I have a few thoughts about selfishness, COVID, bullying, and life…
(Note—not an “expert” in life—just as a fellow human)🧵
(Note—not an “expert” in life—just as a fellow human)🧵
2) First of all, #CovidIsNotOver — not by a long shot. #BA2 is still creeping up slowly (or quickly) in most of the world. I’ll do a #BA2 update soon, but you only have to look at HK to see how bad it can get. Their hospitals are low on oxygen too. But I’m not here about COVID.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1498357688199176195
3) I’m here to talk about empathy… or the relative lack thereof. People are often too selfish. They think just because THEY are low risk / don’t have vulnerable family, that thus others are too. And thus, ‘why should I do XYZ to reduce transmission if I’m healthy’—it’s selfish.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1500324327161540610
4) Or worse, they know others may be vulnerable but they simply don’t care… because “my freedom”. Freedom is important, yes, but your right to do exercise your freedom “ends at my nose 👃”—literally. Second hand smoking 🚬 endangers others—especially bartenders & wait staff…
5) Hence, because of cancer-causing & heart attack-causing & mortality-causing effects of secondhand smoking 🚬 on others, it is banned in most restaurants and on airplanes (fire risk too). We curbed smoking in public because IT ENDANGERED OTHERS. Smoke alone—but not in public.6)
6) For the same reason, we need to think of others, not just yourself, when it comes to a deadly pandemic virus. I know some don’t want to mask, vaccinate, or isolate—I get the “freedom”. But you don’t have the “freedom” to be drunk & DRIVE & injure others. Think of others.
7) You can claim accidents “rare” but much higher with higher levels of alcohol. (Sidenote accident risks also very high with sleep deprivation or while texting). Absolute risk on any given day is low (you hear that phrase a lot), but your cumulative risk accumulates over time.
8) And if you do any low risk enough, especially high risk things like drunk driving, more COVID exposure, smoking—your cumulative risk really adds up (think playing Russian Roulette too much). In a big room—odds are someone could have virus & someone has vulnerable family.
9) okay you’re not convinced—but “I’m boosted” & “we have amazing drugs now!” Yes, that’s great—for you. How many people have boosters? Only 95 out of 330 mil in US have boosters. Over 2/3 of 🇺🇸 doesn’t. Hospitalizations protection without boosters? Only 70-79%. Booster: 90-95%. 
10) what about miracle drugs? Well, monoclonal antibodies used to be great—but that was before #Omicron. Very few MABs work well against the new #BA2 subvariant that’s rising. Pfizer’s Paxlovid with 90% lower severe disease risk is great—but truth is theres gonna be shortage.
11) In fact, the US govt now admits it doesn’t have enough pandemic funding left for more tests and treatments without Congress. Currently, we only ordered 8.3% of the paxlovid promised—no more funding for more treatments. There is a huge “budget crunch”. statnews.com/2022/03/04/whi…
12) So my point is—don’t think everyone will have easy access to Paxlovid. Don’t think unboosted people are well protected. Don’t think others don’t have vulnerable people in their family. Don’t think you don’t need to worry about public endangerment (eg smoking, drunk driving).
13) which gets to my other point about bullying — don’t bully others, especially kids, about if they want to wear a mask. Especially if you’re the governor of Florida to high school kids when you have a family with cancer at home. Bullying is mean—& on masks, public endangerment.
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1499111287485304842
14) On the note of bullying—there are bad actors spreading misinformation about me & photoshopping & sending it to others to spread. Note—I removed the name below because I don’t condone bullying in any direction, but I share because screenshot of me is fake. ➡️Let’s be kind.
15) I have no vendetta against anyone, & I ask my followers please don’t retaliate or bully against anyone. An eye for an eye makes us all blind. Jesus once said, if someone hurts you, “turn the other cheek”. For peace, you sometimes need to defend, but sometimes turn the cheek.
16) Bottomline—empathy & compassion above all. The world is sometimes a nasty and hurtful place—but we should want to raise our children to be better—to raise a 🌎 where our collective humanity, justice, peace should be paramount. That is EVERYONE’S LANE to fight for. Thank you.
17) Interesting discussion 🧵 by someone I’ve never met but has quietly monitored my account for 2 years.
https://twitter.com/sachapie/status/1500707063231483905
18) Many misunderstand what I do, why I do, and who I am. This thread 🧵 and article below explains some of my background for this interested. The urgency to warn and prevent disease is personal, very personal. 👇
https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1473182266541195267
19) Also some ask why I share info on nuclear ☢️ radiation risk—it’s not just global health security, but also personal. Family member in Austria died years ago of leukemia after Chernobyl radiation fallout—which had wide contamination. Empathy please. 🙏 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_o…
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