Hello Alison and Dr. Escalante,

Thank you for clearing the air while we choke from another pandemic wave. Scary news abounds more than ever, it’s beginning to feel like it’s just more water & air 3-me. I fear for my son’s safety as another school yr approaches & am numb to the uncertainty as a father, as a scientist, &as a father.

Have we learned nothing from the Spanish flu or r we still stuck in the Middle Ages again & again without remembrance? Does panic have to rule our choices as it does our flight or flight in DNA? Our faith in science is in its nascent state as religion is in its decline. We took the truth &-used it like disinfectant or tainted holy water instead of looking @the ingredients 1st b4 injecting Clorox in2 our veins.

It is our job as healthcare professionals 2b priests &-nuns of Old 2-protect the sanctity of our children babysat by Twitter or Roblox or whatever they stumble in2 as they mature. This means that we have 2-take God or Evidence’s solid truth & distill the complex 2-the simple flock or folks. Trump does that bc he’s pretending 2b a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Why can’t the evidence-based faithful do the same and bite instead of being bitten? Look @1 of your quotes as evidence of your fallacy.

It gave me a headache as a biologist 2 think what doctors and patients have to face in the 21st century. U translated this simply & digestibly for grownups. Here’s an example of what we HC-professionals have to deal with:

“ Our results demonstrate that existing judgments alter the neural representation of information strength, leaving the individual less likely to alter opinions in the face of disagreement.”

You translated: “When a recent report from the WHO said people with Covid-19 who are “asymptomatic” are not as contagious as previously thought, people who hate wearing masks — there are a lot of them — took it as justification to take those masks off.”

Such is the case in the 2nd wave of the virus when the main driver is not the elderly but the risk-takers who make a splash 4-the world 2-fear. This is a case in point about how we failed our flock.

All evidence is based on probability or p-value. P-value to the ignorant masses is simply a bar we set 4-truth. Often it is 0.05, which means if at least 1 in 20 is positive, then it’s “likely true”. What does this have to do with us? Anything out of doctors’ mouths is a gamble is what it portends.

Some say there is only 1 Truth that is God’s, the rest is choice & chance otherwise known as free-will or “Oh, bananas!” We r-leading our patients here & there and they are tired of science’s uncertainty unlike the crush of the Church’s dogmas while cardinals rape the innocent's wile MAGA-Rome burns again 2-Cinders.

In America, we panicked our flock &-then gave them the all-clear sign & then panicked them again, while in other country’s are in their Sh.I.Ps. and not running with scissors careless of the classroom next door on 1-diseased campus. Who is 2-blame?

You also wrote: “But that report was meant for scientists and health professionals who were aware of the many studies showing that masks dramatically reduce the spread of the coronavirus. “

People think masks are magic talismans against the Chinese Virus, as our Prez likes to say as God’s honest Truth, like they don’t want to face the music of their own making that we r all simple Simians wishing 2b gods.

If your children r-in a crowded George Floyd March with a mask, that is like being in an enclosed space without a precious mask. It’s just math and priceless numbers, or is It? What r-the chances that staying at home and going to Change.Org is safer than these choices as a protest to the powers that b?

U also wrote: “That means we still can’t tell who is going to give you the coronavirus. Thanks to our innate negativity bias, readers are often drawn to the more dire and scary headlines.“

• It is ironic that the “News” is supposed 2 tell the truth, but they must also make profits off of our eyes to survive like a parasite gone cancerous b4 these beauteous eyes a & ewes. The government can’t be the news since they are the facts to the fact-checkers supposedly watching out 4-us. So the readership has a choice on any medium whether here or on the NY Times or on Facebook.
• Guess who the chromosome will choose since we are 99% chimps by DNA & attitude toward the disenfranchised? Ask yourself by bullying has become pandemic among our youths while U nap?
• How do we break the DNA chain and begin to change for the better as doctors, pharmacists & all HC-professionals? The priests and nuns have failed in their duty to gather the gentiles and 2-protect the flock.
• The mantle has been passed onto us, the black & blue, the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis. How are we faring children who replaced your gnomes for chinky Buddha statues? I can say words like nigger and chinks bc I am 1 of them.

“In school, we were taught that science is fact.”

• I disagree with respect. Educators taught us how to be curious & 2-think critically but not with compassion, which we have failed miserably in some and succeeded in others. Just look at the torture chamber known as the Ivory Tower of Knowledge; is it all just to get a PharmD or M.D. or D.O. worth the lacerations? Aren’t we passing on sadism to our children?
• Science is seeking the facts &-winnowing out our personal bias miserably, but the evidence is always pure & changing as we r2 like a poisoned tree grown lovely by a tumor budding. Blood-letting is not a cure-oil as it once was. Snake oils do not cure all ails. Facebook does not save; well it does & Big Brother monitors every click of your “personal” information. Blood tests need context before drawn &red. A+ always has a false (-). A negative always has a false +. B wary of every doctor that comes knocking because we all have a personal agenda or bias behind our backs waiting like Brutus, our bestest brothers & sisters. When will we get tired of living in I-knewIt-Rome?

“Legitimate health advice is usually boring”

- Whose fault is that, respectfully as colleagues of the Church & School of Medicine? The doctors like u & U R-needed now more than ever 4-the 7th gen because we are still afraid of facing uncertainty and especially ridicule. Isn’t that why doctors suffer burnout during before medical school, during med school & after med school? It’s a toxic environment, which we pass down to our children and so on. Who can function when we handle more than we can psychologically deal with on a continual basis while staring into a flashlight 8 hours a day? Don’t believe it’s true? Go out far from your cell phone and let the Silence scream. You’ll run back to your wireless like an addict without a family.

“There’s no single magic bullet that will prevent you from getting a complicated disease. ”

I really am beginning to hate that word with a passion, “magic bullet”, as an oncology biologist and pharmacist, impolitely speaking. What are we healthcare professionals doing asleep at the wheel while the virus rages like the apocalypse just b4 the burn? Shooting werewolves with our evidence-based medicine or looking for holy water when It is all around us & the U.S. & Brazil & Sweden especially? What we are shooting for is the yearly bonus with our fake educated, bullets.

We have failed in the task of teaching our patients & children the complex to the simple. Look around when we’ve taken down statues of innocent monks because God called, and bc we can’t stand 2-step into our own mirror of our own making. Shall we tear down our own racist hearts or thoughts or the whole body in our fear and rage? It’s more simple to blame others for the crime inside us. Let’s be like grownups 4-once.

Finally: “On the other hand, when people were given a “nudge” to consider the accuracy of what they read, they were far more likely to spot fake news. It’s no fun — and not sustainable — to live in a constant state of panic. Luckily, reading science news is a life skill like any other, one we can practice and improve.”

I couldn’t have said it more honestly and with compassion as an educator, father, and son beleaguered. If we can be aware that panic is the best teacher teaching ourselves 2b the calm ewe b4 we cry and injected; if we can b steadfast as a shepherd or ruthless as a wolf, wouldn’t that be like our human prideful heart before the inevitable fall & failures as healthcare professionals, patients, & parents supposedly united under 1 Lord?

My sincerest apologies for such a lengthy comment. Yours is a topic that is 2-personal to me now that Eye & Stone have someone other than me 2care & whine about 4 once & 4-All. Suddenly after a recent divorce, the Flood, the pandemic, I got tired of playing the prey & began 2-pray for deliverance as Christ did joyfully till all endings ended. I didn’t care if God answered or knot as I hope he did. I hoped Jesus would hear & Satan bow down & make me lay down my love 4-Vices bc Eye have floors 2mop and my son return 2me tomorrow. By the Grace of God go my Eyes & Heart. I will protect. Will u?

Amen.