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It was imperative to investigate the theory, and not dismiss it as racist, which is what our side did. Some people are convinced it’s the absolute truth. You’re convinced it has no merit. I like considering the most likely scenario. But it wasn’t a single op-ed that med me to think it was likely—or even worth looking into. It was common sense. I’m not saying it’s true. I’m saying we need an environment where we can find out if it’s true.

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Lisa, I am assuming here you’re responding to someone on the lab leak—and I agree with what you write here. I didn’t actually pay attention to this until a friend noted Jeffrey Sachs on this, who is a substantial guy, so I looked into it, and his point, as yours here, is that it at least deserved investigation. I think he made a powerful case for that. It reminds me, in a way, of the proposal Maud Maron and others in district 2 simply to have a commission to investigate issues related to sex and gender in the public school. That proposal was perfectly appropriate, yet bozos like Mark Levine started shouting MAGA. As you have steadfastly advocated for here, we do really need to get past this and have real conversations. If we could do that, while there will always be outliers, I believe all the problems we face could be solved. (Here’s Sach’s testimony before Congress on the lab leak issue, FYI: https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/115426/documents/HHRG-118-VC00-20230308-SD007.pdf)

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Lisa, I cannot imagine being surrounded by some of the folks you describe without going up in smoke. The person with the ridiculous bandana at the reading is emblematic of what I suspect you face every day, and I do not envy you one bit—I recall the nutty experience you had at the food coop, too. I was thinking the other day that I don’t think I could stand living in Park Slope these days—and I used to love it there. Stay strong, and I hope you won’t get too angry with those of us who wear properly fitted N95, KN95, and KN94 masks, when we find it appropriate, to help ward off disease. I really do hope we can meet up in person sometime for a cup of tea or something of the sort. I’d be glad to travel downtown—even to Park Slope! 💕

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A couple thoughts from a health care worker about Covid:

1. I agree with you that Republicans were accidentally right about certain things. Like, for example, there is little doubt that school closures affected kids academically and social-emotionally. But, I do think that focusing just on those direct effects on kids misses the bigger picture.

For one, schools cannot exist without adults. Many of whom are, or live with someone who is, in a higher risk group. Even in blue states and areas that had longer closures, including my local district, there were multiple times where schools that had reopened had to return to online when over a third of the staff was out sick. And teachers and staff were retiring early or quitting in large numbers that worsened a teaching shortage that remains a problem today. Many cited health concerns in doing so. That is particularly true of older and more experienced staff who were at higher risk of severe disease; they also happen to be the most experienced and so losing them brought down the average experience levels among teachers overall. (Something similar happened in health care workers.) And then you have to consider the economic impact of long covid and other covid related disability. Many working age adults remain disabled now to the point they are surviving on disability or welfare. Not only do we have workforce shortages that could really use these workers, but obviously higher disability rates affect the economy negatively in other ways.

Then, there's the effects on the health care system of creating more patients. Remember the bed shortages? The morgue and funeral home overcrowding that required refrigerated trucks and tents to hold bodies? Most of the idea of vaccination, masking (I'll get to that next) and social distancing was the flatten the curve, not to completely prevent the disease from spreading. Just slow the spread so that hospitals could handle the sick, workplaces could handle absences, and so on. Things were BAD in hospitals and other health care settings. Staff didn't have enough ppe, manpower, supplies, etc for a couple years. Which was part of the exodus of experienced health care workers that was a major contributor to the ongoing severe staffing shortages in that sector. So, ever teacher or custodian who stayed out of the hospital helped reduce a bunch of domino effects. All of which affected kids and most of which continue to do so today in ways like longer waits for health care or household economic struggles.

And, some of the worst effects of school closures hit kids with special needs. Unfortunately, much of that group is ALSO the group of kids who were most likely to be in danger from covid. And despite the overall low risk to kids, those who were medically fragile did die and/or spend extended time in hospitals and/or suffer lasting health issues related to convid infections in numbers that were too high. So, the ones who really did need to be isolated were unfortunately also the ones who suffered most from it.

2. Now about masks. Yes, unquestionably, n95s are effective for covid and other airborne diseases if properly used. And you're correct that the research on other types of masks is far less conclusive and less impressive. But. At the start, the public was using less effective masks because there was a severe shortage of n95s such that hospitals didn't even have enough for their staff. (That issue likely contributed some to the spread of infections between patients as well, since ppe that was meant for single patient use had to be reused, sometimes for weeks.) That is also how kn95s became a thing.

Even if surgical or cloth masks did nothing to prevent covid (and my impression of the evidence is that they probably did modestly reduce spread), they absolutely prevent transmission of other diseases, such as flu. Which, again, reduces strain on the health care system, as well as reducing workplace absences. Which were worthy objectives in and of themselves at the time. And for your average adult, the risks and difficulties in wearing masks are very low, meaning it was probably worth it for even small benefits.

If you're still not convinced of the benefits of looser masks, I would ask you to consider whether you would want the OR team performing your next surgery to forego surgical masks during the surgery. Or whether, if you or a loved one was immune compromised, you would tell them to skip wearing a surgical mask in public because they don't really work. In both those situations, surgical masks have been the standard for years. Health care workers have worn them around patients who are sick other than those with a few very specific conditions (TB being the most notorious) for many years and continue to do so. Because the benefits outweigh the costs and risks. Surgical staff never wear n95s unless the patient is known to have TB or one of the handful of other illnesses spread in very small droplets. Even though most pathogens can travel around or even through the mask, they are proven to reduce surgical infections, and again, the risk and cost is so low compared to the benefits. So, while n95 for everyone would have been ideal, it wasn't possible until later in the pandemic, and surgical masks absolutely aren't useless in the big picture. And they cause almost no real hardship for the average adult or teen.

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I forgot to mention the gay night clubs that stayed open while schools were closed. What else stayed open while we turned our backs on public school kids?! I'd love to have a list.

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Jen, thank you for your post. I wonder if some of the anger we have about Covid policies could be misplaced anger at Covid itself. Certainly mistakes were made. But this was a world-wide epidemic. Health care workers responded heroically, and I thank all of you.

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Thank you for this informative post. Now that the worst of Covid has passed, a lot of people look back and ask what all the fuss was about. You clearly summarized it.

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I just finished listening to a "debate" on YouTube in which one of the participants, whom I know is an intelligent and accomplished person, was showing signs of having broken his own brain with the issue being debated (see "Konstantin Kisin EXPOSES Pro-Palestine YouTuber in Heated Debate" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqjMIrOeP8Q It vaguely reminded me of times I've watched a parent calmly dealing with a toddler mid-tantrum.) Anyway, the gentleman in this video at many points appeared to be physically incapable of hearing and processing what his opponent was saying . . . even short sentences. I had to take a break because I was getting sad. I just wanted someone to slow everything down and dissect just one or two of the flurry of examples of this guy failing to listen to what the other person just SAID, see if they could get him to return to rationality again. It is kind of chilling to me how we humans can so easily knee-cap our own cognitive abilities! I know I do it to myself regularly. I think it's linked to how our brains actually have to block out irrelevant stimuli in order for us to focus in on higher priority inputs. Have you ever been unable to find something, and then when you try looking a second time, that thing was front and center the whole time, but you somehow just couldn't see it? I think that's where that mechanism sometimes gets in the way. My memory's fuzzy, but I thought I remembered reading about one theory on what's happening with severely autistic people, which is that their brains for some reason are unable to filter out all the sensory inputs pouring in simultaneously from all sides, and so they get overloaded, which hampers their ability to function "normally." Anyway, perhaps we've reached a point where we're overstimulated by our technology to such an extent that we're running around half-mad. We've got to sloooowwww down when we think about anything these days . . . but it's so hard to do. Ok, so here's a Book recommendation: The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef Please do yourself a favor everyone and read it. I know none of us feel we have time to slooowww down and read a book, but . . . it beats running full-tilt into a decision one has likely made while in "headless chicken" moral panic mode, doesn't it?

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I’m halfway through that Kisin interview and can barely manage it. My husband is a few steps behind me in the half mad phase. After he freaks out saying ‘Mpox is the next global pandemic! The cases in 2022 were 70% children! And they died!’ I calmly ask ‘Where did you read that 70% of Mpox cases were children? Oh, the Guardian? You know they have a bias.’ and sit down with him, go to the various statistical websites and explain how badly the media portrayed the actual facts. Yes, there was a 70% of the cases of kids but they were ‘in Congo, inside refugee tents and suffering from severe malnutrition.’ One day he might wake up?! I know I have. I trust absolutely no source, even those statistical websites so I cautioned him with a ‘this seems to be a reasonable source but I might be wrong.’ Sigh. Thanks for the book rec, I will certainly add it to my list!

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Oh, and I have long shared your feelings about primaries. This year, my state/local primaries had only two races on my ballot. I planned to skip voting. I ended up being convinced to go at the last minute. While one of the candidates I voted for lost decisively (which was very disappointing), the other one I voted for won by two votes. (As of now-the race will go to recount due to state law in the case of such close results, but all sides seem fairly confident that the count was accurate.)

So, that was quite the surprise, and a bit of a thrill. I've never felt my vote mattered so much as it did this time. I'll probably never feel it mattered so much ever again. But, it was cool, and a reminder that I may regret not taking advantage of my vote.

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Very much in your boat overall Lisa, but Democrats were just wrong on covid, and many of us saw it. The data was there all along on schools, masks, kids, all of it. All you had to do was look at the rest of the world - Europe especially. Even the AOa had come out in favor of school reopening before Trump stated publicly that schools should re-open, which is when it all went to hell in a handbasket... (I wish it weren't so, but TDS is very very real! 😉)

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Also just registered as Independent for the first time in my adult life! 💪👊🏻

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Whoever told you that you’re giving up your right to vote in the Democrat primaries isn’t taking into account that the last 3 elections the DNC rigged against the most popular candidates, and in this election they drove Robert Kennedy Jr out of the party of his grandfathers, father, and uncle JFK. This party, my friends, is NOT the same party of the working class, of free speech, or of civil rights. It’s a party of the oligarchs and rich white folk who think they are above us peasants and the party of authoritarian rule. If you want to vote for the historical party values of peace and people before party, vote Kennedy. One vote for Kennedy is two votes against the Uniparty of war and division and the security state.

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I meant to comment on our original post but although I shared it with several friends, didn't get round to commenting. I wanted to say how much I respect your perspective and choice. I imagine you received a lot of messages from people who feel the same as you do about these issues, and maybe they haven't been bothered to disaffiliate, or want to be able to vote in the primaries. I've been an Independent most of the time I've been eligible to vote, probably because my contrarian nature means I don't fully agree with any party or candidate. I think most Democrat-leaning people with common sense, who do not have serious concerns about the current Democrat ticket, are not paying attention or looking at the bigger picture - eg they aren't concerned about the issues you write about (gender ideology, vaccine & mask mandates). A friend of mine who is 80 years old and has never had children says she is always going to vote Democrat because her top concern is the environment; she has admitted that the other topics are not that important to her and it's as if she has intentional blindspots. I hope you will continue to write about these topics and your political "homelessness" because you give voice to many of us who feel the same way, and I think give the perspective more weight because of the cognitive dissonance you discuss, as you renounce a long-held affiliation.

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As always you nailed it

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“There’s no place like home,” Lisa! Thanks for this today.

“Democrat” isn’t who I am it is who I vote for--ha! And, to paraphrase Glinda, I have always had to the power to vote for whomever I choose.

While I currently see the Dems as trying to avoid talking about gender while they simultaneously kow-tow to activists, I don’t believe Republicans are any less political and cynical in their propaganda and activities to gain power. Been reading and spending time around activists on “our side” (of the gender craze) recently and have decided that now I want to make my voting choices based on which candidates and which parties I think are more likely to be open to debate, new information and reconsideration of policy. The enemy, it seems to me, at this moment, is righteous indignation and inflexibility. (And I’m trying to be mindful of these in myself as well!) Again, thanks for Broadview!

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Just a quick note to say that you kick ass. That is all.

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Lisa, I want to thank you for the courageous work you do day after day. I am a proud Democrat, who knows that no organization is perfect. One difference between you and me is that, at this time, I live in a county where there are zero Democratic elected officials. In the 2016 and 2020 elections, two thirds of the electorate in my county voted for Trump. I want to repeat how indebted I feel to you for the good work you are doing! Thank you!

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Lisa, the lab leak theory of Covid’s origin has no merit whatsoever. You may have been persuaded otherwise by a slickly produced opinion piece by Alina Chan that recently appeared in the New York Times. Alina chan, while a biologist, is not a virologist or epidemiologist, nor is she a lab director. (She is a post-doc, meaning she is a PhD holder who works in somebody else’s lab. The research in this lab has nothing to do with Covid.) Though her views on the lab leak theory have been widely discredited in the scientific community, the popular press continues to give her a forum, a highly frustrating situation which we see paralleled in the treatment of the Cass report. I strongly urge you to listen to the podcast I link below. It is put out by honest-to-god experts in the field with no axe to grind and resoundingly debunks Chan’s arguments with hard science and facts. TWiV: SARS-CoV2 still didn’t come from a lab: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-virology/id300973784?i=1000658297406

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PS: You can skip the chit-chat by starting at 4:58. It ends (on that topic) by 59:10.

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