Blinded to the Science

 Whenever I read about science in any of the main stream media outlets I have to look to find the research article or original interview that the piece is based on.  Newspapers, magazines and television shows have always been terrible about translating scientific information to the press for the public.  Maybe the New York Times used to do it well as I recall but even then there were many necessary grains of salt to get through some reporting.  The reason science is a language free of emotion in most cases.  It often states facts with evidence that when dug through we find the story is less about the headlines that they generate.  Headlines are to bring you in.  In today's electronic media it is about clicks that generate ad revenue.  So a story for example about a near earth object might have a headline that screams:  "Scientists Find Asteroid Will Pass Close By Our Planet This Fall", when in fact the close part is defined in terms related to the entire universe and could mean 100,000 miles.  Close is a relative term and this case it is easy to see the sensationalism of the headline while the real story can be easily obtained.  There will always be people who read the headline and maybe the lead and start digging a fallout shelter.    However, during a pandemic the science reporting is not so cut and dried.  

If you follow the reports in many media and social media outlets you will find that reporters and thus the general public are often under informed because of ignorance of how the scientific process works.  Much like those who say things like evolution is just a theory because they don't know what the word theory means in a science context, we find people throwing around words like "peer-reviewed" as if that means it is factual. We also see reporters talking about how the information coming from public health agencies changes over time and some how we should trust them.  Again, when the science changes the results and recommendations based on science changes.  During the development of nuclear weapons the belief was that certain distances from a blast site would be perfectly safe, based on the results of earlier blasts.  However, the  materials and how the blasts were performed created different variables not fully understood.  In the end nuclear blasts, that people held parties to watch and soldiers were stationed to observe ended up making people ill and killing some.  From that new guidelines were created as more knowledge was obtained.  That is science.

So today we are struggling to get a handle of the spreading of Covid-19 and for some it has become a political issue.  This contributes to the nonsense reporting on the science even more.  The Center for Disease Control, a government public health agency, released information about Covid deaths in US.  They concluded the upwards of 94% of the deaths were people who had other co-morbidity factors, or conditions that were that made the results of the infection worse.  While the study clearly says it was Covid that killed these people as they would likely still be alive today without the infection, many people are reporting that only 6% of the people in the figure of deaths (183,000) were deaths from Covid.  In part this is due to the politicization of the this whole crisis, some thinking Covid isn't even real.  Now they wave a piece of paper from an agency and say "see we don't need masks if we are healthy, we don't need to shut down".  This is dangerous and I see no way to undo the long standing damage done to our collective knowledge by the lack of a voice out there to help understand what is happening, not only with Covid, but with all science.  People who don't like facts, ignore them and claim to have a different opinion.  Facts are not set aside because of opinion.  A guy named Greg could find a frog whose call sounds like Greg, but that doesn't mean the frog called his name, even if he believes it.  We cannot let opinion replace facts.  

Climate Change,  Disease, Pollutants, and Food processing have all fallen prey to opinion over science.  We will always be able to find someone with an advanced degree to make statements against the prevailing science because people are people.  That too is the problem.  Reporters will report on a the person who is contrary to everything the scientific community says about a particular subject without researching further into why that person might be saying.  Currently, the new doctor with ear to the President on Covid is talking about herd immunity and letting Covid run its course.  He has no background in epidemiology or virology, he is a radiologist.  We recently saw Dr. Ben Carson, a brain surgeon, touting a dangerous supplement that is untested to cure Covid.  The CDC has fired people over a recent treatment suggestion by the director that the media ate up, only to find a few hours after a briefing that the numbers were inflated.  

Some media outlets are trying.  They bring in doctors who have studied the spread of viruses and other diseases and understand the papers being written.  But often even they sound agenda ridden, looking more for gotcha moments that providing true explanations.  It is a growing concern that we will have a country who can be easily manipulated by someone with letters after their name on an opinion show pretending to be news and cause us to make bad decisions.  That is one reason that presidents need science advisors who will challenge their beliefs with facts and have the self-awareness to listen to the scientists.   Most of Congress doesn't seem to even care about the science.  The media, that is suppose to be an arbiter of facts, seems to spend time trying to look balanced and the people are lost.   I keep seeing on social media platforms that the quote "If one person says it is raining and the other that it is sunny, the media's job is not to report what they said, it is to look out the window and describe what is going on".  That is not happening.

This is by no means new.  The media and politicians have fumbled over science for my entire life time.  Think of the number of times in movies where the science advisor is seen as being hysterical until the catastrophe hits and they beg him or her for a solution.  This is based on real interactions between science, politics and the media.  We see this play out in many ways.  

It isn't just the right that does it.  In recent years we have seen massive media campaigns related to Alar on apples which turned out not to be a big problem and meat glue being used in processing of food, which is not only safe but something that makes sense.  Both driven by organizations and thinkers on the left. 

The problem with all this is because we don't have good information flow about scientific things every thing is valid and facts are just reduced to someone's opinion.  When people stop listening to those actually working in a particular field in favor of an opinion that confirms their bias we can't set good policy or act in the best interest of ourselves or others.  We are simply lost.  We must get back to a time when we value solid information, education, and expertise in matters of science and beyond.  We must be willing to allow that same science to learn and grow with more and new information moving forward.  We must not let political or religious ideology stand in the way of science progressing.  We must do it as if our lives depend on it.  Because for 184,000 Americans and growing it did and we as a nation failed.  

Where We Go 1 We Go All Down the Rabbit Hole

In the darkness of the right wing internet  there grew a new form of hate and division.  Q Anon, an anonymous (that's the anon) poster who claims to have high level security clearance (the Q) and weaving a web of ridiculous and scary content that seems unbelievable to any rational thinker.  But the thing is that there are times when many people lose being rational as part of their daily lives.  Anons are not new and nor are people who claim to have inside knowledge that they share on the internet.  This kind of stuff occurred long before the internet.  Now it is just easier to make a connection to people because a typical internet post can go around the world if just a few right people want to promote it.  And this is what happened.  That which has lived in the dark corners of places on the web most people would never go, is now retweeted by the President and running for Congress and other offices as Republicans embrace it.  

It is hard to describe the Q entire conspiracy.  Like many the connections are amazing complex and while the original postings have grown more vague over the years, the supporters conclude very specific things.  I will get back to that.  But the over-arching theory of Q is that there is a world-wide child trafficking ring being run by prominent Democratic leaders and Hollywood celebrities.  Q has convinced the followers that Donald Trump is the savior of the children as he is working in conjunction with others to unmask this ring and bring people to justice.  Among those he is working with is James Comey, surprised?  Yes the entire Russian conclusion evidence was a set up to get Comey the power to ferret out the real criminals and thus was the start of finding the members of the ring.  Yes, but wait for it.  The other leader of the movement is John F Kennedy Jr.  Yes the son of our 35th President.  A man who tragically died in a plane crash in 1999.  The theory is that he has been hiding in Pennsylvania  and will emerge this summer to public life to run along side President Trump as his Vice-President.  They even have identified him at rallies pointing to a man who they say is him in disguise.  Now if you think that is bananas you are right.  It is.  But we are merely scratching the surface of this conspiracy.  

Maybe the most famous story was that of Comet Ping Pong.  The Q followers who saw John Podesta's emails seemed to think they were code for planning Satanic Sexual rituals with children.  Podesta often referenced pizza from Comet, a Washington DC pizza place.  The Q crowd saw pizza as a symbol for kids and that there were all manner of horrors going on in the basement of the family pizza place that involved up to and including cannibalism of children led by Hillary Clinton.  Even as I type this I find it hard to believe that very many people could believe this.  But one man took it seriously enough to drive to the pizza place with a gun demanding to see the basement.  The building has no basement.  How easily this could have ended more tragically than it did.  The man was arrested but the pizza place still suffers the aftermath.  Other incidence include someone who stormed a Cement company site, the blocking of Hoover Dam, and assassination attempts on Joe Biden.  More recently the internet was on fire for a couple weeks because the online discounter Wayfair has a handful of products whose prices seem outrageous.  The main one was an industrial cabinet that cost $10,000 which in their mixed up minds must have meant that it wasn't the cabinet that people were buying but a trafficked child.  The fever swept through the Q world and finding pillows and housewares with higher than normal prices were found.  A set of pillows with feminine names became a focal point and someone linked them to the actual names of missing children.  They were off to the races.  But, other retailers have similar cabinets at similar prices and one of the missing children named posted on social media that she was home and fine and that they are hurting the efforts of helping real missing children.  However, weeks later, you still see this pop up.  Facts don't seem to work with these people and the danger is that when you can't educate someone there is little hope.  What is worse is they have the ear of people who have actual power. 

A recent primary in Georgia promoted for the Congressional seat a woman who is deep into the Q conspiracy and promoting a variety of conspiracies including the death of Seth Rich and 9-11 being an inside job.  While at first the GOP supported her primary opponent they are now welcoming her to the party.  This is dangerous.  Even the current President is willing to embrace her and the ideas that she is vomiting all over the Republican party.  

Q is a lot like a cult that follows a central figure who cannot be wrong.  There are many times Q has made serious predictions about what is going to happen in this fantasy world and when they didn't come true the response was that it was purposeful misinformation to keep the perpetrators guessing.  And the followers believe.  This self-sealing model means if often used by those telling their followers the world will end on a particular date or some other fantastic failure.  It is an inoculation against criticism.  It is not new, it is an old trick to fool those that want to be fooled.  It is remarkable how many people are that foolish.  

You may like President Trump for the things you agree with that he has done.  You may be a good Republican who can't find a way to vote for Vice-President Biden I ask one thing.  Purge your party of this disease.  It clearly shows that the President's far from normal behavior is not the only problem that is hurting our country.  A cult with political aims, a lack of interest in reality and an anonymous leader or leaders who manipulate their followers like a well honed conman is not only a danger to your party but to the republic.  Stamp it out, it won't be long until they come for you. 

Prayer Outside the Box, Inside the Box

This is a speech I gave to Heartland Unitarian Universalist Church last week.  It is always an honor to speak to this congregation:

I really do enjoy coming into your space to share with you. The coziness of the room, the way this community hugs and hold hands in prayer, and of course the baked goods and conversation in fellowship afterwards. We don’t have that today but I hope me coming into your homes through technology will bring a spark of thought and joy.

When Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer known as the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, saw that the Jewish people were threatened by tragedy, he would go to a particular place in the forest where he lit a fire, recited a particular prayer, and asked for a miracle to save the Jews from the threat. It is said that the miracle would come and the crisis averted.

Later, when the Baal Shem Tov’s disciple, the Maggid of Mezrich, had to intervene with heaven for the same reason he called out to the heavens “I do not know how to light the fire, but I can find the place and know the prayer and this must be sufficient.” The miracle was accomplished.

Later still, Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sasov, in turn a disciple of the Maggid of Mezrich, went into the forest to save his people. “I do not know how to light the fire,” he said, “and I do not know the prayer, but I can find the place and this must be sufficient.” Once again, the miracle was accomplished.

When it was the turn of Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn, the great grandson of the Maggid of Mezrich who was named after the Baal Shem Tov, to avert the threat, he sat in his armchair, holding his head in his hands, and said to God: “I am unable to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, and I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is to tell the story. That must be enough.” And it was.

And it was enough. As we come together in prayer today we are like Rabbi Israel, we are in a new landscape, but we still trust in who we are as a community.

Someone once said the invention of the Jewish prayer book stifled prayer for the people. Indeed as we canonize what prayer is and put it in writing we lose a piece of what it is to be in the moment of prayer. When I lived in the south I envied my Christian friends who could be asked on the spot to offer a word of prayer and riff on the thoughts of the day with the eloquence of a poet. But often when I am asked to give an invocation I run to my bookshelf to find the appropriate language. It is something we lost, like that of generations of Hasidic Rabbis in the story. But in every generation we can tell our story while still keeping faith with our past.

Praying is a singular act we share with others. How we reach out to that which is beyond us is a highly personal thing. How it is received is too quite personal but too often we have created professionals to tell us how to pray and with what words. I know, I kinda am one of those guys. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

A shepherd spends his day in the field. Every day he praises God saying things like “Dear God, if you were cold I would give you my robe, if you were hungry I would share my lunch with you.” Or “Dear God you have given me such blessing, if it rained you could borrow my hat”. He didn’t know the traditional prayers but he felt a closeness with God. One day a great scholar and rabbi was walking down the path and heard the shepherd say, “Oh God, you give me such abundance, if only you could come to me and share in my joy and meet my family”. The rabbi was outraged. He told the shepherd that was no way to pray to the Holy One. He took his prayer book and went page by page reading and explaining all the daily prayers the shepherd should recite to pray to God. Hours passed and the day near ended. He gave the shepherd the book and walked away telling him to pray with that. The shepherd couldn’t read so he stuffed the book in his pack and took his flock home. The next day in the field he went to praise God but found he couldn’t remember how the rabbi had taught him. He looked at the book and saw lines and circles that made no sense, so he remained quiet. Days went by and God wondered why the shepherd was silent and sent an angel to investigate. The shepherd told him the story of the rabbi and the angel whisk him away to the heavens where a chorus of angels were praising God says, “Dear God, if you were cold I would give you my robe. If you were hungry I would share my lunch”. The angel returned the shepherd to his field. The next day God was thrilled that the shepherd again began his prayer.

There may always be a right way to do things in our minds. Prayer may be one of them for you. But today we cannot fully embrace the comfort of what things were like just a few short months ago. So now here we stand or sit, at computer screens, struggling to stay connected while continuing the seemingly unending practice of distancing. Our prayers feel different, we are not in the room, and we do not fully experience the joy or angst  in those who would normally be near us. The small boxes are barely enough to stay fully connected in this space, but we can do it. It will be different and we may even be getting use to this. A joke going around the net is that of a congregant texting with their clergy who asked if they were worried that we would lose people the longer we do services online. The response was:

Pastor, I can get up an hour later, I can stay in my pajamas, I can drink coffee on my sofa, and I can mute you.  I think this will only increase attendance. 

Throughout Jewish history we have often changed the way we interact with God, The Tanakh (Bible) teaches God spoke directly to individuals who shared the message with the people.  Later, following God's direction, people sacrificed in many places then one central location.  Later, after the Temple was destroyed, sacrifice gave way to prayer as a means of reaching God.  Our homes replaced the Temple and symbolism allows us to stay connected with our past but blaze our own future.  We see God differently than our ancestors and make meaning of our relationship in our own way.  

When the pandemic hit we were flummoxed by the way we had to change the pattern of daily life. Our screens became a lifeline to family and friends who we normally would gather with, we shopped online and had groceries delivered, we tried to figure out what is safe and what isn’t as we learned to wash our hands like surgeons and avoid showing embarrassing art work on our walls during work meetings or maybe that was just me. 

And praying as a community had to change. But there is hope, you see, look into the eyes of the people on your screen, as they share their homes, sip their coffee and maybe even show off their PJs or workout clothes. This community has stories to tell and words to recite that are lifted up, alone and together. We do not have the room, we do not have the hugs and the hand holding and we do not have the great baked goods to share in fellowship, but we have each other and we have the stories. That will be enough!

The Fire From His Pants is Burning Down the House

 The current President of the United States is a pathological liar.  This all men know.  Some of us have known it since the 80s.  His early fame was based on the lie of his business acumen, his television show was a lie about his ability manage and his political career was based on racist lie about a functional President.  Now, as he fumbles through a collapsing economy and a raging pandemic, he makes wild claims all the time. But two lies this week are dangerous on a level.   

When the explosion in Beirut occurred the other day, there was a great deal of speculation of what caused it on the internet.  Silly speculation was that it was a small nuclear device or a MOAB (Mother of All Bombs).  It was clear from every video that it wasn't a nuclear device because the shock wave would have vaporized those who filmed the blast.  The MOAB which actually stands for Massive Ordinance Air Blast is a bomb the size of a city bus that is dropped from a C-130 and explodes over the target not at grown level.  Since there was always a fire already raging at the port many were filming the area when it blew up.  No one saw an airplane drop a giant bomb at the time.  The current story is that a massive amount of explosive material was being stored at the port and when the fire from a fireworks warehouse reached it the ammonium nitrate it went up.  

But the President a few hours later speaking in front of reporters said that it looked like an attack.  When asked about it in a follow up he said that he spoke with the generals and they said it was an attack.  He has since doubled down.  The problem is that there is no evidence it was an attack and so now it feeds the rumors that are part of the culture in that part of the world.  Lebanon is a country whose government is already in trouble because of failures on many levels but it also sows the seeds of conspiracies.  So when rumors are out that it was an attack there are few suspects in the minds of the people and the main antagonist is Israel.  In fact, there are those in the reason who blame Israel for losing a sock in the wash.  While Israel was pleading to allow then to come help with the aftermath, our President is feeding the notion that Israel may be responsible for this horrific accident.  This helps the government of Lebanon avoid their own culpability in the explosion because they see calls for revolution in the streets today.   This was not only an irresponsible statement, referencing the generals made it a lie that drags our military leaders into it.  They, the generals, however have stated that they can't figure out who said anything to the President.  

The other lie was dangerous to our own citizens.  In an interview with Fox News, the President said children are immune to Covid-19.  This was part of his effort to have schools open for in-person instruction around the country.  This is simply not true.  Children get Covid-19, children die of Covid-19, children spread Covid-19 to vulnerable family members, and children should not be treated as canaries in coal mines.  This lie will feed the ridiculous people who see the virus as a hoax, a Democratic ploy or some other nonsense.  I have already seen this lie repeated by the anti-mask, anti-lock down crowd.  They take what the President says as fact.  While reality doesn't care what you think, the actions of those who believe these falsehoods can be deadly to many.  The President shouldn't make these kinds of statements that are not only false they drive actions that put people at risk.  To me it is clear that he doesn't care about the people he could hurt.

The President lies easily and sometimes for no reason.  It seems to be the way he interacts with the universe.  Some of his lies are laughable.  Some of his lies are hurtful.  Some of his lies are dangerous.  But he lies so often that he is rarely held accountable because by the time anyone speaks on the first lie his next one is in the wild.  But we must stop and analyse these kinds of lies because if we don't who knows what will come next.  

You Can Beat Covid-19.......But it Means Being Humble

Last week at a Congressional hearing on the Corona virus response we saw members of the House of Representatives all Republicans try to smear Dr. Fauci and of course spread wild and nonsensical conspiracy theories all to impress the President.  It was gross but it further extended the the supply of nonsense that is driving the people on the street who are not following public health orders and extending the now ridiculous rise in Covid-19 cases and the coming deaths.  As other countries continue to squash the rise of cases we see the US exploding and spreading of cases and more and more people saying they have had enough and not following the simplest of guidelines to help slow the pandemic.  We have become a rogue nation whose citizens are not allowed to travel to many other countries.  It is getting clearer every day that if we had had a nationwide shutdown and a real testing plan in March and April we could be closer to normal.  Now we are still having to worry about what we might encounter at a grocery store or even a park.  The President and his enablers have failed us and yet they still spew asinine things and retweet lunatics.  So here are a few things.

1.  Masks work, they help slow down the spread.  They will not make you sick.  They will not stop you from getting oxygen.  You won't breath in your own CO2 or bacteria.  Yes masks aren't perfect and help others if you are sick and don't know more than they help you as a wearer but Covid-19 is a disease you can have with few or no symptoms and still spread it.  If we all wore masks when we can't remain physically distance it will go a long way to stop the spread.  

2.  Kids can get it.  I am tired of people telling me kids are immune or don't suffer with this disease.  Kids have died.  Not just kids with serious medical conditions.  But even those that haven't they have suffered greatly.  We don't know the long term effects of this virus on the system.  We have to remember to keep our children safe.

3.  Which leads me to this, opening schools in many places is just dumb and dangerous.  In places the virus is not under control the opening of schools for in-person classes will cause problems.  We know this from a day care center in Arizona and an overnight camp in Georgia.  And now we know as schools began to open last week for the fall and students and staff at different schools had positive tests.  How are we going to keep kids safe in an environment that is not designed for it and that are already so underfunded in many places.  

4.  Sports can be a way to do things like the NBA and NHL with sequestering of players and regular testing and contact tracing.  (if only we could do that everywhere)  but the Major League Baseball which is not using a model where players stay in one place has already in the first week of play had to cancel games because the virus is spreading in club houses.  This is a tale of two models and while it is the worst of times for both we are going to see how best to proceed.  

5.  THERE IS NO CURE.  Hydroxychloroquine does not cure Covid-19.  It doesn't.  Studies have shown it.  Those studies that have suggested it does help were highly flawed.  The people promoting it are people who have no real background in the area of study and have lied about their practice.  The recent video that caused a stir because the President of the United States decided to retweet it and the right wing noise machine tried to amplify it was a goulash of gibberish.  The doctors (some of whom don't even practice medicine anymore) are part of a right wing organization that sounds like a medical society but really is just a repository of the ridiculous like HIV does not cause AIDS or that vaccines cause autism.  One of the doctors promoting this so-called cure believes that demons have sex with people at night and cause disorders and that a woman got pregnant from fantasizing about a celebrity and prayed the baby away.  Maybe it became a spirit baby and killed Renly, I just couldn't follow after a few minutes.  

6.  This is not a simple flu.  This is at least 10X more deadly than the flu and spreads a lot more easily.  And no you didn't have it in November so stop trying to tell us you had it then and you were fine.  You may have had the flu or a cold or just didn't feel good.  Who knows.  This is a deadly disease that will kill between 1-4 percent of the people who get it.  

7.  There is no conspiracy to take away your rights.  People keep telling me mask requirements and shut down orders are part of a grand conspiracy to take away our rights.  The masks show who is compliant with orders and the shutdowns are to make us see government as the savior.  They also say things like the vaccine that is coming is part of a way to put a chip in each one of us to trace our movements and monitor what we eat and do all day.  They posted this from their cell phone that they use to order take out that the company records so you can quickly order again.  The same phone that the OS will watch to target ads to you for things that you enjoy.  You know the phone whose GPS data is stored in the cloud for you for easy access from you smart home system.  The one where you log you heart rate and blood pressure while you trace your exercise routine that is sent to ap database to tell you when and how hard you should workout.  Here is the thing, the nanotechnology costs involved in creating a chip that can injected with the vaccine is unnecessary since you carry it with you everywhere you go already.  Why bother.

This is just a little of the stupidity that has become the norm under a President who loves to tell us he is the smartest person in the room and is fooled by the nonsense that is out there.  Who attacks people smarter than he is because they become more popular.  So a few rules:

1.  Go out only when necessary and if you must visit with people take care to physically distance.

2.  Wear a mask everywhere in public there are people, especially strangers.

3.  Stop trying make excuses why the virus is won't hurt you.  It can and if you don't take it seriously it likely will.  

4.  Listen to the voices of real researchers in the field and to the doctors treating real patients not metaphysical ones.  

This disease is terrible but many places around the world have shown we can beat it back.  Use common sense and act accordingly.  Wear a mask, wash hands regularly, and maintain distancing whenever possible.  It won't be magic if it disappears, it will be the effort of patriots and humans with empathy to slow the spread and help us find a way to use science to defeat it.  Our country did this 100 years ago, let's not let the sacrifices that they made in their pandemic go to waste.