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Claire Berlinski. Profile picture
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2 Aug, 5 tweets, 1 min read
No, this kind of crude anti-Christianism is dumb and kind of offensive. No doubt the US has a problem with a large group of radicalized Protestants right now. Suggesting this is *inherent to Christian doctrine* (or religious faith) is absurd. Who made the Scientific Revolution?
Copernicus was not only a Catholic but a canon. Medieval Catholic mathematicians and philosophers (Buridan, Oresme, Bacon) were the founders of modern science. The medieval church built universities. Do you think Thomas Aquinas would be an adherent of QAnon? I rather don't.
He was much like other medieval theologians who thought reason and faith intimately linked, not divorced. There's a clear linkage between C17th Anglican intellectual transformations and the thought, e.g., or Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton.
It's an old calumny that the Church's doctrines are entirely superstitious and have hindered the progress of civilization. No serious historian accepts this. Modern civilization was built by devout Christians, so there is no inherent conflict.
We happen to have a lot of crackpot Protestants on our hands, but whatever's cracking their pot is not the belief in the virgin birth. If I were a Christian (I am not), I'd be inclined to say we have a heresy problem on our hands.

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More from @ClaireBerlinski

Claire Berlinski. Profile picture
2 Aug
But to my suprise--typos apart--the report is reasonable, sober, and well-sourced. Nothing that hasn't been reported elsewhere, but a perfectly respectable summary of the circumstantial evidence thus far.
It makes me all the more furious the GOP has established itself as the party of lunatics, traitors, toadies, and insurrectionists--because we *so badly* need a GOP whose reports would be credible the world around. But this won't be--even though it's well done--
because the GOP has given the world ample reason to feel, "Oh, if they wrote it, it will by definition be insane."
It's not insane. It's a perfectly competent summary of the evidence to date and the reasons to think SARS-CoV-2 may have emerged from a lab.
Read 8 tweets
Claire Berlinski. Profile picture
2 Aug
When I asked @LKrauss1 to write this for @cosmo_globalist, he kindly agreed, but warned me no one would pay attention. Something about the prospect of nuclear annihilation, he said, prompts people to tune out. claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-most-urg… I believe it's this:
A particular set of cognitive biases that keep us from thinking clearly about catastrophic and existential risks. claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-apocalyp… Now that you know your aversion to reading that article is just an aspect of a common cognitive bias, why not read it?
And then--this is another aspect of the cognitive bias--instead of throwing up your hands and saying, "Well, nothing I can do! So I won't think about it!" why not write to your Congressman or your Senator--you can even find them on Twitter:
Read 12 tweets
Claire Berlinski. Profile picture
28 Jul
"All the evidence needed to debunk these tropes can be found online within five seconds by anybody with an inquiring mind." Yes, and that's a point worth taking seriously. What does it suggest? quillette.com/2021/07/28/vac…
Why do certain people have such an enormous psychological need to believe things that are so implausible and preposterous on their face? What emotional agenda does it serve? I don't quite know. Any insight, anyone?
In any case, I enjoyed this until the last paragraphs, with which I disagree. The risk of long Covid, and especially the attendant cognitive damage and drop in IQ, entails a strong argument for vaccinating children.
Read 5 tweets
Claire Berlinski. Profile picture
28 Jul
I dream that I am trying to pilot a huge cruise ship through Puget Sound, which is crowded with other vessels. I realize that this is a hospital ship. My friend @GCharing, who in fact died last year (RIP, Gaby) is on the ship. And dying.
She's still alive, but man is she furious with me for the way I'm piloting the ship. I'm doing everything wrong, apparently. The steering wheel is too heavy. I can't move it.

I'm aware that she's not being fair--and she's also dying, so I shouldn't take it personally--
but I'm still stung by the criticism.

Somehow the ship is full of graceful, Asian hospital orderlies/ship stewards who do everything right. I realize I forgot my mask. They hand me a fresh one with disdain.
Read 6 tweets
Claire Berlinski. Profile picture
26 Jul
As for VAERS, let me explain it. Then it will no longer be "unexplained."

Why might the number of reports in VAERS be higher than typical for other vaccines?

First: PUBLICITY. Anyone can report anything to VAERS.
There's a well-established link between media reports about a vaccine and AE reports in VAERS: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

(There's also a relationship to "litigation." pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16452357/)

But neither of these are related to "safety." Image
Given the massive amount of media attention to the pandemic and these vaccines, it's actually surprising that the rates of reported adverse effects are so low.

Second, DEMOGRAPHICS. The population that received these vaccines is very different from the usual vaccine recipients.
Read 25 tweets
Claire Berlinski. Profile picture
26 Jul
1. There is no "unexplained adverse event signal in VAERS." I'll return to this in the next thread.

2. IVM does not "address escape variants." There is scant evidence it does anything at all, no less address these variants. What's more, the reasoning is backward:
Even if it were effective, it's therapeutics, *not* vaccines, that should cause us to worry about escape variants. See:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl… The way to avoid those variants is to get as many people vaccinated, with both doses, as possible. As fast as possible.
It's especially important to prevent the spread of the disease to the immunoincompetent, which for obvious reasons requires *the whole community* be vaccinated.

3. There have been *no* reports of ADE from the vaccines. They've looked for it in animal studies: None.
Read 15 tweets

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