Are people reading such things as
this?
“Science and the War on Truth and
the Corona Virus.”
I am a scientist and this is my
brief on what the world needs to know about science and COVID-19. Science is
a method of truth-telling about the physical world and ways to improve quality
of life. It is the most powerful enterprise that has led to improved
healthcare, a more sustainable environment, a safer world, and a better
“knowing and understanding” about the world we live in. Science is fun and
spectacular. And it has rarely let us down, until now.
This is a superb article by Geoffrey P. Dobson*
·
Heart, Trauma and Sepsis Research Laboratory, College of
Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00563/full
This scientist went for it.
From Dobson’s article:
“Unlike bacteria that can thrive
almost anywhere, a virus needs a living animal's cellular machinery for its
replication and survival.
“Understanding how
a virus has evolved the “tricks” to enter the body “undetected” is not fully
understood.”
For example: If the COVID19
virus enters our bodies, why do some people die horrific deaths, while others
have flu-like symptoms, and 20-50% become asymptomatic carriers? And why do
some children, a few weeks after contracting COVID19, suffer a
hyper-inflammatory attack and succumb to cardiovascular complications and toxic
shock?
These are hard questions for
science to answer.
Science begins with
a question and often ends up with more questions.
You can understand
why high-school and college students aren’t drawn to be biological research
scientists when it is under-valued, underpaid, and frustrating. So, they go
into high tech instead, and make better computers—heavens, a computer doesn’t
keep mutating on you. (Maybe smart computers do. Yipes.)
Hail to the hardy
souls who attempt to wade into the muddy waters of biological research.
Many scientists, universities and research
institutions are in “survival mode” because of cut-backs.
Hopefully, the
current pandemic will drive home to politicians and lawmakers the societal role
of a university, and that the current funding schemes are not working.
My husband lost his job because
he was the end guy who adjusted extremely sophisticated and customized
microscopes for PhD candidates doing research in Universities. They weren’t
ordering because the University was either closed or simply didn’t have the
money.
This nature of science with its
questions and more questions is often used to attack the process in the media,
which sends mixed messages to the public and politicians.”
Keep the people
stirred-up, off kilter, and unable to make sense of the information presented
and you have controllable people. I
was shocked last night while watching the movie Mark Felt who was “Deep
Throat,” second in command in the FBI, and investigator regarding the Nixon-Watergate
break-in, that he said virtually the same thing.
Think of it, we are all
presented with information, and as the aborigines of old who looked at the
world and came up with different models regarding how it worked, we come to
different conclusions.
Once the people of Mesopotamia
looked at reeds growing in the water. They thought that once a reed was woven
into a hat, it had certain magical powers. If it was used as a pen it had other
powers.
Weren’t we surprised that when
people reduced their driving and the air cleared? And it appeared that last
spring sang abundantly with plant growth, and wildlife. The people in India can now see the
snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas for the first time in decades.
Now we look at the world, too, and
form opinions. Of course, we tend to look at data that supports our established
view, and thus that view becomes driven into our psyche. It becomes so strong that
sometimes we want to beat the other guy over the head with our view, and
disrespect his.
I don’t know why this is so. We
need Socretes to guide us. Oh yes, they poisoned him for polluting the minds of
the young. Whoops.
How we come to such different
opinions is a mystery. Is it nature or nurture? I know we have left-brained
people and right-brained people. We have people who think the world has done
them wrong and people who believe the world has done them right. There are
those who think a mistake is unforgivable, and those who think mistakes or
failures are a part of the process.
I remember when I was a young
mother hearing that when babies cry and get their needs met, they are taught
that the world is a friendly place. When a baby is left to cry, they get the
message that the world is a dangerous place, and they can ask and ask, and
nobody cares.
Dobson asked Nobel Laureate Sir
John Cornforth in 1993 wrote: “I think it is possible that our posterity 2000
years on might say something like this:
“These people had the first
opportunity to secure the earth’s future and they squandered it. That might
have been expected. They were imprisoned by the past and did not live long
enough to break free.”
Let’s proved
Cornforth wrong!
We have to believe
in humanity.
I’m counting on you
guys.
“When a resolute young fellow steps
up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is
often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on
to scare away the timid adventurers.”
--Ralph
Waldo Emerson
“Now that your eyes are open, make
the sun jealous with your burning passion to start the day. Make the sun
jealous or stay in bed.”
--Malak
El Halabi