Health and Sanity category archive

While we’re on the subject, here’s an excerpt from an article by the Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini about persons taking ivermectin horse de-worming pills to cure COVID:

I sent him (a reader who claimed that the media were covering up this miracle cure–ed.) a link to an FDA information sheet on the dangers of the drug now being promoted on the internet by conspiracy theorists and fringe anti-vaxxers.

He responded, “You expect me to believe the FDA? How naïve are you?”

We are a society of stupid.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Clifford Lazarus takes a look at common myths and misinformation being spread about COVID-19, including the following:

• Myth 1: Masks Do Not Protect People from COVID-19
• Myth 2: Vaccines Cause COVID-19
• Myth 3: Vaccines Contain Micro-Tracking Technology

After demolishing them, he comes to a disheartening conclusion:

My theory that tries to explain this sad and deeply alarming state of affairs is that human beings still have Paleolithic and Pleistocene era physiology and intelligence, are mostly led by Dark Ages and medieval institutions, and yet now possess almost god-like technology.

It is this latter fact that seems to support our species’ scientific classification as Homo sapiens — “wise man.” But, in general, that classification seems to be a misnomer. Why would people choose to ignore scientific realities and act in personally reckless, socially irresponsible, and globally destructive ways? Perhaps because the prevalence of superstition, fear, denial, greed, shortsightedness, and ignorance are integral aspects of our species? This is why I propose a different, seemingly much more fitting classification for our kind, Homo stultus — “stupid man.”

Follow the link for more about the myths, his debunking thereof, and the reasoning behind his suggested change in nomenclature.

Julie Heller spent some time with school children to determine their feelings about wearing masks in school. She found that they did not consider themselves to be abused, despite what some parents might be thinking–and saying. She quotes one little girl as replying, when asked how she feels about wearing a mask, “Doesn’t matter,” she said, “as long as we get to go to school.”

So she wonders about the source of parents’ anxiety. Here a little bit (emphasis added):

So where’s all this added anxiety and stress parents claim kids are feeling from wearing masks?

Maybe, just maybe it’s the parents who are feeling this. Maybe they’re watching their kids get on the school bus with covered faces and it reminds them their kids aren’t having the “normal” childhood they had mask-free. . . .

But, logically, it makes no sense to care about your kids more than anything in the world while also pushing to send them into a microscopic war zone without protective gear.

Read one family’s story. A snippet:

Recently, our family member told us: “I am so sorry. I was selfish to think this was a personal choice. I never really thought I would get this or pass it on.”

Co-conspirators.

And, at Juanita Jean’s, a great moment in masks.

Writing at the Idaho State Journal, Michael Corrigan expresses his puzzlement. A snippet (emphasis added); follow the link for the full article.

Urging people to get vaccinated or wear masks is not a mandate threatening personal freedom; it’s about health. If I stop at a red light, I don’t consider it an infringement on my “freedom” or manhood. It is a law, and to break it could cause a car crash resulting in death or serious injury.

When two state governors, one of whom is infected himself, put a ban on mask mandates even though face covering prevents transmission of COVID, does that not make them indirectly responsible for illness and the potential death of infected children?

The writer of a letter to the editor of The Roanoke Times explains his decision to stop wearing a mask.

No excerpt or summary can do it justice. Please just follow the link.