The four horsemen

In light of COVID, Paul had the good idea to repost this piece from Steve:

"The four horsemen of the Apocalypse" (Steve Hays)

Ioannidis on COVID-19

"A Conversation with John Ioannidis"

Some coronavirus news

Some coronavirus news. Good news and bad news.

Bad news first.

As many people know, two prestigious medical journals, the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, both had to retract published papers recently. In fact, it's become a scandal.

The Lancet retracted a hydroxychloroquine study, while the NEJM retracted a cardiovascular disease study. The main issue is data integrity; data may have been compromised. Originally data was provided by a company named Surgisphere, but a co-author of both papers co-founded Surgisphere, i.e., Sapan S. Desai, MD, PhD, and Desai's publications history is rife with research misconduct.

Also on the hydroxychloroquine front, a separate study - likewise published in the NEJM but which did not use the Surgisphere database - found that hydroxychloroquine was not significantly different from placebo:

We enrolled 821 asymptomatic participants. Overall, 87.6% of the participants (719 of 821) reported a high-risk exposure to a confirmed Covid-19 contact. The incidence of new illness compatible with Covid-19 did not differ significantly between participants receiving hydroxychloroquine (49 of 414 [11.8%]) and those receiving placebo (58 of 407 [14.3%]); the absolute difference was −2.4 percentage points (95% confidence interval, −7.0 to 2.2; P=0.35). Side effects were more common with hydroxychloroquine than with placebo (40.1% vs. 16.8%), but no serious adverse reactions were reported.

Now for the good news.

There are still many ongoing studies and trials. Such as one on convalescent plasma which was found to be both safe as well as effective in 19 of 25 (76%) severely ill COVID-19 patients.

In addition, there are several very promising vaccines trials under way. Several in phase 1 trials, a few in phase 2, and a couple moving to phase 3 trials. This includes the much touted vaccine from Moderna which is set to begin phase 3 trials as early as next month in July. The Regulatory Affairs and Professionals Society (RAPS) looks like a good website to track vaccine candidates.

Protest and anarchy in black and blue

"Protest and Anarchy in Black and Blue" (Carl F. Ellis, Jr.)

Race first

My friend, Dr. James Lindsay, wrote this on his Facebook earlier today. He is referring to @D_B_Harrison and @VirgilWlkrOMAHA and their presentation at G3. James is an atheist. Please consider why James understands this and the Gospel Coalition does not. pic.twitter.com/O0TU8wyz5F

— Michael O'Fallon (@SovMichael) June 5, 2020

Double standard?

It's a joke. It's all a joke. https://t.co/X31QhbkquH

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) June 5, 2020

Sweet land of tyranny

"Sweet Land of Tyranny" (James Hankins)

Social justice matters more than social distance

"Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance"

Floyd's funeral

On the one hand, it's perfectly fine for hundreds and thousands to attend George Floyd's memorial and funeral services. This includes and will include high profile figures like Al Sharpton and Joe Biden. No doubt these services will be broadcast by almost every major media outlet. You know, for maximum exposure, to ensure the right people can take advantage of Floyd's death for their agenda.

On the other hand, there are hard limits for funeral services for average Americans. In fact, many Americans weren't even allowed to see their loved ones pass away from the coronavirus or other conditions due to these hard limits. Many people died alone. But there's no double standard. /s

Will David Dorn get as much attention? Probably not because he wasn't the right kind of black. He was a police officer. Too blue to be black.

Woke church

CREED:

Bethesda pic.twitter.com/qSgCNk1zi7

— maria viti (@selfdeclaredref) June 2, 2020

EVANGELISM:

I pledge to continue opposing racism & hate. To set aside my implied right to silence, inaction, & comfort, and act to leverage my privilege to make a difference. Join me by nominating 5 others to do the same. @jamesbeck_ATS @JuanCCeledonMD @drtishawang @laxswamy @NitinSeam

— Graham Carlos (@GrahamCarlos) June 4, 2020

TITHING:

Spending my day donating. Join me if you have the means. Any amount counts. Will post links where you can contribute, starting with this one #BLM https://t.co/4af7NG3oNq

— Dylan O'Brien (@dylanobrien) May 31, 2020

WORSHIP:

You weren’t allowed to go to church for the last three months but apparently you could have gotten together for a dance party. Well, as long as you have the right politics of course.

pic.twitter.com/DpO5Cr2w40

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 4, 2020

SAINTS:

TIME's new cover: Say their names https://t.co/nOM5sqwVkS pic.twitter.com/tgzEcLn2ds

— TIME (@TIME) June 4, 2020

ANTI-SCIENCE:

OUT: COVID-19 is so dangerous that you can't even visit your loved one in the hospital even if they're dying.

IN: Hospital staff can go outside and applaud protesters, many of who, are walking with without a mask or social distancing.

It's really hard to reconcile those things. https://t.co/SLqCwRGVdw

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) June 4, 2020

REPENTANCE:

Such an absolute joke pic.twitter.com/J7MQnUZ3YP

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 4, 2020

APOSTASY:

Matt Yglesias getting redpilled will be a 2020 highlight. https://t.co/UYAA4KnzRI

— neontaster (@neontaster) June 4, 2020

Doublethink

From George Orwell's 1984:

The Ministry of Truth—Minitrue, in Newspeak—was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Some observations about the riots

(Thanks to Jitt Teng for helping to restore this post!)

1. Will people be as outraged about 77 year old retired police captain David Dorn's death as they are about George Floyd's? Will, say, CNN cover the brutality of rioters as much as they cover police brutality? Otherwise it sounds like some black lives matter less than other black lives. (Not to mention other injuries and fatalities.)

2. Also, I guess property damage is acceptable, but not when it hits too close to home.

3. As others have noticed, it may be one thing if the rioters are the poor who have no voice, or if looters are stealing out of hunger, but many rioters appear to be from affluent backgrounds and stealing high-end goods. It's not as if they're all stealing bread because they're starving.

4. Related, many of them are taking selfies of themselves participating in the protests with their own smartphones, then immediately posting their photos or videos on places like Instagram or TikTok. I guess to show that they've done something? I guess they're virtue signaling? Some of it may even be fake. Like this woman.

5. Many rioters seem to be led by liberal whites from middle class or better socioeconomic backgrounds. This makes one wonder if liberal whites are the ones really in charge. Consider Antifa.

6. If it's really the fact that there's systemic racism against blacks by whites, then it'd make sense to think the racism is largely led by rich and powerful whites. As such, why not call for protests at places where rich and well-connected whites live, like Beverly Hills and the Hamptons? Why not destroy their property, like slaves destroying their masters' plantations (cue Django Unchained)? Why not call for the overthrow of rich and powerful politicians? Leftist politicians, professors, and Hollywood entertainers are more than willing to support the "revolution", but why couldn't they be viewed as part of the system and part of the problem too?

7. Finally, it looks like liberals regard large crowds gathered to "protest" as necessary and morally justifiable, but church services are somehow "non-essential".

Can We Talk about Death?

https://www.reformation21.org/blog/can-we-talk-about-death

What is the medical impact of the lockdown?

Here's a good interview with an emergency physician as well as lawyer named Simone Gold (MD Chicago Medical School, JD Stanford University):

Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp2006372?articleTools=true

Adjusting to life with COVID-19

https://inside.upmc.com/yealy-shapiro-senate-testimony/

The lockdown is no longer morally justifiable

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-lockdown-is-no-longer-morally.html

Coronavirus deaths

Much more could be said:

"Washington officials admit to counting gunshot victims as COVID-19 deaths"

"CA doctors say they have seen more deaths from suicide than coronavirus during lockdowns"

I lost a friend who died in a hospital bed, alone. He did not die because of COVID, but was alone because of the restrictions.

— Cato the Younger (@jonbeadle) May 22, 2020

Nevermind bankruptcies:

Notable companies that have filed for bankruptcy since the coronavirus outbreak:

J.Crew
Gold’s Gym
John Varvatos
Neiman Marcus
True Religion
Dean & Deluca
Stage Stores
JC Penney
Comcar Industries
Avianca
Hertz

— Hipster (@Hipster_Trader) May 23, 2020

The trolley problem and the pandemic

A trolley driver must choose between turning a trolley so that it runs over an innocent man attached to a track and allowing the trolley to run over and kill five innocent people. Foot, claimed that it was wrong to kill in the first case, but not wrong in the second.  

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/doing-allowing/#DistDist

There's a sense in which this parallels debates over what policy we should pursue in the face of the pandemic. There are different possible combinations:

Policy A causes the death of more innocents

Policy B fails to prevent the death of more innocents

Policy C causes the death of fewer innocents

Policy D fails to prevent the death of fewer innocents

So when we morally assess competing policies in regard to the pandemic, we have to decide what our priorities are. How do we balance the these four factors? 

Sacrificing cancer patients

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/20/thousands-of-cancer-patients-could-die-early-due-to-coronavirus-delays-study-finds