HalWrightNewtown.Info
In support of rational and compassionate public policy at all levels of government which affect the residents of Newtown Township and Bucks County
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
~ John Adams
~ John Adams
What the FAR LEFT has to say about me and my writing
"You are anti-semitic!"
"You are a Zionist!"
"We don't give single fuck what your privileged ignorant ass has to say."
"Think, you pudding headed fuck."
What the FAR RIGHT has to say about me and my writing
"What an arrogant fool you are."
"YOU are pushing that racist bullshit."
"Dmb fk."
"You're a groomer, and are a danger to society."
I encourage you to explore this site and see what the fuss is about. Apologies in advance if you aren't as excited by measured, evidence-based reasoning as my "fans" in social media.
Of Interest in Newtown
Views from the Commons
An Infant Dies in Lancaster County
The controversy over the death of a newborn in Lancaster County has revealed the extent to which our politics and our public health are broken.
On August 14, a baby was born in Lancaster County. The mother was seriously ill with measles, having spiked a 102 degree fever. She received IV fluids the day before. The infant had a pulse at birth, but was not breathing. The baby never took a breath. Paramedics said the baby was dead. The county coroner was contacted.
The mother, and the mother's 13 children, were unvaccinated. [The Atlantic]
The baby tested positive for measles, and had a ruptured spleen. The PA Department of Health ruled the death "measles-associated," indicating only that the subject had tested positive for measles at the time of death. [PA Department of Health]
The county coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, stated that the infant had died from the ruptured spleen, and that measles played no role. His conclusions were based on a forensic patholgist's report that the infant's spleen was not enlarged. Nonetheless, Diamantoni said the coroner's office is still investigating the infant's death and had not issued a final report. [WGAL]
Some medical professionals have pushed back against Diamantoni's conclusions, most notably Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit acknowledged that "Dr. Diamantoni is in a tough spot" dealing with an unusual case, but argues that "it's hard to make sense of what he is saying." Offit outlined three objections to Diamantoni's public statements:
- It's difficult to determine the size of a ruptured spleen before it was ruptured. "[I]f you find a balloon on the ground that has burst, it’s hard to know how big it was before it burst," said Offit.
- Diamantoni did not indicate what had caused the fragility of the spleen that led to rupture. In the absence of such evidence, measles remains as a reasonable cause.
- Measles can damage a spleen without significantly enlarging it.
Offit summarizes: "We know that this infant was infected with measles while in the womb; we know that the infant died of splenic rupture; we know that measles infections can increase splenic fragility leading to rupture; and we know that splenic rupture is extraordinarily rare in newborns." In the absence of a more compelling reason why the infant's spleen ruptured, we are left with measles as the obvious cause. [Substack]
The infant's death, and another death in Lancaster County, have driven a politicized conflict between Governor Shapiro and RFK Jr's Department of Health and Human Services. Writing on X, Shapiro said: "The correlation is clear: Secretary Kennedy has stoked confusion amongst parents and others — and the result has been less protection from measles and more cases." Kennedy responded, saying that Shapiro's office had not provided the CDC with details about the deaths, and accusing Shapiro of fabricating that measles were the reason for the deaths. [Axios]
My foray into social media yields a predictable pattern: MAGA has embraced Diamantoni's statements to the exclusion of every other piece of evidence, and downplayed the severity of measles, while liberals have distilled the matter down to, "A baby died from measles, and it's RFK Jr's and Trump's fault." Right-leaning anti-vaxxers have issued high-pitched, frantic warnings that Shapiro will shut the state down as during COVID and mandate vaccinations. (Claude said I should flesh this out with examples, but honestly, the threads are too depressing to revisit.)
All of this has played out against the backdrop of a nationwide measles outbreak caused by unvaccinated individuals, the worst in 35 years. [CDC] During the outbreak, at RFK Jr.'s urging, Trump signed an executive order that the MMR vaccine be split into three separate administrations, complicating parents' ability to get their kids vaccinated. [White House]
While Shapiro's and other Democrats' alarm over the measles outbreak is justified, their instinct to politicize it before all the facts are in does not serve the public interest. Meantime, right-wing politicians amplify vaccine skepticism with false information and emotional appeals. COVID has opened the door for despots to bend infectious disease into political power with no stated intent to address and reduce the rate of infection.
In another time, a measles outbreak would have prompted bipartisan effort to increase vaccination rates, condolences to the families of those affected, and little else. Now, deaths of all kinds are politicized before the family has begun to grieve, and in many cases against their expressed wishes thereafter. Common perceptions of what helps and harms public health are uninformed by science and distorted by ideology. We are in a vulgar, ignorant place with no clear path to escape, and for many, little desire to find one.
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Fact: Climate change is real. Promoting clean energy is an urgent matter of national security.
Fact: Transgender persons exist, and cannot be legislated out of existence.
Fact: Students need a factual account of our history, including slavery and its residual effects on the rights and freedoms of all Americans.
Me Imperturbe
Me imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature,
Master of all, or mistress of all—aplomb in the midst of irrational things,
Imbued as they—passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought;
Master of all, or mistress of all—aplomb in the midst of irrational things,
Imbued as they—passive, receptive, silent as they,
Finding my occupation, poverty, notoriety, foibles, crimes, less important than I thought;
Me private, or public, or menial, or solitary—all these subordinate, (I am eternally equal with the best—I am not subordinate;)
Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland,
A river-man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm-life of These States, or of the coast, or the lakes, or Kanada,
Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or the Tennessee, or far north, or inland,
A river-man, or a man of the woods, or of any farm-life of These States, or of the coast, or the lakes, or Kanada,
Me, wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies!
O to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.
~ Walt Whitman
Tired
I am so tired of waiting,
Aren’t you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two –
And see what worms are eating
At the rind.
Aren’t you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two –
And see what worms are eating
At the rind.
~ Langston Hughes
