Hump Day open thread: Urine idiot
First it was bleach. Then it was UV light. Then it was horse dewormer. Now, the latest fad among the militantly stupid unvaxxed:
Anti-vaxxer and founder of “Vaccine Police” Christoper Key claims drinking your own urine will cure COVID-19. “Vaccine Police” is a website focused on gathering anti-vaxxer news from across the Internet, as AL.com reports.
According to The Daily Beast, Key posted a video on his Telegram account, arguing a urine cure has been around for centuries. Though, there’s no scientific evidence supporting his claims.
“The antidote that we have seen now, and we have tons and tons of research, is urine therapy. OK, and I know to a lot of you this sounds crazy, but guys, God’s given us everything we need,” Key said. “This has been around for centuries.”
“Now drink urine!” he said, adding some may think he’s “cray cray.”
"Urine therapy" is not a new thing. So it was probably inevitable that it would be repurposed for the age of Covid. Drinking your own piss has gone from something out of tales of sailors lost at sea to a not-so-fringe "alternative therapy".
What we have to realize is that a not-insignificant segment of the Western world has decided to turn against advances in science and medicine made over the past two centuries. Why do they do this? Do they see the West as a sterile civilization, too wedded to its technology? Are they preparing for a collapse, and are getting ready to live lives without cell phones and modern medicine? Do the reject the germ theory of disease, and see all medical interventions as going against God's order? Yes, that, and many more.
But, at the end of the day, education has failed them. This is a maddeningly complex world. If you get sick, you usually place your life in the hands of medical professionals. You may not really understand what therapies they will employ to heal you. You're already in a state of fear, and you're going to have to take pills or radiation treatment to rid you of what's attacking your body. If you're of a certain conspiratorial mindset, you won't trust all these interventions you don't comprehend. You'll think these doctors are quacks, and go to seek your own remedies. The homeopathic industry was worth $6.2 billion in 2020, and is projected to be worth almost $20 billion by 2030. There's a lot of cheddar in rejecting the marvels of modern medicine. And many homeopathic practitioners rely on making frightened and not very knowledgeable people even more frightened, feeding them conspiracies about Big Pharma. And what better time to expand your clientele than during a pandemic which seems to have no end?
Why does this matter? Why should you care? Well, you can go with the philosophical and aver that any person's death diminishes you. But if you want a more hard-nosed answer, it's this: Death is not good for business. And worse than death is long-term disability from long Covid. We don't know yet how many thousands of people will be impacted by permanent disability from Covid. This will be a drain on our resources. This was a daunting enough prospect before widely-available vaccines. But now that you're choosing to risk death or chronic illness? It's infuriating.
So, yes, we can laugh at the deniers. And I do. But I know that this will have consequences for years, if not decades. Just another notch on their record of selfishness.