I’d like to know what Friamers said to each other on this topic while they were face to face (without exchanging bodily fluids, of course.)
I can contribute that my beloved doctor gave me a big, rather moist kiss on the cheek last week as we were saying goodbye, and I thought, Dude! Those are your bodily fluids! In a nanosecond, I thought, Pamela, get a grip. On Nov 1, 2014, at 1:14 PM, glen <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'll pull a Nick and say off the bat that I can't answer the question > directly. But I can transmit this: > > > http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2014/10/woman_visiting_from_liberia_ho.html > > That's the hospital where my SO (Renee') works. So, I may be able to learn > something interesting. > > > On 10/31/2014 09:40 PM, Nick Thompson wrote: >> To the Friam diaspora, >> >> >> >> So. At today’s friam we had a discussion about “the science of ebola” and >> why so many well educated people are disregarding it. What interested me >> was that amongst a table full of mostly scientifically committed individuals >> we had a range of opinion about what should be done, despite a scientific >> consensus from the medical community (see >> >> http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1413139?query=featured_home&; ) >> >> Partly I think this is due to a piss-poor exposition by the government and >> the media of why the disease is more difficult to contract than a cold. >> Official explainers have appeared to rely on the idea that it is only >> transmitted by bodily fluids, leaving everybody to wonder about sneeze >> aerosols. But the fact that it is only transmitted by fluids alone is not >> the key piece of information; the key fact seems to be the virus does not >> make its way into those fluids until after it has caused a fever. These >> facts are connected because the same event that causes the fever makes the >> disease contagious. So, on this account, we weren’t on the same page >> because the science had not been explained to us very well. >> >> One side conversation that grew out of this thread suggested that the >> official explainers had confused us by not including social science in their >> explanation. There are, the argument runs, highly predictable features of >> human behavior in the aggregate (even tho we cannot necessarily predict >> which human beings will do which behaviors) and this knowledge (from a long >> history of experiences with epidemics) guided many decisions in the present >> situation, but was not made explicit. A couple of people challenged the >> premise the argument, essentially taking the position that “social sciences” >> is an oxymoron -- social phenomena are too fast-moving, and two influenced >> by science itself, to be included within the science of ebola. >> >> As those of you who have read my posts over the last year (all three of you) >> already know, I am convinced that this all has to do with the decline of the >> Deweyan consensus of the 50’s to the effect that a scientifically informed >> democratic electorate will make the correct decisions in the long run. This >> attack began with the antiwar left in the sixties (don’t trust anybody over >> 30), was intensified under Nixon, extended under Reagan, and has reached its >> apotheosis with the Tea Party. Science is just another opinion, on a par >> with crystals, and scientists are just another cult. There are no >> fact-facts; just your facts, and my facts. >> >> So am curious what you-all think out there. Do you accept the consensus >> document of the NEJM? If not, WHY not? If you were the surgeon general, >> what would you do? >> >> Nick > > > -- > ⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella > I came up from the ground, i came down from the sky, > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
