The big story this week was a new preprint claiming to show that Covid-19 had an unnatural origin. For several days, this was a big story with lots of arguing about it, lots of long threads, lots of people accusing others of bad faith or being idiots or not understanding undergraduate microbiology, and for some reason someone impersonating a virologist to spy on Kelsey Piper.
Ad gain of function research, what about going after it INSIDE the law? As in, hire a bunch of lawyers to find ways how to make life harder for relevant institutions, possibly even in areas not connected with that research?
I also think that if Gain of Function research is very valuable we should not ban it. We should make it safer, with more strict rules and safeguards and more oversight but still do it. Banning it will not prevent it being done in other jurisdictions but will prevent the advancement of the US science. We are reacting on this too emotionally right now, similar how some people reject nuclear power and similar things.
If the stereotype is true that black men are more well endowed than most, this FDA rule about condom sizes could be causing more unwanted black children(and higher black poverty). If the only condoms that you can get are insanely uncomfortable you're much less likely to use one. Not everyone can order their condoms from Europe. (which as usual doesn't have the same stupid rules as the FDA)
On Gain of Function research, it may seem uncouth, but do you have any thoughts on the utility of protest? I've been through a few "crisis management scenario simulations" in the corporate world, one of which involved protesters and makes me think that it may be undervalued as a form of influence in areas which rarely encounter it (i.e. protest doesn't work that well against government since it has experience dealing with it, very few corporates do).
Curious that such a stark divergence between disabled and non-disabled workers happened shortly after the vaccine rollout. I guess it could be that disabled workers suddenly all started rapidly entering the workforce at that exact moment in time, but another explanation that would be consistent with that data is that a lot of non-disabled people already in the workforce suddenly started becoming disabled.
Master thread for individual pieces of information I should consider for next week's posts (including the non-Covid one).
Master thread for Twitter accounts, Google spreadsheets and other potential multi-use information sources (including non-Covid info).
Master thread for meta discussions of better procedures and stuff like that.
Ad gain of function research, what about going after it INSIDE the law? As in, hire a bunch of lawyers to find ways how to make life harder for relevant institutions, possibly even in areas not connected with that research?
I also think that if Gain of Function research is very valuable we should not ban it. We should make it safer, with more strict rules and safeguards and more oversight but still do it. Banning it will not prevent it being done in other jurisdictions but will prevent the advancement of the US science. We are reacting on this too emotionally right now, similar how some people reject nuclear power and similar things.
Your link to the FIRE story actually goes to a FT story on Desantis
If the stereotype is true that black men are more well endowed than most, this FDA rule about condom sizes could be causing more unwanted black children(and higher black poverty). If the only condoms that you can get are insanely uncomfortable you're much less likely to use one. Not everyone can order their condoms from Europe. (which as usual doesn't have the same stupid rules as the FDA)
On Gain of Function research, it may seem uncouth, but do you have any thoughts on the utility of protest? I've been through a few "crisis management scenario simulations" in the corporate world, one of which involved protesters and makes me think that it may be undervalued as a form of influence in areas which rarely encounter it (i.e. protest doesn't work that well against government since it has experience dealing with it, very few corporates do).
Best source of information and accessible interpretation anywhere—thank you.
Curious that such a stark divergence between disabled and non-disabled workers happened shortly after the vaccine rollout. I guess it could be that disabled workers suddenly all started rapidly entering the workforce at that exact moment in time, but another explanation that would be consistent with that data is that a lot of non-disabled people already in the workforce suddenly started becoming disabled.