Dear CDC - Should My Mom Go On Her Cruise?

My 91 year old Mother is scheduled to go on a 6 day cruise in the Caribbean with her friends and all their walkers. Clearly, Coronavirus has changed the nature of the small talk from best-buffet-items to “what type of mask should I take.”  

My mom at 90 is the new 75 – active, sharp as a tack, albeit walking on sorely uncooperative knees.

Predictably, as the departure date nears, my internet savvy, text fluent Mom has consumed and shared a barrage of CNN alerts, CDC updates and random blog posts,  sprinkled with a healthy dose of what Edna–at-the-pool’s son told her.

By last Friday Mom had me contacting my colleagues in public health (none working on infectious diseases, mind you) to find out what they thought about going on a cruise right now. No one had more than personal guidance and thought I should check out what CDC was advising. ( You may have noticed I've been combing the CDC since the outbreak was reported).  

Ever hopeful, I did. Let's take a look at what I found and importantly didn't find. 

1.  CDC link on Travel

2.  Next "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for Travelers"

is about China.  No help there. 

Resources for Ships - Now we're getting somewhere.!

But we find info about disinfecting ships and Zika.

3.  You are advised to monitor CDC Travel Health Notices

Hmmm.  Still nothing. 

So as of now I have no informed, useful  information about whether Mom should go on a cruise or not.  Just my own personal, long standing hyper-vigilence.  

Quarantine

The last few days the talk's been about "quarantine”.

Over seafood salads at their Florida condo deli, Eva is more than annoyed. “Why would they keep all those people on a ship with sick people.  I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life."  

1.  So I go to the CDC again to read about Quarantine  

This first link yields this brief definition: 

2.  Let's try the next obvious link:  History of Quarantine

Some fascinating stuff here - 

From the Middle Ages

"The practice of quarantine, as we know it, began during the 14th century in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics." … and the Italian origins of the word quaranta giorni (which means 40 days).

To Today:

The Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is part of CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and is headquartered in Atlanta. Quarantine stations are located in Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. (see contact lists and map).

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It's Tuesday 2-18-20.  Mom's cruise is 10 days away.  And this daughter, with her PhD and 40 years of experience working in communicating public health finds herself in this cone of uncertainty and lack of useful information from any trusted sources.

And the ladies who cruise:

 Well I did overhear this when my salad was finished:

“Annie, what’s the big deal.  The media is trying to scare you.  How awful could it be to get a few more days on the ship.  Esther said the Princess Diamond is gorgeous. “

As Mom’s best friend Molly said yesterday, “If that boat leaves, I’ll be on it.”

Mom hasn't started talking about packing yet. 

Legionnaires and Whales - Does Disney Know?

Surprise, surprise.

This is one of the photos that made it into the online NYC Channel 4 coverage of Legionnaires' Disease.

I have no more to say about this one!

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My blog has moved to 
Healthliteracylab.com

Transgender definitions guilty of 3 fallacies

This week I’ve been writing about how unnecessarily difficult the definitions about things “transgender” are.

The definition problems are guilty of 3 associated types of definition failures (fallacies). 

     1. Circular Definitions

    You assume your audience has a prior understanding of the terms you’re using in your definition. The words and concepts you're using are  difficult in themselves.

Example or Circular definition.

    “Cellular phone – a phone that is cellular”

So we have -

"What does transgender mean?  "Transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth."

2. Self referential Definitions - You use terms within your definition to define your word or concept  ( essentially a circular definition).  

So we have -

"Gender expression   "This is the way one externally expresses characteristics and behaviors that are socially defined as either masculine or feminine."

Or

Transgender

"Transgender – or trans – is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity or expression is different from those typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth (e.g., the sex listed on their birth certificate)."

   

 3. Infinitely regressing (even sounds bad!)

You use statements in your definition that depend on subsequent statements.  Statements or definitions #1 relies on #2, relies on  #3….you get the point.

So we have:

".....Transgender is an authentic experience and expression of self.   Your gender expression is informed by a number of things, including your gender orientation and sexual orientation, gender stereotypes in your consciousness or subconsciousness, and social circumstances. Some of these influences on our gender expression are hard-wired--e.g., sexual orientation, gender identity--and so the cues we send are involuntary, regardless of our genitalia...."

Given how few people really understand gender issues, and how poorly the media talks about them,  I think we could do better than definitional language that can't get out of its own way.

Has anyone come across better definitions for the public?

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