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Hi Beatrice,

I appreciate your deep thought and analysis in the matter of our safety. I pose this question with all sincerity and consideration:

In response to your statement, "There's nothing that we can do or say, to make the pandemic be over if we're going to just pretend the cases aren't happening," it seems as if you have a strategy in mind for ending the pandemic. Would you be able to elaborate on what actions could be taken that would actually eliminate covid from the entire world--if you are indeed implying such a thing is possible? Or if you don't believe that covid can be eliminated, could you please clarify what you meant by "making the pandemic be over"?

Thank you for your time and attention.

Zoe

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I do believe covid can be eliminated and cover this topic at length twice a week on the podcast I co-host called Death Panel. I also recently appeared on the Axios' daily news program "Today" to call for a return to the previous CDC "Community Transmission Level" system as a first step towards a competent pandemic response which would reverse this decision to stop recommending masking when there are still high levels of community spread.

Here is that part of my conversation with Axios:

"NIALA: What kind of public health guidance would you like to see happen right now?

BEATRICE: I think at a bare minimum, I would like to see us immediately return to the prior system of setting the risk level for each county in the United States. The CDC updated the way that it was calculating the risk level of each county, and it's no longer tied just to case levels. And the new recommendations allow for many more cases to be occurring in the community before the CDC starts to recommend masking. And I think the way that we need to prepare for future variants is to immediately go back to this old-level system, or at least change the guidelines, so that we start recommending masking at much lower case levels."

Full interview is here: https://www.axios.com/axios-today-podcast-covid-mandates-immunocompromised-disabled-people-04e01c3c-16cf-4d4b-b39d-b0e41faa24f0.html

We also get into this at great length in many episodes of Death Panel, though this one in the following link is addressing these CDC changes directly and was recorded after this brief so has a little more detail and discussion: https://soundcloud.com/deathpanel/lying-like-a-state-030222?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

[edit: Here is a second episode of Death Panel that may also be helpful: https://soundcloud.com/deathpanel/how-it-doesnt-end-031722?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing]

I hope this answers your question!

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