Coronavirus quotes 3
by Michael Cook | 3 May 2020 |
Against pandemic research exceptionalism. Science
"All crises present exceptional situations in terms of the challenges they pose to health and welfare. But the idea that crises present an exception to the challenges of evaluating the effects drugs and vaccines is a mistake," London and Kimmelman said. "Rather than generating permission to carry out low-quality investigations, the urgency and scarcity of pandemics heighten the responsibility of key actors in the research enterprise to coordinate their activities to uphold the standards necessary to advance this mission."
UK Health Minister Matt Hancock announces that IVF clinics will reopen.
“Now that we are past the peak, I am delighted to announce the restoration of fertility services. People who are relying on fertility treatment have been worried during these unprecedented times not knowing when they could continue their journey to start a family.
“We wanted to open these clinics as soon as it was safe to do so, and our strict guidelines will ensure staff and patients remain safe as we continue to tackle this virus.”
Beverly Hills, the city of beautiful people, allows cosmetic surgery clinics to reopen. Councilman John Mirisch dissented:
“I think it would be extremely irresponsible of us and it would send a terrible message to the world if the first thing we do is start allowing boob and butt jobs to happen again … No one needs Botox in a pandemic.”
16-year-old sperm donor child Maya Cooperstock wards off lockdown boredom by looking for half-siblings. So far she has found 30 of them:
"I think COVID has some good things coming out of it. I mean it sucks not being able to see people, staying inside and no school, but it's definitely had some good things that I don't necessarily think the world knows yet."
Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge
Like rivets popping on a sinking ship, the stresses of the pandemic are revealing the weakness in our societies. Suddenly we realise how much we depend on humble workers who provide essential services, how much we depend on supply chains, how vulnerable the elderly are, and so on.
One statistic that caught my eye was the number of over-65s in care per thousand of population. This came up as part of Donald Trump's boast that the per capita death rate in the United States is far lower than the highest nation, which was Belgium. There's a reason for that -- Belgium is counting many deaths in nursing homes as deaths from coronavirus, even if the people had not been tested.
But a chart in the BBC story showed that Belgium also has the the third highest proportion of people in nursing homes in Europe, 71 per thousand. Even higher were the Netherlands (75) and Luxembourg (82). Is it a coincidence that these three countries have also legalised euthanasia? What does that figure say about their social structure? After the pandemic has passed, I hope someone follows this up.
One statistic that caught my eye was the number of over-65s in care per thousand of population. This came up as part of Donald Trump's boast that the per capita death rate in the United States is far lower than the highest nation, which was Belgium. There's a reason for that -- Belgium is counting many deaths in nursing homes as deaths from coronavirus, even if the people had not been tested.
But a chart in the BBC story showed that Belgium also has the the third highest proportion of people in nursing homes in Europe, 71 per thousand. Even higher were the Netherlands (75) and Luxembourg (82). Is it a coincidence that these three countries have also legalised euthanasia? What does that figure say about their social structure? After the pandemic has passed, I hope someone follows this up.
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