Health and Sanity category archive
Truth in Labeling 0
At the Tampa Bay Times, Stephen Buckley, citing John M. Barry’s research, looks back at how news of the 1918 flue epidemic was covered and reminds us that reporting facts is not being alarmist. Here’s a bit:
In North Carolina, some newspapers would not publish the names of the dead.
One newspaper in Phoenix declined to write about influenza deaths there, or anywhere else. The paper, Barry writes, “was utterly silent, saying nothing about influenza anyplace in the country until the news was such that it could no longer keep silent.”
Nattering Nabobs of Narcissism 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Kristy Lee Hochenberger writes of the danger posed by narcissists who believe that they are entitled to ignore the advice of experts in these viral times. A snippet; follow the link to see whether her depiction of narcissism and narcissists reminds you of anyone in the news.
One Insure Thing 0
Wendell Potter, at one time a flack for CIGNA, reminds us that for profit insurance companies exist for profit. They don’t want you to get sick, and, if you do, they don’t want to take care of you. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Viral Vigilantes 0
Civilization is a thin veneer indeed.
The Epidemiologist’s Apologist 0
A conservative right-wing* law professor tried his hand at sciencing and failed miserably.
In related news, The Roanoke Times’s Dan Casey, who is decidedly not an apologist for the Epidemiologist-in-Chief, responds to those who complain that his coverage of Donald Trump has been–er–less than even-handed.
_________________
*He’s with the Hoover Institute.
Held Heath Hostage
0
Afterthought:
Last night, we watched an episode of Cheers, a sitcom from the ’80s, in which a subplot involved a $683.00 emergency room bill.
Good times.
Don’t Look! 0
This is a classic example of treating the symptom, not the cause.
Words fail me.
Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt 0
Two recent posts at Psychology Today Blogs offer insight into the intersection between political leanings and failure to take seriously–even to actively discount–the seriousness of the rapid spread of COVID-19.
Nassir Ghaemi offers a taxonomy of disease deniers:
Meanwhile, Nigel Barber identifies an irony:
Given the confused and chaotic–often self-contradictory–response to the coronavirus by the current Federal Administration and tendency of many to, say, confuse a Facebook frolic with a fact, I commend both pieces as being worth the few moments it will take to read them.
Aside:
My grad school professor for early federal period history, Dr. Shade, was fond of saying that “history is irony.”
Far too often, history has proven him correct, as when the United States went from having its first black President to having the most racist President since Woodrow Wilson.
The Epidemiologist Quacks Up 0
E. J. Montini warns us to get medical advice from persons who know what they are talking about.
A Tune for the Times 0
Warning: Some language.
The Art of the Con, Going Viral Dept. 0
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the epidemic of scams designed to feed on the fear of COVID-19. Here’s a bit about one of them; follow the link for the lengthy litany.
“It will seem legitimate to people who have heard in the news that those distributions might be coming,” said Jonathan Sasse, marketing executive at First Orion, an Arkansas company that builds scam protections for mobile-phone users. “And often times, where scammers are very successful is if they’re dealing with a too-good-to-be-true thing like an offer of funds in times of desperate financial conditions.”
As the saying goes, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
Crisis Response, Florida Man Style 0
Brendan Kuty is–er–somewhat taken aback at the doings in the Florida Man state.
Crisis Response 0
At The American Scholar, Philip Alcabes argues that the coronavirus presents us with a crisis, but not as it is being portrayed. He suggests that actual crisis is manifest in three ways. Here’s one; follow the link for the other two.
Second, we face a crisis of leadership. The playbook for a public health approach to contagion is clear and well known, and it has been practiced often: test widely for infection, trace contacts of the infected to locate further cases, isolate cases so they don’t infect others, refer the sick for treatment. But that has not happened yet in the United States. It should have, but it didn’t.
(snip)
Why this kind of stewardship didn’t happen is hard to know. Perhaps there’s no hope for such stewardship in an administration that has not so much created a vacuum of leadership as actively attacked it. For instance, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has often tried to take on the role of communicator, only to be undermined by the president. We are left with the present siege situation.
Epidemiology, Opening the Door Dept. 0
At the Portland Press-Herald, Herb Janick, makes the case that the Republican Party paved the way for the coronavirus through its failure to consider and protect the common good. He gives three examples of how it did so; follow the link for his discussion of each one:
First, rather than recognize that the federal government has a critical role, the Republican Party has spent years denigrating and demonizing the government and its important role in society.
Second, the Republican Party has sought to diminish the role of experts and science and replace them with ideology.
Third, the Republican Party has supported a president who manifestly is not fit to lead.