It is a scary development. People in New York and New Jersey flee the high taxes, high regulation, and other problems and come to Florida happy to have a freer environment and immediately vote Left to reproduce what they exeperience. Same with California to Nevada and Texas
I like your newsletter very much but Hari Rahavan is a fraud he deplores the Wole politics of San Francisco and then says he’s moving to Florida which earlier called a political train wreck and he will be a blue dot and a red state tell him not to come to Florida and stay in California he is just what we don’t need in Florida. We are a political success and he just wants to come and turn us in to California
Ghislaine's trial completely skipped the IMPORTANT part of the Epstein operation. Blackmail is the business. Sex is just the tool. Ghislaine was convicted of pimping, not for espionage and controlling major corporations and governments through extortion. The control mechanism is untouched and unexamined, and will continue unabated.
I subscribe to this newsletter for the voiced opposition to racial essentialism and more broadly, for the advocacy of free speech. Here I think Nellie Bowles speaks folly and presents it as gospel. The tone is that she is beating her head against the wall in the midst of general craziness, and this makes the folly all the more irritating.
It is not your choice to wear an N95 mask because the decision affects the safety of other people.
COVID is not overblown when millions have died, and there is long COVID.
It is my choice to ignore the ineffective masks and vaccines and be prepared with therapeutics, which if used, would have minimized deaths of this Chinese flu. That's the real end of the story, which big pharma and our government will not pay attention to because it won't help them stay in power. Wake up Mr. David!
Assuming you're not a hermit, you choose not to take any responsibility for the society you live in. It's inconsequential if your actions lead to the death of another human being; something tells me you are deficient when it comes to empathizing, a commonality amongst the conservative mind.
On The price control link, Don Boudreaux over at Cafe Hayek has the best comment (DBx: Any “economist” who advocates the use of price controls for any purpose, but especially for controlling inflation, deserves the same intense degree of contempt as does any “biologist” who advocates creationism as an explanation for biodiversity and living-creatures’ phenotypes.)
Subscribed few weeks back. NB's TGIF wrap-up is why. This alone worth the price of admission. (Bari who? JK. But remember, don't let NB wander off somewhere else)
Bari, I absolutely love your newsletter. I love that we don’t agree on much, while you (and most of your guest authors) manage to find common ground with me on many of the most important issues. Little did I know that this white, cisgendered, 70 year old father of 5, grandfather of 16, orthodox Christian, center-right voter would find a lesbian, Jewish, left-of-center writer so damn entertaining and wise. Happy New Year. Keep up the good work. Let’s bury the lame-stream media.
"Third: how are we in a situation where going to a department store is a high-risk situation?" Because we have dismantled the law and norms that represent earned wisdom over a thousand years relating to civil behavior, illness, intoxication, and crime. All of these norms made it possible to live in cities, crammed together. It's no surprise t/4 that people are abandoning them.
I'm also a physician. When 90% of those on ventilators are the unvaccinated, there needs to be no other argument. I was a surgeon. Would these deniers want surgeons to operate without a mask on?
Good lord. “The CDC cut the quarantine time in half, from ten days to five, so society can keep functioning.”
Never mind that there’s no evidence in favor of this. Never mind that doctors, who are aware there’s no evidence, are complaining about this decision. And never mind that the rest of the modern world is doing no such thing— just the US, with death rates for this disease that already distinguish it from the rest of the world (in a bad way).
“So society can keep functioning,” indeed.
The problems we’ve had with society functioning have _not_ been so much with the patchy, ever-changing public health guidance (ever-changing guidance, by the way, is normal in a situation in which we started with no information, and gradually accumulate more over time).
Rather, the problems with society functioning are related to the virus which has killed 800,000 of us so far (and disabled many more) and has pushed our already marginal health systems to their breaking point. A lot of good doctors, nurses and others have been retiring early or just leaving front-line heath care.
A major problem with society functioning has been caused by the political noise and petty jabs launched continually by both “sides,” turning this completely apolitical disease into a political issue. We need to stick to facts.
The problem with “society functioning” these last two years _has been the pandemic itself_. It is not a problem, say, with public health folks asking you to wear a mask that might or might not be too effective pending further data.
Cloth masks were somewhat effective with earlier variants (combined with other measures such as distancing) because while SARS-CoV-2 _is_ indeed airborne (aerosolized, ie, hanging around in the air which can get through a mask), you can _also_ become infected from droplets from other people coughing and sneezing. The masks stop droplets (the bigger things, containing viruses) from getting in or getting out. They decrease the amount of virus in the immediate environment.
If there is still virus in the air at the grocery store—and there is—you are less likely to get sick from it if you’re exposed to fewer particles (for example, by stopping droplets and by keeping your distance from others). That’s just a fact: less virus is always better. If cloth masks take some of the virus out of the immediate environment, with a moderately transmissible virus that is a helpful thing.
Now, with omicron, the evidence seems to be that this variant is so highly transmissible that the cloth mask won’t make enough of a difference to prevent you from getting sick. Indeed that is what we’re seeing. It’s a new piece of information, in response to a new variant.
So the conclusion about masks isn’t “masks never did any good, har-de-har-har; way to own the libs.” No. And frankly I expect better from this substack than to see cheap shots at “hypochondriacs.” The conclusion about masks is: cloth masks helped, some, with less transmissible variants. With this highly transmissible variant (the transmissibility of which has been compared to measles) the cloth masks don’t seem to help.
And the way to address this new information and use it is not to crow, “The anti-maskers were right all along! Masks were for pussies and hypochondriacs! We can now be free of the tyranny of the ‘face diapers’!”
The way to address this new information and use it is to consider a more effective mask, such as a well-fitting N95, when you are in public (grocery stores, airplanes, classrooms) and minimize inessential trips until we have a better handle on the new variant and/or this present wave passes.
Edited to add: no one is more sick of masks, restrictions, new variants, new waves, staying home, socializing mainly outside than I am. But the fact that we all _wish_ this misery were over does not _make_ it over. People who work in or adjacent to health care see this more clearly than others, perhaps, regardless of our politics.
I’m an ICU doctor and I can tell you it’s not over. Our unit is packed with Covid patients on ventilators and a lot of them are dying. So before you go spouting all this unfounded optimism and cast people who are cautious as hypochondriacs get the facts right. If you’re not in the midst of it, you have no idea what’s going on and no right to comment.
"If you’re not in the midst of it, you have no idea what’s going on and no right to comment."
This is America. We have every right to comment (except on You Tube) and pride ourselves in not knowing what we are talking about. "Often wrong, seldom in doubt" is our motto. And spouting is the new national past time. See, e.g., Twitter. A fine example of a bunch of howler monkeys flinging poo at each other.
On Topic: We attended a minor league hockey game last night in a no-mandate state. The rink didn't have much seating, and it was standing room only with hundreds of people packed shoulder to shoulder. A mask here or there, but I'd estimate less than 5% wearing them, and then they were just pieces of cloth. All and all a bunch unfounded optimists swilling $5 beers.
Unfortunately, the often wrong, seldom in doubt crosses ideological bounds. To channel Jordan Peterson (no, I don't agree with everything he says), humans are complex beings. Their problems are complex as are the solutions. And sometimes, the "solution" is the choice of the less bad thing.
But we stick with our prior and listen to our bubble-mates.
Of course. The good doctor is telling Nellie she doesn't know what she's talking about. Is like a small business owner watch a BLM crown burn his business to the ground, with CNN announcing its a peaceful protest. The difference is that Nellie believes what she says, whereas CNN are lying propaganda.
Question, how many of those patients are vaxxed? How many have other comorbidities? Before you condemn others, please relate fully and not just “packed”.
I am sorry, but that was not the question. Doctor was talking about sick people on ventilators in ICU right now, with this Covid variant. It is a legitimate comparison with ICU + ventilators during to top flu seasons...
Thank you for the work you are doing. Doctors, nurses and all others working in the ICU and patient care have been doing the Lord's work with little sleep and much anxiety.
To allay concern among the fully vaxxed- are their patients in the ICU who are fully vaxxed who are not also immuno-compromised?
Nicole Wallace's mask fetish reminds me of the quip that "Masks are MAGA hats for the left".
It is a scary development. People in New York and New Jersey flee the high taxes, high regulation, and other problems and come to Florida happy to have a freer environment and immediately vote Left to reproduce what they exeperience. Same with California to Nevada and Texas
Apart from that your article was well written,
Sorry, i t is Hari Raghavan, the poster child for a terrible development. Let them soak up wokism or stay there to make it better
I like your newsletter very much but Hari Rahavan is a fraud he deplores the Wole politics of San Francisco and then says he’s moving to Florida which earlier called a political train wreck and he will be a blue dot and a red state tell him not to come to Florida and stay in California he is just what we don’t need in Florida. We are a political success and he just wants to come and turn us in to California
🤫
Ghislaine's trial completely skipped the IMPORTANT part of the Epstein operation. Blackmail is the business. Sex is just the tool. Ghislaine was convicted of pimping, not for espionage and controlling major corporations and governments through extortion. The control mechanism is untouched and unexamined, and will continue unabated.
Nellie your round ups are rapidly becoming one of my favorite reads on Common Sense
I subscribe to this newsletter for the voiced opposition to racial essentialism and more broadly, for the advocacy of free speech. Here I think Nellie Bowles speaks folly and presents it as gospel. The tone is that she is beating her head against the wall in the midst of general craziness, and this makes the folly all the more irritating.
It is not your choice to wear an N95 mask because the decision affects the safety of other people.
COVID is not overblown when millions have died, and there is long COVID.
That is pretty much the end of the story.
It is my choice to ignore the ineffective masks and vaccines and be prepared with therapeutics, which if used, would have minimized deaths of this Chinese flu. That's the real end of the story, which big pharma and our government will not pay attention to because it won't help them stay in power. Wake up Mr. David!
Assuming you're not a hermit, you choose not to take any responsibility for the society you live in. It's inconsequential if your actions lead to the death of another human being; something tells me you are deficient when it comes to empathizing, a commonality amongst the conservative mind.
If that isn’t lefty projection, I don’t know what is…
Thank you Madam Marie.
On The price control link, Don Boudreaux over at Cafe Hayek has the best comment (DBx: Any “economist” who advocates the use of price controls for any purpose, but especially for controlling inflation, deserves the same intense degree of contempt as does any “biologist” who advocates creationism as an explanation for biodiversity and living-creatures’ phenotypes.)
Subscribed few weeks back. NB's TGIF wrap-up is why. This alone worth the price of admission. (Bari who? JK. But remember, don't let NB wander off somewhere else)
Thanks, Nellie, really enjoyed this. Though I was familiar with most of the stories, your spin on them somehow brought them home for me.
Bari, I absolutely love your newsletter. I love that we don’t agree on much, while you (and most of your guest authors) manage to find common ground with me on many of the most important issues. Little did I know that this white, cisgendered, 70 year old father of 5, grandfather of 16, orthodox Christian, center-right voter would find a lesbian, Jewish, left-of-center writer so damn entertaining and wise. Happy New Year. Keep up the good work. Let’s bury the lame-stream media.
"Third: how are we in a situation where going to a department store is a high-risk situation?" Because we have dismantled the law and norms that represent earned wisdom over a thousand years relating to civil behavior, illness, intoxication, and crime. All of these norms made it possible to live in cities, crammed together. It's no surprise t/4 that people are abandoning them.
I'm also a physician. When 90% of those on ventilators are the unvaccinated, there needs to be no other argument. I was a surgeon. Would these deniers want surgeons to operate without a mask on?
How dare you use logic and reasoning!
Good lord. “The CDC cut the quarantine time in half, from ten days to five, so society can keep functioning.”
Never mind that there’s no evidence in favor of this. Never mind that doctors, who are aware there’s no evidence, are complaining about this decision. And never mind that the rest of the modern world is doing no such thing— just the US, with death rates for this disease that already distinguish it from the rest of the world (in a bad way).
“So society can keep functioning,” indeed.
The problems we’ve had with society functioning have _not_ been so much with the patchy, ever-changing public health guidance (ever-changing guidance, by the way, is normal in a situation in which we started with no information, and gradually accumulate more over time).
Rather, the problems with society functioning are related to the virus which has killed 800,000 of us so far (and disabled many more) and has pushed our already marginal health systems to their breaking point. A lot of good doctors, nurses and others have been retiring early or just leaving front-line heath care.
A major problem with society functioning has been caused by the political noise and petty jabs launched continually by both “sides,” turning this completely apolitical disease into a political issue. We need to stick to facts.
The problem with “society functioning” these last two years _has been the pandemic itself_. It is not a problem, say, with public health folks asking you to wear a mask that might or might not be too effective pending further data.
Cloth masks were somewhat effective with earlier variants (combined with other measures such as distancing) because while SARS-CoV-2 _is_ indeed airborne (aerosolized, ie, hanging around in the air which can get through a mask), you can _also_ become infected from droplets from other people coughing and sneezing. The masks stop droplets (the bigger things, containing viruses) from getting in or getting out. They decrease the amount of virus in the immediate environment.
If there is still virus in the air at the grocery store—and there is—you are less likely to get sick from it if you’re exposed to fewer particles (for example, by stopping droplets and by keeping your distance from others). That’s just a fact: less virus is always better. If cloth masks take some of the virus out of the immediate environment, with a moderately transmissible virus that is a helpful thing.
Now, with omicron, the evidence seems to be that this variant is so highly transmissible that the cloth mask won’t make enough of a difference to prevent you from getting sick. Indeed that is what we’re seeing. It’s a new piece of information, in response to a new variant.
So the conclusion about masks isn’t “masks never did any good, har-de-har-har; way to own the libs.” No. And frankly I expect better from this substack than to see cheap shots at “hypochondriacs.” The conclusion about masks is: cloth masks helped, some, with less transmissible variants. With this highly transmissible variant (the transmissibility of which has been compared to measles) the cloth masks don’t seem to help.
And the way to address this new information and use it is not to crow, “The anti-maskers were right all along! Masks were for pussies and hypochondriacs! We can now be free of the tyranny of the ‘face diapers’!”
The way to address this new information and use it is to consider a more effective mask, such as a well-fitting N95, when you are in public (grocery stores, airplanes, classrooms) and minimize inessential trips until we have a better handle on the new variant and/or this present wave passes.
Edited to add: no one is more sick of masks, restrictions, new variants, new waves, staying home, socializing mainly outside than I am. But the fact that we all _wish_ this misery were over does not _make_ it over. People who work in or adjacent to health care see this more clearly than others, perhaps, regardless of our politics.
I’m an ICU doctor and I can tell you it’s not over. Our unit is packed with Covid patients on ventilators and a lot of them are dying. So before you go spouting all this unfounded optimism and cast people who are cautious as hypochondriacs get the facts right. If you’re not in the midst of it, you have no idea what’s going on and no right to comment.
"If you’re not in the midst of it, you have no idea what’s going on and no right to comment."
This is America. We have every right to comment (except on You Tube) and pride ourselves in not knowing what we are talking about. "Often wrong, seldom in doubt" is our motto. And spouting is the new national past time. See, e.g., Twitter. A fine example of a bunch of howler monkeys flinging poo at each other.
On Topic: We attended a minor league hockey game last night in a no-mandate state. The rink didn't have much seating, and it was standing room only with hundreds of people packed shoulder to shoulder. A mask here or there, but I'd estimate less than 5% wearing them, and then they were just pieces of cloth. All and all a bunch unfounded optimists swilling $5 beers.
Unfortunately, the often wrong, seldom in doubt crosses ideological bounds. To channel Jordan Peterson (no, I don't agree with everything he says), humans are complex beings. Their problems are complex as are the solutions. And sometimes, the "solution" is the choice of the less bad thing.
But we stick with our prior and listen to our bubble-mates.
Of course. The good doctor is telling Nellie she doesn't know what she's talking about. Is like a small business owner watch a BLM crown burn his business to the ground, with CNN announcing its a peaceful protest. The difference is that Nellie believes what she says, whereas CNN are lying propaganda.
What are the actual numbers?
Question, how many of those patients are vaxxed? How many have other comorbidities? Before you condemn others, please relate fully and not just “packed”.
Would the people with comorbidities still be alive if they had not contracted Covid 19?
Question - is this similar to a flu hospital situation from years past? From what I understand flu season was brutal every year!
The Death toll from the flu season average between 20,000 to 60,000 per year. The toll from Covid 19 is 6+ times more!
I am sorry, but that was not the question. Doctor was talking about sick people on ventilators in ICU right now, with this Covid variant. It is a legitimate comparison with ICU + ventilators during to top flu seasons...
Thank you for the work you are doing. Doctors, nurses and all others working in the ICU and patient care have been doing the Lord's work with little sleep and much anxiety.
To allay concern among the fully vaxxed- are their patients in the ICU who are fully vaxxed who are not also immuno-compromised?