Nobody knows if a syringe full of heroin will cure covid, just jab it in your eye pic.twitter.com/NdvwjUBOtJ
— jesse taylor (@jesseltaylor) September 2, 2021
Not to drag Bruenig (although you can if you want, she’s an adult and can handle it), this is just the tweet I saw most recently, but what gets me about these kinds of takes is just the fucking arrogance and blinking idiocy of it all. Now obviously, there are moments when a person out there doing their own thing, independent of any institution and without tons of accolades or degrees, discovers something earth shattering or revelatory that can lead to a major breakthrough or paradigm shift. Genius exists everywhere, and these things do happen, so never rule anything out.
But with shit like this, it is HIGHLY fucking unlikely and therefore not good policy to have tens of thousands of people experimenting with dangerous chemicals in doses designed for animals shitting their guts out and in instances literally ripping out the lining of their intestines. But it’s the arrogance of it all. There are millions of doctors in the world. Millions of scientists. Millions of nurses and pharmacists. Just absolute loads of people with scientific training who understand protocols and things like biochemistry and pharmaceuticals and drug interactions and synergistic effects and all sorts of stuff that your average person does not. And with the doctors and nurses and scientists working 80-100 hours a week since the pandemic started, it’s just the fucking height of arrogance and ignorance to think they would not use everything they could and then some to save lives.
They’re not hiding ivermectin because they are in the pocket of big pharma. They’re not stooges for Fauci. They’re not using refusing to use it because they are embarrassed that Clyde at the feed shop thought of it first.
They’re not using it because not only does it not fucking cure covid but because it’s fucking dangerous and hurts you. They’re not doing LOTS OF THINGS to cure covid just to see if it works. They haven’t waterboarded anyone, chucked them out of a plane, or hooked their testicles up to a car battery. They haven’t suggested using thallium or arsenic. They haven’t been giving coffee enemas or using healing crystals or all sorts of other shit. They aren’t pulling teeth or putting people in casts or other treatments for shit. And it’s not because they didn’t think of it or because they are ashamed some hilljack thought of it first.
It’s because they aren’t fucking idiots, they understand virology and how viruses work, and they know that killing someone with a drug to save them from dying of covid makes no fucking sense. Jesus christ, ivermectin isn’t even for viruses, it’s for parasites.
This country needs to get back to a couple of things, one of which is minding your own fucking business and the other is staying in your god damned lane.
WaterGirl
They need to build a better (bigger) bumper, one that is big enough to hold this on a bumper sticker:
retr2327
But have they tried leaches? You never know, it might help. After all, they’re now used in some transplants, so they’re medically valid, right?
And big pharma doesn’t want to talk about them because you can’t patent a leach.
matt
Media elevates garbage people. For every Adam Serwer there are 5 Elizabeth Bruenigs. Should be the reverse ratio
When I read that twitter bit of hers I just thought sure, dogshit sandwiches might cure covid too, same chance.
MattF
We need to get back to the classic anthrax and tire irons. Will stop just about anything, and for good.
WereBear
How your aunt’s feed on Facebook is just as authoritative as the head of the CDC.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop using leeches and blood letting
Drunkenhausfrau
Please tweet out your last paragraph. I want to retweet it in all caps! Embroider it on pillows! Print it on my Tshirt!
Baud
@WaterGirl:
“Staying in your god damned lane” could be misinterpreted if it’s on a bumper sticker.
Antonius
But her emails.
Kylroy
Thing is, scientists *are* trying these things – they’re just abandoning them when they are shown to not work. HCQ was tested on COVID, was initially promising, but shown not to work in later trials – wingnuts seize on this as proof that “THE MAN IS HIDING A CURE FROM YOU !!1!” Ivermectin was *also* tested, but wasn’t even initially promising.
These folks’ cargo cult approach to science informed by conspiracism is somehow worse than crystal-gripping hippie nonsense.
Baud
Bruenig has no empathy for horses who now lack access to medicine.
Kent
Discussion with a MAGA cousin of mine recently.
Him: “Big Pharma is censoring ivermectin and not letting us know how well it works”
Me: “Ivermectin was created and is currently manufactured by Merck, one of the largest pharma companies on the planet.”
Him: “ummmm…..[crickets…]”
eclare
@WereBear: An hour on Facebook counts as eight years of school, a residency, and decades of experience, dontcha know?
C Stars
Well also, people are actually being poisoned by the stuff, from what I understand, and clogging up yet more ICU beds that should be going to those who, well…deserve them.
Eunicecycle
Isn’t Ivermectin manufactured by Big Pharma? Why wouldn’t they want you to use it if it worked? I mean the human version; there is one. For parasites, as John said.
ETA: Kent got there first.
Urza
I hope the nice New Age people that hate vaccines are sticking to crystals and water diluted cures. Haven’t actually talked to any in awhile. But at least those aren’t harmful on top of the problem.
MattF
@Kylroy: In fact, trials with Ivermectin were stopped because it was completely ineffective.
KsSteve
What about Round Up. I mean it kills weeds and it’s really has come down in price. Now to determine the dosage. Think about it
Ksmiami
Their deaths are a regrettable but necessary price for America 2.0
Kent
Bruenig is a religious studies major and former doctoral candidate in religious studies.
How the fuck does that entitle her comment on anti-viral therapies?
WaterGirl
@Baud: I laughed out loud.
mrmoshpotato
Holy horseshit, Batman!
Also, who’s that human in Ms. Ed’s Twitter photo?
And how did a horse create a Twitter account in the first place – let alone get verified?!
eclare
This is perfectly encapsulated by that idiot judge, I think in Ohio, who *ordered* a hospital to give a patient Ivermectin. The patient’s wife found some nutjob lawyer willing to sue because the hospital initially refused.
Stay in your fucking lane, judge.
dr. bloor
Isn’t an institutional review board on the planet that wouldn’t say “no” to running this treatment protocol on Joe Rogin.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
There’s a request for you downstairs to organize some murder and mayhem.
If you have time.
Ken
Plus humans don’t even have the shikimate pathway that glyphosate clogs, so it must be completely harmless to us.
NotMax
Seems to fit in quite comfortably.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I will have to check it out.
I mean, really, who isn’t up for a little murder and mayhem?
dlw32
Yeah, I’m not a doctor, but why does anyone believe that something designed to fix a problem in your (well, not your unless you are a horse) digestive system will help with an infection that takes place entirely in your respiratory system? I mean both are inside your body but I can’t imagine what else they have in common…
Scout211
One of the three replies that the great Twitter gatekeeper allowed me to see was awesome.
Cermet
This all started out, if I recall correctly, an Indian MD (zero training in medicine research) tried Ivermectin (for humans and being third world, not a lot of treatment options then available, either; so worth while trying.) He tried it on a few patients and thought it was useful and published those results. A few other places with real experts tested it – found it useless and published. The original MD withdrew the paper after his non-control and only a few patients study was shown to be very questionable. But sure, that all proves it works and people should take it – not.
Ken
@eclare: It would never happen because doctors have standards (though come to think of it, judges are supposed to…) but I imagine that judge showing up in an ER with chest pains and trouble breathing, and the ER doctor saying “OK, what’s the first thing we should do for you?”
A Ghost to Most
@Baud: This blog is the brave bunny lane, not the murder and mayhem lane. Let’s hope you all get to stay in your lane.
hueyplong
As far as I’m concerned, Darwin took the wheel a couple of months ago when it comes to these idiotic “cures.” Feel bad for the horses that are suffering with worms in the absence of otherwise available remedies, but not for the people consuming the paste.
These idiots are going to do SOMETHING instead of the obvious (getting the vaccine), so we might as well check them out and thank them for playing.
[Not sure what made them forget all about the bleach wonder cure and kind of wish they’d return to it. It’s the romantic in me.]
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Kent:
I’m constantly amazed (in awe) of people who talk with their MAGA cousins. My wife has a shitload of em and cut all contact with them. Life’s too short…
Ken
@dlw32: Sure, ivermectin’s wrong to use for an infection in the lungs, but it’s also wrong to use for a virus. And don’t they say that two wrongs make a right?
SiubhanDuinne
.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
Please drag Bruenig. She and her husband are both right once in a while and absolutely wrong most of the time.
MattF
@dlw32: The bleach you’ve injected into your bloodstream connects them.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Ha!
So nice of you to think if me! I can be a pretty good little organizer at times, nice of you to notice. :-)
Having seen the context, though, I think i’ll pass on this particular murder and mayhem.
Walker
I am really curious why ivermectin took off but fluvoxamine has not. Both were crazy moonshot remedies early on, and were added to the Brazil study. And while the Brazil study suggests ivermectin is worthless, the same cannot be said of fluvoxamine:
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/future-perfect/22619137/fluvoxamine-covid-ivermectin-together-study-mcmaster
SiubhanDuinne
@mrmoshpotato:
He was mentored by Devin Nunes’ cow.
eclare
@Ken: I like that scenario!
Al Z.
Potential COVID cures also include: Crunchy Frog, Ram’s Bladder Cup, Cockroach Cluster, Anthrax Ripple, and Spring Surprise. I really wish more of these MAGA people would try Spring Surprise.
Spanky
Damn, I knew I should have opened that leech emporium. But I guess West Virginia doesn’t sound like the best place. Better mosey on down to Texas, I reck’n.
JR
Sophists, the lot of them.
NotMax
Think of the worm children!
C Stars
@Al Z.: Now you’re making me hungry.
Captain C
From Atomic Rockets (regarding physics, but it works for medicine/biology too):
And also:
I would think that big pharma would want to sell as much of any of their products as possible, provided it’s profitable
Kent
Our kids are best friends so I can’t avoid it. I drove up to Seattle for my other daughter to visit and tour UW and we hooked up for lunch so our daughters could hang out. His HS daughter is very cool actually. She wears a mask everywhere just to annoy her dad and keeps up a very social justice warrior social media profile just to balance out her Trumpy dad. So we hung out and had lunch at U-village while the kids shopped and had fun.
Captain C
@eclare: Since forced prescribing of ineffective and possibly dangerous drugs does not seem to fall under the duties of a judge, can he be sued for malpractice, attempted manslaughter, and whatever else would fit?
DaBunny
There are a few things going on here. HUMAN formulations of ivermectin are generally well-tolerated and aren’t especially dangerous. And there have been a few studies that have shown it might be effective against coronaviruses. (One of the strongest of those appears to have been fraudulent, which kinda undercuts that argument. But that fraudulent study was one of maybe…half a dozen?)
Why I care: There are some folks out there who are terrified of COVID but for various reasons can’t get vaccinated. They are tearing their hair out looking for any way to protect themselves…especially to protect themselves from the idiot anti-vaxxers. So they’re grasping at straws. One of them is a someone I care about very much. (Not saying more than that to protect the person’s medical privacy.)
So before you go railing against idiots like this…some of them aren’t. What Bruening says might make sense for them.
Parfigliano
@Ksmiami: Their deaths are not regrettable. They do it to themselves. They are a source of amusement.
Mike R
@Kent: Straight line to god would be my guess. But my grandmother always told me I was a heathen so what do I know.
bbleh
This country needs to get back to a couple of things, one of which is minding your own fucking business and the other is staying in your god damned lane.
Wull, yer just sayin’ that cuz yew think yer better‘n me, jus’ like all those “scientists” an’ “doctors” an’ first they said “no masks” an’ then they said “masks” so whadda they know better’n me, huh? I feel fine, never been sick a day in my life, I don’ need somebody with a fancy coat tell me what to do ’bout some cold or flu or whatever it is. Why, my sister’s best friend from just down the way said her cousin had the ‘rona and took a coupla them horse pills and felt just fine after a day or two, and who doesn’t have an extra pair o’ pants or two? I ain’t havin’ nobody stick no needle in me with some kinda experiment drug thing, who knows where that needle’s been anyway, no sir!
Urza
@Al Z.: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/brazilian-viper-venom-may-become-tool-fight-against-coronavirus-study-shows-2021-08-31/
I wish they’d tall take heavy doses of this with their Ivermectin.
eclare
@Captain C: No idea…
terraformer
This is the result when politicians recognize that potentially the most dangerous people in society are experts, those who know things. Because along with politicians, maybe sports figures, people in Hollywood, and scientists / experts are who people listen to or who at least have a big enough soapbox to take notice.
So it’s incumbent on politicians to denigrate them all. They’re pretty far along in Hollywood (helped by dunderheaded stars in some cases), sport’s taken the same way (along with a generous “u H8 Am3riCa wHen U kN3el>!”), but the best opportunity to stick it to them smarty doctors and scientists is hit them when their expertise is on-stage. Pandemic was perfect. They always attack your strength.
So now, people doubt research, they doubt scientists, they doubt expertise that heretofore was accepted as solid amongst most everyone. This dynamic coupled with “fake news” for anything you don’t like has created quite the current reality
Mary G
I believe in the 50 state strategy:
So let’s stop with the negative shit. I remember savvy people on this here very website telling me in no uncertain terms that Georgia would always be dark red and trying to change it would be a waste of my time. You just never know.
DaBunny
@DaBunny: just found the meta analysis that appears to support use:
Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines (nih.gov)
Cameron
I’m sympathetic to the desire to find a cheap, readily available treatment for COVID; those parts of the world without access to vaccines could certainly use it. But I’d kinda like to see a proper scientific investigation, not a YouTube by a sweaty mouth-breather,.
smith
@Walker:
Same question about famotidine (Pepcid). Early on there were some retrospective studies that were sorta promising, though I can’t find any prospective randomized trials that have been done since. That one would have been so easy for the Goobers to get excited about — readily available without a prescription in any drug store, and with the added bonus of not ripping out your intestinal lining.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I don’t know, the idea of Joe Rogan crapping himself nearly to death on a horse laxative made my week personally.
Frankly this sounds like more of sell the disease and the cure. Refuse the free/cheep masks and vaccine, instead, fork out fork out for the horse laxative as “prevention”. Then when they get sick sell the artificial anti-bodies. This is like something out of a cyberpunk story; pay us for something your body should be doing on it’s own.
Someone pointed out there are a legit reason for this course, Yes, there are people with heath issues that prevent doing masks and vaccine. But like we saw with the Opioid Addiction Epidemic the phrams want’ to push more the drugs even if means getting healthy people to take it.
cleek
this could be fun. Link
Obvious Russian Troll
My one minor quibble is that repurposing drugs is in fact a thing; look at how hydroxychloroquine is used for treating malaria (a parasite) and lupus (an autoimmune disease). Or look at rogaine, which had originally been an ineffective heart medicine before somebody noticed it helped men keep their hair.
The thing is, though, you need to do the actual fucking testing to show that it works. They did it with hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19, and ultimately it didn’t do much. Ivermectin shows some effect in vitro on COVID-19 but again the actual testing results–once you take out that one Egyptian study that was withdrawn because of ethical concerns–show that it didn’t do much.
Which isn’t a surprise; lots of things work in vitro but many of them don’t work when you try them out on patients.
Urza
@smith: Problem is, none of these supposed miracle cures are even remotely anti-viral. Other than the Bleach and UV light which they all seem to have given up on rather fast. If they took an existing anti-viral medicine and did testing on that, or were all clamoring for it, that might make some tiny amount of sense. But they pick the things that won’t even touch a virus, and are harmful to themselves. Almost like a troll put it out there just to mess with them but in this timeline nothing is to insane.
Ksmiami
@WaterGirl: prolly a good call- m and m is only ok directed at our real enemies
randy khan
I have to admit that I had forgotten that there was a bit of an ivermectin moment early in the pandemic, but it came back to me when I recently went to look for where this all came from.
There was an early lab experiment that found that ivermectin prevented C-19 reproduction in a petri dish (or whatever they use these days), but at doses *much* higher than used for clinical purposes. (It also turns out that there are human uses for the drug; in fact, a couple of doctors won the Nobel Prize for it, which is what triggered my memory that I had seen all of this before.)
There were a couple of trials of one kind or another that found positive results, but they both were withdrawn from publication when significant problems were found in them. Also, apparently a couple of meta-studies that conclude that there was a benefit, but the meta-studies (you guessed it) included the two trials that were withdrawn from publication. Otherwise, well, not much to support the idea that it works. And, frankly, I’m guessing that the means of introducing ivermectin to the body in those trials were not the ones being used by the people who are taking it now.
So it’s kind of like the trajectory of hydroxychloroquine, except it’s back on the ascent now.
Ksmiami
@Parfigliano: I should have emphasized the dry sarcastic emoji in my comment…
rikyrah
TRUTH
Hoodie
Forget it Jake, it’s the internet. We went through this with one of our paralegals who’s refusing to take the vaccine. See, she’s done her research on Facebook and Google and is worried about long term effects , viral shedding, yadda yadda. She’s 60 fucking years old; at that age, I’d rather grow a set of horns or have my DNA reprogrammed than risk the non insignificant chance I’d spend my last two weeks on a ventilator as my lungs turn to Jello. She got an AA degree 40 years ago and knows jack about basic biology, let alone virology and epidemiology. Like you said, a good bit of the country is way out of its lane and, in fact, well into the median and about to vault into oncoming traffic. I try to be nice, but it’s getting harder.
WaterGirl
@cleek: Link doesn’t work. :-(
LeftCoastYankee
That’s Dr. Clyde At The Feed Shop, pal. He’s certified from the Rand Paul School of Medicalocity.
Tazj
Stay in your lane is right. Breunig has written some excellent pieces on the death penalty and sexual assault but she should leave the efficacy of medications to doctors, pharmacists and scientists.
danielx
It wouldn’t be America without god botherers and busybodies of every description, as those same folks would be the first to tell you.
ETA: As to “research”, these people couldn’t explain how a fucking lightbulb works, much less biochemistry and molecular biology.
TEL
@DaBunny: It looks like this was one of the meta-analyses that used flawed data: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02081-w
I don’t know if this conclusion still holds up.
smith
@Urza: I’m not at all advocating that people jump on any of these, but simply agreeing with a previous commenter that the choice of ivermectin to go mad about is puzzling given the wealth of drugs that have been suggested for repurposing to treat covid.I’ll add, though, that a lot of the suggested drugs are put forward not because they have direct antiviral effects, but because they might ameliorate some of the worse effects of the disease, such as inflammation or blood clots. The one repurposed drug that has found to be useful so far, dexamethasone, does not, as far as I know, have direct antiviral effects.
cleek
@WaterGirl:
something evil mangled my URL!
https://twitter.com/Hydrocrab/status/1433535334713892875?s=20
catclub
i guess there is a Purdue Pharma limit in how much they want to sell.
Illegal is ok as long as the fines are less than the profits.
catclub
@danielx:
Hence the visit to Emergency Rooms with foreign objects inserted.
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne:
Checks out.
mrmoshpotato
@Al Z.: I really miss Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA.
mrmoshpotato
@Captain C:
I’m sure he’s just following the commercials’ instructions to “ask your doctor if Ooga Booga Beluga is right for you.”
WaterGirl
@cleek: Thank you! I fixed your original link.
OGLiberal
@retr2327: Maggots.
(seriously, there are medical uses for maggots – but that’s only if you need some necrotic tissue eaten away)
Suzanne
That’s next week.
Joe Rogan first?
Another Scott
@DaBunny: Use the Source, Luke!
(Emphasis added.)
That 95% confidence interval is huge. (There’s a 95% chance that the true result is between 19% and 73%.)
It’s garbage.
Yup, there are a bunch of severe limitations with this analysis. They say it helps greatly with reducing deaths, but say (as I quickly read it) it doesn’t affect keeping people off ventilators or the severity of the disease. There’s no data on viral loads or other objective measures that the actual course of the disease was changed. Then what’s the mechanism??
Could have??
Maybe because there was an actual physical explanation of why Dex helped – it reduced excessive inflammation. What’s the physical explanation why an antiparasitic would help against a virus??
It’s garbage.
IANAMD. My $0.02 – worth exactly what you paid for it.
Cheers,
Scott.
David C
Ugh. I do drug development (including repurposing) for a living, and did vaccine research back in the ‘90s. As a scientist, this is frustrating as heck. We have so many tools available and a big chunk of the public is in fantasy-land because they don’t trust actual expertise. Well, scientists tell people what we need to know, which isn’t always what we want to hear.
OGLiberal
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edIi6hYpUoQ
Buckeye
Not to drag Bruenig (although you can if you want, she’s an adult and can handle it),
Except she can’t handle it, or doesn’t want to. She says stupid things, lies, etc, gets called out on it and whines about it. She’s somehow got a lot of supporters who think that she’s wonderful and that people are just being mean to her.
different-church-lady
Dear Ms. Bruenig: I’ll bet you anything there’s people who do know.
different-church-lady
@Buckeye:
Hmmmm… that sounds familiar somehow…
randy khan
@Another Scott:
Is this the meta-study that included the two studies supporting the idea that ivermectin worked that later were withdrawn?
(BTW, my autocorrect works on the word ivermectin. Yuck.)
Another Scott
@randy khan: I briefly tried to check to see if there were issues like that with it, but nothing immediately jumped out at me. I don’t know if it included fraudulent studies or not.
Cheers,
Scott.
moops
It doesn’t matter that ivermectin is an anti-parasitic. In the early pandemic days scientists ran through most of our approved drugs and ran assays on COVID in vitro. Ivermectin had an impact on COVID infection. drugs have funny mechanisms, and often the activation path runs through other systems. That was have anti-parasitics at all is sort of a miracle of medicine. 30 years ago that would have been voodoo.
Sadly, the effective ivermectin dose that retards COVID replication is 100 times the safe dose a human can take. When you merely double the effective dose ivermectin uses on-label and try it out on humans you don’t really make an impact at all. The Columbian team did a pretty good study and published their results in JAMA
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777389
JaneE
She is supposed to be some kind of journalist. Maybe she could do a little research and find out what ivermectin did during the clinical trials that were done before it was approved for use.
When she says we don’t know she probably means she doesn’t know. I don’t know either, but if I don’t know what something will do, I don’t assume it is a cure for something. If she regularly read the science blurbs that show up on aggregators she should realize by now that all those things that look good in the lab don’t always work in humans.
She could make the same statement about virtually every drug known to man. And high doses means exactly what? Some drugs have a very small distance between the therapeutic dose and a dangerous one. Then there are vitamin tablets with thousands of times the RDA sold OTC everywhere.
Why not try leeches? If you have hemochromatosis it might do you some good.
Another Scott
@moops: Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@DaBunny:
Maybe…. just MAYBE… they could wear really effective masks…N95 masks, to prevent themselves from inhaling a big dose of virus. Just maybe. Or not.
namekarB
I once discovered a cure for Dementia but I can’t remember what it was.
I also wanted to start a therapy group for procrastinators but I never got around to it.
Tony Gerace
@eclare: Actually “research” for an hour or two on Facebook is much better than all that schoolin’. It shows that you’re not being corrupted by The Establishment.
wvng
@DaBunny: A doctor friend sent me to a link (can’t find it right now) with a review of all the studies of human pharmaceutical grade ivermectin as a covid 19 treatment. Each of the studies (actually a fair number of studies) was graded on quality of study, type of study, and results. None showed significant positive results, and any minor positive effect has been superseded by other drugs that have definite positive impacts. .
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Antonius: but the baby kicked when bernie spoke
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Kylroy: it’s pretty much the same nonsense
chaz is proof of a horseshoe rainbow gathering
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Kent: as ronald mc donald explained, “thru god, all things are possible… you’re going to want to write that down”
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@MattF: for values of once in awhile = 1/e
Tim in SF
“It’s the Arrogance of It All, Really”
Is that a quote from Dr. Sleep? I swear that’s one of the lines from it. I’m not near my computer so I can’t check.
JimV
Amen to the post. I grew up steeped in magical thinking. Mostly from religion, but also in childrens’ books (books for children), TV shows, and movies. One of my grandmothers told me the moon was made of green cheese. It can be a lot of fun to believe in magic, unfortunately. Born knowing nothing but a few instincts, I would say about 90% of what I learned as a child was fantasy, in one form or another.
In my utopian civilization, children would spend a few months at a time learning how various things in the real world work. Farming, medicine, engineering, research, construction, architexture, government, etc., etc.–up close, from people who are good at those jobs.
I think ultimately magic is arrogance, the belief that we have the innate capacity to make the universe obey our wishes.
I have a modified form of Occam’s Razor which I call Mario’s Sharp Rock (after my friend Mario, one of the least humble people I have met): of competing hypotheses which can all explain the observed data, the most likely one is the one which makes you feel the most humble.
(Side note: humble in its dictionary meaning, not the modern one used by athletes as a synonym for “honored”.)
KrusherKing
@retr2327: Aha! But you could genetically engineer a leech and patent THAT!
Zinsky
I hope the same dumbasses who are taking Ivermectin or some other ridiculous substance to try to prevent or cure COVID are also converting their Shop-Vac into a ventilator too. That way, when they need to be intubated after they catch this dread disease, they can do it themselves at home in their garage and not overburden our creaky healthcare system!