The Post-Partisan Emporium

Fear in the Time of Coronavirus Things Are Getting Real Heather Heying I wanted to come to you this week with a carefully considered, thoughtfully written post. It’s a new year, after all, why not start fresh. But that’s just not where my head is at. So here are several things I have read or run into this week which are fraying my consciousness. I keep seeking falsification, looking for the evidence that I, and so many others, are wrong about what we are seeing. About some of it, I want desperately to be wrong: I want the Covid vaccines to be both safe and effective. I want them to be the simple, easy solution that was promised. I want the public health measures to have been effective and for us to be returning to a democracy that is intact and healthy. I see many pronouncements asserting the veracity of these claims, but no evidence that any of them are true. About much of the rest, though, I can’t wish to be wrong. I won’t wish that it was actually a good choice for public health off...

the last time tony fauci was pushing masks for disease mitigation he was making up his facts and scare mongering too el gato malo many of you are probably too young to remember the AIDS panic of the 80’s. but when it came out, the NIH, with tony fauci leading the charge, was getting literally everything wrong. they pushed a narrative of fear, vilified the infected, interfered with the development and adoption of effective treatments, and completely misrepresented spread and mitigation. it’s how we wound up with absolute garbage like this ad. it’s probably pretty jarring to see, but this is because you now have perspective. at the time, A LOT of people believed this. fear of getting AIDS from public toilet seats was a very real thing. fear of getting AIDS from casual contact or sharing dining or cooking facilities was a very real thing. people worried they might be sitting near a gay person on a bus. the “moral majority” of dingbat tele-evangelists thundered about it daily. and then, as...