My new favorite Covidian

Here’s the kind of policy advisor that we’re missing in Florida:

This is an “Epidemiologist and federal disaster medicine team member” in Proudly Scientifically Governed Minneapolis (lockdowns and school closures followed by the martyrdom of George Floyd; pre-coronapanic the city’s police perpetrated the Killing of Justine Damond).

My big question after reading “If I were forced to be infected by either HIV or COVID, I would choose HIV without hesitation”: Why can’t he collect all three (including monkeypox)? Why is he forced to choose?

Readers: Where could Olesen go right now and get HIV, COVID, and monkeypox all in one evening? I’m thinking that it would have to be in New York City.

(My source for this tweet from the epidemiologist/Scientist is, of course, one of my medical professor friends. On seeing Fauci on TV in March 2020, and nothing that nobody on the planet could possibly have the knowledge that Fauci was claiming to possess, he predicted, “this guy is doing to do more damage to the public perception of science and medicine than anyone in the history of humanity.”)

In case the fired Twitter employees take this tweet with them, a screen shot:

11 thoughts on “My new favorite Covidian

  1. I wonder who he thinks his target audience is? I had mild covid and recovered just fine, thank you, so my choice is different than his.

    A large percentage of people living in America have already had Covid and recovered or had no symptoms, so we are at herd immunity.

  2. I don’t know. Covid did a number on my brain (and my life), whereas HIV seems to be very manageable these days. This may not be a crazy take.

  3. Well, you know, in a sense he’s got a point. We really do have effective treatment options for HIV after all these years, and everybody knows exactly how to prevent transmission. I’m old enough to remember the original HIV outbreaks, when it wasn’t yet called HIV, and then a little later when Scientific American had long feature articles about what #Science was trying to accomplish against that disease. And all the dead and dying people. At least in the First World Countries, HIV is controllable and treatable and it’s not a death sentence.

    We still do not know what all the long-term effects of COVID (or the mRNA vaccines) are, it’s still being transmitted and mutating, and although we have a kind of herd immunity, it may not outlast the next variant.

    Our society had a number done on it, for sure, on a lot of levels. The Chinese are absolutely ZERO TOLERANCE and they should know what the damn thing is. Who am I to say that people who claim to have Long COVID are exaggerating or making it up? I have a different, even more lethal disease (when not treated) and I have to say that I was terrified of SARS-CoV2 at the beginning. I was just beginning my treatments and now there was this THING.

    I would never wish that anyone gets either of them. Unfortunately I still think Judith Persichilli was correct, and everyone is going to get COVID eventually. I no longer wear an N95 mask, but I still practice my own kind of social distancing.

    • Are you sure that you know what all the long term effects of common cold are (or any virus disease). I had common cold which knocked me out for entire winter, and nobody seemed to care much. And those viruses are also being transmitted and mutating all the time (like all viruses, including HIV). I had COVID two times (original Wuhan, and Omicron variant). Both times COVID was much easier on my body then some common colds I have had before.

      Some cancers have very effective treatment options nowadays. Maybe there is some point in statement that it is better to have cancer then common cold (who knows which virus mutation you can get).

      Are you sure that you know exactly how to prevent transmission of HIV. If you are old fart like me it does not matter much now, but if you were young man would you rather explain somebody you want to have sex with, that you have HIV, then have COVID ????

    • @mata: You’re quite right – the same “common cold” can have widely disparate effects on different people depending on their age, their basic health, their genetics, etc., etc. Every year at least of them “goes around” in our household and as many people know, some sniffle for a day or two, and others feel like they’ve been hit by a bus for a week.

      When my treatment started, I was also living in close proximity with two older (70+ year old) relatives and I had other high-risk factors in addition to my acute condition. I was afraid, basically, for everyone including myself. If I was completely healthy and living alone or with someone else who was also completely healthy, I wouldn’t have been as concerned, but I definitely did not want to contract COVID-19 and then gift it to my elder parents. In other words, I tried to follow the Great Barrington Declaration’s advice and protect the elderly and vulnerable.

      I’m not interested in and argument about being a young person infected with HIV who wants to hook up. We know that if you don’t f**k people – particularly unsafe sex with high-risk individuals – it’s very difficult or impossible to get it or transmit it. Celibacy and or mutual masturbation may not be everyone’s idea of a great sex life, but if you have HIV I guess you have to do what you have to do.

      Lots of people in the American media (including Jeffrey Toobin) practice masturbation – mutual and otherwise – every day! 🙂

    • “The Chinese are absolutely ZERO TOLERANCE and they should know what the damn thing is.”

      The Chinese government is delighted by any opportunity to oppress the populace. It’s a light version of Stalin’s weekly death targets. Also, they don’t have an adequate vaccine and don’t want to lose face by buying one in.

    • Alex: I see your point. In your case, you might have been better off with HIV then with COVID , and there are certainly many people in the same situation. So I have to give in, there is some point in that tweet. But the most people are not in that situation, and I would still say that this tweet is preposterous. I’ll try to explain: I have friend in USA, head of research team, famous university, and also working as physician, not a stupid guy. Last year he told me, dead serious, that COVID mortality is around 10 %, and that mortality does not depend on age. He was also scolding me for not wanting to get vaccine (in the meantime I got two shots because I am a coward and I was afraid of loosing my job, fully vaccinated 2 months before I got my second COVID :-)). So far so good. But he also pressured mutual friend of ours to vaccinate his two teenage girls, and I can not remain polite and describe what I think about that. So I am afraid that the spirit of the commented tweet is much more like what my friend is doing and telling, then that what you wrote, which has it’s point.

  4. Your medical professor friend who said “this guy is doing to do more damage to the public perception of science and medicine than anyone in the history of humanity” was obviously not aware that Fauci is #ScienceIncarnate.

  5. Sounds like an admission he is a bugchaser. If he keeps it up he will get the trifecta and more.

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