4 ms·

It seems like there’s a pretty strong parallel with the failure of the screw worm eradication programme. It just became a thing we did, rather than the absolute

It seems like there’s a pretty strong parallel with the failure of the screw worm eradication programme. It just became a thing we did, rather than the absolute miracle it was - like vaccination - and then from complacency grows suspicion, for again, as you say, few people alive remember how it was.

Avshalom 4mo ago
Well the screw worm thing happened because Elon Musk hired a bunch of twitter nazis to put the government through a wood chipper. This is the end result of decades snake oil moguls empowered by orin hatch and then turbo charged by people being furious that they weren't allowed to go to TGI Fridays for six months.
- WarOnPrivacy 4mo ago
  > This is the end result of decades snake oil moguls empowered by orin hatch What did Hatch do (I mostly know him as the paid servant of the copyright industry)?
  - cptroot 4mo ago
    This is likely about Orin Hatch's dedication to the idea of a "balanced federal budget", to be paid for with program cuts instead of taxation.
    - Avshalom 4mo ago
      Oh no, he's just straight up the guy that keeps it legal to sell cyanide-rich apricot kernels as anti-cancer meds* *statement not evaluated by the FDA
  - Avshalom 4mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Supplement_Health_and_Education_Act_of_1994 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Supplement_Health_and_...
- arjie 4mo ago
  I don't think that's true. Supply-chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and response were probably a big factor - or so I've read, I'm not an expert. In any case, by 2024 (pre-DOGE), new-world screw-worm fly had breached the Panama boundary where we can feasibly keep it contained with a fixed on-going effort. I remember because some time during the pandemic I learned about the thing from someone linking a much older article in the Atlantic[1]. 0: https://web.archive.org/web/20240218010527/https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/costa-rica-costa-rica-declares-screwworm-emergency https://web.archive.org/web/20240218010527/https://www.fas.u... 1: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-eating-worms-disease-containment-america-panama/611026/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-ea...

Avshalom 4mo ago

Well the screw worm thing happened because Elon Musk hired a bunch of twitter nazis to put the government through a wood chipper. This is the end result of decades snake oil moguls empowered by orin hatch and then turbo charged by people being furious that they weren't allowed to go to TGI Fridays for six months.

WarOnPrivacy 4mo ago
> This is the end result of decades snake oil moguls empowered by orin hatch What did Hatch do (I mostly know him as the paid servant of the copyright industry)?
- cptroot 4mo ago
  This is likely about Orin Hatch's dedication to the idea of a "balanced federal budget", to be paid for with program cuts instead of taxation.
  - Avshalom 4mo ago
    Oh no, he's just straight up the guy that keeps it legal to sell cyanide-rich apricot kernels as anti-cancer meds* *statement not evaluated by the FDA
- Avshalom 4mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Supplement_Health_and_Education_Act_of_1994 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Supplement_Health_and_...
arjie 4mo ago
I don't think that's true. Supply-chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and response were probably a big factor - or so I've read, I'm not an expert. In any case, by 2024 (pre-DOGE), new-world screw-worm fly had breached the Panama boundary where we can feasibly keep it contained with a fixed on-going effort. I remember because some time during the pandemic I learned about the thing from someone linking a much older article in the Atlantic[1]. 0: https://web.archive.org/web/20240218010527/https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/costa-rica-costa-rica-declares-screwworm-emergency https://web.archive.org/web/20240218010527/https://www.fas.u... 1: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-eating-worms-disease-containment-america-panama/611026/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-ea...