"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??

@Tealightsandd

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 think there are a number of people who are acutely passionate about social disadvantage, but most especially if it appears to have been influenced by covid restrictions.

It would be great to recruit all these people and get them campaigning for social justice going forward !

@MarshmallowFondant as a disease expert she knows the ill effects covid is having on people, including illness, long covid, hospitalisation and death.

Dead people can't contribute to the economy.

would be great to recruit all these people and get them campaigning for social justice going forward grin!

It really would be. Use their very vocal campaigning voices for long-term good. Fingers crossed!

Re. Indy sage , I personally gave up listening to them some time ago. I find them just too political. I much prefer actual independent commentators where you do not know their politics from what they are saying.
I heard a terrible interview in Times Radio with Matt Chorley and one of the women from Indy sage. It was truly awful radio, she came across as slightly manic! Just dismissed the idea that people want to gather to celebrate Christmas as if that was entirely unimportant. Maybe it is for her. But she seemed unable to understand the point the presenter was making about over egging the risk and that for some it’s a “risk” they are willing to take and that sone to not want the lives governed by Gov dictat.
I think some on covid twitter ( on all sides of all the arguments) have lost perspective and become slightly obsessed with it all and probably need to get out a bit more!

@sashagabadon which independent commentators?

@Tealightsandd

She's unhinged

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

No, it's the new word for "completely blinkered and focused on one narrow factor rather than taking a huge range of other factors into account".

HTH.

I do think that Indie Sage come in for some disrespect because of having a number of youngish female academics on board.

Listening to their actual presentation of data, it is very good, as you'd expect from top flight University academics.

Even if you'd rather they had different figures to discuss.

I like Paul hunter for example. I have no idea where he stands on brexit or whether he personally like Boris Johnson or not. That’s what I mean. You can’t say that for Indy sage!
I also heard someone today on the radio. Didn’t catch name but they were very balanced too.
I personally hope the women I mentioned on times radio is given a wide birth in future as she added nothing to my knowledge following her interview. It just left me

Also the stats guy, David speigalhelter ( apology, I am sure that is wrong spelling) he is also apolitical as far as I can make out.

I have absolutely no clue where any of Indy Sage stand on Brexit. I wouldn't care. The blinkered western centric focus some people seem to have ignores the best examples of pandemic policy. Forget Europe. Look East.

The men you mention absolutely are political. In various matters, but just on its own, Let The Bodies Pile Up is a political stance.

I don't think Paul Hunter is apolitical at all, he is one of the Telegraph's go to scientists to criticise mitigations.

Spiegelhalter is probably more middle ground (but a similar background to a lot of the Indie Sage people and is actually on Sage)

@herecomesthsun

I don't think Paul Hunter is apolitical at all, he is one of the Telegraph's go to scientists to criticise mitigations.

Spiegelhalter is probably more middle ground (but a similar background to a lot of the Indie Sage people and is actually on Sage)

I don’t read the Telegraph. I’ve only heard him on the radio a few times. Mostly BBC and Times radio as that is what I listen to. I find him sensible and balanced, not extremist in any direction. Anyway he was just one name that came to my mind.

I like her. I think she is well informed and speaks sense. She tries to balance the negative with some sort of positive. But the word hopium is fucking enraging.

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.

Christina Pagel is a mathematician with an axe to grind, isn't she?

What special expertise does she have to offer on the virulence or otherwise of virus variants?

And there seems little doubt that Omnicron is indeed milder. How much milder remains to be seen, but pretty much all relevant experts, as opposed to a publicity hungry mathematician with a political agenda, seem to be in agreement that it is considerably milder than previous variants. And this is a good thing.

That's her stance too, she's enraged by what it means

@IcedPurple but it isn't mild for some people, eg the ones already dead from it.

It's also much more transmissible so more likely to get to those people.

HTH.

@Tealightsandd

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.

Who was this reply to? I'll assume it's not me as I'm not a teacher.

Sensible and balanced?

He always completely ignores the socioeconomic risk factors. And his suggestion wrt The Others aka the vulnerable is nothing more than an airy 'protect them' without ever explaining how that would work - given that over 50% of the adult population has at one underlying risk factor, many are part of the workforce, and the most vulnerable still require interaction with the outside world (eg. hospital appointments, carers, etc).

He also doesn't address the issue of overwhelmed hospitals full of Covid patients - how does anyone else (cancer, meningitis, mental health, car accident, etc) get treatment.

As for Long Covid. Well, nothing. He simply ignores it. Which sadly doesn't make it go away.

It's almost as if his viewpoint is, well, rather...blinkered

I don't know who it's replying to, but it's bang on

@Waxonwaxoff0 The OP says she's a teacher.

[quote JanglyBeads]@IcedPurple but it isn't mild for some people, eg the ones already dead from it.

It's also much more transmissible so more likely to get to those people.

HTH.[/quote]
Thanks but you haven't told me anything I don't already know.

"Hopium" is a 4chan /pol/ meme.

[quote Tealightsandd]@Waxonwaxoff0 The OP says she's a teacher.[/quote]
Ah, OK

I find the idea that anyone who is against school closures and lockdown is "suddenly pretending to care about children/the vulnerable" as you are implying, to be insidious and unfair. I have been a teacher for 14 years, worked in school throughout lockdown and and also support vulnerable people through other voluntary work. I can do this and simultaneously disagree with Christina Pagel.