Cancel Culture and McCarthyism

Last week, I listened to a very interesting video on Cancel Culture.  It was surprising because it was a YouTube influencer who spoke out against it, and therefore, she was putting herself at risk of Cancel Culture. Others have spoken about it before, doing so eloquently, though with a few swear words included.  

I do think that it has a place, an example being people avoiding playing video's or songs of Gary Glitter so that he is denied the royalties that he would get otherwise.  I know that I would not be able to watch The Cosby Show now, not that I can imagine that this is shown anymore.  

Yesterday I watched another video which compared what is happening now with Cancel Culture to McCarthyism of the past.  Bill Maher is right, and these views were shown in the film of the 90's Guilty By Suspicion, where those with views which were deemed to be unacceptable, we silenced.  

If we silence the space for people to talk about matters we drive conversations underground and cannot engage with them.  People like Trump have been elected by people who felt afraid to discuss views, and if they had been allowed to air them, maybe they would have felt listened to and not voted for a racist misogynist instead.  Anna Akana talks about how it is important to accept that people may have had views in the past that they may regret and how it is important to allow people to be judged on who they are now, not on who they were in the past.

I do not want to live in a world where only acceptable views are discussed.  I am biased, as in the past, I have had views that would not be considered acceptable and no doubt, will have such views in the future.  

First bike ride of the year

Yesterday I went for my first bike ride of the year, this being with my son.  I have not been on my bike as much as I would like to be, notably since late December.  This time last year, I was still cycling about eight miles on a Wednesday to my other job and cycling back afterwards.  Due to the pandemic and working from home, that is not taking place now and after stopping that, I realised just how much exercise I got from it and how important it was to helping to keep my weight down.  I continued to cycle to my work on weekends, but stopped this at the end of last year as my daughter wanted to come into work with me so that she could do her homework in one of the rooms.  

I would still cycle on a Wednesday until we got Leia and since I have been working to vaccinate people (or most of the time, mixing the vaccines) on a Wednesday, I have been cycling even less.  So the need to get on my bike was very important.  This was even more important as my son rides his bike to school and we wanted to ensure that he was able to do so as he has not been very active over lockdown.

Last week had not been a good week for my relationship with my children, and on Saturday this appeared to get even worse.  Saturday had amazing weather, but my son did not want to use this to cycle.  He insisted on cycling on Sunday which was not going to be ideal as I was working in the morning.  On Sunday morning before I went to work, this did not look like it was going to be a good thing as it was cold and foggy.  

When I got back from vaccinating, I showered and got to eat my lunch and recharged by batteries before we went on our bike ride.  I have to say, it was really enjoyable, and I was very impressed with my son who was fitter than me on the way to his school and while, as usual, I was better than him on the way back, there was not much difference in it.  The most important part of this is that his road awareness was much better.  My only concern was his lack of awareness of the dangers of cycling with the sun being low in the sky, but he did really well.  

I do hope to continue cycling with him before he returns to school, as well as cycling for my own health, fitness and enjoyment.

Spreading lies about COVID-19

I am not a person who trusts things blindly.  I have spent the morning vaccinating and came across two people who had some reservations about being vaccinated. After a discussion with them about the benefits as well as the risks that they were concerned about, both had the vaccine.

In medicine, I have had my own views which have gone against the advice at the time, examples being how atenolol was recommended as the best drug for the treatment hypertension in the past, and how when my wife was pregnant with our first child, she was advised to avoid peanut butter in pregnancy.  I know that I cannot trust any government fully which is why I did my own research into MMR safety (for the record, I feel any potential risks of the MMR vaccination are small and are outweighed by the huge risks of not having the vaccination, including consequences of infections with rubella, mumps and measles that I have seen).

So I understand that there is doubt when it comes to trusting the government when it comes to COVID-19.  A matter made worse by how advice given early in the pandemic is different to the advice now.  But that change in policy has been driven by greater knowledge about this plague.

What I do not understand is the need to spread likes and half truths about this.

On example is about how Dr Elisa Granato, one of the first people in the Western World to be given a vaccine against COVID-19 in a trial died.  Since her 'death' she has continued to discuss the valuable work she has done to fight this disease.

Other examples exists as well, one being a woman who had foot problems, though the people who post the link between this and her vaccine, omit how she was in the control group.

There are also those who seek to make a profit from the 'cures' for this.  One example is Mike Lindell seemingly trying to profit from Oleandrin, which he has promoted as a cure against COVID.  Much like how Forsythia was promoted as a fake cure in the film contagion by the conspiracy theorist Alan Krumwiede in the film.  In a previous blog post, I cited the issues I had with a video spread to spread misinformation about COVID.  At the end of that video, people can find out more, by buying the book published by the Vlogger.  Strange that. 

One patient did mention that it is just like the flu. Living and working in the UK, I can point out that with over 120,000 deaths due to this illness, it is not just like influenza.  In addition to this, influenza does not have people requiring oxygen, CPAP or ventilation for so long, let alone the long term effects like Long COVID.

The facts are simple.  We know vaccination works against the original strain of COVID-19 and offers partial protection against several of the variants that now exist.

We know that variants need to spread once formed and facemasks reduce the risk of spread (look at the rates in nations where use is highest).  In a nation like Taiwan, if someone is infected and the virus mutates, because most people stick to the rules, the odds of that mutation spreading are low and therefore, the virus dies either when that person dies, or when they fight of the disease.  However, in nations like the UK and the USA where rates per person have been higher, variants have formed and spread, and the refusal/inability of some people to isolate themselves is going to be a factor.

We can believe those who seek to profit from COVID-19 lies, or we can look at the facts and see how nations abroad have reached zero, or almost zero COVID levels by following the rules of social distancing and mask wearing.

 

So long fair Pokémon

Woke up this morning to find that I had finally been knocked out of a Pokégym in Sri Lanka that I had managed to stay in for over a year.

I was hoping that I would get to stay longer as it was on a road where people drove fast past it, which meant that I just needed to ensure that it could survive one battle. But alas, the long stay abroad for that Pokémon has ended.

Down with Keir Starmer

It is interesting to see how many people within Labour wish to get rid of the current leader of the Labour Party.  

Yes, Labour should be more ahead in the polls, but they are doing better than they did in the last election under Jeremy Corbyn.  And the Conservatives would love someone like Jeremy Corbyn to be in charge of Labour, which is why so many joined Labour to vote for Corbyn, some voting three times!

There is an argument that Keir Starmer should be more vocal about his opposition to Conservative policies, but I think that he is right in being cautious about opposition for oppositions sake.  In PMQ's, the Prime Minister has repeatedly misrepresented his past positions in matters and these, in the build up to an election will gain the Conservatives votes.  When Keir Starmer has made mistakes about past positions, the media rightly hold him to scrutiny on this, but much of the media ignore the way Boris Johnson lies, or "inadvertently" misrepresents the truth on many occasions in PMQ's.  

For just £3 you can help destroy the Labour Party... vote Corbyn #ToriesForCorbyn

— Michael Green (@ToryForBritain) June 15, 2015

The bottom line is that Labour is better in the polls than they would be under Jeremy Corbyn.  As to if this will be enough in the next general election, only time will tell.  

Vaccination against COVID-19 saves lives

I was talking to someone about COVID-19 vaccination this week.  They had side effects of fatigue since they were vaccinated and were advising people not to be vaccinated. 

Needless today, I got quite emotional about this.  Vaccines save lives.  Vaccination against COVID has helped to reduce rates of COVID-19 after the two weeks it takes to start to offer protection.  Telling someone not to be vaccinated against, what is in effect, the plague is not only increasing the risk of death and disability to the person not vaccinated, but also carries a risk that they will go on to infect others.  

Yes, this vaccine has side effects.  My arm still aches on occasion from where I had my vaccine late last year.  My wife felt unwell for a day and took to bed but has no issues at all now.  But COVID-19, if it does not kill, has longer lasting side effects which are more frequent, hence the new disease of Long COVID.

We do not know how effective the current vaccines are to be against other variants, but we do know that the current vaccines offer protection to original strain of COVID-19 as well as the UK variant that is present in our great nation.  And yes, the vaccine is not 100% effective, I have already spoken to people who have caught COVID despite being vaccinated, catching it after the two weeks it takes to become effective.  But the outcome data for at least one of the vaccines is a reduction in those going to hospital rather than preventing all infections.

We are not protected, until we are all protected, both by remembering hands, face, space, as well the need for as many people as possible to be vaccinated.

Meghan Markle and balance

I know that this is a bit late to blog about this, but I have to mention this.  Meghan Markle has been discussed in the media again thanks to the way that Prince Harry and her have split from the Royal Family.

There are two sides to every story, and we are never going to know the truth about what has happened to result in the couple taking their son and leaving for the USA.  What I do know though is that too many in our media have treated them appallingly.  Fortunately, there are some who are willing to speak up for the truth and discuss the double standards that exist as well as how some of the views that people have about the couple have no rational justification.

There may be reasons other than skin colour to explain the differences in what appears to be double standards.  I would be grateful if someone could explain them to me.