The Coronavirus Thread

[NineBerry]

'Lab Leak Hypothesis' update from those kooky biologists.

12 minutes, for the short attention-span folk among us.

I'm sorry. I can't watch videos.

[Cunt]

I know, I usually can't too.

This one isn't important though. You either already know it all, or wouldn't want to.

[JimC]

An interesting opinion piece from the Age about the possible reasons behind vaccine hesitancy:

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/fede ... 57u0d.html

There are unique reasons why people have reservations, and they have to do with the socio-cultural moment in which we find ourselves, battered by two powerful forces.

The first is that we live in an individualistic age, when everything we consume can be tailored to our personal choices – from our entertainment to our news feeds, to what we eat and what we hear.

We no longer have to listen to the less favoured tracks on our favourite album – we can edit them out of our playlists.

We don’t have to sit through ads, and our children will never know the anticipatory pleasure in waiting for their favourite show to air, at a time chosen by the television network, once a week. They will grow up unfamiliar with most forms of delayed gratification.

We can enter our personal choices into the computers we carry in our pockets, and curate the world for ourselves, just as we like it.

This has bred an illusion of computer-aided control that was shaken when a virus ripped its way through the wet markets of Wuhan and thence to the world.

Social media means we can all have our own “take” on any given issue. The vaccine has become just another issue to fashion a personal position around.

The second force is this: at the same time as we experienced a historic level of personal choice and (illusionary) control, we were educated on risk like no previous generation.

Since the pandemic started, we have had epidemiologists, biologists, zoologists and doctors coming at us, 24/7, through all the screens we surround ourselves with. They’ve told us about aerosols and replication rates, high viral loads and vaccine-resistant variants.

Playgrounds were closed, sitting side-by-side was banned, jogging was deemed risky and singing could be deadly.

A supermarket shopping trip could end you. Attending the cricket in Sydney over summer became an ethical dilemma – commentators opined the moral case for and against.

I don’t say that educating the public in risk was undue, or that the risks were overblown (although I’m pretty sure no one caught the virus from playground equipment). Only that the conflation of these two things – our individualism and our newly acquired risk aversion – means we now have the ultimate privilege of choosing the risks we want to take. Not only that, but believing (erroneously) we can control them.

[Hermit]

First and foremost, vaccine hesitancy is caused by safety concerns. They mushroomed when the Lancet published Doctor Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent study of the MMR vaccine in relation to autism. Right now concerns about blood clots caused by the Astra-Seneca serum gave it another impetus. The second-largest factor slowing vaccination programs down comes via conspiracy theorists.

Neither are reasonable grounds to object to vaccines, but that's another issue. In her opinion piece Jacqueline Maley does not establish how (the age of) instant gratification and personal choice contribute to vaccine hesitancy. If I were the paper's editor I would not bother publishing her badly thought through, idle musing.

[JimC]

It is clear that your capacity for seeing nuance is somewhat limited...

Hesitancy in the current context is not necessarily all about rational concerns with safety, but is affected by a complex mixture of social pressures and influences. I think her suggestions are quite valid...

[Hermit]

It is clear that your capacity for seeing nuance is somewhat limited...

Hesitancy in the current context is not necessarily all about rational concerns with safety, but is affected by a complex mixture of social pressures and influences. I think her suggestions are quite valid...

Maybe you would benefit from doing a remedial reading comprehension course. You'll recognise the nuances in my post if you did.

I did not deny that instant gratification and personal choice contribute to vaccine hesitancy. I argued (1) that most of it is due to safety concerns (which I incidentally did not describe as reasonable, though a portion of them may be), followed by conspiracy theorists, and (2) that Jacqueline Maley does not establish how (the age of) instant gratification and personal choice contribute to vaccine hesitancy.

[Seabass]

Black people in US have a somewhat valid excuse for being wary of vaccines: the infamous Tuskegee experiment. The Trumpists of course have no excuse, but they're the most anti-vax idiots out there.

[Tero]

They are hitting the bars.
https://www.1011now.com/2021/05/22/peop ... on-friday/
restaurants fully open.

[Cunt]

Ralph Beric, one of the authors of the letter noted in the Dark Horse Podcast, is one of the reasons you guys shouldn't watch.

He might upset your complicity theories.

[Hermit]

Ralph Beric, one of the authors of the letter noted in the Dark Horse Podcast, is one of the reasons you guys shouldn't watch.

He might upset your complicity theories.

No connection with Russian complicity. Leave out your usual snark, thanks.

I agree that

greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve. We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest.

So does just about everyone else, including the Biden administration

On 13 February 2021, the White House said it has "deep concerns" about both the way the WHO's findings were communicated and the process used to reach them. Mirroring concerns raised by the Trump Administration, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated it is essential that the report be independent and "free from alteration by the Chinese Government". On 14 April 2021, the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and other officials of the Biden Administration, said that they had not ruled out the possibility of a laboratory accident as the origin of the Covid-19 virus.

[Brian Peacock]

I have deep concerns about the fact that nobody is looking into whether this was a space borne pathogen!

[Sean Hayden]

"deep concerns" --

[Seabass]

These people are fucking deranged.


Marjorie Taylor Greene Compares Nancy Pelosi's House Mask Mandate to the Holocaust

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "mentally ill" and described any plans to separate unvaccinated and maskless House members from their vaccinated colleagues as akin to Holocaust-era tactics.

On Thursday, the congresswoman posted an Instagram video of herself shredding a letter from William J. Walker, the House's sergeant-at-arms, informing her that further violations of the House's mask mandate would result in a $500 fine, then a $2,500 fine for subsequent infractions. In the video's caption, Greene accused Pelosi of "putting our Constitution through a paper shredder."

On the same day, the Georgia Republican appeared on Real America's Voice show The Water Cooler." During her interview, host David Brody said Pelosi had spoken of "segregating" unvaccinated House members. The show then aired a clip of the Speaker criticizing unvaccinated lawmakers for "endangerment to other people."

"What is this, the honor system?" Pelosi told reporters in the clip. "The honor system? As to whether somebody has been vaccinated? Do you want them breathing in your face on the strength of their honor?"

Later in Pelosi's remarks—which the Real America's Voice segment did not include—she added: "We could come to a place where we say 'If you don't wanna wear a mask and if you're not vaccinated, don't even come to the floor, we have facilities up above in the gallery where people can come to vote.' We don't want to deter anybody's ability to exercise their constitutional duties."

Greene reacted to the clip aired on The Water Cooler by stating: "This woman is mentally ill."

She went on: "You know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star and they were definitely treated as second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany.

"And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about."

Greene also accused Pelosi of flying in lawmakers who had COVID-19 to Capitol Hill on the day incoming members were sworn in. The congresswoman did not provide any evidence for her claim.

"She brought in positive COVID members and exposed everyone in the entire building, and they travelled across the country spreading COVID," Greene said. "So this is a woman that doesn't care about people's safety, this is a woman that is hyper-focused on her own power and control."

Greene is one of seven Republican lawmakers issued a warning over their failure to wear masks, the Associated Press reported. The others were Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Chip Roy and Louie Gohmert of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Bob Good of Virginia and Mary Miller of Illinois.

Three GOP members of Congress were fined $500: Brian Mast of Florida, Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Beth Van Duyne of Texas.

Dr. Brian Monahan, the Capitol's attending physician, said in a statement on Wednesday the House floor's mask mandate would remain in place "until all members and floor staff are fully vaccinated."

Marjorie Taylor Greene Literally Shreds Pelosi's Written Warning For Not Wearing Mask On House Floor

[Brian Peacock]

I bet she's had the vaccine though.

[Cunt]

Ralph Beric, one of the authors of the letter noted in the Dark Horse Podcast, is one of the reasons you guys shouldn't watch.

He might upset your complicity theories.

No connection with Russian complicity. Leave out your usual snark, thanks.

Russia?
Are you lost?

I agree that

greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve. We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest.

So does just about everyone else, including the Biden administration

https://nypost.com/2021/03/26/fauci-ref ... -from-lab/

In a new interview out Friday, Redfield — who oversaw the CDC at the peak of the deadly global pandemic — said it was his “opinion” as a top virologist that SARS-CoV-2 “escaped” from the laboratory in Wuhan.

The highly contagious bug is widely accepted to have originated in animals before it adapted to humans.

'just about everyone else'.

Except the authorities speaking as politicians do.
The lab leak hypothesis was dismissed too early, by people who should know better.

Probably for 'optics'.