Feb 4, 2022·edited Feb 4, 2022Liked by Brian Mowrey
To mask or not to mask - that is the question.
But it is a policy question, not a veracity question. (I mean, how do you "falsify" a policy proposal?) A policy question may be certainly *informed*by evidence, which may be quite useful to help reckon up what actually goes into the "pro" column and what goes into the "con" column.
But at the end of the day, evidence *doesn't* care what we do with it, or about it, or in the teeth of it. Evidence just is.
It is people who care what we do. And we care what we do for reasons that have everything to do with our values, our interests, our worldviews, and (for sure) our less rational fears and desires, and very, very little to do with reason, logic or evidence.
We would all be much better to be as honest as we can about the values, interests, and fears/desires which prompt us to prefer one or another policy, and argue/negotiate/do politics, on that basis. Let the evidence help compile the most accurate reckonings of costs and benefits, and then let us set them to one side and begin negotiating what is the policy that we can all support and live with. The best policy will be that which most successfully reconciles the varied interests and values we each bring to the table. And there is no "right" (ie falsifiable) policy. There is only the best possible policy in the context of THIS or THAT current diverse set of values and interests. Which could be different tomorrow, when different people sit down to work out a deal.
Thank you for the great article above. I have seen some other good articles recently. Maybe you have seen these? I found them scary to be frank. These idiots do not know what they are doing and are playing with fire.
I am seeing more and more people eschew masks in the supermarket. It makes my heart sing. I used to wear one but it only took 5 minutes sans mask to reduce unveiled nakedness embarrassment to zero.
I see the ongoing debacle as something that needs to be dealt with. Any time I compare something analogous to this debacle, however, my boosted housemate rolls their eyes and says "It's not all about the vaccine, you know?"
The psychological ploys inherent in the push for vax passports and boosters, etc, relies on so many innate "get it over and done with, get back to my more simple life" tenets that are innate to the human condition, I am sure. Dumb luck? Or conditioning? I have not taken the time to confirm.
As a child who experienced shit, I cannot legally express my desires when it comes to the adults inflicting this special kind of shit on of kids during this period.
I often find myself bemused yet fascinated by your blog posts, unable to pierce the subtlety and understand the points. The lack is mine, for preferring more straightforward discourse and having a distinct disinclination for philosophy. This is not a criticism!
So even though I can't quite grasp the forest, the trees offer a lot of food for thought. Or snide remarks.
• “What is the stopping rule?” How about, um, discovery that the mitigation doesn't work?
• "Nothing is more tragic than the preventable death of a child." I'll believe that when I see them outlaw transporting children in cars.
• "they insist that vaccines do not provide the kind of protection that could permit people to live anything akin to normal lives." The only thing preventing normal life is the bureaucracy's pandemic response.
• "The enhanced protection appears durable, remaining at 90% for at least 10 weeks, the longest monitoring to date." As with words like "vaccine" and "herd immunity", they must have redefined "durable" when I wasn't looking.
• "To Berenson, it cannot be acknowledged that the Covid vaccines reduce hospitalizations or death, because if they do, then no argument against them is morally sustainable." Morality considerations aside, I've been in these kinds of arguments and usually the other person ends up shrugging and saying they don't mind getting boosters two or three times a year. Argh.
• 'And that is the argument that needed to be made two years ago; and it is the argument that still needs to be made. If this virus kills more than the flu, well, so what? Does that mean it is actually “different” from the flu, or just that it is like flu, but more-so - as it was so allegedly “wrong” and “irresponsible” to say before Omicron? Is dying (being allowed to die) from the flu, or an equivalent virus, actually some moral crime to begin with - or isn’t it, in fact, the natural order of life?' Our culture has become almost completely anti-evolutionary. Say things like this and people look at you like you're some kind of empathyless psychopath. I get that reaction when I point out that almost all of humanity's problems are caused by the fact that there are too damn many of us on the planet. People jump to the conclusion that I'm advocating genocide or something.
• "grow up to imagine themselves as biologically nonfunctional, sans medical intervention." We already are. Elderly people, at least in the US, on average take something like 10 prescription pharmaceuticals every day. Never mind that a lot of these are to ameliorate the side effects of some of the others…
In the UK, things were going back to normal, masks coming off etc. A few cases is all it took and straight back on again, including for school children.
Brilliant essay! Delightfully thought provoking and as Jen Swann Downey says, this essay deserves wider readership.
Ultimately perhaps we who appreciate and value normality were living in a delusion all along that normality was truly normal? Yes some people snap out of the psychosis but it seems that maybe just maybe we were living in a twilight era between two mass religious fervours and that perhaps this religious fervour is the true normal state of mankind in anything but some of the tiniest groups? We've gone from violating the sanctity that woman being generally more vulnerable should be protected (burning witches at the stake) to all but ritually sacrificing children to our new Virus-God as you so aptly put it. Just like with previous moments of religious fervour that spread far and wide with Christianity and Islam and arguably 1700s-1900s imperialism and 1930s nationalism we see this 2010s-2020s religious progressivism (now expressed with medical progressivism) adopting religious themes ("belief in science or rather scientism/belief in vaccines"), slogans ("blessings of X"), religious type mantras only loosely connected with reality ("flatten the curve", "Two weeks to flatten the curve", "safe and effective"), rituals (wearing a mask as a sign of a believer, taking your soon-to-be quarterly or even monthly "vaccine" booster shot as a sacrament) and an obsession with death/eternal life and persecuting the out-groups (as happened to infidels, heretics and untermenschen and various other "inferior" peoples).
I've oft reflected on my experience that most people don't seem able to properly handle the concept that we are just another form of life on this piece of rock in space and that magical thinking isn't likely to determine anything in the real world (so for example the toxic positivity we see sometimes in modern thought where people now conflate the fact that having a positive attitude can help you to better cope with and manage difficult situations and will more readily attract persons to you who will offer you things that will be of benefit with the idea that thinking positive will mean that for instance things will always work out in your favour somehow - spoiler alert: life never works like for most living creatures). What is all of this covid theatre performed against the backdrop of the emergent mass psychosis than magical thinking taken to absurd heights not seen in decades, if not centuries?
Such a rare opportunity to completely bypass human subjects IRB. And such big N! Unheard of. We'll be doing longitudinal studies on this cohort for decades.
Kline MD says children's lives are at stake. All evidence says no, they're not. Which children is he worried about? If he has patients who are immunocompromised, they might have better risk with the vax. Most kids are safer without. Or do his fees rely on a steady stream of vax patients? Vax advocates all seem to need the business. They're not interested in anybody health, just our sickness. It's a very sick industry.
"Over in the Endless Ethical Posturing Olympics arena complex that is epidemiology / medical twitter, a pathetically low bar of common sense regarding “children and Covid” was only recently offered for credentialed fear-mongerers to competitively vault over; they obliged." Bingpot! Thank you for speaking to the absurdity of that low bar even as you deconstruct the arguments of the "urgency tool-kit" critics. This piece deserves much wider readership. Hope people find it.
Tyler Black's complaint was that the toolkit's claim about child suicide was "as awful as it gets". But, American Institute for Economic Research says that all indications are that the suicide rate for youth has skyrocketed, although exact figures aren't yet available. The quote about "greater suicides than deaths from COVID" is straight from CDC Director Robert Redfield, in July 2020.
Fantastic essay! I was hopeful that maybe my own blue region of crazy might snap out of it but after reading your piece maybe not. I can't tolerate this much longer... Perhaps will have to move.
Feb 1, 2022·edited Feb 1, 2022Liked by Brian Mowrey
One of the biggest problems in turning the tide of progressivism (and yes, I believe covid hysteria is an aspect of progressivism) is that progressives control the media, and the media always gets the last word. The opposing viewpoint is always framed as fringe or minority and that creates that impression that it really is a minority viewpoint and makes people afraid to admit that they agree with it.
Thank you. I am glad to know that I should not get too excited about it.
To mask or not to mask - that is the question.
But it is a policy question, not a veracity question. (I mean, how do you "falsify" a policy proposal?) A policy question may be certainly *informed*by evidence, which may be quite useful to help reckon up what actually goes into the "pro" column and what goes into the "con" column.
But at the end of the day, evidence *doesn't* care what we do with it, or about it, or in the teeth of it. Evidence just is.
It is people who care what we do. And we care what we do for reasons that have everything to do with our values, our interests, our worldviews, and (for sure) our less rational fears and desires, and very, very little to do with reason, logic or evidence.
We would all be much better to be as honest as we can about the values, interests, and fears/desires which prompt us to prefer one or another policy, and argue/negotiate/do politics, on that basis. Let the evidence help compile the most accurate reckonings of costs and benefits, and then let us set them to one side and begin negotiating what is the policy that we can all support and live with. The best policy will be that which most successfully reconciles the varied interests and values we each bring to the table. And there is no "right" (ie falsifiable) policy. There is only the best possible policy in the context of THIS or THAT current diverse set of values and interests. Which could be different tomorrow, when different people sit down to work out a deal.
I knew this was the case, but it is still amazing to read about it. These 5 Studies Reveal a Disturbing Trend — Researchers Presenting Conclusions That Don’t Match the Data https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/researchers-covid-conclusions/?
Thank you for the great article above. I have seen some other good articles recently. Maybe you have seen these? I found them scary to be frank. These idiots do not know what they are doing and are playing with fire.
https://www.science.org/content/article/rare-cases-coronavirus-vaccines-may-cause-long-covid-symptoms
https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMcibr2113694?articleTools=true
https://trialsitenews.com/is-chinas-sinopharm-inactivated-covid-19-vaccine-compromising-healthy-peoples-immune-system/
https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/covid-19/2022/01/27/the-pandemic-of-pcr-negative-c-word-like-illness
I am seeing more and more people eschew masks in the supermarket. It makes my heart sing. I used to wear one but it only took 5 minutes sans mask to reduce unveiled nakedness embarrassment to zero.
I see the ongoing debacle as something that needs to be dealt with. Any time I compare something analogous to this debacle, however, my boosted housemate rolls their eyes and says "It's not all about the vaccine, you know?"
The psychological ploys inherent in the push for vax passports and boosters, etc, relies on so many innate "get it over and done with, get back to my more simple life" tenets that are innate to the human condition, I am sure. Dumb luck? Or conditioning? I have not taken the time to confirm.
As a child who experienced shit, I cannot legally express my desires when it comes to the adults inflicting this special kind of shit on of kids during this period.
For almost two years officials have been completely ignoring innate natural immunity.
Now papers are starting to come out that finally talk about it:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01114-w
Lakshmi is a woman's name.
I often find myself bemused yet fascinated by your blog posts, unable to pierce the subtlety and understand the points. The lack is mine, for preferring more straightforward discourse and having a distinct disinclination for philosophy. This is not a criticism!
So even though I can't quite grasp the forest, the trees offer a lot of food for thought. Or snide remarks.
• “What is the stopping rule?” How about, um, discovery that the mitigation doesn't work?
• "Nothing is more tragic than the preventable death of a child." I'll believe that when I see them outlaw transporting children in cars.
• "they insist that vaccines do not provide the kind of protection that could permit people to live anything akin to normal lives." The only thing preventing normal life is the bureaucracy's pandemic response.
• "The enhanced protection appears durable, remaining at 90% for at least 10 weeks, the longest monitoring to date." As with words like "vaccine" and "herd immunity", they must have redefined "durable" when I wasn't looking.
• "To Berenson, it cannot be acknowledged that the Covid vaccines reduce hospitalizations or death, because if they do, then no argument against them is morally sustainable." Morality considerations aside, I've been in these kinds of arguments and usually the other person ends up shrugging and saying they don't mind getting boosters two or three times a year. Argh.
• 'And that is the argument that needed to be made two years ago; and it is the argument that still needs to be made. If this virus kills more than the flu, well, so what? Does that mean it is actually “different” from the flu, or just that it is like flu, but more-so - as it was so allegedly “wrong” and “irresponsible” to say before Omicron? Is dying (being allowed to die) from the flu, or an equivalent virus, actually some moral crime to begin with - or isn’t it, in fact, the natural order of life?' Our culture has become almost completely anti-evolutionary. Say things like this and people look at you like you're some kind of empathyless psychopath. I get that reaction when I point out that almost all of humanity's problems are caused by the fact that there are too damn many of us on the planet. People jump to the conclusion that I'm advocating genocide or something.
• "grow up to imagine themselves as biologically nonfunctional, sans medical intervention." We already are. Elderly people, at least in the US, on average take something like 10 prescription pharmaceuticals every day. Never mind that a lot of these are to ameliorate the side effects of some of the others…
In the UK, things were going back to normal, masks coming off etc. A few cases is all it took and straight back on again, including for school children.
https://nakedemperor.substack.com/
Brilliant essay! Delightfully thought provoking and as Jen Swann Downey says, this essay deserves wider readership.
Ultimately perhaps we who appreciate and value normality were living in a delusion all along that normality was truly normal? Yes some people snap out of the psychosis but it seems that maybe just maybe we were living in a twilight era between two mass religious fervours and that perhaps this religious fervour is the true normal state of mankind in anything but some of the tiniest groups? We've gone from violating the sanctity that woman being generally more vulnerable should be protected (burning witches at the stake) to all but ritually sacrificing children to our new Virus-God as you so aptly put it. Just like with previous moments of religious fervour that spread far and wide with Christianity and Islam and arguably 1700s-1900s imperialism and 1930s nationalism we see this 2010s-2020s religious progressivism (now expressed with medical progressivism) adopting religious themes ("belief in science or rather scientism/belief in vaccines"), slogans ("blessings of X"), religious type mantras only loosely connected with reality ("flatten the curve", "Two weeks to flatten the curve", "safe and effective"), rituals (wearing a mask as a sign of a believer, taking your soon-to-be quarterly or even monthly "vaccine" booster shot as a sacrament) and an obsession with death/eternal life and persecuting the out-groups (as happened to infidels, heretics and untermenschen and various other "inferior" peoples).
I've oft reflected on my experience that most people don't seem able to properly handle the concept that we are just another form of life on this piece of rock in space and that magical thinking isn't likely to determine anything in the real world (so for example the toxic positivity we see sometimes in modern thought where people now conflate the fact that having a positive attitude can help you to better cope with and manage difficult situations and will more readily attract persons to you who will offer you things that will be of benefit with the idea that thinking positive will mean that for instance things will always work out in your favour somehow - spoiler alert: life never works like for most living creatures). What is all of this covid theatre performed against the backdrop of the emergent mass psychosis than magical thinking taken to absurd heights not seen in decades, if not centuries?
Such a rare opportunity to completely bypass human subjects IRB. And such big N! Unheard of. We'll be doing longitudinal studies on this cohort for decades.
Kline MD says children's lives are at stake. All evidence says no, they're not. Which children is he worried about? If he has patients who are immunocompromised, they might have better risk with the vax. Most kids are safer without. Or do his fees rely on a steady stream of vax patients? Vax advocates all seem to need the business. They're not interested in anybody health, just our sickness. It's a very sick industry.
"Over in the Endless Ethical Posturing Olympics arena complex that is epidemiology / medical twitter, a pathetically low bar of common sense regarding “children and Covid” was only recently offered for credentialed fear-mongerers to competitively vault over; they obliged." Bingpot! Thank you for speaking to the absurdity of that low bar even as you deconstruct the arguments of the "urgency tool-kit" critics. This piece deserves much wider readership. Hope people find it.
Tyler Black's complaint was that the toolkit's claim about child suicide was "as awful as it gets". But, American Institute for Economic Research says that all indications are that the suicide rate for youth has skyrocketed, although exact figures aren't yet available. The quote about "greater suicides than deaths from COVID" is straight from CDC Director Robert Redfield, in July 2020.
https://www.aier.org/article/more-covid-suicides-than-covid-deaths-in-kids/
https://www.buckinstitute.org/covid-webinar-series-transcript-robert-redfield-md/
Fantastic essay! I was hopeful that maybe my own blue region of crazy might snap out of it but after reading your piece maybe not. I can't tolerate this much longer... Perhaps will have to move.
One of the biggest problems in turning the tide of progressivism (and yes, I believe covid hysteria is an aspect of progressivism) is that progressives control the media, and the media always gets the last word. The opposing viewpoint is always framed as fringe or minority and that creates that impression that it really is a minority viewpoint and makes people afraid to admit that they agree with it.