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Coronavirus

No More NASAWatch Tweets About NASA and COVID-19

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 10, 2021
Filed under
No More NASAWatch Tweets About NASA and COVID-19

Keith’s note:
Last night I tweeted a link to this update about mask issues at JSC and Michoud. Shortly thereafter Twitter started to “shadow ban” @NASAWatch i.e. limit the account’s visibility. The only way to get out of this situation is to not tweet from @NASAWatch for a few days – perhaps a week. As such, to prevent this from happening again, I will no longer be able to tweet anything about the pandemic or NASA’s response to it. It is good that Twitter seeks to get rid of fake news and inaccurate information about the pandemic but they have gone overboard in this situation by silencing actual news about an effort by JSC to keep their people safe.
9 March Reader update: “Today during a JSC ‘townhall’ the center management said to disregard the Governor’s direction and wear masks, maintain reduced workplace capacity at about 30%, and maintain physical distancing. Also, they said to try and get vaccines from other local sources and not from the center as center capabilities are limited. And they said all of this while wearing masks.”

Gov. Greg Abbott says it is now time to open Texas 100%, end statewide mask mandate, Dallas Morning News
“Texans will no longer be required to wear a face mask in public and all businesses can open at full capacity starting next week, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday. The Republican made the sweeping move — on Texas Independence Day — even as public health officials say restrictions are still critical to control the pandemic, which has killed more than 42,500 Texans.”
Mississippi governor rolls back COVID-19 restrictions, WJTV
“Today, I signed what I expect will be one of my last executive orders regarding COVID-19. Our hospitalizations have plummeted, and our case numbers have fallen dramatically as well. In fact, our case numbers have fallen to the point where no county meets the original criteria for a mask mandate,” said Reeves”
Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing, White House
“Accordingly, to protect the Federal workforce and individuals interacting with the Federal workforce, and to ensure the continuity of Government services and activities, on-duty or on-site Federal employees, on-site Federal contractors, and other individuals in Federal buildings and on Federal lands should all wear masks, maintain physical distance, and adhere to other public health measures, as provided in CDC guidelines.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

12 responses to “No More NASAWatch Tweets About NASA and COVID-19”

  1. Nick K says:
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    Last I looked, governor is not in JSCs chain of command.

    • kcowing says:
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      So when they go offsite for lunch they can ignore NASA rules – thus making them somewhat pointless.

      • Jeff2Space says:
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        Yeah, well it’s Texas. Ignoring the federal government, when they want to, is par for the course. Often times, they don’t seem to mind killing off some of their own citizens when they do it.

        • james w barnard says:
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          Well, as the late George “Gabby” Hayes used to say, “There’s th’ Yoo-nited States and Texas!”

        • Winner says:
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          …and that electrical grid! So great that they don’t have to deal with Federal regulation!

      • Johnhouboltsmyspiritanimal says:
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        You have a point about lunch breaks but jsc can’t control what folks did on the weekend this whole time. They can only hope their employees are smart enough to protect themselves
        and ensure the criticall mission control/astronaut training tasks are not compromised. One would hope the higher ideals of human spaceflight far outweighs any issues of doing more than their fellow Texans

  2. Bad Horse says:
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    Federal guidence leads on goverment property. Off goverment property, the state is in control. Keep your mask on JSC.

  3. Nick K says:
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    Only a couple hundred people are working on site at JSC. Most are working from home. Relatively few have been inoculated in the area so far and probably the percent wont be substantially higher for 2-3 months. In TX, I have not seen that masking is a political issue like it is in some places up north. Here if you are in a closed area, like a store, most people are wearing masks. In restaurants people are spaced apart and they remove masks once they are seated. If you are outdoors, most people do not wear masks.

  4. Nick K says:
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    Today during a JSC ‘townhall’ the center management said to disregard the Governor’s direction and wear masks, maintain reduced workplace capacity at about 30%, and maintain physical distancing. Also, they said to try and get vaccines from other local sources and not from the center as center capabilities are limited. And they said all of this while wearing masks.

  5. Terry Stetler says:
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    Reminds me of The Orville “Majority Rule,” which shows the dark side social credit/cancel culture. Twitter and the other social media outlets have embraced this anti-democratic theology far to tightly in their rush to embrace China-style political correctness.

  6. fcrary says:
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    Could someone remind me how Twitter handles things like this? I understand most social media companies rely on software (usually AI-based) to identify fake news and inaccurate information. They have too much traffic to permit people to go over every tweet (or whatever) by hand. And that software is infamous for getting things wrong, both false positives and false negatives. Did the NASA Watch account get flagged by a balky computer program? Did a human being actually review that decision before this “shadow ban” was put in place?

    I’m not sure about the tweets, since I don’t use Twitter, but the information Keith put on the NASA Watch web site did not seem inappropriate in any way. But I can see how some bad AI software could have mistaken it. The content did present conflicting statements about using masks during the pandemic. Which was, after all, the whole point; the story was about the conflicting policies announced by the governor of Texas and NASA. Maybe this is a case of Twitter relying on AI, when that software might be better termed artificial stupidity.

  7. Daniel Woodard says:
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    Not just masks, but effective masks that 1) seal around the edges and 2) filter what goes through them. Hard-shell respirators with P-100 filters, blocking 100% of respirable particles, and N-95 respirators, blocking 95%, are the most effective. KN-95 and KF-94 masks are almost as effective and more comfortable for many people. Surgical masks filter effectively but do not seal as well, still they reduce the risk of infection by at least 50%. “Fabric face coverings” and “neck gators”, unless they include a blown-fiber filter element, meet no defined standard and have not been demonstrated to provide a significant protective effect. During the early phase of the pandemic the CDC suggested that N-95 and similar masks should be reserved for health care workers. These masks are widely available now but the CDC is slow to change and is still recommending ineffective “fabric face coverings”.

    The virus cannot pass though skin. It enters the body almost entirely through the nose and mouth. I am still looking for a shot, but I have dodged the bullet so far by insuring that if there is anyone within 6 feet I am wearing a mask. It’s not rocket science.