"The Covid-19 Shout"
© Lise Winne 2/26/22
One thing I have noticed in the conversations with friends, in family gatherings, colleagues, on Facebook and elsewhere, is the question, "Where do you stand on vaccines and on masks?"
If you aren't in agreement with how they view things, then you are lectured at. If you agree with some of the things they are saying, but not others, then they hammer you some more with what I call "convincing tactics" on the things you don't agree on. Trying to convince you that they are right and that you are wrong, and showing disdain for a differing perspective is largely a narcissistic tactic.
We all have narcissistic traits to some extent, but the difference between most of us and people with the personality disorder (Narcissistic Personality Disorder), is that we can pop in and out of narcissism. They can't. Most of us also don't have all of the traits.
However, there have been signs that narcissism is on the increase in our society, even the full blown variety, the disorder.
Some signs that we are becoming more narcissistic as a nation are as follows:
* A refusal to hear other viewpoints that differ from your own
* Hatred for people who have very different perspectives than your own
* Never being convinced that the "other side" might be right about some things.
* Feeling threatened if someone's perspectives do not totally align with your own.
* Using threats when you realize someone won't go along with your perspectives
* Ending relationships over ideological viewpoints.
* Going along with an ideology because you've gone along with it your entire life.
* Unwavering beliefs about other people or groups of other people
* Inability to ever admit you may be wrong, or are wrong, about how you investigate, judge and treat other people
* Unwavering beliefs in conspiracy theories that have not been vetted extensively and not proven by a preponderance of evidence can be another sign.
* Black and white thinking about subjects; i.e. you are 100 percent sure of one side of the argument, and 100 percent sure the other side of the argument is wrong or bad (this can show up in political party affiliations too).
* Only seeing individuals via the roles they inhabit: policeman, president, maid, doctor, truck driver and so on (in other words, you don't see much of the "humanity" or "the person" behind the service they are providing to a society, or to you as an individual).
* Not feeling much, if any, empathy for people who disagree with you, or disagree with some aspect of your "belief system".
Is it so bad to be this way?
No, but it may be either quick thinking, lazy research, paranoid perspectives, or it can be somewhat narcissistic thinking. How often do you self reflect and wonder if you are doing this enough? I understand that we all have to make quick judgements sometimes because we have busy lives.
But one of the issues that baffles me, and concerns me, in particular, is how people in this society became so fixed in opinions about a new (novel) coronavirus that has only been with us in the United States since late 2019.
Suddenly so many people who aren't doctors or research scientists have touted themselves as experts about vaccines, experts on political motives for scientists and vaccines, what wearing masks does to us, what medications do to us, and so on. These things sometimes aren't really known for many years, even by the world's best scientists. Of course, it didn't help in the beginning when many of them were baffled as to how to respond to it except when death tolls started to go up in Seattle and New York City hospitals: the attempt to quarantine. As we know, as soon as the quarantine was over, cases spiked. So it didn't work very well, and people became disillusioned with scientists, Dr. Fauci and the government.
Even though so much more is known now, when it comes to my own perspectives on Covid-19 matters, and as an outsider of the scientific community, I still don't feel confident that I know much of anything at all, even after extensive reading, even going through many professional research articles (some of which I share below as I remembered to share them).
One of the problems with the virus itself is that it is novel (a novel coronavirus that was not hitherto introduced to the human race before). So there is not a whole lot we know about the virus. We see, by now, that it makes some people extremely ill, with long term effects (long term Covid), and others feel like they have a bad flu, and still others "mere carriers" of the virus. It can explain why Dr. Anthony Fauci was all over the map on what to do. In the beginning, masks weren't necessary. Then they were. Shutting down the country was necessary, and then it wasn't. I understand why so many people were angry at Fauci (he didn't seem like "the expert" with a clear vision at the time the virus leapt out of Wuhan, China to infect the rest of the world), but to his defense, he was dealing with something "novel", something he didn't quite understand himself. There was limited data.
There are so many conspiracies swirling around Fauci, that he was part of a plot in a Wuhan lab, that he is to blame for the virus, and on the other side of opinion, did not take enough precautions right from the beginning in containing it to just a few areas of the country before it could spread, where a lock down of a few cities and a quarantine of just a few individuals seemed within reach, where the numbers were still very low.
While anything and everything could be true and untrue about Fauci and his motivations, even the conspiracy theories, we just don't know. Governments have secrets that come out years and years later (another link to another story, and yet another link to another story), and does everyone really have zero suspicions about the entire government official story of 9/11? I know a lot of engineers that can't buy the official narrative as written, which raises my suspicions in turn. Even so, nothing has been definitively proven, just as with Fauci, nothing has been proven either, though there are practically armies writing about him and putting videos up on You Tube every day trying to prove one thing or another about him and government plots in connection with Pfizer and getting the economy rolling again at all cost. News is deemed to be unreliable, or paid for by "big pharma" by one side, or biased to serve conspiracies on the other side. There are also a lot of You Tube videos that are about speculating whether the vaccines might not be as safe (because they are mRNA vaccines).
Anyway, so many Americans are convinced that they do know what is going on. It is common to see Fauci on Facebook with devil's horns from one side of the spectrum, or with a halo on the other side of the spectrum, take your pick. Being so engrossed in this subject, so convinced with so few doubts, and being so belief-oriented, is making America a more dangerous place to be where you are either rejected if you have even some slightly different opinions, or verbally abused or worse (called "stupid" or "crazy" at the very least - and where have we heard that before? It is right from the Narcissistic Personality Disorder playbook, otherwise known as gaslighting).
In America your beliefs define who you are these days, whether you are part of the "shills" and corporate-speak, or whether your beliefs are with the conspirators (who "believe" they have the real insight and access to the truth).
What happened to cognitive dissonance, to holding off, even for years, until a truth became so blindly obvious?
Take the Truckers' Protest, otherwise known as The Freedom Convoy in Canada. I was challenged very early on to take sides by a number of friends. Note: I don't live in Canada, but apparently it has become an American issue because it has to do with border crossings to and from the USA.
Do people have a right to protest? Do they have a right to protest by blocking streets with trucks?
My thoughts, when I get news like this is on the "maybe spectrum" because I'm not a shot-gun thinker, and I don't like fixed opinions and confirmation bias about a topic that is so new to Americans that even the most educated experts in the field of medicine don't entirely understand what they are dealing with yet (though they are having a better idea of what this virus does all of the time). I don't automatically think that all protests are good or bad, and I still haven't decided whether mask mandates are good or not, or whether the vaccines are "safe and effective" as they are being touted by mainstream media. I don't have Covid-19 patients, or have a job in statistics, or a job in bio-chemistry. Even with my constant reading of the subject, I just don't know enough to have a fixed opinion, because, again, it is a novel virus with a somewhat novel vaccine, and there are new things that are being discovered about the virus and the vaccines every day. I have to get a good grasp on ALL of the news and the alternate news pouring in (usually by people highly educated in the matter), and that is likely to take many, many years.
Frankly, I have no idea why more people do not have a lot of cognitive dissonance when it comes to this issue, and the policies around it, and all of the medical research, the dangers and benefits when it comes to a subject like this. Again, why is a state of cognitive dissonance so bad when this virus has only been around since 2020 (or perhaps 2019 at the earliest)?
And why is it so catastrophic for other people who think I should be convinced one way or the other? When I say I'm not convinced, nor want to be convinced, or that I don't want to be talked into their way of thinking, why do so many of them double down and get louder and more insistent? In writing many of them use caps and "!!!!" - is that supposed to get my attention more? Doesn't no always mean no, or do they take it to mean "a mind that is wandering, at sea, and so lost, needs to become anchored to an opinion about this." They cannot seem to deal with my vagueness, my unsureness, brought on by endless, endless research. Why do people thrust me into situations where they feel I have to be convinced anyway? Do they feel better about themselves and their persuasive abilities, and that is the reason why they feel the strong need to convince?
So on the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, Canada ...
My mind immediately went to both sides when I learned about it. The truckers seem frustrated with the vaccine mandates when crossing the borders between America and Canada. You can get inside a few truckers' minds with your imagination to see why and how they would get frustrated, especially when they are not vaccinated, and do not want to be vaccinated. They feel it is a Gestapo move by the government to mandate a vaccine they feel unsure about, a way for the government to control. You don't have to be a novelist to understand a lot of them.
Then there are the people who live and work in Ottawa. Some of them like the party atmosphere, but my guess is that most of the residents do not like their streets being jammed up with big trucks. And if you live on the street where the big trucks are, I'd imagine you'd get pretty tired of the constant shouts of "FREEDOM!" and the all-day-all-night partying, the fumes of the trucks leaking in through your windows (they turn their trucks on to get heat inside the cabins), and the "other" convoys of people bringing gas, food and other political grievances to the protest. If I "believed" in their protest, I might not like them parked right outside my building, and my "support" might wane, or not depending on how it is effecting my singular life. Who knows unless you are in the situation. It would depend on a lot of things (right?), whether my car was blocked in, whether I worked at a hospital and had to deal with coronavirus patients all day, or conversely whether I liked street parties, revolutions over government crack-downs, whether I had a recalcitrant mind when it came to government mandates of any sort ... and at that point, it gets to be a totally personal perspective on issues of annoyance, and tolerance for annoyances.
What if I liked the noise and the street party, but my neighbor didn't and complained that her children were constantly being woken up in the middle of the night, and one of them cried every time someone slammed a truck door? Then it comes down to how much compassion you have personally. Do you say, "Tough luck! Put up with it! This is a worthwhile event!", or do you say, "Take your children somewhere else for god sakes so they can get some sleep!" or do you say, "You should be able to stay in your house and these truckers should leave!"
To take the other side, should you show how much compassion you are really endowed with by saying, "This is a city and your stinking rig in front of MY house is ruining MY life!", or do you say, "Could you please move your rig? My kids can't sleep because of the noise. They aren't used to this and we feel like we are at the Mardi Gras with shouting instead of big bands. Do you have kids? Do you understand what we are dealing with?" or do you say, "I think you have a point in wanting to be free of government dictation, so I'm going to take my kids to my parents house until your protest is over. Good luck, and FREEDOM!" Again, it's all going to boil down to a lot of personal perspectives.
Then imagine yourself as a police officer or government official. People are calling complaining about the convoy all day long. "Can't the government do something about this protest? I live in Ottawa!" It is easy when you are sitting in your arm chair in a right wing community in the USA and you are raising your fist in support of the convoy and call Justin Trudeau a Fascist pig. But imagine that it's your job to keep law and order. Some guns have been confiscated. The fact that you've been hired to keep law and order means that you have to take calls seriously in ending the Freedom Convoy's blocking of streets. You are required to unblock streets so that the residents of the city can use them again and get to where they need to go. Do we have compassion for residents who are not part of the convoy? Do we have compassion for the police whose livelihood is based on keeping the peace and clearing the streets? Do we have compassion for the politicians who have been elected by the citizens to help in upholding laws of the land (like the clearing of streets in cities and on bridges) when the police are ineffective at it or overwhelmed by numbers? Or do we only have compassion for every day people (the truckers) who feel voiceless and over-run by what is perceived to be a bullying government hell bent on mandates that cut away at the freedoms of a country's citizens?
And what about family members whose loved ones died before the vaccine mandates were put in place who don't want the virus to spread and mutate any more? Do we feel compassionate when they talk about how it turned their family upside down?
A lot of what is being revealed in this pandemic is just how empathetic each one of us truly is (maybe it's a test of that), and indeed, what the general human race is capable and incapable of when it comes to compassion for people who have different perspectives. It would seem to me that the test of empathy lies in how fixed our opinions are. When you first perceive an irritation, do you keep with that irritation, and keep feeding it so that it keeps the irritation alive, even though you don't have to? Say your mind has calmed, but you keep wanting to come back to it - it's a justice issue for you. Do you want to obsess about it so that you can make an impact? Is it worthy of a crusade, losing sleep over it? Would you move your truck considering what the government insists on it with its rules, regulations, fines, etc.? How much do you really believe in this crusade if you have no resistance to the consequences? Do you always read what will strengthen your own beliefs (leading to serious confirmation biases) or do you look at as many perspectives as you can? How does your mind work when you receive a lot of data? Do you wander around looking at all of the data or zero in on one thing? Do you try to see "silver linings" in things that may appear immediately aberrant to you?
However, I do understand black and white thinking too, which I discuss below, but I don't think it is healthy or uses our highest intelligence unless we are in a war. But black and white thinking can happen to any of us over suspicion too. Suspicion is your mind's way of getting you prepped for either a threat or an all-out attack.
Perhaps this protest might be as invasive of a city as the government is invasive of the truckers' lives. If you search for Catch-22s or hypocrisies, you will usually find cognitive dissonance. Welcome to my world.
Baffled yet? I am going to pepper this post with a lot of sources, and news pieces to create the kind of cognitive dissonance I go through. Most articles will be at the end, but not all of them.
Here's one of many, and it aptly has the word "baffled" in it:
OTTAWA — It seemed a classically Canadian moment in a scene otherwise torn from the book of Trump America ...
... If the outside world is baffled by the scenes unfolding in the streets of Canada, so are many Canadians. They are dumbfounded, perhaps none more so than the government officials who have stood by largely slack-jawed as giant trucks stake out ground in the normally placid capital, shaking and honking at night as people cheer and dance, neighbors be damned.
As demonstrations kept flaring, the government on Monday invoked the Emergencies Act, which greatly increases the government’s power to crack down on protest, and in Alberta the police arrested 11 people and seized a large cache of weapons. Earlier, traffic resumed over the Ambassador Bridge, a major international route blockaded for a week, and officials announced that they were lifting some contentious vaccine pass requirements. The chaos of recent weeks has left many wondering if Canada is witnessing the birth of a political alt-right, or if it is a pandemic-induced tantrum that, once exhausted, will curl itself asleep, leaving behind a country bewildered but essentially unchanged. It could also be, some argue, that the so-called freedom convoy is not an aberration at all but a mirror to an integral part of the country that doesn’t fit the stereotype, and so is ignored ...
... Canada, unlike the neighbor that overshadows it, was born not from revolution but from negotiation that its approach to rebellion now seems more than a little unconventional, even quirky. But one thing is clear: The members of the so-called freedom convoy are not bellowing “compromise” or “care for one another.”
The streets of downtown Ottawa echo with chants and slogans steeped in the language of the American Revolution, right down to the Don't Tread on Me pennants ...
... The repeated invocation of liberty is just one reason — along with the American, Confederate and Trump flags spotted in the mix — many believe the unrest is essentially a U.S. import.
Then we have the issue of mask mandates in schools. Sometimes they are mandated there, and sometimes they aren't. Of all of the places where the battle of whether the mask should be, or should not be donned, schools are it.
In this environment, there seem to be at least two kinds of vocal parents:
GROUP A:
The "group A" parents are the ones who tell school administrators and teachers that their child is uncomfortable wearing a mask every day, that his face is sweating in it, and he constantly has a ring of irritated skin where it sits on his face every day. And by the way, how can a mask that you have to wear all day be good for you? The mask itself isn't a natural fiber and has chemicals. The child isn't getting the best oxygen, and he is getting recycled carbon dioxide from his own breath. And my child complains that when he eats certain foods, he can smell them all day in his mask. He has to wipe his nose with his mask. Why is this at all effective when he takes the mask off in a cafeteria, a place where germs can thrive? And why are masks so effective when Covid is prevalent among our population? The rules seem arbitrary and blind to real concerns. And if my kid is breathing in fibers from his mask every day, who is to say that he won't have lung cancer down the road? This is a terrible solution by the government to keep our kids controlled by folks who don't want to see their expressions, their voices and their smiles. It is a way to muzzle the citizens into submission. And it is keeping my child in the dark about what other people's intentions are when they have masks on too. It is stunting my child's social growth to wear a mask, to quarantine and told to keep distance with other classmates. How is this good for our kids? It creates anxiety in him that he can die from a virus, a virus that has been hyped up (these deaths are greatly exaggerated because they include elders with heart attacks and blood clots!). Why create so much terror in a child that he can die just from taking his mask off! What a bunch of B.S.! It is unconstitutional to make everyone wear a mask, by the way. And it is unconstitutional to make people get vaccines too, by the way. When did America become home to "sheeple", people who blindly follow a leader, and especially an old getting-senile leader, without questioning what they are doing? When did America become home to a clot-shot vaccine that has been proven to cause clots? When did America become home of the passive, and of passivity, and of not being brave, of letting government destroy businesses and lives over bogus lockdowns, of muzzling the opposition, that did nothing to stop the spread of the virus, nothing! My child is not going to wear a mask to school, or I'm going to take him out of school! Do you hear me?!
And then there are the parents who tell their kids to pull their masks down and let their noses stick out to get some fresh air.
GROUP B:
"Group B" parents tell school administrators and teachers that if all the kids aren't wearing their masks to school, and wearing them right, then they are going to take their kid out of school. The point of the mandate is to keep the virus from spreading, right? How can a school keep the virus from spreading if masks are mandated and then they aren't? How can a yo-yo policy where the kids have to wear masks one month and take them off the next month effective? My kid has asthma and type A blood! His life is worth it, and it is meaningful, and if he gets sick and dies from something that is entirely preventable and safe the world over, it is on you and these crazy-making policies. Otherwise I have to remove my child so that he doesn't get this virus! My father died from Covid and my sister has long Covid and been to the emergency room many times and can barely function! The fatigue is overwhelming and she had to quit her job and go on disability. And now you want me to risk my kid's life too!? It's not going to happen! These grown men who refuse to get jabbed are acting like babies! 'Oh, I'm scared of needles! I'm scared of this vaccine! I'm scared that if I give into the government, they will take away my freedom!' This is such B.S. Put your big pants on! We are all in the same boat! We're trying to keep it from spreading! How come other nations that have a much bigger population don't even come close to the number of deaths that we have in this country! Many of them have more terrifying governments than we have - you are scared of our country, a democracy!? How silly does this look for other countries that the big powerful country of the world have citizens who are shakin' in the boots over a little pin-prick in their arm! I think kids who care about their fellow students and wear a mask should be the only ones allowed into schools! So there!
Then there is the family ...
Let us say that the family is headed by a mother and father. The mother is vaccinated and wears a mask everywhere. The father refuses to get vaccinated and never wears a mask. When there is a mask ordinance, he wears it on his chin, or loosely so that his nose sticks out and half of his mouth.
The couple fights over this a lot, and the mother is afraid of him infecting her, their teenage daughter and their other four adult kids. To her, it is a life-and-death matter. But he is convinced it is just "one more lie by the government to control us and ruin our businesses."
Then we have the issue of mask mandates in schools. Sometimes they are mandated there, and sometimes they aren't. Of all of the places where the battle of whether the mask should be, or should not be donned, schools are it.
In this environment, there seem to be at least two kinds of vocal parents:
GROUP A:
The "group A" parents are the ones who tell school administrators and teachers that their child is uncomfortable wearing a mask every day, that his face is sweating in it, and he constantly has a ring of irritated skin where it sits on his face every day. And by the way, how can a mask that you have to wear all day be good for you? The mask itself isn't a natural fiber and has chemicals. The child isn't getting the best oxygen, and he is getting recycled carbon dioxide from his own breath. And my child complains that when he eats certain foods, he can smell them all day in his mask. He has to wipe his nose with his mask. Why is this at all effective when he takes the mask off in a cafeteria, a place where germs can thrive? And why are masks so effective when Covid is prevalent among our population? The rules seem arbitrary and blind to real concerns. And if my kid is breathing in fibers from his mask every day, who is to say that he won't have lung cancer down the road? This is a terrible solution by the government to keep our kids controlled by folks who don't want to see their expressions, their voices and their smiles. It is a way to muzzle the citizens into submission. And it is keeping my child in the dark about what other people's intentions are when they have masks on too. It is stunting my child's social growth to wear a mask, to quarantine and told to keep distance with other classmates. How is this good for our kids? It creates anxiety in him that he can die from a virus, a virus that has been hyped up (these deaths are greatly exaggerated because they include elders with heart attacks and blood clots!). Why create so much terror in a child that he can die just from taking his mask off! What a bunch of B.S.! It is unconstitutional to make everyone wear a mask, by the way. And it is unconstitutional to make people get vaccines too, by the way. When did America become home to "sheeple", people who blindly follow a leader, and especially an old getting-senile leader, without questioning what they are doing? When did America become home to a clot-shot vaccine that has been proven to cause clots? When did America become home of the passive, and of passivity, and of not being brave, of letting government destroy businesses and lives over bogus lockdowns, of muzzling the opposition, that did nothing to stop the spread of the virus, nothing! My child is not going to wear a mask to school, or I'm going to take him out of school! Do you hear me?!
And then there are the parents who tell their kids to pull their masks down and let their noses stick out to get some fresh air.
GROUP B:
"Group B" parents tell school administrators and teachers that if all the kids aren't wearing their masks to school, and wearing them right, then they are going to take their kid out of school. The point of the mandate is to keep the virus from spreading, right? How can a school keep the virus from spreading if masks are mandated and then they aren't? How can a yo-yo policy where the kids have to wear masks one month and take them off the next month effective? My kid has asthma and type A blood! His life is worth it, and it is meaningful, and if he gets sick and dies from something that is entirely preventable and safe the world over, it is on you and these crazy-making policies. Otherwise I have to remove my child so that he doesn't get this virus! My father died from Covid and my sister has long Covid and been to the emergency room many times and can barely function! The fatigue is overwhelming and she had to quit her job and go on disability. And now you want me to risk my kid's life too!? It's not going to happen! These grown men who refuse to get jabbed are acting like babies! 'Oh, I'm scared of needles! I'm scared of this vaccine! I'm scared that if I give into the government, they will take away my freedom!' This is such B.S. Put your big pants on! We are all in the same boat! We're trying to keep it from spreading! How come other nations that have a much bigger population don't even come close to the number of deaths that we have in this country! Many of them have more terrifying governments than we have - you are scared of our country, a democracy!? How silly does this look for other countries that the big powerful country of the world have citizens who are shakin' in the boots over a little pin-prick in their arm! I think kids who care about their fellow students and wear a mask should be the only ones allowed into schools! So there!
Then there is the family ...
Let us say that the family is headed by a mother and father. The mother is vaccinated and wears a mask everywhere. The father refuses to get vaccinated and never wears a mask. When there is a mask ordinance, he wears it on his chin, or loosely so that his nose sticks out and half of his mouth.
The couple fights over this a lot, and the mother is afraid of him infecting her, their teenage daughter and their other four adult kids. To her, it is a life-and-death matter. But he is convinced it is just "one more lie by the government to control us and ruin our businesses."
Then the mother's mother gets sick with Covid and dies, and the couple finds out they have Covid too. The mother blames the father for killing her mother, but the father defends himself by saying he doesn't know where he got it, and may have been infected by his wife's mother instead.
The mother determines she can't live with a marriage partner who is so careless, and won't get vaccinated or wear a mask. They separate.
The mother determines she can't live with a marriage partner who is so careless, and won't get vaccinated or wear a mask. They separate.
The father determines that the kids have to choose sides, but the teenage daughter insists that she is Switzerland and should not have to choose sides. As for the other children? Three children side with the mother and one sides with the father. This makes the father angry.
He tells his three kids who sided with their mother that they will not receive an inheritance, and that they made a stupid mistake because he has a lot more money than his ex-wife does. One of the kids defects and joins with the father (in order to receive an inheritance) and the two others back the mother out of principle, that it is the right thing to do and that they aren't going to persuaded or blackmailed by money.
Then the father gets angry at some point at the kid who defected, joined him, and appears to go along with his father, and says to him: "The only reason you left your mother and supported me was to get an inheritance! I know a snake when I see one!" The father is suspicious of his son's loyalties, so kicks him out and tells him never to come back again.
The son is not wanted by either side, and while he is at college he feels suicidal. He feels he cannot go home to either parent now. He feels he was "in the wrong" to choose sides, that he should have gone along with his youngest sister, but no one in his family will listen to him. Both sides view him with suspicion ...
The youngest sister who played Switzerland is now getting harassed by both sides to choose. One day she runs away in tears and shows up at her brother's apartment in the city where he is attending college ...
Surely this has happened.
The pressure to choose sides has happened to me too.
An example:
People have said to me:
"Don't tell me that you believe in anything the CDC has to say!" - you mean everyone at the CDC is a psychopath out to hurt everyone?
"Why would you be friends with an antivaxxer?" - you mean after 40 years of friendship?
He tells his three kids who sided with their mother that they will not receive an inheritance, and that they made a stupid mistake because he has a lot more money than his ex-wife does. One of the kids defects and joins with the father (in order to receive an inheritance) and the two others back the mother out of principle, that it is the right thing to do and that they aren't going to persuaded or blackmailed by money.
Then the father gets angry at some point at the kid who defected, joined him, and appears to go along with his father, and says to him: "The only reason you left your mother and supported me was to get an inheritance! I know a snake when I see one!" The father is suspicious of his son's loyalties, so kicks him out and tells him never to come back again.
The son is not wanted by either side, and while he is at college he feels suicidal. He feels he cannot go home to either parent now. He feels he was "in the wrong" to choose sides, that he should have gone along with his youngest sister, but no one in his family will listen to him. Both sides view him with suspicion ...
The youngest sister who played Switzerland is now getting harassed by both sides to choose. One day she runs away in tears and shows up at her brother's apartment in the city where he is attending college ...
Surely this has happened.
The pressure to choose sides has happened to me too.
An example:
People have said to me:
"Don't tell me that you believe in anything the CDC has to say!" - you mean everyone at the CDC is a psychopath out to hurt everyone?
"Why would you be friends with an antivaxxer?" - you mean after 40 years of friendship?
And there are other things that make sense and add to the cognitive dissonance:
"The liberals have become authoritarians. They aren't marching in the streets any more fighting against authoritarianism. It's all about complying under threats and pressure. It's about telling everyone to get vaccinated, disenfranchising those who refuse by telling them they need vaccination passports, throwing people off internet sites who are skeptics of the vaccines. These aren't liberals who are fighting against war any more. They are liberals who are provoking a war!"
"The conservatives want freedom, even from vaccines, but they back and vote for a lying, non-tax-paying, insurrectionist authoritarian who doesn't want to be part of NATO and who loves Putin, and would just as soon the Congress disappear through an insurrection, and who got vaccinated, and believes in the vaccines he started while in office! How can you want freedom from a leader who isn't for freedom of anything, even "freedom to vote", without having a tantrum that he lost?
"The liberals have become authoritarians. They aren't marching in the streets any more fighting against authoritarianism. It's all about complying under threats and pressure. It's about telling everyone to get vaccinated, disenfranchising those who refuse by telling them they need vaccination passports, throwing people off internet sites who are skeptics of the vaccines. These aren't liberals who are fighting against war any more. They are liberals who are provoking a war!"
"The conservatives want freedom, even from vaccines, but they back and vote for a lying, non-tax-paying, insurrectionist authoritarian who doesn't want to be part of NATO and who loves Putin, and would just as soon the Congress disappear through an insurrection, and who got vaccinated, and believes in the vaccines he started while in office! How can you want freedom from a leader who isn't for freedom of anything, even "freedom to vote", without having a tantrum that he lost?
The one thing I notice too, is that the against-the-vaccination "side" is studying and reading about mRNA, and how safe and dangerous the vaccinations are (and not reading much about the disease of Covid) and the for-the-vaccinations side is studying a lot more about the disease of Covid and not much about what is in the vaccines. One side is blind to what the disease is doing to their fellow human beings (or they down-play it as some sort of a survivable flu and that their countrymen are babies for making a big deal out of it), and the other side is blind to the "novelty" and the possible long term damages of the vaccine (or they down-play it as like every other vaccine that has been introduced and that their countrymen are like babies for not getting jabbed).
And the absolute worst thing I have heard are these two statements:
"Good. I hope the Republicans don't take the vaccines. They'll die and then we can get some sanity back into our government."
"Let all of those liberals take the vaccine. They'll all die an early death from the damage it did to their bodies. Then we can get back to Republicans dominating forever."
Really!????
Ack! The main thing I feel now? I don't want to be in the middle of this battle!
After reading this, don't you just want to tell everyone to "cut it out"? - if they can't play nice, not to play at all! Stop shouting! No one is going to hear you better or want to hear you if you are shouting! Why can't you disagree in a polite way? "Can't we just get along?"
A family member told me that everything is a civil war these days, without a shot being fired, and that she's sick of it. She tells all of her friends she does not want to discuss politics, masks and vaccines. She said that people who didn't respect that abandoned her in a "huff" (they wanted to talk her into their perspectives despite being told "no"), but she said if that is the "condition" of friendship, it can never be a good friendship to begin with, so she has let those people go. "Someone loves me because I agree with them over something? When did that become the stipulation for love and true friendship? And if I don't agree with them then they don't love me? Agreeing has nothing to do with love. And do you notice that if you agree with some of what they are saying but not all of it, you are kicked to the curb for the things you don't agree on? I'm not playing that game! I don't want to be loved under those conditions, so I gave up. They can have their war with someone else! The silent treatment has become a national pastime. Normally I might be hurt over it, but when it's over politics or vaccine status? Give me a break! I want no part of that kind of relationship any way! So the silent treatment is ineffectual in proving them right. Just shun me for not having a mind exactly like yours in every way! There's a reason why my brain is in my body and yours is in yours! That means we don't think alike. No one does. I thought we all knew this in Kindergarten! But, all of this rancor is a good way to see who actually really does love us and who doesn't because words like 'love' are too cheap these days."
I have to say I am with her on that. She is an empath, and as you'll see in the next chapter, empaths are often targeted in these kinds of pitched battles.
The silent treatment is a narcissistic pastime. So, the nation is going narcissistic on itself, even down to the microcosm (agreeing mostly, or half way, or not agreeing with a tiny part of it is all seen as highly suspicious - you may be an enemy! - and where do we find enemies? Wars are about ferreting out enemies).
As for the civil war on masks and vaccines? How do you solve it? Can there be compromise or working together when the "sides" seem so diametrically opposed? Is booting people off of social media for their viewpoints helping or hindering a cause? Does someone's hero get even more sympathy and backing because some all-powerful too-powerful platform or CEO of a platform decides what the policy of the country will be and will not put up with dissenting voices? Is confirmation bias the newest mindset that everyone must adopt, or else?
After reading this, don't you just want to tell everyone to "cut it out"? - if they can't play nice, not to play at all! Stop shouting! No one is going to hear you better or want to hear you if you are shouting! Why can't you disagree in a polite way? "Can't we just get along?"
A family member told me that everything is a civil war these days, without a shot being fired, and that she's sick of it. She tells all of her friends she does not want to discuss politics, masks and vaccines. She said that people who didn't respect that abandoned her in a "huff" (they wanted to talk her into their perspectives despite being told "no"), but she said if that is the "condition" of friendship, it can never be a good friendship to begin with, so she has let those people go. "Someone loves me because I agree with them over something? When did that become the stipulation for love and true friendship? And if I don't agree with them then they don't love me? Agreeing has nothing to do with love. And do you notice that if you agree with some of what they are saying but not all of it, you are kicked to the curb for the things you don't agree on? I'm not playing that game! I don't want to be loved under those conditions, so I gave up. They can have their war with someone else! The silent treatment has become a national pastime. Normally I might be hurt over it, but when it's over politics or vaccine status? Give me a break! I want no part of that kind of relationship any way! So the silent treatment is ineffectual in proving them right. Just shun me for not having a mind exactly like yours in every way! There's a reason why my brain is in my body and yours is in yours! That means we don't think alike. No one does. I thought we all knew this in Kindergarten! But, all of this rancor is a good way to see who actually really does love us and who doesn't because words like 'love' are too cheap these days."
I have to say I am with her on that. She is an empath, and as you'll see in the next chapter, empaths are often targeted in these kinds of pitched battles.
The silent treatment is a narcissistic pastime. So, the nation is going narcissistic on itself, even down to the microcosm (agreeing mostly, or half way, or not agreeing with a tiny part of it is all seen as highly suspicious - you may be an enemy! - and where do we find enemies? Wars are about ferreting out enemies).
As for the civil war on masks and vaccines? How do you solve it? Can there be compromise or working together when the "sides" seem so diametrically opposed? Is booting people off of social media for their viewpoints helping or hindering a cause? Does someone's hero get even more sympathy and backing because some all-powerful too-powerful platform or CEO of a platform decides what the policy of the country will be and will not put up with dissenting voices? Is confirmation bias the newest mindset that everyone must adopt, or else?
IS BLACK AND WHITE THINKING REALLY SO BAD?
We are all capable of black and white thinking, and sometimes it is plain-necessary. In World War II when the Nazis invaded Poland, people had to look at the Nazis as the enemy if they were going to save their lives, their children's lives, and even save their country. Destruction, pain, trauma, evil, stealing, backstabbing, threatening you, herding you, insulting you, spitting on the things you hold sacred, and having a wholly un-empathetic view towards you and your perspectives will create black and white thinking for you (and them too).
However, your motives are to protect, while their motives are to be aggressive: to have you live the way they tell you to live, and either have you enslaved to them, take on their perspectives so that you become their mind-slave and ally in aggression and bullying, or take/steal from you, or to destroy you. I think of aggression as looking like this:
However, your motives are to protect, while their motives are to be aggressive: to have you live the way they tell you to live, and either have you enslaved to them, take on their perspectives so that you become their mind-slave and ally in aggression and bullying, or take/steal from you, or to destroy you. I think of aggression as looking like this:
However, when you are in a black and white thinking frame of mind, you aren't noticing the nuances of others. You don't want to feel empathy for them because they are a threat to you, your life, and your perspectives. War requires black and white thinking, whether you are a victim or a perpetrator. For victims it helps them to keep alive, and for perpetrators, it helps them take over a country and its people without a backward look.
However, black and white thinking is either driven by fear for people who are trying to survive, or it is driven by entitlement and anger (and often sadism) from perpetrators.
That is why when you belong to a "group" of like-mindeds who feel threatened, and who are feeling that their present situation has enough catastrophe in it, someone in that group is going to think that organizing strategies, stockpiling weapons and calling out and disrupting the lives, or towns, or cities, or countries of people who they think are causing it is necessary to get a good outcome for them and their perspectives. They think that their perspectives are being shut down and going unheard.
People who feel unheard are going to get noisy. The problem in this pandemic is that either side feels unheard at any given time.
However, black and white thinking is either driven by fear for people who are trying to survive, or it is driven by entitlement and anger (and often sadism) from perpetrators.
That is why when you belong to a "group" of like-mindeds who feel threatened, and who are feeling that their present situation has enough catastrophe in it, someone in that group is going to think that organizing strategies, stockpiling weapons and calling out and disrupting the lives, or towns, or cities, or countries of people who they think are causing it is necessary to get a good outcome for them and their perspectives. They think that their perspectives are being shut down and going unheard.
People who feel unheard are going to get noisy. The problem in this pandemic is that either side feels unheard at any given time.
When mandates are lifted one side will feel relieved:
- "Finally, things are getting back to normal. I feel a lot more at ease. The government is finally seeing the wisdom in what we are saying: that threatening us with policies that chip away at our freedoms is not going to create a peaceful nation."
- "No one is trying to take my rights away."
- "I can finally breathe some oxygen unfiltered and not muzzled!"
- "I can finally breathe some relief that my life and values aren't being threatened by the government and their agendas!"
- "Finally, my clients will start calling me again! The virus is going away and they no longer have to act like scaredy-cats wearing masks and distancing! As if any of that worked anyway!"
- "Finally, things are getting back to normal. I feel a lot more at ease. The government is finally seeing the wisdom in what we are saying: that threatening us with policies that chip away at our freedoms is not going to create a peaceful nation."
- "No one is trying to take my rights away."
- "I can finally breathe some oxygen unfiltered and not muzzled!"
- "I can finally breathe some relief that my life and values aren't being threatened by the government and their agendas!"
- "Finally, my clients will start calling me again! The virus is going away and they no longer have to act like scaredy-cats wearing masks and distancing! As if any of that worked anyway!"
The other side will feel threatened again:
- "Lifting the mask mandate at a time like this when the virus is still so rampant and threatens our health and the health of my kids? What is the government thinking!!??"
- "My son is immunocompromised! His life is worth saving! You are putting his life at risk by lifting this mask mandate!"
- "We are not free while this virus is roaming around, threatening our lives! I have people in my family who should be alive today if it wasn't for the virus and the government's wishy-washy policies!"
- "I'm going to wear a mask whether the mandate is lifted or not! People who don't wear masks (or pretend to wear them by putting them on their chin) only care about their freedom and not their fellow human beings!"
- "They can't live with rules?! They are capable of driving in the right lane, and that's a rule. So, they can't take putting a mask on and crying like babies about how this little rule is taking away their freedom!!??? Give me a break!"
If you only see one side's viewpoints, or think that one side is predominantly right, then you are engaged in black and white thinking to some degree. If you find yourself only wanting to read one side's perspectives, and immersing yourself in all of the arguments for that perspective then you are practicing confirmation bias to a large degree. If you find yourself talking to others and saying "I believe --", then you are saying that your perspectives are belief oriented, not fact oriented. Do you predominantly look at facts and evidence, or do you predominantly look at opinions and "maybe-iffy-facts-that-may-become-facts-later-on" (i.e. conspiracies)?
How much persuading are you trying to do to get others to adopt your perspectives?
We are tribal creatures and in order to defend ourselves properly, we need a tribe, otherwise the defense won't be effective. So do you find yourself disgusted and pushing away people who don't "join" your perspectives? Do you think you have shouted loud enough so that they hear you? Do you call political officials you don't agree with names? Do you start discounting everything they have to say? Do most politicians disappoint you? Or do you just discount people who don't agree with you as dumb, or paid for, or power mad, or not dealing with reality (i.e. crazy)?
Do you want compromise or do you want everyone to adopt your perspectives and side of the argument? Can you live within a society that has opposition to your perspectives and beliefs? Can you live with a government who instates mask mandates, and then takes them away again, and then reinstates them, and then takes them away again based on how much hospitals and ICUs are overwhelmed?
Most of us can transition out of our own viewpoints and admit that we are wrong as more evidence or experience comes along. In this situation, mask mandates and vaccine mandates may come and go for years. We just do not know. One side will feel oppressed and scared, and the other side will feel relieved. Either side will try to get politicians engaged in public health matters they know very little about. They are interested in getting "voters" to vote for them, so they will gauge how many people want mask mandates and how many people don't want them, and make a stand for the majority. Thus, the non-majority will feel disenfranchised and bullied into submission. It seems to be a situation of no-win "party lines" too, Republican vs. Democrat. I would bet all of the issues around the virus will push many people who hadn't adopted all of one party's perspectives to adopt them under this environment of splitting, of diametrically opposed political views.
We may think that "a civil war of perspectives" is all we have to worry about. But it isn't. Countries who view us, or any democracy as a threat or enemy, i.e. who sees us in black and white terms, is going to look at what we are doing as politically advantageous and dis-advantageous to them.
- "They can't live with rules?! They are capable of driving in the right lane, and that's a rule. So, they can't take putting a mask on and crying like babies about how this little rule is taking away their freedom!!??? Give me a break!"
If you only see one side's viewpoints, or think that one side is predominantly right, then you are engaged in black and white thinking to some degree. If you find yourself only wanting to read one side's perspectives, and immersing yourself in all of the arguments for that perspective then you are practicing confirmation bias to a large degree. If you find yourself talking to others and saying "I believe --", then you are saying that your perspectives are belief oriented, not fact oriented. Do you predominantly look at facts and evidence, or do you predominantly look at opinions and "maybe-iffy-facts-that-may-become-facts-later-on" (i.e. conspiracies)?
How much persuading are you trying to do to get others to adopt your perspectives?
We are tribal creatures and in order to defend ourselves properly, we need a tribe, otherwise the defense won't be effective. So do you find yourself disgusted and pushing away people who don't "join" your perspectives? Do you think you have shouted loud enough so that they hear you? Do you call political officials you don't agree with names? Do you start discounting everything they have to say? Do most politicians disappoint you? Or do you just discount people who don't agree with you as dumb, or paid for, or power mad, or not dealing with reality (i.e. crazy)?
Do you want compromise or do you want everyone to adopt your perspectives and side of the argument? Can you live within a society that has opposition to your perspectives and beliefs? Can you live with a government who instates mask mandates, and then takes them away again, and then reinstates them, and then takes them away again based on how much hospitals and ICUs are overwhelmed?
Most of us can transition out of our own viewpoints and admit that we are wrong as more evidence or experience comes along. In this situation, mask mandates and vaccine mandates may come and go for years. We just do not know. One side will feel oppressed and scared, and the other side will feel relieved. Either side will try to get politicians engaged in public health matters they know very little about. They are interested in getting "voters" to vote for them, so they will gauge how many people want mask mandates and how many people don't want them, and make a stand for the majority. Thus, the non-majority will feel disenfranchised and bullied into submission. It seems to be a situation of no-win "party lines" too, Republican vs. Democrat. I would bet all of the issues around the virus will push many people who hadn't adopted all of one party's perspectives to adopt them under this environment of splitting, of diametrically opposed political views.
We may think that "a civil war of perspectives" is all we have to worry about. But it isn't. Countries who view us, or any democracy as a threat or enemy, i.e. who sees us in black and white terms, is going to look at what we are doing as politically advantageous and dis-advantageous to them.
The next warfare may come as a biological weapon. They might dream something up in a lab, inoculate their citizens against the pathogen (the guise might be a booster shot against the flu or another strain of Covid), perhaps some of their allies too. They might have the perspective that "Americans will die because of all of their fussing, demonstrations and economic sabotage over masks and mandates and freedom! Americans are dumb! They'll go to war with each other, and then finally create a sinkhole for themselves where they will no longer be the world's super-power! We could probably invade if we wanted to too! Or we'll just call all of the shots and make them pay for their interferences and aggressions."
Freedom and lack of freedom has costs, even though the costs for each are quite different. No one has "total freedom" because of the kind of species we are: interdependence, different perspectives, compromise and/or conflict. We tax each other and have conflicts with each other that sometimes erupt into war. You cannot achieve all-out freedom and it is probably foolish to try. The free-est among us may be either people who live out on the ocean full time (with money), or live in a state park full time (with money), and exploiters or criminals who keep trying to get away with as much as they can, but experience less-than-freedom when they are caught. Freedom in that sense has a punishing side. Then there's the homeless who can sleep or make an abode anywhere in the country they want, if it wasn't for neighborhood ordinances and feeling un-free because of a vulnerability to the elements. There will always be something to knock our freedom down, in other words. Perhaps we are not even "free to vote" because of all of the gerrymandering and possible maybe-is-it-a-conspiracy-or-maybe-it-is-it-not election fraud/conspiracy. Maybe we aren't free because of all of our paranoias, fears, traumas, our thin little perspectives. Maybe freedom is a myth, something only officials running for office like to talk about - to get their constituents to hope for evermore of it, as if it can be satiated by the next policy, promise or law. Elections are all about "hope" after all, and less about promises, because promises are cut down in Parliament, or Congress, or by extenuating circumstances like getting involved in another war. War is definitely a state where "hope will have to wait."
Freedom and lack of freedom has costs, even though the costs for each are quite different. No one has "total freedom" because of the kind of species we are: interdependence, different perspectives, compromise and/or conflict. We tax each other and have conflicts with each other that sometimes erupt into war. You cannot achieve all-out freedom and it is probably foolish to try. The free-est among us may be either people who live out on the ocean full time (with money), or live in a state park full time (with money), and exploiters or criminals who keep trying to get away with as much as they can, but experience less-than-freedom when they are caught. Freedom in that sense has a punishing side. Then there's the homeless who can sleep or make an abode anywhere in the country they want, if it wasn't for neighborhood ordinances and feeling un-free because of a vulnerability to the elements. There will always be something to knock our freedom down, in other words. Perhaps we are not even "free to vote" because of all of the gerrymandering and possible maybe-is-it-a-conspiracy-or-maybe-it-is-it-not election fraud/conspiracy. Maybe we aren't free because of all of our paranoias, fears, traumas, our thin little perspectives. Maybe freedom is a myth, something only officials running for office like to talk about - to get their constituents to hope for evermore of it, as if it can be satiated by the next policy, promise or law. Elections are all about "hope" after all, and less about promises, because promises are cut down in Parliament, or Congress, or by extenuating circumstances like getting involved in another war. War is definitely a state where "hope will have to wait."
But getting back to black and white thinking ... black and white thinking and confirmation bias is often encouraged in the world of social media. It flourishes there because you can always find people who agree with you. In our past when we were limited to a small tribe, we would have to compromise and work as a team to get anything done. Compromise is in very short supply when a whole nation turns narcissistic (and I will tell you what that means further in the post). Black and white thinking also tends to be a major roadblock in solving relationship and social issues and/or having a mind that is open, accommodating, bargaining, and that has empathy.
Black and white thinking is extreme in people who have Cluster B personality disorders.
In Borderline Personality Disorder it means that when they get triggered (usually by abandonment "scares" and issues), they will see the person who seemingly wants to abandon them, as the enemy. They may cut themselves (called "cutting"), or they may lash out instead. If they see that the other person is really hurt, there will be a flood of sad emotions in the Borderline and they will do a double-take and often beg forgiveness for hurting the other person. If that other person backs off (i.e. abandons), then the Borderline can become suicidal. Borderlines usually grow up in homes where there is a lot of perspecticide and invalidation of feelings, thoughts and experiences. Arguing about what you are feeling, and what you went through is either a daily occurrence, or it is "over-the-top" in some way: it came with punishments, abandonment, neglect, scolding, injustice. Borderlines often feel they have been heavily burdened with injustice. The early homes of Borderlines tend to have abuse in them, but not always (sometimes on-going perspecticide and invalidation is enough to saddle them with the disorder). Borderlines tend to have enough empathy where they can see other people's points of view, unlike the other Cluster B personality disorders. This means they can shed the black and white thinking with treatment and therapy.
People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder can sometimes have some of the traits of Borderline Personality Disorder (it is a spectrum disorder, after all), but your average run-of-the-mill narcissists does not. But the one thing they share in common with the Borderline is black and white thinking. It tends to be much more noticeable, fixed and pronounced in the narcissist because narcissists have lack of empathy (they make "mental enemies" of people who do not have the same perspectives that they have, and cannot even begin to see or hear the other person with an opposing viewpoint to the point of comprehension on a "thinking" and "feeling" level). Narcissists brains are awash in black and white thinking, or maybe the right word is "pickled" in black and white thinking. Things that are pickled don't change.
Black and white thinking is extreme in people who have Cluster B personality disorders.
In Borderline Personality Disorder it means that when they get triggered (usually by abandonment "scares" and issues), they will see the person who seemingly wants to abandon them, as the enemy. They may cut themselves (called "cutting"), or they may lash out instead. If they see that the other person is really hurt, there will be a flood of sad emotions in the Borderline and they will do a double-take and often beg forgiveness for hurting the other person. If that other person backs off (i.e. abandons), then the Borderline can become suicidal. Borderlines usually grow up in homes where there is a lot of perspecticide and invalidation of feelings, thoughts and experiences. Arguing about what you are feeling, and what you went through is either a daily occurrence, or it is "over-the-top" in some way: it came with punishments, abandonment, neglect, scolding, injustice. Borderlines often feel they have been heavily burdened with injustice. The early homes of Borderlines tend to have abuse in them, but not always (sometimes on-going perspecticide and invalidation is enough to saddle them with the disorder). Borderlines tend to have enough empathy where they can see other people's points of view, unlike the other Cluster B personality disorders. This means they can shed the black and white thinking with treatment and therapy.
People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder can sometimes have some of the traits of Borderline Personality Disorder (it is a spectrum disorder, after all), but your average run-of-the-mill narcissists does not. But the one thing they share in common with the Borderline is black and white thinking. It tends to be much more noticeable, fixed and pronounced in the narcissist because narcissists have lack of empathy (they make "mental enemies" of people who do not have the same perspectives that they have, and cannot even begin to see or hear the other person with an opposing viewpoint to the point of comprehension on a "thinking" and "feeling" level). Narcissists brains are awash in black and white thinking, or maybe the right word is "pickled" in black and white thinking. Things that are pickled don't change.
Most often once they see you as "the enemy", they either terrorize you or abandon you.
They do a lot of abandoning of others because their minds work in such a way that you are either totally for them or totally against them. You can't be Switzerland, you can't ask for compromise, you can't ask that your perspectives be considered (many of them can't even hear you out, and if they agree to hear you out, they are likely to rage when they realize that your perspectives don't match theirs in a perfect way). They idealize their own perspectives, and anyone who doesn't agree with them is an enemy of them, their perspectives and their agendas - and because most narcissists gaslight, you are crazy and stupid too if you show hesitation or recalcitrance.
It accounts for why they are so verbally abusive, lashing out in extreme ways. It accounts for why they also call politicians some version of "stupid" or "crazy". And often it means they want to be in leadership positions themselves, to "beat" the competition in a perspectives war.
However, if they get into leadership positions, it requires that you totally agree with them and their perspectives, or again, they terrorize you, ignore your hurts and concerns. They use the divide and conquer strategy over and over and over again, and require that everyone backs them, so that they become like despotic tyrants if you don't agree with them and do what they tell you to do.
If things don't go their way, or they lose their leadership, they will try to talk themselves and other people that they won. It's too bruising to their ego to admit that they lost.
However, when they are running for office, they won't really reveal this behavior. They seduce with promises of freedom, justice, peace, benevolence and compassion to all. So it is quite surprising when they start a war, either with another country, or within their own country to get their countrymen under control. They cannot tolerate any sort of division or an opposing position, so they bully others.
In the end, it becomes quite obvious to most people that they are in office for power, control and domination, and demand constant praise.
They do a lot of abandoning of others because their minds work in such a way that you are either totally for them or totally against them. You can't be Switzerland, you can't ask for compromise, you can't ask that your perspectives be considered (many of them can't even hear you out, and if they agree to hear you out, they are likely to rage when they realize that your perspectives don't match theirs in a perfect way). They idealize their own perspectives, and anyone who doesn't agree with them is an enemy of them, their perspectives and their agendas - and because most narcissists gaslight, you are crazy and stupid too if you show hesitation or recalcitrance.
It accounts for why they are so verbally abusive, lashing out in extreme ways. It accounts for why they also call politicians some version of "stupid" or "crazy". And often it means they want to be in leadership positions themselves, to "beat" the competition in a perspectives war.
However, if they get into leadership positions, it requires that you totally agree with them and their perspectives, or again, they terrorize you, ignore your hurts and concerns. They use the divide and conquer strategy over and over and over again, and require that everyone backs them, so that they become like despotic tyrants if you don't agree with them and do what they tell you to do.
If things don't go their way, or they lose their leadership, they will try to talk themselves and other people that they won. It's too bruising to their ego to admit that they lost.
However, when they are running for office, they won't really reveal this behavior. They seduce with promises of freedom, justice, peace, benevolence and compassion to all. So it is quite surprising when they start a war, either with another country, or within their own country to get their countrymen under control. They cannot tolerate any sort of division or an opposing position, so they bully others.
In the end, it becomes quite obvious to most people that they are in office for power, control and domination, and demand constant praise.
People like to put narcissists in power because they are so forceful and confident about which side they will fight for. They will even fight in unethical ways. They will lie if they feel they need to. But as you can see, putting someone with exceptional black and white thinking without empathy in power has a lot of drawbacks.
Narcissists don't usually change. Borderlines, in contrast, are very changeable to the point where they don't know who they are. It has to do with the invalidation, and someone in their early childhood trying to impose their viewpoints on who the Borderline is: in youth, they didn't have the means to find out whether what they were told was the truth, or even to defend themselves. The onslaught of invalidating statements didn't give them enough framework and grounding to have an identity.
Whereas for narcissists, they were usually either validated to the point of the ridiculous (favoritism and excessive praise) or invalidated to the point where they fought back by making themselves into an aggressive non-empathetic lying bully to ward off the chance that it would ever happen to them again (these tend to be covert narcissists).
Narcissists don't change their stances, their perspectives, their views of "their enemies". They can make lifelong enemies with their children and spouses too. While they are capable of sweet-talk, they lure perceived enemies in only to hurt them for perceived betrayals. It's how they feel they have won: destroy everyone who stands in the way of their perspectives and agenda.
People with Malignant Narcissism and Sociopathy also have black and white thinking. It's hard to tell which is worse in terms of the aggressions they commit against others, and their own personal make-ups, but if I had to guess, I would say Malignant Narcissism if only because these people have the traits of narcissism (huge doses of arrogance which is more of a narcissistic trait) along with the traits of Antisocial Personality Disorder: no empathy at all, no regrets for how they exploit and hurt others for their own gain, sadistic and sadistic minded, cruel, and feel entitled to have anything they want at the cost of others' peace and happiness. They literally live in a fantasy world because they lie about nearly everything and believe others lie to them over nearly everything. They see aggression everywhere because they are so self involved and projecting, that they have not even the slightest idea of what other people think and feel. In other words, they see no difference between themselves and others because their brains are constantly reacting to conspiricy-laden lies, real and unreal (mostly unreal). They are also so focused on "getting" because they feel that everyone is out to take their power. They are addicted to power, control and domination like the narcissist, but also on hurting and threatening others to get it and keep it, and increase it.
We tend to think of leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and King Henry the Eighth when we think of malignant narcissism. We tend to think of school shooters, the Uni-Bomber, Lee Harvey Oswald, Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde), James Earl Ray, and Brian Laundrie as sociopaths.
As for empaths, they tend to make up 30 percent of the population. For the kind of empaths who feel pain in their own bodies when looking at the wound of another person, I would say this more extreme version is a lot less than 30 percent, perhaps even as low as one percent.
Empaths will understand and even feel what other people are going through as their own feelings. Their psychic boundaries are open, and many will complain that they are too open for a peaceful existence, and when in a war of black and white thinking about masks and vaccines, they tend to feel what everyone is feeling, everyone. It all floods in and becomes overwhelming. All sides are heard, and often make sense especially if there is a lot of feeling and emotion in the delivery.
Empaths may be skewed in the direction of protecting people who are vulnerable, but all voices get heard and felt when it comes to empaths. Again, this isn't something they can change, or control with ease. Many are born this way.
It's natural to feel empathy; it's part of the amygdala. Empaths, however, generally tend to have an enlarged amygdala and more brain matter in general (another link). But it still does not make them super humans. Drawbacks: cognitive dissonance (it has its good sides and its bad sides). But empaths also have an innate ability to understand others, and unlike people in the Cluster B spectrum, they see all of the nuances and gray areas in other people that the Cluster Bs cannot see. It is hard to see people as enemies, in other words ...
So people who are more prone to black and white thinking may find the empath's inability to choose sides to be scary. In a threat, or in a war of perspectives, people feel a need for the empath to pick sides and stay fixed in that role, in order that they join "a force" of demonstrators that cannot be ignored by the opposition. The problem is that black and white thinking often means not being open or receptive to the perspectives of the other side, and empaths can't do that very easily. They are often pinpointed as being disloyal when the aggression, bullying tactics and weapons come out. That is because they will make a "stink" about threatening tactics. Since they feel pain when other people feel pain, they can't partake in violent acts without severe regrets and even disabling trauma later on. So empaths are often abused, threatened and abandoned. No surprise there.
Narcissists, malignant narcissists and sociopaths often exploit empaths. Empaths get hurt, traumatized, and are the most prone to going back to their abusers (when the abuser hoovers) because they don't like to see pain in other people. Their minds are open. Eventually they will be able to decipher the mindset of the abuser much more clearly, but not without going through a lot of pain. They decipher the lies, gaslighting, manipulations, and motivations for dominance and control in their abusers. It's not pleasant to get inside their agendas and mind frame for an empath. They learn slowly not to assume anything about anyone, especially goodness in others. It's awful when empaths become disabled by abuse, discouragement, and narcissistic slavery (and attempts to dominate empaths and put empaths into slave roles) because they are kept from what they do best: being empathetic. However, in their healing they become wise, and either learn how to deal with Cluster Bs, or steer clear of them altogether.
You would think that a traumatized empath would begin to see in black and white terms because of what they experienced, and some do a little. But to put abusers in an "enemy box" in their minds, it is not possible. What is possible is to break the psychic bond by asking the abuser to leave the empath's thoughts and mind, much as you would ask someone you cannot come to an understanding with to leave your house, or to leave you alone. It can work, and it is especially workable if you do not see them or hear from them again. Empaths revive by caring for others.
In other words, we are not all built for war, arguing, blind loyalty (especially when there are unsavory agendas), being talked into perspectives, and joining.
Compromise, being humble, being reasonable, being aware of how you effect others and practicing self reflection is more palatable to most empaths ...
Narcissists don't usually change. Borderlines, in contrast, are very changeable to the point where they don't know who they are. It has to do with the invalidation, and someone in their early childhood trying to impose their viewpoints on who the Borderline is: in youth, they didn't have the means to find out whether what they were told was the truth, or even to defend themselves. The onslaught of invalidating statements didn't give them enough framework and grounding to have an identity.
Whereas for narcissists, they were usually either validated to the point of the ridiculous (favoritism and excessive praise) or invalidated to the point where they fought back by making themselves into an aggressive non-empathetic lying bully to ward off the chance that it would ever happen to them again (these tend to be covert narcissists).
Narcissists don't change their stances, their perspectives, their views of "their enemies". They can make lifelong enemies with their children and spouses too. While they are capable of sweet-talk, they lure perceived enemies in only to hurt them for perceived betrayals. It's how they feel they have won: destroy everyone who stands in the way of their perspectives and agenda.
People with Malignant Narcissism and Sociopathy also have black and white thinking. It's hard to tell which is worse in terms of the aggressions they commit against others, and their own personal make-ups, but if I had to guess, I would say Malignant Narcissism if only because these people have the traits of narcissism (huge doses of arrogance which is more of a narcissistic trait) along with the traits of Antisocial Personality Disorder: no empathy at all, no regrets for how they exploit and hurt others for their own gain, sadistic and sadistic minded, cruel, and feel entitled to have anything they want at the cost of others' peace and happiness. They literally live in a fantasy world because they lie about nearly everything and believe others lie to them over nearly everything. They see aggression everywhere because they are so self involved and projecting, that they have not even the slightest idea of what other people think and feel. In other words, they see no difference between themselves and others because their brains are constantly reacting to conspiricy-laden lies, real and unreal (mostly unreal). They are also so focused on "getting" because they feel that everyone is out to take their power. They are addicted to power, control and domination like the narcissist, but also on hurting and threatening others to get it and keep it, and increase it.
We tend to think of leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and King Henry the Eighth when we think of malignant narcissism. We tend to think of school shooters, the Uni-Bomber, Lee Harvey Oswald, Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde), James Earl Ray, and Brian Laundrie as sociopaths.
As for empaths, they tend to make up 30 percent of the population. For the kind of empaths who feel pain in their own bodies when looking at the wound of another person, I would say this more extreme version is a lot less than 30 percent, perhaps even as low as one percent.
Empaths will understand and even feel what other people are going through as their own feelings. Their psychic boundaries are open, and many will complain that they are too open for a peaceful existence, and when in a war of black and white thinking about masks and vaccines, they tend to feel what everyone is feeling, everyone. It all floods in and becomes overwhelming. All sides are heard, and often make sense especially if there is a lot of feeling and emotion in the delivery.
Empaths may be skewed in the direction of protecting people who are vulnerable, but all voices get heard and felt when it comes to empaths. Again, this isn't something they can change, or control with ease. Many are born this way.
It's natural to feel empathy; it's part of the amygdala. Empaths, however, generally tend to have an enlarged amygdala and more brain matter in general (another link). But it still does not make them super humans. Drawbacks: cognitive dissonance (it has its good sides and its bad sides). But empaths also have an innate ability to understand others, and unlike people in the Cluster B spectrum, they see all of the nuances and gray areas in other people that the Cluster Bs cannot see. It is hard to see people as enemies, in other words ...
So people who are more prone to black and white thinking may find the empath's inability to choose sides to be scary. In a threat, or in a war of perspectives, people feel a need for the empath to pick sides and stay fixed in that role, in order that they join "a force" of demonstrators that cannot be ignored by the opposition. The problem is that black and white thinking often means not being open or receptive to the perspectives of the other side, and empaths can't do that very easily. They are often pinpointed as being disloyal when the aggression, bullying tactics and weapons come out. That is because they will make a "stink" about threatening tactics. Since they feel pain when other people feel pain, they can't partake in violent acts without severe regrets and even disabling trauma later on. So empaths are often abused, threatened and abandoned. No surprise there.
Narcissists, malignant narcissists and sociopaths often exploit empaths. Empaths get hurt, traumatized, and are the most prone to going back to their abusers (when the abuser hoovers) because they don't like to see pain in other people. Their minds are open. Eventually they will be able to decipher the mindset of the abuser much more clearly, but not without going through a lot of pain. They decipher the lies, gaslighting, manipulations, and motivations for dominance and control in their abusers. It's not pleasant to get inside their agendas and mind frame for an empath. They learn slowly not to assume anything about anyone, especially goodness in others. It's awful when empaths become disabled by abuse, discouragement, and narcissistic slavery (and attempts to dominate empaths and put empaths into slave roles) because they are kept from what they do best: being empathetic. However, in their healing they become wise, and either learn how to deal with Cluster Bs, or steer clear of them altogether.
You would think that a traumatized empath would begin to see in black and white terms because of what they experienced, and some do a little. But to put abusers in an "enemy box" in their minds, it is not possible. What is possible is to break the psychic bond by asking the abuser to leave the empath's thoughts and mind, much as you would ask someone you cannot come to an understanding with to leave your house, or to leave you alone. It can work, and it is especially workable if you do not see them or hear from them again. Empaths revive by caring for others.
In other words, we are not all built for war, arguing, blind loyalty (especially when there are unsavory agendas), being talked into perspectives, and joining.
Compromise, being humble, being reasonable, being aware of how you effect others and practicing self reflection is more palatable to most empaths ...
OTHER THAN BEING IN A STATE OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE ABOUT THIS TOPIC
DO I HAVE ANY OTHER THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS TO ADD TO THIS DISCUSSION?
DO I HAVE ANY OTHER THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS TO ADD TO THIS DISCUSSION?
The one thing that has annoyed me is that this subject should have always been a medical issue and stayed as one. It seemed to me that when people began to have doubts about the virus, the masks and the vaccines, politicians exploited it and made it a political issue. Was the virus that bad as public health officials were saying it was? Was it as contagious as the chief medical examiner was saying it was? Was it really that bad that citizens had to quarantine and take economic losses, and keep their kids from school? Was it really that bad that everyone had to wear a mask? Was it really that bad that everyone had to get vaccinated with a relatively new vaccine that hadn't been vetted by the test of time? What if it had some "funny stuff" in it, something you could get really sick from down the road? Were hospitals that over-crowded or was the media in the pockets of the corporations and just showing us what they wanted to see to scare all of us? Was this disease made up by the government to control the people? Did the vaccinations have controlling or tracking devices so that the government could have even more control (since you can only scare people so much?). And how come government is so concerned about our health now when some of us live in poverty that is so bad that we can't afford to buy healthy food? What's the trick here?
Skepticism is normal behavior for citizens during a pandemic, by the way.
Having questions about political motives is always a good idea, especially when campaigns are financed by giant corporations, and lobbyists are always being paid to sway politicians.
When the public got skeptical, politicians seized on the suspicions (i.e. what some of their constituents wanted to hear), so that perhaps they could get voted into office again, to act like a suspicious non-government official inside an institution of government officials! Most politicians aren't health experts and I felt they usurped the topic to bring attention to themselves.
However making a health matter be riddled with politics which is greatly over-riding health discussions by people who are experts in health, is nothing new. For one, it is right out of the playbook of the 1918 pandemic.
So, maybe that's "just the way things go" in a pandemic ... except ...
Skepticism is normal behavior for citizens during a pandemic, by the way.
Having questions about political motives is always a good idea, especially when campaigns are financed by giant corporations, and lobbyists are always being paid to sway politicians.
When the public got skeptical, politicians seized on the suspicions (i.e. what some of their constituents wanted to hear), so that perhaps they could get voted into office again, to act like a suspicious non-government official inside an institution of government officials! Most politicians aren't health experts and I felt they usurped the topic to bring attention to themselves.
However making a health matter be riddled with politics which is greatly over-riding health discussions by people who are experts in health, is nothing new. For one, it is right out of the playbook of the 1918 pandemic.
So, maybe that's "just the way things go" in a pandemic ... except ...
During the Black Plague in the 1300s, some European cities tried to keep their citizens quarantined inside walled cities, and in some cases it worked to the point of keeping the disease out altogether.
However, I doubt that people quarantined without some rancor. Human beings have an innate desire to be free. Inside the walled cities there was probably rationing of food. It may have been a fairly extreme form of rationing. And there may have been more than the usual numbers of threats and tyranny. If you wanted to leave the walled city, you were probably told you would not be admitted back in.
However, I doubt that people quarantined without some rancor. Human beings have an innate desire to be free. Inside the walled cities there was probably rationing of food. It may have been a fairly extreme form of rationing. And there may have been more than the usual numbers of threats and tyranny. If you wanted to leave the walled city, you were probably told you would not be admitted back in.
However, even with quarantines and several walls and perhaps even a moat, you sometimes invited war by enemies and outsiders. Freshly dead diseased bodies were sometimes catapulted over the walls to infect the people living inside the walls to weaken their defenses and make the city easier to invade for resources. Do you see any parallels? ... At least in terms of one nation wanting to invade another nation during a pandemic?
Pandemics have always been "a can of worms" in "who to trust". Do any of us really trust government officials totally? Doesn't power, just by its nature, corrupt? How much do our officials want power and attention (i.e. the great narcissistic pastime of obtaining more and more power and domination for themselves at the expense of others) and who is really compassionate, self effacing, truly wants to help, and isn't addicted to power? Do any of us really know? How empathetic are they really, how good are they at listening, how do they really view things or do they just speak in ways that they think people want to hear to get what they want (i.e. flattery)? We know that empathy can be faked.
Plus, pandemics bring hardships for a lot of us too. This one brought about abnormal levels of loneliness, trepidation, poverty, child abuse, domestic violence, uprisings, policy rancor, extreme government division, permanently shuttered businesses, nurse shortages, teacher shortages, death threats to government and public health officials, marches, looting, elevations in crime, people moving out of the largest cities, rent relief, an attempted insurrection, and inflation at seven and a half percent.
Personally, I saw more confirmation bias with black and white thinking once the pandemic got going to the point where people were dying. I understand, however, that people feel threatened by any number of issues, so it explains why confirmation bias with black and white thinking would be happening at a time like this. I get it. But I am concerned when I see it to these extremes because it can start wars.
The other thing that concerns me is if society can be so reactive over this pandemic, what if we had a pandemic like Ebola that kills half of a population?
Personally, I don't know what to say except that we should make the best possible decisions with our limited perspectives ... Or maybe try to widen our perspectives so we don't automatically fall into a state of confirmation bias. Perhaps reading perspectives from both sides will help us understand each other.
Being a public health official, being a politician, being the leader of a country, being a demonstrator for freedom, being a policeman, being a bio-chemist, being a doctor, being a nurse, being a vocal skeptic, being a lawmaker - these are all roles. People who inhabit these roles are expected to act in ways that fit the role. And when people are at odds, the roles of people are seen first (over the whole person). People say things like "I just hate Justin Trudeau!" or "I hate those truckers occupying our streets!", but do we really hate those people or do we hate the role that they are serving in the present crisis. Defining people only by the role that they serve is black and white thinking too.
To add to it all, so many people feel afraid to talk about their vaccination status because of being pigeonholed into one camp or the other, and having assumptions made about their political affiliations. And yet, vaccination status is seen as important because it is a highly transmittable disease, with more than average risks of mortality (for our times).
I am not a health expert, or a scientist, or a bio-chemist, or a nurse, and I don't fit into any of these roles ... I have two areas of expertise and they are pretty far from what is required during a pandemic, so I do the best I can with my limited knowledge. Maybe health matters should be discussed between oneself and one's doctor, the way it has always been?
Pandemics have always been "a can of worms" in "who to trust". Do any of us really trust government officials totally? Doesn't power, just by its nature, corrupt? How much do our officials want power and attention (i.e. the great narcissistic pastime of obtaining more and more power and domination for themselves at the expense of others) and who is really compassionate, self effacing, truly wants to help, and isn't addicted to power? Do any of us really know? How empathetic are they really, how good are they at listening, how do they really view things or do they just speak in ways that they think people want to hear to get what they want (i.e. flattery)? We know that empathy can be faked.
Plus, pandemics bring hardships for a lot of us too. This one brought about abnormal levels of loneliness, trepidation, poverty, child abuse, domestic violence, uprisings, policy rancor, extreme government division, permanently shuttered businesses, nurse shortages, teacher shortages, death threats to government and public health officials, marches, looting, elevations in crime, people moving out of the largest cities, rent relief, an attempted insurrection, and inflation at seven and a half percent.
Personally, I saw more confirmation bias with black and white thinking once the pandemic got going to the point where people were dying. I understand, however, that people feel threatened by any number of issues, so it explains why confirmation bias with black and white thinking would be happening at a time like this. I get it. But I am concerned when I see it to these extremes because it can start wars.
The other thing that concerns me is if society can be so reactive over this pandemic, what if we had a pandemic like Ebola that kills half of a population?
Personally, I don't know what to say except that we should make the best possible decisions with our limited perspectives ... Or maybe try to widen our perspectives so we don't automatically fall into a state of confirmation bias. Perhaps reading perspectives from both sides will help us understand each other.
Being a public health official, being a politician, being the leader of a country, being a demonstrator for freedom, being a policeman, being a bio-chemist, being a doctor, being a nurse, being a vocal skeptic, being a lawmaker - these are all roles. People who inhabit these roles are expected to act in ways that fit the role. And when people are at odds, the roles of people are seen first (over the whole person). People say things like "I just hate Justin Trudeau!" or "I hate those truckers occupying our streets!", but do we really hate those people or do we hate the role that they are serving in the present crisis. Defining people only by the role that they serve is black and white thinking too.
To add to it all, so many people feel afraid to talk about their vaccination status because of being pigeonholed into one camp or the other, and having assumptions made about their political affiliations. And yet, vaccination status is seen as important because it is a highly transmittable disease, with more than average risks of mortality (for our times).
I am not a health expert, or a scientist, or a bio-chemist, or a nurse, and I don't fit into any of these roles ... I have two areas of expertise and they are pretty far from what is required during a pandemic, so I do the best I can with my limited knowledge. Maybe health matters should be discussed between oneself and one's doctor, the way it has always been?
IN CONCLUSION
This quote comes from David Brook's article, The Dark Century, in The New York Times:
Just as America’s founders understood that democracy is not natural, the postwar generation understood that peace is not natural — it has to be tended and cultivated from the frailties of human passion and greed.
Another quote from the same article:
... we need to fortify the institutions that are supposed to teach the democratic skills: how to weigh evidence and commit to truth; how to correct for your own partisan blinders and learn to doubt your own opinions; how to respect people you disagree with; how to avoid catastrophism, conspiracy and apocalyptic thinking; how to avoid supporting demagogues; how to craft complex compromises.
... we need to fortify the institutions that are supposed to teach the democratic skills: how to weigh evidence and commit to truth; how to correct for your own partisan blinders and learn to doubt your own opinions; how to respect people you disagree with; how to avoid catastrophism, conspiracy and apocalyptic thinking; how to avoid supporting demagogues; how to craft complex compromises.
FURTHER READING SO THAT YOU CAN CREATE MORE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
(and good luck!)
History of Pandemics and Epidemics
(where you will find a lot of similarities with our present)
(where you will find a lot of similarities with our present)
Pandemics: HISTORY.com is covering a range of angles about pandemics of the past to help frame the COVID-19 crisis. - History.com (also The History Channel)
Pandemics That Changed History (As human civilizations rose, these diseases struck them down.) - History.com
Spanish Flu - Wikipedia
Anti-Mask League of San Francisco - Wikipedia
Influenza Encyclopedia: The American Infuenza Epidemic of 1918 - 1919
Influenza Encyclopedia: The American Infuenza Epidemic of 1918 - 1919
We Heard the Bells The Influenza of 1918 - Spanish Flu Pandemic Documentary - Future of Tomorrow (You Tube interviews people about the 1918 pandemic)
History Tells Us Epidemics Are Followed by Huge Civil Unrest for These Three Reasons - by Kashmira Gander for Newsweek
Politics, Protests, and Pandemics (During the past year, social upheaval has been as widespread as COVID-19. What will history make of that?) - by Adam Gopnik for The New Yorker
White violence and Black protests during the 1918 flu have a lesson for today - by Kristen Rogers, for CNN
German Revolution of 1918–1919 - Wikipedia (notice it started during the Spanish Flu Pandemic, eventually leading to World War II)
1918 flu pandemic boosted support for the Nazis, Fed study claims - by Chloe Taylor for CNBC
Why the Second Wave of the 1918 Flu Pandemic Was So Deadly (The first strain of the 1918 flu wasn’t particularly deadly. Then it came back in the fall with a vengeance.) - by Dave Roos Updated: Dec 22, 2020, Original: MAR 3, 2020 for History (The History Channel)
The flu pandemic of 1918 and early conspiracy theories (The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm, but it is not unique. Past pandemics have likewise been accompanied by conspiracy theories and waves of mistrust in science. In this Curiosities of Medical History feature, we look at some of the wildest theories to emerge during the flu pandemic of 1918.) - by Maria Cohut Ph.D., fact checked by Anna Guildford for Medical News Today
From the ‘Spanish Flu’ to COVID-19: lessons from the 1918 pandemic and First World War - by Cedric Cotter for Humanitarian Law and Policy
Pandemic Effects on War and Society - Norwich University
How COVID-19 Could Increase the Risk of War - by David Kampf for World Politics Review (2020)
What political psychology tells us about the likelihood of war post-pandemic - Giuseppe Paparella, Phd researcher and teaching assistant in the Defence Studies Department for Kings College, London
1918 flu pandemic linked to rise of Nazi Party, paper reveals (Study published by Federal Reserve Bank of New York examines how ‘Spanish flu’ reshaped German society between 1918 and 1920) - by Samuel Lovett for the Independent
Will a Global Depression Trigger Another World War? (The coronavirus pandemic has already devastated the international economy. Its military fallout remains to be seen.) - by Stephen M. Walt, a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University for Foreign Policy
AFTERSHOCKS: THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND THE NEW WORLD DISORDER - by COLIN H. KAHL AND ARIANA BERENGAUT (2020 article)
As with coronavirus, the 1918 flu led to a rise in xenophobia and budget cuts. Then it helped usher in Nazi rule - by Igor Derysh for Salon
The Influenza Pandemic and The War - by Frederick Holmes, MD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus and of The History of Medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine (discusses the 1918 pandemic)
Imagining pandemics now, and then: a century of medical failure - by Mark Honigsbaum for The Royal Society
Societal Impacts of Pandemics: Comparing COVID-19 With History to Focus Our Response - by Grace E. Patterson, K. Marie McIntyre, Helen E. Clough and Jonathan Rushton for Frontiers in Public Health
Covid-19: How to Use History to Make Sense of a Pandemic (No two pandemics are alike, but history teaches us that some behaviors persist.) - by Anna Louie Sussman for Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Cultural Perspectives on Vaccination (Public opinions about vaccination include varied and deep-seated beliefs, due to the tension between divergent cultural viewpoints and value systems. Several key cultural perspectives on vaccination stem from (1) individual rights and public health stances toward vaccination, (2) various religious standpoints and vaccine objections, and (3) suspicion and mistrust of vaccines among different U.S. and global cultures and communities.) - The History of Vaccines, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
History Shows Americans Have Always Been Wary of Vaccines - by Alicia Ault for The Smithsonian
A Historical Guide to Pandemic Responses - by Rachel Butch, John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of the History of Medicine
The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine - edited by Roy Potter, The University Press, Cambridge, England
Re-thinking Pandemics: State, Society, and Disease in BritishHistory, 1830-1960 - by Meghan Walsh (Thesis, Providence College)
excerpt:
“Epidemics all follow this similar arc where people deny or dismiss the threat until it becomes impossible to ignore any more,” - Mark Honigsbaum, medical historian at City, University of London
Pandemics Go Hand in Hand with Conspiracy Theories - by Frederick Kaufman for The New Yorker
'A Terrible New Weapon of War': The Spanish Flu Had Its Own Share of Conspiracy Theories (Bacilli from underwater, germs in aspirin tablets and German ships carrying the virus to U.S. shores: A century on, reports from the time of the Spanish flu offer a chilling parallel to current events) - by Ofer Aderet for Haaretz (Isreal)
'A Terrible New Weapon of War': The Spanish Flu Had Its Own Share of Conspiracy Theories (Bacilli from underwater, germs in aspirin tablets and German ships carrying the virus to U.S. shores: A century on, reports from the time of the Spanish flu offer a chilling parallel to current events) - by Ofer Aderet for Haaretz (Isreal)
Conspiracies of pandemics past: the history of disease and denial (Infectious diseases and myth-making have long gone hand in hand - from the Black Death to Covid-19) - by Sarah Newey for The Telegraph
Imagined Communities and Imaginary Plots: Nationalisms, Conspiracies, and Pandemics in the Longue - by Durée
Siniša Malešević* for University College, Dublin, Ireland, republished by the Cambridge University Press
Going Viral: COVID Conspiracies in Historical Perspective - by Cameron Givens for The Ohio State University (Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective)
excerpt:
from Janet Reedman, an author:
Yes. One theory was that it was some kind of biological warfare. Others thought it was caught from the dead bodies lying on the battlefields of WWI and carried abroad.
Doctor genuinely thought it was a bacterial illness at first because it caused a quick, violent bacterial pneumonia.
As for the crazy 5G stuff, it has a parallel with a pandemic in the 1890’s. People believed it was caused by…electric lightbulbs. (This Pandemic, Russian flu, may in fact have not been flu at all—but another Coronavirus.)
from Michael R. Worthington (retired college teacher):
The conspiracy theory in 1918 was that this strain of the flu originated in Spain. WWI censorship prevented newspapers from reporting that it actually originated in Kansas, USA. And coverage of the flu in America was severely restricted, but reporters could write articles about the flu in other countries like Spain, which was not a party to the war.
The conspiracy theory in 1918 was that this strain of the flu originated in Spain. WWI censorship prevented newspapers from reporting that it actually originated in Kansas, USA. And coverage of the flu in America was severely restricted, but reporters could write articles about the flu in other countries like Spain, which was not a party to the war.
John Barry, author of "The Great Influenza," urges caution in comparing that time to this. But we can't help it - by Chauncey Devega for Salon
Covid-19 truthers believe that 5G technology is dialing up the disease. More than a century ago, telegraph poles and other mysterious causes were blamed for influenza. And each gave rise to dubious cures. - by Alex Knapp for Forbes
The aftermath of the First World War - The Wiener Holocaust Library, the Holocaust Explained
Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present (The Open Yale Courses Series) - by Frank M. Snowden (book)
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History - by John M. Barry (book)
Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity - by Joshua Loomis (book)
description:
Unlike other books on epidemics, which either focus on the science behind how microbes cause disease or tell first-person accounts of one particular disease, Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity takes a holistic approach to explaining how these diseases have shaped who we are as a society. Each of the worst epidemic diseases is discussed from the perspective of how it has been a causative agent of change with respect to our history, religious traditions, social interactions, and technology. In looking at world history through the lens of epidemic diseases, readers will come to appreciate how much we owe to our oldest and smallest parasites.
A Distant Mirror: 15th Century History - by Barbara Tuchman (Random House book), discusses the Great Plague
The Disease, the Vaccines, the Masks, the Mandates and the Effects of the Pandemic
The Violence of the Mandate Intensifies the Psychology of Trauma: A View from New Zealand - by Paris Williams for Brownstone Institute
excerpt:
More than half of voters are concerned that COVID-19 vaccines could have harmful side effects, and don’t think the federal government should have the power to make vaccination mandatory.
A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports finds that 54% of Likely U.S. voters are concerned about the potential of harmful side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 27% who are Very Concerned. Forty-four percent (44%) aren’t concerned about vaccine side effects, including 19% who are Not At All Concerned. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Symptoms of Coronavirus - WebMD
Coronavirus: What Happens When You Get Infected? - Web MD
Note: 2020 article about the Alpha variant of Covid: Think a 'mild' case of Covid-19 doesn’t sound so bad? Think again (Otherwise healthy people who thought they had recovered from coronavirus are reporting persistent and strange symptoms - including strokes) - by Adrienne Matei for The Guardian
Backstory: Why do people deny the seriousness of COVID-19? I asked them. Here's what they said. - by Nicole Carroll for USA Today
Backstory: Why do people deny the seriousness of COVID-19? I asked them. Here's what they said. - by Nicole Carroll for USA Today
As U.S. Nears 800,000 Virus Deaths, 1 of Every 100 Older Americans Has Perished (They are among the most vaccinated groups, but people 65 and older make up about three-quarters of the nation’s coronavirus death toll.) - by Julie Bosman, Amy Harmon and Albert Sun for The New York Times (Dec 2021 article; it may be worse now)
More evidence of COVID-19’s deadly toll on older Americans (One in 100 seniors age 65 and over has died of COVID-19, which is now the third-leading cause of death for this group. Getting vaccinated is as much about our elders as it is about ourselves.) - by the editorial board of The Chicago Sun Times
More evidence of COVID-19’s deadly toll on older Americans (One in 100 seniors age 65 and over has died of COVID-19, which is now the third-leading cause of death for this group. Getting vaccinated is as much about our elders as it is about ourselves.) - by the editorial board of The Chicago Sun Times
What Share of People Who Have Died of COVID-19 Are 65 and Older – and How Does It Vary By State? - by Meredith Freed , Juliette Cubanski, Tricia Neuman , Jennifer Kates, and Josh Michaud for KFF
excerpt:
... Adults 65 and older account for 16% of the US population but 80% of COVID-19 deaths in the US ...
Covid deaths highest in a year as omicron targets the unvaccinated and elderly - by Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating for The Washington Post
Can You Get Long COVID After an Omicron Infection? - by the Associated Press
excerpt:
Long COVID is usually diagnosed many weeks after a bout with COVID-19. Any long-lasting effects typically appear about 90 days after symptoms of the initial infection go away, Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization said this week.
Overall, some estimates suggest more than a third of COVID-19 survivors will develop some symptoms of long COVID. Symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, anxiety and other problems. The lingering illness is more likely if you’ve been hospitalized with COVID-19, but research shows it can happen even after a mild infection.
excerpt:
... Adults 65 and older account for 16% of the US population but 80% of COVID-19 deaths in the US ...
Covid deaths highest in a year as omicron targets the unvaccinated and elderly - by Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating for The Washington Post
Can You Get Long COVID After an Omicron Infection? - by the Associated Press
excerpt:
Long COVID is usually diagnosed many weeks after a bout with COVID-19. Any long-lasting effects typically appear about 90 days after symptoms of the initial infection go away, Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization said this week.
Overall, some estimates suggest more than a third of COVID-19 survivors will develop some symptoms of long COVID. Symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, anxiety and other problems. The lingering illness is more likely if you’ve been hospitalized with COVID-19, but research shows it can happen even after a mild infection.
How Long Covid Exhausts the Body (Millions of people continue to suffer from exhaustion, cognitive problems and other long-lasting symptoms after a coronavirus infection. The exact causes of the illness, known as long Covid, are not known. But new research offers clues, describing the toll the illness takes on the body and why it can be so debilitating.) - by Josh Keller for The New York Times
excerpt:
excerpt:
Studies have found surprisingly high levels of autoantibodies, which mistakenly attack a patient’s own tissues, many months after an initial infection.
A third possibility is that the initial viral infection triggers chronic inflammation, possibly by reactivating other viruses in the patient’s body that are normally dormant. The reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus, which infects most people when they are young, might help predict whether a person will develop long Covid, one study found ...
... Researchers studying patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as ME/CFS), which shares many features with long Covid, found a similar pattern: A lack of oxygen triggered by circulatory problems puts enormous strain on the body’s metabolism, making simple activities feel like strenuous exercise ...
... Detailed scans of their lung function indicated that most of the patients took up oxygen less efficiently than healthy people did, even if the structure of their lungs appeared to be normal.
The researchers cautioned that a larger group of patients will be needed to confirm the findings. If the results hold up, possible explanations for the observed shortness of breath include microclots in lung tissues or a thickening of the blood-air barrier that regulates the uptake of oxygen in the lungs.
‘This Is Really Scary’: Kids Struggle With Long Covid (Lingering physical, mental and neurological symptoms are affecting children as well as adults, including many who had mild reactions to the initial coronavirus infection.) - by Pam Belluck for The New York Times
New Research Hints at 4 Factors That May Increase Chances of Long Covid (If further study confirms the findings, they could lead to ways to prevent and treat the complex condition.) - by Pam Belluck for The New York Times
COVID-19 (coronavirus): Long-term effects (COVID-19 symptoms can sometimes persist for months. The virus can damage the lungs, heart and brain, which increases the risk of long-term health problems.) - Mayo Clinic
Long COVID: Risk factors and how to mitigate them (After recovering from COVID-19, many experience long-term symptoms, including brain fog, fatigue, and skin rashes. This syndrome is known as long COVID, and researchers are in the early stages of understanding its risk factors.) - written by Annie Lennon on February 17, 2022 — Fact checked by Jessica Beake, Ph.D. for Medical News Today
What doctors wish patients knew about long COVID - by Sara Berg for the AMA (American Medical Association)
Understanding Long COVID: The Unseen Public Health Crisis (includes a long video) - Harvard School of Health
excerpt:
Long COVID now affects millions around the globe–yet we still barely understand this emerging condition. Its devastating and lasting symptoms prevent people from working, socializing, and carrying on with their day-to-day lives; for some, the effects are completely debilitating. And like so many chronic-disease sufferers before them, COVID long-haulers face ambivalence and even outright distrust from the very health systems responsible for their care.
We need to raise awareness and better understand this disease in order to head off the next public health crisis. Join us for a riveting discussion that will bring together clinicians, researchers, policy experts, and long COVID patients to better grasp the significant impact of this new syndrome and what we must all do about it—now.
... Researchers studying patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as ME/CFS), which shares many features with long Covid, found a similar pattern: A lack of oxygen triggered by circulatory problems puts enormous strain on the body’s metabolism, making simple activities feel like strenuous exercise ...
... Detailed scans of their lung function indicated that most of the patients took up oxygen less efficiently than healthy people did, even if the structure of their lungs appeared to be normal.
The researchers cautioned that a larger group of patients will be needed to confirm the findings. If the results hold up, possible explanations for the observed shortness of breath include microclots in lung tissues or a thickening of the blood-air barrier that regulates the uptake of oxygen in the lungs.
‘This Is Really Scary’: Kids Struggle With Long Covid (Lingering physical, mental and neurological symptoms are affecting children as well as adults, including many who had mild reactions to the initial coronavirus infection.) - by Pam Belluck for The New York Times
New Research Hints at 4 Factors That May Increase Chances of Long Covid (If further study confirms the findings, they could lead to ways to prevent and treat the complex condition.) - by Pam Belluck for The New York Times
COVID-19 (coronavirus): Long-term effects (COVID-19 symptoms can sometimes persist for months. The virus can damage the lungs, heart and brain, which increases the risk of long-term health problems.) - Mayo Clinic
Long COVID: Risk factors and how to mitigate them (After recovering from COVID-19, many experience long-term symptoms, including brain fog, fatigue, and skin rashes. This syndrome is known as long COVID, and researchers are in the early stages of understanding its risk factors.) - written by Annie Lennon on February 17, 2022 — Fact checked by Jessica Beake, Ph.D. for Medical News Today
What doctors wish patients knew about long COVID - by Sara Berg for the AMA (American Medical Association)
Understanding Long COVID: The Unseen Public Health Crisis (includes a long video) - Harvard School of Health
excerpt:
Long COVID now affects millions around the globe–yet we still barely understand this emerging condition. Its devastating and lasting symptoms prevent people from working, socializing, and carrying on with their day-to-day lives; for some, the effects are completely debilitating. And like so many chronic-disease sufferers before them, COVID long-haulers face ambivalence and even outright distrust from the very health systems responsible for their care.
We need to raise awareness and better understand this disease in order to head off the next public health crisis. Join us for a riveting discussion that will bring together clinicians, researchers, policy experts, and long COVID patients to better grasp the significant impact of this new syndrome and what we must all do about it—now.
More Than a Cold: Omicron Is Still Dangerous for Older Adults (Some people get the sniffles, but a coronavirus infection can be more complicated for others) - by Rachel Nania for AARP
‘Scary and confusing’: When kids suffer from long COVID-19 - by Stacey Weiner for AAMC
Even as omicron infections trend down, long COVID remains a threat to the military - by Yong-Bee Lim
Why Are Individuals with Blood Group A at Higher Risk of COVID-19? - ASH Clinical News
What Is Special About Blood Type O Positive? - by Shaziya Allarakha, MD, Medical Reviewer: Pallavi Suyog Uttekar, MD for Medicine Net
Can Your Blood Type Affect COVID-19 Risks? - by Alina Goldenberg, MD, MAS, FAAD | Reviewed by Mandy Armitage, MD for Good RX Health
Heart Problems after COVID-19 - by Wendy Susan Post, M.D., M.S. for Johns Hopkins
COVID-19: Cardiac manifestations in adults - by Author: Alida LP Caforio, MD, PhD, FESC, Section Editor: Donna Mancini, MD, Deputy Editor:Todd F Dardas, MD, MS for UpToDate
Heart-disease risk soars after COVID — even with a mild case
Massive study shows a long-term, substantial rise in risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. - by Saima May Sidik for Nature Medicine (professional article)
excerpt:
Massive study shows a long-term, substantial rise in risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person's risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis, a new study shows.
Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 - by Yan Xie, Evan Xu, Benjamin Bowe & Ziyad Al-Aly for Nature Medicine (professional article)
What COVID-19 is doing to the heart, even after recovery - by Laura Williamson, American Heart Association News
How COVID-19 harms the heart (Many patients are experiencing heart palpitations, chest pain, and shortness of breath even after recovering from COVID-19. But new studies offer reason for hope.) - by Amy McKeever for National Geographic
Coronavirus and Heart Disease - University of Maryland Medical System
Canada approves a second vaccine made without mRNA technology. - by Adeel Hassan for the New York Times
Cov-info Data Dump: Study and Research For Yourself. - by Five Hundred Pound Peep
My note:
One of the places you can go on the internet to get a plethora of resources to articles about problematic aspects of the vaccines for Covid-19
Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCov-19 Vaccination - by Andreas Greinacher, M.D., Thomas Thiele, M.D., Theodore E. Warkentin, M.D., Karin Weisser, Ph.D., Paul A. Kyrle, M.D., and Sabine Eichinger, M.D for The New England Journal of Medicine (professional paper)
Circulating Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Vaccine Antigen Detected in the Plasma of mRNA-1273 Vaccine Recipients - by Alana F Ogata, Chi-An Cheng, Michaël Desjardins, Yasmeen Senussi, Amy C Sherman, Megan Powell, Lewis Novack, Salena Von, Xiaofang Li, Lindsey R Baden and David R Walt for Infectious Diseases Society of America (professional paper)
“Vaccine-Induced Covid-19 Mimicry” Syndrome: Splice reactions within the SARS-CoV-2 Spike open reading frame result in Spike protein variants that may cause thromboembolic events in patients immunized with vector-based vaccines - by Eric Kowarz, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Lea Krutzke, Department of Gene Therapy, Ulm University, Helmholtz Str. 8/1, 89081 Ulm, Germany; Jenny Reis, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Silvia Bracharz, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Stefan Kochanek, Department of Gene Therapy, Ulm University, Helmholtz Str. 8/1, 89081 Ulm, Germany; and Rolf Marschalek, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany for Infectious Diseases Society of America
‘Scary and confusing’: When kids suffer from long COVID-19 - by Stacey Weiner for AAMC
Even as omicron infections trend down, long COVID remains a threat to the military - by Yong-Bee Lim
Can You Get Covid Twice? Michael Dreis, MD, Reviewed by Sophie Vergnaud, MD for Good RX Health
Why Blood Type May Matter for COVID Infection - by WebMD
Johns Hopkins study of 1.9 million COVID-19 cases links severity with blood types + more - by Hannah Mitchell for Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins study of 1.9 million COVID-19 cases links severity with blood types + more - by Hannah Mitchell for Johns Hopkins
What Is Special About Blood Type O Positive? - by Shaziya Allarakha, MD, Medical Reviewer: Pallavi Suyog Uttekar, MD for Medicine Net
Can Your Blood Type Affect COVID-19 Risks? - by Alina Goldenberg, MD, MAS, FAAD | Reviewed by Mandy Armitage, MD for Good RX Health
Heart Problems after COVID-19 - by Wendy Susan Post, M.D., M.S. for Johns Hopkins
COVID-19: Cardiac manifestations in adults - by Author: Alida LP Caforio, MD, PhD, FESC, Section Editor: Donna Mancini, MD, Deputy Editor:Todd F Dardas, MD, MS for UpToDate
Heart-disease risk soars after COVID — even with a mild case
Massive study shows a long-term, substantial rise in risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. - by Saima May Sidik for Nature Medicine (professional article)
excerpt:
Massive study shows a long-term, substantial rise in risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person's risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis, a new study shows.
Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 - by Yan Xie, Evan Xu, Benjamin Bowe & Ziyad Al-Aly for Nature Medicine (professional article)
What COVID-19 is doing to the heart, even after recovery - by Laura Williamson, American Heart Association News
How COVID-19 harms the heart (Many patients are experiencing heart palpitations, chest pain, and shortness of breath even after recovering from COVID-19. But new studies offer reason for hope.) - by Amy McKeever for National Geographic
Coronavirus and Heart Disease - University of Maryland Medical System
Heart inflammation, COVID-19 and the rare side effects of the vaccine (A cardiologist answers your questions about myocarditis and COVID-19) - by Cardiologist Nayereh Pezeshkian for the University of California at Davis
Myocarditis Cases Reported After mRNA-Based COVID-19 Vaccination in the US From December 2020 to August 2021 - by Matthew E Oster, David K Shay, John R Su, Julianne Gee, C Buddy Creech, Karen R Broder, Kathryn Edwards, Jonathan H Soslow, Jeffrey M Dendy, Elizabeth Schlaudecker, Sean M Lang, Elizabeth D Barnett, Frederick L Ruberg, Michael J Smith, M Jay Campbell, Renato D Lopes, Laurence S Sperling, Jane A Baumblatt, Deborah L Thompson, Paige L Marquez, Penelope Strid, Jared Woo, River Pugsley, Sarah Reagan-Steiner, Frank DeStefano, and Tom T Shimabukuro for Pub Med (professional article)
Higher risk of heart complications from COVID-19 than vaccines -study - Reuters
Getting COVID-19 is much riskier for your heart than vaccination - PBS.org
excerpt:
The heart has played a central role in COVID-19 from the beginning. Cardiovascular conditions are among the highest risk factors for hospitalization. A significant number of patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infections have signs of heart damage, and many recover from infection with lasting cardiovascular injury.
Myocarditis and Pericarditis After mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Clinical Considerations: Myocarditis and Pericarditis after Receipt of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Among Adolescents and Young Adults - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Myocarditis after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination: clinical observations and potential mechanisms - by Stephane Heymans & Leslie T. Cooper for Nature Reviews: Cardiology (professional article)
Though rare, Moderna Covid vaccine recipients have higher risk of heart inflammation than Pfizer - by Spencer Kimball for CNBC
Case ascertainment of myocarditis following COVID-19 booster vaccine - by By Sangeeta Paul
Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc. for News Medical Life ScienceHigher risk of heart complications from COVID-19 than vaccines -study - Reuters
Getting COVID-19 is much riskier for your heart than vaccination - PBS.org
excerpt:
The heart has played a central role in COVID-19 from the beginning. Cardiovascular conditions are among the highest risk factors for hospitalization. A significant number of patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infections have signs of heart damage, and many recover from infection with lasting cardiovascular injury.
Myocarditis and Pericarditis After mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Clinical Considerations: Myocarditis and Pericarditis after Receipt of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Among Adolescents and Young Adults - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Myocarditis after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination: clinical observations and potential mechanisms - by Stephane Heymans & Leslie T. Cooper for Nature Reviews: Cardiology (professional article)
Though rare, Moderna Covid vaccine recipients have higher risk of heart inflammation than Pfizer - by Spencer Kimball for CNBC
Case ascertainment of myocarditis following COVID-19 booster vaccine - by By Sangeeta Paul
Canada approves a second vaccine made without mRNA technology. - by Adeel Hassan for the New York Times
Cov-info Data Dump: Study and Research For Yourself. - by Five Hundred Pound Peep
My note:
One of the places you can go on the internet to get a plethora of resources to articles about problematic aspects of the vaccines for Covid-19
Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCov-19 Vaccination - by Andreas Greinacher, M.D., Thomas Thiele, M.D., Theodore E. Warkentin, M.D., Karin Weisser, Ph.D., Paul A. Kyrle, M.D., and Sabine Eichinger, M.D for The New England Journal of Medicine (professional paper)
Circulating Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Vaccine Antigen Detected in the Plasma of mRNA-1273 Vaccine Recipients - by Alana F Ogata, Chi-An Cheng, Michaël Desjardins, Yasmeen Senussi, Amy C Sherman, Megan Powell, Lewis Novack, Salena Von, Xiaofang Li, Lindsey R Baden and David R Walt for Infectious Diseases Society of America (professional paper)
“Vaccine-Induced Covid-19 Mimicry” Syndrome: Splice reactions within the SARS-CoV-2 Spike open reading frame result in Spike protein variants that may cause thromboembolic events in patients immunized with vector-based vaccines - by Eric Kowarz, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Lea Krutzke, Department of Gene Therapy, Ulm University, Helmholtz Str. 8/1, 89081 Ulm, Germany; Jenny Reis, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Silvia Bracharz, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Stefan Kochanek, Department of Gene Therapy, Ulm University, Helmholtz Str. 8/1, 89081 Ulm, Germany; and Rolf Marschalek, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology/DCAL, Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Biocenter, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany for Infectious Diseases Society of America
Dr. Robert Malone's website - one of the inventors of mRNA technology and mRNA vaccines, who is skeptical about the vaccine, and who has been silenced by social media.
Robert Malone - Wikipedia
Who is Robert Malone? Joe Rogan’s guest was a vaccine scientist, became an anti-vaccine darling - by Bill McCarthy for Politifact
Covid-19: Is it dangerous to exercise after your vaccine booster? - by Emma Clark-Dow for Stuff (New Zealand publication)
excerpt:
Young men in New Zealand are being told to abstain from cardio-focused exercise for five days following their Covid-19 vaccine booster – even though the Ministry of Health has issued no official advice about avoiding exercise.
The lasting misery of coronavirus long-haulers (Months after infection with SARS-CoV-2, some people are still battling crushing fatigue, lung damage and other symptoms of ‘long COVID’._ - by Michael Marshall for Nature Medicine (professional paper)
CDC: Omicron Overtook Delta as Dominant Variant (The CDC significantly revised its variant proportions Tuesday, sharply dropping previous estimates of the prevalence of omicron.) - by Kaia Hubbard for US News
CDC: Omicron Overtook Delta as Dominant Variant (The CDC significantly revised its variant proportions Tuesday, sharply dropping previous estimates of the prevalence of omicron.) - by Kaia Hubbard for US News
THE NEXT PANDEMIC COULD START WITH A TERRORIST ATTACK (Nations around the world should come together now to determine how best to protect humans from biowarfare.) - by Amy Webb for The Atlantic
Comparing the COVID-19 Vaccines: How Are They Different? - by Kathy Katella for Yale Medicine
Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccine Type and Adverse Effects Following Vaccination - by Alexis L. Beatty, MD, MAS1; Noah D. Peyser, PhD; and Xochitl E. Butcher, BSA
Who Should Not Get the Vaccine - CDC
Information for Special Populations and the COVID-19 vaccine - Yale Health
Household Pulse Survey Shows Many Don’t Trust COVID Vaccine, Worry About Side Effects - by Lindsay M. Monte for United States Census Bureau
Abstract 10712: Observational Findings of PULS Cardiac Test Findings for Inflammatory Markers in Patients Receiving mRNA Vaccines - by Steven R. Grundy for AHA (American Heart Association)
Investigation into spike in newborn baby deaths in Scotland - BBC News
Myths vs. Facts: Making Sense of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation (When so much wrong information is readily available, convincing people to get vaccinated has proven to be a huge challenge) - by Doug Most for Boston University
Encouraging national trends hide a complex picture of “100 epidemics,” some rising, some falling - by Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar
Ivermectin Obliterates 97 percent of Delhi Cases - by Justin R. Hope, MD
Ivermectin Obliterates 97 percent of Delhi Cases - by Justin R. Hope, MD
Single-dose oral ivermectin in mild and moderate COVID-19 (RIVET-COV): A single-centre randomized, placebo-controlled trial - by Anant Mohan, Pawan Tiwari, Tejas Menon Suri, Saurabh Mittal, Ankit Patel, Avinash Jain, Thirumurthy Velpandian, Ujjalkumar Subhash Das, Tarun Krishna Boppana, Ravindra Mohan Pandey, Sushil Suresh Shelke, Angel Rajan Singh, Sushma Bhatnagar, Shet Masih, Shelly Mahajan, Tanima Dwivedi, Biswajeet Sahoo, Anuja Pandit, Shweta Bhopale, Saurabh Vig, Ritu Gupta, Karan Madan, Vijay Hadda, Nishkarsh Gupta, Rakesh Garg, Ved Prakash Meena, Randeep Guleria for Pub Med (professional research article)
What's Behind the Ivermectin Frenzy? How a Little Known Drug Used to Treat Livestock and Some Parasitic Conditions in Humans Became the Covid Medication of Choice for Those Reluctant to Take a Vaccine - Hosted by Kevin Roose; Produced by Rob Szypko, Sydney Harper and Luke Vander Ploeg;
Edited by Marc Georges, Dave Shaw and Lisa Chow; Original music by Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell; Engineered by Chris Wood for The New York Times (The Daily)
Evaluation of Ivermectin as a Potential Treatment for Mild to Moderate COVID-19: A Double-Blind Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial in Eastern India - by Ravikirti, Ranjini Roy, Chandrima Pattadar, Rishav Raj, Neeraj Agarwal, Bijit Biswas, Pramod Kumar Manjhi, Deependra Kumar Rai, Shyama, Anjani Kumar, Asim Sarfaraz for PubMed (professional research paper)
NOTE: I researched websites like Pub Med and medical colleges for any effectiveness for Ivermectin, and did not find a single article where research found it to be effective. This included research around the world. You are welcome to search for professional research articles yourself and list them below in the comments section. However, there are a lot of medications that do have promising results and these are listed in the New York Times articles below (they are frequently updated to show where they are in trials or whether they have been approved):
Coronavirus Drug and Treatment Tracker - by Carl Zimmer, Katherine J. Wu, Jonathan Corum and Matthew Kristoffersen for The New York Times
The list is quite long and is constantly being updated (35 medications in all). Most are still in trials or are for emergency use authorization). Some of the most widely used and FDA approved are (as of 2/26/22):
Sotrovimab
Evusheld (AZD7442)
Remdesivir - (for out-patient use only at present time)
Coronavirus Drug and Treatment Tracker - by Carl Zimmer, Katherine J. Wu, Jonathan Corum and Matthew Kristoffersen for The New York Times
The list is quite long and is constantly being updated (35 medications in all). Most are still in trials or are for emergency use authorization). Some of the most widely used and FDA approved are (as of 2/26/22):
Sotrovimab
Evusheld (AZD7442)
Remdesivir - (for out-patient use only at present time)
Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker - By Carl Zimmer, Jonathan Corum, Sui-Lee Wee and Matthew Kristoffersen for The New York Times
Discusses different vaccines used throughout the world (mRNA and non-mRNA) as well as where new vaccines are in their trials.
As of 2/26/22, vaccine reports (excerpt):
Researchers are currently testing 115 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, and 49 have reached the final stages of testing. More than 75 preclinical vaccines are under active investigation in animals.
Note that Canada has a new vaccine (as of 2/26/22) - too new to have been put on the list.
Vulnerable to the Virus, High-Risk Americans Feel Pain as the U.S. Moves On (Transplant recipients, cancer patients and millions of other Americans with risk factors feel ignored and abandoned as their neighbors, and their government, seek a return to normal.) - by Amanda Morris and Maggie Astor for The New York Times
We’re Entering the Control Phase of the Pandemic (The virus isn’t done with us. So we need a new approach to dealing with it.) - by Katherine J. Wu for The Atlantic
THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE STUCK IN PANDEMIC LIMBO (What does society owe immunocompromised people?) - by Ed Yong for The Atlantic
COVID Won’t End Up Like the Flu. It Will Be Like Smoking. (Hundreds of thousands of deaths, from either tobacco or the pandemic, could be prevented with a single behavioral change.) - by Benjamin Mazer for The Atlantic
How the U.S. Pandemic Response Went Wrong—and What Went Right—during a Year of COVID (On the anniversary of this global disaster, we take a look back at some of the biggest mistakes, surprising successes and lingering questions) - by Tanya Lewis for Scientific American
Students Are Walking Out Over COVID - The Omicron variant has brought a special level of chaos to classrooms, and some teens say their schools aren’t doing enough to protect them. -
by Joe Pinsker for The Atlantic
Kids-Last COVID Policy Makes No Sense (Kids should face fewer restrictions than their parents, not more.) - by Emily Oster for The Atlantic
Coronavirus face masks: Why men are less likely to wear masks - by Fernando Duarte for the BBC
The Impact of Masks on Social and Emotional Development (How masks affect your child's development and what you can do about it.) - by Cara Goodwin, Ph.D. for Psychology Today
Does mask wearing harm your child's development? Experts weigh in - by Kristen Rogers for CNN
Masking Emotions: Face Masks Impair How We Read Emotions - by Monica Gori, Lucia Schiatti and Maria Bianca Amadeo for Frontiers in Psychology (professional paper)
Wearing Face Masks Strongly Confuses Counterparts in Reading Emotions - by Claus Christian Carbon for Frontiers in Psychology (professional paper)
Losing Face (Experts weigh in on the impact mask-wearing may have on children’s education, mental health, and brain development) - by Kayt Sukel for the Dana Foundation
Don't Ignore the Psychological Effects of Requiring Masks in the Workplace (There are sensible reasons for requiring staffers to keep their masks on, but doing so may come with social consequences.) - by Brit Morse of Inc.
Does wearing a mask increase your CO2 intake? - CDC
excerpt:
Cloth masks and surgical masks do not provide an airtight fit across the face. The CO2 escapes into the air through the mask when you breathe out or talk. CO2 molecules are small enough to easily pass through mask material. In contrast, the respiratory droplets that carry the virus that causes COVID-19 are much larger than CO2, so they cannot pass as easily through a properly designed and properly worn mask.
EXPLAINED: UMaine student studying long-term psychological effects of wearing face masks coronavirus - News Center Maine (You Tube)
The psychology of masks: why have so many people stopped covering their faces? (In England, masks are expected and recommended in crowded and enclosed spaces – but not legally required. Many have abandoned them altogether. What would convince everyone to put them back on?) - by Emine Saner for The Guardian
Public health officials in the U.S. need federal protection from abuse and threats, a national group says. - by Danielle Ivory and Mike Baker for The New York Times
Attacks on Public Health Officials During COVID-19 - by Michelle M. Mello, JD, PhD; Jeremy A. Greene, MD, PhD; Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD for JAMA Network (professional paper)
Public health groups worry threats to local officials could escalate as US plans vaccine rollout for kids - by Jacqueline Howard for CNN
Effects of Threats, Harassment Directed at Public Health Officials May Outlast Pandemic - by Heather Tirado Gilligan for California Health Care Foundation
‘We’re Coming for You’: For Public Health Officials, a Year of Threats and Menace (Health officials across the nation have been thrust into an unwelcome spotlight over mask requirements, business closures and the extended interruption of travel and social gatherings.) - Kaiser Health News (republished by U.S. News and World Report)
Insults, Threats of Violence Still Imperil Public Health Leaders — Nearly 200 have left their jobs during pandemic - by Cheryl Clark for Med Page Today
Threats, long hours, 'drive-by heckling': Public health officials in Michigan near breaking point amid backlash over COVID orders - by Sarah Lehr for WKAR
‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists (Dozens of researchers tell Nature they have received death threats, or threats of physical or sexual violence.) - by Bianca Nogrady for Nature.com
Fighting Fauci: From Ridicule to Death Threats, Attacks Continue - by Kathleen Doheny for Web MD
excerpt:
July 29, 2021 -- A 56-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and charged with threatening Anthony Fauci, MD, the United States' top infectious disease doctor and chief medical advisor on COVID-19 to President Joe Biden.
In one of the threats reportedly made, a man threatened to drag Fauci and his family into the street, beat them to death, and set them on fire.
It's far from the only example of an ongoing trend to attack Fauci.
Dr. Fauci says GOP Sen. Paul's false accusations have sparked death threats - by Brian Naylor for NPR
Dr. Fauci describes death threats and opening 'disturbing' letter filled with powder - by Scott Stump for Today
Dr. Fauci: I Won't Be Threatened by Death Threats - PBS
Dr. Fauci Received Death Threats, 'Very Disturbing' Letter Filled With Powder While Working for Trump ("It was the harassment of my wife, and particularly my children, that upset me more than anything else," Dr. Fauci said) - by Maria Pasquini for People
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health (Children’s Health Defense) - by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - bestseller on Amazon
A Kennedy’s Crusade Against Covid Vaccines Anguishes Family and Friends (Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has risen to become a major figure in the vaccine resistance movement. Those close to him say it’s “heartbreaking.”) - by Adam Nagourney for The New York Times
Plot highlights threats faced by governors amid coronavirus protests - PBS News Hour
Death threats and doxxing: The outcomes of mask mandate and critical race theory fights at a Texas school board (The fight over race and how to deal with the pandemic has split the Fort Worth community, showcasing what’s being seen across the state and country.) - by Brian Lopez for The Texas Tribune
Why Are School Board Officials Getting Death Threats? - NPR
Littleton Public Schools superintendent says he got death threats over vaccine controversy (Videos of minors about to receive shots after lying to staff spurred turmoil) - by Robert Tann for The Colorado Sun
President of school board for metro Las Vegas gets death threats after vaccination vote - by Zach Price for Reno Gazette Journal
Ex-Candidate Sentenced to Year in Prison for Death Threats (A former Delaware political candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nominations for governor and U.S. Senate has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of mailing threats to a lawyer who represented his wife in a divorce case.) - Associated Press
Police charge Connecticut man with tweeting death threats against Governor Lamont - by Davis Dunavin for NPR News and Classical Music
Alabama's COVID Health Chief Wears Bulletproof Vest amid Death Threats and Anti-mask Sentiment - by Soo Kim for Newsweek
Masking up to stop coronavirus isn’t so easy for many of L.A.’s homeless residents - by Emily Alpert Reyes for the Los Angeles Times
11-year-old Georgia girl sews hundreds of masks for homeless - by ABC Eyewitness News, NY
Hanes Donates Nearly 1.3 Million Face Masks and Pairs of Socks in 2020 to Support the Homeless During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Ahead of #GivingTuesday and the holiday season, America’s No. 1 basic apparel, underwear and sock brand is asking everyone to join in supporting those who are most vulnerable) - Business Wire (a Berkshire Hathaway Company)
Using discarded masks, homeless people struggle to survive virus - The Asahi Shimbun
Toronto to open 2 emergency shelters, provide 300,000 N95 masks to homeless population - Global News, The Canada Press
Goodwill looking for volunteers to make masks for homeless - Goodwill of Southeast Georgia
Child Psychiatrists Warn That The Pandemic May Be Driving Up Kids' Suicide Risk - by Rhitu Chatterjee for NPR
COVID-19 impacts on unemployment and well-being - World Health Organization
U.S. labor market inches back from the COVID-19 shock, but recovery is far from complete - by and
Young workers hit hard by the COVID-19 economyWorkers ages 16–24 face high unemployment and an uncertain future - (Report) - by Elise Gould and Melat Kassa (October 14, 2020)
The pandemic has damaged youth employment: Here’s how we can help - by Sean Fleming for World Economic Forum
Slow jobs recovery and increased inequality risk long-term COVID-19 scarring (ILO projections highlight the danger of a COVID-19 labour market legacy of increased geographic and demographic inequality, rising poverty and fewer decent jobs.) - International Labour Organization
The COVID catastrophe: labour and unemployment - Financier World Wide
Global jobs recovery delayed by pandemic uncertainty, Omicron, ILO says - by Emma Farge for Reuters
Study: Child Abuse Rose During COVID Pandemic (Researchers analyzed data on more than 39,000 children treated at nine pediatric trauma centers between March and September of last year.) - by Denise Mann for U.S. News and World Report
Child Abuse Cases Got More Severe During COVID-19. Could Teachers Have Prevented It? - by Sarah D. Sparks for Education Week
Physical abuse of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: Alarming increase in the relative frequency of hospitalizations during the lockdown period - (France) by MélanieLoiseaua, Jonathan Cottenet, Sonia Bechraoui-Quantinb, Séverine Gilard-Piocc, Yann Mikaeloffd, Fabrice Jollantefgh, Irène François-Purssella, Andreas Judi, Catherine Quantin for Child Abuse and Neglect and Science Direct (professional paper)
State Responses to Child Neglect and Abuse During the Pandemic - The Hunt Institute
excerpt:
As stated in the Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)(42 U.S.C.A. § 5106g), amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, child abuse and neglect, at a minimum, is “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.”
Even if incidences of child abuse and neglect are short-lived, the effects of such incidences are not. Children who experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) often go on to suffer short- and long-term physical, psychological, behavioral, and societal consequences, even years after the abuse ends. This impact can even span generations if the victim is unable to seek treatment and prevent the cycle from repeating with their own children.
The ongoing stressors of the pandemic alone have created many mental and emotional issues for students. Extended time in an abusive environment that many students have had to endure over the past year is likely to have a plethora of long-term negative consequences for children and adolescents. As a result, schools will need to address this now and into the future.
Child abuse reports spiked during COVID-19 lockdowns, study finds - by Rose Weldon for American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition
Pa. children more likely to die from abusive injuries than COVID and flu combined - by Frank A. Maffei and Cathleen Palm for Goerie
COVID-19 vaccine mandate critic faces child neglect charges over ivermectin - by Kevin Landrigan for New Hampshire Union Leader
Stanford’s Michael Wald on Vaccinations, Children’s Rights, and the Law - by Michael S. Wald, with Sharon Driscoll for Stanford Law Scool
Should children be vaccinated against COVID-19? - by Petra Zimmermann, Laure F Pittet, Adam Finn, Andrew J Pollard, and Nigel Curtis for Pub Med (professional article)
excerpt:
Abstract
Whether all children under 12 years of age should be vaccinated against COVID-19 remains an ongoing debate. The relatively low risk posed by acute COVID-19 in children, and uncertainty about the relative harms from vaccination and disease mean that the balance of risk and benefit of vaccination in this age group is more complex.
Studying the Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 in Children - Rutgers University Foundation
Long COVID and kids: more research is urgently needed (Like adults, children can experience long COVID, but few studies of the condition include young people. That has to change.) - Nature
'This Is Really Scary': Kids Struggle With Long Covid (Lingering physical, mental and neurological symptoms are affecting children as well as adults, including many who had mild reactions to the initial coronavirus infection.) - by Pam Belluck for The New York Times
The kids are not alright: Data suggests 10% of children with COVID-19 become "long-haulers" (Doctors around the world estimate one in ten children with COVID-19 have long-term side effects) - by Kari Dequine Harden for Salon
‘The scariest thing’: the children living with long Covid (Though still rare, the numbers of kids across the US reporting symptoms long after infection are increasing, doctors say) - by Hallie Golden for The Guardian
As cases of kids with long COVID rise, one mom warns: 'It can happen to literally anyone' - by
Scott Tong and Serena McMahon for WBUR
excerpt:
Rebekah Hogan has three children at home in Albany, New York. All are being treated for long COVID after mild infections.
Cities, States Now Requiring Vaccinations for Teachers - by Carolyn Crist for Web MD
Inside the vaccination fight that’s dividing teachers unions (Teacher vaccine mandates seem foreign in Miami as the virus tears through Florida, the area’s union president acknowledged.) - by Juan Perez JR. and Daniel Payne for Politico
Where Teachers Are Required to Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19 - by Education Week
Delayed, diluted, or nonexistent: Vaccine mandates for school staff stall out - by Matt Barnum for Chalk Beat, Essential Education Reporting Across America
COVID-19 creates dire US shortage of teachers, school staff - by Jocelyn Gecker for AP News
Desperate to fill teacher shortages, school districts ask parents and various staff to become substitutes - by Paul P. Murphy and Holly Yan, CNN
Note that Canada has a new vaccine (as of 2/26/22) - too new to have been put on the list.
Vulnerable to the Virus, High-Risk Americans Feel Pain as the U.S. Moves On (Transplant recipients, cancer patients and millions of other Americans with risk factors feel ignored and abandoned as their neighbors, and their government, seek a return to normal.) - by Amanda Morris and Maggie Astor for The New York Times
We’re Entering the Control Phase of the Pandemic (The virus isn’t done with us. So we need a new approach to dealing with it.) - by Katherine J. Wu for The Atlantic
THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE STUCK IN PANDEMIC LIMBO (What does society owe immunocompromised people?) - by Ed Yong for The Atlantic
COVID Won’t End Up Like the Flu. It Will Be Like Smoking. (Hundreds of thousands of deaths, from either tobacco or the pandemic, could be prevented with a single behavioral change.) - by Benjamin Mazer for The Atlantic
COVID-19: Pandemic of Cognitive Biases Impacting Human Behaviors and Decision-Making of Public Health Policies - by François Lechanoine and Katlyn Gangi (Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Centre Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France and Department of Communication Studies, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, United State), edited by Jonathan Ling, University of Sunderland, United Kingdom and Georgi Iskrov, Plovdiv Medical University, Bulgaria, for Frontiers in Public Health
To believe or not believe: Misinformation and biases in the wake of the pandemic - by Veronica Ogbe for WDTV
excerpt:
Infodemic - by the World Health Organization
Survey finds confusion among public about pandemic news (For a story that has dominated the news for four months, a survey out Monday illustrates the difficulty that many Americans have in finding information that they trust about the coronavirus pandemic) - by David Bauder, AP Media Writer
Politicians polarize and experts depolarize public support for COVID-19 management policies across countries - the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO. Authors: Alexandra Flores, Jennifer C. Cole, Stephan Dickert, Kimin Eom, Gabriela M. Jiga-Boy, Tehila Kogut, Riley Loria, Marcus Mayorga, Eric J. Pedersen, Beatriz Pereira, Enrico Rubaltelli, David K. Sherman, Paul Slovic, Daniel Västfjäll, Leaf Van Boven for the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO
Unvaccinated Adults are Now More Than Three Times as Likely to Lean Republican than Democratic Analysis Finds Partisanship Matters More than Age, Race, Education or Insurance Status in Predicting Whether Someone Received a COVID-19 Vaccine - by Craig Palosky for KFF.org
How America’s partisan divide over pandemic responses played out in the states - by Julie VanDusky-Allen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State University and Olga Shvetsova, Professor of Political Science and Economics, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Republicans And Democrats See COVID-19 Very Differently. Is That Making People Sick? - by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux for FiveThirtyEight
As Cases Spread Across U.S. Last Year, Pattern Emerged Suggesting Link Between Governors’ Party Affiliation and COVID-19 Case and Death Numbers - by Carly Kempler and Barbara Benham for Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Democrats and Republicans Aren’t Watching the Same Pandemic - by Tara Law for time Magazine
Democrats and Republicans disagree about Covid-19 facts, in a divide that goes beyond usual political partisanship (Our research found that Democrats and Republicans held genuine but different beliefs, not just about values or policies, but about basic facts.) - by Andrea Robbett and Peter Hans Matthews for Nieman Lab
excerpt:
Politics can divide even friends and families. When this happens, we like to tell ourselves that the explanation lies in honest differences in values and preferences. From this standpoint, friends from different political parties won’t really disagree, for example, about the number of workers displaced in the pandemic, but they might differ on who should bear the costs. It’s another matter, however, if political conflict results from differences in information or attachments to alternative realities.
It’s possible to disagree — but still engage — with friends or fellow citizens who evaluate the benefits of test and tracing policies for COVID-19 differently, but how do we communicate with someone who — armed with the same public information — concludes that there is no pandemic?
Republicans and Democrats responded very differently to the rise of COVID-19. Is unity still possible? (Research shows there’s a partisan gap in coronavirus anxiety) - by Kelsey Dallas for desert.com
excerpt:
But, as recently as this past weekend, more than half of Republicans (54%) said the COVID-19 pandemic was being “blown out of proportion.” Three-quarters of Democrats, on the other hand, said it posed “a real threat,” according to a survey from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist.
Both Republicans and Democrats cite masks as a negative effect of COVID-19, but for very different reasons - by Patrick Van Kessel
excerpt:
... Dr. Cohen says there’s an even bigger question to ask yourself.
“When you read an article and you do find yourself agreeing with it, ask yourself, ‘Why do I like this article so much?’ It might not change your beliefs outright, but the more aware you can become of your own biases going into things, the more resistant you’re going to be to letting those natural but potentially detrimental cognitive biases clog your judgement,” she said.
It’s called confirmation bias where you’re more likely to put weight into information that aligns with what you believe. Cohen said that doesn’t mean you’re wrong, but it can build a wall that blocks the ability to grow your mind. So the next time you decide to sit in front of a computer or television screen, Cohen said there’s a larger takeaway than what’s presented in front of you.
Infodemic - by the World Health Organization
Survey finds confusion among public about pandemic news (For a story that has dominated the news for four months, a survey out Monday illustrates the difficulty that many Americans have in finding information that they trust about the coronavirus pandemic) - by David Bauder, AP Media Writer
Politicians polarize and experts depolarize public support for COVID-19 management policies across countries - the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO. Authors: Alexandra Flores, Jennifer C. Cole, Stephan Dickert, Kimin Eom, Gabriela M. Jiga-Boy, Tehila Kogut, Riley Loria, Marcus Mayorga, Eric J. Pedersen, Beatriz Pereira, Enrico Rubaltelli, David K. Sherman, Paul Slovic, Daniel Västfjäll, Leaf Van Boven for the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO
Unvaccinated Adults are Now More Than Three Times as Likely to Lean Republican than Democratic Analysis Finds Partisanship Matters More than Age, Race, Education or Insurance Status in Predicting Whether Someone Received a COVID-19 Vaccine - by Craig Palosky for KFF.org
How America’s partisan divide over pandemic responses played out in the states - by Julie VanDusky-Allen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State University and Olga Shvetsova, Professor of Political Science and Economics, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Republicans And Democrats See COVID-19 Very Differently. Is That Making People Sick? - by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux for FiveThirtyEight
As Cases Spread Across U.S. Last Year, Pattern Emerged Suggesting Link Between Governors’ Party Affiliation and COVID-19 Case and Death Numbers - by Carly Kempler and Barbara Benham for Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Democrats and Republicans Aren’t Watching the Same Pandemic - by Tara Law for time Magazine
Democrats and Republicans disagree about Covid-19 facts, in a divide that goes beyond usual political partisanship (Our research found that Democrats and Republicans held genuine but different beliefs, not just about values or policies, but about basic facts.) - by Andrea Robbett and Peter Hans Matthews for Nieman Lab
excerpt:
Politics can divide even friends and families. When this happens, we like to tell ourselves that the explanation lies in honest differences in values and preferences. From this standpoint, friends from different political parties won’t really disagree, for example, about the number of workers displaced in the pandemic, but they might differ on who should bear the costs. It’s another matter, however, if political conflict results from differences in information or attachments to alternative realities.
It’s possible to disagree — but still engage — with friends or fellow citizens who evaluate the benefits of test and tracing policies for COVID-19 differently, but how do we communicate with someone who — armed with the same public information — concludes that there is no pandemic?
Republicans and Democrats responded very differently to the rise of COVID-19. Is unity still possible? (Research shows there’s a partisan gap in coronavirus anxiety) - by Kelsey Dallas for desert.com
excerpt:
But, as recently as this past weekend, more than half of Republicans (54%) said the COVID-19 pandemic was being “blown out of proportion.” Three-quarters of Democrats, on the other hand, said it posed “a real threat,” according to a survey from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist.
Both Republicans and Democrats cite masks as a negative effect of COVID-19, but for very different reasons - by Patrick Van Kessel
How the U.S. Pandemic Response Went Wrong—and What Went Right—during a Year of COVID (On the anniversary of this global disaster, we take a look back at some of the biggest mistakes, surprising successes and lingering questions) - by Tanya Lewis for Scientific American
How the split over masks sums up America’s chaotic coronavirus response - by Adam Taylor for Washington Post
Who does (or doesn’t) wear a mask? Partisanship explains COVID-19 responses (Harris study: Political messaging outweighs other factors in face mask usage) - by Assistant Professor Austin Wright
Coronavirus: Why are Americans so angry about masks? - by Tara McKelvey for the BBC
Mask Mandates Are Illogical. So What. - by Rachel Gutman for The Atlantic
How well do face masks protect against COVID-19? - Mayo Clinic
Your Guide to Masks - CDC
Face Masks, Barrier Face Coverings, Surgical Masks, and Respirators for COVID-19 - FDA
Do masks really work? Here are PolitiFact’s answers for mask skeptics. (Here’s the latest research on the efficacy of masks and answers to questions on what we know and what we don’t about mask-wearing.) - by Noah Y. Kim for Poynter
Does My Mask Protect Me if Nobody Else Is Wearing One? (Masks work best when everyone in the room has one on, but you’ll still benefit from masking up even when those around you aren’t.) - by Tara Parker-Pope for The New York Times
Can Teachers Wear Only a Face Shield Without a Mask While Teaching? - Penn State (Covid-19 FAQ Ask CIDD, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics)
Who does (or doesn’t) wear a mask? Partisanship explains COVID-19 responses (Harris study: Political messaging outweighs other factors in face mask usage) - by Assistant Professor Austin Wright
Coronavirus: Why are Americans so angry about masks? - by Tara McKelvey for the BBC
Mask Mandates Are Illogical. So What. - by Rachel Gutman for The Atlantic
How well do face masks protect against COVID-19? - Mayo Clinic
Your Guide to Masks - CDC
Face Masks, Barrier Face Coverings, Surgical Masks, and Respirators for COVID-19 - FDA
Do masks really work? Here are PolitiFact’s answers for mask skeptics. (Here’s the latest research on the efficacy of masks and answers to questions on what we know and what we don’t about mask-wearing.) - by Noah Y. Kim for Poynter
Does My Mask Protect Me if Nobody Else Is Wearing One? (Masks work best when everyone in the room has one on, but you’ll still benefit from masking up even when those around you aren’t.) - by Tara Parker-Pope for The New York Times
Can Teachers Wear Only a Face Shield Without a Mask While Teaching? - Penn State (Covid-19 FAQ Ask CIDD, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics)
Students Are Walking Out Over COVID - The Omicron variant has brought a special level of chaos to classrooms, and some teens say their schools aren’t doing enough to protect them. -
by Joe Pinsker for The Atlantic
Coronavirus face masks: Why men are less likely to wear masks - by Fernando Duarte for the BBC
The Impact of Masks on Social and Emotional Development (How masks affect your child's development and what you can do about it.) - by Cara Goodwin, Ph.D. for Psychology Today
Does mask wearing harm your child's development? Experts weigh in - by Kristen Rogers for CNN
Masking Emotions: Face Masks Impair How We Read Emotions - by Monica Gori, Lucia Schiatti and Maria Bianca Amadeo for Frontiers in Psychology (professional paper)
Wearing Face Masks Strongly Confuses Counterparts in Reading Emotions - by Claus Christian Carbon for Frontiers in Psychology (professional paper)
Losing Face (Experts weigh in on the impact mask-wearing may have on children’s education, mental health, and brain development) - by Kayt Sukel for the Dana Foundation
Don't Ignore the Psychological Effects of Requiring Masks in the Workplace (There are sensible reasons for requiring staffers to keep their masks on, but doing so may come with social consequences.) - by Brit Morse of Inc.
Does wearing a mask increase your CO2 intake? - CDC
excerpt:
Cloth masks and surgical masks do not provide an airtight fit across the face. The CO2 escapes into the air through the mask when you breathe out or talk. CO2 molecules are small enough to easily pass through mask material. In contrast, the respiratory droplets that carry the virus that causes COVID-19 are much larger than CO2, so they cannot pass as easily through a properly designed and properly worn mask.
EXPLAINED: UMaine student studying long-term psychological effects of wearing face masks coronavirus - News Center Maine (You Tube)
The psychology of masks: why have so many people stopped covering their faces? (In England, masks are expected and recommended in crowded and enclosed spaces – but not legally required. Many have abandoned them altogether. What would convince everyone to put them back on?) - by Emine Saner for The Guardian
Why we hate being told what to do: Psychologists explain the battle over masks (What’s all the fury about? Mental health experts say it's complicated.) - by A. Pawlowski for Today
Why the world is still arguing over face masks, 20 months into the pandemic - by Rob Picheta for CNN
Why Do Some People Refuse to Wear a Face Mask in Public? (Not wearing a face mask invites public shaming, not to mention boosts your risk of COVID-19. So what keeps some of us from putting one on?) - by Claire Gillespie for Health
Schools say they’re caught ‘between a rock and a hard place’ as anti-mask protests grow (As students’ and parents’ frustration on masks grows louder, schools take the heat for enforcing state’s mask mandate) - by Kristen Taketa for The San Diego Union-Tribune
Why the world is still arguing over face masks, 20 months into the pandemic - by Rob Picheta for CNN
Why Do Some People Refuse to Wear a Face Mask in Public? (Not wearing a face mask invites public shaming, not to mention boosts your risk of COVID-19. So what keeps some of us from putting one on?) - by Claire Gillespie for Health
Schools say they’re caught ‘between a rock and a hard place’ as anti-mask protests grow (As students’ and parents’ frustration on masks grows louder, schools take the heat for enforcing state’s mask mandate) - by Kristen Taketa for The San Diego Union-Tribune
Pennsylvania students hold walkout against school mask mandates (Teenagers outside Philadelphia staged a walkout recently against mask mandates. This comes as many states drop their mask policies.) - CBS
Parents Protest School Mask Mandate Shouting ‘Will Not Comply’ At Board Members - NBC News
Anti-Maskers Yell Threats After TN School Board Mask Vote (‘We know who you are… we will find you’ — These anti-maskers blatantly threatened a doctor and others who spoke in favor of mask mandates at a Tennessee school board meeting.) - Now This News
The Topic Of Masks In Schools Is Polarizing Some Parents To The Point Of Violence - by Deepa Shivaram
Sacramento-area anti-mask conspiracists target elementary school principal at his home - the Sacramento Bee
Parents Protest School Mask Mandate Shouting ‘Will Not Comply’ At Board Members - NBC News
Anti-Maskers Yell Threats After TN School Board Mask Vote (‘We know who you are… we will find you’ — These anti-maskers blatantly threatened a doctor and others who spoke in favor of mask mandates at a Tennessee school board meeting.) - Now This News
The Topic Of Masks In Schools Is Polarizing Some Parents To The Point Of Violence - by Deepa Shivaram
Sacramento-area anti-mask conspiracists target elementary school principal at his home - the Sacramento Bee
A Tri-Cities school bars students refusing masks. They’re no longer allowed in without one - by Cameron Probert for Tri-City Herald
Anti-maskers explain themselves (“If I’m going to get Covid and die from it, then so be it.”) - by Emily Stewart for Vox
Protesters shut down a Utah school board meeting by yelling, ‘No more masks!’ Now 11 of them face charges. - by Gina Harkins for The Washington Post
3 Vancouver schools placed on lockdown after Proud Boys try to enter during masks protest - by Jonathan Levinson and Troy Brynelson for OPB
Name-calling, canceled meetings, pleas from students: A week of school mask mandate chaos - by Jeanine Santucci for USA TODAY
Public health officers being targeted amid protests over masks in schools - by Arpan Lobo
The Holland Sentinel
Protesters shut down a Utah school board meeting by yelling, ‘No more masks!’ Now 11 of them face charges. - by Gina Harkins for The Washington Post
3 Vancouver schools placed on lockdown after Proud Boys try to enter during masks protest - by Jonathan Levinson and Troy Brynelson for OPB
Name-calling, canceled meetings, pleas from students: A week of school mask mandate chaos - by Jeanine Santucci for USA TODAY
Public health officers being targeted amid protests over masks in schools - by Arpan Lobo
The Holland Sentinel
Public health officials in the U.S. need federal protection from abuse and threats, a national group says. - by Danielle Ivory and Mike Baker for The New York Times
Attacks on Public Health Officials During COVID-19 - by Michelle M. Mello, JD, PhD; Jeremy A. Greene, MD, PhD; Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD for JAMA Network (professional paper)
Public health groups worry threats to local officials could escalate as US plans vaccine rollout for kids - by Jacqueline Howard for CNN
Effects of Threats, Harassment Directed at Public Health Officials May Outlast Pandemic - by Heather Tirado Gilligan for California Health Care Foundation
‘We’re Coming for You’: For Public Health Officials, a Year of Threats and Menace (Health officials across the nation have been thrust into an unwelcome spotlight over mask requirements, business closures and the extended interruption of travel and social gatherings.) - Kaiser Health News (republished by U.S. News and World Report)
Insults, Threats of Violence Still Imperil Public Health Leaders — Nearly 200 have left their jobs during pandemic - by Cheryl Clark for Med Page Today
Threats, long hours, 'drive-by heckling': Public health officials in Michigan near breaking point amid backlash over COVID orders - by Sarah Lehr for WKAR
‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists (Dozens of researchers tell Nature they have received death threats, or threats of physical or sexual violence.) - by Bianca Nogrady for Nature.com
Fighting Fauci: From Ridicule to Death Threats, Attacks Continue - by Kathleen Doheny for Web MD
excerpt:
July 29, 2021 -- A 56-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and charged with threatening Anthony Fauci, MD, the United States' top infectious disease doctor and chief medical advisor on COVID-19 to President Joe Biden.
In one of the threats reportedly made, a man threatened to drag Fauci and his family into the street, beat them to death, and set them on fire.
It's far from the only example of an ongoing trend to attack Fauci.
Dr. Fauci says GOP Sen. Paul's false accusations have sparked death threats - by Brian Naylor for NPR
Dr. Fauci describes death threats and opening 'disturbing' letter filled with powder - by Scott Stump for Today
Dr. Fauci: I Won't Be Threatened by Death Threats - PBS
Dr. Fauci Received Death Threats, 'Very Disturbing' Letter Filled With Powder While Working for Trump ("It was the harassment of my wife, and particularly my children, that upset me more than anything else," Dr. Fauci said) - by Maria Pasquini for People
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health (Children’s Health Defense) - by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - bestseller on Amazon
A Kennedy’s Crusade Against Covid Vaccines Anguishes Family and Friends (Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has risen to become a major figure in the vaccine resistance movement. Those close to him say it’s “heartbreaking.”) - by Adam Nagourney for The New York Times
Death threats and doxxing: The outcomes of mask mandate and critical race theory fights at a Texas school board (The fight over race and how to deal with the pandemic has split the Fort Worth community, showcasing what’s being seen across the state and country.) - by Brian Lopez for The Texas Tribune
Why Are School Board Officials Getting Death Threats? - NPR
Littleton Public Schools superintendent says he got death threats over vaccine controversy (Videos of minors about to receive shots after lying to staff spurred turmoil) - by Robert Tann for The Colorado Sun
President of school board for metro Las Vegas gets death threats after vaccination vote - by Zach Price for Reno Gazette Journal
Ex-Candidate Sentenced to Year in Prison for Death Threats (A former Delaware political candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nominations for governor and U.S. Senate has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of mailing threats to a lawyer who represented his wife in a divorce case.) - Associated Press
Police charge Connecticut man with tweeting death threats against Governor Lamont - by Davis Dunavin for NPR News and Classical Music
Alabama's COVID Health Chief Wears Bulletproof Vest amid Death Threats and Anti-mask Sentiment - by Soo Kim for Newsweek
Masking up to stop coronavirus isn’t so easy for many of L.A.’s homeless residents - by Emily Alpert Reyes for the Los Angeles Times
11-year-old Georgia girl sews hundreds of masks for homeless - by ABC Eyewitness News, NY
Hanes Donates Nearly 1.3 Million Face Masks and Pairs of Socks in 2020 to Support the Homeless During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Ahead of #GivingTuesday and the holiday season, America’s No. 1 basic apparel, underwear and sock brand is asking everyone to join in supporting those who are most vulnerable) - Business Wire (a Berkshire Hathaway Company)
Using discarded masks, homeless people struggle to survive virus - The Asahi Shimbun
Toronto to open 2 emergency shelters, provide 300,000 N95 masks to homeless population - Global News, The Canada Press
Goodwill looking for volunteers to make masks for homeless - Goodwill of Southeast Georgia
Child Psychiatrists Warn That The Pandemic May Be Driving Up Kids' Suicide Risk - by Rhitu Chatterjee for NPR
Youth suicide attempts soared during pandemic, CDC report says (Researchers, though, cautioned against drawing direct lines between the spike and conditions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.) - by David K. Li for NBC News
Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen (Firmly linking teen suicides to school closings is difficult, but rising mental health emergencies and suicide rates point to the toll the pandemic lockdown is taking.) - by Erica L. Green for The New York Times
His wife died by suicide after a 13-month battle with long-haul Covid. He hopes help is on the way for others - by Christina Maxouris, CNN
Welcome to Covid-19’s “junior year.” It’s not pretty. (The physical and psychic consequences of the pandemic with no end are shaping up to be devastating. What are Americans to do?) - by Eleanor Cummins for VOX
Tracking the COVID-19 Economy’s Effects on Food, Housing, and Employment Hardships - Poverty and Inequality (Covid Hardship Watch)
COVID-19: This is how many Americans now live below the poverty line - World Economic Forum
COVID-19 leaves a legacy of rising poverty and widening inequality - by Carolina Sanchez Paramo, Ruth Hill, Daniel Gerszon Mahler, Ambar Narayan, and Nishant Yonzan for World Bank Blogs (professional paper)
Long-run impacts of Covid-19 on extreme poverty - by Homi Kharas and Meagan Dooley for Brookings
More than half a billion people pushed or pushed further into extreme poverty due to health care costs - by Rayyan Sabet-Parry and Jing Guo for World Health Organization
Poverty & Covid-19 - Institute for Research on Poverty
More than half a billion pushed into extreme poverty due to health costs - United Nations
Photographer shows impact of COVID-19 on poverty in America (Photographer Julia Rendleman uses her photography to show the impact of poverty in America throughout the pandemic.) - ABC News
Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Employment and Unemployment Statistics - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Unemployment Rates During the COVID-19PandemicUpdated August 20, 2021 - Congressional Research Service (https://crsreports.congress.gov)
His wife died by suicide after a 13-month battle with long-haul Covid. He hopes help is on the way for others - by Christina Maxouris, CNN
Welcome to Covid-19’s “junior year.” It’s not pretty. (The physical and psychic consequences of the pandemic with no end are shaping up to be devastating. What are Americans to do?) - by Eleanor Cummins for VOX
Tracking the COVID-19 Economy’s Effects on Food, Housing, and Employment Hardships - Poverty and Inequality (Covid Hardship Watch)
COVID-19: This is how many Americans now live below the poverty line - World Economic Forum
COVID-19 leaves a legacy of rising poverty and widening inequality - by Carolina Sanchez Paramo, Ruth Hill, Daniel Gerszon Mahler, Ambar Narayan, and Nishant Yonzan for World Bank Blogs (professional paper)
Long-run impacts of Covid-19 on extreme poverty - by Homi Kharas and Meagan Dooley for Brookings
More than half a billion people pushed or pushed further into extreme poverty due to health care costs - by Rayyan Sabet-Parry and Jing Guo for World Health Organization
Poverty & Covid-19 - Institute for Research on Poverty
More than half a billion pushed into extreme poverty due to health costs - United Nations
Photographer shows impact of COVID-19 on poverty in America (Photographer Julia Rendleman uses her photography to show the impact of poverty in America throughout the pandemic.) - ABC News
Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Employment and Unemployment Statistics - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Unemployment Rates During the COVID-19PandemicUpdated August 20, 2021 - Congressional Research Service (https://crsreports.congress.gov)
Putting Economic Impact of Pandemic in Context (Historical Look at Unemployment, Sectors Shows Magnitude of COVID-19 Impact on Economy) - by Lindsay M. Monte for United States Census Bureau
Slow jobs recovery and increased inequality risk long-term COVID-19 scarring (ILO projections highlight the danger of a COVID-19 labour market legacy of increased geographic and demographic inequality, rising poverty and fewer decent jobs.) - International Labour Organization
Global jobs recovery delayed by pandemic uncertainty, Omicron, ILO says - by Emma Farge for Reuters
COVID-19 recession - Wikipedia
COVID-19 Brief: Impact on the Economies of Low-Income Countries (The rapid global spread of the COVID-19 has demonstrated that no matter how successful America is at fighting this pandemic here at home, we will never stop this threat unless we’re also fighting it around the world. In this series of issue briefs, the USGLC takes an in depth look at the global response and COVID-19’s impacts on vulnerable populations, global development and diplomacy, and the future of U.S. global leadership.) - U.S. Global Leadership Coalition
COVID-19 Brief: Impact on the Economies of Low-Income Countries (The rapid global spread of the COVID-19 has demonstrated that no matter how successful America is at fighting this pandemic here at home, we will never stop this threat unless we’re also fighting it around the world. In this series of issue briefs, the USGLC takes an in depth look at the global response and COVID-19’s impacts on vulnerable populations, global development and diplomacy, and the future of U.S. global leadership.) - U.S. Global Leadership Coalition
Acceleration of Anxiety, Depression, and Suicide: Secondary Effects of Economic Disruption Related to COVID-19 - by M. Harvey Brenner and Dinesh Bhugra for Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Health Policy and Management, Baltimore, MD, United States, republished for Frontiers in Psychiatry (professional paper)
COVID-19, unemployment, and suicide - by Wolfram Kawohla and Carlos Nordta
Coronavirus crisis creates ‘perfect storm’ for suicide risk as job losses soar and people are isolated at home - by Noah Higgins-Dunn for CNBC
Suicide prevention must be prioritized after 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic, says PAHO - Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization and World Health Organization
Suicide prevention must be prioritized after 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic, says PAHO - Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization and World Health Organization
Trends in U.S. Emergency Department Visits Related to Suspected or Confirmed Child Abuse and Neglect Among Children and Adolescents Aged <18 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–September 2020 - Centers for Disease Control (CDC website)
Family violence against children in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic: a review of current perspectives and risk factors - by Noemí Pereda & Diego A. Díaz-Faes - for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health
Family violence against children in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic: a review of current perspectives and risk factors - by Noemí Pereda & Diego A. Díaz-Faes - for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health
Child Abuse Cases Got More Severe During COVID-19. Could Teachers Have Prevented It? - by Sarah D. Sparks for Education Week
Physical abuse of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: Alarming increase in the relative frequency of hospitalizations during the lockdown period - (France) by MélanieLoiseaua, Jonathan Cottenet, Sonia Bechraoui-Quantinb, Séverine Gilard-Piocc, Yann Mikaeloffd, Fabrice Jollantefgh, Irène François-Purssella, Andreas Judi, Catherine Quantin for Child Abuse and Neglect and Science Direct (professional paper)
excerpt:
As stated in the Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)(42 U.S.C.A. § 5106g), amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, child abuse and neglect, at a minimum, is “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.”
Even if incidences of child abuse and neglect are short-lived, the effects of such incidences are not. Children who experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) often go on to suffer short- and long-term physical, psychological, behavioral, and societal consequences, even years after the abuse ends. This impact can even span generations if the victim is unable to seek treatment and prevent the cycle from repeating with their own children.
The ongoing stressors of the pandemic alone have created many mental and emotional issues for students. Extended time in an abusive environment that many students have had to endure over the past year is likely to have a plethora of long-term negative consequences for children and adolescents. As a result, schools will need to address this now and into the future.
Pa. children more likely to die from abusive injuries than COVID and flu combined - by Frank A. Maffei and Cathleen Palm for Goerie
Who’s Watching the Children? A new report sheds light on the flaws in our child-welfare system during the pandemic - by Naomi Schaefer Riley for City-Journal
Child Abuse Reports Skyrocket After Months of Coronavirus Pandemic
Child Abuse Reports Skyrocket After Months of Coronavirus Pandemic
Child Abuse Reports Skyrocket After Months of Coronavirus PandemicChild Abuse Reports Skyrocket After Months of Coronavirus Pandemic
Child Abuse Reports Skyrocket After Months of Coronavirus Pandemic - by Brian Scott (Texas)
excerpt:
Initially, Howell and many in the advocacy sphere saw major declines in abuse reports as the pandemic began and families locked down for months to stop the spread.
She says the abuse didn’t stop during that time, though; the reports did.
“Incidents of abuse is almost always reported to teachers. They’re our primary reporter, and without teachers to report to, kids have been holding it inside and maybe abuse has gotten a lot worse,” said Howell.
The result: as many students returned to class the reports started flooding in, and clearly, Howell said, the pandemic had taken its toll.
The Denton County Advocacy Center says an overwhelming majority of abuse cases involve sexual abuse. Howell said it averages about 80% of the cases with the other 20% being violent physical abuse. With the pandemic, though, she said the numbers have shifted closer to 60% sexual abuse and 40% physical abuse including a rise in fatalities and serious injuries.
Howell said it’s for all of the reasons a lot of people guessed it could be when this all began.
excerpt:
Initially, Howell and many in the advocacy sphere saw major declines in abuse reports as the pandemic began and families locked down for months to stop the spread.
She says the abuse didn’t stop during that time, though; the reports did.
“Incidents of abuse is almost always reported to teachers. They’re our primary reporter, and without teachers to report to, kids have been holding it inside and maybe abuse has gotten a lot worse,” said Howell.
The result: as many students returned to class the reports started flooding in, and clearly, Howell said, the pandemic had taken its toll.
The Denton County Advocacy Center says an overwhelming majority of abuse cases involve sexual abuse. Howell said it averages about 80% of the cases with the other 20% being violent physical abuse. With the pandemic, though, she said the numbers have shifted closer to 60% sexual abuse and 40% physical abuse including a rise in fatalities and serious injuries.
Howell said it’s for all of the reasons a lot of people guessed it could be when this all began.
Treating Children Whose Parents Refuse to Have Them Vaccinated - by Kimberly Insel, MD, MPH for AMA Journal of Ethics
Parental Refusal of Childhood Vaccines and Medical Neglect Laws - by Efthimios Parasidis, JD, M Bioethics, and Douglas J. Opel, MD, MPH for US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (professional paper)
Do US teens have the right to be vaccinated against their parents’ will? It depends on where they live - by Brian Dean Abramson, Adjunct Professor of Vaccine Law, Florida International University for The Conversation
Disclosure statement:
Brian Dean Abramson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
States With Religious and Philosophical Exemptions From School Immunization Requirements - National Conference of State Legislatures
COVID-19 Vaccination and Parental Consent - Kaiser Family Foundation
COVID Vaccine—What Happens When Parents Do Not Agree? - Tracy Newmark and Natalie Kay.
Vaccination Law 101: A Guide for Children’s Lawyers (Recent measles outbreaks across the country have fueled new debate about vaccines and renewed interest in vaccination law, especially as it concerns children.) - by Christal Cammock and Jennifer Baum for American Bar Association
If You Choose Not to Vaccinate Your Child, Understand the Risks and Responsibilities. - CDC (Centers for Disease Control)
Disclosure statement:
Brian Dean Abramson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
States With Religious and Philosophical Exemptions From School Immunization Requirements - National Conference of State Legislatures
Vaccination Law 101: A Guide for Children’s Lawyers (Recent measles outbreaks across the country have fueled new debate about vaccines and renewed interest in vaccination law, especially as it concerns children.) - by Christal Cammock and Jennifer Baum for American Bar Association
excerpt:
Abstract
Whether all children under 12 years of age should be vaccinated against COVID-19 remains an ongoing debate. The relatively low risk posed by acute COVID-19 in children, and uncertainty about the relative harms from vaccination and disease mean that the balance of risk and benefit of vaccination in this age group is more complex.
Parental Refusal of Childhood Vaccines and Medical Neglect Laws - by Efthimios Parasidis, JD, M Bioethics and Douglas J. Opel, MD, MPH for US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (professional paper)
Why are we vaccinating children against COVID-19? - by
Ronald N. Kostoff, Daniela Calina, Darja Kanduc, Michael B. Briggs, Panayiotis Vlachoyiannopoulos, Andrey A. Svistunov and Aristidis Tsatsakis for Pub Med (proferssional article)
Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report - American Academy of Pediatrics
Child mortality and COVID-19 - Unicef
Covid deaths in children rare, new study of NCMD data shows - National Child Mortality Database
Age, Sex, Existing Conditions of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths - World-O-Meter
What Happens When Kids Get Long COVID? - by Kathy Katella for Yale Medicine
How Common is Long COVID in Children and Adolescents? - by Petra Zimmermann, MD, PhD, Laure F. Pittet, MD-PhD, Nigel Curtis, FRCPCH, PhD for The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal (professional article)
Ronald N. Kostoff, Daniela Calina, Darja Kanduc, Michael B. Briggs, Panayiotis Vlachoyiannopoulos, Andrey A. Svistunov and Aristidis Tsatsakis for Pub Med (proferssional article)
Exploring the Reasons Behind Parental Refusal of Vaccines - by Chephra McKee, PharmD and Kristin Bohannon, BS for The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and and Therapeutics, republished in US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (professional paper)
Child mortality and COVID-19 - Unicef
What Happens When Kids Get Long COVID? - by Kathy Katella for Yale Medicine
'This Is Really Scary': Kids Struggle With Long Covid (Lingering physical, mental and neurological symptoms are affecting children as well as adults, including many who had mild reactions to the initial coronavirus infection.) - by Pam Belluck for The New York Times
Scott Tong and Serena McMahon for WBUR
excerpt:
Rebekah Hogan has three children at home in Albany, New York. All are being treated for long COVID after mild infections.
As districts insist on vaccines, some teachers push back (A growing number of communities are moving to require teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of aggressive campaigns to ward off the delta variant, which has infected hundreds of thousands of children in the United States) - by Gillian Flaccus and Bobby Caina Calvin for Associated Press (and ABC News)
They stuck to their anti-vax beliefs. Now these teachers and school workers are out of jobs - by Howard Blume for the Los Angeles Times
Schools Are Asking Parents to Work as Substitutes amid Teacher Shortage: 'It Is So Bad' (Many school districts have been hit by staffing shortages due to teachers either becoming sick with the virus or outright leaving the profession due to concerns) - by Jason Duaine Hahn for People Magazine
America Is Desperate for Substitute Teachers (Omicron is making a bad shortage even worse.) - by Kate Cray For The Atlantic
COVID-19’s Impact On Nursing Shortages, The Rise Of Travel Nurses, And Price Gouging - by
Y. Tony Yang and Diana J. Mason
Why the US nursing crisis is getting worse (Burnout, vaccine hesitancy, and plum traveling gigs are making it harder for hospitals to hire the nurses they need.) - by Dylan Scott for Vox
Post-Pandemic Nursing Shortage: What It Means for Aspiring Nurses - by Gayle Morris, BSN, MSN for Nurse Journal
‘Nursing Is in Crisis’: Staff Shortages Put Patients at Risk (“When hospitals are understaffed, people die,” one expert warned as the U.S. health systems reach a breaking point in the face of the Delta variant.) - by Andrew Jacobs for The New York Times
More Than a Nursing Shortage: A 'Skills Gap', Too — Health systems grapple with a widening skills gap as seasoned nurses leave the field - by Amanda D'Ambrosio for Medpage Today
Omicron Will Have a Crushing Impact on the Nursing Shortage, Expert Warns - by Matt Smith for Barron's
Nurses' burnout and associated risk factors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis - by Petros Galanis, Irene Vraka, Despoina Fragkou, Angeliki Bilali, and Daphne Kaitelidou for Pub Med (professional article)
Nursing CE Central: Nurse Burnout Study 2021 - Nursing CE Central
EXPERT: HEALTHCARE WORKER BURNOUT TRENDING IN ALARMING DIRECTION - by Christopher Cheney for Health Leaders Media
‘I can’t do this any more’: US faces nurse shortage from burnout - by Eric Berger for The Guardian
The 2021 American Nursing Shortage: A Data Study - University of Saint Augustine for Health Sciences
Support for Public Health Workers and Health Professionals - CDC
Morally Injurious Experiences and Emotions of Health Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic Before Vaccine Availability - by Ye Kyung Song, MD, PhD; Sneha Mantri, MD, MS; Jennifer M. Lawson, MD, MA among others (professional article)
Nurses Say Violent Assaults Against Healthcare Workers Are a Silent Epidemic - Nurse.org
On the Front Lines: Violence Against Nurses on the Rise - by Katherine Kam by Web.MD
Michigan doctors, nurses report violence, hostility amid COVID-19 surge - by Christina Hall for Detroit Free Press
133 Attacks in a Year: How India Is Failing Its Health Workers (A recent study found that 75% of Indian doctors have experienced violence of some kind in the workplace.) - by YASH KAMATH, MADHAV BANSAL, SIDDHESH ZADEY, CHRISTINA WILLE, ROHINI HAAR
Verbal and physical attacks on health workers surge as emotions boil during latest COVID-19 wave (Stressed health workers are now confronting volatile visitors and patients. “The verbal abuse, the name-calling, racial slurs … we’ve had broken bones, broken noses,” said one hospital official in Dallas.) - by Karen Brooks Harper for The Texas Tribune
Doctors grow frustrated over COVID-19 denial, misinformation - by Heather Hollingsworth for Associated Press
It’s bizarre to see a Covid patient deny Covid exists while gasping for breath - ICU Nurse for The Guardian
Are incivility and pandemic denial from unruly patients the new normal? - by MGMA Staff Members for MGMA (Medical Group Management Association)
excerpt:
What happened to being “healthcare heroes”?
Medical group practices have always dealt with a few patients upset over wait times or payment issues, but two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have added several sources of discontent that have led to those patients becoming disruptive, unruly and sometimes violent.
The gamut of potential flashpoints for angry and upset patients runs from those who insist on receiving unproven and unauthorized COVID-19 remedies (e.g., ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) to vaccinated patients who lament appointment wait times and lack of hospital beds due to continually high ICU utilization by unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.
South Dakota nurse says many patients deny the coronavirus exists — right up until death - by Paulina Villegas for The Washington Post
Chicago doctor, others deal with COVID denial: ‘You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car’ (Such exchanges are common for doctors dealing with misinformation among unvaccinated patients, Chicago family physician Dr. Carl Lambert and others say.) - by Heather Hollingsworth for The Chicago Sun Times
Denial: When it helps, when it hurts (Denial is a coping mechanism that gives you time to adjust to distressing situations — but staying in denial can interfere with treatment or your ability to tackle challenges.) - by Mayo Clinic Staff for the Mayo Clinic
Confronting Death Denial: Lessons to be Learned from COVID-19 - by Rebecca MacDonell-Yilmaz, MD and Philippa G Sprinz, MD for OpMed
Does zinc help fight the coronavirus? - The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine
Which natural remedies to take — and avoid — for colds, flu and COVID-19 (Before you start gulping supplements, start your homework here) - by Hannah Six for Novant Health
'Could It Work as a Cure? Maybe.' A Herbal Remedy for Coronavirus Is a Hit in Africa, But Experts Have Their Doubts - by Aryn Baker for Time Magazine
Omicron is here. What are your treatment options if you get Covid-19? (Covid-19 experts on which treatments hold up against omicron and which ones to ask a doctor about if you get sick.) - by Kelsey Piper for Vox
Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Healthcare Workers Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review - by Gabriele d’Ettorre, Giancarlo Ceccarelli, Letizia Santinelli, Paolo Vassalini, Giuseppe Pietro Innocenti, Francesco Alessandri, Alexia E. Koukopoulos, Alessandro Russo, Gabriella d’Ettorre, and Lorenzo Tarsitani for US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (professional research paper)
PTSD symptoms in healthcare workers facing the three coronavirus outbreaks: What can we expect after the COVID-19 pandemic - by Claudia Carmassi, Claudia Foghi, Valerio Dell'Oste, Annalisa Cordone, Carlo Antonio Bertelloni, Eric Bui, Liliana Dell'Osso for Pub Med
The COVID-19 Effect: World’s nurses facing mass trauma, an immediate danger to the profession and future of our health systems - International Council of Nurses
Covid-19: New findings point to widespread trauma among nurses - by Megan Ford for Nursing Times
‘I still have nightmares every night’ — health workers struggle with PTSD symptoms as coronavirus takes toll - by Michael Wayland for CNBC
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder witnessed in healthcare workers owing to Coronavirus pandemic - WION (You Tube)
PTSD in Teachers Is Real and Serious. Here’s What You Need to Know. - by Rachael Moshman for Bored Teachers, Celebrating Teachers Every day
How I Stayed in the Classroom as a Teacher with C-PTSD (After being assaulted in my own classroom, I recognized I needed help to be able to continue teaching) - by Rachel Thune Real for Better Humans
Our Research Shows Educators Are Experiencing Trauma During the Pandemic. Here’s How We Can Reduce the Burden. - by Carlomagno Panlilio and Christy Tirrell-Corbin for Ed Surge
excerpt:
School Covid mask rules have sparked parent-teacher violence. We can't ignore it. (The teacher is now viewed by a small, loud contingent not as a public servant but as a public enemy.) - by Anne Lutz Fernandez, high school English teacher for NBC News
excerpt:
This year, it’s the adults who are misbehaving, with few educators prepared for the verbal and physical attacks that have marked the start of another not-normal year.
Protestors burning masks, ripping masks off educators’ faces and hurling obscenities have disrupted and derailed education board meetings nationwide this summer as local officials have sought to allow in-person learning despite a new wave of Covid-19 cases powered by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
The fight over mask mandates in schools turns violent - by Ivana Saric for Axios
‘Extreme opposition’ to school mask mandates target Michigan health officials with threats of violence - by Malachi Barrett for MLive.com
Anti-Maskers Are Assaulting Teachers and School Leaders. What Can Be Done? (Three questions for Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Wheelock chair of special and elementary education) - by Rich Barlow for Boston university
From COVID-19 to culture wars: The growing hostility of education politics - Brookings
HOW PANDEMICS CAN LEAD TO SOCIAL UNREST (Social unrest is something that the world has seen a lot throughout history. Pandemics, which can lead to job loss and food insecurity, only exacerbate the issue. Over time, people have experienced the Black Death, Spanish Flu and COVID-19.) - Borden Project
Pandemic Stresses Enough to Trigger Political, Social Unrest: Analysis - by Robert Priedt for U.S. News and World Report
Political violence related to COVID-19 could lead to 'unravelling of societies' worldwide, observers say - CBC (Canada)
COVID-19 eroding social cohesion and triggering rise in civil unrest in crisis-affected countries, alert UNDP, g7+ - United Nations Development Programme
Get Ready for a Spike in Global Unrest (COVID-19 threatens to accelerate longer-term rebellion, violence, and political upheaval.) - by Elise Labott for Foreign Policy
excerpt:
To call 2021 the summer of discontent would be a severe understatement. From Cuba to South Africa to Colombia to Haiti, often violent protests are sweeping every corner of the globe as angry citizens are taking to the streets.
Social unrest, fiscal adjustment and debt sustainability after Covid-19 - by Daniel Munevar
A Breakthrough Series on Engaging Fathers and Paternal Relatives in Child Welfare: A System Response to COVID-19 and Racial Unrest - by Jen Agosti, Jennifer L. Bellamy, Leonard Burton, Alan-Michael Graves, Christine Lau, and Jason Mahoney for The University of Chicago Press
Black Women Faculty and Administrators NavigatingCOVID-19, Social Unrest, and Academia: Challengesand Strategies - by Anuli Njoku and Marian Evans for Environmental Research and Public Health (professional paper)
IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT TRAUMA: HOW COVID-19, RACIAL UNREST, AND CHRONIC STRESS SHOW UP IN THE CLASSROOM - by Tatiana Duchak for Chicago Lwyers' Committee for Civil Rights
COVID-19, Racial Unrest, and Climate Change Are Worsening Housing Inequality in the US
Black and Hispanic Americans are falling behind in rents and mortgages disproportionately. - by Matthew Lavietes for Global Citizen
COVID-19 heightened racial issues in the US: Report (The National Urban League report analyzed racial injustice and COVID-19.) - by Kiara Alfonseca for ABC News
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Depriving George Floyd and a Minor Victim of Their Constitutional Rights - United States Department of Justice
Chauvin pleads guilty to federal charge in Floyd’s death - by Amy Forliti for AP News
Looters strike luxury shops around NYC before curfew sets in - Eyewitness News ABC7NY
SoHo like a war zone after stores destroyed by looters, riots during George Floyd protests - ABC - 7 NY News
Looters were able to target high-end stores in New York due to an intelligence failure, NYPD official says - by Mark Morales and Shimon Prokupecz for CNN
Most Riot, Looting Cases From Last Year Dropped by NYC DAs - by Jonathan Dienst and Courtney Copenhagen
Psaki claims COVID is ‘root cause’ for wave of looting incidents - by Samuel Chamberlain and Steven Nelson for the New York Post
Other cities looted - Google
excerpt:
Doctors, nurses, and other frontline health care workers are deservedly hailed as heroes for their dedication and courage in treating patients with COVID-19. But behind the scenes, another set of professionals is addressing the toll of the pandemic in an equally important but unacknowledged way. These “last responders” are the workers who ensure that people who die from the novel coronavirus are laid to rest with dignity.
A new collaborative project led by the Prevention Research Center (PRC) based in the UI College of Public Health aims to shine a light on the important contributions and extraordinary challenges of these professionals.
How Is the People's Convoy Getting to D.C.? Route and Timeline - by Katherine Fung for Newsweek
Parents Of Children With Disabilities Join The Legal Battle Over Masks In Schools - by Sneha Dey for NPR
excerpt:
In a wave of lawsuits in nearly half a dozen states, families of students with disabilities are joining the legal battle over masks in schools. Complaints filed in Tennessee, Florida, Utah, Texas and South Carolina argue that restrictions on mask mandates infringe on disability rights and that children with disabilities are being forced to choose between their health and their education.
"We hear all the time, 'Oh, only kids with preexisting conditions are the ones that get sick and die,' " Schwaigert says. "Well, that's my kid. That is my child. He has a lot of preexisting conditions, and he matters."
excerpt:
In a wave of lawsuits in nearly half a dozen states, families of students with disabilities are joining the legal battle over masks in schools. Complaints filed in Tennessee, Florida, Utah, Texas and South Carolina argue that restrictions on mask mandates infringe on disability rights and that children with disabilities are being forced to choose between their health and their education.
"We hear all the time, 'Oh, only kids with preexisting conditions are the ones that get sick and die,' " Schwaigert says. "Well, that's my kid. That is my child. He has a lot of preexisting conditions, and he matters."
Y. Tony Yang and Diana J. Mason
More Than a Nursing Shortage: A 'Skills Gap', Too — Health systems grapple with a widening skills gap as seasoned nurses leave the field - by Amanda D'Ambrosio for Medpage Today
Omicron Will Have a Crushing Impact on the Nursing Shortage, Expert Warns - by Matt Smith for Barron's
U.S. Faces Crisis of Burned-Out Health Care Workers (Hospital leaders are sounding the alarm as health systems face an exodus of exhausted and demoralized doctors, nurses and other front-line workers.) - by David Levine for U.S. News and World Report
EXPERT: HEALTHCARE WORKER BURNOUT TRENDING IN ALARMING DIRECTION - by Christopher Cheney for Health Leaders Media
‘I can’t do this any more’: US faces nurse shortage from burnout - by Eric Berger for The Guardian
Morally Injurious Experiences and Emotions of Health Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic Before Vaccine Availability - by Ye Kyung Song, MD, PhD; Sneha Mantri, MD, MS; Jennifer M. Lawson, MD, MA among others (professional article)
Nurses Say Violent Assaults Against Healthcare Workers Are a Silent Epidemic - Nurse.org
On the Front Lines: Violence Against Nurses on the Rise - by Katherine Kam by Web.MD
Understanding Violence and Aggression in the Nursing Profession - Avant Health Care Professionals
excerpt:
Workplace violence has seen a significant increase over the years, and hospitals are not immune. According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study, healthcare workers are more likely to be attacked at work than correctional officers and police officers. Nurses are the healthcare workers most at risk, with female nurses labeled as highly vulnerable. Violence in healthcare is now being taken seriously as a significant global issue.
Patient violence: It’s not all in a day’s work (Strategies for reducing patient violence and creating a safe workplace - by Lori Locke, MSN, RN, NE-BC; Gail Bromley, PhD, RN; Karen A. Federspiel, DNP, MS, RN-BC, GCNS-BC for American Nurse Today (professional paper)
Medicine or martyrdom? A peek into the rising violence against doctors during times of COVID 19 - by Poorvaprabha Patil and Sanjana Taneja for U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (professional article)
Threats, intimidation against doctors and health workers must end - by Gerald E. Harmon, MD, President for the AMA
Spat at, abused, attacked: healthcare staff face rising violence during Covid
This article is more than 8 months old (Data shows increased danger for those on the frontline in the pandemic, with misinformation, scarce vaccines and fragile health systems blamed) - The Guardian
Here’s What Health Workers Confront: Full ICUs, Patients Dying. And Violence. (In overtaxed U.S. health facilities where covid is surging, more doctors and nurses report facing hostility and even physical threats while trying to save their patients.) - reporting by Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Axios, CNN, Houston Chronical, The CT Mirror, more
Workplace violence has seen a significant increase over the years, and hospitals are not immune. According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study, healthcare workers are more likely to be attacked at work than correctional officers and police officers. Nurses are the healthcare workers most at risk, with female nurses labeled as highly vulnerable. Violence in healthcare is now being taken seriously as a significant global issue.
Medicine or martyrdom? A peek into the rising violence against doctors during times of COVID 19 - by Poorvaprabha Patil and Sanjana Taneja for U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (professional article)
Threats, intimidation against doctors and health workers must end - by Gerald E. Harmon, MD, President for the AMA
Spat at, abused, attacked: healthcare staff face rising violence during Covid
This article is more than 8 months old (Data shows increased danger for those on the frontline in the pandemic, with misinformation, scarce vaccines and fragile health systems blamed) - The Guardian
Here’s What Health Workers Confront: Full ICUs, Patients Dying. And Violence. (In overtaxed U.S. health facilities where covid is surging, more doctors and nurses report facing hostility and even physical threats while trying to save their patients.) - reporting by Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Axios, CNN, Houston Chronical, The CT Mirror, more
133 Attacks in a Year: How India Is Failing Its Health Workers (A recent study found that 75% of Indian doctors have experienced violence of some kind in the workplace.) - by YASH KAMATH, MADHAV BANSAL, SIDDHESH ZADEY, CHRISTINA WILLE, ROHINI HAAR
Verbal and physical attacks on health workers surge as emotions boil during latest COVID-19 wave (Stressed health workers are now confronting volatile visitors and patients. “The verbal abuse, the name-calling, racial slurs … we’ve had broken bones, broken noses,” said one hospital official in Dallas.) - by Karen Brooks Harper for The Texas Tribune
Doctors grow frustrated over COVID-19 denial, misinformation - by Heather Hollingsworth for Associated Press
excerpt:
What happened to being “healthcare heroes”?
Medical group practices have always dealt with a few patients upset over wait times or payment issues, but two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have added several sources of discontent that have led to those patients becoming disruptive, unruly and sometimes violent.
The gamut of potential flashpoints for angry and upset patients runs from those who insist on receiving unproven and unauthorized COVID-19 remedies (e.g., ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) to vaccinated patients who lament appointment wait times and lack of hospital beds due to continually high ICU utilization by unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.
South Dakota nurse says many patients deny the coronavirus exists — right up until death - by Paulina Villegas for The Washington Post
Confronting Death Denial: Lessons to be Learned from COVID-19 - by Rebecca MacDonell-Yilmaz, MD and Philippa G Sprinz, MD for OpMed
Does zinc help fight the coronavirus? - The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine
Which natural remedies to take — and avoid — for colds, flu and COVID-19 (Before you start gulping supplements, start your homework here) - by Hannah Six for Novant Health
'Could It Work as a Cure? Maybe.' A Herbal Remedy for Coronavirus Is a Hit in Africa, But Experts Have Their Doubts - by Aryn Baker for Time Magazine
Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Healthcare Workers Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review - by Gabriele d’Ettorre, Giancarlo Ceccarelli, Letizia Santinelli, Paolo Vassalini, Giuseppe Pietro Innocenti, Francesco Alessandri, Alexia E. Koukopoulos, Alessandro Russo, Gabriella d’Ettorre, and Lorenzo Tarsitani for US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (professional research paper)
PTSD symptoms in healthcare workers facing the three coronavirus outbreaks: What can we expect after the COVID-19 pandemic - by Claudia Carmassi, Claudia Foghi, Valerio Dell'Oste, Annalisa Cordone, Carlo Antonio Bertelloni, Eric Bui, Liliana Dell'Osso for Pub Med
The COVID-19 Effect: World’s nurses facing mass trauma, an immediate danger to the profession and future of our health systems - International Council of Nurses
Covid-19: New findings point to widespread trauma among nurses - by Megan Ford for Nursing Times
‘I still have nightmares every night’ — health workers struggle with PTSD symptoms as coronavirus takes toll - by Michael Wayland for CNBC
PTSD in Teachers Is Real and Serious. Here’s What You Need to Know. - by Rachael Moshman for Bored Teachers, Celebrating Teachers Every day
How I Stayed in the Classroom as a Teacher with C-PTSD (After being assaulted in my own classroom, I recognized I needed help to be able to continue teaching) - by Rachel Thune Real for Better Humans
Our Research Shows Educators Are Experiencing Trauma During the Pandemic. Here’s How We Can Reduce the Burden. - by Carlomagno Panlilio and Christy Tirrell-Corbin for Ed Surge
excerpt:
Educators play a critical role in our communities, but lately—and increasingly— they are burdened with responsibilities more appropriate for other members of the community, such as counselors, social workers, nurses and community organizers. This juggling act is particularly salient in under-resourced communities, where grappling with these issues can be a daily struggle.
Teaching During COVID-19: Stress, Burnout, PTSD & Compassion Fatigue - Course Hero, You Tube
Back to school has brought guns, fighting and acting out - by Laura Meckler and Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post
Teaching During COVID-19: Stress, Burnout, PTSD & Compassion Fatigue - Course Hero, You Tube
Back to school has brought guns, fighting and acting out - by Laura Meckler and Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post
excerpt:
“School violence has risen to levels that we haven’t seen quite frankly,” said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. “I don’t think it took a genius to see this coming.”
Educators 'Under Immediate Threat' in Culture of Fear and Violence (NEA praises federal intervention to protect school staff, calls on social media companies to “stamp out disinformation and violent trends.”) - National Education Association
'I'm hanging by a thread' (Teachers say school shootings and mental health struggles have made this year their hardest yet) - by Alisha Ebrahimji and Christina Zdanowicz for CNN
School leaders sound alarm over escalating violence, threats to educators - by Leandra Bernstein for ABC (On Your Side)
“School violence has risen to levels that we haven’t seen quite frankly,” said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. “I don’t think it took a genius to see this coming.”
Educators 'Under Immediate Threat' in Culture of Fear and Violence (NEA praises federal intervention to protect school staff, calls on social media companies to “stamp out disinformation and violent trends.”) - National Education Association
'I'm hanging by a thread' (Teachers say school shootings and mental health struggles have made this year their hardest yet) - by Alisha Ebrahimji and Christina Zdanowicz for CNN
School leaders sound alarm over escalating violence, threats to educators - by Leandra Bernstein for ABC (On Your Side)
excerpt:
Conflicts over masks, quarantines, vaccines, critical race theory and transgender rights have rocked American public schools throughout the pandemic. Now, school leaders across the country are raising concerns about the growing number of threats to teachers, principals and school board members as some parents cross the line between disagreement and violence.
Fights are not just happening on the playground. They're breaking out between adults at school board meetings, online and outside of classrooms.
"School leaders across the country are facing threats because they are simply trying to follow the health and scientific safety guidance issued by federal, state and local health policy experts," the School Superintendents Association (AASA) and National School Boards Association (NSBA) said in a joint statement.
The father of an elementary school student in northern California punched a teacher during a dispute over mask rules, leaving him bloody and bruised on the first day of school. A Texas parent was accused of physical assault after ripping off a teacher's face mask during a "Meet the Teacher" event at an Austin area school ...
... "Calling me a Nazi, a fascist, using profanity, and being told to 'eat the end of a shotgun' is beyond disturbing," Hill said.
Conflicts over masks, quarantines, vaccines, critical race theory and transgender rights have rocked American public schools throughout the pandemic. Now, school leaders across the country are raising concerns about the growing number of threats to teachers, principals and school board members as some parents cross the line between disagreement and violence.
Fights are not just happening on the playground. They're breaking out between adults at school board meetings, online and outside of classrooms.
"School leaders across the country are facing threats because they are simply trying to follow the health and scientific safety guidance issued by federal, state and local health policy experts," the School Superintendents Association (AASA) and National School Boards Association (NSBA) said in a joint statement.
The father of an elementary school student in northern California punched a teacher during a dispute over mask rules, leaving him bloody and bruised on the first day of school. A Texas parent was accused of physical assault after ripping off a teacher's face mask during a "Meet the Teacher" event at an Austin area school ...
... "Calling me a Nazi, a fascist, using profanity, and being told to 'eat the end of a shotgun' is beyond disturbing," Hill said.
excerpt:
This year, it’s the adults who are misbehaving, with few educators prepared for the verbal and physical attacks that have marked the start of another not-normal year.
Protestors burning masks, ripping masks off educators’ faces and hurling obscenities have disrupted and derailed education board meetings nationwide this summer as local officials have sought to allow in-person learning despite a new wave of Covid-19 cases powered by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
The fight over mask mandates in schools turns violent - by Ivana Saric for Axios
‘Extreme opposition’ to school mask mandates target Michigan health officials with threats of violence - by Malachi Barrett for MLive.com
Anti-Maskers Are Assaulting Teachers and School Leaders. What Can Be Done? (Three questions for Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Wheelock chair of special and elementary education) - by Rich Barlow for Boston university
The next Covid war: school vaccine and mask mandates (Far-right extremists, anti-maskers and now parents are fueling a rising pattern of violence against educators.) - by Cynthia Miller-Idriss for MSNBC
excerpt:
A California elementary school teacher was hospitalized this week after allegedly being assaulted by a parent who was upset about the school’s mask mandate for children. The attack is part of a rising pattern of violence against educators by parents, anti-maskers, and far-right extremists targeting schools that champion critical race theory, transgender rights and other issues over the past several months.
NYPD: Number of weapons confiscated in city schools has skyrocketed 80% so far in 2022 - by Marcia Kramer for CBS News
Brooklyn students explain why classmates bring weapons to school: ‘We’re just trying be safe in a city that has been made unsafe’ - by Michael Elsen-Rooney for Y Daily News
excerpt:
A California elementary school teacher was hospitalized this week after allegedly being assaulted by a parent who was upset about the school’s mask mandate for children. The attack is part of a rising pattern of violence against educators by parents, anti-maskers, and far-right extremists targeting schools that champion critical race theory, transgender rights and other issues over the past several months.
NYPD: Number of weapons confiscated in city schools has skyrocketed 80% so far in 2022 - by Marcia Kramer for CBS News
Brooklyn students explain why classmates bring weapons to school: ‘We’re just trying be safe in a city that has been made unsafe’ - by Michael Elsen-Rooney for Y Daily News
COVID-19 eroding social cohesion and triggering rise in civil unrest in crisis-affected countries, alert UNDP, g7+ - United Nations Development Programme
excerpt:
To call 2021 the summer of discontent would be a severe understatement. From Cuba to South Africa to Colombia to Haiti, often violent protests are sweeping every corner of the globe as angry citizens are taking to the streets.
Social unrest, fiscal adjustment and debt sustainability after Covid-19 - by Daniel Munevar
excerpt:
Without a human rights-based alternative to austerity, many countries will find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of self-defeating fiscal adjustments, instability and unsustainable debts.
Analysis: Pandemics & protests: Unrest grips developing countries - by Karin Strohecker for Reuters
Without a human rights-based alternative to austerity, many countries will find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of self-defeating fiscal adjustments, instability and unsustainable debts.
Analysis: Pandemics & protests: Unrest grips developing countries - by Karin Strohecker for Reuters
Pandemics and protests: America has experienced racism like this before - by Jennifer D. Roberts for Brookings
Black Women Faculty and Administrators NavigatingCOVID-19, Social Unrest, and Academia: Challengesand Strategies - by Anuli Njoku and Marian Evans for Environmental Research and Public Health (professional paper)
IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT TRAUMA: HOW COVID-19, RACIAL UNREST, AND CHRONIC STRESS SHOW UP IN THE CLASSROOM - by Tatiana Duchak for Chicago Lwyers' Committee for Civil Rights
COVID-19, Racial Unrest, and Climate Change Are Worsening Housing Inequality in the US
Black and Hispanic Americans are falling behind in rents and mortgages disproportionately. - by Matthew Lavietes for Global Citizen
George Floyd Protests - Wikipedia
The global impact of George Floyd: How Black Lives Matter protests shaped movements around the world - by Jason Silverstein
Why The Killing of George Floyd Sparked an American Uprising - by Alex Altman for Time Magazine
Why The Killing of George Floyd Sparked an American Uprising - by Alex Altman for Time Magazine
Looters were able to target high-end stores in New York due to an intelligence failure, NYPD official says - by Mark Morales and Shimon Prokupecz for CNN
Most Riot, Looting Cases From Last Year Dropped by NYC DAs - by Jonathan Dienst and Courtney Copenhagen
Psaki claims COVID is ‘root cause’ for wave of looting incidents - by Samuel Chamberlain and Steven Nelson for the New York Post
Other cities looted - Google
Charges dropped for hundreds of alleged looters in New York City ("I was in total shock that everything is being brushed off to the side," said Jessica Betancourt, whose Bronx eyeglass shop was looted last June.) - by Jonathan Dienst and Courtney Copenhagen for NBC News
Retail Theft Rises, and N.Y.C. Small Business Owners Are Paying the Price (In New York City, neighborhood stores are struggling to confront the crimes that have cascaded from the disruptions of the pandemic.) - by Nicole Hong for The New York Times
Retail Theft Rises, and N.Y.C. Small Business Owners Are Paying the Price (In New York City, neighborhood stores are struggling to confront the crimes that have cascaded from the disruptions of the pandemic.) - by Nicole Hong for The New York Times
Managing Stress Among Mortuary and Death Care WorkersDuring the COVID-19 PandemicBehavioral Health Guidance and Resources - Behavioral Health Guidance and Resources
Shining a Light on Last Responders - by Debra Venzke for Iowa, College of Public Healthexcerpt:
Doctors, nurses, and other frontline health care workers are deservedly hailed as heroes for their dedication and courage in treating patients with COVID-19. But behind the scenes, another set of professionals is addressing the toll of the pandemic in an equally important but unacknowledged way. These “last responders” are the workers who ensure that people who die from the novel coronavirus are laid to rest with dignity.
A new collaborative project led by the Prevention Research Center (PRC) based in the UI College of Public Health aims to shine a light on the important contributions and extraordinary challenges of these professionals.
Funeral and Mortuary Operators: The Role of Stigma, Incivility, Work Meaningfulness and Work–Family Relation to Explain Occupational Burnout - by Gloria Guidetti, Annalisa Grandi, Daniela Converso, Nicoletta Bosco, Stefania Fantinelli, Margherita Zito, and Lara Colombo and Paul B. Tchounwou, Academic Editor - a PubMed article originally published by Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
Funerals, death care workers heavily impacted by COVID-19 - by Kate Ryan for WTop News
Interim guidance: Death care services and handling of dead bodies during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic - Government of Canada
Risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality among healthcare workers working in a Large Tertiary Care Hospital (Author links open overlay panel) - by Majid M.AlshamraniMD, AimanEl-SaedMD, PhD, MohammedAl ZunitanMD, RawabiAlmulhemRN, PHN1, SaadAlmohrij, MD5 for International Jopurnal of Infectious Diseases
Health and Care Worker Deaths during COVID-19 - World Health Organization
Mask-wearing at the heart of the great British Covid divide (England in particular stands apart as an outlier from the rest of western Europe) - by Clive Cookson, George Parker, Oliver Barnes and Laura Hughes for FT.com
Red Covid (Covid’s partisan pattern is growing more extreme.) - by David Leonhardt for The New York Times
How America became a breeding ground for anti-maskers, according to social psychologists - by Ashley Collman
excerpt:
People have been kicked off planes and have started fights over their refusal to wear masks. A Starbucks barista was shamed on Facebook and a Waffle House worker was shot for refusing to serve people who did not follow mask-wearing mandates.
This political divide over the issue of face coverings — which has been recommended by experts around the world — seems to be most prominent in the US, where liberals lean toward complying with face mask orders, and conservatives tend to reject them.
A survey from the Pew Research Center, published in late June, showed that 63% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents believed that face masks should be worn in public at all times, compared to just 29% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents ...
... "You've got one side who, for a lot of complicated reasons, wants to believe that this pandemic is not very serious. They don't want it to disrupt their lives, so they've decided these masks are bad — and not just that they're bad, but that they don't work," he said ...
Democrats Realize That Americans Are Done With COVID Rules - by Brendan Cole for Newsweek
America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide (The pandemic has revealed how pervasive the divide in American politics is relative to other nations) - by Michael Dimock for Pew Research
Did Sean Hannity Just Break The Political Divide Over Face Masks? - by Seth Cohen for Forbes
POLITICS: COVID-19: Democratic Voters Support Harsh Measures Against Unvaccinated - Rasmussen Reports
The Role of Cognitive Dissonance in the Pandemic (The minute we make any decision—I think COVID-19 is serious; no, I’m sure it is a hoax—we begin to justify the wisdom of our choice and find reasons to dismiss the alternative.) - by Elliot Aronson and Carol Tavris
Overcoming confirmation bias during COVID-19 (Why confirmation bias is the archnemesis of data science and how you can fight it) - by Cassie Kozyrkov for Towards Data Science
Post-Omicron Life Can Be Downright Maddening (How to live with the uncertainty of not knowing what comes next) - by Yasmin Tayag for The Atlantic
CALL OF THE WILD (Why many scientists say it’s unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a “lab leak”) - by Jon Cohen for Science
Coronavirus came from Wuhan market and not Chinese lab, twin studies say (Two studies released by scientists but yet to be published in journals say virus did not emerge from Wuhan Institute of Virology) - by Martin Pengelly for The Guardian (2022)
Freedom Convoy: Why Canadian truckers are protesting in Ottawa - by Jessica Murphy for the BBC News
Talk to the Public Like You Would Talk to a Patient (The most effective public-health communication channels the qualities that primary-care pediatricians put into practice every day.) - by Aparna Bole for The Atlantic
What the Truckers Want (I’ve spoken to 100 of the protestors gathered in the Canadian capital. What's happening is far bigger than the vaccine mandates.) - by Rupa Subramanya
Canada’s Trucker Blockades Are a Warning (If a crackdown on protesters goes bad, the negative consequences may not be confined to the country.) - by David Frum for The Atlantic
When the Rage Came for Me (As a writer, I’ve explored political rage at a distance. The anti-vax trucker convoy brought it up close and personal.) - by Stephen Marche for The Atlantic
Behind the Fractious Collaboration Steering the Canada Protests (The organizers include former law enforcement officers, military veterans and conservative organizers who are steering unrest that has sent shock waves throughout Canada.) - by Sarah Maslin Nir and Natalie Kitroeff fot The New York Times
Baffled by the Chaos in Canada? So Are Canadians. (The protests seem to challenge the cherished image that Canadians are moderate, rule-following and just plain nice. But was that really a myth all along?) - by Catherine Porter for The New York Times
FOLLOWING THE MONEY 'Freedom Convoy' donations are about half Canadian, half from U.S., leaked data show - by Peter Weber for The Week
The ‘freedom convoy’ protesters are a textbook case of ‘aggrieved entitlement’ - by Fiona MacDonald, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Northern British Columbia for The Conversation
Freedom Convoy Organizers Hit With $9.8 MILLION Lawsuit Over ‘Tormenting Horn Noise’ - by the administrators of Transportation Nation Network
Trucker convoy in Ottawa faces lawsuit worth $10M: ‘excruciatingly loud’ - by Eric Stober for GlobalNews.ca
Truck convoy: Judge adjourns class action suit to halt 'unbearable' air horns - by Blair Crawford for Ottawa Citizen
GiveSendGo Hacked as Names of Freedom Convoy Donors Apparently Leaked - by Jack Dutton for Newsweek
Hackers leak names of ‘Freedom Convoy’ donors after GiveSendGo breach - by Zack Whittaker for Tech Crunch
Canada eyeing ‘no-go’ zones in Ottawa to quell ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests, official says - by
Ellen Francis and Andrew Jeong for the Washington Post
Canadian government invokes Emergencies Act due to blockades and protests over Covid-19 measures - by Holly Yan and Susannah Cullinane for CNN
Can protests similar to the Canadian 'Freedom Convoy' happen here? They already are. - by John Bacon for USA Today
Trucker 'freedom convoy' rolls into Sask. Monday (Based on organizers' estimates some 1,200 semis were expected to pass near the city Monday evening, according to police.) - by Mark Melnychuk
TEAMSTERS DENOUNCE FREEDOM CONVOY BLOCKADE AT CANADIAN BORDER - by International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Alaska 'Freedom Convoy' held in support of Canada truckers' anti-mandate protests (Alaska Freedom Convoy traveled from Anchorage to Eagle River) - by Danielle River for Fox News
Israelis Mount Their Own COVID 'Freedom Convoy' - by Reuters
Belgium: 'Freedom Convoy' protest reaches Brussels - DW.com (Belgium)
Is a Canada-style 'Freedom Convoy' protest set to descend on Paris? - by Maxime Biosse Duplan & Josh Berlinger for Euro News
The end of the ‘freedom convoy’ in Ottawa: Why rejoicing when occupiers get arrested isn’t the answer - by Linda Mussell, Postdoctoral fellow, Political Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa for The Conversation
Mask-wearing at the heart of the great British Covid divide (England in particular stands apart as an outlier from the rest of western Europe) - by Clive Cookson, George Parker, Oliver Barnes and Laura Hughes for FT.com
Red Covid (Covid’s partisan pattern is growing more extreme.) - by David Leonhardt for The New York Times
excerpt:
People have been kicked off planes and have started fights over their refusal to wear masks. A Starbucks barista was shamed on Facebook and a Waffle House worker was shot for refusing to serve people who did not follow mask-wearing mandates.
This political divide over the issue of face coverings — which has been recommended by experts around the world — seems to be most prominent in the US, where liberals lean toward complying with face mask orders, and conservatives tend to reject them.
A survey from the Pew Research Center, published in late June, showed that 63% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents believed that face masks should be worn in public at all times, compared to just 29% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents ...
... "You've got one side who, for a lot of complicated reasons, wants to believe that this pandemic is not very serious. They don't want it to disrupt their lives, so they've decided these masks are bad — and not just that they're bad, but that they don't work," he said ...
America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide (The pandemic has revealed how pervasive the divide in American politics is relative to other nations) - by Michael Dimock for Pew Research
Did Sean Hannity Just Break The Political Divide Over Face Masks? - by Seth Cohen for Forbes
New Mixed Messages About Mask Mandates Are Creating Confusion And Doubt. Again. - by Edward Segal for Forbes
Mask Mandate Bans Spark Confusion, Concern as Unvaccinated Kids Head to School (Mask requirements are just the latest chapter in a year-long contentious debate about how to reopen schools safely for in-person learning that is often politically charged.) - by Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder and Lauren Camera for U.S. News and World Report
North Shore parents angered over confusion with school mask mandates - by Julianne Mosher
Lifting DC’s Strict Indoor Mask Mandate Triggers Mix of Confusion, Anxiety and Relief - by Amanda Michelle Gomez for KHN
The partisan divide in vaccinations is starker than you realize (The effort to reach the unvaccinated has become the latest political fault line in the Covid response.) - by Dan Goldberg and Alice Miranda Ollstein for Politico
Mask Mandate Bans Spark Confusion, Concern as Unvaccinated Kids Head to School (Mask requirements are just the latest chapter in a year-long contentious debate about how to reopen schools safely for in-person learning that is often politically charged.) - by Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder and Lauren Camera for U.S. News and World Report
North Shore parents angered over confusion with school mask mandates - by Julianne Mosher
Lifting DC’s Strict Indoor Mask Mandate Triggers Mix of Confusion, Anxiety and Relief - by Amanda Michelle Gomez for KHN
The partisan divide in vaccinations is starker than you realize (The effort to reach the unvaccinated has become the latest political fault line in the Covid response.) - by Dan Goldberg and Alice Miranda Ollstein for Politico
Confused about COVID: Too many news outlets prioritize hype over accuracy - by Joe Ferullo, Opinion Contributor
A Confirmation Bias View on Social Media Induced Polarisation During Covid-19 - by Sachin Modgil, Rohit Kumar Singh, Shivam Gupta, Denis Dennehy for Pub Med
Cognitive dissonance during the pandemic—lessons for research and policy - by Amitava Banerjee, Professor of Clinical Data Science and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Institute of Health Informatics, University College London.
Cognitive dissonance during the pandemic—lessons for research and policy - by Amitava Banerjee, Professor of Clinical Data Science and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Institute of Health Informatics, University College London.
The Role of Cognitive Dissonance in the Pandemic (The minute we make any decision—I think COVID-19 is serious; no, I’m sure it is a hoax—we begin to justify the wisdom of our choice and find reasons to dismiss the alternative.) - by Elliot Aronson and Carol Tavris
How cognitive biases and adverse events influence vaccine decisions (maybe even your own) - by 1. Hossein Azarpanah, PhD Candidate in Business Technology Management, Concordia University, 2. Louise Pilote, Professor of Medicine, James McGill Chair, McGill University, 3. Mohsen Farhadloo, Assistant professor, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Mohsen Farhadloo
Assistant professor, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, 4. Rustam Vahidov
Professor, Dept. of Supply Chain & Business Technology Management, Concordia University for The Conversation
Assistant professor, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, 4. Rustam Vahidov
Professor, Dept. of Supply Chain & Business Technology Management, Concordia University for The Conversation
Overcoming confirmation bias during COVID-19 (Why confirmation bias is the archnemesis of data science and how you can fight it) - by Cassie Kozyrkov for Towards Data Science
Is Cognitive Bias Controlling Our View Of Covid-19 Vaccines? - by Helen Lee Bouygues,
Contributor for Forbes
THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE STUCK IN PANDEMIC LIMBO (What does society owe immunocompromised people?) - by Ed Yong for The Atlantic
Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ Is Wishful Thinking (We are far past the point of hoping that this variant will spare us.) - by Katherine J. Wu for The Atlantic
They thought COVID-19 was a hoax, until they fell ill (“The mindset that people have is that it’s not real until it gets close to home.") - by Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani and Louise McLoughlin for NBC News
Contributor for Forbes
THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE STUCK IN PANDEMIC LIMBO (What does society owe immunocompromised people?) - by Ed Yong for The Atlantic
Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ Is Wishful Thinking (We are far past the point of hoping that this variant will spare us.) - by Katherine J. Wu for The Atlantic
They thought COVID-19 was a hoax, until they fell ill (“The mindset that people have is that it’s not real until it gets close to home.") - by Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani and Louise McLoughlin for NBC News
One-Way Masking Works (If you’re vaccinated, boosted, and wearing an N95, you’re protected—no matter what others are doing.) - by Olga Khazan for The Atlantic
America’s COVID Rules Are a Dumpster Fire (If you’re confused by the CDC’s new isolation guidelines, you’re not the only one.) - by Katherine J. Wu for The Atlantic
Our Relationship With COVID Vaccines Is Just Getting Started (We probably will need additional shots. But just how many depends on our immune systems, the virus, and how often they collide.) - by Katherine J. Wu for The Atlantic
The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don’t know (Nature examines arguments that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in China, and the science behind them.) - by Amy Maxmen & Smriti Mallapaty for Nature
The Lab-Leak Theory Meets Its Perfect Match (Both pandemic-origin arguments depend on coincidence.) - by Daniel Engber for The Atlantic (2021)
The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don’t know (Nature examines arguments that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in China, and the science behind them.) - by Amy Maxmen & Smriti Mallapaty for Nature
The Lab-Leak Theory Meets Its Perfect Match (Both pandemic-origin arguments depend on coincidence.) - by Daniel Engber for The Atlantic (2021)
New Research Points to Wuhan Market as Pandemic Origin - by Carl Zimmer and Benjamin Mueller for The New York Times (2/26/22)
The Freedom Convoy
(Trucker's Protest)
Canada Convoy Protest - Wikipedia(Trucker's Protest)
Freedom Convoy: Why Canadian truckers are protesting in Ottawa - by Jessica Murphy for the BBC News
What the Truckers Want (I’ve spoken to 100 of the protestors gathered in the Canadian capital. What's happening is far bigger than the vaccine mandates.) - by Rupa Subramanya
excerpt:
... I live in downtown Ottawa, within view of Parliament Hill, and have spent the past 10 days or so bundled up and walking around the protests. I have spoken to close to 100 protesters, truckers and other folks, and not one of them sounded like an insurrectionist, white supremacist, racist or misogynist ...
... B.J. Dichter, a spokesman for the Freedom Convoy, is vaccinated, and he estimates that many—maybe most—of the truckers at the protest are, too. “I’m Jewish. I have family in mass graves in Europe. And apparently I’m a white supremacist,” he told me on Wednesday ...
... I live in downtown Ottawa, within view of Parliament Hill, and have spent the past 10 days or so bundled up and walking around the protests. I have spoken to close to 100 protesters, truckers and other folks, and not one of them sounded like an insurrectionist, white supremacist, racist or misogynist ...
... B.J. Dichter, a spokesman for the Freedom Convoy, is vaccinated, and he estimates that many—maybe most—of the truckers at the protest are, too. “I’m Jewish. I have family in mass graves in Europe. And apparently I’m a white supremacist,” he told me on Wednesday ...
When the Rage Came for Me (As a writer, I’ve explored political rage at a distance. The anti-vax trucker convoy brought it up close and personal.) - by Stephen Marche for The Atlantic
Behind the Fractious Collaboration Steering the Canada Protests (The organizers include former law enforcement officers, military veterans and conservative organizers who are steering unrest that has sent shock waves throughout Canada.) - by Sarah Maslin Nir and Natalie Kitroeff fot The New York Times
Baffled by the Chaos in Canada? So Are Canadians. (The protests seem to challenge the cherished image that Canadians are moderate, rule-following and just plain nice. But was that really a myth all along?) - by Catherine Porter for The New York Times
FOLLOWING THE MONEY 'Freedom Convoy' donations are about half Canadian, half from U.S., leaked data show - by Peter Weber for The Week
The ‘freedom convoy’ protesters are a textbook case of ‘aggrieved entitlement’ - by Fiona MacDonald, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Northern British Columbia for The Conversation
Trucker convoy in Ottawa faces lawsuit worth $10M: ‘excruciatingly loud’ - by Eric Stober for GlobalNews.ca
GiveSendGo Hacked as Names of Freedom Convoy Donors Apparently Leaked - by Jack Dutton for Newsweek
Hackers leak names of ‘Freedom Convoy’ donors after GiveSendGo breach - by Zack Whittaker for Tech Crunch
Canada eyeing ‘no-go’ zones in Ottawa to quell ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests, official says - by
Ellen Francis and Andrew Jeong for the Washington Post
Canadian government invokes Emergencies Act due to blockades and protests over Covid-19 measures - by Holly Yan and Susannah Cullinane for CNN
'Freedom convoy' disruptions cost auto industry $300M in losses (Workers missed out on $145 million in wages and car companies lost $155 million because of vaccine mandate protests at key U.S.-Canada trade crossings, a study says.) - by Antonio Planas for NBC News
Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters block 2 more bridges to the U.S. in defiance of Trudeau’s new Emergencies Act powers - by Jen Skerritt, Robert Tuttle, and Bloomberg for Fortune
‘We could lose everything’: Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ leaves protest sites as Trudeau’s Emergencies Act threatens bank accounts and insurance - by Jen Skerritt and Bloomberg for Fortune
Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters block 2 more bridges to the U.S. in defiance of Trudeau’s new Emergencies Act powers - by Jen Skerritt, Robert Tuttle, and Bloomberg for Fortune
‘We could lose everything’: Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ leaves protest sites as Trudeau’s Emergencies Act threatens bank accounts and insurance - by Jen Skerritt and Bloomberg for Fortune
Trucker 'freedom convoy' rolls into Sask. Monday (Based on organizers' estimates some 1,200 semis were expected to pass near the city Monday evening, according to police.) - by Mark Melnychuk
TEAMSTERS DENOUNCE FREEDOM CONVOY BLOCKADE AT CANADIAN BORDER - by International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Alaska 'Freedom Convoy' held in support of Canada truckers' anti-mandate protests (Alaska Freedom Convoy traveled from Anchorage to Eagle River) - by Danielle River for Fox News
Israelis Mount Their Own COVID 'Freedom Convoy' - by Reuters
Belgium: 'Freedom Convoy' protest reaches Brussels - DW.com (Belgium)
Is a Canada-style 'Freedom Convoy' protest set to descend on Paris? - by Maxime Biosse Duplan & Josh Berlinger for Euro News
Confirmation bias: seeking out similar views to confirm pre-existing belief - by the Media Relations and Public Affairs of the Saskatchewan Health Authority
Canada Live Updates: Police Clamp Down on Ottawa Protesters (A swell of police officers and heavy tow trucks closed in on the encampment of truckers on Friday after three weeks of demonstrations had roiled the capital and other parts of the country.) - by Brett Gundlock for The New York Times
Canadian authorities freeze financial assets for those involved in ongoing protests in Ottawa - by Aya Elamroussi, Holly Yan and Amir Vera, CNN
Canada Live Updates: Police Clamp Down on Ottawa Protesters (A swell of police officers and heavy tow trucks closed in on the encampment of truckers on Friday after three weeks of demonstrations had roiled the capital and other parts of the country.) - by Brett Gundlock for The New York Times
Canadian authorities freeze financial assets for those involved in ongoing protests in Ottawa - by Aya Elamroussi, Holly Yan and Amir Vera, CNN
Truckers against Covid restrictions plan DC protests ahead of State of the Union address - NBC News Senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake discusses with Nicolle Wallace how the Capitol is planning to protect itself ahead of the trucker convoys potentially coming to Washington D.C. (MSNBC)
Inspired by Canadian truck protests, 'People's Convoy' heads to Washington - by Omar Younis
and David Swanson for Reuters
The trucker ‘convoy’ is demanding our attention. But what do they want? - by Petula Dvorak for The Washington Post
Pentagon approves requests for National Guard as trucker convoy eyes D.C. - by Kathryn Watson
Convoy Organizer Who Promised to Choke D.C. Like a ‘Boa Constrictor’ Departs With Single Truck (The movement to replicate the Canadian trucker convoy in America is off to a sputtering start) - by Ryan Bort
Inspired by Canadian truck protests, 'People's Convoy' heads to Washington - by Omar Younis
and David Swanson for Reuters
The trucker ‘convoy’ is demanding our attention. But what do they want? - by Petula Dvorak for The Washington Post
Pentagon approves requests for National Guard as trucker convoy eyes D.C. - by Kathryn Watson
Convoy Organizer Who Promised to Choke D.C. Like a ‘Boa Constrictor’ Departs With Single Truck (The movement to replicate the Canadian trucker convoy in America is off to a sputtering start) - by Ryan Bort
WINNING! Canadian Freedom Convoy Update - AwakenWithJP (You Tube)
Truck convoy nearing nation's capital; Pentagon OKs use of National Guard; vaccination drive stalls as omicron fades: COVID updates - by John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz, Celina Tebor and Jeanine Santucci for USA Today
excerpt:
Bob Bolus, a Pennsylvania truck driver, says he's leading the Freedom Convoy of trucks from Pennsylvania to Washington on Wednesday. But he told NBC4-TV in Washington that he has backed off immediate plans to gridlock the Capital Beltway, a 64-mile roadway through Virginia and Maryland that circles the District of Columbia. His grievances include vaccine mandates, pandemic-related restrictions and high fuel prices, among others.
"We’re not shutting the traffic down today," Bolus said. "If we don’t have a resolution from the government, to the rights that they’re taking from us, I will predict in the future it will get shut down."
The Revolt Begins - by James Howard Kunstler (for his own website)
Note: this article is mainly about the Freedom Convoy, but he does write about the vaccines in this excerpt in his article:
Truck convoy nearing nation's capital; Pentagon OKs use of National Guard; vaccination drive stalls as omicron fades: COVID updates - by John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz, Celina Tebor and Jeanine Santucci for USA Today
excerpt:
Bob Bolus, a Pennsylvania truck driver, says he's leading the Freedom Convoy of trucks from Pennsylvania to Washington on Wednesday. But he told NBC4-TV in Washington that he has backed off immediate plans to gridlock the Capital Beltway, a 64-mile roadway through Virginia and Maryland that circles the District of Columbia. His grievances include vaccine mandates, pandemic-related restrictions and high fuel prices, among others.
"We’re not shutting the traffic down today," Bolus said. "If we don’t have a resolution from the government, to the rights that they’re taking from us, I will predict in the future it will get shut down."
The Revolt Begins - by James Howard Kunstler (for his own website)
Note: this article is mainly about the Freedom Convoy, but he does write about the vaccines in this excerpt in his article:
...In fact, a conscientious observer would have to conclude the following: That the government’s highest-paid employee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, led surreptitiously in the creation and release of a bioweapon; that he and his cohorts, along with the pharma companies, and other interested parties such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization, enabled the release of so-called “vaccines” (genetic treatments) that were at least as deadly as the disease itself; that as a result of the shots many people of all ages will die before their natural time; that the process is already underway as documented in the all-causes death data tallied by insurance companies; that the same government officials maliciously suppressed viable, inexpensive, FDA-approved treatments for Covid-19 in order to herd the populace into receiving dangerous “vaccines”; that said officials have worked strenuously to muddle and fake the statistics that would show who is actually dying of what; and that the entire fiasco appears to have been ginned up in order to systematically control the population in ways contrary to our natural rights while killing off a substantial number of us.
Note: my husband and I actually know James (mostly playing music together - in his basement mainly), but we have also read most of his books, and we know he is not a dummy (far from it), and not brainwashed into right wing rhetoric. He's actually a disillusioned Democrat. So, his reading and research over the Covid-19 vaccines (which are likely to be much more informed than my own) should probably be taken seriously to some extent, and to be of concern ... However, neither one of us are doctors ... or in the biotech field ... which is why I feel that these many voices have to be given weight.
The Modern Left Has Turned Fascist for Covid Oppression - Five Hundred Pound Peep (Includes an apt cartoon for disillusioned Democrats upset with government mandates)
Note: my husband and I actually know James (mostly playing music together - in his basement mainly), but we have also read most of his books, and we know he is not a dummy (far from it), and not brainwashed into right wing rhetoric. He's actually a disillusioned Democrat. So, his reading and research over the Covid-19 vaccines (which are likely to be much more informed than my own) should probably be taken seriously to some extent, and to be of concern ... However, neither one of us are doctors ... or in the biotech field ... which is why I feel that these many voices have to be given weight.
The Modern Left Has Turned Fascist for Covid Oppression - Five Hundred Pound Peep (Includes an apt cartoon for disillusioned Democrats upset with government mandates)
MORE ARTICLES SINCE PUBLISHING
(started 3/9/22)
(started 3/9/22)
MY FATHER, THE FOOL (I’d run out of sympathy for COVID skeptics. Then I remembered my father’s stiff neck.) - by Richard Russo for The Atlantic
excerpt:
... I am fed up and, I admit, no longer my best self. Somehow it has come to this. We are now a nation that has to be specifically warned not to drink bleach. Out of necessity, a feed-store owner in Nevada is refusing to sell ivermectin to anyone who can’t prove they own a horse.
Masking Policy Is Incredibly Irrational Right Now (Why must only the youngest children wear face coverings?) - by Emily Oster
The Grown-Ups Are Losing It (We’ve turned schools into battlefields, and our kids are the casualties.) - by George Packer for The Atlantic
Scolding Will Never Stop COVID’s Spread (Here’s how COVID-19 hawks can save more lives even as millions of Americans act as if the pandemic is over.) - by Conor Friedersdorf for The Atlantic
