In late January, rationalists on Twitter were already warning about COVID-19 and stocking respirators. So why did America fail so miserably? Was it only Trump's fault?
New York Times, January 31: "At this point, sharply curtailing air travel to and from China is more of an emotional or political reaction..." nytimes.com/2020/01/31/bus…
New York Times, September 30: (see screenshot) nytimes.com/2020/09/30/wor…
The Washington Post, January 31: “In disregard of WHO recommendation against travel restrictions, the US went the opposite way,” the ministry’s spokesman said in English-language messages on Twitter on Friday. “Where is its empathy?” washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020…
Vox, January 23: "The evidence on travel bans for diseases like coronavirus is clear: They’re political theater, not good public health policy." vox.com/2020/1/23/2107…
Vox, February 13: "“No handshakes, please”: The tech industry is terrified of the coronavirus. Although public officials in the area say the virus is contained for now, that hasn’t stopped the tech industry from worrying." vox.com/recode/2020/2/…
ABC News, February 1: “We need to use the least restrictive measure necessary to safeguard the population" abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSto…
People who want to be arbiters of truth only changed their anti-lockdown stance after it became politically opportune.
“...people should go out and continue to live life, should go out to restaurants...” -- NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-…
The COVID-19 strategy pursued by the establishment is not so much about being pro-science as being anti-Trump.
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…
This is actually one of the best arguments against censorship. Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" would have never seen the light of day in an environment designed to protect the expert consensus from being challenged.
March 22: Germany's top-virologist vs. me.
Translation: Lancet on the subject of masks. This fully confirms the German approach: masks for medical professions, not in public. No clear use of masks in public, therefore priority for masks in the hospital. WHO also recommends that.
"More broadly, I’m really concerned that lashing out at Trump (who, to be clear, is terrible) is serving to sweep under the rug the extent and scope of the failure of the western public health community." slowboring.com/p/the-masks-an…
The arbiters of truth.
"They excused Black Lives Matter protestors because of ideological affinity. They were against masks before they were for them. They talked about how border controls don’t work, but later admitted they had just asserted something they wanted to be true..." gnxp.com/WordPress/2020…
Politics is the mind killer.
This tweet has now been deleted. Archived version: archive.is/oem7R
via
"Gregg Gonsalves is a global health activist, an epidemiologist, an Assistant Professor at Yale School of Public Health." en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Gon…
Experts and institutions have been spectacularly and completely wrong.
More here:
Was it just Trump's fault? Definitely not:
26 Jan 2020
China announces that the new virus is infectious before symptoms appear, but health officials in other countries are not all convinced; the NYC health commissioner calls the claim "misinformation"
Total deaths: 56
bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…… timeout.com/newyork/news/c…
27 Jan 2020
New Yorkers recently returned from Wuhan have begun voluntarily quarantining at home, but the NYC health commissioner says there's no need to do so:
“we encourage people to spend time with their families and go about their celebration”
nytimes.com/2020/01/27/nyr…
Do you still believe that Trump single-handedly caused 400,000 coronavirus deaths?
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