Ultimately, events Drive the Narrative

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So I gotta cover Covid again.

It happened like this:

Scientist A: ‘Hey guys, I’ve seen some things that are bugging me. Maybe this virus was engineered in a lab.’

Scientists B through Fauci: ‘Let’s take a look. Hmmmmm…. Doesn’t look like enough to be convincing. But definitely need to take a deeper look there.’

One scientist is sent to the World Health Organization whose role is to get sometimes cranky, ideologically warped governments to provide accurate information flows so regional and global health problems can gain research funding to quell health crises and develop preventatives and cures.

The WHO can’t bully China into doing shit. They do the standard diplomatic protocol. No big accusations. Be nice and maybe get the data they seek. They gain limited access.

Meanwhile back at the White House a month after the meeting, the Krylon Gold painted hair Goombah is softpedaling the threat of the pandemic (as demonstrated in Big Money First journalist Bob Woodward’s reports months later) that he knows is gonna suck. The last thing he needs in an election year is a pandemic because it always means economic disruption. He’s not concerned about corpses though he’s the Public Servant In Chief. He’s totally focused on the Art of the Steal and begins scheming how to control public perception because getting re-elected is all that ever mattered to him. He controls public perception by injecting nonsense to disrupt news reports on actual events and create fictional narratives that make him look like The Know It All Tough Guy.

Now the focus by the US government science guys appointed to be speaking for the science community of professionals and the US government medical guys appointed to be speaking for the healthcare community professionals do their thing because the virus is spreading exponentially and they know how to do the math. Their ‘thing’ sees the threat is huge, that preventative measures are necessary, that treatment plans need to be developed via experimentation, that consistent information has to be directed to a public caught largely flatfooted by this new danger.

And when well-informed science and medical pros take leading roles in government agencies, they’re well aware that ambitious politicians can interfere with their tasks. By March, they can see several Goombahs around the globe doing the downplay routine. They can see China being secretive. They know that all governments are secretive because so much classified info would embarrass politicians for big mistakes and end their careers.

Because well-informed science and medical pros, you see, are grown ups. They can easily observe what grown up politicians do and why.

So while Trump and Modi and Bolsonaro are being dismissive, the government pros are trying to get past those smoke screens. To accomplish Mission One: protect the health of the public. Speed is necessary. Ways to limit the viral spread have to be employed lickety split. And it’s equally clear that the best way to do so is to tiptoe around the Goombah with the facts at hand early on, so they can deliver the message without upstaging the Krylon-coiffed Whiny Guy. If they fail, the Whiny Guy will attack them and get the innocent citizens confused about the train roaring down the trucks at them.

Some fail badly. Some get overtalked. Some get briefly sidelined. And when new viral threats emerge, scientists don’t have all the answers yet. They understand that virus science is an evolution process with extra haste required. Data from all sources has to be aggregated, verified or disproved. And till more is known, they have to provide the best protective methods they can think of.

So they say: ‘First, keep away from others so they’re not breathing/sneezing/coughing on you. Don’t touch thm and don’t touch surfaces. Keep washing your hands with the right stuff’ because it’s not clear how the virus is getting around, by direct touch or by air.

Medical pros near the first big US epicenter don’t have enough protective equipment or ventilators to meet the demand. Dr. Fauci downplays the immediate need for masks for the public because (a) the medical pros need to get all the masks and gloves they need without competing for the limited supply with the general public. And (b) there’s still no scientific consensus that it’s spreading by air.

Later, Fauci will be criticized by some politicians who define that possible error on his part as proof. Proof that he can’t be trusted at all. But was it a mistake to boost the survival of healthcare workers when all hands on deck are needed most? It was only a couple of weeks later that the message was updated to say ‘yeah, better mask up.’

By then, the public was getting agitated either because they were near the epicenter and increasingly scared or because they were safely away from the epicenter and all their daily routines were getting disrupted because of school closures, business closures and layoffs that seemed like overkill.

Politicians don’t want to be blamed for events they didn’t cause and righfully so. Neither do scientists. Some politicians said ‘look, we better go with the scientists on this’ and others said ‘scientists are the villains. Blame them and trust me instead.’

And the first wave stunned everyone in March and April. The failed covid test at one government agency didn’t help the cred of the scientists either, though a second government agency spotted the problem and fixed it pretty quickly.

Epicenter hospitals, nursing homes, VA hospitals were getting hammered. Rubbing alcohol, oral thermometers and toilet paper disappeared everywhere. Someone had to stay home with the kids knocked out of schools and daycares. And restaurant shortcuts were in short supply as many were closed.

The scientists worked hard to clear away a second viral load of misinformation spreading on social and broadcast media with - again - the best information available. Looking back, what have we learned?

1) Not all adults behave well in an emergency. In the political community, some don’t know how to turn off their ingrained partisan habits to actually do something useful to save lives. Those failed politicians kept creating scapegoats. It was those dirty Chinese Commie rats, or the crummy scientists or that politician in the Other Party that got scapegoated.

2) Those in the remora media who lick the gills of certain politicians because that kept their audiences satiated had some big fails too. Some proved as useless as a steer on a cow trying to lay eggs.

I had the good fortune to have healthcare professionals in my family working in 4 different places in the US. And the friendship of a retired epidemiologist. And the friendship of someone in a corporate position that oversaw several of the most prestigious research universities in the US. And friendships with people in other healthcare roles across the country, along with friends who caught Covid.

By the end of April, I could get a lot of info fact-checked within half a day. Scientists are also generally reliable for their fact-checking skills. Few have any motivation to develop propaganda skills that some politicians have.

The science community has always wanted to find out the origins of the virus because, if it came from a lab, learning what was done might lead to better countermeasures. And if it came from the wild, they could direct more attention to wild virus detection to protect us from future viral spread.

Nobody shut down the possibility of finding the answer to the origins. WHO did its job, checking out all that China permitted. They made it clear they wanted access to more information that Chinese government officials remained secretive about

And since the Krylon Goombah had a well-established record of playing multiple race cards for decades before he entered politics, both professional political opponents and human rights advocates attacked him for scapegoating the Chinese instead of targeting the one guy heading the Chinese government. Very inartful, scapegoating 2 billion people for the flaws and motives of their leader. Hate crimes in this country against all Asian Americans rose.

Today, there’s rumors that some Chinese official fled to the US to tell what he/she knows. Some remora media gins up claims that all Democrats are hiding from the truth of a lab leak when they have presented no evidence that a lab leak happened. They act like it’s a proven fact because floating fictional narratives maintains controversies which in turn maintains their audiences and earns them fatter paychecks.

But with vaccines available, most in the most-at-risk groups have gotten vaccinated. They’re not only wanting a return to normal life, they’re reaching out and grabbing it. Only the hyper partisans in the public and those who profit handsomely from partisan propaganda are stirring the pot with fake narratives.

And now, with cases and hospitalizations abating, with programs in place to secure better treatments for the infected, solid research to respond with fresh vaccines to corral covid mutations and vaccines for people under 12, now is the perfect time to put increased emphasis on learning more about the virus origins. It doesn’t require attacking Chinese scientists which advances nothing of use. It requires public pressure only on the Chinese heads of government.

Now some have read the email chain that was going on from late January through February between government and academic scientists and health pros. I read it before the first state shutdown in mid-March. I was impressed. Some of the most spot-on warnings and action suggestions came from VA officials and academics. Certainly, a few mistakes were made along the way but by far, around the globe, politicians made far more. Some of those politicians made matters worse. Just like the 3 week delay in providing a fairly accurate test made matters worse. Just like the 5 week delay in getting enough tests out to all the states could be pinned on politician errors.

How much to leave open, how quickly to reopen also became a heavily influenced partisan game. Except it left both sides frustrated. Te mot vulnerable people never thought it should be a game at all.

The health professionals trial-and-errored their way to better treatment solutions. The scientists created the vaccines. The pathway to use new methods of creating safe vaccines faster came about because scientists successfully learned how to decode the human genome over the past quarter century.

All the politicians brought to the table throughout, over several presidencies, was some funding. Some brought better ways to be prepared for a pandemic in advance. Some brought defunding approaches that made supply chains worse.

And what really really matters most to all is saving lives and protecting the public. Does anyone recall any big science bashes that caused super spreader evens? I don’t.

I do recall Sturgis. I recall largely mask-free political events with poor social distancing that ultimately got a few Big government goombahs infected with the virus. A few pretty powerful people died despite all the financial and medical resources they had access to. Can you recall any deaths in the scientific community. Odds say a few happened there but I’d bet big that far more political actors did.

There’s my best summary. You might also want to read:

- Bloomberg on whether there was a lab leak.

- Intelligencer on how any lab leak that might have occurred had American fingerprints on it too.

- Wall Street Journal on the earlier than previously known virus appearance in the US.

- NBC News on the new virus mutation and the threat it poses.

- NBC News with more on the risks to the unvaccinated.

And now a word for the government leaders in China. And the hyperpartisans who stormed the Capitol Building on January 6th.