On 30/03/2021 11:58, Aragorn wrote:
> On 29.03.2021 at 21:17, TimS scribbled:
>
>> On 29 Mar 2021 at 21:54:26 BST, Aragorn  wrote:
>>
>>> On 29.03.2021 at 21:07, Joe scribbled:
>>>
>>>>   On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 20:46:04 +0100
>>>>   Ahem A Rivet's Shot  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>   > On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 20:17:23 +0100
>>>>   > Joe  wrote:
>>>>   >
>>>>   > > Occam's Razor says that there is a simpler explanation than
>>>>   > > 'hygiene'.
>>>>   >
>>>>   >  I'd guess cough etiquette[1] to be a major factor, along
>>>>   > with the huge upswing in effective hand cleansing.
>>>>   >
>>>>   > [1] Just how long ago was the "coughs and sneezes spread
>>>>   > diseases" campaign ?
>>>>   >
>>>>
>>>>   So why has flu been practically eliminated, but not Covid, which
>>>> is a comparable respiratory disease caused by a virus of similar
>>>> size?
>>>
>>> Covid-19 is most definitely NOT a respiratory disease.  If
>>> anything, it is actually comparable to AIDS in that it attacks your
>>> immune system, hijacks it, and then turns it against you.
>>
>> What's your evidence for this statement?
>
> Scientific research — which is just as available to you as it is to me
> — and the fact that I've had Covid-19 twice.  I know perfectly well
> what it did to my body.  I'm still having to deal with some of the
> consequences right now as we speak, and my last infection was six
> months ago.

Aragorn is suffering from Boolean Thinking.

He thinks that A is not (not-A) and there is no 'half A' and there is
only One True Description of the world

Of course covid is a respiratory infection. It makes you cough and have
severe trouble breathing. So is, and does asthma. Both have more effects
beynd that, as e.g. asthma being an overreaction by the immune system
may also be associated with rashes, food intolerances and so on


>
>>> Certain gene sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus' RNA are actually
>>> also found in the HIV virus.
>>
>> What's so surprising about that? All viruses do similar things so
>> certain sequences are bound to be found in many viruses.
>
> There aren't many viruses around that have those particular
> HIV-like RNA sequences I'm talking about.
>

Said with such profound conviction...
A is not NOT-A!

Meanwhile, in the RealWorld™ ....we must listen to Korzybski when he
assures us that 'the map is not the territory' or Kant when he
postulates that the world of our ordered and language described
perception, is not the world-in-itself. Merely an *approximate*
description of it.

In short what we today would call a 'model'.

And lacking omniscience,. and from a subjective position, it can ever be
more than an approximate model of limited applicability.

In BooleanThinking™ we can create a paradox by simply saying A=!A
In the real world if we try to do that with a logic gate inverter we
will get something that ends up as halfway between true and false or
oscillates between those states.

People are getting more sick than usual.
Rather more than usual are dying
Most of these people present with respiratory problems, and fever.
Many of those who survive seem to have long term issues of one sort or
another. But so do people who get married.

To sit there and state that 'Covid 19 is this, or that, or heaven
forfend, assuredly the other' is Aragornance of the highest order. And
attempt to force a complex situation into a OneTrueDescription™


We have ultimately no way of knowing that OneTrueWorld™ even *exists*.
That is a Kantian /a priori/ - and one that is increasingly challenged
by quantum physics. Let alone that we have any hope whatsoever of
arriving at full cognisance of it.

What we do know is that treating covid 19 *as* a respiratory disease and
hitting it with the sorts of things that work on e.g. asthma seems to
work. "COVID 19 is a respiratory disease" IS A PRAGMATIC USEFUL (if
approximate) DESCRIPTION. Like "All snakes are poisonous" it may not be
entirely correct, but its better than "COVID 19 is just the flu"

What we also are becoming aware of is that recovery is slow and not
without issues. That may lead to an *auxiliary* description but it only
negates "COVID 19 is a respiratory disease" in the minds of Boolean
Thinkers, who cannot have two partial descriptions of the world coexist
inside their tiny minds without their heads exploding.

Well that is their problem. And we should sympathise. For the rest of us
the world is not hard edged and clear cut, but damned fuzzy all over.
And we are humble enough to admit that we do not know it all. And indeed
never can.


>
>


--
The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all
private property.

Karl Marx

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