Link dump 4/20

[firecat]

Download All 4 Murderbot Books For Free (Before Network Effect Arrives!) https://www.tor.com/2020/04/20/download-all-4-murderbot-books-for-free-before-network-effect-arrives/
(I hardly need to post this to DW, though, because at least half of my reading list already posted about it. That makes me happy!)

An artist designed an art exhibit for her guinea pig, with guinea-pig–themed versions of famous human artworks. (My favorite piece is "The Wheet")
https://www.boredpanda.com/the-piggenheim-museum-guinea-pig-maisie-teresa-mistretta/


The little anti-shelter-in-place protests that the media is making such a big deal about are being organized on FB. FB has finally begun removing them.
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2020-04-20/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-says-stay-at-home-protests-organized-on-site-qualify-as-harmful-misinformation

Tim Mak, in a Twitter thread, discusses the San Francisco anti-mask league that made matters worse during the 1918–19 flu pandemic
https://mobile.twitter.com/timkmak/status/1251936242834563073

Ibram X. Kendi, in The Atlantic, say society needs to stop blaming black people for dying of the coronavirus. I agree.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/race-and-blame/609946/

Another article speculating wildly about what percentage of people who are infected with coronavirus have no symptoms.
https://apnews.com/d20f283318c86bec3cc2d3d7936a9612

Comments

[kore]

I cannot BELIEVE the media is paying them that much attention....then again, they did the same thing with the goddamn Tea Party (and some papers are even making that comparison). It's about as hateful and astroturfed as the Tea Party was, for sure.

“Now we’re playing catch-up with the messaging and spreading the word that it can affect any one of us,” explained Philadelphia city-council member Cindy Bass. “Influential figures in black communities need to unite and overcorrect for the misinformation running rampant about African Americans being immune to Covid-19,” CNN’s Van Jones declared. Or as the Los Angeles activist Najee Ali told the Los Angeles Times, “That myth spread like wildfire on social media, but there was never a concentrated effort from leaders to dispel that myth.”

OMFG what? This is like how black voters didn't want to vote for Bernie because they were "uninformed" or confused, poor things.

I remember right before the pandemic hit that the horrifying statistics about the deaths of pregnant black women were actually being talked about in the media -- and surprise surprise, it turned out many black women had gone to their doctors or even the ER and been disbelieved and sent home, and many of them had died as a result. IIRC fewer black women are diagnosed with breast cancer, but more black women die from it than white women -- one paper concluded that black women are more likely to get an aggressive form of cancer that often returns. Yes but why is that? Like the article says -- "too many politicians and commentators are noting that black people have more underlying medical conditions but, crucially, they’re not explaining why."

[firecat]

"OMFG what?" is the only response to SO MUCH these days.

And yes, blaming black people for poor health while denying them access to health care is not a new thing.

[cynthia1960]

The 1918 anti mask bullshit in the Bay made me upset, and I dearly hope we don't reenact that.

That C-word

[deirdre]

I had symptoms, lots of them. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a brutal pain med transition at the time and wrote it off to that. It was also mid-Jan, and so no one suspected it was here yet. But hey, I had an hour-long face-to-face with someone who'd just come from a two-week vacation in China. Not Wuhan, but a doctor friend is in another major Chinese city and said their hospital apparently had a case then.

I didn't suspect I had it either until the anosmia symptom got some notice, and I went through all the various lists of all my current and former meds and, nope, not a listed possible, then had doctor double-check. Not a symptom I've had before, either. But one I definitely had for about a week. By then (~6 weeks later), I'd cleared the virus, so no existing antibody test would have worked.

It'd be nice to get an antibody test that works on antibodies I actually have while I still have them.

[hitchhiker]

it's depressing how so many people's first reaction in a crisis is racism :(

[snippy]

I read that the reason the news media present such favorable views of Trump and the protesters on that side is that the leaders of the media are also on that side.

[firecat]

I hope right along with you.

Re: That C-word

[firecat]

I know several people who had experiences similar to yours.

[firecat]

That's certainly possible, although I shamelessly stick to media with a progressive bias and even they have been making a fuss.

[firecat]

A time-dishonored tradition

Re: That C-word

[deirdre]

Oh look, Santa Clara County is backdating to Feb 6. Which means that infection likely overlaps the timespan I mention the day before this drops.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Santa-Clara-county-coronavirus-February-deaths-15217371.php

Re: That C-word

[firecat]

Oh wow!

[silveradept]

Apparently, it's not in vogue to think about systems and their consequences right now, if the most prevailing narrative is that black folk are just ignorant about the consequences and risks, rather than a long history of things happening to black folk that give them worse health outcomes overall and that are being particularly exacerbated by this pandemic.

[firecat]

"apparently, it's not in vogue" > yes, exactly. Not to worry, because it's just a meaningless fashion preference that will change next week.

[silveradept]

Once the economy gets going again, then we can think about systemic problems again, because then you can be safely ignored and asked why you keep using a racial lens when it's not warranted (because all these white people don't see it, it must not exist! So simple!)

[firecat]

Your sarcasm skillz, they are mighty