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NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

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Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#31
post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

I think it’s possible to be sufficiently transparent while simultaneously keeping someone’s personal health status private.

As a hypothetical example, it’s possible to disclose if this health issue was known before they were selected for the mission, and if it was, what processes were in place to determine if they should or should not go, etc, all without revealing personal health information.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#32
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. We deserve as much transparency as we can get on the science we as taxpayers paid for, not full de-anonymization of the bodily happenings of living crew. There's certainly valuable science here, but the crew member doesn't have to be outed for it. > You…

The full on dystopian take would be to require anyone receiving welfare or other public funds to fully disclose all of their private details. You want Medicaid? Tell everyone about your hemorrhoids first.

Does that include those working for a company that gets tax breaks?

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#33
post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

When I say I want full transparency, I usually am talking about how much pay they received and in the case of elected representatives, their net worth at least once a year.

I wouldn't ask for a full health report to be made public by law. Maybe a summary for elected officials.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#34
post #15
post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

The only medical condition I can think of which they would not disclose is pregnancy. That would lead to further questions and is controversial despite being very simple. Further evidenced by the fact that the affected crew member is unknown to the public.

> Further evidenced by the fact that the affected crew member is unknown to the public.

Nope. On a previous mission one of the crew members had to sped a night in hospital after touchdown. They never said who, or what for. This is standard procedure, and for good reason.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#35
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The full on dystopian take would be to require anyone receiving welfare or other public funds to fully disclose all of their private details. You want Medicaid? Tell everyone about your hemorrhoids first.

Might actually be a net benefit and lead to de-stigmatizing human health conditions

Exposing STDs and mental conditions is part of what HIPAA’s for. Putting everyone in glass houses just creates a massive panopticon.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#36
post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

Perhaps you should chill and wait until they land before you start with your ridiculous paranoid thinking and entitlement?

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a strange take. Does this also apply to every soldier in the armed forces? Seems your criteria is equally applicable there. The relevant people that can do the research and write future policies based on the data obviously will have the information. Not sure what good you think that you personally having it can do.

A single soldier having a medical issue generally doesn't cancel a multi-month mission costing some X large sum of money, requiring another Y large sum of money to even finish cancelling it (returning their unit home). Therefore it's not relevant and not needed for the public to know.

It could for anything remotely “special ops” - those are small specialized teams.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#38

Related question. Have transmittable diseases spread in space? What examples do we know of?

There have been a few instances, IIRC there was an Apollo mission that had a head cold spread among the whole crew.

But that's unlikely to be the case here because they've been up there isolated for over 6 months now

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#39
post #33
post #5

Why be so secretive? This is not a military mission. These missions cost a lot of taxpayer money (money well spend you may argue), but we deserve full transparency. You don't get to go to space on other people's money and expect privacy. We might want to learn from what went wrong here.

When I say I want full transparency, I usually am talking about how much pay they received and in the case of elected representatives, their net worth at least once a year. I wouldn't ask for a full health report to be made public by law. Maybe a summary for elected officials.

Why do you need to know how much they are paid and their net worth? What difference does it make to you? Public official pay is already available online. A quick google search will tell you how much congress people get paid, and the DoD pay scale is available online as well.

Re: NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

#40
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might actually be a net benefit and lead to de-stigmatizing human health conditions

You go first, then. Let’s see your full medical records without redaction if you think it’s a net benefit. I think there's value in reducing stigma around health conditions, but forcing poor people to reveal their medical conditions to the world isn't it.

This is not honestly engaging with GP's statement.

The benefit only accrues if the sharing is universal.

I am too private a person to agree with GP, but it does seem that most health issues that are visible to the passerby or casual acquaintence are less stigmatized than the ones that can be hidden. There might be something to the idea.

Of course you'd have to agree that de-stigmatizing is more socially important than privacy. I guess I'm privileged enough to have no stigmas, secret or otherwise, that I consider more important than my privacy. But I know others are less fortunate.

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