M&Ms are different now

So far, 2022 has not been very different from recent years, in that every day America seems to wake to what I can only call immensely bad n...

The frustrating Covid-19 test reimbursement process is a microcosm of US health care

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sIJdQDr8_TAsRrW2vod-racdWZw=/0x470:5508x3354/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182314/AP21320699547475.jpg" /></div>
Do you have a printer? Do you have a fax machine? If not, you might have trouble getting <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22870328/how-to-use-rapid-tests-omicron">your “free” at-home Covid-19 test</a> paid for by your health insurer.
As of January 15, Americans with private insurance are able to submit their at-home testing bills to their insurer in order to get reimbursed. But for some people, that may be easier said than done. <a href="https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19/coverage-and-resources/covid-19-at-home-testing-coverage">Some insurers</a> are letting their customers submit their bills online, but others are requiring people to physically print <a href="https://www.cigna.com/static/www-cigna-com/docs/coronavirus/covid-otc-med-claim-form.pdf">a piece of paper that resembles an IRS form</a>, fill it out, and then either send it to their insurer through the mail or fax it.
A quick scan of social media finds Americans who sound baffled by what they are being asked to do in order to secure free Covid-19 tests in the middle of a public health emergency.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I just had a look at my health insurer's COVID-19 home test reimbursement form. Obstacle #1: it's not electronic, and I don't have a printer. Nor a fax machine, for that matter. <a href="https://t.co/fQRbfLEBGR">pic.twitter.com/fQRbfLEBGR</a>
— Dataubergine™ Research (@midnucas) <a href="https://twitter.com/midnucas/status/1482456373983993857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">
Look at this tax form, <a href="https://twitter.com/fepblue?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@fepblue</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BCBSAssociation?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BCBSAssociation</a>. Not even a specialized, simplified form for at-home COVID test reimbursement? And no online option? I don't even know how you want me to fill out most of this form. What if I do it wrong? How is anyone supposed to get reimbursed? <a href="https://t.co/X7rE8GdPbF">pic.twitter.com/X7rE8GdPbF</a>
— Zach Binney (@binney_z) <a href="https://twitter.com/binney_z/status/1483168696654864392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2022</a></blockquote>
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People can also order free tests through a new government website, <a href="http://covidtests.gov/">covidtests.gov</a>. But they are limited to four tests per household, which may not be enough for the people who have been exposed or need to test regularly.
Asking a patient in the year 2022 to send a fax in order to have their medical services paid for may sound laughable. But it’s a microcosm of the burdens the US health system puts on Americans in order to receive necessary health care.
“Our health care system is mind-numbingly complex,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, “and that complexity takes its toll on patients in terms of time, access, and affordability.”
The United States health system, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/13/21055327/everybody-covered">more than any other in the developed world</a>, forces patients to manage their health care on their own. They pay a lot of their own money for medical care. They have to make sure their specific doctor is covered by their specific insurer. And even if their doctor believes they need a certain treatment, patients must follow rules set by their health insurer, or risk delays in treatment or ultimately having their insurance claims denied.
Patients run into these obstacles all the time — with serious consequences for their well-being. A recurring finding in health care research is that when patients run into any friction, whether high cost-sharing, limited access to providers, or something else, they tend to receive less timely and appropriate care. Over time, that will make people more likely to develop serious health conditions and, ultimately, die younger than they would with proper care.
It starts with the sheer cost of health care to US patients. Out-of-pocket spending per person is <a href="https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/indicator/access-affordability/out-of-pocket-spending/">higher in the US than in any other wealthy country save Switzerland</a>, and roughly twice as much as in countries like the UK, the Netherlands, and Japan. Recent research has <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22276166/us-health-insurance-out-of-pocket-costs-research">found</a> that even small cost obligations, as little as $10 for a prescription, can discourage patients from taking their medicine as prescribed. A third of Americans have <a href="https://www.gallup.com/analytics/357932/healthcare-in-america-2021.aspx">reported in public opinion surveys</a> that they skip medications or other necessary medical care because of the cost.
But the US health system puts up other, subtler hurdles. Insurers don’t cover care at every doctor’s practice or hospital; they instead contract with certain providers to create provider networks, within which their patients must seek care for their treatment to be covered. These networks put the onus on patients to figure out where they can go for care, at the risk of incurring huge medical bills if they get it wrong. That problem came to the forefront in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22193319/surprise-medical-bills-legislation-second-stimulus-package">recent debate</a> over <a href="https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/12/18/18134825/emergency-room-bills-health-care-costs-america">surprise billing</a>: Many people were going to the hospital for an emergency, only to find out after the fact that either the hospital or a doctor who treated them was not covered by their insurer.
That has been a common experience for American patients: <a href="https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/surprise-bills-vary-by-diagnosis-and-type-of-admission/">About one in four heart attacks</a> lead to the patient being charged for out-of-network care in the emergency department or if they are admitted.
Networks also make shopping for health insurance more difficult. Patients have to try to figure out in advance whether their existing primary care doctor or specialists, or the local hospital, will be covered by their new plan. Levitt told me he had recently been helping a friend shop for an insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act and ran into that problem.
“There have been multiple calls with the marketplace, the insurers, and doctors’ offices,” Levitt said. “It’s hard to get straight answers. I’m a health insurance expert and he’s got an MBA from Harvard.”
Patients can run into the same kind of problem with drug formularies, a list of approved drugs that health plans use to prioritize coverage for certain medications. If a drug is not on a plan’s formulary, customers must pay more of their money than they would for approved drugs. Sorting out which drugs are covered or preferred under a health plan’s formulary can be a headache, and research <a href="https://www.ahdbonline.com/issues/2011/november-december-2011-vol-4-no-7/890-feature-890">has shown</a> that such restrictions lead to patients using fewer medications.
And even when care is ostensibly covered, it can be hard to actually get it paid for. The complicated reimbursement for Covid-19 tests is one striking example. Another common barrier is prior authorizations — when an insurer won’t cover a test or a procedure unless the health care provider has requested and received permission ahead of time.
In both <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31507077/">academic research</a> and <a href="https://www.modernhealthcare.com/patient-care/doctors-say-prior-authorization-led-life-threatening-delays-care">provider surveys</a>, prior authorization requirements tend to lead to treatment delays, even though most requests do eventually get approved. Forcing patients and doctors to take this extra step doesn’t seem to weed out unnecessary care, but does lead to delays for care that is ultimately deemed necessary.
It’s a needlessly complicated process that provides little benefit but creates plenty of problems — in other words, like the test reimbursement process, it’s the US health system in a nutshell.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22893116/covid-19-free-tests-health-insurance-reimbursement">https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22893116/covid-19-free-tests-health-insurance-reimbursement</a>

vox The frustrating Covid-19 test reimbursement process is a microcosm of US health care

Do you have a printer? Do you have a fax machine? If not, you might have trouble getting your “free” at-home Covid-19 test paid for by you...

The parents of the youngest children are not okay

More kids younger than 5 are sick with Covid-19 in the US this month <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographicsovertime">than at any other time in the pandemic</a>. None of these millions of children can be vaccinated yet, and almost half of them are too young to wear a mask. This is bringing a new wave of disruptions and stress for many families — especially those that rely on day care, preschool, and other shared child care — who have already endured almost two years of strain.
<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-outbreak-and-kids">Various</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/25/997467734/childrens-risk-of-serious-illness-from-covid-19-is-as-low-as-it-is-for-the-flu">experts</a> have <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57766717">reassured</a> parents that children are not at high risk for severe disease, hospitalization, or death from Covid-19 (though certain underlying health conditions could raise the risk). <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2304688-why-omicron-isnt-more-severe-in-kids-despite-rise-in-hospitalisations/#ixzz7INKmp1mb">Recent data</a> from South Africa and the UK suggests that even among hospitalized babies and young children, the omicron variant seems to cause less severe illness much of the time, infecting the upper airways more than the lungs, the same as adults.
While this should give parents comfort, the <a href="https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/state-of-affairs-pediatrics-and-omicron?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email">sheer volume</a> of cases this month from the super-transmissible variant means pediatric hospitalizations are reaching new highs, including among young kids.
Children younger than 5 have already consistently had <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7036e2.htm#F1_down">the highest hospitalization rate of all children’s age groups for Covid-19</a>. And <a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/COVID-19-Special-Public-Health-Surveillance-Bulletin-January-2022.pdf">new data</a> out of South Africa reports higher proportions of kids under 5 being admitted to the hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 during the omicron wave than other ages, including older adults. <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-in-babies-and-children/art-20484405">Newborn babies</a> remain the most vulnerable, and without guaranteed paid parental leave in the US, many parents must send them to day care when they are just 6 weeks old.
Even when Covid-19 infections in young kids are only very rarely severe, they can create havoc at home. With frequent breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated and boosted, families must figure out how to protect themselves and others in the household — even more so if there are higher-risk members.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Our 3-year-old tested positive today and we assume the entire family is also positive. He attended daycare for two days. Good mask. Great hvac. Mostly outside. Dedicated, careful, fully vaccinated, heroic teachers. But omicron is just that contagious. He was exposed Tuesday.
— melody joy kramer (@mkramer) <a href="https://twitter.com/mkramer/status/1482512916326850562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2022</a></blockquote>
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In a two-parent household, should one be the designated caregiver to a sick toddler, while the other isolates themselves? Will other children now be home because of their exposure? Who will be able to take time off of work to watch the kids? And what happens if all of the adults in the household get too sick to care for a baby or child who cannot care for themselves? These questions carry more crushing weight in a single-parent household and in those where both parents must work outside the home and cannot afford to take time off.
Even if children who have been exposed to Covid-19 at day care or preschool test negative, in many places, they will still have to stay home for 10 to 14 days. This sudden loss of child care sends millions of families — and, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/17/upshot/women-workforce-employment-covid.html">overwhelmingly, mothers</a> — scrambling to figure out how to continue earning money (and pay for the child care they aren’t able to use); care for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers; and keep their families as safe as possible.
Johns Hopkins epidemiologist <a href="https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/3926/genevieve-wojcik">Genevieve Wojcik</a>, who has a 20-month-old son and a 4-year-old daughter in day care, is a veteran of these struggles. Like so many other pandemic-weary parents, Wojcik has had to take on child care alongside her paid work — typically at a moment’s notice, for days and sometimes weeks at a time. And she is exhausted.
I talked with Wojcik about how she thinks about risk right now for this unvaccinated age group, how studying children, viruses, and vaccines has shaped her risk tolerance, and the toll all of this is taking on her work and life. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
As an epidemiologist, how concerned are you about surging pediatric hospitalizations, while also knowing that the omicron variant tends to cause less severe infections?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
I understand that the absolute risk of my kid getting sick enough for hospitalization or death is very, very small. But I also know that the relative risk of my kid getting sick or seriously sick isn’t worth going out and eating inside a restaurant. So I get that the absolute risk is small, but I don’t want to risk the relative risk. I will say, full disclosure, I am definitely more on the risk-averse side.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How does your own research impact how you think about these risks to kids?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
I’ve always done research in kids and what can go wrong with kids — and there are a lot of things that can go wrong. I also have experience working with post-viral-infection syndromes, and I know what can happen to kids, even before Covid and long Covid.
When you give somebody a risk of 5 percent of developing cancer in the next five years, they’re not going to develop 5 percent of the cancer. They’re either going to develop it or not. There’s often that lack of translation between risk and the sort of binary outcome, where it’s like, yes, kids have only a very small percentage chance of being hospitalized or very, very sick. But they don’t just get a tiny bit bad; they get very bad.
I’d rather do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t happen than just give up. There is harm in this whole debate about: “everyone’s going to get it” or “it’s a small risk.” What you’re asking people to do, it’s not that hard. It’s not that difficult to put a mask on.
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<figcaption>Shanikia Johnson, a pre-K teacher, helps Magjor Jones clean up a puzzle at Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center in Baltimore, Maryland, in January 2021.</figcaption>
<cite>Matt Roth/The Washington Post via Getty Images</cite></figure>
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How do you think about the risk of illness right now for kids in day care, like yours?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
My kids started back at day care in August of 2020, and my oldest was 2 and a half and wore a mask. And then things started opening back up again, and now my younger one is sick constantly. There was <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html">RSV</a>; hand, foot, and mouth; a bunch of different colds; and we got a stomach bug as well.
So it’s not even just Covid; it’s everything else that’s circulating that they’re more susceptible to and could be more dangerous for them [if they get them] at the same time. You have these overlapping risks that you’re constantly trying to manage. It makes it a little bit more stressful because they get sicker when things overlap. Especially for our youngest, because he doesn’t wear a mask, he puts his hands in his mouth. It’s his first rodeo, and he’s going to get everything that comes through. It’s just relentless.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How do you think about different levels of risk for babies versus kids in this unvaccinated group?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
At the beginning of this, I had a 2-year-old, and then I gave birth in April 2020. It is very different in the way we navigate with the two kids because they have different levels of being able to wear a mask. Wearing a mask has cut down the number of illnesses my 4-year-old gets an insane amount.
It’s also clear to anybody who’s got young kids that the way they handle illnesses is very different at different ages. And the effects of those illnesses on the parents are very different in terms of stress and sleep deprivation. There’s a reason there’s a lot of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33342635/">hospitalizations for infants</a> — because <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-in-babies-and-children/art-20484405">it’s more dangerous for them</a>.
We’ve been locked down for the past two weeks now. My son had mild congestion around Christmas and then seemed a little better after a few days. Then all of a sudden he spiked a fever and developed pneumonia. It’s not Covid-related, but I can’t have him get Covid while he has pneumonia. He’s 20 months, so he can’t handle more.
The thing we think about now that’s different than the other waves is that people who are fully vaccinated and boosted are also getting pretty sick. Not seriously ill, but enough to get you down for the count for a few days. So if we’re both down for the count with Covid, who’s going to take care of the kids? I’m not worried about my own health, but I am worried about who’s going to feed these kids if I am bedridden. Because in the times of Covid, you’re really on your own.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How do you think about these risks in what you do — or don’t do — with your own family these days?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
I’m of two minds in the way I manage my family. One is obviously a risk to our own health. It’s not a risk to my husband’s health or my own health, but to my kids’ health. When they can get vaccinated I will feel a lot better, given the <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/09/01/vaccination-reduces-risk-long-covid-even-when-people-are-infected-study/">data we have on vaccines and long Covid</a> and severe outcomes.
You have a certain bucket of risk you can draw from, and so we use all of our bucket of risk for day care when we can. So we don’t do anything else. We don’t go to indoor areas with our kids, we don’t see people socially.
The other part of how I think about risk is for families who don’t have the flexibility to stay home, who might also live in multigenerational households or might have someone who is immunocompromised or medically vulnerable. So if I can swallow some of that burden in protecting our kids from getting sick, then I should do that because it’s for the community. Especially because we wouldn’t know if our kids are infected and transmitting things until it’s too late.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
Have you all been through the rounds of day care quarantine?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
Yes. I’ve been trying to get a Covid extension for a grant, and you need to quantify how much time you’ve lost because of child care. And I have not had a full month of child care in two years. It’s a few days [lost] on a good month.
Either the kids get sick and have to get tested, [or] we have to quarantine. And we’ve been through four rounds of quarantine for exposures and two rounds voluntarily because we decided to have family visit.
In the fall of 2020, we spent 24 days in the house because my son had an exposure in his classroom, and then, with our luck, he developed symptoms a few days later. It was horrible. As a probable case, he had 10 days of isolation, then the rest of us — because none of us were vaccinated at that point — we had 14 days after his 10 days.
Our day care policies for quarantine and testing are following the science, and that’s important. I think that’s why we’ve had such low cases [at our center]. But still, you have your schedule, and you have your Zoom meetings scheduled, and all of a sudden, it’s like, oh no, for the next two weeks you’ve got to entertain your kids who don’t know how to entertain themselves yet.
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<figcaption>Jenny Cross Senff, right, and her husband Toby, background, try to work on their computers while contending with kids Avery, 6, and Colby, 3, in quarantine at their Washington, DC, home in the early days of the pandemic.</figcaption>
<cite>Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images</cite></figure>
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How do you and your husband manage child care if day care isn’t available?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
Oh, it’s me. Academia gives me flexibility. My husband works as a school psychologist and doesn’t have time or bandwidth or enough sick days.
The kids have been home since Christmas. I don’t know what we’re going to do. Because on the one hand, I’m losing my mind. But on the other hand, there are still pretty high case numbers.
The other bad news is that I’ll bring them back, and maybe they’ll be there for a day or two, and then there will be another case at day care. And then we’re home for two weeks. Because even if it’s just one of the kids, it extends. Because if one kid gets sick, then the other one has to start their quarantine or isolation after that, so they’re staggered.
So do I just keep them home for another week and then send them back? That’s a little bit less of a risk. But I’m human, and I don’t know how much I can take. It’s like, do you want to suffer now, or just punt it down the road? Because it’s going to come.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How has all of this been impacting your work as a public health researcher?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
A lot of the more administrative work you can sort of struggle through. But the majority of the other work, in terms of scholarship, it’s really difficult because I need uninterrupted time to think, and I cannot have that. I’ll get to my work I want to do, and inevitably, because the universe is a funny, funny, funny person, they’ll be like, “Oh, now there’s another exposure,” or, “Your kid’s sick now and has to be home for a few days because they have a fever.” It’s just been really difficult.
You’re constantly in survival mode, and survival mode is not conducive to creative thinking and scientific progress. I do wonder if people who have kids under 5 have a very different kind of burnout than other folks. Because I’m exhausted, I’m absolutely exhausted. But I want to do the work. I deeply care about the work that I do. I just cannot do it. There’s a little bit of sadness around that. It’s something you uniquely value and care about, that you’re good at, you can’t do because your brain is just tired. Because kids, they just don’t stop making noises.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How do you see the challenges for this age group and their families exacerbating existing equity issues that the pandemic has laid bare?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
There are massive gaps in terms of who’s being affected by this. One example is in Maryland, there is Prince George County and Montgomery County, and Montgomery County is much wealthier and has half the positivity rates as Prince George County. And in terms of who is vaccinated, who has access to resources, and who can’t stay home is huge. And that exacerbates who’s having higher case rates, who’s being hospitalized.
Also there’s a massive difference in terms of, for zero- to 4-year-olds, their child care. It’s a question of who has their kids in day care versus who has a nanny, versus who has a stay-at-home mom — and the reasons why they have a stay-at-home mom. If you have a nanny for your kids, you’re really hoping that nanny doesn’t get Covid. But if your kids are in day care, you’re reliant on the community way more [to keep case numbers low].
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
How are you feeling about the vaccine progress and prospects for these final age groups?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
I have to be honest, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/17/health/pfizer-vaccine-children/index.html">the results</a> [of the clinical trial of a Pfizer vaccine for kids 6 months to 5 years] were absolutely gutting. And now the Moderna trials expanded and so they got pushed out another month or two.
You get through by saying, “Just a little bit longer.” And then after two years, that little bit longer just draws out. It’s also that everybody else 5 and above has access to vaccines at this point, and they’ve moved on. They’re not as worried about things. That’s the whole point. And I’m happy for them.
But I’m still stuck. And at the exact moment that you have this massive wave, somebody is pulling that life raft farther away from you.
But there’s no option to give up, right? There’s no option to say, “Well, screw it, I’m going to do whatever I want to do.” Because you’ve got these tiny children to take care of.
When I tell people we’ve had the kids home for weeks, and my son has pneumonia and I want to make sure his lungs are healthier before he is possibly exposed to Covid, they say, “You need to take a break.” And I’m like, “It doesn’t matter what I want. That’s not a possibility.”
I think most people who have kids under the age of 5 are not asking for everything to shut down. I just want you to be okay with the fact that I’m going to take longer to get things to you or that I’m not going to be able to work at that level, or to be patient with me — or be a little bit more empathetic.
<h4>Katherine Harmon Courage</h4>
Do you have any advice for families with kids under 5 for the omicron winter?
<h4>Genevieve Wojcik</h4>
No, I don’t. People ask me all the time, “How is this going to play out?” The models have ceased to be informative for my day-to-day life. I just don’t know, and as an academic, not knowing is horrible!
I don’t have any advice because I’m flailing as well. Some people give me the advice of “you need to hunker down and take care of yourself.” And I’m like, “I have nothing left of myself to take care of.” It’s been two years of this. Having two kids these ages during a pandemic is a lot.
So I don’t think there’s any hack or spin that will make the next few weeks bearable. It’s just going to have to pass at some point. It’s just a matter of doing everything within your power to keep your family safe — and trying to let go of the things that you have no power over.
You will do whatever’s right for your family and whatever you can do for your family. There should be no judgment one way or the other because we’re all just trying to get by in a world that’s not built to support us.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22892065/omicron-covid-kids-risk-daycare-hospitalizations">https://www.vox.com/22892065/omicron-covid-kids-risk-daycare-hospitalizations</a>

vox The parents of the youngest children are not okay

More kids younger than 5 are sick with Covid-19 in the US this month than at any other time in the pandemic . None of these millions of chil...

German Government Demands Big Tech Crack Down On Telegram, Other Free Speech Apps

Following threats to shut down the pro free speech encrypted messaging platform Telegram, the German government has stepped up its efforts by putting pressure on Apple and Google to take a more hands on approach to limiting the content people are sharing on the app.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser claimed that the app is contributing to an acceleration of “right-wing extremism” and “conspiracy theories,” in the country.
The minister tweeted “We remind #Apple and #Google of their social responsibility. As long as they offer apps like #Telegram in their stores, they are also a form of accelerator for #right-wing extremism and #conspiracy theories. No place for #hate and #calls for murder!”
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In another tweet, Faeser asserted “Everyone has the #right to peaceful assembly. We draw the line when it comes to #hate and #baiting. #Right-wing extremists are increasingly abusing the #Corona demos for their ideology against the #state. We will crack down there with consistent #law enforcement.”
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A further statement statement from Germany’s regional interior ministers specifically noted that those organising against the government’s COVID restrictions are using Telegram.
“The social network Telegram and comparable providers serve people in Germany as a networking [platform for Covid protest movements], corona deniers and right-wing radicals,” the statement read.
Last week, Faeser told the German media “We cannot rule this out,” when asked if the platform will be targeted for censorship.
“A shutdown would be grave and clearly a last resort. All other options must be exhausted first,” Faeser clarified.
The minister also told the newspaper that while it is currently unclear what legal action would be needed to shut down the platform, the German government is in consultation with the European Union regarding potential regulation of it.
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/germany-considers-shutting-down-telegram_4209098.html?slsuccess=1">The Epoch Times notes</a> that in Germany, which has implemented some of the <a href="https://summit.news/2021/12/20/video-german-health-minister-calls-for-immediate-forced-vaccination-of-entire-population/">most severe pandemic restrictions</a>, “Telegram has been used as a hub of communication for the protest movement against the measures established to fight the CCP virus, including lockdowns, intermittent mask mandates, and restrictions for the unvaccinated.”
Telegram has been shut down or blocked in other countries including Iran, China, Pakistan, India, Thailand, and Russia.
The platform saw a <a href="https://summit.news/2021/01/12/telegram-enjoys-user-surge-as-founder-decries-people-being-held-hostage-by-tech-monopolies/">huge surge in users last year</a> after Facebook owned Watts App introduced a controversial privacy update which led to concerns that the app would hand over user data to its parent company. It also came at the same time as President Trump’s purge from big tech social media platforms.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov warned that people are “being held hostage by tech monopolies.”
In addition to being independent from big tech, Telegram promises robust end-to-end encryption, ensuring messages remain private.
This has made Telegram a target for authoritarians and big tech monopolists.
In the U.S. lobbyist group The Coalition for a Safer Web even <a href="https://summit.news/2021/01/18/lobby-group-sues-apple-to-remove-telegram-from-app-store-for-allowing-hate-speech/">filed a lawsuit against Apple</a> in an effort to get Telegram removed from the app store, claiming that it allows ‘extremists’ to spread ‘hate speech’.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2022/01/20/german-government-demands-big-tech-crack-down-on-telegram-other-free-speech-apps/">https://summit.news/2022/01/20/german-government-demands-big-tech-crack-down-on-telegram-other-free-speech-apps/</a>

revolution summit German Government Demands Big Tech Crack Down On Telegram, Other Free Speech Apps

Following threats to shut down the pro free speech encrypted messaging platform Telegram, the German government has stepped up its efforts b...