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Time to act: thread on why we need to close schools, borders, and ban all household mixing RIGHT AWAY.
To those arguing winter is always like this in the NHS: you are wrong. I faced four serious winter crises as Health Sec and the situation now is off-the-scale worse than any of those.
It’s true that we often had to cancel elective care in Jan to protect emergency care but that too is under severe pressure with record trolley waits for the very sickest patients
Even more worryingly fewer heart attack patients appear to be presenting in ICUs, perhaps because they are not dialling 999 when they need
Full credit to NHS for keeping cancer services open but in Wave 1 there was still a 2/3 drop in cancer appts: people didn’t come forward to GPs or want to go to hospitals, with many potentially avoidable cancer deaths. We hoped to avoid that this time but now looking unlikely.
To those arguing winter is always like this in the NHS: you are wrong. I faced four serious winter crises as Health Sec and the situation now is off-the-scale worse than any of those.
It’s true that we often had to cancel elective care in Jan to protect emergency care but that too is under severe pressure with record trolley waits for the very sickest patients
Exclusive: Leaks reveal record waits for emergency care due to covid pressures https://t.co/CrxYPUJG7v
— Health Service Journal (@HSJnews) January 4, 2021
Even more worryingly fewer heart attack patients appear to be presenting in ICUs, perhaps because they are not dialling 999 when they need
Full credit to NHS for keeping cancer services open but in Wave 1 there was still a 2/3 drop in cancer appts: people didn’t come forward to GPs or want to go to hospitals, with many potentially avoidable cancer deaths. We hoped to avoid that this time but now looking unlikely.
For those wondering what the causes are of Texas blackouts, @JesseJenkins is doing a really good real time analysis of generator capacity and operation. (Short story: we have a natural gas problem in TX). A few additional thoughts to add:
1/ As Jesse notes, natural gas is somewhat unique in that it is both a power plant fuel and a home heating fuel. When cold weather comes, regulators bias in favor of heating rather than power generation.
2/ New England - a region that is both cold and has long been more reliant than others on natural gas for power generation - has had to grapple with this for a long time.
3/ In most of the country, the tightest times for power markets are during hot summer days when demand peaks to run all that AC. In New England, the tightest times are often cold winter days when supply gets constrained as the gas is redirected to heat
4/ Texas isn't used to planning for cold snaps, but they are gas-dependent on the power grid. So they are, in essence, acting like New England right now.
Confidential info from a market participant in ERCOT: As of ~10 AM Eastern time, the system has ~30 GW of capacity offline, ~26 GW of thermal -- mostly natural gas which cant get fuel deliveries which are being priorities for heating loads -- and ~4 GW of wind due to icing. https://t.co/Bfpn0WeRIq
— JesseJenkins (@JesseJenkins) February 15, 2021
1/ As Jesse notes, natural gas is somewhat unique in that it is both a power plant fuel and a home heating fuel. When cold weather comes, regulators bias in favor of heating rather than power generation.
2/ New England - a region that is both cold and has long been more reliant than others on natural gas for power generation - has had to grapple with this for a long time.
3/ In most of the country, the tightest times for power markets are during hot summer days when demand peaks to run all that AC. In New England, the tightest times are often cold winter days when supply gets constrained as the gas is redirected to heat
4/ Texas isn't used to planning for cold snaps, but they are gas-dependent on the power grid. So they are, in essence, acting like New England right now.
I think this is a critically important piece and that we should continue to add more and more nuance to this conversation. I would share that I don't think despair is necessarily linked to determinist and binary notions of gender.
When we think about criminalizing care for trans youth - which is what states are currently trying to do - the efforts are intimately connected to codifying notions of irreversibility and constraining bodily self-determination.
This is why we see bills both criminalize care for trans youth while permitting surgical intervention on intersex infants to "normalize" their bodies in alignment with binary constructions of sexed difference.
Many of the newly introduced state bills also mandate disclosure by school staff to parents and guardians of any trans or questioning young person thus chilling the ability of young people to safely explore their identities and bodies.
Despair is tied not only to forcibly having treatment cutoff and the state criminalizing transition but also in losing self-determination. Many young people who are accessing medical care do not (and will not) have binary identities.
In which I argue that we are arguing about some of the wrong things. We Need to Change the Terms of the Debate on Trans Kids https://t.co/qqDdKnAGMB via @NewYorker
— masha gessen (@mashagessen) January 13, 2021
When we think about criminalizing care for trans youth - which is what states are currently trying to do - the efforts are intimately connected to codifying notions of irreversibility and constraining bodily self-determination.
This is why we see bills both criminalize care for trans youth while permitting surgical intervention on intersex infants to "normalize" their bodies in alignment with binary constructions of sexed difference.
Many of the newly introduced state bills also mandate disclosure by school staff to parents and guardians of any trans or questioning young person thus chilling the ability of young people to safely explore their identities and bodies.
Despair is tied not only to forcibly having treatment cutoff and the state criminalizing transition but also in losing self-determination. Many young people who are accessing medical care do not (and will not) have binary identities.
For those of you concerned about the "damage" done to the field and academic freedom by the push to cancel transphobes in philosophy, I have this to say
The above is from Gen. Sherman on what is necessary to restore the Union during the Civil War, the sentiment is apt for my position on philosophy: if we are to have an inclusive field and the structure of the field prevents that, then that structure must be destroyed. (2/n)
Now, I understand that this sounds harsh, but consider why it sounds harsh: so much of the pushback against transphobia in philosophy, and the recommendations made to address transphobia in philosophy sounds like "damage" to philosophy by established philosophers. (3/n)
And in response to that perception of damage or destruction, they push back hard to preserve the "integrity" of the field, regardless of the harm being done to the marginalized people who have to survive an inhospitable field that refuses to change. (4/n)
Now, this position was anticipated by Sara Ahmed in the following:
“Indeed so often just talking about sexism as well as racism is heard as damaging the institution. If talking about sexism and racism is heard as damaging institutions, we need to damage institutions.” (5/n)
"We do want and will have an inclusive field of philosophy. That we will have, and, if it involves the destruction of your departments and institutions, we cannot help it."
— Dr. Johnathan Flowers says "Fuck your Democracy." (@shengokai) January 13, 2021
The above is from Gen. Sherman on what is necessary to restore the Union during the Civil War, the sentiment is apt for my position on philosophy: if we are to have an inclusive field and the structure of the field prevents that, then that structure must be destroyed. (2/n)
Now, I understand that this sounds harsh, but consider why it sounds harsh: so much of the pushback against transphobia in philosophy, and the recommendations made to address transphobia in philosophy sounds like "damage" to philosophy by established philosophers. (3/n)
And in response to that perception of damage or destruction, they push back hard to preserve the "integrity" of the field, regardless of the harm being done to the marginalized people who have to survive an inhospitable field that refuses to change. (4/n)
Now, this position was anticipated by Sara Ahmed in the following:
“Indeed so often just talking about sexism as well as racism is heard as damaging the institution. If talking about sexism and racism is heard as damaging institutions, we need to damage institutions.” (5/n)
1/ Thanks to @BBCr4today for having me on to discuss data collection on sex and why it matters. This follows the extraordinary claim by Scotland's Chief Statistician, Roger Halliday, that sex should typically not be asked unless there is a medical reason.
2/ In fact, those of us who use quantitative data overwhelmingly believe that sex is important. It matters across a wide range of domains: education, wages, crime, political attitudes, religion - you name it, sex is almost always a big predictor!
3/ Sex and gender identity are two different things, and gender identity is not a clarly defined concept. Ciaran McFadden Young (who is not a quantitative social scientist as far as I can see) claimed that sex doesn't matter, effectively it is always trumped by gender identity.
4/ This is a remarkable claim, but it is a testable claim, if we collect data on both sex and gender identity. If we can't collect the data, then we will never be able to test this hypothesis. And perhaps that's the point.
5/ Ciaran also claimed that is has been proven that post-transition MtF transwomen earn the same as https://t.co/6luJGGHikU was frustrating not to have a chance to challenge this claim, which I find implausible. I'd be very interested to see the research referred to @dr_ciaran
2/ In fact, those of us who use quantitative data overwhelmingly believe that sex is important. It matters across a wide range of domains: education, wages, crime, political attitudes, religion - you name it, sex is almost always a big predictor!
3/ Sex and gender identity are two different things, and gender identity is not a clarly defined concept. Ciaran McFadden Young (who is not a quantitative social scientist as far as I can see) claimed that sex doesn't matter, effectively it is always trumped by gender identity.
4/ This is a remarkable claim, but it is a testable claim, if we collect data on both sex and gender identity. If we can't collect the data, then we will never be able to test this hypothesis. And perhaps that's the point.
5/ Ciaran also claimed that is has been proven that post-transition MtF transwomen earn the same as https://t.co/6luJGGHikU was frustrating not to have a chance to challenge this claim, which I find implausible. I'd be very interested to see the research referred to @dr_ciaran