Clyde_Style wrote:BKlutch wrote:thebuzzardman wrote:
A classic. Most people...
After the lesson, of course, he steps right in the big steaming pile o' shīt.
First off, post more often
One of the core distinctions politically are which politicians/parties/administrations defer to actual peer-reviewed scientific research and which don't. Then you can draw a line between who is bias fitting their POV and who is letting their policy be guided by facts.
Because a pandemic is a moving target the single-minded people amongst the population and the politicans will hone in on a single point of information and extrapolate the whole to prove their pre-determined conclusions. It wouldn't matter to them if the source is good or if the data point is fact or fiction, simply that it fits their narrative.
One of the reasons I step on toes is because I'm usually fighting against over-simplications because:
(1) Solutions are complex
(2) We rarely get what we want when we want it anyway
(3) You have to go through points A, B and C to get to D-Z
(4) Real change or progress is a moving target and context shifts
and we are in a civilization now that for the most part has lost the capacity to juggle multiple pieces of information simultaneously while being capable of handling paradox and the grey zones where there are no immediate and easy solutions to a problem
People generally want the simplest explanation and that now often means the explanation that satisfies their emotional bias. A lower ability to process data leads to delusions that THEIR explanation obeys the rule of Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is often the best one). What those so inclined overlook is that you usually have to wade through data, some of it possibly conflicting, in order to distill the findings and arrive at that simplest explanation.
IOW, our society is too lazy to absorb actual research and prefers whatever fits their emotional POV.
So, yes, the data on MRNA vaccines is vast and quite authoritative, but if you want to bury your head in the sand and cherry pick for objections you can and you will. The reality is there are always outliers and anomalies in any large data set and the data set we have now on those vaccines is massive. It will continue to yield informative insights for years to come and guide future research and policy, but it will shift too as the viruses mutate.
Covid has overwhelmed the thinking capacity of the majority of the world and it is harder to find good information when lazy people spread whatever social media meme they stumble across.
I feel Biden has done a good job. There's always room for improvements I suppose, but from what I can see those improvements require a population that is willing to learn and evolve their thinking. At this point, only tragedy will move those impervious to facts and even then maybe not at all.
Real high stress situations bring out the stupid in society and people.
The USA (not the only country) was well primed to embrace stupidity before Covid; Covid just makes it worse.
Years of economic hardship for certain segments of the country for 30 years and basically, sort of everyone for 12 years, have really set things on the edge.
For the right wing, this anxiety expresses itself in fear, hyper nationalism, racism, and other populist claptrap.
For what is left of the left in this country (not very much, since neither of the two political parties is left wing) this expresses itself in the feeding frenzy of trying to find the most "pure" version in cancel culture etc. The left basically eats itself.
The right wing already does it's own purity thing via Christian right wing politics, and wedge issues like gun rights and abortion.
All this stuff is the sign of a broken, corrupted culture and political system. Mainly, the issue is wealth disparity, expressed American-style. Because Fascism always looks different in every country. Trump left, the fascist mind set remains. And it ain't only among right wingers.
Weimar America.
All this division fits the oligarchical ruling class of this country just fine. Status quo = making money. Don't disrupt it. They won't die in droves from the pandemic. That's for proles.
) remote or in person I had a hell of a time finding the critical piece of information of why hospitalizations of children have been up so much with Delta. I finally found a news article published in a paper from Sydney, Australia that summarized Delta data well and clearly presented findings showing that the spike was primarily attributable to increased contagion and not increased virulence with children. So we're giving it a go figuring their risk is low and we're vaccinated. And it sounds like vaccine authorization for kids is just around the bend. 
