Who doesn’t want a vaccine for COVID-19?
So why was my initial relief at hearing Oxford and Imperial are racing away to develop the vaccine followed by worry?
Let’s suppose that Oxford does develop the first vaccine. What happens next?
Most people, rational people, wouldn’t ask this question. It wouldn’t even dawn on them to ask this question, because the goal is the development of a vaccine to save mankind. Oops, did I say man-kind?
We’ll forget the lessons that the pandemic has taught us so far: that the UK and the US are in fact not exceptions at the global stage. That we are not only vulnerable but can also afford to learn lessons from countries, regardless of whether we have a special relationship with them – such as South Korea. That being white, male and Oxford-educated may not be the only criteria for effective leadership (the countries whose responses have been most widely praised, Germany and New Zealand among others, are all led by women).
It’s not that Dr. Emily Cousens, who researches vulnerability and gender at Oxford Brookes University and teaches on the women’s studies masters course at University of Oxford, doesn’t want a vaccine, but that she doesn’t want one to be developed by a white, male, Oxford-educated Brit. Better that people die than be saved by the wrong sort of bloke.
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Almost accidentally Dr. Cousens made one useful point. The Chinese sequenced the virus and shared that information.
Is there any reason why anyone would need that to be pointed out but for anti-jingoism?
Mr. Halkides,
That China shared the sequence fairly rapidly should serve as the foundation for the repair of China’s shattered reputation, but if it were smart it also would read and follow the advice of David Ignatius in his opinion piece in WAPA today entitled “The world will keep demanding answers on covid-19 until China explains what happened”
All the best.
RGK
To be fair, China has a govt and China has scientists. The Venn diagrams might not align perfectly, as Dr. Halkides might agree.
The sequencing showed that the strain of Covid19 at Wuhan was not the original strain, it was the third mutation. The earlier strain found when sequencing infections from various countries showed the USA to be the most likely originator of the virus. Of course the Chinese were keen to release that work, but the couldn’t get it onto Fox News or CNN, science has no chance compared to eating pangolins.
Its always fun when science and politics collide…
Is it true that farts in the Oval Office smell better than farts in Wuhan?
No but it’s true if someone has Covid -19 and you can smell those farts, you can contract the virus and be the first in awhile to die from someone’s fart . I’d rather die from a American burger fart than a Chinese food fart, but, then I’m patriotic.
As an aside, I’m conducting a study and looking for participants: I’ll implant wireless UV-C led bulbs in your airway and lungs and turn them on if you get Covid-19. Hey, it works great on my Phone Soap.
It was only a matter of time till the woke switched on the ‘autopilot’…
How unfortunate our (white, male) President speculated during a news conference yesterday about injecting household disinfectant as a COVID-19 treatment. It’ll just be more grist for Dr. Cousens’ mill.
Have you ever met the logical fallacy called “tu quoque”?
Met it? I’ve USED it.
The most adorable thing about this is Dr. Cousens’ delusion, shared by so many of her countrymen, that the UK is just like America, except on the other side of the Atlantic. Note in particular the progression in her article, from “if this week’s news is anything to go by, [Oxford is] leading the race to develop a vaccine against Coronavirus” to “the best brains of the UK have saved the world.” Your empire is gone, guys. It’s in the rubbish bin. And Oxford’s nice, but it ain’t no Harvard. Or Yale. Or Chicago.
For people who’re so dedicated to deconstructing colonialism and all that, they sure are committed to this particular Kiplingesque myth. If I were a cynic, I’d submit that the more likely you are to teach, say, gender studies, the more likely you also are to try and gird yourself with the laurels of people who have a more immediate contribution to make in times of pandemic, like your fellow academics in the life sciences or, I don’t know, Americans. But that would be cynical.
I don’t begrudge the Brits their delusions of grandeur of the old days. It must suck to know you’re driving on the wrong side of the road, yet still do so. And their accents are adorable, making them very classy as customer service reps.
Yeah, but that old lion still has teeth.
Ask the Argentine Republic about it.
Please put that Thatcherite propaganda back where you found it. The Argentines were not prepared for the fight they picked. If only they had bought more than five French missiles. Oh well, another junta failed.
There are two kinds of countries in the world, the one who put a man on the moon and the ones who use the metric system.
If it takes Gender Studies type logic to prevent any further Imperial College involvement in this whole thing then whatever, sounds good to me.