CV Pandemic Daily Notes 201228, 201229, 201230, 201231, 210101, 210102, 210103
-1. End of Collection, 2. Collaboration, 3. Plum Island Off Auction Block, 4. Socially Created Reality.
-1. This is the end of PDWN and CV PDN*A collection and research. This does not mean the end of the (low intensity =2=) CV pandemic into dormancy. The curator is satisfied, after ten years, that human behavior and health/ environment interactions are not only real, but that these all mutually influence the Anthropospheres, and Biospheres. This interaction occurs from the sub micro to the meta macro levels or both spheres, sometimes benign or beneficial, but the overall tendency is deleterious for all spheres.
-*A. Unlike previous years 2020 will get some updating and clean up to hopefully make it easier to understand as a process of collection, pattern analysis and maybe eventual synthesis. This will include the Introduction for CV PDN 2020, finishing the Glossary/ Concepts and other editing. Likely this will not be completed until 2022. Beyond this I am not sure if I will continue parademic or not. Unlike when I started, there is far more literature and journalism on the topic and related topics. In addition, I discovered that the stress from the Cassandra Effect*B was taking a toll. 200511-CV12.
-*B. 200601-CV10, 200329-CV06, 200322-Pandemic Daily Notes-200322-CV4, 200322-2, <CONT 200126-200112-2¶>1‡1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: Why Didn’t the World Listen to the Coronavirus Cassandras. Covid-19 the Showdown for Mass Casualty Preparedness and Management: the Cassandra Syndrome. She Predicted the Coronavirus. What Does She Foresee Next. Covid and the Curse of Cassandra.
-C. The term parademic will likely never become an official term, but the concept that there is an interrelation between mankind and nature, and that it needs collaborating interdisciplinary specialists to deal with the consequences, is clear. What is presented in this blog is one way this could be done, but not the only way. I’ve no idea how this will evolve and change but as alluded to in A↑, but there are the nascent beginnings of recognition of the need.
-D. When I started ten plus years ago health and environment disasters were rarely addressed in emergency and disaster management. Humanitarian aid focused on bandaid fixes, improving people’s lives but not addressing the root problems of access to medical resources, social flaws, poverty, and degrading environments. There were some histories and archeological studies of the impact of disease and rapid environmental change, but these were largely viewed as problems limited to the past, and the lessons learned (and not learned) are not directly applicable to the contemporary world. There were some Cassandra voices, but these were largely ignored, and as these forecasts came to be there was active suppression.
-E. When you don't know what you're talking about, it's hard to know when you're finished – Tommy Smothers. I like to think that I have finally come to understand what I have struggled to comprehend, and it is now time to stop and go on to something else. A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking – Dan Chaon. This is true. I am too emotionally exhausted to push on. I am bored and impatient with the repetitious stupidity, but no longer angry. Hopefully, this does not mean I am at the final stage of acceptance of a terminal condition.
-2. I wanted to address collaboration because it is the only way to achive global health. One of my failures with Parademic is that though it requires an interdisciplinary team I was never able to find any group that I could accomplish this through. This is not a complaint as I have seen few successful collaborations that were enduring. Probably more my fault. I was focused on my personal goals to either prove or disprove that the interaction of human and the rest of the biosphere was significant and worth the time of others.
-A. Typical of what are called collaborations there is a tendency that if of value it becomes dominated by one of the agencies, that the interdiscipline nature essentially become subsumed and what is not considered worthwhile is dismissed. This is simply the nature of collaborations. They tend to be temporary cooperation where there is a common purpose served, but despite best intentions once completed they diverge again. This is not a total loss as relationships are built that make it easier to collaborate again. Sometimes I’ve observed that one or more of the partners feels used – if not damaged – and is more hesitant to work again with the other.
-B. I did form some professional relations, but never get enough feedback to tailor myself to meet what was being sought, if it fit my own agendas. The most important indicator that a collaboration is a success, even if short term, is that there are questions asked of the outsider, and continued desire to continue the relation even if contact drops away. This shows that there is an understanding of what can be offered, and what is offered is seen as applicable and useful. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to the misunderstanding that all that is needed from the other field is understood and incorporated.
-C. This is all OK. We are speaking of process, not a product. In my opinion there are several different indication that we are well on the way to blending the human dimension with the biosphere, assimilating a slight change in perspective that ultimately be helpful. This assumes of course that there is enough time to implement social changes when there is accelerating anthropogenic harm.
-D. There is the issue of Issawi's Law of the Social Sciences. Because the social science perspectives tend to be added after a bioevent is in progress, it has little to offer initially. People have limited time and don’t want to invest in learning when its application seems remote at best, and when it becomes necessary to learn the information the situation is overcome by the immediate crisis which interferes with learning. For whatever reason I became focused on what has become a nascent field of study, and for that reason was prepared for the mid intensity global CV pandemic, but had no means to share insights. All I can recommend is for those who are developing something similar is to persist when there is little support, feel vindicated by what so far have been limited accomplishments, and not wait to start when the final curtain is coming down.
-3. Congress’s Spending Bill Protects a Mysterious Island for Studying Diseases from the Auction Block. For decades, Plum Island, off the northeast edge of Long Island, has been the subject of the kind of conspiracy theories the Internet loves. The truth is more prosaic: By order of Congress, the Plum Island Animal Disease Laboratory opened in 1956 to study how to combat dangerous foreign animal pathogens, such as foot and mouth disease. A dozen years ago, Congress approved a plan to move the animal research facility to Manhattan, Kansas. The move was to be followed by auctioning Plum Island to the highest bidder. A coalition consisting of environmental groups, Native American nations, local businesses, and other organizations was formed to block any such sale. Deep within the 5,000 plus pages of the spending bill awaiting President Trump’s signature… is a terse provision that saves Plum Island from the auction block. This is a story I followed prior to this public version of PDWN. Entries in the listibase are at <ADDED 190714-181118-VCP-China>6 and 160918-5.2. There is also mention of how the move to the new Kansas facility gutted the USDA <ADDED 190804-181118-VCP-China>6, <ADDED 190602-180729-11>11.
-4. Book Excerpt: The Power of Social Reality. By deploying the brain’s ability to compress information and think abstractly, humans are the only animals on the planet who can simply make things up, agree on them as a group, and they become real. This “social reality” is a superpower that gives us far more control over reality than we might think.
