The above is the current breakdown in New Jersey for the percent of the ethnic populations, of all ages, who have been inoculated. It demonstrates the problem in that only a small fraction of Blacks seem to have been vaccinated. I shall return to this at the end.
One of the out front promoters during this pandemic has a paper on PLOS Biology wherein he asserts:
In summary, the aggression against science and scientists in America arises from three sources: 1) Far-right members of the US Congress, 2) the conservative news outlets and 3) a group of thought leaders who provide intellectual underpinnings to fuel the first two elements.
For researchers working in the pandemic response to continue to do so effectively, we seek help in halting the aggression. This is essential not only for our personal safety or national security, but also the reality that attacking science and scientists will both promote illness and cause loss of life. For example, currently more than 99% of the COVID-19 deaths now occur among unvaccinated people, and almost as many hospitalizations. To begin, the following steps must be considered:
• The President of the United States, together with science leaders at the federal agencies should prepare and deliver a robust, public, and highly visible statement of support. The statement would reaffirm the contribution of scientists across United States history.
• We should look at expanded protection mechanisms for scientists currently targeted by farright extremism in the United States. ...a bill known as the Scientific Integrity Act of 2021 (H.R. 849) to protect US Government scientists from political interference, but this needs to be extended for scientists at private research universities and institutes. Still another possibility is to extend federal hate-crime protections.
Now science and especially what we have seen in this pandemic is a give an take of ever increasing facts and hopefully the use of of logic to assemble conclusions which then get tested in the arena of ideas. The author is proposing that if another's scientific assertion different from his that such becomes a hate crime! One cannot accept that.
Defending a PhD thesis was a process of give and take, of alternate theories and the insertion of new facts. This paper is a clear example of politicizing the whole process which in my opinion is why we face such a lack of faith in science. "Believe what I say or we will incarcerate you!"
This reminds me of the old Soviet Union. Marxism is a philosophy wherein the future is predictable. My first book was Stochastic Systems and State Estimation. The opening in my Preface was,
To anyone familiar with measurements it should be quite obvious that the world is filled with uncertainty. Through ingenuity and insight scientists and engineers have over the past several centuries found ways to combat these uncertainties.
Each experiment lends itself to an observation and a possible alternative view. Silencing those with differing views is what the Soviets did with my works.
What makes a far-right extremist? Someone who has an opinion at variance with the author. Is it not possible that one may apply their own talents and be capable of making assertions based on the facts that differ without having to be silenced?
There is no single truth in science. Science is successful if we can present the facts, the data, the basis for our assertions, and as such posit something of merit.
Take the spreading of the virus. I contend we still do not have a clear understanding of how this is done. I have examined multiple approaches and still fins no conclusive evidence. How small are the virion aerosols and how effective are these masks? Frankly the results are spotty, the physics complex, and the organism a challenge.
What we can assert is that we understand the organism per se, we understand how it enters cells, and we have thanks to the previous administration a vaccine cadre that is efficacious. What we seem to have is a segment of the population for a variety of reasons are objecting. Frankly I do not know why. I drove to Delaware in March to get inoculated. I have been inoculated against dozens of threats from smallpox to polio to rabies to corona. But that is me. I do not believe that incarcerating those who differ solves the problem. In fact I believe that even suggesting it exacerbates the problem.
Now to the opening data display. The assertion of the author that it is only right wing trouble makers seems in New Jersey to be refuted. The groups noted above are primarily Democratic wards whereas the vaccinated are at the least a mix at at the most more right leaning. Thus the author's assertions seem without merit, lack any basis, and frankly are outright wrong.
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