President Biden has focused on placing professionals of unparalleled competence in positions of leadership. CDC Director Wallensky did undergrad at Wash U in St. Louis, was medically trained at Johns Hopkins and received her public policy Masters from Harvard. Nevertheless, there is a guy who received his Epidemiology degree from a social media group, constantly whining about vaccines, constantly complaining about his inability to cruise. Actually there are about a million of these “guys” constantly posting, constantly feeding misinformation into the minds of readers.
As a social experiment, I tried something. I logged into Facebook and looked through posts from my friend’s lists with comments disparaging the administration, the CDC, or the vaccines. It took two scrolls. Meanwhile findings of an objective nature were much harder to accumulate.
But in my corner, the trends were disturbing. Aside from a few white Trumpers most of the posts questioning the vaccine were from minorities. They were prone to conspiracy theories, and they exhibited distrust against government. In other words, these posters were not altogether different from their Confederate Flag adversaries.
To be fair, unbiased information is hard to get. Actual research is time consuming, requires critical thinking, and quite frankly, solitude. Research requires reading and absorbing information. The problem is, and we mostly have all done this, is a propensity to start spitting out opinions before we have truly understood the information. People go off half knowledgeable starting to spread “the word” out of context and without a true understanding. Some do it for nefarious reasons. Others are just surrounded by lemmings, and it is too tempting not to be the leader.
But the truth is, answers take time. Those demanding answers right now do not understand how science works. In fact, science is not so much about finding one single answer as much as a tedious process of eliminating the wrong ones.
For example, I have friends who are cruisers, in fact, my Wife and I have done over 20 ourselves. It is not for everybody. It is also true that on return from several cruises I have developed a cold, or worse, bronchitis and the worst flu I have ever had despite vaccination. Cruises are a fantastic vacation if you can avoid illness. But their very nature, being social, close quarters, can create favorable environments for viruses.
So the cruise industry already needed to do much more to keep ships clean and prevent illness. Filtration systems will help. But right now the cruise industry is pressuring the CDC for answers.
The CDC does not have those answers. The CDC does not know if the variants will weaken the vaccines, it does not have repatriation agreements in place, it does not have protocols established, it does not have children immunized. The largest bulk of unknowns is just now in the process of being discovered, yet DeSantis and Abbott, and Facebook “experts” say we should make our own decisions.
The problem is, your decisions might become my illness. Your recklessness of going to a baseball game with 50,000 people might reseed a dangerous variant. It is likely vaccines will protect against a variant but not guaranteed. Can’t we wait just a tiny bit longer to have more information? If a virus spreads like wildfire on a cruise ship, and passengers come home, guess what? We have reseeded virus. This is nothing like a motorcycle helmet debate, where if you decide to not wear one it is likely only you that will suffer the consequences. This is a team effort. My willingness to be careful is not just about my health. It is also about yours. We have to think about each other. Going to a non-socially distanced baseball game, or a cruise, is foolish right now, even with a vaccine. We have not stomped this thing down to negligible levels. Yet you have a guy on Youtube, someone who hosts a channel called La Lida Loca, saying he believes the President will rescind the health emergency in April. This is a fantasy.
It won’t likely even be this year.
Now am I considering, post vaccination, a socially distanced outdoor game? Yes. Considering. Weighing the options, researching variants, establishing a foundation made up of solid data not rumor. But the majority of the country? It seems not. And a over a year into this pandemic, Americans are impatient, undereducated, unknowledgeable, and brash. This is a bad combination.
Ignorance acknowledged is a threat to oneself. Ignorance ignored is a threat to us all.
Attention Dear Friends:
The sad fact is cancer treatment is expensive, and the pandemic has made my business a black hole. I need to now figure a way to cover all kinds of diagnostics and treatments but did not want to go a route where I did not at least attempt to use my skills or creativity to earn.
dashboard.teesp
ring.com/...
This is my solution, such as it is. I am not a genius or anything like, but I like the colors and the design. Mostly I think the message is clear-don’t abuse Asians, don’t marginalize people of Asian descent and don’t stereotype them. I hope you like it.
Half goes to Asian Americans For Equality. Yes I will provide proof of such contributions. I appreciate your help and hope you enjoy the shirts.
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