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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 30, 2024

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Prediction on Expert Trusting in 2025

After reviewing Dave Collum's Year in Review (you can search for it on the Peak Prosperity Website), I was rather impressed that Professor Collum was still claiming that the Covid-19 Vaccine caused more deaths than it prevented. It seems like such a wild and bold claim might discredit a lot of his valid criticism regarding scientific overreach, censorship, and other less contested points.

I have extreme doubts about the safety profile of the mRNA vaccines, but have not taken to spreading such a wild claim. Rather, I try to gently introduce people to the mRNA as one of the strongest adjuvants ever created, and there was a successful campaign to essentially rebrand therapeutic "flu shot" like products as a MUST have, even if they offer risks beyond your normal protein adjuvanted product. Personally, the youngest patient I ever saw was a young man with an abnormal EKG 2 days after a Moderna booster shot. He stands as one of my youngest patients that ever showed ST Elevations. However, I also saw a young man who had an abnormal heartbeat (a-fib) before the vaccine was available, after a rough bout with an early strain of the SARS-2 Virus. Articles about treating Cancers in the body with mRNA have been exciting: a disease like cancer is a grave illness that might require aggressive and invasive cures. I look forward to seeing their results.

What I am most interested in is the transition from a "trust government appointed experts of lead federal agencies" to a more nuanced narrative of "do not trust THESE appointed experts of lead federal agencies. Simply put, almost everyone who told me they were just going to "do what they were told" when I questioned them on intrusions on peacetime civil liberties, leans left, and I assume on matters of economics, immigration, and justice they will suddenly throw salt on the soil of "following instructions of our experts." I know that a "national security expert" has a different strata of respectability as a "epidemiologist virology expert," but there is an exciting transition that must take place to allow distrust of institutional experts to occur. Perhaps there will be an elevation of contradictions "oh well systemically this field is not equitable or good faith, while this field has the best interest of humanity in mind." I think it will be a solid argument. The bricks of essentially nullifying some laws in favor of outcomes have been laid very well by media and academia. If you bring up "following national security experts," you will once against be called racist, Islamophobic, or whatever de jure insult to make you reconsider being an expert-truster. I'd love to hear someone's else opinion on this.

Personally, I expected conservative NIH, CDC, and FDA staff to be, well, disappointingly conservative about their recourse. I happen to think the "greatest peacetime intrusion of civil liberties in American history" (paraphrased, Chief Justice Gorsuch) should be heavily interrogated. I think we will be disappointed though. RFK's platform has a ton of "red meat" to chew on as far as overhauling various recommendations that have nothing to do with Covid-19. I would say the inspection of Autism and Vaccines is a possibly unfortunate red herring for those who want to see more discovery in the Covid-19 saga.

Structurally, some "force" made sure that Americans and the Western Developed world at large was only offered novel biotechnology vaccines. You can probably get Novavax or some other protein-adjuvanted vaccine now, but the FDA delayed their approval beyond most vaccine passport schemes, vaccine mandates, or general (let me take glib liberty here) "you now have to take novel biotechnology flu shot equivalents to be considered a good or serious person) structural endeavoring. Luckily, with the overturning of Roe V. Wade, there is now an even structural battleground of medical autonomy and physician paternalism. I have let some staunch public health advocates know that while I am pro-choice, each state now has the right to consider a fetus a vulnerable member of its public health community. Ouch.

So, as the next Republican cabinet is formed around the basis of immigration, economy, national security, or any other topic the executive / congressional government manages, whether you are Right or Left, let's enjoy standing up, lifting the table, turning them, and enjoying a drink together to ring in the New Year. You know, RFK says alcohol is something he avoids, so I think you should have a drink. Personally, I'm not taking that stuff.

IDK about any of that, but I just got back (delayed) from a vacation in which I saw a major airline (co)pilot drop like a tree ten feet in front of me while waiting at the gate in an airport -- living a 4chan "vaxxies dropping like flies" meme is kind of weird. (pretty good that he did so before the flight left I guess, although it did take two days for the airline in question to get somebody there who wasn't houred out and could take us home)

As long as we're dropping anecdotes, my dad's best friend developed serious heart issues almost immediately after getting vaxxed, which have put him in the hospital a couple times already. The dude's diet is severely restricted now, and he's already had an episode in which he fell in the front yard and had his wife call someone strong enough to help him up. His grandchildren have barely started speaking as he's headed for the exit.

The vaccine injury patient I had was reported to enter heart failure in the ICU. Shockingly low ejection fraction. They would not meet with me about the case via zoom or communicate via email.

Relevant username if I ever saw one