Category: Body

June 9, 2020 – Walking Backwards

The W.H.O. walked back an earlier assertion that asymptomatic transmission is “very rare.” Turns out that people who have COVID-19 but are asymptomatic can spread the virus after all. So all those people who felt just fine and didn’t bother with masks or physical distancing might have been making other people sick all this time. Great. And the medical establishment wonders why people don’t listen to them and fall prey to conspiracy theories.

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June 8, 2020 – Has the Shutdown Been Worth It?

Has the Shutdown Been Worth It? It’s not a yes-or-no question. At what point did we stop being able to engage in complex thinking? It seems that every conversation about the pandemic (and health, and politics ,and economics, and, and, and) gets boiled down to an either-or choice. You either agree that COVID-19 is a serious health threat, or you don’t. You either see the need for the government to limit people’s movements to slow the spread of COVID-19, or you don’t. You either agree that paying the economic price of shutting down the economy is necessary, or you don’t. But when people are asked to think about all these things at the same time and how they’re interrelated, that when people’s brains seem to go tilt and we get stuck.

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"Batch #6: Lavish Stupidity" by Daquella manera is licensed under CC0 1.0

June 3, 2020 – Wasting Time on Hydroxy

Well, no s##t Sherlock. We already knew this. What a waste of time and resources. Because Trump was touting hydroxychloroquine as possibly effective against COVID-19, going so far as to claim he had taken it himself, precious time, energy, and resources were wasted on a randomized clinical trial to prove what was already known. The clinical trial, conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School, confirmed that taking hydroxychloroquine was no more effective than taking a vitamin pill when it comes to protecting people from COVID-19. Worst yet, this study went on after another study showed that hydroxychloroquine caused serious side effects, including death. In the meantime, people continue to get sick and die. I absolutely hate that the response to this pandemic has gotten so politicized.

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