A Vaccine for Luddites

[David Morris]

Wonderful post, Jody.
Thank you!

On Sun, Jan 10, 2021 at 1:15 PM jody2.718 via Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
wrote:

> I remember back in late March when the Pandemic was just beginning to
> accelerate in the U.S., sitting at a nursing station
> and looking over at a tall black woman clerk, whom I adore- although shes
> smokes- and through mask and face shield
> commenting, "Well, if it gets rid of Trump, it will be worth it." She sort
> of laughed. After 370,000+ dead, including many of
> my patients, I'm not so sure about my comment.
>
> And, despite the reality that I have had the virus in my face every day
> since then, I have somehow managed to avoid becoming
> infected.
>
> Given that, I was really happy to be able to get the vaccine-
> Pfizer-BioNtech version. I just got the second dose Friday. I feel fine-
> somewhat elated, actually, that maybe I can relax a little bit while
> making my daily rounds. But it's not surprising to me that some
> of my colleagues, and other front line personnel I have encountered, are
> resistant to being vaccinated. I was a little scared myself.
> My fear of the inevitability of eventually contracting COVID was stronger,
> however, and I accepted the vaccine.
>
> But this is a new vaccine- new in the sense of process, not just a vaccine
> against a new virus. Pandemics, like World Wars, of any
> temperature, have a way of stimulating creative technology- all against
> the backdrop of business as usual human nature, including
> the for profit, controlling aspects of human nature. The vaccine
> represents gains in the social acceptance of biotechnology
> that have been brewing for awhile. Per the CDC:
>
> "Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for
> decades. Interest has grown in these vaccines because
> they can be developed in a laboratory using readily available materials.
> This means the process can be standardized and scaled
> up, making vaccine development faster than traditional methods of making
> vaccines. mRNA vaccines have been studied before
> for flu, Zika, rabies, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). As soon as the necessary
> information about the virus that causes COVID-19
> was available, scientists began designing the mRNA instructions for cells
> to build the unique spike protein into an mRNA vaccine.
> Future mRNA vaccine technology may allow for one vaccine to provide
> protection for multiple diseases, thus decreasing the
> number of shots needed for protection against common vaccine-preventable
> diseases. Beyond vaccines, cancer research has
> used mRNA to trigger the immune system to target specific cancer cells."
>
> Times have changed since Robert Goddard's uphill climb to prove his case
> for the viability of rocket technology. Biotech
> proceeds apace, aided, of course, by swarms of venture, and in this case,
> federally directed capital (with private connections, natch).
>
> And it is not just against viral invaders which the technique of mRNA
> insertion might come to be directed. Imagination is boundless.
> One thinks about the telomeres capping and protecting the chromosomes in
> our cells that shorten with each division as they approach
> their own Hayflick limit and inevitable demise.
>
> "...Luddites may at last have come to stand on common ground with their
> Snovian adversaries, the cheerful army of technocrats who
> were supposed to have the 'future in their bones.' It may be only a new
> form of the perennial Luddite ambivalence about machines,
> or it may be that the deepest Luddite hope of miracle has now come to
> reside in the computer's ability to get the right data to those
> whom the data will do the most good. With the proper deployment of budget
> and computer time, we will cure cancer, save ourselves
> from nuclear extinction, grow food for everybody, detoxify the results of
> industrial greed gone berserk - realize all the wistful pipe
> dreams of our days..."
>
> Until then- Mask up.
>
> jody
>
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