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We should be throwing unbelievable amounts of money into funding science right now given how many frontiers are being pushed that could transform things WITHIN OUR LIFETIMES but instead we're fighting for our lives inside of a psyop that's convinced everyone nothing is worth anything unless it comes in a smartphone
The gaslighting we are all experiencing about science is monumental
Also yet another demonstration of the critical power of retrospective analysis, not everything can be an RCT (obviously) and breakthroughs in disease treatment often have to come from real world observational studies coupled with careful mechanism work in animal models.
Exactly the methods RFK JR is trying to destroy and that the Republicans mock as unnecessary because they only have a kindergarten crayon drawing understanding of science
And unfortunately that's what techbros have too
This is just unreal
mRNA vaccines are going to be a turning point in human history if we're ever allowed to fucking do science again in this country
Believe me, every week I talk to women who have been denied a critical diagnosis for more than a decade longer than men would have been, who have been belittled, dismissed, sent home in dangerous circumstances. This IS a war. It IS inhumane. Be mean. Be persistent. SURVIVE.
I want to emphasize that being placating, NICE, trying all the things that women are raised to do to de-escalate tension, does not work with sadistic bullies who deeply enjoy the feeling that they're gaslighting you and you're weak when you try to explain things to them. Their emotional interiority is not your concern anymore. Finding their fragile-ass leverage points is. They are sadistic little cogs in a cruel machine who are probably burnt out. You can make them decide blocking you is scary.
Also after that first pharmacist denied me I was both crushed and confused, gaslit enough that I wondered if I was somehow the crazy person she was accusing me of being even though I KNEW THE SCIENCE and she didn't. But I went to another pharmacy and got it. Be mean. Be persistent. SURVIVE.
I made a couple example scripts to help my friends who were also facing challenging dismissal from doctors, not vax specific but may be useful as more people have to experience being denied reasonable healthcare for political reasons now.
For the last six months I've been attempting to get healthcare for post covid symptoms. It will likely come as no surprise that this has been difficult. After covid, a very large percentage of people experience cardiopulmonary symptoms. It is very common and you likely know very many people going through this, or could be one yourself.It takes me a lot of energy to share about this but it's worse going through it and feeling like there's no help, so on we go. Everyone's case is different and com
drcathicks (www.drcathicks.com)
Focused, calm, but completely stubborn and ice cold "I can't leave until I have it documented why you aren't doing this" has worked for me. And warmth and trying to do social persuasion does not work imho with bigoted healthcare people. They have bully energy so you have to.
Anyway my practical advice, having faced down many healthcare practitioners who clearly would prefer I suffocate to death rather than do their own jobs, is to practice a confrontation where someone is refusing to give you your medicine and also refusing to explain why. Practice asking questions
Also "chronic lung diseases limited to the following" is such bullshit. Many people don't end up having a clear diagnosis with respiratory issues, why tf would you LIMIT this. All lung issues should qualify. I think a lot about how our treatment of health as discrete medical conditions is inaccurate
This is one reason people end up having to chase a diagnosis, even inaccurate ones, when resources and care are gated on matching a textbook. Inhumane.
At the end of the day they actually get to do what they want at pharmacies so this is going to turn into a lot of permission for the people who are already highly right-wing and politicized on this and that is, to an extent that I think we are often politely ignoring, a TON of healthcare workers.
I'm deeply not convinced this "high risk conditions for the covid vaccine" list is going to work for everyone because I am inarguably high risk (I literally had chronic lung damage after covid) and even before this a pharmacist went ballistic on me & denied a booster once saying only cancer or HIV would qualify. It's gonna be a tough time.