Arquivo para a ‘Social Network’ Categoria
LockDown of Brazil calamity and the P1 variant
08
Mar
We could have mitigated the most critical periods of the 
pandemic since the beginning of the pandemic with phases of lockdown and opening. However, it almost always faltered due to the unpopularity of the measure, mainly to trade and some environments that prioritize profits over lives, because several non-essential sectors they could have closed, not to mention the irresponsibility of parties and agglomerations for some kind of “party”.
Now almost every country in the red phase that indicates the exhaustion of hospitals and record numbers of contamination and deaths, we still hesitate in harsh but necessary measures.
The Brazilian variant of the virus, called P1, is more contagious and for which the Coronavac vaccine is even less effective, and AstraZeneca, which is more efficient, is still in the slow phase of vaccination, in total we have not yet vaccinated 10% of the population and the reduction of 8 million vaccines was announced by the government itself.
Countries that have increased vaccination efficiency have combined lockdown with vaccination, because vaccine contact with researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Leicester explains that contact between vaccinees and variants can give rise to “superpowering” mutations that are capable of circumvent the immunizing action, and this in Brazil can become a pandemic bomb.
The calamity in which almost all states and most cities are located, can put a little judgment in the minds of those who manage the crisis, not only the central government, but also the state governments and the mayors of Brazilian cities.
The P1 variant is already feared, many countries are already taking care of Brazilian migration, fearing that the variant will spread and contaminate the process that in many countries is already reducing the pandemic, it is sad for Brazil, but we must understand these measures as necessary.
It is true that some services cannot stop, there are essential services and they must be active so that there is no shortage, an even greater loss of purchasing power, some are already observed in everyone, but life precedes gains and they are necessary measures that guarantee the minimum sacrifice, especially to the poorest.
A tough measure is necessary and without it, even vaccination can be compromised, and it is also necessary to take care of the effectiveness against the P1 variant already present in most Brazilian cities.
It will be a tough week and we should all be more careful and understand if the authorities have to take restrictive measures, the scenario is practically a war.
It is almost impossible in the Brazilian context to ask for this, but it would be good to have greater and genuine solidarity to face the most critical moment of the pandemic.
Variant, slow vaccination and the third wave
22
Feb
There are several variants, especially South Africa, Brazilian
and British, although there are controversies about their severity, it is certain that the spread of the virus is faster, and in the Brazilian case it already seems to be present in good part of the Brazilian territory, there is no isolation of regions and combating the pandemic is one of the most inefficient and faltering.
Vaccination remains slow, but results in Europe are more effective because they are combined with restrictions and confinement policies, and are also in late winter, and the arrival of new batches of vaccines is expected, AstraZeneca confirms a batch 10 million vaccines for Brazil at the end of February, but vaccination is slow in other countries as well.
The so-called third wave is due to Europe’s release for Christmas and the end of the year, many governments have recognized the error, here in Brazil the beaches continue to register movement and there is no clear policy to avoid agglomerations, it is not just about closing stores and commerce, as some cities have even done with supermarkets, the central problem is awareness.
The third wave then came because of the liberality of the holiday season, and soon afterwards almost all of Europe closed, including Sweden, which was more liberal until the arrival of winter, the only country that begins to release gradually is Greece but it had a very austere #lockdown.
Another concern is with the third wave is the variant, the infection is faster and quickly fills hospitals and creates a situation of chaos in the already stressed health system that struggles for a year with the most serious cases, Covid’s numbers officially fall worldwide and is restrained in Europe, but the measures remain severe.
The number of vaccinated people in Brazil exceeds 5.5 million, but the pace could be higher, the problem is the supply, 18 million more doses of Coronavac and 16.9 million of AstraZeneca are promised for March, the other Chemical Union / Gamaleya and Precis / Bharat Biotech are on schedule, still for the first semester, the laboratories produce the Sputnik V and Covaxin vaccines, respectively.
The state of Amazonas has the highest number of vaccinates 4.87%, while São Paulo has the highest in absolute numbers, a total of 1,620,182 people vaccinated in a percentage of 3.5% population, with a large percentage of second doses.
The map above shows the various lockdown situations in Europe.
Review life and re-educate to live
18
Feb
Part of the world economic crisis, this is Morin’s analysis
is beyond economic, moral and ethical, in his sixth book on the Method of complexity, he develops the anthropological, historical and philosophical analysis of the problem, explaining that it starts from a concept inspired by Kant.
Here ethics is defined as a self-imposed moral requirement, instead of imperatives arising from practical reason, in Morin’s ethics based on complexity, it comes from three sources: one internal, analogous to our conscience, the other simulated and oriented external by cultures, beliefs and norms pre-established in the community, and from previous sources that are the very organization of living beings and transmitted genetically.
His ethics thus presents an ethics that requires reflection on our moral, social and values choices that we bring to our daily lives, here the civilizational crisis is serious.
However, Kantian ethics favored a self-centered, egocentric ethics, according to my interests and my will, ignoring that it should share with others, and this means that we must also orient ourselves towards a vision that is sensitive to society as a whole and those without a voice.
In times of a pandemic, we were “forced” for reasons of public health, but also for education, to limit our movements, to maintain safe social isolation, and to look at each person and feel responsible for him, is this what all do
This apparent limitation of freedom is in fact one that should already be incorporated into our social ethics, without a consistent education for the practice of fraternity and a careful and sensitive look at the other, we can fall into a social vacuum and feed the already present civilization crisis. .
It is necessary to go through a long path of personal reflection and be willing to change habits and attitudes to help society as a whole to emerge from a crisis that is not only health but also social.
Quarantine and Lent
17
Feb
Those who manage to live this long quarantine, which enters the
second year, as perspectives and hopes are true, but also with anguish and concerns, understand that there is a cause for attention, encouragement and concern, especially with the anguished. There was no carnival, and there is no reason to party, it is true that some groups insist, but if we look at the number of people compared to society as a whole, they are a minority, the majority are concerned and want us to have a way out of this suffering soon.
For Christians it is a period of prayer, fasting and abstinence, it means to abstain from some things that the new normal is already taking away from us, however this can be done voluntarily, thinking about the society as a whole that suffers. Representative of Catholicism, but also of Christianity, Pope Francis always looks at the whole human family with tenderness and passion as a good Latin, in his February 12 message he invited us “Let’s go up to Jerusalem…” (Mt 20, 18) which means how he himself explains a “journey of conversion, prayer and sharing of our goods”, and so to live this Lent with an attentive eye to those suffering from abandonment and anguish because of the pandemic (in the photo the door where Jesus began his final journey in Jerusalem).
When Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he goes there to live the days of the Passover, the Jews already celebrated it and still celebrate it today, but it does not always coincide due to the Jewish calendar being different from our Christian, but the lamb that is “sacrificed” during Easter, referring to the sacrifice Abraham made in place of his son, it is Jesus himself this lamb at Christian Easter.
The quarantine of all is the pandemic, saying words of encouragement that comfort, comfort, strengthen, stimulate instead of words that humiliate, distress, irritate and despise emphasized the Pope.
I think that due to the quarantine situation it will be a different Lent, in which we will go deeply into our pains as humanity, and we will be able to think about a much more promising and hopeful future ahead, Lent is not just death, we go through it , but the resurrection that is on the other side for the one who accepts to pass through the narrow door.
All humanity suffers, so it is a moment of passion for all humanity, and those who are fraternal and supportive will know the way to alleviate the pain of those who suffer.
It is time to think about the essentials of life, to review our false paths of progress and to review our personal lives.
Idealism and the wide door of misconceptions
16
Feb
At the same time discovered as quantum physics, holography, and a new 
worldview of the universe emerge, there are those who believe that the earth is flat and that we were never the moon. These are too many specific problems to be dealt with, but philosophy in general contemporary rather than neoliberal, this is its pragmatic economic aspect.
It is idealistic and even philosopher-youtubers who discourse on philosophy follow it. Kant is complex, but his central point is the dichotomy between subject and object, as they cannot be separated, at least in terms of theory of knowledge, he created the analytical and synthetic judgments. Who is cured the disease or sick, for Kant it is the disease.
The analytic judgment is that the predicate is within the subject, and so it specifies its logic, and this logic comes from a physical-mathematical view of knowledge in modernity. It exemplifies using geometric figures such as the triangle and the square, of course it has four sides, but this is not a deduction but a tautological, circular definitions.
The synthetic judgment, on the other hand, cannot be contained in the subject, so it adds reasoning as something completely new, that is, the novelty is the predicate.
It is very simplified, but essentially develops a logic where Being and Entity are confusing and dismantles the possibility of an ontology, even if it is partial, and imagined with this throwing away all the “superstitions”, the famous “Sapere audi”, dare to know.
As reason alone was not enough, it was necessary to introduce the idea of empiricism, which came from David Hume’s arguments (1711-1776, so judgments may a priori, which already exist in the subject, and a posteriori, experimentally acquired.
Schlick (1882-1936), who founded the Vienna Circle neologicist school, criticized the idealistic basis of a priori knowledge, claiming that since statements have a logical truth, they are neither analytical nor synthetic as they are. Kant argued because it was paradoxical; and that if the truth depends on the factual content, the statements are therefore a posteriori and not a priori, since the facts must happen, Schlick was assassinated by Nazism.
In the circle of Vienna were present Kurt Godel, Karl Popper, Hans Kelsen and others.
The same proposition can be known by cognitive agents both a priori and a posteriori, using the same example as Kant, a creation only knows that the square has four sides after learning to count, while for an adult it seems “inductive.”
The video is a short discussion about idealism of Kant to Hegel:
Coronavirus variants and release
15
Feb
While in the UK it is already confirmed that the vaccine does not
work for the virus variants, called the Bristol variant and confirmed by the British government, British scientist Sharon Peacock broke the news on Thursday (11/2) that the variant it has already spread across the UK and will sweep the world, so the pandemic crisis is far from over.
AstraZeneca reported that it will take 9 months for the vaccine to be ready for this variant, together with the University of Oxford the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FioCruz) participates in the production of the vaccine.
In Brazil, reports Agência Brasil, the presence of the P. variant has already been identified by FioCruz. in five other states, in addition to Amazonas, Pará, Paraíba, Roraima, Santa Catarina and São Paulo, the health secretariats of Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco have also identified the variant.
According to the Bloomberg website the UK is already reaching 52 million vaccinated (the country has close to 67 million inhabitants), even so LockDown has not yet been relieved, it serves as a warning to other countries, it is likely to open gradually, and gradual measures should be taken, studied on a case-by-case basis.
It remains to be seen how the case of the variant will be thought of, from a peak of 52,000 cases in early February dropped to 13,000 on Saturday (02/13), but the British scientific community is intensively analyzing the case of the variant to take the measures of release.
In the world there is a drop to 410 thousand cases, it is a slow drop, but it is already possible to think that even with the variant there is a hope that the vaccine will work within the limits of effectiveness.
It is up to each to maintain the care and not to relax until the effects of the vaccine are felt.
Wanting to heal to a new normal
12
Feb
Carnival would start today in Brazil, there are those who regr
et this impossibility even thinking about a pandemic that shows no signs of weakening, even countries that are advancing with the vaccine, as in the case of Portugal, England and the United States the signs that the virus circulates are still strong.
Morin’s book alerts us to lessons that the pandemic should have taught us, but it is not what is actually observed, so not only do we need other “cures” like human fragility itself in the face of the virus and other pathologies, including social ones, can remain.
It is necessary to want to heal and we discover that this cure is collective and codependent, we need everyone to be healthy and a society that does not look at the most fragile or that despises them and condemns the life of loneliness and death has not yet achieved a lasting cure that point to lasting solidarity.
We learned the harshness of isolation and loneliness, even if in family, but how many people live like this in the so-called normality, that the new normal brings a greater human aggregation to all, that traces what Edgar Morin calls a new humanity more humane.
May the vaccine immunize us, but let us learn co-immunity as Peter Sloterdijk advocated even before the epidemic, and it did not refer to the immunity of the disease, but in a broader sense that immunity that makes us a humanity capable of defending itself against tyrannies and social diseases.
The biblical passage in which a leper approaches Jesus and asks on his knees: “If you want, you have the power to heal yourself”, Jesus, compassionately reached out, touched him and said: “I want you to be healed!” (Mark 1: 40-41).
There are two essential points: the leper’s burning desire with faith to heal and divine compassion for him to be healed, human faith and righteousness attract divine power, those who believe know this.
People today want to change to a new normal or remain frivolous normal life.
It’s time to change of way
11
Feb
It is not my proposal, but the name of the last book by Edgar
Morin (Editor Bertrand do Brasil, 2020), the almost centenary French philosopher shows the lessons of the coronavirus that we resisted in learning, it is also very similar to the name of Peter Sloterdijk’s book : You have to change your life (publisher Relógio d´Água, 2018) this well before the coronavirus.
Before moving on to some of Morin’s lessons, I want to say that we ALL need to change our lives, the planet has run out, words have run out, polarizing politics runs out, and unfortunately sweet words like “fraternity”, “solidarity”, “compassion” ”And so many others seem to be only the will of some that others change, without, however, that each one changes himself first.
The preamble is a historical retrospective from the Spanish flu to May 68 and the current ecological crisis, the lessons from the coronavirus in chapter 1 I comment on at the end.
I begin at the end to affirm that Morin, who also shares values of fraternity, of planetary citizenship, of overcoming inequalities, etc., has in his book a very clear proposal, after demonstrating that the crisis is prior to the coronavirus that only worsened it , on page 4 sentence “… there are two inseparable requirements for political renewal: to leave neoliberalism, to reform the state” (page 46), which will provide the means in chapter 3.
This is actually your second point in the cap. 2 Post-corona challenges, the challenge of the political crisis, of the nine challenges it points to in current crises: the existential challenge, also pointed out in Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti Encyclical, the challenges of crises: globalization, democracy, digital, ecological protection, the economic crisis, uncertainties and the danger of a major setback (pages 44 to 53).
The 15 lessons from the coronavirus: about our existence, isolation shows us how those who “did not have access to the superfluous and the frivolous and deserve to reach the stage where we have the superfluous” live (page 23), on the condition recalls the Meadows report, which pointed to the limits of growth, the lesson about the uncertainty of our life, the lesson of our relationship with death, the lesson about our civilization (life turned outward, without inner life, the life of shopping malls and happy hours), the awakening of solidarity, inequality and social isolation, the diversity of situations and the management of the epidemic, the nature of a crisis, the 9 initial lessons.
The lesson about science and medicine, do we understand “that science is not a repertoire of absolute truths (unlike religion” (page 33), the crisis of intelligence, which he wisely divides into “invisible complexities” the way of knowledge “of human realities (growth rate, GDP, opinion polls, etc.” (page 35), point 2. is the ecology of action, it warns that action can “go in the opposite direction to what is expected and return like a boomerang to the head of the one who decided it” (page 35), how many actions and speeches fell in this ditch.
The twelfth lesson is the inefficiency of the state, which, in addition to neoliberal politics, yields “to pressures and interests that paralyze all reforms” (page 38), while polarization deepens.
The thirteenth lesson is national relocation and dependence, and regrets “that the national problem is so poorly formulated and always reduced to the opposition between sovereignty and globalization” (page 39), note the speeches that polarize and do not leave this circle vicious.
The fourteenth lesson is the crisis in Europe, I remember Sloterdijk’s book “If Europe woke up”, and Morin opens the wound: “on the shock of the epidemic, the European Union broke into national fragments” (page 40) .
The fifteenth lesson is the planet in crisis, quotes Prof. Thomas Michiels, biologist and specialists in virus transmission: “There is no doubt that globalization influences epidemics and favors the spread of the virus. When observing the evolution of past epidemics, there are notable examples in which it is noted that epidemics follow railways and human displacements. There is no doubt, the circulation of individuals aggravates the epidemic ”(page 41).
MORIN, E. (2020) É hora de mudarmos de via: lições do coronavírus, transl. Ivone Castilho Benedetti, collaboration Sabah Abouessalam. Rio de Janeiro, BR: Bertrand do Brasil.
Urgent: change thinking and teach to live
10
Feb
When we propose a model that is not that of the world of life, Husserl made a
philosophy of it, his Lebenswelt, Habermas made it a sociology, Heidegger and Gadamer incorporate it in his thoughts, but the end that is life if not learning. But we didn´t learning from the pandemic.
The central problem of seeking a “clearing” is that we create models too far from life, from its defense including nature, dignity and living itself, we are in a Yellow September, whose theme is none other than to say that it is worthwhile. It is worth living.
thought”. We will have a clearing, but it will not last long, and we could start a big change now, then there may not be time.
Clinging to already outdated methods and models, logicists and neopositivists, it is not pointed out “the nature of knowledge, which itself contains the risk of error and illusion” (MORIN, 2015, p. 16).
The great complexity theorist proposes, first of all, a return to philosophy (in the sense of primary thinking) in its Socratic condition of dialogue, Aristotelian (in the sense among others, of the organization of information), Platonic (questioning of appearances), and even pre-Socratic (questioning the world, inserting knowledge in modern cosmology), finally cannot teach life without knowing that it has dilemmas, errors and options.
Morin, who could boast of wisdom by age, by intense intellectual activity, from the pedestal of those full of certainties, no doubt or misconceptions that we see parading through the gyms and public stands of devouring and unquestioning media.
Morin seeks to “conceive the instruments of a thought that is pertinent because it is complex” (Morin, 2015, p. 23), and we see the barbarism of dogma and little elaborated certainties.
Ready-made phrases, self-help manuals, (mainly economic) laissez-faire, rudeness, and ideological hysteria deepen today’s cultural, humanitarian, and social crisis.
It scares me that book readers are so sure with so little thought, in fact criticism of thought grows and the praise of ignorance seems to win any argument.
Morin encourages us and brings us to a still visible and possible future, his lecture at the Frontier of Thought (2016) (Conference in Brazil) is a hope and a deepening that sheds new light.
MORIN, Edgar: Ensinar a viver: manifesto para mudar a educação. Trad. Edgard de Assis Carvalho e Mariza Perassi Bosco. Porto Alegre: Sulina, 2015
Vaccines, anticipation and care
08
Feb
Vaccines are undoubtedly the greatest weapon in the
fight against Covid-19, but it is necessary to follow the scientific data worldwide, WHO itself certifies that only two vaccines had the data finalized Pfizer and AstraZeneca, being the stages of evaluation (Status of assesment) and date of anticipated decision, according to the WHO website (photo inside).
The others are promised for the middle of February and beginning of March, note that the decision is written in the WHO table is anticipated so that some side effects are appearing after the start of the vaccination, normally this was verified in the final tests.
It is not, therefore, fake-news like a lot of information circulating in the media, the evaluation process has been accelerated, which is clear on the WHO website itself, it is understandable in a way, but it is necessary to know that the process of falling in the curve of infection will take a long time to fall, official data show that the death toll is growing, and there are countries that are already collapsing.
Thus, care must be redoubled and we all need to be aware of this moment, which is now the peak of the pandemic and vacillations in the control of the pandemic only worsen the current stage.
The case of Portugal is iconic, even though the vaccination process has started and is at an even good pace, the contamination of Covid-19 reached very high levels in the country and demanded harsh government measures, and a certain panic in the health system that asked for help from European neighbors.
We cannot imagine that this is just their case and that we will not reach this chaos, if urgent measures are not taken, we will enter the same collapse that a good part of the country already seems to be going, the difficulties of taking hard measures are due to the the bad climate that politics installs in the country, impossible any kind of agreement or common sense at this level.
In the meantime, the people suffer and we hope for the progress of the vaccination stages, but it is good to observe the stage of the vaccines that are being offered and also to make efforts in the purchase of inputs.
