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--
--even if all they got was saline solution.

Don't worry about the side effects, folks. I got none. Quite possible you won't, either.
"Des" douleurs, I obviously meant.

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More from @ClaireBerlinski

14 Mar
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

a) incredible relief;
b) immense good fortune;
Read 9 tweets
13 Mar
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--
Read 10 tweets
10 Mar
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.

A kid will happily nourish himself on Ho Hos.

Adults don't think Ho Hos are edible.
Read 28 tweets
9 Mar
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.
Read 10 tweets
9 Mar
C'est absolument faux. Étude après étude, dans le monde réel, montre que la vaccination avec Pfizer-BioNTech ou AstraZeneca entraîne entraîne une diminution *massive* des hospitalisations et des décès: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Même une seule dose de l'un ou l'autre vaccin est efficace de 85% à 94% pour réduire les hospitalisations. Dans l’étude ci-joint--une parmi tant d’autres--ils ont comparé les données de près de 600 000 personnes vaccinées à un groupe de taille similaire-
-ne l'ayant pas reçu. Après deux doses, le vaccin était efficace à 92% pour prévenir l'infection et, parmi ceux qui ont été infectés, 92% efficace pour protéger contre les symptômes, et 92% efficace pour protéger contre des maladies graves.
Read 4 tweets
7 Mar
Are you aware that your behavior makes it more likely that other people will die? Does this concern you? Or do you think, "That idea triggers me, so I won't think about it?"
Don't reply with some airy argument about "Death comes for us all," or "We all kill each other every day if you think about it, innit?" Very specifically: If you become a vector for this disease, you could kill many people--much loved by their families--in a super-spreader event.
Old, fat, sick people, perhaps, but also maybe some people who just got unlucky. Would you want someone else to be that careless about the life of someone you love? To speed blind drunk down the freeway right when your daughter is driving home, say?
Read 10 tweets

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