"Hopium"

[ontana]

Disclaimer: fully jabbed, masked wearing compliant person here, but also a teacher and a parent who has witnessed the devastating effects of lockdowns on young people in particular.

I have noticed the likes of Christina Pagel and Deepti Gurdasani on Twitter using the word "hopium" to describe anyone who is mildly optimistic that omicron might be a milder variant or that we are not in as bad a situation as we might otherwise be without vaccines or compared to last year, and I think the use of this word captures why I find them so awful.

Hope is a fundamental part of the human condition it seems to me, and to deride it as "hopium" just seems contemptuous and joyless. If they have read Emily Disckinson, or Barack Obama, or St Paul, surely they would understand the need for hope, even in the most dire of circumstances? But there seems to be a determination amongst some to deny any sense of hope that we may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and in stead they seem to delight in the misery and fear of it all.

Is it just me??

@ontana

They are experts in terms of some aspects of healthcare. They aren't experts in terms of education, social isolation, child development, mental well-being, economics and the billion other aspects of life which are adversely affected by the lockdowns they are clamouring for.

They aren't clamouring for lockdown though. They are asking for mitigating measures to prevent the health service being overwhelmed as hospitalisations rise to unmanageable levels.

Have you actually bothered to read what they say because from the posts on this thread it really doesn't sound like it.

Explain to me how a non-functioning health and social care systems helps child development or mental health and well-being??

@ChequerBoard read my post again. I said I don't respect anything they say. Please show me the part where I said no one should listen to them? Because I can't see it.

Independent Sage do not look at the bigger picture. They're a bunch of middle class, comfortable, privileged people. They have no idea what many people in the real world need. Having intelligence and being an expert in something doesn't mean you know what's best for everyone with vastly different lifestyles. Nor does it automatically make you a better person.

Hopium and copium are internet gaming words that predate Covid.

See this, says it was a term originally coined in 2010about the stock market, meaning false hope. Really interesting!

knowyourmeme.com/memes/hopium/comments

@ontana

Well the reason I quoted literature was that not everything in life can be reduced to data and evidence. And insufficient evidence has been gathered on the mental health impacts of the lockdowns the advocate. If hope helps some people get through this awful period, why deride it so contemptuously.

Hope is not the same as hopium. We all hope. Hopium means claiming things that we already know not to be true.

But of course we all hope, or we'd have all topped ourselves by now!

I think there is a lot of hope in the current situation, we have the vaccines and boosters, we have medications like molnupiraivr and paxlovid.

The hope comes from the careful and appropriate use of medical advances and the intelligent use of restrictions, until the potential for unnecessary hospitalisations and deaths is reduced.

Minimising covid, pretending transmission doesn't happen in schools, saying the pandemic is already over in July 2020 etc., not so helpful. Presumably if people are talking about hopium, that would be what they meant?

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@ChequerBoard read my post again. I said I don't respect anything they say. Please show me the part where I said no one should listen to them? Because I can't see it.

Independent Sage do not look at the bigger picture. They're a bunch of middle class, comfortable, privileged people. They have no idea what many people in the real world need. Having intelligence and being an expert in something doesn't mean you know what's best for everyone with vastly different lifestyles. Nor does it automatically make you a better person.[/quote]
Their experience in healthcare and knowledge of statistics etc means they often are right about trends in the pandemic. It's quite a specific thing.

Indie Sage, Sage and the recently honoured CMOs tend to agree on quite a lot of points (because they are speaking from a scientific viewpoint).

Behavioural and health science is exactly about the "real world" and ways of obtaining information about it.

It's a pity that this very good knowledge and information is sometimes inconvenient for people's business interests/ desire to have parties etc but that's a fact of life in a pandemic, unfortunately.

@herecomesthsun "inconvenient"? You're completely minimising things. It's not about having parties. It's about the real effects of job losses, education losses, mental health.

And there are effects on jobs, education and mental health from being in a pandemic which is being mismanaged.

I give you locking down late in March 2020, the very high death toll, and the extra weeks or months in lockdown.

Something that has given me genuine hope is the six studies now all suggesting reduced risk of lung damage from Omicron compared with Delta.

yes

@herecomesthsun

And there are effects on jobs, education and mental health from being in a pandemic which is being mismanaged.

I give you locking down late in March 2020, the very high death toll, and the extra weeks or months in lockdown.

There are. There are downsides to all. But minimising it as just "inconvenient" is out of touch with reality.

No, ignoring scientific advice because it isn't what you want to hear is out of touch with reality.

@herecomesthsun

No, ignoring scientific advice because it isn't what you want to hear is out of touch with reality.

I'm not in government, I don't make the decisions. My opinion won't make any difference to what happens.

I meant that on a personal level, ignoring the scientific consensus because you don't like it, is still out of touch with reality, to use your own phrase.

I’ve heard the term used in the context of investment in cryptocurrency.
In this context, the addiction to “hopium” has led directly to the necessity of field hospitals being planned at short notice for hospital car parks, the lack of forward planning to address ongoing and worsening staff shortages - particularly in health and education - and (I predict) the cancellation of public exams for a further year.

Oh I hope the exams won't be cancelled again. It's very unfair on the best state school students, who have to compete with inflated "assessed" grades from the indie sector.

Mopium is wonderful.

^^And I just killed my NY resolution not to post on this board. Day 2. Bollocks.

When it comes to young people the pandemic has been especially devastating for young CEV people. And for those who have a CEV household member - particularly a now dead one. Bereavement has a huge (negative) impact on children.

Also badly affected are the children whose parent has long-term lost their livelihood due to being one of the newly disabled Long Covid victims.

Separately, as a teacher, you must be very well aware of the completely devastating impact of the public health housing and homelessness emergency. A true thief of children's education life chances. You must be very frustrated that the newfound public concern for life chances seems focused solely on the more temporary lockdowns than the ongoing long-term housing crisis.

I thought I should have hopium
But couldn’t shake my nopium
Fear gripped me with its gropium
I felt like such a dopium.

But now I am awakened
My gloom has been foresakened
My misery is shakened
And my nopium has flakened.

Am I a better person?
Will now my future worsen?
For what am I rehearsin?
What shall I end this verse in?

I pulled it like a scabbit
Rid myself of the habit
I went and had the jabbit
And now I am a rabbit.

In my defence, I have a fever. It’s not even bloody covid!

I have never heard of Christina whatsit but that Deepti one has been advocating for locking everything down forever and ever for about 2 years now.

She's unhinged and I can't believe anyone actually listens to her. She takes into account ONE thing which is Covid. Not the economy, mental health, the hundreds of other factors. Just eliminating Covid.

She must be an absolute joy to live with. Not.

Talking of opium. Those banging on about freedom. Yes we're such a free country that those whose drug of choice is opium rather than alcohol are free to take it....Oh, erm... Freedom!

@heldinadream

She's unhinged

Is that the new word for highly qualified, intelligent, educated, articulate, and well principled expert?