Normalcy COVIDiocy: Who is "Urgency of Normal" and Why Are They In So Much Hurry to Repeal Pandemic Protective Measures?

In the past two or three months, you may have seen a new hashtag online #urgencyofnormal. They are a vocal minority group of doctors and scientists calling for repeal of as many pandemic protective measures as soon as possible, preferably immediately. Their reasoning is the measures are doing more harm than the pandemic itself. They are going as far as claiming that existing measures are just "panic porn". One such spokesperson for this group is Dr. Lucy McBride. 

Dr. Lucy McBride, on CNN, "Doctor says 'panic porn' is hurting her patients"

Are they making any sense? Is the attempt to contain COVID, i.e. masks and vaccines and boosters (there's no lockdown now) doing more harm than good? 

What exactly is the "harm" of these protective measures? 

According to urgencyofnormal.com/our-statement, pandemic and/or its protective measures have caused "youth depression, suspected suicide attempts, drug overdose deaths, and obesity". In their "toolkit", they have also cited polls as evidence of these increases, and dropping grades in 2020 vs 2019. 

What I find interesting is they can only cite an increase in suicide attempts in girls... so boys are not affected?

UrgencyOfNormal Toolkit claims pandemic and/or protective measures have caused harm... to girls? 

Also, just how do you separate harm from the pandemic itself vs. the protective measures designed to combat the pandemic? 

You can't. 

Yet their solution is to stop all the protective measures for children! No masking! Vax or not just go back to school! Pretend there is no pandemic! 

Maintain in-person learning regardless of case counts and vaccination rates. 

So why are they against masking in schools? First they told us that masking is NOT proven to work (i.e. any benefits are not statistically significant). But does it really?

Does the Georgia study really say mask use was not statistically significant? Yes, but... 

They helpfully included a link to the study in the footnotes, and this is where the cracks started to show in their "logic". I will quote from the study's page 5

The 21% lower incidence in schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional. This finding might be attributed to higher effectiveness of masks among adults, who are at higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection but might also result from differences in mask-wearing behavior among students in schools with optional requirements. Mask use requirements were limited in this sample; 65.1% of schools required teacher and staff member mask use and approximately one half (51.5%) required student mask use. Because universal and correct use of masks can reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission (6) and is a relatively low-cost and easily implemented strategy, findings in this report suggest universal and correct mask use is an important COVID-19 prevention strategy in schools as part of a multicomponent approach

(bold and italics added by me)

The UrgencyOfNormal folks took one sentence they liked, and ignored the REAL finding of the study. What the study said was they have no data from the mask "optional" schools. They have no idea what percentage of people are actually wearing or NOT wearing the masks. So it cannot act as a proper control group against "mask required". 

But the UrgencyofNormal folks read it as if it said "masks did not do anything". 

I have not checked the rest of the other studies they cited, but it would not surprise me if they used similar leaps in logic and cherry-picking. 

And based on this, UrgencyOfNormal is calling for an end to ALL school masking. 

But there are a couple other problems with their suppositions... They are basing their numbers on Delta, and omicron, while supposedly milder, is FAR more contagious. 

UrgencyOfNormal claims are based on Delta numbers. Omicron turned out to be FAR FAR WORSE

Let's look at some REAL numbers... CDC mortality of 0-17 year olds as of now, which is over 2 years. Remember to divide by 25.7 (1.7 months into 2022) then times 12 for rough yearly numbers. 

One also wonders where did they get their flu numbers, which seems to be a bit... exaggerated. 

According to CDC, 2019-20 flu season had 188 pediatric flu death (0-17 yrs of age), which tied the record set during 2017-18. So why does their graph show death in the 500's? Can they be... massaging the numbers? Oh, but also look at the 2012-2013 bar... over 1200 deaths? Why does the CDC say only 170 pediatric deaths? Where did they even find these numbers? 

Flu does NOT kill at the rate of two dozen PER WEEK non-stop. 

Another 23 children died from Covid last week according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Parents need to understand that Covid can be quite serious and children can be safely protected through vaccination. #VaccinesSaveLives pic.twitter.com/cwBXiSC8vL

— EMK (@eveamk) February 22, 2022

Oh, and they also claimed that children don't get long COVID. You did read that on the slide, right? The latest results say something very different... AT LEAST 10% of all kids infected with COVID get long COVID. The number can be as high as 20%. And these numbers are based on PRE-OMICRON numbers. The current numbers could be worse, FAR WORSE, and we won't see the results for at least a MONTH after the infection. 

By now, it's clear that UrgencyOfNormal is not based on data as they claimed, but potentially deliberate misinterpretation and/or outright fabrication of data. 

The harm they claimed is based on polls, not science. The comparisons they made are unscientific and based on inflated and possibly fabricated numbers, and out-of-date numbers. And their anti-mask justification is based on deliberate cherry-picking of study results. They also claim the danger is minimal, by minimizing numbers, using outdated numbers, or outright FABRICATING pediatric flu deaths in prior years. 

But let us be absolutely clear:

What UrgencyOfNormal proposed is to get our children back into school without ANY protection, and roll the odds, ASSUMING the vast majority of them will survive, instead of doing EVERYTHING we can to make sure they do.

That is not epidemiology. 

That's playing roulette with someone else's children. 

That's COVIDiot thinking.