"What a fool believes, he sees.
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be.
Oh, I believe."
The Doobie Brothers, 1978
Damar Hamlin, the NFL player who had a heart attack after being hit mid-chest, did a direct-to-camera video.
He did it to show he isn't dead.
Post-Musk adjustments to the Twitter algorithm have given me new and unexpected exposure to the anti-vaccination world-view. I am getting multiple posts from people I had not previously seen. They assert that Dr. Anthony Fauci conspired to create a weaponized virus to kill Americans, that COVID vaccines have killed millions of people and will kill millions more, and that athletes are dropping dead from the vaccines. Therefore, "the system" arranged to hide Hamlin's death. Conspirators include every malefactor of the political left. The changes to Twitter are subject for another post, but for now I am grateful for the insight into what some people are reading. It helps explain why so many people let lapse their COVID vaccination boosts.
A conspiracy involving body doubles seemed crazy to me. The Hamlin-is-dead claim requires that he never be exposed as alive. But doubt does not require credible theories or evidence, just hearing confident assertions by enough people. This Twitter post arrived yesterday. Its reach was boosted by Naomi Wolf, a Ph.D. in English Literature. She became famous as a clothing advisor to Al Gore in the 2000 election--telling him to be more "alpha"-- but she re-emerged in national consciousness as a spreader of conspiracy themes on social media.
The battle to stop the spread of COVID has been lost. COVID is endemic. Colorado's Jared Polis probably had the right political instincts for a Democratic governor. He decided to give up trying to protect Coloradans from one another--the original justification for lockdowns, social distancing, masks, and vaccinations. Instead, protect yourself. Get vaccinated--but if you don't, it is on you. The vaccines now largely protect the vaccinated from a severe case of COVID, not from spreading the disease. The justification of COVID protocols shifted about the same time the tipping point of Americans lost their patience with the protocols. Besides, why bother? They were hearing word that vaccinations were dangerous and masks were worthless.
Nations can do hard things, but it takes leadership. Ukraine's Zelenskyy has shown that public support for a courageous path can be mustered if a leader establishes a clear national purpose and demonstrates he is all in. President Trump took the position of minimizing the disease. He helped fast-track creation of vaccines, but since his bigger message was to "go on with your lives," a split emerged in the national message. Public health authorities talked about a health crisis, while the Trump message was that the COVID crisis was fake. Trump's strongest supporters turned against vaccinations. They've "heard things."
The best data (plural, remember) on vaccines come from a source considered non-credible in many circles, the CDC. I consider them more credible than Joe Rogan or Marjorie Taylor Green. The CDC says vaccines have a vanishingly small health risk and they reduce the severity of COVID if one gets the disease. Here is some difficult, dense reading by the CDC.
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18 comments:
Another example of hustlers taking advantage of those who only having a passing acquaintance with reality.
The lines at emergency rooms were real, the refrigerated semis were real, the long term effects of infection are real and the benefits of vaccines are real. The problem is that COVID in not 100% fatal and that gap gives the opportunists the opening they need to push their snake oil, conspiracy theories, and Libertarian nonsense.
We're far enough along now that I know personally anti-vaxxers who survived infection and have persistent breathing problems and other issues. Even so they persist in their beliefs.
I don't completely understand it, but I'm sure of one thing. Republican hypocritical pandering to the anti-vaccine, conspiracy mongering constituency in the guise of "free choice", is responsible for the deaths and disabilities of many, many people.
Those who fight pandemics are the enemy, not COVID-19. But fear not – House Republicans are determined to expose their diabolical plot.
If it’s on Twitter it must be true. Vaccines are part of the Deep State’s “woke ideology,” even more dangerous than M&Ms. They inject you with microchips, make you magnetic, get into your brain and affect your mind. For example, it’s no coincidence that the vast majority of those who were vaccinated actually believe Biden won the election.
Remember, facts are a hoax. Spread conservatism; help stamp out reality.
I would like to preface this by saying that I am fully vaccinated and plan to stay that way. But not every dissent from the mainstream media narrative is a “conspiracy theory”. Here’s some information from a source that cannot be characterized as right wing propaganda.
Fauci’s hands are not exactly clean when it comes to “gain of function research“ that may have led to an unintentional leak of the Covid virus from the Wuhan laboratory.
Fauci’s Truths and Half-Truths About Gain-of-Function Research
Those trying to demonize Dr. Fauci have little or no understanding of infectious diseases and the research required to combat them. The most rabid, Rand Paul, is an ophthalmologist. Anyone interested in a more objective, in-depth but understandable analysis of what we actually know about the origins of COVID-19 should check out:
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/05/the-wuhan-lab-and-the-gain-of-function-disagreement/
From Snopes:
“Did Fauci Fund ‘Gain of Function’ Research, Thereby Causing COVID-19 Pandemic?
UNPROVEN
This rating applies to a claim for which we have examined the available evidence but could not arrive at a true or false determination, meaning the evidence is inconclusive or self-contradictory.
During a May 10, 2021, airing of his Fox News show, host Tucker Carlson claimed that National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Anthony Fauci helped provide funding for "gain of function" research at a facility in Wuhan, China, that (supposedly) led to the COVID-19 pandemic.” MORE
We all know that Tucker Carlson would never attempt to mislead We the Sheople…How reliable is Mr. Trigoboff's reference?
Honestly, anything that spews out of Tucker's pie hole automatically makes me break out in near terminal skepticism.
The commenters are correct that we do not know one way or the other whether the Covid virus escaped from the lab or transferred from some animal. We also do not know one way or the other whether the research that Fauci funded was gain of function research or not.
What we do know is that early assertions of certainty pushed by the mainstream media that the lab leak hypothesis was false were way out of line with what was actually known. Similarly for the research funded by Fauci. I suspect that a lot of this false certainty was based on the idea that, “If Trump or Fox News say it, it must be false.“ That’s every bit as a dumb as believing thar everything Trump or Fox News say is true.
“Don’t know” is always an appropriate stance when you don’t know.
Always consider the source. Dr. Fauci devoted his life to serving the public. The legislators railing against him tried to overthrow the government. Gee...who to believe?
Fauci's only offense was contradicting Trump's misinformation with the medical field's latest understanding of the facts. For that, Trumplicans can never forgive him.
"Terminal skepticissm"? I break out in a rash as bad any poison oak I ever encountered.
Mike, I’d never demonize Dr. Fauci; I think he’s a very conscientious person, and smart as a whip. However, the fact-check article you cited certainly doesn’t ease my mind about this serious charge by Rand Paul. Lots of valid arguments presented by a plethora of seemingly qualified scientists, but here’s the clincher, I think: “ The researchers, who analyzed genomic data, said SARS-CoV-2 “is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” While they said an accidental laboratory release of the naturally occurring virus can’t be ruled out,…”
This quote grabbed my attention: “Perlman [Stanley] told us that he thought Fauci’s response in the May 11 exchange was correct — that no money was given for gain-of-function research. But, he added, there’s a scientific discussion to be had on the benefits and risks of research making recombinant viruses, which involves rearranging or combining genetic material.”
My interest stems from roughly 1973, when a group of us hydrologists at USFS WRD learned of a proposal by Stanford University to experiment with COMBINING GENETIC MATERIAL. We penned a joint paper, asking Stanford not to do these experiments, primarily because they were planning to splice the bacteria E. coli with other organisms. We pointed out that, at that time, E. coli was being used by us hydrologists as an “indicator species”, whose presence simply indicated that a well, creek, or river had been contaminated with surface water. Our concerns were these: If Stanford’s experiments resulted in a pathogenic version of E. coli this would be particularly frightening, since E. coli are the bacteria which help digestion take place in the intestines of all warm-blooded animals, including hunans
Guess what? Stanford made the claim that, “Since our research will occur in triple-sealed laboratories, it will be impossible for our genetically altered organisms to escape into the environment.
Fast forward about 5-6 years. E. coli, now designated E. coli E. coli O157:H7, has now been found in various food products, leading to severe cases of enteritis. Hmm. Could there possibly be a connection?
A footnote: a few years later, my niece, a middle school student in the Five Rivers Calif. area, showed me an experiment she was doing at school. She was actually doing recombinant gene splicing, and no, they had no “triple sealed labs” in fact, their lab wasn’t sealed atall. AND the bacteria they were playing with were E.coli!
I would bet dollars to doughnuts that Stanford University would deny any culpability in forming a new organism, namely E.coli bacteria spliced with an organism causing Chagas disease, if memory serves after all these years.
Other than a right wing talking point does this even matter?
I chose to believe that our government health officials are honest. If not, you have to admire how well they conceal their conspiracy, and frankly that kind of competence gives me a lot of comfort.
Fauci made out like a bandit devoting his life to serving the public.
Not exactly Mother Theresa…
Many people have noted that Dr. Fauci is well paid. He is a physician. He has been working full time up into his 80s--age 82. OF COURSE he is well paid. A physician was the highest paid county employee when I was a county commissioner. Governments cannot hire and retain a physician and not pay that person well. A physician who keeps working for fifty years will accumulate wealth. His recent salary was less than the income earned by most physicians in my observation in Medford as a Financial Advisor. I expect physicians in high cost places like DC make more. Specialists especially.
He has a working spouse--a nurse with a PhD and a significant job. Two career families who stay together--they were married in 1985--tend to accumulate wealth. That isn't banditry. That is normal professional-class and a bull market.
Fauci worked for the government, and, after 50 years would, of course, be at the top of the seniority/income chart.
The article referenced said he doubled his net worth during the pandemic. My personal net worth doubled during the pandemic, and I am primarily a buy-and-hold investor. There is no surprise to that. It has been a bull market for most of it. A physician with a long, long, long career would normally have a net worth of six million dollars by age 82. If he saved 10% of his own and his wife's income for the past fifty years I would have expected more than that. Any investor with a broad-based equity portfolio might might have doubled his net worth between 2019 ad 2021. Wouldn't he have lost money in 2022? Maybe. I didn't. I am up in 2022. I owned some oil stocks. Maybe Fauci did, too. He presents as someone interested in medicine, not financial speculation, so he probably did not get creamed by bitcoin. If he bought and held $10,000 worth of Apple computer going back to the 1990s, that investment alone would be worth over six million dollars.
I will do a blog post on this issue soon. Fauci did something most of my physician-clients did NOT do. Many retired rich at age 60 or 62. Fauci worked to age 82. So of course he accumulated wealth. It isn't banditry.
I didn’t literally mean that Fauci was a bandit. It was a figure of speech designed to express that his career was not exactly an example of the kind of saintly self sacrifice that is implied by the phrase “devoted his life to serving.”
Michael, n what way was Fauci's life not ”devoted to his life of serving”? You’re being a bit judgemental, since you probably know very little about his earnings and his charitable life. Maybe instead of being a “reformed liberal” you should shift your thinking a Skosh back towards liberalism?
This is it in a nutshell:
Although it's unlikely, there is a possibility the coronavirus was the result of a lab leak. It warrants further investigation, but the lab is in China.
Whether from bats or a lab, Dr. Fauci had nothing to do with creating it - Fox Noise claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
It is true that Dr. Fauci worked for money. Shame on him!
Malcolm,
You could be right…
As a psychologist working in prisons I sometimes had inmates accuse me of only working for the money. I loved it when that would come up in groups sometimes. My response was “of course I am here working for the money! You think I would be here talking with you guys, if they didn’t pay me?”
It is acceptable to treat data as singular. Previously I worked in an office where we wrote a lot of reports and this issue came up. I also have researched it on the internet. (I also had three years of Latin.)
I personally think data sounds better as singular. I think of data as a set or collection.
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