Read on Twitter
The definition of ideology is that it is immune to empirical refutation. Facts literally bounce off it. https://twitter.com/BrankoMilan/status/1327082667591028737
2/ Scientists who have to pay attention to how reality works & not ideological words are devastatingly clear as to which governments least followed science in dealing with COVID-19.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/11/11/are-governments-following-the-science-on-covid-19
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/11/11/are-governments-following-the-science-on-covid-19
3/ Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, or find prettier ways to talk about it, or ignore it, doesn't go away. The 21stC is the Age of Consequences — of reality biting back, and we must learn to bend to its will. #viraltime #climatechange https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1296434078904918018
4/ Amazing how we managed to screw it up by doing the exact opposite of what successful countries did to control virus. Just though about it all wrong & backwards while refusing to learn from others or from Reality smacking us in the face ht @yaneerbaryam https://www.endcoronavirus.org/papers/covid-strategies
5/ Nothing skewers the endless excuses that West couldn't possibly be expected to stop spread of 'uncontrollable' disease than @Birdyword's piss-takes.
6/ "For a successful t̶e̶c̶h̶n̶o̶l̶o̶g̶y̶ Pandemic Control, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Feynman.
'You can't gaslight a virus' https://twitter.com/AdamJKucharski/status/1344604305547005957
'You can't gaslight a virus' https://twitter.com/AdamJKucharski/status/1344604305547005957
7/ Its been an awesome year for scientific workers in figuring out a beast of nature. How else would we know how the virus spreads or how to treat it? But hard to act on uncertain knowledge & hold the spirit of Nullius in verba("Take nobody's word for it") https://twitter.com/PatPorter76/status/1315930037955317763
8/ "Observing how the rich countries are handling the pandemic, developing countries are reassessing the inferiority complex they have held for centuries"
says Ha-Joon Chang. Rich world needs Meiji Restoration humility & import state capacity from E Asia. https://twitter.com/BrankoMilan/status/1352495312502464512
says Ha-Joon Chang. Rich world needs Meiji Restoration humility & import state capacity from E Asia. https://twitter.com/BrankoMilan/status/1352495312502464512
9"It is ridiculous western wishful thinking & orientalism to think it [E Asia Corona success] was just social cohesion because they are 'Confucian'. They had the science right & their institutions worked.And people responded to advice of scientists" @zeynep https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1326974025705381888
10/Sadly, things came to pass as I feared last January after Hubei lockdown. West (unlike E Asia) got stuck in ideological rigidity of 'Chernobyl moments'/'totalitarians' & didn't get magnitude of really-existing-danger during Feb's sleepwalk. 1 year later! https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1221268004148797440
11/ And one year later, theres only more to add to the thread of corona scandals. The vaccines remain the only light at the end of this terrible tunnel. https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1272346907227062273
12/This scientifically informed NYT piece connects all the blunders. How different would things be now if 'Cordon Sanitaire' epidemic control strategy in Xi's world-historical 3rd Feb speech was acted upon in Europe & US? #viraltime https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xinhuanet.com%2Fpolitics%2F2020-02%2F15%2Fc_1125578886.htm https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1276027368398827521
13/ Scientific expertise+ldrshp played role in countries choosing strategy early ( #CrushTheCurve elimination not #FlattenTheCurve).
2ndly ability of state & society to actually *do* #TestTraceIsolate actions reqd, see thread for how Aus/NZ copied E Asia. https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1292108347198627845
2ndly ability of state & society to actually *do* #TestTraceIsolate actions reqd, see thread for how Aus/NZ copied E Asia. https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1292108347198627845
14/ "We have just become fundamentally unserious as a society in learning from intl best practices, & complacent if not arrogant...This is dooming not only our Covid response, but also our creaking healthcare...infrastructure, & public admin"- @arpitrage https://arpitrage.substack.com/p/the-cognitive-failures-of-covid-response
15/ Good thing Sunday is the Coronavirus' day of rest. https://twitter.com/Yascha_Mounk/status/1352707073033777155
16/Why #FlattenTheCurve was defeatist & #CrushTheCurve superior.
"As Americans refuse the most basic of precautions under the pretense of freedom,Taiwan knows what real freedom looks like:ability to have a drink at a bar w/out fear" https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-12-23/taiwan-enjoys-an-i-told-you-so-moment-after-tangling-with-china-and-the-who https://twitter.com/bopinion/status/1343592636494585856
"As Americans refuse the most basic of precautions under the pretense of freedom,Taiwan knows what real freedom looks like:ability to have a drink at a bar w/out fear" https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-12-23/taiwan-enjoys-an-i-told-you-so-moment-after-tangling-with-china-and-the-who https://twitter.com/bopinion/status/1343592636494585856
17/ The great gramscian Stuart Hall line on ideology: “The hope of every ideology is to naturalise itself out of History into Nature, & thus to become invisible, to operate unconsciously (in essay ‘Thatcherism & the crisis of the Left’). via @DantonsHead https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1352693107419197440
18/ Going back to Xi's Feb 3rd speech and what jumps out is its sense that 𝙖𝙡𝙡 could be lost. That all that is solid could melt into air. The most important thing that has lacked in the West, compared to East Asia, is fear. #viraltime https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1228806928991649793
19/This is the best article written on Covid in months.
https://theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/09/k-overlooked-variable-driving-pandemic/616548/
Oshitani's "cluster-busting","Avoid the 3C's" approach that @Zeynep lays out was based on figuring out overdispersion & aerosol transmission in February! West has been slooow https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1279984819569668100
https://theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/09/k-overlooked-variable-driving-pandemic/616548/
Oshitani's "cluster-busting","Avoid the 3C's" approach that @Zeynep lays out was based on figuring out overdispersion & aerosol transmission in February! West has been slooow https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1279984819569668100
20/Trump had lucid idea of virus after chat w Xi in early Feb.Did Xi also explain to him China's Cordon Sanitaire+ #CrushTheCurve strategy from 2nd Feb speech?Chilling as days matter in #viraltime; @adam_tooze on time in Anthropocene https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/08/adam-tooze-how-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-change-world-history.html https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1295963308890128385
21"Overwhelming focus on opening things up,when the summer lull in cases was broadly similar to peak levels seen in Asian success stories.Obsession w keeping travel going,no central quarantine,failure to learn much from places w successful tracing systems" https://twitter.com/Birdyword/status/1321283015285374978
22/ Away from the sound & fury of politics, medical & scientific workers do what homo sapiens do - learn from each others experience & adapt what works.
There's little time to strut and fret. We don't make the time. The virus makes the time. #viraltime https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/24/covid-19-answers-doctors-turn-to-china/
There's little time to strut and fret. We don't make the time. The virus makes the time. #viraltime https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/24/covid-19-answers-doctors-turn-to-china/
23/ "We are mad at China for their bats and wet markets, but we’ve created a reservoir from which human-adapted strains can evolve that puts all that to shame. Every country that half-assed suppresses puts the entire species at risk."- @interfluidity https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/new-coronavirus-variants-could-cause-more-reinfections-require-updated-vaccines
24/ Instead of #ZeroCovid suppression strategy that reduces risk of new variants, business lobby in US/UK voiced support for disastrous herd immunity. Now, dangerous variants arise from places that 'let it rip' in Spring 2020: London, S Africa, Brazil... https://www.ft.com/content/17c44c96-39f2-4ada-badd-d65815b0a521
25/ Germany might stop all intl flights: https://www.airlive.net/breaking-germany-is-considering-to-stop-all-international-flights/
How many Trillions of dollars, billions of jobs & millions of lives would have not been lost if Air Travel had been precautionarily stopped in Jan 2020? No travel, no pandemic! More in thread https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1275890228029423616
How many Trillions of dollars, billions of jobs & millions of lives would have not been lost if Air Travel had been precautionarily stopped in Jan 2020? No travel, no pandemic! More in thread https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1275890228029423616
26/Its sad as researchers from 2000s (after '03 SARS & Ebola) found travel from hub airports as accelerants & competent E Asian states screened/quarantined travelers in real-time. Cordon Sanitaire arguments that EU/UK/US make *now* are just head exploding! https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1221800409892782083
