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When the global Wuhanification crisis passes—and it will—we need a reckoning. What helped? What made things worse? Let’s consider the role of “experts” like Dr Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia. 1/n
A few days ago, Dr Rasmussen seemed to take credit for predicting this pandemic. But her message back in Jan was quite different. Days before @realDonaldTrump’s prescient travel ban, her advice boiled down to “keep calm and get a flu shot.” 2/n
In fact, the virologist was quite nasty in attacking those sounding the alarm early on, like @ScottAdamsSays & @DrEricDing, who reasonably doubted China would lock down millions of people, massively disrupting its economy, on a lark. 3/n
Dr Rasmussen took pains to attribute calls for prophylactic measures—like banning travel, addressing potential trade disruptions & PPE shortages, etc.—to raycism and zenophobia. She even coined the term “taxonomic colonialism” bc Chinese excluded from naming coronavirus. 4/n
Did Dr Rasmussen’s expertise bear more fruit as better data became avail throughout Feb? Let’s see. She repeatedly (1) downplayed concerns of asymptomatic transmission, (2) discounted the need for widespread testing, and (3) urged everyone to just wash their hands. 5/n
The reality is too many experts like Dr Rasmussen didn’t want to do anything until all the evidence was in. But nature doesn’t wait for peer reviewed articles. And all corona needed was a ready supply of vulnerable hosts. 6/n
The past is now past. But I wonder how many lives will be lost bc of our OCD over credentialism, raycism, & zenophobia. Why do the tweets of an (obviously brilliant) hospital janitor like @lokijulianus read like the Oracle of Delphi, while those of Dr Rasmussen...? 7/n
A few more tweets from Dr Rasmussen to back up my claims (all my drafts disappeared so had to recreate on the fly). Thanks! 8/n
And shouts to my friends @bronzeagemantis and @BenBraddock67 and @slovborg, w/o whom I’d not even know about frogtwitter. They’re why I ordered elderberry and subscribed to Caribbean Rhythms in January. But also why not afraid. We are strong.
Bap tell me to take ancient aryan elder with zinc and vit c to ward off miasma. I will confer but I believe ok, and @BenBraddock67 and all of us will have answers soon.
