Energy Dep’t COVID view counts, DEI is poisonous and other commentary - New York Post | By The Perfect Enemy

Science beat: Energy Dep’t COVID View Counts

Yes, explains National Review’s Jim Geraghty, that US Department of Energy finding on COVID’s origin carries real weight. DOE “has a special division that, as part of its mission to track and mitigate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, specializes in the study of biological weapons such as viruses.” And “no one would dispute that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the biggest of the big-time” US research institutions. Beyond the top-secret Z Division (“so secretive it makes the Central Intelligence Agency look chatty”), Livermore’s been a “major contributor to the Human Genome Project.” And past projects of its Biosciences and Biotechnology Division include “studies of ‘how to better determine the origin of a virus,’ how coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS transferred from animals to human beings, portable virus-detection technologies, rare mutations of viruses within animal hosts” and more.

Foreign desk: Aim for Ukraine’s Total Victory

Despite recent setbacks, “Putin is unlikely to ever change his maximalist intent to secure control over Ukraine,” argues Mason Clark at Time. But “Ukraine is fully capable of defeating Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression” — and “the U.S. and its partners must help Ukraine do so,” as “enabling a decisive Ukrainian victory” is “an essential U.S. national interest.” Crucially, the Kremlin “remains extraordinarily unlikely to use nuclear weapons”; Putin’s nuclear threats are aimed simply “at intimidating both Ukraine and the West.” And “the longer Russia has to reconstitute its forces and wear down Western unity, the greater the risks of escalation become.” So the West must end its “ebb-and-flow support” and “ensure Ukraine receives timely and lasting” aid.

Eye on aviation: Wheelchair Fakers Delay Flights

Airlines have seen “a drastic increase” in wheelchair requests, reports Jay Ratliff at The Hill. Do more flyers have “physical limitations” — or are “unethical passengers” just jumping the boarding line? The answer seems clear when 25 passengers need help boarding but only five in disembarking. (Airline folks call these “Jesus flights” because so many seem to be “healed” during their flight.) And these requests fuel delays. One solution: Have those demanding help go last to “remove the temptation” to fake an injury. Alas, the Department of Transportation mandates they go first; until that changes, “look for more delayed flights and misery.”

Campus watch: DEI Is Poisonous

The point of “so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion programs” is to make college students “feel more included,” groans the Washington Examiner’s editorial board — but what “if those programs are doing precisely the opposite?” A new report shows that eight years of DEI at Texas A&M University has left black, Hispanic and white students “feeling less welcomed.” DEI created a toxic cycle of “alienation, division, and hatred.” Although Texas A&M now promises “not to use diversity statements in hiring practices,” Gov. Greg Abbott should “insist all Texas A&M schools” follow the University of Texas System decision to “halt all DEI programs at its schools.” Nationwide, “defund the diversity-industrial complex permanently” and “prevent the use of racialist teaching materials to train staff or indoctrinate students through campus programs.”

From the right: CDC Ignoring Science

“The most rigorous and extensive review of the scientific literature concludes that neither surgical masks nor N95 masks have been shown to make a difference in reducing the spread of Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses.” That “ought to be the death knell for mask mandates,” but the Centers for Disease Control “and the rest of the public health establishment” still “ignore actual science,” thunders John Tierney at The Free Press. And “dozens of peer-reviewed studies” show “masks cause social, psychological, and medical problems,” yet “public health officials, in violation of the first-do-no-harm principle, continue recommending or mandating masks,” often for “everyone from age two on up.” “Can anything persuade the maskaholics . . . to give up their obsession?”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

#Black, #Hispanic, #PublicHealth

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Published on The Perfect Enemy at https://bit.ly/3mfPF6L.