- Who are You™ and who are you virtually?
- Is the internet real?
- With the app-ification of the world, healthcare has seen more than its fair share of internet-delivered health interventions crop up. From mental health treatment (for anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress, OCD) to addiction mitigation (for tobacco, alcohol, cannabis) to physical health improvement (diet, physical activity, hypertension), hundreds of apps have been developed to cure what ails us. On the whole, are these healthcare apps helpful, harmful, or neutral? Put more pointedly, do they represent “the shape of things to come” in medicine or is this the same old snake oil in new bottles?
- Is this discussion a “virtual” discussion? Is it a real one? (Is it “virtually real”?)
- Iserson (2018) posits that “use of VR in medical education should increase patient safety and societal confidence in clinicians’ procedural skills, because inexperienced students, residents and practicing physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants will no longer need to use living and newly dead patients or animals as teaching fodder.” Do you agree with the general “gist” of that statement? Would you trust a newly graduated medical student who was taught primarily in “virtual” settings? What benefits are there to a medical education delivered “virtually” as opposed to one given in “reality”?
- In what ways can ethics be taught through virtual/extended/augmented reality?
- Is the reality of health care extending itself too far? No longer is a patient confined to the bedside for monitoring, often a physician will confirm a prediction first made by an algorithm, surgery is performed by robots: the human element slips away from the human science of medicine. Will these trends in the long run make for “objectively” better medical care?
- Has the internet made the world healthier?
- Physicians, it would seem, are already performing their work virtually. According to a 2013 study, a physician on average spends approximately 28% of their time directly treating patients, 12% of their time reviewing test results and records, 13% of their time in discussion with colleagues, and 44% of their time on data entry. The alarming figure of 4,000 mouse clicks a day entering and reviewing data was found. Physicians regularly speak of being overworked and interacting with patients less. Yet, more and more of their time is demanded in service of keeping records in lieu of treating patients. What can be done to mitigate physicians from becoming glorified data entrants? (Conversely, and in reference to question 7, what can be done to prevent data models from becoming physicians?)
- I understand that “killing” something playing a video game is not the same thing as “killing” something in reality. Yet, is there not some relation between the two? What does a consistent and readily available form of engaging entertainment involving mass violence do to people?
- Are you “accurately” represented by your social media presence(s)?
- Are “you” being tracked accurately by all those algorithms that find us? Could there exist a meta-bias for the types of algorithms you attract? (For example, do those with gambling problems preferentially face being presented with advertisements for sports betting?) And if so, what sort of “anti bias” training would we have to ensure these algorithms go through?
- Can one be addicted to Internet?
Incidental Art
Democracy now, democracy forever
Lee Cheok-yan
Cyd Ho
Albert Ho
Leung Kwok-hung
Jimmy Lai
Martin Lee
Margaret Ng
Au Nok-hin
Leung Yiu-chung
217 headlines from March 2021
- France’s Sarkozy convicted of corruption, sentenced to jail
- Hundreds claim decades of abuse by 150 youth center staffers
- Cuomo sorry for remarks aide ‘misinterpreted’ as harassment
- USDA puts brakes on land transfer for Arizona copper mine
- US announces $125 million defense aid package for Ukraine
- India Suspects China May Be Behind Major Mumbai Blackout
- Ex-pope Benedict chides ‘fanatical’ Catholics who reject his resignation
- Biden vows enough vaccine for all US adults by end of May
- Texas governor lifts mask mandate and allows businesses to open at 100% capacity despite health officials warnings
- FBI chief warns violent ‘domestic terrorism’ growing in US
- Jihadis attack town, humanitarian posts in northeast Nigeria
- Hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls released days after kidnapping
- SUV-big rig crash kills more than a dozen in Imperial County
- 6 Dr. Seuss books won’t be published for racist images
- Police uncover ‘possible plot’ by militia to breach Capitol
- Man injures 8 with an ax in Sweden before being shot, arrested
- Man who used van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto guilty
- Myanmar security forces kill at least 34 protestors
- Germany Places Far-Right AfD Party Under Surveillance for Extremism
- SUV in crash where 13 died came through hole in border fence
- Pipe bomb found, safely detonated at Iowa polling location
- WHO Investigators to Scrap Plans for Interim Report on Probe of COVID-19 Origins
- Indian man accused of beheading daughter in apparent “honor killing”
- Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivers 1st opinion
- SpaceX Starship lands upright, then explode in latest test
- Transgender Woman Expelled From South Korean Army Is Found Dead
- Police request 60-day extension of Guard at US Capitol
- Army, private firm, fights accused of Mozambique war crimes
- Pope Francie Arrives in Iraq
- Yemen’s Houthis claim missile attack on Saudi oil facility
- Tsunami Warning Lifted for New Zealand After 8.1-Magnitude Earthquake
- Earthquake swarm in Iceland could hint at even bigger event
- Quake-ravaged part of Croatia sees gaping sinkholes emerge
- Great apes receive COVID-19 vaccine at San Diego Zoo
- China boosts defense spending by 6.8% amid debt, pandemic
- Senate passes Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 bill
- Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama gets vaccine shot
- California OKs reopening ballparks, Disneyland
- At least 20 killed by suicide car bomb near restaurant in Somalia capital
- Protests intensify as Senegal opposition leader Ousmane Sonko faces rape charge
- Venezuela’s Maduro receives first dose of Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine
- China-Linked Hack Hits Tens of Thousands of U.S. Microsoft Customers
- Pope Prays Amid Ruins of Iraqi Churches Destroyed by IS
- Top China Diplomat Warns Biden to Tread Carefully on Taiwan
- Idaho parents and kids burn masks in front of state Capitol
- Cuomo faces fresh misconduct allegations from former aides
- UN fails to approve call to end Tigray violence
- China confirms African swine fever outbreaks in Sichuan, Hubei provinces
- Switzerland Approves Ban on Face Coverings in Public
- Fully vaccinated people can gather without masks, CDC says
- Death toll soars to 98 after arms depot explosions in Equatorial Guinea’s largest city
- U.S. says Russian-backed outlets are spreading Covid vaccine ‘disinformation’
- Myanmar Military Storms Universities and Hospitals, Revokes Press Licenses
- Philippines police kill 9 in raids on suspect rebels
- Saudi Arabia oil facilities targeted in drone and missile attack by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen
- US presents warring Afghan sides with draft peace agreement
- Arkansas governor signs near-total abortion ban into law
- Bangladesh TV hires country’s 1st transgender news anchor
- US prosecutors allege Honduras presidents helped move drugs
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs $2.5 billion COVID-19 relief funding
- Pentagon to extend National Guard troops at US Capitol
- Student says she lied about beheaded teacher sharing Muhammed caricatures
- Mich. High School Student Accidentally Detonates Explosive in Class, Injures Himself and 5 Others
- Merrick Garland Is Confirmed as Attorney General
- House passes landmark $1.9T COVID bill, delivers Biden first legislative win
- Ghost Towns of Fukushima Remain Empty After Decade-Long Rebuild
- Brazil, Hit by Covid-19 Variant, Surpasses U.S. in Daily Cases and Deaths
- Asia Shoppers Buy Taiwan Pineapples as Support, Defying China Ban
- Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
- Malaysian court rules non-Muslims can use ‘Allah’
- President Biden signs $1.9T Covid relief stimulus bill into law
- Gov Cuomo groping allegation reported to police
- Aruká Juma, Last Man of His Tribe, Dies
- Judge reinstates third-degree murder charge against ex-cop Derek Chauvin in George Floyd’s death
- Mexico Passes Bill to Legalize Cannabis
- Parliament votes to declare entire EU an LGBT ‘freedom zone’
- China passes law to control Hong Kong elections
- City of Minneapolis reaches $27M settlement with George Floyd’s family
- 30 Students Kidnapped in Northwest Nigeria
- Bolivia’s ex-interim president faces arrest warrant for terrorism and sedition
- Schumer, Gillibrand call on NY Gov. Cuomo to resign
- US offers temporary legal residency to people from Myanmar
- Olympic host Japan will not take part in China vaccine offer
- Live Action Role-Playing Love Triangle Ends in Pipe Bomb Attack
- Sri Lanka to ban burqas, close over 1,000 Islamic schools
- US resumes aid to Yemen’s rebels north as famine threatens
- Chicago River dyed green in surprise move by city’s mayor
- At least 12 killed in protests in Myanmar; civilian vice-president vows resistance to junta
- London police officer charged with murder of Sarah Everard
- Italy imposed Easter lockdown amid COVID-19 spike
- Tesla Plant Elon Musk Reopened Logged Hundreds of Infections
- Dutch police break up anti-gov’t protest on eve of election
- North Korea ‘not responding’ to US contact efforts
- Fury as Charlie Hebdo magazine cover shows Queen kneeling on Meghan Markle’s neck
- Mormon leader says family donation to Biden was ‘oversight’
- Sarah Everard’s vigil aggressively broken up by London police
- Protests erupt in Jordan after COVID-19 hospital deaths scandal
- Major arms sales flat in 2016-20 for first time in more than a decade
- Vatican Says Catholic Church Cannot Bless Same-Sex Marriages
- 2 Arrests in Assault on Police Office Who Died After Capitol Riot
- Factory Fires Point to China Tensions as Violence Escalates in Myanmar
- Flights canceled during China’s worst sandstorm in a decade
- Nigerian Gunmen Kidnap Primary-School Children in Latest Mass Abduction
- Major European nations suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine
- Myanmar junta orders martial law in large area of Yangon
- Israeli experts announce discovery of more Dead Sea scrolls
- China authorizes fourths COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
- Ethiopia’s Amhara Seizes Disputed Territory Amid Tigray War
- 7 dead in shootings at 3 massage parlors across metro Atlanta
- Gunmen kill at least 58 in attack on Niger market sellers
- US woman givers birth to first known baby with Covid antibodies, doctors say
- Senator alleges FBI’s Brett Kavanaugh investigation may have been “fake”
- John Magufuli, Tanzania leader Who Played Down Covid, Dies at 61
- IRS postpones April 15 U.S. tax deadline to May 17
- Texas Man Arrested With Guns, Ammo Outside of Vice Presidential Residence
- Racist extremists pose most deadly terrorist threat to US, intelligence report warns
- Japan’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional By District Court
- House passes bill to renew Violence Against Women Act
- Michigan Murse Arrested For Stealing Covid Vaccine
- 21 states sue Biden for revoking Keystone XL pipeline permit
- AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine Cleared by EU After Blood-Clot Concerns
- Spanish lawmakers approve bill legalising euthanasia
- China and U.S. open Alaska meeting with undiplomatic war of words
- Over 300 victims ‘sexually abused through Germany’s top diocese’ in Cologne
- Gunmen kill 13 police in ambush in central Mexico
- U.S. Homelessness Rises for 4th Straight Year
- U.S. Surpasses 100 Million Covid-19 Vaccines Administered
- CDC Says Schools Can Now Space Students 3 Feet Apart, Rather than 6
- Cuomo Faces New Claims of Sexual Harassment From Current Aide
- Biden stumbles multiple times, falls as he scales Air Force One stairs
- Biden, Harris offering solace to grieving Asian Americans
- Samia Suluhu Hassan becomes Tanzania’s first woman president
- Idaho Legislature shuts down due to COVID-19 outbreak
- Miami Beach declares state of emergency over spring break crowds
- One dead, 12 injured in separate Texas nightclub shootings
- Volcano erupts in Iceland for first time in 6,000 years
- 6 Lions Found Dead In Ugandan National Park
- Jury members seated for Chauvin trial, judge denies defense request for delay or move
- Russian man pleads guilty in Nevada to plot to extort Tesla
- UNLV plans in-person graduation in May
- Donald Trump plans to launch a social network in ‘two to three months’
- Doctors protest in Myanmar as state violence continues
- Canadian Pacific to buy Kansas City Southern in $25 billion railroad merger
- Congo-Brazenville presidential candidate in hospital with Covid-19
- Turkey pulls out of international accord aimed at protecting women from violence
- Saudi-led Warplanes Strike Houthi Rebel Targets in Yemen After Aramco Attack
- Philippine troops rescue Indonesian hostages and kill top Abu Sayyaf militant
- U.S., allies announce sanctions on China over Uyghur ‘genocide’
- Saudi Arabia offers cease-fire plan to Yemen rebels
- Taiwan Grounds Aging F-5 Fighters After Fatal Mid-Air Collision
- Congolese presidential candidate dies from Covid on election day
- Fire destroys thousands of homes in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh
- Philippines demands Chinese fishing flotilla leave disputed South China Sea reef
- China Is Investigating Heaps of Dead Pigs Along the Yellow River
- North Korea Conducts First Weapons Test Since Biden Inauguration
- Sens. Duckworth, Hirono Will Block Biden Nominees Over Lack of AAPI Representation
- No clear winner in Israeli election, signaling more deadlock
- Volcanic ash shuts down international airport in Guatemala
- Top Saudi official issued death threat against UN investigator
- Colorado Shooting Suspect Surrendered to SWAT, Charged With 10 Counts of Murder
- Undetonated bomb found at apartment in Kalamazoo Westlodge Hill neighborhood
- Ever Given, the massive cargo ship that ran aground in Suez Canal, is still stuck
- Facebook says Chinese hackers used platform to hack Uyghurs abroad
- GSK fires ex-Operation Warp Speed chief Moncef Slaoui over ‘substantiated’ sexual harassment claims
- Pope order salary cuts for cardinals, clerics to save jobs of employees
- 137 People Killed in Niger in Series of Attacks on Villages Along Mali Border
- Rachel Levine Is First Openly Transgender Official Confirmed by Senate
- First Dogs Return To White House After Major Biden Causes Minor Injury
- Biden Holds First Formal News Conference
- Man with body armor, guns, possible explosive arrested at University of Kentucky hospital
- Bank of England Unveils 50-Pound Note Featuring Alan Turing
- New Zealand Approves Paid Leave After A Miscarriage
- Taiwan says it has begun mass producing long-range missiles
- China attacks foreign clothing, shoe brands over Xinjiang
- Georgia Gov. Kemp signs GOB election bill amid outcry
- Trains Collide in Egypt, Killing at Least 32
- Yemen rebels hit, set ablaze fuel tank in south Saudi Arabia
- Ethiopian Prime Minister says Eritrea will withdraw troops from Tigray
- China sanctions Britons over West’s Xinjiang criticism
- Iranian missile hits Israeli-owned cargo ship in Arabian Sea
- U.S., Taiwan Sign Coast Guard Deal to Counter Chinese Pressure
- Michigan GOP chair calls top Democratic women ‘witches’, mentions assassination
- At least 114 killed in Myanmar in deadliest day since start of protests
- Convoy of fleeing civilians ambushed in besieged Mozambique town
- China flies at least 20 war planes in Taiwan airspace
- Baltimore will no longer prosecute drug possession, prostitution, and other low-level offenses
- Modi’s Visit to Bangladesh Sets of Violent Protests
- Homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake cleared after 2 nights of protests resulting in arrests
- Iran, China sign 25-year cooperation agreement
- Suicide Bombing Wounds 20 In Indonesia Church on Palm Sunday
- New York lawmakers agree to legalize recreational marijuana
- 8 people injured and 2 killed in mass shooting in Virginia Beach
- Islamist insurgents seize northern Mozambique town of Palma
- Beijing Hit by Sandstorm Again as Pollution Goes Off the Charts
- Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia accuse soldier of abuse
- Pope, on Palm Sunday, says devil taking advantage of pandemic
- Suez Canal Ship Is Free
- WHO draft report says animals likely source of COVID-19
- CDC chief warns of ‘impending doom’ as Covid cases surge
- Maryland man fatally shoots 4, including his parents, before killing self
- Serial killer on federal death row dies at Indiana hospital
- SolarWinds hack obtained emails of top U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials
- US Suspends Trade With Myanmar Over Civilian Deaths
- Report from WHO team finds virus likely jumped from animals, not from lab leak
- Brazil on edge as three military chiefs resign after Bolsonaro fires defense minister
- China sharply reduces elected seats in Hong Kong legislature
- Nato intercepts Russian planes ’10 times in a day’
- Three Women Working to Vaccinate Children Shot Dead in Afghanistan
- Cherry blossoms’ earliest peak in 1,200 years linked to climate change
- 10 Chinese military aircraft intrude into Taiwan’s ADIZ
- Biden Details $2 Trillion Plan to Rebuild Infrastructure and Reshape Economy
- Macron Announces France Going Into 4-Week Lockdown
- Pentagon Announces New Policies For Transgender People To Serve Openly
- Navalny Declares a Hunger Strike in Prison Over Medical Care
- Niger Government Confirms Military Coup Attempt Thwarted
- Myanmar protestors launch ‘garbage strike’ as death toll since coup tops 500
- Fighting Escalates in Eastern Ukraine, Signaling the End to Another Cease-Fire
“It’s true I used to try, but then I gave up
I learned it doesn’t really matter, what I do ain’t enough
To appease or to please, all my well-meaning deeds
Seem to all go up in smoke.”
– “It’s a Wonderful Life” by Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution
Taking the plunge
Questions to ponder on accidents
- Who are you and why are you here?
- Diagnosis is a conclusion resulting from an observation of symptoms and a knowledge of human conditions during the practice of the medical arts and sciences. Error can manifest in the enterprise at just about any level – a mistake in observation, an omission of symptoms, an incomplete knowledge of human conditions – and cascade forward, affecting prognosis and treatment. As such an incorrect diagnosis is a singular form of “accidental” medical error. Under what circumstances is an individual practitioner at fault? Can the medical system itself be at fault? Are there times when neither is error and accidents just happen?
- Schubert et al. identify four aspects to a framework of identifying liability in medical error: intent (what was a practitioner trying to do), etiology (is there a causal connection between an action and an undesired result?), context (could others of skill in the art have identified/prevented the error readily?), and outcome (does the error result in harm?). Are these four facets sufficient? Is there any feature you would add/eliminate/(de)emphasize?
- How do we assign blame?
- A surgeon, working 12 hours straight on a difficult and complex open chest heart surgery in the final hour nicks a small vein. After completing the surgery, the patient awakens, spends a few days in recovery, is able to go home. A week after surgery, on the way to their check-in appointment, the patient suffers a cardiac event resulting from the small wound in the nicked vein. Could anything have been done to prevent this or is this “just the way that it goes”?
- There has been a trend in modern healthcare systems to shift away from blame and punishment of medical errors in order to facilitate disclosure of said errors. What’s more, self-blame – such as guilt, regret, and remorse – can lead to negative psychological effects on individual practitioner, possibly worsening their abilities. Tigard posits “those who take the blame are in the best position to offer apologies and show that mistakes are being taken seriously, thereby allowing harmed patients and families to move forward in the wake of medical error.” Should medical practitioners take on more active role in their errors (I made a mistake) or a more passive role (mistakes were made)?
- Do the “systems” of medicine preferentially/implicitly/necessarily induce accidents in people of color more often than others?
- “Medical error” has been identified as the third leading cause of death of the United States with studies putting the annual toll in the hundreds of thousands. Who or what is at fault for these massive casualties? Can the regularity of these deaths (on the order of one every other minute) be said to be accidental or systemic?
- Tort law is ultimately intended to promote rectificatory justice, i.e., to pay for harms done. One study found the cost of the medical liability system to be approximately 2.4 percent of total healthcare spending in America (or about $91 billion last year). Is this too much, too little, or just about the right amount of money to be spending on medical errors? (Note, this does not account for the cost of the loss of life due to medical error, merely in the insurance and litigation of such errors.)
- “Moral luck” is the contingency of circumstance in moral actions. Consider the scenario in which two doctors are tasked with determining the presence of cancer in their patients, one in the habit of ordering a standard suite of tests intended to diagnosis a wide range of cancers (resulting in larger medical bills, but fewer misdiagnoses) and one who orders narrowly tailored tests based on the observation of symptoms, conditions, and second opinions (resulting in lower medical bills, but an increased possibility of a missed diagnosis). Is one practicing medicine more legitimately than the other? If a patient presents with a difficult case (uncommunicative patient, incomplete medical records, rare cancer), and one fails to diagnose the patient, are they “in error”? Would the patient’s demise in such a case be an accident?
- There will come a time when our condition(s) will be diagnosed by both an artificial intelligence and a human medical practitioner. Who ought to make the first diagnosis and who the confirmatory diagnosis?
- If a machine-learning algorithm used to aid diagnosis makes an “error” who is at fault?
- Fate and Fortune being as they are draw our souls into a world of circumstance and happenstance. Are/Were we meant to be here?
- Is it better to come (or go) “on accident” or “on purpose”?
Their names
Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
Suzanne Fountain, 59
Teri Leiker, 51
Kevin Mahoney, 61
Lynn Murray, 62
Rikki Olds, 25
Nevan Stanisic, 23
Denny Strong, 20
Eric Talley, 51
Jody Waters, 65
Their names
Daoyou Feng, 44, “just the sweetest, kindest, most giving person”
Hyun Jung Grant, 51, “I could say whatever word that comes to my head for her, but it doesn’t encompass a fraction of what she meant to us.”
Suncha Kim, 69, “She represented everything I wanted to be as a woman, without an ounce of hate or bitterness in her heart.”
Paul Andre Michels, 54, “He was just a regular guy, very good-hearted, very soft-natured.”
Soon Chung Park, 74, “She got along with her family so well.”
Xiaojie Tan, 49, “She did everything for me and the family. She provided everything.”
Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, “She has two beautiful babies she is leaving behind.”
Yong Ae Yue, 63, “She was always there for her kids.”
A march in March in Ann Arbor
About three dozen people walked from the steps of Hatcher Graduate Library through downtown Ann Arbor and back to the Diag on March 13 to call attention to systemic racism in policing and the mattering of black lives.
The march began at about 2:45 p.m. local time.
The participants walked through E. William St. up to S. Main St. with a police escort at their front, their rear, and their sides, with multiple police vehicles blocking intersections and crosswalks to protect the demonstrators from traffic.
Leading the group were two women who initiated call and response shouts with those in tow including “No justice”/”No peace”, “What do we want?”/”Justice”/”When do we want it?”/”Now”, and “How do you spell ‘murder'”/”A-A-P-D”.
A couple of families participating brought up the rear.
From S. Main St. traveled north to E. Huron St. to stand for a moment at the intersection in front of the Washtenaw County Courthouse. Upon reaching the intersection, the leaders listed off names to be remembered including Aura Rosser, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Two minutes of silence were asked for, only one was taken.
A police officer, having heard from a driver trying to make a northbound turn from Huron onto Main, directed traffic around the demonstrators.
The moment of silence observed, the protestors walked east down Huron St., where the street had been cleared for blocks by police in anticipation of the protestors route. Outside of City Hall, the leader with the microphone noted that rather than being fired for having killed a black person, an Ann Arbor Police Officer received a promotion.
Locals along the route watched with varying degrees of agreeableness.
The protestors turned south onto State St., close to the University of Michigan.
Finally, the protestors returned to the Diag for a short speech from the leaders commending their participation and urging them to continue in their efforts.
The event ended around 3:30 p.m.
Questions to ponder on infection
- Who are you and how are you holding up on this pandemiciversary?
- Communicable, infectious, and “tropical” diseases kill millions each year. Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, typhoid, influenza, hepatitis, meningitis, pertussis, malaria, dengue, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, ebola, and others causes by bacterial, viral, and parasitic infection have ended the lives of billions of the humans who have ever lived. And yet, these infections do not kill equally. According to the WHO, of the top 10 leading causes of death in high-income countries, only one is due to infection. In low-income countries, 6 of the top 10 are from infections. What is it about money that protects populations from infection?
- Certainly, we can all agree that we each have a responsibility to avoid (as best we can) infecting others with diseases we might have. To what extent do we have a responsibility to prevent infectious spread between others?
- If you could eliminate one infectious disease, which would it be and why?
- It is argued by some that vaccines development could be accelerated/improved by conducting controlled human infection studies. That is, if we infect folks with a known virus at a known time and subject them to a known treatment, researchers could potentially get “better” data than what presents (sporadically) in clinical situations. Under what conditions would intentional infections in human studies be acceptable? Could similar arguments be made for the intentional breaking of bones or the development of cancer within human beings to “improve” treatment for those disorders?
- Infectious diseases can be and has been used as weapons against others. From small pox blankets to HIV-infect men raping others, the purposeful spreading of contagion can be a means of inflicting a unique form of violence. And at least to my mind, a singularly onerous form. What facet(s) of this violence make it distinct from others?
- In war there is violence: violence “justified” by state actors (or their equivalents) for state interventions (or their equivalents). Can/Could/Should infectious disease ever be a legitimate form of violence waged in war? Why or why not?
- When does a herd have a right to demand immunity? What just means do we have at our disposal to enforce it? Put more practically, could/should/will the University of Michigan require proof of a Covid-19 vaccination to be a student campus?
- Morens & Fauci (2007) suggest “if a novel virus as pathogenic as that of 1918 were to reappear today, a substantial proportion of a potential 1.9 million fatalities (assuming 1918 attack and case-fatality rates in the current US population) could be prevented with aggressive public-health and medical interventions”. Was the United States’ response to the novel coronavirus met with sufficiently aggressive public-health and medical interventions? Is it currently meeting it aggressively enough?
- When/Will SARS-CoV-2 infections end?
