Boston Illegal #19

Thursday evening May 14, 2020 was my 56th official day at home (Shelter in Place).  I have literally not left the house more than 4 times in my car  (Ellen & Susan have been my concierge for food and sundries).  I have physically seen only twelve people for these 56 days.   Since Ohio was opening up it was time for a socially physical distancing time - Boston Legal. #19.

Once the spouses heard about this they decided to have their Boston Illegal on the front patio.  The need for physical social interaction is clearly a mandatory emotional need.  The movie Castaway with Tom Hanks remains one of my favorite movies as it shows the willingness to risk death for relationship connectiveness.

It does not surprise me that the USA is opening up and emotions are riding high between the extroverts and introverts. Suddenly a new education about natural rights and freedoms become the day to day discussions about the shelter-in-place orders and pending orders about masks and gloves.

J.P. had sent me a link to Randy Barnett's discussion about Individual Liberty in a Pandemic.  Little did I understand the overriding weight of my freedom as defined by the Ohio Constitution (vs the Federal Constitution).  I have never read the Ohio Constitution!

No movie for this Boston Legal  -  however I decided to post facto watch one as the suggested homework -   Charlton Heston in "The Omega Man" (1971).   Little did I realize this was just a COVID-19 movie showing all the people that decided to ignore shelter in place and stay out late at night :)

Blame Game - 2

I've caught the "bug" in learning about the mystery of  influenza. Funny how subjects I hated in high school - biology and history - I am now enjoying learning about.   Over the past few days I have watched the Great Courses Lectures #11-13  "The 1918 Flu" - Professor Bruce E. Fleury ;  the Smithsonian America's Hidden Stories - "Pandemic 1918" ;  and the most interesting - a 2014 lecture at the University of Arizona  -  "The Genesis of the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic" ;

Professor Michael Worobey speculates (with very persuasive data) that we can blame the Spanish Flu on a Canadian Horse!   Even more interesting is the history of influenza and what age group may have the best immunity to different strains.

I was most intrigued at Professor Michael Worobey's  answer to the question about this slide stating a "Lab Escape" of H1N1: 

"In 1957 the Spanish Flu went extinct when H2N2 emerged in 1963.  H3N2 kicked out H2N2 but in 1977 there was a kind of mini pandemic and H1N1 re-emerged and bottom line if you look at the molecular clock it [H1N1] was frozen in time not even since 1957 but it was a 1950 N1 strain and it is virtually certain it was an accidental mistake probably from an experimental strain from China or Russia.  And so - yes - the first pathogen in human history was accidentally re-released and not to many people know about it until you guys."

The strange spike in 2017-2018 in deaths from influenza is put in context in this interview with Worobey in Feb. 2018:  

Even Worobey's research on HIV-1 is fascinating discovering strains of this circulating in the 1970's before the outbreak in the US was recognized - see article "Findings of how AIDs spread across North America" 

Bottom-line -  when you were born and what your first battle with influenza was may determine your success in the fight with COVID-19. 

Blame Game

Now the escalating viral gossip circulating the internet and news media is the attempt to find the "cause" of the COVID-19 crisis. The blame game is a natural human tendency - especially when it comes to a virus.   So often when we get the flu we try to determine the cause - or really who gave it to you.  In fact the whole discussion and ramp up for tracing mechanisms is one of the critical needs for relaxing the shelter-in-place to properly quarantine those individuals at risk of spreading the virus.

Tracing automatically reinforces the historical look back at who or where was the first incident.  It was fascinating to listen to the lineage of the Santa Clara County Tracing: 

The conspiracy theories about the source of the virus in Wuhan China and whether it was caused by a mistake in the lab or in the wet market will rage on.  Blaming the Chinese for this virus would be like blaming the USA (now thinking the Spanish Flu started in Kansas) for the start and spread of the Spanish Flu.   What gain comes from blaming anyone for the crisis?

Yes there is always a benefit to understanding a cause if it provides a benefit of avoid future problems.  However when the search for a cause is primarily to "damn" the source and to redirect the attention away from solving the problem while at the same time washing your hands from responsibility of current actions - then looking for the cause is a waste of precious time and resources that can be applied to solving the problem.

Does naming "Patient ZERO" help?  Should we damn that person?  Should we damn wet markets?  Should we damn the Chinese? 

"He who is without sin, cast the first stone"