Right-Wing Pushing COVID Disinformation On Twitter Worldwide - Forbes

The U.S. right-wing has played a particularly important role in the rise and spread of various forms of COVID disinformation.

Conservative and right-wing voices play an outsized role in spreading mis- and disinformation online about the COVID pandemic worldwide.

The U.S. right-wing has played a particularly important role in the rise and spread of various forms of COVID disinformation. However, it is not just a U.S. online phenomenon, but rather a worldwide right-wing scourge.

A number of common themes and narratives are being pushed by right-wing Twitter accounts in the United States, Italy, and France in particular. These included racist and anti-immigrant themes and narratives, especially directed at China.

There is also a substantial overlap between right-wing voices promoting conspiracy theories and public health misinformation.

However, the campaign to push #FlattenTheCurve and related hashtags was successful for a time in mid-March. It was a small case study in the efficacy of science communication that attests to the positive, and likely life-saving, impact of credible information online.

The full article is available here

Eric Metaxas' Counterfeit Bonhoeffer - Richard Weikhart

Eric Metaxas simply does not have sufficient grounding in history, theology, and philosophy to properly interpret Bonhoeffer.

In the biography he wrote in 2010, Eric Metaxas presented a sanitized Bonhoeffer for evangelical audiences.

How did Metaxas get it so wrong? Part of the problem, perhaps, is that Metaxas simply got in over his head. Bonhoeffer was a sophisticated thinker immersed in early twentieth-century German philosophy and theology.

Bonhoeffer (like his mentor Barth) admitted that Kierkegaard was one of the most powerful influences on his theology, which means that Bonhoeffer was committed to an irrationalist, existentialist worldview that is quite different from the mindset of American evangelicals. Though most evangelicals probably do not know it, most Bonhoeffer scholars dismissively reject the idea that Bonhoeffer's theology is compatible with American evangelical theology.

Eric Metaxas simply does not have sufficient grounding in history, theology, and philosophy to properly interpret Bonhoeffer.

Victoria Barnett, the editor of the English-language edition of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, wrote a scathing review of Metaxas's biography. In her opinion, Metaxas "has a very shaky grasp of the political, theological, and ecumenical history of the period." She then calls Metaxas's portrayal of Bonhoeffer's theology "a terrible simplification and at times misrepresentation." [2]

Clifford Green, another bona fide Bonhoeffer scholar who has edited part of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works and has written extensively about Bonhoeffer, has also criticized Metaxas heavily, claiming that Metaxas's biography should be entitled, "Bonhoeffer Hijacked."

Metaxas presented a sanitized Bonhoeffer for evangelical audiences.

The full article is available here

Bill Gates Has Become A Right-Wing Conspiracy Target - NY Times

Misinformation about Mr. Gates is now the most widespread of all coronavirus falsehoods tracked by Zignal Labs, a media analysis company.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist has been attacked with falsehoods that he created the coronavirus and wants to profit from it.

In posts on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, he is being falsely portrayed as the creator of Covid-19, as a profiteer from a virus vaccine, and as part of a dastardly plot to use the illness to cull or surveil the global population.

The wild claims have gained traction with conservative pundits like Laura Ingraham and anti-vaccinators.

Misinformation about Mr. Gates is now the most widespread of all coronavirus falsehoods tracked by Zignal Labs, a media analysis company.

The full article is available here

The U.S. Military's Hijacking Of Pat Tillman's 2004 Death in Afghanistan - The Intercept

It would take 4 years of digging, led chiefly by his mother; 7 official investigations; and 2 congressional hearings before some semblance of the truth surrounding Pat Tillman’s death was pried from the government in 2008.

From the outset, the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. military shamelessly ran with a fabricated account of Tillman’s death for their own purposes and benefit.

Within hours of his death, the military knew Tillman was killed by friendly fire, brought down by three bullets to the head let loose during spasms of wildly irresponsible but deliberate shooting.

Right away, the military lied to Tillman’s parents, initially telling the family that an enemy combatant killed their son as he stepped out of a vehicle.

The military kept the truth from them through Tillman’s memorial service, which was broadcast on national television.

And the military withheld key facts from the Tillman family even as it admitted the broad stokes of his death. It would take 4 years of digging, led chiefly by his mother; 7 official investigations; and 2 congressional hearings before some semblance of the truth surrounding Pat Tillman’s death was pried from the government in 2008.

Tillman’s mother laid much of the blame for the cover-up at the feet of Donald Rumsfeld, Bush’s secretary of defense at the time.

The full article is available here

The Small Business Administration PPP Debacle - Jeff Wiersma

The federal Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program ran out of funding for their small business loans this week. This has left many business owners scrambling.

There are 3 major problems at play in this debacle.

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Problem #1: Big businesses getting loans meant for small businesses.

A federal crisis fund of $350 billion established to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic ran out this week, leaving thousands of companies waiting desperately for help.

But several giant companies with hundreds of stores, thousands of employees, and whose executives make millions announced they'd received the maximum possible payouts under the small business program. 

"Unfortunately, they were in line as soon as the window opened for this program and took a lot of resources away from those small business owners where this was their only option," said Holly Wade, director of research with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) lobby group.

Big business already holds an extremely privileged position in our nation's economy.  To see them gobble up relief meant for small businesses which are the lifeblood of local economies is flabbergasting.

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Problem #2: The crisis fund is out of resources and Congress still has not been able to reach a deal that would appropriate more funds.

Negotiations to refill the PPP purse are set to continue over the weekend. Republican have pushed for a straightforward bill to add $251 billion to the program.

Democrats have pushed to set aside a portion of the additional PPP funds for lenders that work with underserved communities, and also provide $150 billion for states, $100 billion for hospitals and an increase to food stamp allocations.

Yes, those things that the Democrats are pushing for to be included in the bill are all worthwhile and important, but why hold up an agreement to replace crisis funds if Republicans wouldn't agree to include those things? Small businesses need that money right away! It's so exasperating!

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Problem #3:  Our warped budgetary priorities as a nation mean that we will spend $718 BILLION on the military this year.

According to the Congressional Budget Office’s projections, if the plans described in the 2020 FYDP were implemented, DoD’s costs would increase from the $718 billion requested for 2020 to $776 billion (in 2020 dollars) by 2034.

Endless wars and empire (800 bases in 70 nations) do not come cheap.  How in the world can we justify that type of expenditures in the first place, let alone when we are in a public health and economic crisis.  War profiteering corporations have always had far too much influence in Washington D.C.  The 2010 Citizens United decision has only made the situation worse.

The "Government Tyranny" Boogeyman vs Social Darwinist Tyranny - Jeff Wiersma

If public servants failed to act in the interest of the public good, all of us would be left on our own against the tyranny of Social Darwinism.

Those who believe that various levels of government acting in the interest of public health is "tyranny" have an inadequate and misguided understanding of what tyranny is.

In a constitutional republic, various levels of government acting within their constitutionally-mandated roles to stop the spread of a deadly pandemic are not malevolently taking away citizen's liberty or trampling on their civil rights.

Though we should always be wary of authoritarianism, which desires totalitarianism over constitutionalism (especially with a would-be authoritarian in the Oval Office), it is inaccurate to label public servants acting in the interest of the public good as such.

More accurately, if those public servants failed to act in the interest of the public good, all of us would be left on our own against the tyranny of Social Darwinism.  The Social Darwinism would take on several forms, including the survival of those least-immunocompromised, the merciless and cynical forces of the financialized market, and potentially mob rule.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that those protesting social distancing are stirred up and organized by corporate interests like the Devos family's Michigan Freedom Fund, who see potentially diminished bottom lines as a higher priority than human life. 

Health Experts: Americans Underestimate How Long COVID-19 Disruptions Will Last - STAT News

By the end of April shouldn’t be anyone’s consideration at this point. We have to assume at the very least this is going through May.

"The Trump administration has consistently shown a desire to underplay the severity of whatever is coming. And they’re constantly adjusting that — as it becomes harder to deny the reality will be worse than what they’ve conditioned people for," said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development."

A former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas Frieden, said this week that it’s understandable that people want to know when businesses can reopen and some facets of life can resume.

But he said the focus of public discourse now needs to be on the public health response, not the question of when restrictions can be lifted.

“Decisions to reopen society should not be about a date, but about the data,” said Frieden.

By the end of April shouldn’t be anyone’s consideration at this point. We have to assume at the very least this is going through May.

Experts are worried that if the current measures work, success could have a paradoxical downside: People who are still vulnerable to the virus will see the risk as over, leaving open the possibility of resurgent spread.

The full article is available here

How To Fight COVID-19 With All We've Got - Pro Publica

In an absence of an abundant supply of masks, both the WHO and CDC stressed how important social distancing was.

Since symptoms-based policies alone cannot be perfect, we need to turn to other strategies to catch the people who slip through the gaps presented by a broad “If you’re feeling unwell, stay home”-type recommendation.

After months of saying that healthy individuals should not wear masks, administration officials are now considering guidance for much broader, community-wide use of masks, Fauci told CNN on Tuesday.

In an absence of an abundant supply of masks — which, by the way, also need to be worn properly to provide protection — both the WHO and CDC stressed how important social distancing was.

Not only can social distancing protect you as an individual, but the better the general public is at adhering to these guidelines and staying at home, the less virus will be circulating in the public to potentially infect paramedics, grocery store workers and public works employees and other essential staff.

Increasing the chance that the virus will be “diluted” is important.

That means workplaces like factories and warehouses should do whatever they can to space out their workers, and not have meetings en masse in indoor spaces, where droplets are likely to persist and don’t have a chance to be carried away by wind.

Testing is critical, because it can let people know if they’re sick before symptoms emerge and prompt them to self isolate.

At a big picture level, testing helps public health officials know where the disease is spreading and better allow them to direct resources and responses efforts.

The full article is available here

Documented vs Undocumented COVID-19 Infection - Pro Publica

Substantial undocumented infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of COVID-19.

The W.H.O. so far has found few truly asymptomatic cases, in which a patient tests positive and has zero symptoms for the entire course of the disease.

However, there are many cases where people are “pre-symptomatic,” where they have no symptoms at the time when they test positive but go on to develop symptoms later.

“In some sense, symptomatic versus asymptomatic isn’t really the appropriate dividing line” for us to be focusing on, said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “The appropriate dividing line is documented versus undocumented infection.”

What he means by “documented” is people who are identified as being infected, either because they were sick enough to go seek care or were tested through contact tracing, which is when public health officials track down all the contacts of someone who tested positive.

The “undocumented” could be people who have symptoms but didn’t get tested, or worse, people who had no symptoms or such mild symptoms that they decided to just carry on with their daily lives.

“Maybe they pop some ibuprofen, but still go to work, still get on public transportation, still do all the things we normally do, and the consequence of that is those people with mild infections — as well as if they’re truly asymptomatic — are taking the virus out into the community, and they’re spreading it far and wide,” Shaman said.

Substantial undocumented infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of COVID-19.

The full article is available here

You're Most Likely Most Infectious With COVID-19 Right After Contracting Virus - Pro Publica

Studies are now finding that people are shedding more virus during early stages of the disease rather than the later stages.

A virus that spreads in the way that COVID-19 does already a recipe for a bad outbreak, but this coronavirus has another aspect that’s helping to amp up its contagion factor.

You’re likely most infectious right after you contract the virus, possibly before you know you’re sick.

Studies are now finding that people are shedding more virus during early stages of the disease rather than the later stages.

"Shedding" is a term used by researchers measuring the amount of viral RNA from someone who is infected, from a sample gathered via a method like a throat swab.

The high viral load early on in the course of disease for COVID-19 patients suggests that the virus can be transmitted easily, even when symptoms are relatively mild.  This finding could account for the fast-spreading nature of this epidemic.

The full article is available here