Trevtassie

Arnold wasn't a complete idiot, inconsistent but not stupid, he at least recognised that climate change is a thing.

wgscott

Arnold was installed basically to vacate the lawsuits against Enron, but he wound up being a better gov than expected.

stevel610 

That is all.

indyfabz

Ronald Reagan became a country leader.

After becoming a state leader.

After starring with a chimp in a film and touting the health benefits of smoking.

canklecat

The implication that there's always a hidden agenda -- evidence and Occam's Razor be damned -- is an appeal to your vanity.

The best con artists know that smart people believe they're too smart to be deceived. They're usually the *easiest* to deceive, especially when the "secret" is complex, abstract and strikes the right balance between piquing your curiosity and pushing those fear buttons to generate brain chemicals that give us a buzz rush.

And the con artists know there have been just enough actual conspiracies to misuse authority and abuse people to make *any* conspiracy theory seem plausible.

But we aren't living in an X-Files episode.

tyrion

Parler is the only place where they don't censor the truth.

CargoDane

Parler? ha, ha, ha! Sheesh! "Conservative" and neo-nazi safe-space.
No thank you.
​​​​​​​

wgscott

A huge prior long-term investment in neutralizing the body politic's ability to think and critically analyze conspiratorial explanations has also paid off. Those who helped to put the people's eyes out reproach them for their blindness.

79pmooney

To vaccines (slightly related to the thread topic): I want that vaccine rolled out soon, smoothly and distributed in good order. For selfish reasons. I won't be a candidate for a while. Yes, over 65 but no other factors. But, I just returned yesterday from my second visit to a doctor for a hernia that is growing. It is just an inconvenience now, but in 6 months it could get far worse and rather fast. (It is a femoral hernia which apparently can go bad with less warning than the more common inguinal hernia.) If that were to happen, I'd be going to the hospital for a few days, probably with a compromised immune system.

Here, elective surgery is on hold; probably until that vaccine has been taken by a real percentage of healthcare workers. I want that surgery while it is still elective and simple outpatient. So, vaccines, get here soon!

Hondo Gravel

Yikes! Had hernia repair in 2015. Inguinal variety.. mesh .. performed by a robotic machine. Can still feel it today sometimes a dull pain but normal. Ended my weight lifting hobby. Gravel biking is better for me at this stage.

79pmooney

I had an inguinal 20 years ago. Mesh. I feel it every once in a while but no pain and it hasn't stopped me from doing anything. Gravel biking - I've stopped doing it almost entirely because if the ride gets rough it shakes my NFL lineman brain. Not good.

CycleryNorth81

Are there side effects to a COVID-19 vaccine? What are the 'ingredients'? The cost? Answers to your vaccine questions

https://www.yahoo.com/news/side-effe...110035061.html

Seattle Forrest

Are you saying the vaccine is poison because it's cheaper than making a real thing? That it's not going to work at all, and people will take more coronavirus risks and get more covid?

I don't know if you've heard about this but Big Pharma likes money.

Dead people don't buy a lot of prozac and viagra and insulin and statins.

Seattle Forrest

​​​​​​In my lifetime, attitudes toward smoking cigarettes have changed dramatically. That gained steam as movies and TV - entertainment not commercials - changed the way they portrayed smoking. That's actors and actresses and moreso the characters they played, not being revered as idols but seen as examples of how different kinds of people behave. It's less about people finding gods on instagram and more about humans having a universal, instinctive need to fit in.

Hondo Gravel

In grade school we had a fellow student that couldn’t walk because his parents refused the polio vaccine due to some cult religion. Totally preventable. So who had to suffer it wasn’t the parents.

Joe Bikerider

I remember when my American passport would get me in pretty much anywhere. But now we have generated so many nut cases that It has spoiled all that. I think when the world sees gun toters parading with Trump flags on their pickups we don’t look so desirable. These people who are so proud of their lack of education doesn’t help either. They have flushed the American dream right down the toilet in their need for crappy beer and cheap gas. Very sad.

Hondo Gravel

Totally agree except for the cheap beer and gas LOL

vespasianus

There are still lots of unknowns regarding this virus and the vaccines. The duration of response is unknown but these vaccines (both the RNA and adenovirus ones) induce a huge immune response that might provide long term protection against significant disease.

Also been going over some of the data from Dharavi - the biggest slum in India - and the number of deaths is shockingly low - even with about 75% of the population (of the slum) being antibody positive. And thanks to the British, India is good a counting things. All of leads to the idea that, like with Zika, there might be something to the hygiene hypothesis.

vespasianus

There is a push to use DNA technology to produce endogenous antibodies against things like SARS-Cov2.

Most of this is coming from people who failed with DNA vaccines - who you have to feel for. I mean, beaten to the punch by RNA?

But seriously, the vaccine is just a simple positive stranded RNA virus without the machinery to replicate (RDR Pol) or form (capsid, envelop). But I wonder if if could pick those up from other viruses or from any endogenous viruses?

Biker395 

I was wondering about that ... how low the death rate was in India and how shocking that was. By the "hygiene hypothesis" do you mean as with polio?

79pmooney

I did too. His parents were Christian Scientists. We were born in '53.

I have always struggled with those turning their backs on what science and medicine have to offer. At the same time, medicine doesn't "get" all of health. I struggled with allergy-like symptoms for 30 years triggered by my repeated exposure to acetone and polyester resins while building fiberglass boats. (We all knew former boatbuilders with similar issues.) My doc sent me to a specialist who prescribed a powerful steroidal inhalant. Major improvement, Then my doc added a powerful antihistamine inhalant. My sinuses were finally manageable and didn't lead to sore throats and the antibiotic regime every 18 months or so. Expensive! When these weren't covered, my routine trips to the drug store were most of $400. 20 years later I'm seeing a nurse as a GP. After my first physical, she observed that I had mentioned these allergies and that we heard they were caused by acetone going through our skin and carrying the dissolved chemicals to our livers. Did I want to try a natropathic liver cleanser? So for $50 and a 90 day routine of 2 horse pills per day I am now almost entirely free of those symptoms. Not totally and I still take those inhalants but the dosage is down from al least a full squirt per nostril of each every day to just enough to know I got some medication every 5 days or so. I can wear wool again. I can go to bed without taking a shower first and actually sleep. For a one time cost of 1/3 of one of my little nasal spray bottles!

That said - I got to be one of the very early patients to be seen by a CAT scanner. I will always view that as "someone" looking after me; that I got to be in a time and place where 1) there was a CAT scanner that was purchased for general use, not acquired with grant money and not for use to see patients, 2) that I had a dad who knew about CAT scanners and that the local hospital, MGH in Boston had that one (my dad was doing early research for the next generation CAT scanner; his company now in full production of their next generation full body bone scanner) and 3) that my dad's workplace was in the business park of the hospital I was brought to.

In large part because if my dad, I agreed instantly when the Red Cross called me at my workplace and asked if I would leave work early that day and give a blood donation on a new machine that wold take two hours. Platelets. Separated by a machine invented and built by a another small company on the same highway belt around Boston. (To keep this slightly bicycle related - I got off the machine, rode 20 miles out to our club's Thursday night race, won the race and rode 20 miles home. Wow! I can do this! I never again donated on race day - fresh bandages over the big veins of both arms in a bike race ddn't seen entirely smart - but I donated every two weeks the rest of my racing days except post accident.)

To the vaccine - I will take it when my turn comes. (And if asked, will point out that I have a housemate far higher on the ladder that I do not want to infect though he should get his well before I am eligible.)

noisebeam

There is a hypotheses:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....19.20197749v1

mdarnton

As much as you can say that, in opposition I will say that one of the things that took me a while to figure out is how there's a very large group of people out there whose whole identity is based on them being the first to disagree with almost anything anyone says because they are "smarter" and they want to be sure you know that. This is really a disease, IMO, and incredibly common.. And in the wrong context it's dangerous. We are in that context now.

noisebeam

You are totally wrong and if you had a proper education you would know it.

genec