Here are some great Substack links that I am posting for our friend Irene. We are watching her situation near Willow Creek carefully. She has been keeping an eye on the nearby Knob Fire overnight. Fortunately it appears to not have crossed the Trinity River as Hwy 299 remains open.
Heather Cox Richardson is the author of How the South Won the Civil War and her lengthy posts detail today’s politics (especially the Movement Conservatives) in a long historical contest. heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
Betsy Brown is a fellow musician and dear friend of ours. She has been blogging from the front lines of the COVID Pandemic from the start and has tons of good and up to date information. betsybrownmd.substack.com
Katelyn Jetelina’s Your Local Epidemiologist was recommended by Betsy. Its great too - and today’s post is well worth reading. yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
Here is Katelyn’s post today:
I added something to one of the graphs showing where we could have been, instead of where we are, thanks to the people who refuse to get vaccinated, usually due to the politicization by the conservatives. They are the ones who are prolonging it for everyone here in the US. The only time they want the vaccine is when they are about to be intubated. Too late!
Many including myself have run out of patience with these people. We are justifiably getting angry. They are costing lives and endangering all, including those of us who are vaccinated.
Ivermectin has been in the news. I’ve been also debating with one of my friends who believes it will save him so he hasn’t been vaccinated. Claims that its a plot by Big Pharma with their too-rapidly developed vaccines to make profits. There are two facts that are easy to find.
1) Merck, one of the top 10 Big Pharma (along with the 3 vaccine providers) is the only maker of Ivermectin for Human use. They decided in February that it had no useful application in the fight against Covid.
2) Ever since the HIV/AIDS crisis emerged in the 1980s, scientists have been eager to study viruses, resulting in a large generational population of virologists, including ones studying and developing approaches such as mRNA. Thus these didn’t spring out of thin air without any thought about it. These have been long in the making and laying in wait for when these strategies are needed.
Paul Krugman had a good article tonight on the Snake Oil Theories of the modern Right and how these are promoted: see https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/opinion/covid-misinformation-supplements.html
Finally, This. Today’s rant from the Liberal Redneck (F Word alert). Rebar Randy, indeed!