Susie and I both have Covid, we are both on Paxlovid, we are both more or less asymptomatic now although tired, we are both isolated in our apartment with our cat, and since I have finally solved the problem of getting Wegman's to deliver food to us, we have more to eat than we can handle. The major change in my life is that more or less simultaneously with this disease, my Parkinson's got so much worse that now I can really not move around by myself, even with a three wheel roller. I managed to buy from another Carolina Meadows resident a three wheel electric mobility scoooter, so I go tootling around from bedroom to kitchen the bathroom, scaring the living daylights out of my cat. I spend a lot of time sleeping, and it may be a while before I can continue putting together my Marx book. Perhaps since Anonymous thinks it is just an assemblage of old things I have published, he could take over from me for a while.
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23 comments:
Dear Professor wolf,
My name is Shayan; born in Afghanistan, living in Toronto, CA since 1997. This year, I turned 70. I was introduced to Marx and Marxism in 1971. That was the Russian and Chinese narrative. I accidently discovered your video lectures on Youtube, in 2020. That was a true blessing. Since then, I have repeatedly watched your videos. I admire your dedication, brilliant presentation style and unbelievable memory. Get well soon.
Sorry to hear about your worsening Parkinson.
I wonder how someone with Parkinson without money to buy an electric mobility scooter deals with their problem. That situation argues in favor of a system which priorizes human needs, not profits.
Hand in there, Bob and Susie.
I'm hoping it was a union shop that made your scooter.
Hoping too mine will be.
Enjoyed YouTube lecturing. Re: Ideology, Lee and Guenther destroyed Wilmsen's scholarship and suggested that Wilmsen and friends imposed the ideology-utopia of neo-liberalism on people with little or no market or state. I did not see where Lee felt the need to defend using historical materialism as a framework. He seemed to want to defend Anthropology from unwarranted hostility. Thanks again for your work.
s. wallerstein,
I've wondered that too. My wife and I moved into a retirement community a couple of years ago. It's expensive. I frequently find myself feeling rather guilty that few of the people working here will be able to pay the cost of living here when their comes. It's not just the equipment like walkers etc., it's the need for constant human assistance--bathing, getting dressed, going to the toilet. It's costly, even though these people are paid not much more than the minimum wage. An elderly mate can do only so much of that. It's a growing problem, brought about in part by medical progress in heart disease and cancer. Now we live long enough to meet the neurological diseases: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's etc.
David Palmeter,
For sure.
I'm in the process of buying a new apartment, closer to that of my partner because we've both had medical emergencies.
I've carefully selected a building with elevators, with a concierge (not exactly a doorman, but someone who can help out in emergencies as well as receive deliveries), near a hospital and pharmacies as well as supermarkets (I don't drive) and with an extra room in case I need someone to care for me at night.
Not everyone can afford to be so selective.
Professor Wolff, thank you for sharing a very personal account of your and your wife's (Suzie) current account of living with COVID and with the very debilitating Parkinson's, that you contend with. My wife and I had it, as you know as soon as one person in the household gets it it's just a matter of time before the other person gets infected. As you mentioned, the only symptom you have is feeling tired. That is exactly what my wife and I felt. I can't help but think the vaccination along with the booster shots were well worth it. You will get better so you will continue with your seemingly daunting task of the work you are engaged with. I know having advanced Parkinson's is an insult to one's freedom of movement. That is a very heavy weight to carry. As for COVID, another one to three weeks both of you will be finished with it.
Charles Pigden
My impression is that there is a lot about Covid that the relevant specialists do not yet fully understand. So I find your comment unsurprising.
Imo one of the failures of the public communication efforts about Covid, in the U.S. at least, has been the failure to acknowledge forthrightly and in an appropriately emphatic way how much about the disease is not yet understood.
To Charles Pidgen:
An anecdote is not evidence. The question is whether there are actual well-designed studies that speak to the issue of intra-household contagion, not what did or did not happen in your household is precious little to go on.
David Zimmerman,
An anecdote most certainly *is* evidence: it is one data point. As such it contradicts and refutes the blanket generalization by Charles Lamana that "as soon as one person in a household gets it , it is only a matter of time before everyone does." That might be true in 90 percent of cases or even 99.99 percent, but Charles Pigden's anecdote shows that it is not true in all cases.
P.s. assuming of course that the negative test he presumably got was not a false negative.
To LFC:
Don't be disingenuous: When I say that an anecdote is not evidence you know exactly what I mean--- I mean what everyone who calls for careful. well-designed studies means: that invoking anecdotes cuts no ice when making broad claims about some causal relationship (or lack thereof).
It is the sort of thing one says when some reckless person in the media makes, e.g. a claim about the effectiveness of ivermectin in preventing Covid-19 infections, based on a case he has heard about... or a claim about the ineffectiveness of mask wearing in preventing Covid-19 infections, based on a case of mask-wearing infection he has heard about.
Such ill-grounded anecdotal claims are dangerous when there is a pandemic. The same goes for this example of an allegedly contagion-free household with one Covid-19 infected household member.
Of course, one well-documented case of such a household refutes the unqualified claim that "all" households containing an infected person inevitably involve the infection of other members. No one would deny that.
Get serious, please. To say that an anecdote is not evidence has a clear meaning in the current context. Anecdote-mongering is dangerous.
DZ
I think there has been a loss of some nuance in discussions of Covid, party bc of the politicized character of the discussions and the people attacking vaccines and other measures etc etc.
In this atmosphere it sometimes becomes difficult to have reasoned discourse. The notion of general trends vs exceptions can tend to get lost as people "take sides."
"Anecdote mongering" is only dangerous when broad conclusions or general injunctions are drawn from it. I didn't read Charles Pigden as doing that. (I have more to say but will leave it there for the moment.)
To LFC:
Why the scare quotes?
DZ - I guess because it's not a phrase I often use, and I'm not sure in this particular case how it differs from simply telling or reporting one's personal experience.
Does anyone know if the vaccination and mask wearing process was politicized in any other country besides the United States?
In Chile there was no politicization of the process and rightwing president Sebastian Piñera,
otherwise a quite obnoxious character, did a fairly good job of obtaining vaccines (which had to be imported here) and of convincing people to get vaccinated. Masks were obligatory for over a year in public transportation and closed spaces such as supermarkets or offices and
the rules were generally followed and enforced in case someone was not following them.
There are anti-vaccination people here, but I would not say that they tend to be rightwing, just people on the left and the right who don't trust the system and don't trust conventional medicine.
Further to the observation (09/16) about Mary Barra’s compensation and the UAW strike, I just remembered that the UAW actually OWNED some 40% of Chrysler post-bankruptcy, and eventually sold this share to Fiat Chrysler (which later merged with PSA to form “Stellantis”).
Does anybody have any familiarity with the ideology in place at the UAW? “Ownership of the Means of Production” would not seem to be any kind of a goal there.
Just Saying ...
To answer my own question, take a look at the UAW Constitution, which forelock-tugging document enshrines what it calls “wholesome objectives”.
File this under “actually existing socialism”, I guess.
s.w.
I believe the process was politicized to some extent in Brazil, as Bolsonaro minimized the whole thing. But I didn't follow the details.
The politicization of vaccines here in the U.S. meant that a full discussion of them w reference to exactly what was known and not known by experts became difficult to have in public. It seems clear that in the aggregate the vaccines were very beneficial, but caveats, exceptions, risks, questions about particular individuals for whom they might have been contraindicated etc. were not aired as fully as they could have been. The CDC put out some mostly boilerplate language on risks and told people to consult their doctors, but it's not clear that one's internist or "primary care" doctor would have had much more knowledge about them than patients. So the politicization inhibited, in my view, a full discussion, one that would not have harmed the campaign to get people to take the vaccines but might actually have helped the campaign by conveying a signal of transparency.
LFC,
Right. Brasil is another example. Bolsonaro is a Trump-like figure and Piñera isn't: he's a traditional neoliberal rightwinger, not vulgar or populist like Trump and Piñera,
Harvard educated economist and billionaire. Piñera isn't anti-science nor does he deny climate change as Trump and Bolsonaro do.
To LFC:
What you leave out of your post was the rampant anti-vaccine propaganda on the American right from the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, a wave of misinformation that had its origins at least going back to the hysteria over the thoroughly debunked allegations about the connection between the measles/mumps/chickenpox vaccine and autism, fueled by the wretched Andrew Wakefield and "influencers" like the actress Jenny McCarthy.
You lay a lot of blame on the CDC and others in the US "medical establishment" for failing to head off this wave of anti-science propaganda, as if they could have done much of anything to prevent it. You say that "caveats, exceptions, risks, questions about particular individuals for whom they [the vaccines] might have been contraindicated etc. were not aired as fully as they could have been" -- without telling us how "fully" such an airing could have been in the face of the anti-scientific onslaught and without acknowledging the extent to which medical professionals were learning a lot about the Covid-19 virus, preventive methods and medical treatments on the fly, so to speak. Therefore, you seriously underestimate the sheer force of those opportunists on the anti-vaccine, anti-masking, anti-lockdown, anti-social distancing American right, once Trump decided -- for political reasons-- that he needed to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic.
The CDC, Anthony Fauci, Peter Hotez and their colleagues are not the villains... not even a little bit... in this dreary tale of American folly. The blame goes where the blame goes: on the American right.
To SW:
I am very sad to say--- writing from Quebec City--- that there has been (and still is) a substantial politicization of Covid policy here in Canada. The major manifestations were the various "Freedom Trucker" caravans that congested several Canadian cities (Ottawa, Windsor) and border crossings (Alberta).... and which had support from figures in one of the major political parties, the ill-named Progressive-Conservatives. One of them, Pierre Poilievre, a Trump wanna-be, became head of the PCP and may become the next Prime Minister of Canada.... Another is the premier of the most right wing province up here, Alberta.
Save us all... the future is dark.
my error above.
I meant to say "not vulgar and populist like Trump and Bolsonaro".
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