A Pfizer spokesperson, when asked by a Dutch member of the European Parliament recently whether their so-called (because it’s not) Covid-19 vaccine was tested before it went to market to see if it stopped transmission of the virus, laughed and then answered “no,” then said “
we have to really move at the speed of science to really understand what is taking place in the market.”” Here’s a link to a video of that exchange:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/bl ... /#comments .
Now I’m not really sure what she was trying to actually say (I have my suspicions), but the phrase “speed of science” caught my attention, because other mainstream Big Science efforts seem to be in a similar rush ... to commercialize fusion, end the production of CO2 and find Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Inflation, Black Holes, etc, etc, etc. So I thought to myself ... maybe “speed of science” is their motivation too?
That being the case, let’s see what Pfizer had to say about the “Speed Of Science”. First, I found that they put out this video (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTby8r-V9ag&t=17s) and a museum exhibit in collaboration with an Irish college in 2020. It, like the exhibit, are titled “Speed of Science: We Are All Scientists”. The video opens by saying that “the intent is to make science fun and accessible to all age groups.” Well, we’ve certainly heard those pushing Big Bang gnomes, like the many *science communicators* and some of the other Big Science organizations, saying the same thing. They’ve even worked with clothes designers to make their ideas “fun” and “accessible”.
But beyond that, the video doesn’t really explain what’s meant by “speed of science” so I decided to dig deeper and found this:
https://timesofcovid19.temporalities.no ... in-hussey/ . It indicates the exhibit was to celebrate how fast Pfizer reached Stage 3 trials of their Covid-19 vaccine, fastest vaccine ever developed. Well … we all know how that turned out (or at least some of us do).
What I’m wondering now is if the same thing will now happen in the astrophysics community ... the realization that billions and billions of dollars have been wasted on wild goose chases that have accomplished very little of real value to science or humanity ... that have just made a bunch of people wealthier than they otherwise would have been? But at least pursuit of the astrophysics gnomes hasn’t been as disruptive to society as pursuit of safety from Covid-19 has been with it's lockdowns and Covid-19 passports.
Indeed, the article above indicates that “the COVID-19 lockdown(s) then force us to ask – what is a sustainable speed for science? How can we balance the need for acceleration and discovery and the benefits derived from slowness, creativity, and self-care?” They took this question to the scientists engaged in Covid-19 research and “The responses suggest a need for the creation of something like a locally adjusted feedback loop – one in which alternating and interconnected speed and slowness reflect the productivity cycles of the scientists in a particular institution. Periods of focused introspection and creativity give way to rapid production and output before looping back again.”
I think maybe astrophysics and other Big Science scientists needs the same thing … periodic slowdown to force introspection. As Isabelle Stengers, who wrote a book “Another Science is Possible: A Manifesto for Slow Science” (see
https://www.societyandspace.org/article ... e-stengers ) is quoted in the article, “Slowing down means becoming capable of learning again” and THAT is what mainstream astrophysicists, climatologists, and fusion researchers need ... to be capable of learning again ... since learning is at the heart of science.
But the article warns us that “if we are to follow the responses here, no such reckoning is currently underway in the global practice of science at speed.” And the reason is that science of vaccines has become Big Business and speed is essential to beat the competitors … even if the resulting product is next to worthless. Because the objective is TO MAKE MONEY and it doesn’t matter in the type of system we've unfortunately created if what you sell is good or bad. It just has to sell …
and the government and media can make sure it does.