[continued from previous message]   
      
   >in October 2019, shortly before the pandemic began, to simulate a deadly   
   >coronavirus pandemic; the findings explicitly urged that “[t]ravel and   
   >trade … be maintained even in the face of a pandemic”. Similarly, a WHO   
   >paper in 2019 said that some measures – such as border closures and   
   >contact tracing – were “not recommended in any circumstances”.   
   >   
   >“And yet we did all of that in short order,” Macedo said, “and without   
   >people referring back to these plans.”   
   >   
   >He and Lee also believe there was a strong element of class bias, with a   
   >left-leaning “laptop class” that could easily work from home touting   
   >anti-Covid measures that were much easier for some Americans to adopt   
   >than others. Many relatively affluent Americans became even wealthier   
   >during the pandemic, in part due to rising housing values.   
   >   
   >At the same time, the laptop class was only able to socially isolate at   
   >home in part because other people risked exposure to provide groceries.   
   >Stay-at-home measures were partly intended to protect “essential   
   >workers”, but policymakers living in crisis-stricken major metropolitan   
   >areas such as New York or Washington DC did not reckon with why social   
   >distancing and other measures might be less important in rural parts of   
   >the country where Covid rates were lower.   
   >   
   >Lockdowns were intended to slow Covid’s spread, yet previous pandemic   
   >recommendations had suggested they only be used very early in an   
   >outbreak and even then do not buy much time, Macedo said.   
   >   
   >two people stand next to each other smiling   
   >View image in fullscreen   
   >Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee. Photograph: Courtesy of Stephen Macedo   
   >Policymakers and experts often embraced stringent measures for reasons   
   >that are more political than medical, Macedo and Lee argue; in a   
   >pandemic, authorities are keen to assure anxious publics that they are   
   >“in charge” and “doing something”.   
   >   
   >In strange contrast, policymakers and journalists in the US and   
   >elsewhere seemed to take China as a model, the book argues, despite the   
   >fact that China is an authoritarian state and had concealed the scale of   
   >the outbreak during the crucial early days of the pandemic. Its regime   
   >had obvious incentives to mislead foreign observers, and used draconian   
   >quarantine measures such as physically welding people into their homes.   
   >   
   >When the WHO organized a joint China field mission with the Chinese   
   >government, in February 2020, non-Chinese researchers found it difficult   
   >to converse with their Chinese counterparts away from government   
   >handlers. Yet the WHO’s report was “effusive in its praise” of China’s   
   >approach, the book notes.   
   >   
   >“My view is that there was just a great deal of wishful thinking on the   
   >part of technocrats of all kinds,” Lee said. “They wanted there to be an   
   >answer – that if we do X and Y, we can prevent this disaster. And so   
   >they’re kind of grasping at straws. The Chinese example gave them hope.”   
   >She noted that Covid policymakers might have been better served if there   
   >had been people assigned to act as devil’s advocates in internal   
   >deliberations.   
   >   
   >Lee and Macedo are not natural scientists or public health   
   >professionals, they emphasize, and their book is about failures in   
   >public deliberation over Covid-19, rather than a prescription for   
   >managing pandemics.   
   >   
   >But they do wade into the debate about Covid-19’s origin, arguing that   
   >the “lab leak” hypothesis – that Covid-19 accidentally leaked from the   
   >Wuhan Institute of Virology, rather than spontaneously leaping from   
   >animals to humans – was unfairly dismissed.   
   >   
   >The Wuhan Institute studied coronaviruses similar to the one responsible   
   >for Covid-19, had a documented history of safety breaches, was located   
   >near the outbreak, and is known to have experimented on viruses using   
   >controversial “gain-of-function” methods funded by the US, which involve   
   >mutating pathogens to see what they might look like in a more advanced   
   >or dangerous form.   
   >   
   >If policymakers had been more honest with the public about these   
   >uncertainties, I think they would have maintained public trust better   
   >Perhaps because Trump had fanned racial paranoia by calling Covid-19 the   
   >“China virus” and rightwing influencers were spreading the notion that   
   >it had been deliberately engineered and unleashed on the world by China,   
   >many scientists, public health experts and journalists reacted by   
   >framing the idea of a lab leak – even an accidental one – as an   
   >offensive conspiracy theory. Dr Anthony Fauci and other top public   
   >health figures were evasive or in some cases dishonest about the   
   >possibility of a lab leak, Macedo and Lee say, as well as the fact that   
   >a US non-profit funded by the National Institutes of Health allegedly   
   >funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute.   
   >   
   >Since then, though, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies have   
   >cautiously endorsed the lab leak theory, and the discourse around Covid   
   >has softened somewhat. The economist Emily Oster sparked immense   
   >backlash by arguing against school closures in 2020. Now publications   
   >such as New York Magazine and the New York Times have acknowledged the   
   >plausibility of the lab leak hypothesis, for example, and there is   
   >growing consensus that school closures hurt many children.   
   >   
   >The reception to In Covid’s Wake has been more positive than Macedo and   
   >Lee expected – perhaps a sign that some of their arguments have   
   >penetrated the mainstream, if not that we’ve gotten better as a society   
   >at talking about difficult things. “The reception of the book has been   
   >much less controversial [and] contentious than we expected,” Macedo said.   
   >   
   >cashiers putting groceries in shopping bags   
   >Disposable: what Covid-19 did to those who couldn’t afford to fight the   
   >virus   
   >Read more   
   >Yet the wounds fester and debates continue. Some readers of the New York   
   >Times were furious when The Daily, the newspaper’s flagship podcast,   
   >recently interviewed them, with subscribers arguing that the episode was   
   >not sufficiently critical of their stance. And some coverage of the book   
   >has criticized it for underplaying the danger of the disease.   
   >   
   >Macedo and Lee said that a few of their colleagues have expressed   
   >concern that their critique could fuel political attacks on science – a   
   >worry that crossed their minds too. “Our response is that the best way   
   >to refute criticisms that science and universities have been politicized   
   >is to be open to criticism and willing to engage in self-criticism,”   
   >Macedo said.   
   >   
   >“We need to make sure these institutions are in the best possible   
   >working order to face the challenges ahead. And we think that’s by being   
   >honest, not by covering over mistakes or being unwilling to face up to   
   >hard questions.”   
      
   HeartDoc Andrew's profile photo   
   HeartDoc Andrew   
   Feb 14, 2024, 12:34:03?PM   
   to   
   In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of   
   GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's   
   secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps   
   us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne   
   pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being   
   100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**   
   appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).   
      
   Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the   
   COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)