Health and Sanity category archive

(Broken link fixed.)

. . . but not if you believe the twits on Twitter. At Psychology Today Blogs, Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller discuss a recent study. Here’s a bit from the opening of their article:

A recently published study finds that about 25 percent of Twitter posts about climate change are generated by automated accounts, or bots. The authors of the study say that these Twitter bots are more likely to contest the scientific consensus, deny climate change, snub climate action, and attack climate scientists, among other targets. In contrast, they found that only about five percent of suspected bots support climate activism. . . . And the culprits behind the bots? That is hard to establish, but the researchers speculate that the bots are likely the work of “fossil-fuel companies, petro-states, or their surrogates [such as] public relations agencies, important agents in the climate delay and denial machine.”

While we’re on the subject of “social” media, I commend to your attention an article in my local rag regarding a study of “social” media’s role in magnifying misinformation about coronavirus vaccines.

Amy Z. Quinn marvels at the difference calling a piece of paper a “vaccine passport,” instead of an “immunization record,” makes.

Hint: There isn’t one.

Via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.

Big league marauders.

Here at the farm, we got our first doses of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday; we are scheduled to get our second doses in three weeks after scheduling our appointments as instructed via email from the CDC.

Neither of us has suffered any serious after effects. I had more discomfort after receiving the shingles vaccine (also two shots) a while ago. (My grandmother had a bout with shingles; the vaccine is well worth a couple of days of a soreness in one arm.)

The level of organization at the Virginia Beach Convention Center was impressive and the staff, many of whom were volunteers, was courteous and helpful. I was in and out in half an hour, including the 15-minute post-injection waiting period as a precaution against adverse reactions.