In a better world… policy disputes would be based on defensible, well-informed positions, on which reasonable people could disagree, and people who were proved wrong would acknowledge that fact and revise their views. Also, everyone would get a pony.
On the importance of having a good decontamination protocol and executing it properly
This post is inspired by the two nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, who contracted Ebola virus after treating Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. See the timeline of events surrounding Duncan’s diagnosis and treatment here.
I was somewhat surprised – and moderately alarmed – when Nina Pham was diagnosed last weekend. That Amber Vinson also contracted Ebola is also alarming but as we learn more about how the hospital treated Duncan it’s not a huge surprise. When Pham’s diagnosis was announce, while the possibility of Ebola having mutated and “gone mobile” was scary it also seemed remote. More likely it seemed to me was that the nurses either didn’t have good personal protective equipment (PPE) or that the hospital didn’t have a good decontamination protocol for workers coming out of the hot zone. It now appears that not only was the PPE used insufficient but that there was no decontamination protocol in place. Given that, it doesn’t surprise me that several health care workers became ill. When working with highly toxic materials or contagions good PPE is essential but if you don’t have a good decontamination protocol in place then you can easily expose yourself to the hazard when removing your PPE. Good practice is to decontaminate your PPE before removing it. My understanding is that bleach kills Ebola virus so, with the caveat that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, my take is that proper decon of potentially-exposed health workers would involve spraying them down with bleach before they removed their PPE. Continue reading
My thoughts on Will Marshall’s essay, “How to Save the Democratic Party from Itself”
Yesterday a fellow Democratic Town Committee member sent out a link to Progressive Policy Institute President Will Marshall‘s recent essay, “How to Save the Democratic Party from Itself.” PPI is basically a mill for “New Democrat”/Democratic Leadership Council ideas, i.e., the type of policies that Bill Clinton pushed. (If you read this blog on a regular basis you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’m not a fan of New Democrat/DLC types. I’m not a big fan of neoliberalism.) Anyhow, I read Marshall’s essay. Suffice it to say I was not favorably impressed. My comments on his essay follow below but I’ll summarize in the event you don’t have the inclination or the patience to read to the end.
What bothered me so much about Marshall’s essay was not the ideas presented but the lack thereof. Take, for example, the debate amongst Democrats on the merits of free trade arguments. (Recall the Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law over the objection of a significant number of Democrats.) If you want people to support free trade agreements then argue the merits of free trade agreements. Jeff Faux and Brad DeLong recently engaged in a sharp exchange on the merits of NAFTA. (Faux with the more traditional liberal position and DeLong with the neoliberal view.) Read their arguments here:
- Jeff Faux, NAFTA, Twenty Years After: A Disaster
- Brad DeLong, Was NAFTA a Disasta?: Wednesday Focus for July 30, 2014
- Jeff Faux, The Neoliberal Mind at Work: Brad DeLong’s Muddled Defense of NAFTA
I believe Faux’s argument carries the day but DeLong’s arguments can’t be dismissed. Contrast the Faux-DeLong exchange with Marshall’s implicit support of free trade agreements in his essay. There are no arguments in favor of free trade agreements in Marshall’s essay. The extent of Marshall’s argument is “All the cool kids support free trade agreements so if Democrats want to get elected then they should too.” That’s it. There’s no substantive argument for why you should adopt Marshall’s preferred position. It’s a recurring theme. And it’s a variant of argument by authority – which happens to drive me nuts. The bottom line is I’d rather argue with sane and honest conservatives and Republican sympathizers (e.g., Reihan Salam, James Pethokoukis, Josh Barro, Bruce Bartlett, or the occasional writer at Reason.) than with a weasely neoliberal like Marshall. The former argue their positions on their merits. They invite you to debate them. I respect that. In contrast, Marshall has no arguments. He’s just trying to pick your pocket. I do not respect him.
[UPDATE: See also Luke Brinker’s comments in Salon, The progressives are coming!: Why the latest attempt to “save” Democrats from populism is so pathetic.]
Without further ado, here’s my paragraph-by-paragraph critique of Marshall’s essay:
Weekly Digest – October 12, 2014
Must Read
- Jared Bernstein, Wages should be growing faster, but they’re not. Here’s why.
- Jared Bernstein, It’s Not a Skills Gap That’s Holding Wages Down: It’s the Weak Economy, Among Other Things
- Martha Bebinger, Mass. Becomes First State To Require Price Tags For Health Care
Should Read
- Sarah Kliff, This researcher gave 10,000 women free birth control. Here’s what she found.
- Andrew Prokop, Virginia Congressional map thrown out by judges for racial bias
- Michael Slezak, The world is warming faster than we thought
Environment
Re-Elect State Rep. Ken Gordon!
If you live in the 21st Middlesex district here in MA – that’s Burlington, Bedford, and a corner of Wilmington – please vote to re-elect State Rep. Ken Gordon on Nov. 4.
There haven’t been many times in my life where I’ve felt fortunate to be represented by the person who did/does. I feel fortunate to be represented by Ken. In fact, with apologies to Sen. Warren and State Sen. Mike Barrett, I can’t think of an elected representative that I’ve felt better about. Not only does Ken do a great job representing the district but, as a fellow Bedford resident commented several months ago, he’s one of those rare people who can sit down with someone who has fundamentally different beliefs, talk through the issue at hand, and come up with a solution which all are pleased with. We need more of that.
From his website, some of Ken’s accomplishments during his first term in office:
Traffic
Ken worked with The Middlesex 3 Coalition to reduce the traffic problems in Burlington and throughout the district, and has been honored for this work with its 2014 Economic Development Advocate Award:
“When it comes to addressing traffic concerns in our area, nobody has worked harder,” said Buckley, who is also on the board of Middlesex 3, a group of business and municipal leaders. “He realized early on that addressing our traffic problems required a regional approach, and Middlesex 3 is a consortium from various towns that is set up to address it. Rep. Gordon came to all our meetings, and pitched right in. He helped us obtain one round of state funding and is working with us on another. We can count on him to follow through.”
Ken obtained funding so that The Middlesex 3 Coalition could form a Transportation Management Association to reduce the number of cars on the road, by offering an alternative to business owners such as bringing their employees to work through shuttle buses and ride shares.
Jobs
Ken partnered with The Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce, which has honored him with its 2014 Partners in Prosperity Award for his work bringing new businesses to Burlington, thereby creating new jobs:
“Representative Gordon has worked tirelessly and effectively for the businesses in Burlington and we want to recognize him for it,” said the Chamber’s outgoing president, Jim Murphy. “He came to us early on and we knew we had an open door. He has proven to be an effective advocate for the businesses and the residents of Burlington and we are proud to recognize him with our Partners in Prosperity Award.”
Ken steered Burlington’s request for additional liquor licenses through the legislature, overcoming opposition from House leadership by drafting original language that satisfied all parties. The new licenses helped Burlington welcome several new restaurants in the past two years.
Schools
Ken won increased state aid and school funding for Burlington, Bedford and Wilmington. Ken worked with Sen. Mike Barrett to win permanent funding of more than half a million dollars annually to reimburse Bedford for the education of children of military families at Hanscom Air Force Base.
Continue reading
Weekly Digest – October 5, 2014
Must Read
- Harold Meyerson, The trade clause that overrules governments
- Cody Fenwick, Boston Tall: Breaking Ground On A Vertical Future
- Ray Pierrehumbert, Climate Science Is Settled Enough
Should Read
- Matthew Yglesias, The most important chart about the American economy you’ll see this year
- Stephen Walt, Competence Not Required [Ed.: Walt’s thoughts on why we get so many Gov’t dept heads who are lousy at their job. Obama appointees… Bush appointees… It’s not a new phenomenon.]
- Weather Underground, The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)]: Global Warming, Naturally [Ed.: Figure 2 is particularly relevant.]
Environment
- Markus Huber and Reto Knutti, Natural variability, radiative forcing and climate response in the recent hiatus reconciled
- Claudia Dreifus, Forecasts: Hopes and Fears About Climate Change
- Daniel Swain, The Extraordinary California Drought of 2013-2014: Character, Context, and the Role of Climate Change
- Rabett Run, Obdurate Ignorance Meets Flood Insurance
I think that the people at Digital Globe know what they’re doing
A colleague sent me a link to Digital Globe’s presentation at an “Investor Conference” last year. Yeah, I know, investor conference presentations are loaded with propaganda but I believe there’s considerable substance behind their charts. (Ever have the feeling you’re not working for the right company? No? Nah, me neither.)
PS Recall that Digital Globe is the company behind the WorldView satellites.
Thought for the Day: 1 October 2014
Never help a child with a task at which she feels she can succeed.
– Maria Montesorri
Thought for the Day: 29 September 2014
From Bill Moyers, “Buying the War“:
APRIL 25, 2007:
BILL MOYERS: [IN THE SPRING OF 2003] THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TOOK LEAVE OF REALITY AND PLUNGED OUR COUNTRY INTO A WAR SO POORLY PLANNED IT SOON TURNED INTO A DISASTER. THE STORY OF HOW HIGH OFFICIALS MISLED THE COUNTRY HAS BEEN TOLD. BUT THEY COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT ON THEIR OWN; THEY NEEDED A COMPLIANT PRESS, TO PASS ON THEIR PROPAGANDA AS NEWS AND CHEER THEM ON.
SINCE THEN THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HAVE DIED, AND MANY ARE DYING TO THIS DAY. YET THE STORY OF HOW THE MEDIA BOUGHT WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WAS SELLING HAS NOT BEEN TOLD IN DEPTH ON TELEVISION. AS THE WAR RAGES INTO ITS FIFTH YEAR, WE LOOK BACK AT THOSE MONTHS LEADING UP TO THE INVASION, WHEN OUR PRESS LARGELY SURRENDERED ITS INDEPENDENCE AND SKEPTICISM TO JOIN WITH OUR GOVERNMENT IN MARCHING TO WAR.
OUR REPORT WAS PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY KATHLEEN HUGHES AND EDITED BY ALISON AMRON.
Save the North 40
The North 40 is a 46-acre woodlands in Wellesley, MA, that is in danger of being developed.
Our mission is to protect this priceless natural resource.
Follow the link above for additional info. (I don’t live in Wellesley but I support their cause.)
Related: The MA Dept. of Energy and Environmental Affairs page on Open Space, Recreation, and Conservation Resources.