Democrat ideas are failing in more realms than Covid. Their ideas are not progressive. What we are seeing now in blue cities and states is the opposite of progress. I’m not an academic but said the same from day one…that Covid policies would harm and kill more people than Covid. Anyone with common sense knew that this was not about a virus the day the experts declared rioting safe from Covid spread. My husband was called to work riots, while my kids remained at home, not learning.
I don’t live in the US, but the situation was similar in Canada. Most people here will not agree with me. I have friends who are retired teachers. I had one friend who wouldn’t speak to me for several months because my view of the rights of people in the pandemic were not hers.
My 13 year old granddaughter has continuing mental health issues, mostly caused by not being able to go to school; not being able to see her friends - because the school was closed. Children were “used” to protect adults from getting covid. Surely it should have been the adults protecting children.
Once Covid came along it got 100 percent of consideration. Mental health got zero. You try to explain this to adults. They mostly think that is right. “I could die from covid” therefore whatever anyone else does is of no consideration if it puts ME at risk. It’s tough shit for the mental health of anyone else.
One of my friends had the opinion that if you were not vaccinated you should be turned away from the hospital. I tried to point out that if a drunk driver is injured when he or she causes an accident, they don’t just throw the body in the ditch to die. Isn’t that similar? She woukdnt listen
I am so upset and annoyed about this that I can hardly express my opinions.
I can't understand why the authors remain "progressive, liberal Democrats" given the abject failure of the approach to the pandemic in schools described here. The interviewee and her colleagues have simply doubled down on disaster. They raised $40,000, wonderful, then they spent it on typically liberal activity: forming a PAC etc. One would have thought the Univ. of Michigan would have started experimental efforts to help students catch up and repair the damage wrought so families and schools could quickly discover what works, instead of going right back to the same old, same old. Anybody thought of experimental charter schools?
I consider myself "progressive" with a "libertarian" streak. On the "political compass," this puts me in the "green box:" Left and toward the bottom. I believe that people can best decide for themselves for most of their own life decisions, and that government programs should be there to provide the safety for us to make our own choices. As a society, we have lost respect for each other to the degree that trust is at an all-time low. Our own decisions are not researched, but rationalized. Often, this rationalization stems from our political viewpoint, not the weight of evidence. We want to belong to a tribe. We want to believe our tribe is the best. This is coded into the software between our ears at a fundamental level.
I used to have a growing, politically-active, progressive Twitter account with over 8,000 followers. I involved myself in many campaigns, and gave around $30,000 to various ActBlue candidates in 2020. When I got my first Moderna vaccine (April 1, 2021 - the first day available to my age group in Hawaii), I had a disgusting taste in my mouth that lasted nearly half an hour. Two weeks later, I was diagnosed with hypertension. Every couple of days, my heart would go racing while sitting at my desk or driving in my car otherwise relaxed. It felt like a large, panicking moth was trapped in my ribcage. Still, I got my second vaccine. Everyone I spoke to blew off the idea that this could be related to the vaccine. Two months later, I ended up in the ER with chest pain, extremely elevated blood pressure, and a resting heart rate of 120 (prior to vaccination, my trusty Samsung watch said my resting average was 72). Still, they said it wasn't a heart attack, told me I was having a panic attack, and referred me to a mental health evaluation. Rumors started to circulate in wider circles about myocarditis, but they mostly applied to younger people, so I ignored it. It trusted my doctors. I trusted the vaccines were safe. I thought my symptoms were just a product of "age catching up to me" in my 50's and a terrible coincidence.
However, then I met some other folks with similar symptoms. Then more of them. Then a LOT of them. I started to tweet about my experience. I wondered how many folks had these kinds of reactions. I came to realize that I was among those who got myocarditis from the vaccine. I was called an "anti-vaxxer." (I'm so anti-vax, that I got the vaccine? What?)
In short order, my "progressive" following disappeared. They openly attacked me on Twitter. What I had built was gone in just a matter of weeks. In 2021, I finally just closed the account.
What is "progressive" about gaslighting an unheard minority group? What is "progressive" about erasing us? Forcing us into the closet, again? One of my closest friends told me that he was in the first group of vaccinated folks. His wife is a big-time surgeon, but even though he knew his symptoms were from the vaccine, he didn't dare talk to anyone about it. He knew that if it got out, his wife might be ostracized as having "married an anti-vaxxer." He had a very similar experience to my own, but he didn't even open up about it TO ME because he was afraid of how it would reflect on his wife's practice. Only after I told him I believed I had myocarditis from the vaccine did he open up. And boy did he! He had been closeted about it for over a year, at that point.
We have harmed, in the name of politics, science itself. We have harmed the reputation of vaunted institutions like the FDA and CDC. We have harmed tens of thousands of citizens with mandates. Maybe hundreds of thousands. And we have harmed, as a society, an entire generation of children. May they someday forgive us for our sins ...
We see two major factors at work in our collective response to the pandemic. One, the use of the pandemic for political gain with masking becoming a loyalty test. That was globally affirmed in the common use of mass containment strategies and rejection of the "right wing" focused protection mitigation Great Barrington Declaration. The 1000x differential age risk was simply discarded. And the press exploited the situation by amplifying fear.
Second the systemic corruption involved with vaccines and proprietary drugs which benefited the NIH, NIH researchers' royalty checks and the drug industry. Alternative therapeutics along with proponents were rejected via the Trusted News Initiative.
This process of politicization and corruption has severely harmed society by separating us into our camps, each demonizing the other. But the real harm has come to our children particularly the children that need that solid education to escape the grind of poverty.
It's quite fair to really question our institutions - first, the press has failed us, then our political parties in their zeal to one-up each other along with a huge number of incompetent politicians who refuse independent thought and finally, the unions which exploited power knowing full well the real infection risks.
I do hope the national wake-up is arriving and that the inevitable political pendulum swing creates a opening for honesty. The damages to our social fabric have been great and the economic consequences equally large.
We went through this in Madison WI, there has been a shocking drop in enrollment at all of the public schools in the area. We opted for private school for this reason and have decided to continue on that path as we have lost faith in the teachers Union and local health board to actually follow the science and prioritize children’s education
Very good…but no mention of what masking has done to these kids as far as their emotional, psychological and educational development. Also no talk of if these schools will or do require the EUA injection to attend school in person or to participate in any extracurricular activities.
I am sad to say that I no longer consider myself among progressives _because_of_ the covid response. I've lost trust in institutions that I once considered the bedrock of a functioning society. The 'experts' now appear politically motivated and mob-oriented. This has opened my eyes to the entire realm of policies and attitudes that contradict the available evidence.
Democrat ideas are failing in more realms than Covid. Their ideas are not progressive. What we are seeing now in blue cities and states is the opposite of progress. I’m not an academic but said the same from day one…that Covid policies would harm and kill more people than Covid. Anyone with common sense knew that this was not about a virus the day the experts declared rioting safe from Covid spread. My husband was called to work riots, while my kids remained at home, not learning.
I don’t live in the US, but the situation was similar in Canada. Most people here will not agree with me. I have friends who are retired teachers. I had one friend who wouldn’t speak to me for several months because my view of the rights of people in the pandemic were not hers.
My 13 year old granddaughter has continuing mental health issues, mostly caused by not being able to go to school; not being able to see her friends - because the school was closed. Children were “used” to protect adults from getting covid. Surely it should have been the adults protecting children.
Once Covid came along it got 100 percent of consideration. Mental health got zero. You try to explain this to adults. They mostly think that is right. “I could die from covid” therefore whatever anyone else does is of no consideration if it puts ME at risk. It’s tough shit for the mental health of anyone else.
One of my friends had the opinion that if you were not vaccinated you should be turned away from the hospital. I tried to point out that if a drunk driver is injured when he or she causes an accident, they don’t just throw the body in the ditch to die. Isn’t that similar? She woukdnt listen
I am so upset and annoyed about this that I can hardly express my opinions.
I can't understand why the authors remain "progressive, liberal Democrats" given the abject failure of the approach to the pandemic in schools described here. The interviewee and her colleagues have simply doubled down on disaster. They raised $40,000, wonderful, then they spent it on typically liberal activity: forming a PAC etc. One would have thought the Univ. of Michigan would have started experimental efforts to help students catch up and repair the damage wrought so families and schools could quickly discover what works, instead of going right back to the same old, same old. Anybody thought of experimental charter schools?
I consider myself "progressive" with a "libertarian" streak. On the "political compass," this puts me in the "green box:" Left and toward the bottom. I believe that people can best decide for themselves for most of their own life decisions, and that government programs should be there to provide the safety for us to make our own choices. As a society, we have lost respect for each other to the degree that trust is at an all-time low. Our own decisions are not researched, but rationalized. Often, this rationalization stems from our political viewpoint, not the weight of evidence. We want to belong to a tribe. We want to believe our tribe is the best. This is coded into the software between our ears at a fundamental level.
I used to have a growing, politically-active, progressive Twitter account with over 8,000 followers. I involved myself in many campaigns, and gave around $30,000 to various ActBlue candidates in 2020. When I got my first Moderna vaccine (April 1, 2021 - the first day available to my age group in Hawaii), I had a disgusting taste in my mouth that lasted nearly half an hour. Two weeks later, I was diagnosed with hypertension. Every couple of days, my heart would go racing while sitting at my desk or driving in my car otherwise relaxed. It felt like a large, panicking moth was trapped in my ribcage. Still, I got my second vaccine. Everyone I spoke to blew off the idea that this could be related to the vaccine. Two months later, I ended up in the ER with chest pain, extremely elevated blood pressure, and a resting heart rate of 120 (prior to vaccination, my trusty Samsung watch said my resting average was 72). Still, they said it wasn't a heart attack, told me I was having a panic attack, and referred me to a mental health evaluation. Rumors started to circulate in wider circles about myocarditis, but they mostly applied to younger people, so I ignored it. It trusted my doctors. I trusted the vaccines were safe. I thought my symptoms were just a product of "age catching up to me" in my 50's and a terrible coincidence.
However, then I met some other folks with similar symptoms. Then more of them. Then a LOT of them. I started to tweet about my experience. I wondered how many folks had these kinds of reactions. I came to realize that I was among those who got myocarditis from the vaccine. I was called an "anti-vaxxer." (I'm so anti-vax, that I got the vaccine? What?)
In short order, my "progressive" following disappeared. They openly attacked me on Twitter. What I had built was gone in just a matter of weeks. In 2021, I finally just closed the account.
What is "progressive" about gaslighting an unheard minority group? What is "progressive" about erasing us? Forcing us into the closet, again? One of my closest friends told me that he was in the first group of vaccinated folks. His wife is a big-time surgeon, but even though he knew his symptoms were from the vaccine, he didn't dare talk to anyone about it. He knew that if it got out, his wife might be ostracized as having "married an anti-vaxxer." He had a very similar experience to my own, but he didn't even open up about it TO ME because he was afraid of how it would reflect on his wife's practice. Only after I told him I believed I had myocarditis from the vaccine did he open up. And boy did he! He had been closeted about it for over a year, at that point.
We have harmed, in the name of politics, science itself. We have harmed the reputation of vaunted institutions like the FDA and CDC. We have harmed tens of thousands of citizens with mandates. Maybe hundreds of thousands. And we have harmed, as a society, an entire generation of children. May they someday forgive us for our sins ...
We see two major factors at work in our collective response to the pandemic. One, the use of the pandemic for political gain with masking becoming a loyalty test. That was globally affirmed in the common use of mass containment strategies and rejection of the "right wing" focused protection mitigation Great Barrington Declaration. The 1000x differential age risk was simply discarded. And the press exploited the situation by amplifying fear.
Second the systemic corruption involved with vaccines and proprietary drugs which benefited the NIH, NIH researchers' royalty checks and the drug industry. Alternative therapeutics along with proponents were rejected via the Trusted News Initiative.
This process of politicization and corruption has severely harmed society by separating us into our camps, each demonizing the other. But the real harm has come to our children particularly the children that need that solid education to escape the grind of poverty.
It's quite fair to really question our institutions - first, the press has failed us, then our political parties in their zeal to one-up each other along with a huge number of incompetent politicians who refuse independent thought and finally, the unions which exploited power knowing full well the real infection risks.
I do hope the national wake-up is arriving and that the inevitable political pendulum swing creates a opening for honesty. The damages to our social fabric have been great and the economic consequences equally large.
We went through this in Madison WI, there has been a shocking drop in enrollment at all of the public schools in the area. We opted for private school for this reason and have decided to continue on that path as we have lost faith in the teachers Union and local health board to actually follow the science and prioritize children’s education
Very good…but no mention of what masking has done to these kids as far as their emotional, psychological and educational development. Also no talk of if these schools will or do require the EUA injection to attend school in person or to participate in any extracurricular activities.
Another excellent piece, Vinay. Great interview.
I am sad to say that I no longer consider myself among progressives _because_of_ the covid response. I've lost trust in institutions that I once considered the bedrock of a functioning society. The 'experts' now appear politically motivated and mob-oriented. This has opened my eyes to the entire realm of policies and attitudes that contradict the available evidence.
Wow!! Wish we had had a group like this in Bellevue Washington!!👏👏
PINO Noir !!!!!!!! a good one.
Zoom is garbage.