Sunday, April 19, 2020

Covid-19 and The One Way Forward


Regardless of the origins of Covid-19, there is clearly only one way forward and that way is
One Love:



The story of the chimeric virus accidentally or deliberately released from the Wuhan Virology Lab often doesn't get into addition-of-function viral back histories in US, Australia and Canada labs (e.g., see here).

Concerns have been raised for years about the dangers of this high-tech enterprise (see https://mbio.asm.org/content/5/4/e01730-14.short).


Consequently, I argue that the narrative of covid-19 as a genetically engineered chimeric virus is most compellingly a story of collective responsibility and collective fate.

LESSONS LEARNED

The most important lessons from the story of the Wuhan lab are that technological hubris is our Achilles' heal and that Love and Collaboration for the Welfare of ALL must be prioritized, constituting the only viable path forward.

At this point virus origins are less salient than the question of how to re-build a ruptured global society.

MOVING FORWARD

What kind of social organization can emerge quickly enough with the theorized love and force capable of confronting not only existing apparatuses of exploitation, but also looming and potentially cataclysmic health/environmental challenges?

One thing is certain: People - everyday people - not just politicians and "experts" must be involved in the decisions that will shape what emerges out of the present collapse.


RESOURCES


Baler, Bret, & Re, Gregg. April 15, 2020 Sources believe coronavirus originated in Wuhan lab as part of China’s efforts to compete with US. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-wuhan-lab-china-compete-us-sources

Josh Campbell, Kylie Atwood and Evan Perez, Thu April 16, 2020  US explores possibility that coronavirus started in Chinese lab, not a market CNN. Updated 10:37 AM ET, https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/politics/us-intelligence-virus-started-chinese-lab/index.html

Nadesan, Majia (2012). Commonwealth [review]. Organization https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1350508411431909

Monday, April 13, 2020

LA Times Article Discusses Scientific Uncertainties in Covid-19 Risks



Is the Covid-19 policy-response (shelter in place damaging global economy) worse than the Disease Risk?

Answers to this troubling question don't just hinge on immediate fatalities, but also long term effects and the possibility of dormancy.

A news article by the LA Times discusses UNCERTAINTIES about lasting damage to organs beyond the lungs and the potential risk of dormancy: 

Melissa Healy (April 10, 2020). Coronavirus infection may cause lasting damage through body, doctors fear. The Los Angeles Times, https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-10/coronavirus-infection-can-do-lasting-damage-to-the-heart-liver

“COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disorder,” said Dr. Harlan Krumholtz, a cardiologist at Yale University. “It can affect the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the brain, the endocrine system and the blood system.”….

“I think there will be long-term sequelae,” said Yale cardiologist Dr. Joseph Brennan, using the medical term for a disease’s downstream effects…..

Another question that could take years to answer is whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 may lie dormant in the body for years and spring back later in different form.

As of now, no clear answers are available to plebs like you and me to these questions.

In the absence of clear accounts of dangers, the public is going to demand an end to shelter in place given the perception among many that disease impacts have been geographically localized and greatest in highly susceptible elderly populations.

I don't have answers here - just describing risk uncertainties and public emotional economies....