Thanks, Roxanne for your article. As a biologist and pharmacist, I wanted to speak out 4 the virus family. This human will no longer be an enemy 2-the Virus Phylum. Life is but a gamble and too short for endless wars. Viruses are natural to the body throughout evolution’s History. It won’t change in the next year. It is like how we have to deal with spam emails & scammers since the invention of the internet. Both spam emails and viruses are opportunistic pathogens natural to their "biome" & creator. Our genome and inbox are littered with spam. If we hadn't invented airplanes or spam, the pandemic map would look very different since the Outbreak. If we hadn’t treated our essential workers like spam instead of the best kind of meat, family, the map would look even more differently than months ago. If we can treat our communities with respect and care as SF Chinatown did to their extended family, the map would look a lot less bloody every day.
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Imho opinion, this 1st Post-Modern pandemic is as much a societal problem as we are a biological problem waiting 4-that elusive closure. This pandemic is also a wake-up call to educate the public about what science really is, a gamble of evidence that we rationally set, not the unholy truth, or God, alpha or omega, the Devil. Yes, folks, this is a sign of the end times. Come to your census? Can we truly feed 20 billion mouths with equity or enmity without some rogue virus triggering a negative feedback loop greater than this small pandemic?
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As far as COVID-19+ tests go, are you a gambler or not? Are we gamblers by choice or DNA? The misconception of non-scientists is that the advice from those who hold doctorates are somehow not sacrosanct or inviolable. As a scientist, all evidence is a gamble regardless of who sets the alpha value. The virus is a dynamic & stochastic event, all life is. Like a circle around the event horizon, the virus has no end unlike us linear thinking species when we are aware nature abhors lines and lies. If your COVID-19 test result is negative, how do you know it is not a false negative? How do you know that you are not the minority of people who produce viral particles even if asymptomatic weeks later or weeks after infection? How do you know the oligomers provided in the COVID-19 test-kit bound to harmless viral fragments in your genome bc the primers were too GC-rich? Simply put, there is no way to know with 100% certainty, ever. Let’s get over evidence.
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It is absolutely true there are no guarantees in life but that it will end someday. In the end, the House always wins especially if our houses are a mess like America. If your friend tested negative for COVID-19 a month after infection, would you go out with her? What are the chances you will contract the disease with an asymptomatic child testing +? Should you take the chance or stay home?
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If you are not a betting person, don’t go into the ring with coronavirus. You will lose or rather your body will lose. Let someone else party with her diseased crowd. If you stay @home, the chances are close to 0%. Even if there is only a 1% chance of catching the coronavirus, would you go into the ring with 100 shouting people thinking that 1 person will not cough on your just desserts or your sweet children or peppery parents or wicked brothers or sisters? Rings around the Rosie, indeed coronavirus.
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We have only 2 choices embroiled in this pandemic. We can play it safe or play it less safe. If I take a risk bc the threat level is considered minimal by the CDC or OSHA or WHO or whatever and become positive, who can I sue? Who can I blame? The only control we have during this pandemic is to stop blaming and choosing to play safe. Who forgives us all? Every data point is a soul gone to the Maker; something scientists often forget in their search 4-truth. If there is a chance to last-dance with COVID-19, would we choose 2-party with the asymptomatic virus in the crowd or stay home, safeR with loved 1s watching another Netflix series or rerun about the apocalypse or contagion or the Walking Dead shambling to the Jungle Beat.
As everybody says on camera after a disaster, “It’s surreal … It’s like I’m in the movies,” Fneed.
Let’s make different movies for our kiddos’ children b4 the next pandemic strikes back with an even greater vengeance than the multi-national corporations and empires..