Thanks Lucian,I am saving your piece because it is such a nuanced analysis of where we are. This nation's ongoing dialog today about reality is manichean, lunching back and forth between absolutes and often ending in no resolution at all. Reality is more complicated.
I got down in the weeds of the same scientific article you did Lucian, and I think you cleared out the tangles and delivered the bitter flower of what the Sam Hill has been going on with this Delta variant. It lives in the nose at such a high viral load. This is what makes the vaccines in the blood unable to reach it. This is what mutation does at its worst. Knowing all this is a shock to the system. At the same time, I feel a creeping optimism after I’ve gotten over the initial shock. We’ve all lived with colds and the flu for all my life all sixty plus years of it. I’m ready to live with this.
My creeping optimism has to do with my guess that if the virus congregates in the nose, the case for wearing masks is pretty much a no-brainer. Not that this will convince the no-brain parts of the country, but it's something.
That which we are accustomed to thinking of as 'normal' has been obliterated, never to be seen again in our lifetimes, if ever. What we are seeing is a phenomenon described in Complexity Science as something called "punctuated equilibrium". Basically, it describes an inflection point at which some form of long-term stability is suddenly disrupted, to be followed by a period of fluctuation and adjustment, after which an indeterminate period of time occurs, setting the terms of what then becomes the 'new normal', whatever that might happen to become. These events are usually described in epochal terms. This is one of them.
What this disruption has been laid bare is the insouciant attitude by too many who should know better, that they can do whatever they please with no concern for the consequences. Maybe when the death tolls in Arkansas, Texas, Florida, Missouri, and Tennessee, to name a few of the states where the coronavirus Delta strain runs rampant hits every family in those locales will they be willing to put aside their ignorance and stupidity that we are witnessing. But in a real sense, this has not been a debate over alternatives that might describe a rational response to the coronavirus pandemic. For some of us that has been the case because we are not wedded to a particular way of life, and because we have been required by our circumstances to adapt ourselves, sometimes radically so in order to survive.
Those of us who come from immigrant stock going back now several generations, understand how radical those changes were at the time, and how frequently we needed to adjust to the changing circumstances of our lives. We survivors maintain our footing as the conditions of life here in America have changed over the years much better than those who are ill prepared to adapt themselves, and we see the consequences of their disorientation. As frequently happens, adaptation occurs gradually over the course of several generations. In the case of coronavirus, particularly with the shock of experiencing the Delta variant, a generation's worth of adaptation has been compressed into two calendar years. And whatever we have been taught to believe about ourselves has been called into question, if not denied outright. It is as if everything people were taught to believe in turns out to be untrue, with the result that people respond with confusion and resistance to new knowledge.
It is absolutely a scandal the way in which Republican-controlled legislatures are able to stymie simple measures that would avoid sickness and save lives. But that is the consequence of a traditional society caught in the vise under the circumstances, and crushed beyond endurance. The bad part about this is the fact that these Republican-dominated institutions have shown themselves to be incapable of leadership in any meaningful sense. Rather than think through the problem, they draw upon their grab bag of political tropes and stereotypes to find ways to resist having to change their ways. All that is done is kill a great many of the people these elected officials were supposed to protect
In the meantime, there were reports coming out over the past several days that large numbers of people living in those states are now clamoring to be inoculated against coronavirus Delta. Regrettably, for many it will be too late. This need not ever have been made the subject of political controversy, except that Republicans and the party they claim to represent have long since abandoned any sort of principled policymaking or philosophical positions that can be expressed and defended by rational argument. Even today, six months into the Biden presidency, Donald Trump still rules the roost, not because he has any real power to do anything, but because he represents the atavistic attitude that got him elected President in 2016. Trump promised to restore them to a place in American society which they believe to have been denied them for so long, that recognition they were somehow superior to others, even after they had fallen on hard times. Everyone else is hell-bent on not alienating Donald Trump because he claims to speak for a white nationalist 'lumpen-electorate' that continues to pretend that they and their values predominated in American life, and that preeminence has been wrongfully stolen from them. It follows then that mask-wearing and vaccination represent some form of surrender to alien forces they are sworn to resist.
These pretensions have become a life-and-death battle, not with the 'Liberals' these people claim to dominate, but with coronavirus, which has no political program. How else do we explain the sheer perversity of these folks stuck in a plague-ridden landscape that only a Boccaccio or a Poe might be called upon to chronicle their decline and death. But in the end degradation and death follow, just what we are seeing now, because some people cannot accept the idea that the natural order of things that they were brought up to believe in is incapable of protecting them, and that they need to follow the science, rather than asserting some cobbled up version of natural law theory that has them at the apex of life on earth. Not surprisingly, the segment of the population most adamant about refusing vaccination is also the one that has been dominated by evangelical Christian ministries whose epistemology comes from the Judeo-Christian Bible, quite literally word-for-word. Given that dearth of sound political leadership, it is not surprising that people who subscribe to those apocalyptic faiths belief systems grounded on religious faith are those who claim to be the most skeptical about the claims of science, and especially epidemiology. Coronavirus, as with other epidemic illnesses sweeping a population in the past, carries with it among these people a sense of divine punishment for past transgressions; that is the way it was handled in the Middle Ages, and modern times have not alleviated the sense of fear and hopelessness that people feel when exposed to these invisible pathogens. We are dealing with a primal fear that science cannot alleviate. Prayer and fasting are useless against the predations of the virus. Worse yet, scientists and the medical community are distrusted because their advice is tentative and subject to change, and because they are not propagandists they cannot deliver the message that priests and bishops have relied upon for millennia to alleviate the fear and suffering of their believers.
It is that divinely inspired willfulness and conceit that have put us in the situation that we are now. They would mask up and get themselves vaccinated if the ghost the Robert E Lee were to show up and tell them to do it, but not if it happened to be someone from Boston, New York, Chicago, or San Francisco. That is what it has boiled down to: they reject the message because the messenger comes from a place they were taught to dislike.
I am unsure of what you mean when you say 'Preach!' I am not a preacher, nor would I ever aspire to be. My stock in trade all recitations of fact, and the logical inference is that follow those facts. Conclusions flow from those facts assembled in a logical, and teachable, narrative, but this is not Holy Writ.
The Judeo-Christian Bible is a poor guide to living in today's world. This is largely because preachers are incapable of contextualizing the recorded folkways that have been laid down as holy writ. There are biblical scholars who probe and analyze the historical basis for much of the writings that ultimately became part of the Christian canon, and which some people describe as being 'divinely inspired'. Divine inspiration is simply that, writings that reflect a point of view that incorporate, and perhaps elaborate upon, that which has been accepted by religious authorities in times past. Needless to say, those curated collections of documents tend to leave out more than that which they incorporate into the corpus of holy text. This pruning and editing, while institutionally necessary to preserve a cohesive core of theocratic doctrine and the principles they embody, weeds out a great deal of nuance; and at the same time it tends to obscure, or indeed paper over, fundamental disagreements regarding what the faith is all about; how manifestations of the deity are to be received; and indeed, their appropriateness within the epoch in which they appear. Disagreement, if unmediated, can lead to schism, civil unrest, and widespread killing of believers on both sides. Rather than having a living faith that encompassed a wide spectrum of opinion, the tendency was, and still is, to select a lane, or tranch that might be defended on the basis of reason, or tradition, or on the authority of an eminent bishop or ruler, in which case those seeking to defend their interpretation of Holy Writ might be required to employ force of arms to fend off military attack by those who oppose them. The intertwining of politics with doctrinal controversies was implicit and just as often, deadly. The Thirty Years War that ravaged Central Europe between 1620 and 1648 and end with the Peace of Augsburg, made necessary by the sheer horror of the fighting and destruction, and the complete exhaustion and near-annihilation of people living within the German-speaking lands of Central Europe. If it can said that a living faith is for the living, and that religion itself is a guide to the living of a just and moral life, what occurred during those decades was an abomination, aided and abetted by the power politics of the Roman Church in opposition to the secular society of which had attempted to hold sway. Ultimately the papacy was stripped of virtually all temporal powers as a consequence of dynastic wars and revolution.
Nowadays, we have religious figures who are more than willing to repeat the errors of centuries past, simply to enhance and solidify their own temporal power. You will note that the United States Constitution in several places prohibits civil authorities from creating religious preferences; and the First Amendment specifically prohibits Congress from establishing any religion, or interfering with the free exercise of religious doctrine or practice is generally. That prohibition has been incorporated into the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which has the effect of prohibiting the states themselves from acting at the behest of religious authorities in ways that Congress itself is prohibited from doing.
From the Urban Dictionary: "Preach" has no single meaning, but is used to convey a casual sense of affirmation, acknowledgement, Said in agreement, something that is real, absolute, well said, a person dropping mad knowledge [that would be you], or to indicate that something has impressed you favorably.
Its usage among young blacks has been parodied ad nauseam among clueless suburban whites [that would be me- except I live in NY ;) ]
Thanks as usual Lucian. It's been difficult to ride around in this bumper car and know exactly what is what. I don't know what went wrong, but I have a theory. The synchronicity of TFG and his herd of followers were given a green light to kick the values and spirit of fellowship off the playing field. Just because they were pissed off at 'whatever and whomever'. They felt justified in refusing to play nice. They no longer wanted to be part of the solution to anything except their own selfish vengeance. What a sorry lot! And so, as they get sick and their parents get sick, and their children get sick perhaps the numbers will shift and when they dwindle away they can all move to an island and pray for a 'Mother Teresa' to tend to them as they die off.
TFG has never cared about anyone but himself, not just during his four years attempting to destroy our democracy, but during his entire sorry life. His attitude toward Covid was entirely expected, as he viewed it at a nuisance that was interfering with his grand plan. Had we been able to reach herd immunity before the arrival of the delta variant, we may well have been back to normal by now. My anger at TFG and his subservient followers grows daily.
Yes, he is more revolting than ever...actually, he doesn't just make me angry, he makes me physically sick. I don't ever recall despising anyone the way I do him, and his gang of morons.
Just posted a Newsweek article on FB re:"lack of patriotism" among millennials and gen z. My comment was basically what you just wrote--the "patriotism I learned in school was all based in lies, and my eyes were opened by all I witnessed in the 60's & early '70's. My "patriotism" died decades ago.
I can't say I agree with this indictment of the BS we learned in school. I'm sure that in the '50s and '60s I learned pretty much the same stuff the rest of you did. But one edge our age group has over many of the younger cohorts is a grounding in critical thinking. My history teachers may have been teaching a fair amount of half-truths and glosses, but they were also imparting the skills of analysis and healthy skepticism. At least to roughly 66% to 75% of us it would seem. Young groups did not have that benefit. They were largely taught civics and history, the essential texts of citizenship, by football and basketball coaches, who learned to teach to the test, just to pass the students through the class. They failed to impart the other important lessons in critical thinking, analysis and skepticism that many of us learned from history teachers trained in the profession of historical method. The inability of these "patriots" to think critically is, at least in part, a testament to the defunding of our educational system and our skewed national priorities.
That's pretty much what I've been thinking: "we're all in this together" has been true from the beginning, but a vast number of USians (including TFG and nearly all of the GOP) didn't get it, wouldn't get it, and still don't/won't get it. I wish there were a tribunal we could haul the whole lot of them up before.
Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. Even with a raging pandemic killing us off, I don’t think there was ever a goal that we were all working toward. Whether it’s herd immunity or herd understanding, I regretfully don’t see it happening.
This is absolutely the clearest explanation I've seen.
In the meantime, vaccinated though I am (and possibly already exposed to the Delta variant), I've decided to pull back from any and all associations with friends and family who are around babies or the very young, the very old, those who are immunocompromised and others who are vulnerable. This includes a farewell gathering of theater friends who are sending one of our own off to Ireland - the hostess has Lupus and many of those invited are in a MUSICAL of all things. These kinds of celebrations may very well turn out to be literal "wakes" when one considers the prevalence of Delta and the attitudes of elected officials in this state (Texas.)
That is really interesting, I knew that we vaccinated people could still get it but not why. That explanation makes sense. One wonders if a little antibiotic ointment in the nostrils would offer some protections, it is sticky too so maybe would trap the virus and stop it from traveling further. I get these crazy ideas sometime, but you never know unless the medical people would do some experiments. At least my suggestion is not dangerous, like injecting bleach :) But seriously, I just read this morning that as Lucian says a lot of vaccinated people are getting infected and passing it. on 350 infected in Cape Cod alone: "A large COVID-19 outbreak in a Cape Cod town has changed health officials' understanding of the coronavirus delta variant, and played a key role in the decision to recommend masks indoors even for people fully vaccinated against the virus."
I just wish to high heaven there would be a PSA that shows everyone what a properly fitted mask does as opposed to wearing one that is like a chin guard for drooling fools.
It infuriates me no end to see all those stupid "I'm wearing a mask, but I'm a stupid moron" types wearing in as a chin guard and nasal drip catcher.
I just can't imagine what they think the virus is-flavor of the month plague? Because that's certainly how they're acting.
And that's part of the problem too-arrogant fools who think that just because they're vaccinated they've become immortal.
I really think we ought to bring back that course in health and hygiene. It would do a lot of good.
Misinformation on the Internet about vaccines has contributed to this more than any single factor, at least in my opinion. The "Experts" and "Nobel Prize" winners and "Top virologist" who warn publicly (and the public) not to get vaccinated, have blood on their hands. I saw one "Expert" virologist say that anyone---key word anyone---vaccinated would be dead within 3-5 years. This is the kind of bullshit we really face.
This: "We’re never going to reach herd immunity, but it behooves us as a nation to reach a herd understanding that for better or worse, we’re all in this together."
Hey Lucian, great explanation of our situation. Better than the med professionals who tend to use language that is foreign or confusing to the average person.
“ The message is, COVID is as contagious as chicken pox, Ebola or the common cold, and getting vaccinated isn’t going to prevent you from catching it. But it will save your life. ”
They said this from the start. Of course, if the virus hadn’t been allowed to become entrenched and mutating, then herd immunity would have meant something. Well, at some point they will have a vaccine that is snorted up the snoot, and that should help…
I wish everybody in the country would read this, as it’s the most cogent explanation of where we are that I’ve seen.
Agreed!
Clear- headed analysis that all Americans need to read and consider today, now! It summons us to modify our behavior.
Thanks Lucian,I am saving your piece because it is such a nuanced analysis of where we are. This nation's ongoing dialog today about reality is manichean, lunching back and forth between absolutes and often ending in no resolution at all. Reality is more complicated.
I got down in the weeds of the same scientific article you did Lucian, and I think you cleared out the tangles and delivered the bitter flower of what the Sam Hill has been going on with this Delta variant. It lives in the nose at such a high viral load. This is what makes the vaccines in the blood unable to reach it. This is what mutation does at its worst. Knowing all this is a shock to the system. At the same time, I feel a creeping optimism after I’ve gotten over the initial shock. We’ve all lived with colds and the flu for all my life all sixty plus years of it. I’m ready to live with this.
Remember, a masked society had a winter with reduced flu.
My creeping optimism has to do with my guess that if the virus congregates in the nose, the case for wearing masks is pretty much a no-brainer. Not that this will convince the no-brain parts of the country, but it's something.
We are masking up again here in New Orleans, per citywide mandate. At worst it is a minor inconvenience. Masks and vaccines are the only way out.
That which we are accustomed to thinking of as 'normal' has been obliterated, never to be seen again in our lifetimes, if ever. What we are seeing is a phenomenon described in Complexity Science as something called "punctuated equilibrium". Basically, it describes an inflection point at which some form of long-term stability is suddenly disrupted, to be followed by a period of fluctuation and adjustment, after which an indeterminate period of time occurs, setting the terms of what then becomes the 'new normal', whatever that might happen to become. These events are usually described in epochal terms. This is one of them.
What this disruption has been laid bare is the insouciant attitude by too many who should know better, that they can do whatever they please with no concern for the consequences. Maybe when the death tolls in Arkansas, Texas, Florida, Missouri, and Tennessee, to name a few of the states where the coronavirus Delta strain runs rampant hits every family in those locales will they be willing to put aside their ignorance and stupidity that we are witnessing. But in a real sense, this has not been a debate over alternatives that might describe a rational response to the coronavirus pandemic. For some of us that has been the case because we are not wedded to a particular way of life, and because we have been required by our circumstances to adapt ourselves, sometimes radically so in order to survive.
Those of us who come from immigrant stock going back now several generations, understand how radical those changes were at the time, and how frequently we needed to adjust to the changing circumstances of our lives. We survivors maintain our footing as the conditions of life here in America have changed over the years much better than those who are ill prepared to adapt themselves, and we see the consequences of their disorientation. As frequently happens, adaptation occurs gradually over the course of several generations. In the case of coronavirus, particularly with the shock of experiencing the Delta variant, a generation's worth of adaptation has been compressed into two calendar years. And whatever we have been taught to believe about ourselves has been called into question, if not denied outright. It is as if everything people were taught to believe in turns out to be untrue, with the result that people respond with confusion and resistance to new knowledge.
It is absolutely a scandal the way in which Republican-controlled legislatures are able to stymie simple measures that would avoid sickness and save lives. But that is the consequence of a traditional society caught in the vise under the circumstances, and crushed beyond endurance. The bad part about this is the fact that these Republican-dominated institutions have shown themselves to be incapable of leadership in any meaningful sense. Rather than think through the problem, they draw upon their grab bag of political tropes and stereotypes to find ways to resist having to change their ways. All that is done is kill a great many of the people these elected officials were supposed to protect
In the meantime, there were reports coming out over the past several days that large numbers of people living in those states are now clamoring to be inoculated against coronavirus Delta. Regrettably, for many it will be too late. This need not ever have been made the subject of political controversy, except that Republicans and the party they claim to represent have long since abandoned any sort of principled policymaking or philosophical positions that can be expressed and defended by rational argument. Even today, six months into the Biden presidency, Donald Trump still rules the roost, not because he has any real power to do anything, but because he represents the atavistic attitude that got him elected President in 2016. Trump promised to restore them to a place in American society which they believe to have been denied them for so long, that recognition they were somehow superior to others, even after they had fallen on hard times. Everyone else is hell-bent on not alienating Donald Trump because he claims to speak for a white nationalist 'lumpen-electorate' that continues to pretend that they and their values predominated in American life, and that preeminence has been wrongfully stolen from them. It follows then that mask-wearing and vaccination represent some form of surrender to alien forces they are sworn to resist.
These pretensions have become a life-and-death battle, not with the 'Liberals' these people claim to dominate, but with coronavirus, which has no political program. How else do we explain the sheer perversity of these folks stuck in a plague-ridden landscape that only a Boccaccio or a Poe might be called upon to chronicle their decline and death. But in the end degradation and death follow, just what we are seeing now, because some people cannot accept the idea that the natural order of things that they were brought up to believe in is incapable of protecting them, and that they need to follow the science, rather than asserting some cobbled up version of natural law theory that has them at the apex of life on earth. Not surprisingly, the segment of the population most adamant about refusing vaccination is also the one that has been dominated by evangelical Christian ministries whose epistemology comes from the Judeo-Christian Bible, quite literally word-for-word. Given that dearth of sound political leadership, it is not surprising that people who subscribe to those apocalyptic faiths belief systems grounded on religious faith are those who claim to be the most skeptical about the claims of science, and especially epidemiology. Coronavirus, as with other epidemic illnesses sweeping a population in the past, carries with it among these people a sense of divine punishment for past transgressions; that is the way it was handled in the Middle Ages, and modern times have not alleviated the sense of fear and hopelessness that people feel when exposed to these invisible pathogens. We are dealing with a primal fear that science cannot alleviate. Prayer and fasting are useless against the predations of the virus. Worse yet, scientists and the medical community are distrusted because their advice is tentative and subject to change, and because they are not propagandists they cannot deliver the message that priests and bishops have relied upon for millennia to alleviate the fear and suffering of their believers.
It is that divinely inspired willfulness and conceit that have put us in the situation that we are now. They would mask up and get themselves vaccinated if the ghost the Robert E Lee were to show up and tell them to do it, but not if it happened to be someone from Boston, New York, Chicago, or San Francisco. That is what it has boiled down to: they reject the message because the messenger comes from a place they were taught to dislike.
Preach!
I am unsure of what you mean when you say 'Preach!' I am not a preacher, nor would I ever aspire to be. My stock in trade all recitations of fact, and the logical inference is that follow those facts. Conclusions flow from those facts assembled in a logical, and teachable, narrative, but this is not Holy Writ.
The Judeo-Christian Bible is a poor guide to living in today's world. This is largely because preachers are incapable of contextualizing the recorded folkways that have been laid down as holy writ. There are biblical scholars who probe and analyze the historical basis for much of the writings that ultimately became part of the Christian canon, and which some people describe as being 'divinely inspired'. Divine inspiration is simply that, writings that reflect a point of view that incorporate, and perhaps elaborate upon, that which has been accepted by religious authorities in times past. Needless to say, those curated collections of documents tend to leave out more than that which they incorporate into the corpus of holy text. This pruning and editing, while institutionally necessary to preserve a cohesive core of theocratic doctrine and the principles they embody, weeds out a great deal of nuance; and at the same time it tends to obscure, or indeed paper over, fundamental disagreements regarding what the faith is all about; how manifestations of the deity are to be received; and indeed, their appropriateness within the epoch in which they appear. Disagreement, if unmediated, can lead to schism, civil unrest, and widespread killing of believers on both sides. Rather than having a living faith that encompassed a wide spectrum of opinion, the tendency was, and still is, to select a lane, or tranch that might be defended on the basis of reason, or tradition, or on the authority of an eminent bishop or ruler, in which case those seeking to defend their interpretation of Holy Writ might be required to employ force of arms to fend off military attack by those who oppose them. The intertwining of politics with doctrinal controversies was implicit and just as often, deadly. The Thirty Years War that ravaged Central Europe between 1620 and 1648 and end with the Peace of Augsburg, made necessary by the sheer horror of the fighting and destruction, and the complete exhaustion and near-annihilation of people living within the German-speaking lands of Central Europe. If it can said that a living faith is for the living, and that religion itself is a guide to the living of a just and moral life, what occurred during those decades was an abomination, aided and abetted by the power politics of the Roman Church in opposition to the secular society of which had attempted to hold sway. Ultimately the papacy was stripped of virtually all temporal powers as a consequence of dynastic wars and revolution.
Nowadays, we have religious figures who are more than willing to repeat the errors of centuries past, simply to enhance and solidify their own temporal power. You will note that the United States Constitution in several places prohibits civil authorities from creating religious preferences; and the First Amendment specifically prohibits Congress from establishing any religion, or interfering with the free exercise of religious doctrine or practice is generally. That prohibition has been incorporated into the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which has the effect of prohibiting the states themselves from acting at the behest of religious authorities in ways that Congress itself is prohibited from doing.
You asked for a sermon, and there it is.
From the Urban Dictionary: "Preach" has no single meaning, but is used to convey a casual sense of affirmation, acknowledgement, Said in agreement, something that is real, absolute, well said, a person dropping mad knowledge [that would be you], or to indicate that something has impressed you favorably.
Its usage among young blacks has been parodied ad nauseam among clueless suburban whites [that would be me- except I live in NY ;) ]
Say what? Urban dictionary? I cannot fathom whatever it is that you're trying to prove.
Excellent Analysis!
Thanks as usual Lucian. It's been difficult to ride around in this bumper car and know exactly what is what. I don't know what went wrong, but I have a theory. The synchronicity of TFG and his herd of followers were given a green light to kick the values and spirit of fellowship off the playing field. Just because they were pissed off at 'whatever and whomever'. They felt justified in refusing to play nice. They no longer wanted to be part of the solution to anything except their own selfish vengeance. What a sorry lot! And so, as they get sick and their parents get sick, and their children get sick perhaps the numbers will shift and when they dwindle away they can all move to an island and pray for a 'Mother Teresa' to tend to them as they die off.
TFG has never cared about anyone but himself, not just during his four years attempting to destroy our democracy, but during his entire sorry life. His attitude toward Covid was entirely expected, as he viewed it at a nuisance that was interfering with his grand plan. Had we been able to reach herd immunity before the arrival of the delta variant, we may well have been back to normal by now. My anger at TFG and his subservient followers grows daily.
Yes, he is more revolting than ever...actually, he doesn't just make me angry, he makes me physically sick. I don't ever recall despising anyone the way I do him, and his gang of morons.
I feel the same. How did we ever get to this?😢
we were conned into believing that what we learned in school was the 'truth' ...think about that. How do we unravel a history of b.s.!?
Just posted a Newsweek article on FB re:"lack of patriotism" among millennials and gen z. My comment was basically what you just wrote--the "patriotism I learned in school was all based in lies, and my eyes were opened by all I witnessed in the 60's & early '70's. My "patriotism" died decades ago.
I can't say I agree with this indictment of the BS we learned in school. I'm sure that in the '50s and '60s I learned pretty much the same stuff the rest of you did. But one edge our age group has over many of the younger cohorts is a grounding in critical thinking. My history teachers may have been teaching a fair amount of half-truths and glosses, but they were also imparting the skills of analysis and healthy skepticism. At least to roughly 66% to 75% of us it would seem. Young groups did not have that benefit. They were largely taught civics and history, the essential texts of citizenship, by football and basketball coaches, who learned to teach to the test, just to pass the students through the class. They failed to impart the other important lessons in critical thinking, analysis and skepticism that many of us learned from history teachers trained in the profession of historical method. The inability of these "patriots" to think critically is, at least in part, a testament to the defunding of our educational system and our skewed national priorities.
Hello! You're here too!!!
That's pretty much what I've been thinking: "we're all in this together" has been true from the beginning, but a vast number of USians (including TFG and nearly all of the GOP) didn't get it, wouldn't get it, and still don't/won't get it. I wish there were a tribunal we could haul the whole lot of them up before.
thank you Doris!
Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. Even with a raging pandemic killing us off, I don’t think there was ever a goal that we were all working toward. Whether it’s herd immunity or herd understanding, I regretfully don’t see it happening.
This is absolutely the clearest explanation I've seen.
In the meantime, vaccinated though I am (and possibly already exposed to the Delta variant), I've decided to pull back from any and all associations with friends and family who are around babies or the very young, the very old, those who are immunocompromised and others who are vulnerable. This includes a farewell gathering of theater friends who are sending one of our own off to Ireland - the hostess has Lupus and many of those invited are in a MUSICAL of all things. These kinds of celebrations may very well turn out to be literal "wakes" when one considers the prevalence of Delta and the attitudes of elected officials in this state (Texas.)
Wear the mask. Get the shot! Live to see the sun rise.
True that!
That is really interesting, I knew that we vaccinated people could still get it but not why. That explanation makes sense. One wonders if a little antibiotic ointment in the nostrils would offer some protections, it is sticky too so maybe would trap the virus and stop it from traveling further. I get these crazy ideas sometime, but you never know unless the medical people would do some experiments. At least my suggestion is not dangerous, like injecting bleach :) But seriously, I just read this morning that as Lucian says a lot of vaccinated people are getting infected and passing it. on 350 infected in Cape Cod alone: "A large COVID-19 outbreak in a Cape Cod town has changed health officials' understanding of the coronavirus delta variant, and played a key role in the decision to recommend masks indoors even for people fully vaccinated against the virus."
.https://www.livescience.com/cape-cod-covid-19-outbreak-delta-variant.html?
You are speaking of mucous! Not such a crazy idea…I believe there’s work exploring a nasally administered vaccine, but that’s down the road.
I just wish to high heaven there would be a PSA that shows everyone what a properly fitted mask does as opposed to wearing one that is like a chin guard for drooling fools.
It infuriates me no end to see all those stupid "I'm wearing a mask, but I'm a stupid moron" types wearing in as a chin guard and nasal drip catcher.
I just can't imagine what they think the virus is-flavor of the month plague? Because that's certainly how they're acting.
And that's part of the problem too-arrogant fools who think that just because they're vaccinated they've become immortal.
I really think we ought to bring back that course in health and hygiene. It would do a lot of good.
Misinformation on the Internet about vaccines has contributed to this more than any single factor, at least in my opinion. The "Experts" and "Nobel Prize" winners and "Top virologist" who warn publicly (and the public) not to get vaccinated, have blood on their hands. I saw one "Expert" virologist say that anyone---key word anyone---vaccinated would be dead within 3-5 years. This is the kind of bullshit we really face.
This: "We’re never going to reach herd immunity, but it behooves us as a nation to reach a herd understanding that for better or worse, we’re all in this together."
Hey Lucian, great explanation of our situation. Better than the med professionals who tend to use language that is foreign or confusing to the average person.
“ The message is, COVID is as contagious as chicken pox, Ebola or the common cold, and getting vaccinated isn’t going to prevent you from catching it. But it will save your life. ”
They said this from the start. Of course, if the virus hadn’t been allowed to become entrenched and mutating, then herd immunity would have meant something. Well, at some point they will have a vaccine that is snorted up the snoot, and that should help…