A letter from a Dutch epidemiologist:
Today, I got a mail from a bored colleague, asking me how life in the hospital is, and that she ‘really’ looked forward to come back to work.
Well… She could just come to work, couldn’t she, just like I do (every day since the beginning of the lockdown) but she prefers to stay at home, just like >90% of my colleagues do. I wonder why.
Even the Dutch Health Inspectorate website is now finally giving in that the ‘epidemic’ is over (hardly any cases) and that there is nothing to fear (if there ever was). Still my colleagues stay home and are bored to death. Has apathy stepped in?
Why did my colleagues (broadly speaking the health care system) give in into a phenomenon that, as it has now turned out definitely, is approximately half as deadly as seasonal flu? – They had the all tools to see through the scam from the beginning, yet preferred not to see through the scam, and stayed home and said nothing. In some cases they even cheerleaded the outbreak by giving the public advice to keep the country in lockdown. Or they did ‘research’ (mostly expert opinion) into how deadly this disease is. And especially the latter people have been far more ‘successful’ (as defined by number of publications) than I have been in the last months.
So I looked at the number of publications since the lockdown from my (self-isolating) colleagues and saw that my department has published about 10 ‘scientific’ articles that showed that Covid19 is deadly and conclude that a lockdown is in place. At the same time I prepared (with PhD students) 3 articles that are far more sobering as towards the ‘deadliness’ of Covid19 and have published diddly-squat. So if you ask my colleagues (or the dean), it is pretty clear who is successful and who is not.
And it is this thing of counting up the wrong numbers that constantly produce all sorts of misery.
Some examples:
1. My hospital hasn’t seen a case of Covid19 in weeks, but started today with counting people at the entrance who show Covid19 ‘symptoms’ including an automatic temperature measurement. Why? And the answer to that is because the government asked them to do that, and as long as the hospital (management) complies to the demand from the government they are sure of getting financial help from the government.
2. I have talked myself blue in the face to several colleagues that they should not submit ‘second wave’ research for funding, as the only thing it can produce is a new lockdown, which wasn’t even in place at time of the ‘first wave’. And they just stare or laugh at me, and submit their proposals anyway, as it is (almost certain) free money for more ‘research’ and great for their own CV building/career.
3. I talked with my bosses about the nonsense of the 1.5 meter distancing rule and the obligatory wearing of mouth masks in public transportation (starting in NL from June 1) and that we (epidemiologists) really should openly oppose these measures and make the people understand that the core of the scientific method is skepticism instead of conventional wisdom. And they never reply or do anything against this non-sense. Because, you see, they can explain to funders that when following these rules of social distancing, it will be harder to reach endpoints in studies and that for that reason grants should be extended.
So what these examples show is that all that is counted and is worth of interest in this little world that I live in, is money.
And I know how my colleagues might gossip with each other when they discuss my behavior. And they could say something like this: "_________ is an easy talker, with all his moral stories. In the end it is us who pay his salary since we got the funding from the government and the grants! It is about time that he should tune down a little.’"
And then they will give me some stupid, yet very work intensive, thing to work on, like teaching or helping their PhD students who off-railed from their (non-sensical) studies.
Pretty hopeless isn’t it?
And compassion is the only thing that neoliberalism compassionately tries to keep out of the equation of all possible choices. You never see it mentioned in grants, CVs, job applications, and all sorts of other ‘succesful’ things (like running a household) as defined by neoliberalism!
I think the PTB prefer civil war over compassion, and I must say that this scares me as I see it happening in front of my own eyes: the breakdown of society in two camps: one group who doesn’t want to or simply can’t live according to the big lie that Covid19 is. And the other group that embraces the lie as they are too scared and can’t help themselves and/or have a monied interest in believing it.
And both camps are miserable and don’t like their situation at all.
– How easy would it be to talk things over like friends do (who don’t need more than a word to understand each other when they see each other) instead of entering the Babylonic confusion of tongues that you get through social distancing, videoconferencing, and the absurd measures that only confuse you in its inconsistency, yet are ardently applied…
And I think that is the most cruel thing of all, that they try to make us inhuman by isolating us from each other, and which, precisely for that reason should be resisted.