Too close

 

The Ethics of Vaccine Mandates

    When the Covid-19 vaccine was approved for public usage in December of 2020, many people thought that the worst was behind us and that the American public would be functionally "normal" in a few months.  Here we are, a little over a year later, still with no end in sight.  Why was there such a slow move to vaccinate the American public? If the vaccine had been mandated early on, could the US have prevented further virus mutations, thereby preventing breakthrough infections and deaths? 

    We've read a lot about the slow-moving action of the federal government in Premonitions, and I think it's interesting to see this motif continue in the current stages of the pandemic.  In this presentation, we're going to examine vaccine mandates a little more broadly.  We'll discuss the Covid-19 vaccine science, the history of vaccine efforts in the US, and the overall benefits of vaccines.  We'll also examine vaccine mandates using Kant's categorical imperative, using each principle to decide if mandating a vaccine is the right thing for the government to do.  

    Please feel free to preview the presentation here and see below for a few discussion questions:

    Vaccines are such a cool part of science, and I'm really excited to discuss that with everyone.  Government involvement in science has been questionable in the past, but I hope together we can come to an ethical conclusion surrounding the moral obligation a government has to its people. 

    Here are the sources I used:

• https://www.sccm.org/Blog/June-2021/Ethical-Considerations-for-a-COVID-19-Vaccine-Mand

• https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine 

• https://www.vcuhealth.org/news/covid-19/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine-how-is-it-different 

• https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/the-long-history-of-mrna-vaccines#:~:text=Messenger%20RNA%2C%20or%20mRNA%2C%20was,to%20be%20brought%20to%20market%3F 

• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html 

• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/effectiveness/why-measure-effectiveness/breakthrough-cases.html 

• https://www.immunize.org/laws/#polio 

• https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline#EVT_100810 

• https://www.edweek.org/leadership/schools-helped-defeat-polio-and-diphtheria-with-vaccine-efforts-can-they-do-it-with-covid/2021/10#:~:text=Perhaps%20the%20most%20famous%20instance,to%20a%20nationwide%20vaccination%20campaign.

• https://www.indianhills.edu/_myhills/courses/PHI105/documents/lu08_kantianism.pdf 

• https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/Documents/Diseases%20and%20Conditions/Polio%20.pdf

• https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/10/16/162670836/wiping-out-polio-how-the-u-s-snuffed-out-a-killer#:~:text=By%20the%201950s%2C%20polio%20had,and%20more%20than%203%2C000%20died.

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927017/

"How do you know she's a witch?"

 

CROWD: A witch! A witch! A witch! A witch! We've found a witch! A witch! A witch! A witch! A witch! We've got a witch! A witch! A witch! Burn her! Burn her! Burn her! We've found a witch! We've found a witch! A witch! A witch! A witch!

VILLAGER #1: We have found a witch. May we burn her?

CROWD: Burn her! Burn! Burn her! Burn her!

BEDEVERE: How do you know she is a witch?

VILLAGER #2: She looks like one.

CROWD: Right! Yeah! Yeah!

BEDEVERE: Bring her forward.

WITCH: I'm not a witch. I'm not a witch.

BEDEVERE: Uh, but you are dressed as one.

WITCH: They dressed me up like this...

...

BEDEVERE: What makes you think she is a witch?

VILLAGER #3: Well, she turned me into a newt.

BEDEVERE: A newt?

VILLAGER #3: I got better...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 

 

Tennessee preacher Greg Locke says demons told him names of witches in his church

Controversial Tennessee preacher Greg Locke has turned from claims of election fraud to conversations with demons.

https://religionnews.com/2022/02/15/tennessee-preacher-greg-locke-says-demons-told-him-names-of-witches-in-his-church/

February 15, 2022

By Bob Smietana

(RNS) — The offering was over and the worship team at Global Vision Bible Church had just finished singing “Oh How I Love Jesus” when the Rev. Greg Locke began telling his church about his conversations with demons.

Those demons, he said, had revealed the names of a group of “full-blown, spell-casting” witches who’d been sent to infiltrate Global Vision, a nondenominational church east of Nashville, Tennessee, where Locke is pastor.

“To God be the glory, I lie not,” he told the congregation at Global Vision on Sunday (Feb. 13), which was meeting in a packed tent on the church’s property. “We got first and last names of six witches that are in our church. And you know what’s strange, three of you are in this room right now.”

Locke told the congregation that he’d gotten the names while casting a demon out of a woman who had recently begun coming to Global Vision. The preacher, known for his sensationalist sermons about politics and COVID-19 skepticism — went on to describe the exorcism in detail, quoting a demon with scruffy voice who accused worshippers at the church of being witches.

Two of the witches were in his wife’s Bible study, said Locke, who warned the alleged witches not to make a move during his sermon. He then retold the New Testament story of Jesus casting a demon out of a man and into a herd of pigs, turning it into an extended monologue about witches in the church.

“You so much as cough wrong and I’ll expose in front of everybody under this tent, you stinking spell-casting, pharmakeia devil worshipping and mongrel,” he said, using a Greek word that sometimes describes those who practice witchcraft or sorcery. “You were sent to destroy this church.”

In recent years Locke has used his sermons to attack LGBTQ people, accuse Democratic politicians of child abuse, spread claims about election fraud, denounce vaccines and claim that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax. During Sunday’s sermon, he blamed witchcraft for an outbreak of illness in the church.

(Continues at link above)

Questions FEB 22

Beyond 7-8; Premonition 10. PRESENTATIONS: 1. Claire, The ethics of vaccine mandates; 2. Kirolos, The ethics of eugenics and reproductive technologies... 

Premonition
1. What did Joe DeRisi tell the governor about his lists?

2. Why were local public health officers so slow to accept Biohub's offer of free testing?

3. What were the big takeaways from the test results?

4. In February '21 the US was doing less of what than any other industrialized country?

DQs

• Are you surprised at the response to Biohub's call for volunteers? 243
• Why does financial ambition interfere with science and progress? 246 
• How do we fix the screwed-up incentive structure of the medical-industrial complex? 249
• How can the Strategic National Stockpile be made more functional and responsive to a crisis? 
• 
  

Beyond

1. The advent of what common metric made it possible to calculate the efficacy of selling?

2. What was lacking in the '60s that Principlism offers to provide?

3. What was the final impetus for government intervention in research ethics?

4. What would be the key problem of letting each Institutional Review Board determine its own principles?

DQs

• Has feminist theory been successful?
• Do you agree with Simone de Beauvoir that women are made (by objectifying societal expectations), not born? 
• Are most surgeons really "uncaring"? Why do so many patients say they feel "abandoned"?
• Is the culture of business healthy, on balance, for healthcare?
• Why is the medical profession so slow to respond to whistle-blowing like Henry Beecher's "Ethics and Clinical Research"? What might make it more responsive and generally more vigilant in policing itself?
• Is the culture of mistrusting authority in our society good for healthcare and the regulation of healthcare?
• Is there a general problem with individuals and aggregates of individuals (committees, boards, states...) determining their own principles of conduct? Is there a problem with them not doing so? Is there a solution to the dilemma?
• Have you ever questioned the "system" of a committee of which you were a member? How did that go?  92
• Can you give an example of gender bias resulting in unethical behavior by health practitioners?
• Have we moved significantly away from androcentrism in your lifetime? Will we move further?
• Can the medical profession, or any particular profession, become less gender-biased if the larger society remains relatively moreso? As women increasingly join the ranks of physicians, will that happen?
•  What do you think of the stereotypical "association of women with emotion and men with reason"? 100
• Do you associate emotion more with the body than the mind? How in general does the classic mind-body problem relate, in your thinking, to gender issues (if at all)?
• Do you think sex selection and disability deselection are ethically equivalent or commensurable? Is any stipulated difference between them arbitrary or "hierarchical"?
• How do you define "cosmetic" (vs. "medical")?
• How do you define "disease"?
• 
  

==
Health news... Health news quiz...
==
‘The Unwinding of the Miracle’ Is About How to Die — and Live

She didn’t know it then, but Julie Yip-Williams began her memoir, “The Unwinding of the Miracle” — which enters the list at No. 8 — in July 2013. That’s when the 37-year-old mother of two, in the E.R. with stomach pains and nausea, learned she had Stage 4 colon cancer.

The next month, she started a blog, partly as a record for her daughters, Mia and Belle (“especially if this cancer-fighting journey doesn’t end in the way we all hope it ends”), and partly, she wrote, “to carve out my own little space out there to express my sadness, anger, joy, hope, despair and a slew of other emotions that come with living with cancer.”

Mark Warren, her editor at Random House, says, “Julie was my friend for a couple of years before the prospect of a book even came up. It was in the last year of her life, when her health was turning toward its end, and she was resolving all she could resolve, that we began to contemplate whether the blog could be a book.” Yip-Williams had been searching for a book that would help her prepare to die, but she hadn’t found one. “She was unnerved by the level of denial that she found in the culture at large,” Warren recalls...
==
Embryo ‘Adoption’ Is Growing, but It’s Getting Tangled in the Abortion Debate
As evangelical Christians, Paul and Susan Lim believe that life begins at conception. So when they decided to have a third child, in vitro fertilization was out of the question, since the process often yields extra embryos.

But “adopting” the frozen embryos of another couple who had gone through I.V.F. was not.

Dr. Lim called it a “rescue operation.” To him, transferring donated embryos to his wife’s uterus was akin to saving a life. “These children are being abandoned in a frozen state,” he said. “If they don’t get adopted, they’re dead.”

As I.V.F. becomes more widespread and the number of spare embryos rises, giving birth with donated embryos is becoming more popular, especially among couples who oppose abortion and are struggling with infertility. But many of the agencies that offer donated embryos, including a vast majority of those supported by federal grants, are affiliated with anti-abortion rights or Christian organizations, leading some people to question whether single people, gay couples and others who might be interested could be missing out.

Even the term “embryo adoption” is caught up in the rhetoric of debate over abortion.

“The issue in the medical community is that by calling it ‘adoption,’ we give too much personhood to the embryo,” said Kimberly Tyson, the marketing and program director at Snowflake Embryo Adoption in Loveland, Colo...

==

A Mother Learns the Identity of Her Child’s Grandmother. A Sperm Bank Threatens to Sue.
The results of a consumer genetic test identified the mother of the man whose donated sperm was used to conceive Danielle Teuscher’s daughter. Legal warnings soon followed.

Danielle Teuscher decided to give DNA tests as presents last Christmas to her father, close friends and 5-year-old daughter, joining the growing number of people taking advantage of low-cost, accessible genetic testing.

But the 23andMe test produced an unexpected result. Ms. Teuscher, 30, a nanny in Portland, Ore., said she unintentionally discovered the identity of the sperm donor she had used to conceive her young child.

The mother of the donor was identified on her daughter’s test results as her grandmother. Excited and curious, Ms. Teuscher decided to reach out.

“I wrote her and said, ‘Hi, I think your son may be my daughter’s donor. I don’t want to invade your privacy, but we’re open to contact with you or your son,’” she recalled. “I thought it was a cool thing.” (continues)

Quizlet Update

 Hey guys!

I'll be updating the quizlet to match the study questions for the exam(even-only) and should have that done by Sunday.

As always, lemme know if I need to update any of them. 

We're gonna do great on the exam!

-Patricia 

By Altering the Blood Type of Lungs, Researchers Raise the Possibility of Universal Organs for Transplants

 

Their research shows proof-of-concept: Lungs from a type A donor could be treated with the enzymes for a few hours and emerge with the cellular appearance of having O blood type. And, the treated lungs weren’t damaged when they came into contact with O blood plasma during a transplant simulation. “Like a camouflage,” Cypel said. Antibodies “won’t recognize the cells anymore as being a different blood type.”

Article continued at https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/16/by-altering-the-blood-type-of-lungs-researchers-raise-the-possibility-of-universal-organs-for-transplants/

I thought this was really interesting as this could help so many people who are dying because they aren't receiving organs from a matching donor. It would also help open up more organs for people who are waiting years before they get the necessary matching organ and their quality of life is improved. 

First Gene Therapy for Tay-Sachs Disease Successfully Given to Two Children

"Two babies have received the first-ever gene therapy for Tay-Sachs disease after over 14 years of development."

Tay-Sachs disease, a rare genetic disease passed from parent to child, poses a problem when infected individuals lack enzymes that are needed to break down fatty substances. Signs and symptoms occur from 3-6 months of life. Symptoms then progress and further lead to death, around age 4 or 5. 

"In 1887, American neurologist Bernard Sachs described the profound neurological symptoms of Tay-Sachs in a seminal paper:

“… Nothing abnormal was noticed until the age of two to three months, when the parents observed that the child was much more listless than children of that age. … The child would ordinarily lay upon its back, and was never able to change its position … it never attempted any voluntary movement … the child grew steadily weaker, it ceased to take its food properly, its bronchial troubles increased, and finally, pneumonia set in, it died August, 1886.”

The terrible symptoms of Tay-Sachs disease are truly hard to read about... but it is relieving to know that this historic advancement in healthcare, specifically the healthcare of children, has been made. What are your thoughts? What similar advancements do you think are on the horizon? 

The Ethics of Antibiotic Resistance

 

Antibiotic resistance is increasingly becoming a serious public health crisis. Infections that were once easily treatable with antibiotics could now become fatal. The good news is that there are actions that we can take to mitigate this issue. The bad news is that history tells us that we often wait too long to take action (think pandemics). Some problems with antibiotic resistance seems like it would straight forward on how to proceed. However, ethical dilemmas are intertwined throughout making it more complex. It brings up issues we see again and again: individual autonomy vs. benefit of society, the "right" decision vs. meeting the bottom line, the seemingly short attention span of the public, and the danger of repeating history. 

During my presentation, we'll go into a little more depth on the importance of preventing antibiotic resistant infections, what antibiotic resistance actually means, and the solutions and ethical dilemmas surrounding the issue. 

You are welcome to preview my presentation and resources with the following link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1svmtyDnLKiKRr0nX14fJjN1qwNb0w6Eb/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116037101844675708511&rtpof=true&sd=true

Please also consider these questions for discussion: 

This topic has interested me for a long time, so I look forward to discussing it with you!

How Each of Us Can Prepare for the Next Pandemic

The COVID pandemic has killed more than half a million people in the United States and caused the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. If this pandemic taught us one thing, it's that we weren't ready for it. The scientific and medical community wasn't ready. The government, the military and industry weren't ready. And most of us at home weren't ready either: scrambling for basic supplies, regretting not having a deeper pantry and struggling with the financial fallout... (Scientific American, continues)

Cousin Jamie

 Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food... "We've gotta start teaching our kids about food in schools. Period."

 

 

It's not always excellent to be Jamie Oliver...

Food Rules

 

"Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much."

Excerpt:

#11 Avoid foods you see advertised on television.

Food marketers are ingenious at turning criticisms of their products—and rules like

these—into new ways to sell slightly different versions of the same processed foods:

They simply reformulate (to be low-fat, have no HFCS or transfats, or to contain fewer

ingredients) and then boast about their implied healthfulness, whether the boast is

meaningful or not. The best way to escape these marketing ploys is to tune out the

marketing itself, by refusing to buy heavily promoted foods. Only the biggest food

manufacturers can afford to advertise their products on television: More than two thirds

of food advertising is spent promoting processed foods (and alcohol), so if you avoid

products with big ad budgets, you’ll automatically be avoiding edible foodlike

substances. As for the 5 percent of food ads that promote whole foods (the prune or

walnut growers or the beef ranchers), common sense will, one hopes, keep you from

tarring them with the same brush—these are the exceptions that prove the rule.

#19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.

#36 Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.

This should go without saying. Such cereals are highly processed and full of refined

carbohydrates as well as chemical additives.

#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

There is nothing wrong with eating sweets, fried foods, pastries, even drinking soda every

now and then, but food manufacturers have made eating these formerly expensive and

hard-to-make treats so cheap and easy that we’re eating them every day. The french fry

did not become America’s most popular vegetable until industry took over the jobs of

washing, peeling, cutting, and frying the potatoes—and cleaning up the mess. If you

made all the french fries you ate, you would eat them much less often, if only because

they’re so much work. The same holds true for fried chicken, chips, cakes, pies, and ice

cream. Enjoy these treats as often as you’re willing to prepare them—chances are good it

won’t be every day. 

#47 Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

For many of us, eating has surprisingly little to do with hunger. We eat out of boredom,

for entertainment, to comfort or reward ourselves. Try to be aware of why you’re eating,

and ask yourself if you’re really hungry—before you eat and then again along the way.

(One old wive’s test: If you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you’re not

hungry.) Food is a costly antidepressant.

#58 Do all your eating at a table.

No, a desk is not a table. If we eat while we’re working, or while watching TV or driving,

we eat mindlessly—and as a result eat a lot more than we would if we were eating at a

table, paying attention to what we’re doing. This phenomenon can be tested (and put to

good use): Place a child in front of a television set and place a bowl of fresh vegetables in

front of him or her. The child will eat everything in the bowl, often even vegetables that

he or she doesn’t ordinarily touch, without noticing what’s going on. Which suggests an

exception to the rule: When eating somewhere other than at a table, stick to fruits and

vegetables.

Questions Feb 17

Beyond 4-6; Premonition 9 [As noted at class's end today, we'll "filter" for exam purposes: even-numbered questions on the exam. And going forward I'll pose fewer textual questions. Also, questions pertaining to the presentations related to the presenters' discussion questions are eligible for inclusion on the exam.]

1. German lawyers meeting in Berlin in 1934 debated bringing what from the statutes of thirty U.S. states to the Third Reich?

2. Hitler thought the U.S. had made progress toward the creation of what kind of society?

3. What is the real problem of disability?

4. What concept did Quetelet derive from the astronomical "law of error"?

5. Galton's work led directly to what?

6. What state's "fitter families" contest declared that "a sound mind in a sound body is the most priceless of human possessions"?

7. "The Galton Institute" was originally called what?

8. Many scientists continued to believe in what core tenet of eugenics even after the atrocities of WWII?

9. What did Robert Edwards say he learned from the development of IVF?

10. What connects old-school eugenics with more recent "market" versions?

Premonition

1. What happened a week after Charity "railed about the idiocy" of CDC rules?

2. What would have happened if the first infected passenger on the Diamond Princess had flown to the U.S. and then home?

3. What mental model did Carter have wrong?

4. What CDC guidance regarding social gatherings defied common sense? Was it a good thing for people to not know what was about to happen, in early March 2020?

5. Why did Charity ignore her boss's order about emails?

6. What had Japanese public health authorities figured out about contact tracing?

7. What was Charity's interpretation of Nancy Messonier's public statement?

8. What's the simple truth about herd immunity?

9. What's an L6?

10. What did Charity insist was the single most important part of her COVID response plan?

DQs

• Does the extent of U.S. influence on Nazism shed any light on current events? Does it deserve significantly greater attention? Is its relative obscurity a stain on our educational establishment?
• COMMENT: "it's no great surprise that [Nazis] believed that what had made America great was American racism."
• Were you familiar with the views of Jefferson and Lincoln cited on p.62? Are you surprised?
• What do you think of the various euphemisms in current circulation that refer not to disability but to differently abledness, and the like? Do they represent an evolution of awareness and sensitivity? Do they reflect a failure to come to grips with the problem of creating and sustaining a genuinely open and just society? Or...?
• What do you think of the author's analysis of norms and ideals ? (64)
• Norms of the kind the author is concerned with, that make life more difficult for the disabled, are clearly problematic in an ethical sense. But what about the norms that have been flouted lately by the current U.S. president and his administration? Isn't that also ethically problematic-or just wrong? (See Adam Gopnik, "Norms and Cliffs in Drumpf's America")
• Is it significant, if true, that all the early statisticians were eugenicists? (66)
• Is it true that Darwinian evolutionary theory repudiates the disabled as "defectives to be surpassed by natural selection," (67) in view of the fact that culture now competes with pre-cultural nature for selective influence? (Put another way: culture is an ever-growing part of nature, making the fate and fortunes of the disabled a matter of cultural decision as much as natural default.)
• Is the impulse to perfect the human race entirely misplaced?
• Is men sana in corpore sano a good approach to health and social justice?
• Was Robert Edwards right that soon it will be widely considered a "sin" to have a child with genetic disease?
• Will it ever be widely acceptable to "select the features of future generations much like we currently configure...a new car"? 
• 
  

Is it acceptable to shame people based on their medical decisions?

Shaming people is nothing new.. it happens everyday on a variance of platforms. When, if at all, is it okay? 

Why do we shame people? 

Do people deserve to be shamed? 

An Article regarding the shaming of those who decided not to get the vaccination also states that shaming an obese person is unacceptable. This is further explained that this is an example of shaming someone because of their lifestyle and other factors like genes, environment, wealth, and choice. 

"If someone cannot be blamed for something, then shaming them is not ethically justifiable." 

Thoughts? 

Thanks, "class"!

 But who did the actual baking? Extra credit! (It pays to beg shamelessly, I've learned from my dogs.)

Do you think EBT recipients should be required to spend their money on healthy food

My presentation is based on the crisis surrounding food stamps. Although recipients of food stamps have certain restrictions (listed here and here ) they are allowed to purchase about everything on the shelf. In class, I will present how the authors we have read would view this, statistics of Food stamp vs non-food stamp recipients, the challenges that are present, times the government failed on setting nutritional standards, and other scenarios, opinions, and alternative solutions. 

Be prepared to discuss the following after my presentation:

Should EBT recipients be forced to spend their money on healthy food?

What if anything distinguishes Food stamps from WIC?

How much government control is needed to regulate the SNAP systems?

With a variety of dietary needs would it be worth implementing restrictions?

Does the greater good of the population outweigh individual rights? (bit of a stretch for this topic but we will get there ;))

Do you think the current system works? What solution would you propose?

sources

https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/a-closer-look-at-who-benefits-from-snap-state-by-state-fact-sheets#Alabama 

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2017/02/24/should-people-be-barred-from-buying-junk-food-with-food-stamps

https://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap

https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/about-wic

https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-food-packages-regulatory-requirements-wic-eligible-foods

https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-materials/new-nutrition-facts-label

https://www.healthyway.com/content/how-did-the-government-get-the-food-pyramid-so-terribly-wrong/

https://www.educationviews.org/michelle-obamas-healthy-school-lunch-program-in-trouble/

https://aebarone.expressions.syr.edu/blog/2016/02/29/corruption-in-the-food-industry-how-does-it-effect-you/

 https://www.fsis.usda.gov

Heaven can wait: How the super-centenarians live

 Her 118th birthday wish is "to die soon". But in the meantime, Lucile Randon, better-known as "Sister Andre", always keeps her door open for any visitor who might want to say hello.

Sister Andre is the oldest-known woman in France and Europe, and the second-oldest in the world after Kane Tanaka, a 119-year-old who lives in Japan.

She was born in Ales, southern France, on February 11, 1904, the year that New York opened its first subway, the Tour de France had only been run once and World War I was still a decade away….continues

It is definitely a marvel for individuals to be alive for centennials. The utility of these individuals is questioned by themselves

‘ Sister Andre even admits to a certain impatience. "To be alone all day with the pain is no fun," she said, but: "God is not hearing me, he must be deaf.”’ 

The article attributes that atop nutrition, social factors play a role.

‘she found that they(centenarians) were often extroverts, charismatic, at ease in social situations, passionate about something, goal-oriented and able to find adaptation strategies when dealing with problems.’

The article ends with 

Sister Andre’s formula for a successful life: "Find great love and don't compromise on your needs."

How much weight should we place in her words? Do you think it is fair to drop works in progress for a true passion? 

Would you want a life this long? explain.

The debate of quality vs quantity comes to life in the article, what is your ideal situation?

Pandemic Thought: from Bubonic to Influenza to Coronavirus

 Hello everyone! 

I hope you're having a wonderful Valentine's Day and/or perhaps a wonderful Birthday. 

I hope you guys enjoy the sneak peak of my presentation tomorrow! 

Introduction

Let's talk Pandemics, hmm? 

The complete whirlwind of pestilence and socio-economic change brought forth to launch humanity into the next stage of evolution ,whether that be biologically or socially. We're gonna break down three separate pandemics that have occurred in human history, and we are going to discuss the changes that occurred. Perhaps you'll see some similarities in these events. 

Bubonic Plague 

Let us begin with Bubonic, the word which launches me back into 7th grade when I was forced to listen to a parody of "Hollaback Girl" that discussed the Bubonic plague and has been stuck in the back of my head ever since. If you feel like being cursed with a 7th grade banger, watch for yourself here:

Anyway, Let's talk numbers. 

Keep in mind that the accuracy of historical data relies heavily on the conservation of historical documents and first-hand accounts, thus it's likely we don't have a clear picture of the Black Death's actual fatality rates and full impact, but let's see what we do have. 

The Bubonic Plague, also referred to as the "Black Death", was said to have originated from fleas and affected both humans and animals. It re-emerged several times throughout history, with some even speculating that the "Plagues of Egypt" were more so Black Death and less Angry Sky Person. We are focusing on the outbreak that occurred in the 1300s in Europe, which lasted approximately 3 to 4 years. 

The estimated Death Toll was 25 million, with the most affected groups being young children and old men. However, it is worthy to note that there was a significant lack of data regarding women and children as a whole, so the numbers were probably much higher. 

Methods of prevention back then meant panicking and fleeing(pun) to the country to avoid interactions with other people, they would burn all the affected bodies as well as their belongings. There was no vaccine, though we have developed one now should someone catch it. 

I found an interesting quote: 

"People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites became perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done. Some felt that the wrath of God was descending upon man, and so fought the plague with prayer. Some felt that they should obey the maxim, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die." The society experienced an upheaval to an extent usually only seen in controlled circumstances such as carnival. Faith in religion decreased after the plague, both because of the death of so many of the clergy and because of the failure of prayer to prevent sickness and death." (Brown University) 

Economically, they dealt with extreme inflation of prices due to "supply chain" issues. It was even more dangerous to procure goods for the markets.  At this time, Serfs were incentivized to work for more than one Lord to earn more money. Lords needed serfs to work the land and were forced to increase their pay, whether that be commodity or barter, in order to keep their workers. 

This was also a time where much injustice came to the forefront and the aristocracy failed in their attempt to remain constant, protests and riots broke up, especially in France. 

Spanish Influenza

 

We launch ourselves several centuries forward to the end of World War 1, in barracks that were said to have grown the H1N1 Virus as it spread through military and eventually found its way into society. 

The length of the pandemic was approximately 2 years, with a Death Toll of roughly 50 million (this is a guess-timation, sources place it anywhere between 25 and 100 million).  Prevention methods were mainly social distancing, with an emphasis of schools and barracks as potential spike areas. There was no vaccine during that time.  Most of the casualties were said to be the older population, but the data is iffy since there are also reports of a "W" shape, with spikes in young and old, and slightly middle. Historical data can be confusing. There were also pictures from this time of mask wearing. 

 Medical professionals encouraged the use of masks to curb the spread, and it was mostly successful. For some small groups, Mask-wearing became a political statement and there were protests against them, all the while thousands were still dying of the virus. San Francisco became well-known for their mask mandate, even going so far as to charge fines or imprison to those who refused to wear them.

There was much happening economically, mostly to do with the labor market, but it quickly recovered and would advance greatly until it crashes and burns 10 years later and unleashing the Great Depression. There was also the start of the Prohibition, where America successfully built their own efficient black market all in the name of piety. Good job, America. 

As for socially, most of us should know what happened in 1919, the Women's Rights Movement gained much traction and by the end of 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified. 

COVID-19

The source of our current pandemic is speculative as data is still being gathered, but the general consensus is that it originated in Wuhan, China, potentially from a bat or an animal in general. The pandemic is ongoing, though some argue we are transitioning into the recovery phase. 

Current Death Toll sits at roughly 5.9 million. Most affected groups are the older generation and those with pre-existing health conditions. Prevention methods include social distancing, use of antibacterial substances, masks, and rounds of vaccination shots. Transmission of the virus is mainly through the unvaccinated. In the U.S., we currently sit at 76.5% of Americans having received at least one shot, 64.7% being Fully Vaccinated, and 27.8% have received the Booster shot. 

Economically, we have experienced severe issues within the supply chain, driving up prices. The government offered supplemental payments, which they paid for by printing more money, driving inflation and prices up even more . During all of this, demand for change was high. Americans wanted to continue life again, they needed change from the lockdowns and sought to spend their money, whether that be on miscellaneous goods, travelling, or relocating. The combination of all these practices led to the market we have today. There is some good news, the government is starting open market operations. This will not do much for some time, but it will eventually drive down the current inflation we are dealing with. 

The pandemic also endured much social unrest, including BLM, Election protests, mandate protests, and the Capital Riot.

Most of these were enflamed by the animosity that current exists in our two-party system. 

Let's have a discussion:

Given what you have heard/read here, do you see any major patterns between these pandemics?

With these similarities or differences, would you say that the current pandemic was more damaging or less than previous ones? 

Has the spread of instant information helped our pandemic or fueled even more discourse? 

How do you feel about the information above? Are you surprised? Indifferent maybe? Frustrated? 

I'd like to know. 

Looking forward to my presentation tomorrow! 

Darwin On Moral Intelligence

Happy Darwin Day!

…As Darwin showed, our moral intelligence is part of humankind's evolving social nature as an animal species. Darwin also claimed, presciently, that the moral sense should extend beyond humans to care for 'the lower animals' and 'all sentient beings'. It has taken over a century for us to learn how profoundly right he was. Morality, we now understand, should reinforce the ecological interdependency of humans and other species.

The time has come for philosophy to fully recognize the depth and grandeur of Darwin's naturalistic view of morality, society, intelligence and evolution. For it can help us understand our moral obligations, not only to each other but also to the "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful" that evolve around and within us.

Darwin On Moral Intelligence | Issue 71 | Philosophy Now

https://philosophynow.org/issues/71/Darwin_On_Moral_Intelligence

The Good Death

An excellent series:
BBC Radio 4 - On Consolation by Michael Ignatieff, 5. The Good Death

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00146jv