When some become disposable, all eventually become disposable. | Same handle on all the lifeboats. | https://t.co/uBVMAqGLyX
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Nov 8, 2024 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Large numbers of “progressives” are now vowing they’ll never give in to anticipatory obedience.
I wish that were true. I truly do.
But they will, and it won’t take much.
Anticipatory obedience, you see, is just a fancy synonym for peer pressure. (1/5)
The thing to watch for is this.
Many leftists have a deep-seated need to feel cool—to network at brunches and banter at afterparties, where they can make names for themselves as outlaws with hearts of gold.
That’s ultimately why they abandoned COVID solidarity. (2/5)
First, some context. 3M’s Aura is prized for combining these traits: trifold structure, foam along the nose wire, headbands, N95 certification.
In Europe, FFP2s must filter 94% of particles—roughly analogous to an N95’s 95%. An FFP3 filters 99%, though much depends on fit. (2/8)
Jan 5, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Short, spot-on thread.
We see this daily in—among other things—“learning loss” and “immunity debt” debates that find lifelong progressives angrily insisting that kids shouldn’t be protected from viral carnage; that protecting them was the carnage.
I don’t know what the off-ramp is. I do know from firsthand experience that people double down on misinformation when they feel that they or things they profoundly value are being impugned, cornered, vilified, or misunderstood. (2/6)
Dec 13, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
“The data from Statistics Canada suggests the incidence of Long Covid rises with each reinfection, going from around 14% in people who’ve had one infection to more than 37% in people who’ve had three.” (1/6) johnsnowproject.org/primers/no-one…
“SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to harm almost every organ and system in the body, causing clotting, inflammation and fibrosis, impairing biological functions ranging from the mitochondria to the pancreas.” (2/6) See also:
A longtime friend wrote to me recently, urging me to join a group of former classmates for a “post-pandemic” all-you-can-eat buffet. She’s been complaining for some time about my no longer attending these things, despite having all the salient information at her disposal. (1/4)
She emailed again today to gripe about a three-week-long “cold” that’s left her feeling “like death.” She insists it’s just a cold, of course—as vehemently as she’s been insisting on dining indoors as often as possible to make up for what she regards as lost time. (2/4)
Apr 4, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It’s now nearly cliché to point out that those of us who’ve always been misfits—for whatever reason—have less trouble with peer pressure, because we’re used to others’ smirks and eyerolls.
It actually has little to do with smirks and eyerolls. (1/6)
Yes, when you’ve always been an outlier, the reasons no longer matter as the years go by—you get used to being viewed as peculiar, the same way you get used to breathing air or feeling sunlight.
Yes, you learn to base your actions on other criteria.
You also learn why. (2/6)
Feb 28, 2023 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
If you’re feeling drained but you also feel a need to act, you’re not alone. Here are ten small things you can do to help move the world in the right direction.
The first is to follow the Covid Litigation Project, @covidlitigation. (1/10)
The second, if feasible, is to contribute to a legal venture in or near your jurisdiction. Litigation is our best instrument right now—it’s also what put an end to indoor smoking. Here are two Canadian examples. (2/10)
• gofundme.com/f/protecting-a…
• gofundme.com/f/accountable-…
Feb 6, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Yup—the “it’s your own damn fault” health propaganda is revving up in a familiar way. (1/4)
Poor air quality is linked to a heightened risk of dementia. We could treat this as an infrastructural challenge—but it’s more convenient for industry if you berate yourself for not learning enough languages and instruments in your spare time. (2/4) aaic.alz.org/downloads2021/…
Jan 18, 2023 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
64/ “Cardiac MRI studies revealed cardiac impairment in 78% of 100 individuals who had a prior COVID-19 episode... and in 58% of participants with long COVID (studied 12 months after infection), reinforcing the durability of cardiac abnormalities.” nature.com/articles/s4157…65/ “‘COVID-19 infection worsens pre-existing heart conditions, and increases the risk of developing more than 20 heart conditions including heart attack, blood clots, heart failure and stroke,’ [Dr. Amanda Buttery, Heart Foundation of Australia] said.” smh.com.au/national/fatal…
Dec 16, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
20/ 13.9% of U.S. college students who completed a major multi-institutional survey last year (n=49,307) stated they’d lost a family member or close friend to COVID. This was before Delta and Omicron.
Bereavement is a top predictor of academic outcomes. leadershipstudy.net/leadershipthou…21/ “Critics of remote learning almost always focussed on the mild consequences for most children who became ill... as if these children lived and were schooled within a vacuum and not among adults for whom the consequences could be dire, if not deadly.” newyorker.com/news/essay/who…
Nov 5, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This, by the way, is why so many rich, so-called progressives have lined up behind the “learning loss” narrative—despite being literate enough to understand that the concept was concocted by the standardized testing industry and is unintelligible outside of that framework. (1/6)
Rather than seeing the value of adapting classrooms, curriculums, and policies to benefit more students by leveraging the lessons of the last three years, some have been vicious in their demands for pre-pandemic “normalcy”—even when students themselves want the adaptations. (2/6)
Nov 3, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I don’t understand why people don’t care more about their brains.
From discussions with friends and acquaintances, it seems some people believe they have safety nets: they feel they can “afford” to trade their mental clarity, bit by bit, for the exhilaration of partying. (1/5)
And some really do have safety nets. They’re confident that if they develop long COVID, they’ll have a soft landing—cushioned by generational wealth, fully loaded pensions, and extended family who’ll be thrilled to support them through their impairment. (2/5)
Oct 13, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
When public health agencies remove the requirement to isolate until uninfectious, employers in all sectors and industries predictably interpret that as a green light to expect—implicitly and explicitly—their employees to come in while infectious. (1/10)
Those of us who are lucky enough to be able to say no should say no. But not everyone’s that lucky. Single parents, the precariously employed—anyone without a safety net—may understandably run the numbers and prioritize the wages they need for food, heat, and light. (2/10)
Oct 12, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A lot of people, now dead, would be alive today if public health agencies and other institutions had done their jobs: acknowledged COVID’s airborne transmissibility from the start, publicized it, and acted on it by designing policy strategies to meet the moment. (1/4)
Our institutions didn’t do that and it’s clear they won’t—at least not without irresistible pressure exerted through occupational safety and human rights litigation that will take years to play out in courts.
So, it falls to us. (2/4)
Oct 3, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Historically, the way we “lived with” diseases was by eliminating them with new hygienic norms and policy strategies or by dying.
The grifters are right: our ancestors “lived with” all sorts of pathogens. Go look at headstones in old cemeteries and see how long they lived. (1/4)
We had it so good for seventy years. We’re such a stupid society.
Safety isn’t a cosmic default: it’s actively designed into our lives through traffic laws, food safety standards, water treatment plants, building codes, and—once upon a time—public health regulations. (2/4)
Sep 30, 2022 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
The redoubtable Ed Yong’s insight two years ago that “Normal led to this” should be at the heart of every annual plan across every sector and profession. For decades, “normal” has meant unsustainable, systemic dysfunction that we hold together with duct tape and ignore. 1/
James Baldwin once wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
We’re at a watershed moment as a society. If we can’t face unpleasant problems because they’re too unpleasant, this might buy us a few more years of parties. 2/
Sep 21, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
To anyone who needs to hear it:
No one ever taught you, growing up, how to survive a neurodegenerative airborne pandemic. Nothing we learned as children could have adequately prepared us for this era. You are doing a phenomenal job. You should be proud of yourself. 1/10
I sometimes wish we had all met in a better timeline. But I also know that in the better timelines—in any reality where none of this happened—most of us would be strangers and pleased to keep it that way. 2/10
Sep 21, 2022 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
1/ I am compiling a running thread of articles for use in an upcoming work meeting that I expect will become a debate about—among other things—COVID, masks, and competing definitions of equity and accessibility in education. I hope it can be useful to others as well.
2/ “Under universal design, disabled and chronically ill people are welcomed into university spaces because accessibility is built into their design. During an infectious disease outbreak, mask mandates are absolutely part of universal design.” fastcompany.com/90790893/im-a-…
Sep 3, 2022 • 92 tweets • 31 min read
1/ A fresh, running thread on COVID’s well-documented cardiovascular harms for anyone who needs links when discussing the rise in heart failure and strokes among younger and middle-aged people since 2020:
2/ “At the end of a year, there were 45 additional cardiovascular events—such as stroke or heart failure—per 1,000 people among those who tested positive for COVID.” scientificamerican.com/article/even-m…
Sep 2, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
1/ Clear, concise messaging on COVID's airborne transmissibility similar to Japan's consistent messaging on the three C's to avoid: close contact, closed spaces, crowded places.
2/ Celebrate layered protections as a civic responsibility. Release commercial-quality ads on how reckless behaviour gets lethally amplified along the chain of transmission—not just the reckless acts of individuals, but the reckless policies of organizations.
Aug 31, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
1/ "'The most important lesson from China, in my view, is that China had eschewed the WHO’s recommendations and demonstrated that airborne precautions were shown to be far more effective in safeguarding health care workers,' Possamai told Byline Times." bylinetimes.com/2021/07/23/wor…2/ "'Tragically, the decision by the WHO to conceal this fact contributed to dooming the world to a preventable level of death and disease,' Possamai said."
