INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 885 Amsterdam, August 17th, 2020 THE CORONA CONSPIRACY - Part 13: To Test or Not to Test, That's the Question - FRANK VISSER A lot of misinformation is doing the rounds these days about the need for and usefulness of testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some virus denialists claim that the tests currently in use are "scientifically meaningless".[1] Others claim that the tests produce false positives, up to 80%[2], because they actually test for general genetic material the human body has in its cells. Some claim that by testing at such a frequent level as we do today, we have created a veritable "casedemic": a steep increase in the number of cases of COVID-19, without the expected increase in deaths or even hospitalizations, feeding the suspicion that these case numbers are highly inflated.[3] Many claim that the inventor of the PCR test, Nobel Prize winner Kary Mullis, claimed the test should not be used for the detection of viruses. Some caution against the current testing craze because a full clinical diagnosis requires much more than a simple test result.[4] And Donald Trump famously suggested casually to test less, following the logic that "by having more tests, we have more cases, and that makes us look bad."[5] Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/visser181.html INTELLECTUAL CLICK BAIT - The Dishonest Lure of Coupling Sam Harriswith Donald Trump in Order to Attract Attention - DAVID LANE My old friend, Peter McWilliams (1949-2000), who was a pioneer in advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana when he was dying from AIDS (it alleviated his nausea so he could digest his prescribed medicines), once wrote a book with a title that I think about often: You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought. Although at first glance it sounds like just another New Age platitude, on closer inspection it serves as a useful reminder that the most valuable commodities that we have as humans is our attention and our time. Both are too often in short supply. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/lane262.html THE AGNOSTICS - Thinkers in an Indeterminate Cosmos - DAVID LANE (ed.) MICHAEL SCHMIDT-SALOMON - ERIN LOPEZ http://www.integralworld.net/lane261.html