Absolutely damned straight. @kkariko, I've written to you before to tell you how much I admire you and how grateful to you I am, but I figure no one minds hearing that twice.
Thank you. Thank you so much. For your insight, for your genius, and for your persistence.
Oh, my goodness--@kkariko "liked" my comment. I'm starstruck. I'm so awed by her that I'm blushing like a schoolgirl.
But I have to ask: @kkariko, how does it feel to have saved the world? What's that actually like--do you still get cross with yourself for normal things like--
say, forgetting to take the chicken out of the freezer to defrost it before dinner, or putting off doing your taxes for so long that you wind up pulling a frantic all-nighter, or eating an entire box of chocolates in one sitting?
Or is it more like, "I'm Katalin Kerako. I saved the whole goddamn world. You guys defrost your own damned chickens--I'll order takeout. And another box of chocolates, too. Frankly, the IRS should be paying *me* taxes, seeing as I saved their whole hapless economy."
Seriously, what's it like?
("Kariko." Sorry for the misspelling. You can tell I'm nervous speaking to you.)
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They haven't released the AstraZeneca in the US at all. And for the same reason. Both the US and the US are dominated by bureaucracies whose motto is "Cover your ass, at all costs, no matter the cost to human life and the affront to common sense."
And they get away with it because far too many of their citizens can't be bothered to inform themselves about any of this; they can't do math, they don't grasp statistics, they know nothing about biology or medicine, and they find the germ theory of disease pretty tricky.
I've had *no* side effects. No fever, no malaise, not even a sore arm. I'm beginning to wonder whether the large number of reports to the contrary should be attributed in some part, at least, to the nocebo effect. I mean,
the doctor at the vaccine clinic really laid it on thick, describing every possible side effect in lugubrious detail: "Ees douleurs, des rougeurs, des gonflements, de la fatigue, des maux de tête, des douleurs musculaires, des frissons, de la fièvre, des nausées ... "
You put someone in a white lab coat and tell him to give that speech in a serious voice before jabbing someone in the arm, then carefully survey them for 15 minutes to be sure they don't drop dead, some significant portion will dutifully respond by developing those symptoms--
Here's what's bugging me. I should have seen a table and a sign, right outside the vaccine center, that said, "C'est formidable d'avoir reçu le vaccin, n'est-ce pas? Une vrai délivrance! N'aimeriez-vous pas partager cette joie?
And someone should have been collecting donations:
Explaining that for three Euros, I could give a person who wasn't lucky enough to be born where I was a vaccine, too. Maybe show me photos of people who look like they'd *love* to hug their grandkids. "For 30 bucks, you can vaccinate a whole village!"
"Or maybe today you'd like to vaccinate Harare? Or, perhaps, all of Zimbabwe?"
There should be someone standing there with a credit card processor, taking advantage of the stream of people who feel
How long would you wait for a routine appointment with a doctor who's running late? The caveat: There's a pandemic; the waiting room is so full people can't stay six feet apart; and the room is poorly ventilated. (As you're guessing, this is not a hypothetical question.)
The further caveat:
You called in advance to ask if she was running late. You said asked if, given the pandemic, she would kindly send you a text, if so, so that you don't wait in the crowded waiting room. You receive no text.
The further caveat:
The further caveat: Someone in the waiting room is coughing.
The further caveat: The ICUs in France are now 94% full and the B116 variant is running amok.
The further caveat: After 15 minutes, you knock on her door and say--politely--
Here, I think, is the main point, now that I've slept on it. There is an adult world. There is a children's world. The adult world is characterized by restraint, impulse control, a developed sense of the emotions and needs of others, and by sophisticated and educated taste.
Adults prefer quiet, order, and conversation to noise, chaos, and screaming. Adults dine, rather than eating like animals. Adults are sexual and cynical, not innocent.
Children are hilarious, exuberant, innocent, full of wonder--and monstrously narcissistic.
A kid finds chasing a pigeon all afternoon *delightful.*
Chasing a pigeon all afternoon would properly strike any adult as completely dumb.
I usually avoid commenting on American child-rearing strategies because the rejoinder is obvious and entirely correct: "Claire, go raise a child yourself before you lecture us." But this article seems dead-accurate to me. theatlantic.com/family/archive…
I sure see a lot of American parents making themselves needlessly miserable--and their kids unbearable--by using the strategies she discusses. It's true and it's obvious, if you've lived elsewhere and seen how parents in other countries do it, that it doesn't have to be this way.
I don't think I've ever seen a French kid have a tantrum in public. I watch what the parents here do, and I'm not sure I fully understand it, but it looks pretty much like what she describes. They're much more low-energy and low-involvement.