Just when you think you've hit peak woke, coronavirus edition

[TheProdigalKittensReturn]

Connected to FWR's interests in that look at what this person teaches. I'm not going to spoil the sheer WTF of reading it by giving a summary, other than that it would apparently be terrible if researchers at Oxford found a coronavirus vaccine because imperialism.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/coronavirus-vaccine_uk_5ea067f2c5b6b2e5b83ba372?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3Bpa2VkLW9ubGluZS5jb20vMjAyMC8wNC8yNC93b2tlbmVzcy1oYXMtZGVzdHJveWVkLXRoZS11bml2ZXJzaXR5Lw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHuvkd82qLHEJroMJnYHjbRsfs-7EsnyuP5-W5kHxnAAiFKdWLsyrA4Y892WQEHRhcuxrp6iNwl6jxdQu-MdM5X6rIOGSMIsyt25xpKiV-L4P8aMhA14b9fwjII4ozYsZhcmUGiILcJ3ZfE_ngh9P-jMg-QID__5J-k0jSnIGLdp

I won’t spoil it either.

Eyes duly rolled.

Spoiler: the writer is an idiot

She worries about that? I think she can rest.

I'd be really upset by that if I were working on the vaccine! I can't imagine the press office are entirely thrilled either.

Thing is, does anyone actually believe that this person believes the things she's writing? It's 100% pure virtue signalling, and it made me think of that article someone linked to about luxury values. What that article basically says is "I am an intelligent and well educated middle class person who is very right on and who should be admired by my peers for my exquisite sensitivity." It's a humblebrag of sorts.

If my university is the first to develop the vaccine, I’m worried it will be used to fulfil its political, patriotic function as proof of British excellence

And what is wrong with that?

I suppose we should be grateful that she’s not among the best brains in the world, or even the pub car park, developing this vaccine.

“Dr Emily Cousens researches vulnerability and gender and teaches at Oxford and LSE.”

She has a point, which is mostly always true, that developing countries are last in the queue for healthcare. And if there is a vaccine, there are countries where politics and culture might interfere with mass vaccination.

However, she has missed the point that a vaccine is a formula and a process - Oxford scientists won’t be mixing it up over gas burners in their study. The entire world has a stake in stopping this virus; Britain won’t be allowed to hoard production - international pressure won’t let it. Nor, to be fair, is it likely they’ll want to. If a vaccine is developed there will be multiple points of production - what pharmaceutical companies lose in proprietary formulas, they’ll probably win in mass production, with governments throwing money at them to speed things up.

What’s the saying about there being no atheists in foxholes; I’d bet that should a vaccine be developed in Oxford and in the unlikely event said scientists are the only means of production, she’d be banging on the door demanding her medication, if necessary trampling over others to get it.

I’m so disappointed by what passes by academic discourse nowadays. I read one piece the other day, (from The Conversation), where the authors actually knew nothing at all about the topic they were writing about with such authority. They didn’t know, let alone have read, the important researchers in the field, choosing instead of actual research, to quote discredited and partisan advocates. There were any number of knowledgeable people they could have asked, but instead chose arrogance over understanding. It’s made me look askance at all the material coming out of that publication now, since there’s clearly no editorial overview.

Spiked on Dr Cousen’s opinion piece.
www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/24/wokeness-has-destroyed-the-university/

A lot of hypothermia research was done by the nazis in concentration camps on prisoners. We still use that research. Her colonialist Covid research barely registers.

She's actually employed by Oxford Brookes University, though apparentl she does a bit of part-time teaching at Oxford. So while attacking Oxford she's also trying to make people think she's an Oxford academic. Hmm.

I don’t know where to start.... nose and face springs to mind

I really hope coronavirus refocuses academia on intellectual rigour instead of political fashions.

Twit.

One of the vaccine producers partnering with the oxford group is, I believe, Astra Zeneca - the remains of the once great ICI - and they might prioritise supplying the U.K. if the vaccine works. But another is the largest producer in the world, an Indian organisation which I believe operates on a not for profit basis and would have different priorities. Success depends on rising above stupid boundaries - and that's what seems to be happening. The oxford group but also, afaik, commercial organisations are sharing their research, not keeping the IP.