What's Left To Say? Lots, and lots more to learn.
I'm sharing a video of Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist, dark web public intellectual, and his professor in exile wife, Heather E. Heying, also an evolutionary biologist discussing their opinions on vaccine safety in a broad, nuanced, and contextualized way. They are not medical experts, math whizzes, like Bret's brother, Eric, or statisticians, but they are sincerely making an effort to make sense of the subject. They have left most, not all, of their ideological peccadillos to the side. This type of expounding of informed opinion is my kind of candy, a treat with a probability of an upside.
I have several good friends in the "Scamdemic" camp. I've followed that narrative for many months now. I find these things entertaining; I don't think perversely so. I learn something from it. The mayhem and confusion surrounding the pandemic are grist for humor and improvised rants. However, the pandemic continues to be tragic. Making a bit of fun can be a stress reducer sometimes; trust me on this.
One of my friends sent me yet another opinion piece from a Doctor telling us how the world has hysterically gotten it all wrong, and every institution is in on it. Sorry, if you want to steelman the piece, please read it. I find it interesting, although I am not a "Truther."
Here's the link: "What's Left to Say?" The author is Dr. Malcolm Kendrick.
Who is Dr. Malcolm Kendrick's (Scottish Doctor-GP-author, speaker, sceptic.) Have you look at Dr. Kendrick's book titles. I am not against this man. I'm interested in "The Great Collestol Con" as much as any older man with a cardiovascular system. I'm curious about where the man is coming from ideologically; it gives me information about how the good Doctor arrives at his opinions. In my opinion, his work is as biased as any I've seen. One could get one's best advice on cholesterol in the blood from a chiropractor or a GP, but I believe that there are better sources of information on it. I'm not saying that he didn't do his research for his books. Maybe he did excellent research. I have not read any of his books. As far as his article is concerned, what do I know? I can only say that I smell the Scamdemic Gish Gallop all over it; call it intuition.
A claim to fame:
(Just one week prior to this talk, delivered at CrossFit HQ during a CrossFit Health event on Dec. 15, 2018, Kendrick's Wikipedia page was deleted because, as he explains, "I'm now considered dangerous enough to be removed from public consumption." In this talk, he shares one thread of his "dangerous" thinking — a thread that follows the distortion of data pertaining to cholesterol and statin research, which he explores in greater detail in his second book, Doctoring Data.) https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/malcolm-kendrick-ddc-lecture
Don't get me wrong; I enjoy the bad pharma, bad science books, and ideas as much as any curious fellow. I like dangerous. I like heterodox thinkers, as long as they can be trusted a bit. Some people up that alley are earnest, and some are just trying to make waves and make a name for themselves. We will all choose our white jackets based on our own biases and call it science's truth. But science is complex and scientific opinion is always provisional. New Data is always coming in.
I'd like to see what Heather and Bret's take on his piece is; I'd like to follow their thought processes as they puzzled through it. I think, if they wanted to, they'd present an earnest effort.
To my "Samdemic" friends, I often suggest spending a half-day with Dr. Mark Crislip; I'm guessing they could learn something valuable from a skeptical infectious disease Doctor during a pandemic. I've followed him for 15 years. He's undoubtedly taught this medical dummy a thing or two. Bully for me.
I like that Heather and Bret refrain from pretending to be experts in the domain of medicine while making a sincere effort to comb through some info on the Covid-19 vaccine subject. The examples in their video were a bit generic; I have to say. I mean, SNOPES and NBC—FFS—you'd think they'd know better. Perhaps they didn't want to invest the time in throwing up some better sources to make their point. Being as lazy as your average man, I can certainly understand this. I am not calling them lazy.
While I'm at it, I'd pass Dr. Kendrick's blog post by Steve Novella; he is a Sceptic with a 'K' from the USA and a neurosurgeon; I'd also love to see how Dr. Crislip filters Dr. Kendrick’s science-informed opinion writing. They all follow the science; they all read graphs and run stats. It is not all rocket science, you know. It takes decades to become an expert in one domain of science if you are not a certified genius. It is a fact that experts in their specific relevant fields have more nuanced views of their subjects of research and practice. It might help to listen to them sometimes. We might learn something.
Update: It is a rare talent to make complex subjects accessible. Zdogg (DR. ZUBIN DAMANIA, MD) has a great sense of humor, expertise and explains things nicely, calmly, and humorously.
