It’s been nearly seven years since I left California and created a series of blog posts of our trip east and what life was like in my new state. Seven years later, I have been transformed, but my long association with California remains. I only returned to California twice, both times just to the Bay…
Author: cjbickford
Perspectives on Theranos 2: Some Good Ideas
Theranos and its founders were trapped in the hype and “drink the Kool-Aid” mentality that eventually led to its downfall. Had Elizabeth Holmes had more humility and willingness to scale her grandiose promises of what could be done within a few years, she might have had a small start-up whose innovations could have been part…
Perspectives on Theranos: Silicon Valley Kool-Aid Culture
Elizabeth Holmes was recently convicted for fraud in her role as the figurehead and firebrand for her medical start-up Theranos. The whole sordid tale is contemporaneously accounted in John Carreyrou’s excellent book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, as well as several documentaries that express surprise on how so many smart…
COVID Vaccines in 100 Days or Less
Could we have had vaccinations against COVID-19 sooner, or given what we know now, taken more time to discover the rare side-effects we only know of now, before mandating the shots for all? In the book The Vaccine: Inside the Race to Conquer the COVID-19 Pandemic by Joe Miller, based on the speed of the…
The Fun of Unscientific Social Distancing Markers
“Why was six feet the magic distance to stand apart from one another in order to avoid catching the deadliest and most dangerous virus of all time(TM) in the United States? It’s how far apart all the markers were spread to show us where to stand. That’s 1.8 meters in metric distance, and not the…
Megyn Kelly Agrees With My Book: F*ck You Fauci
“Dr.” Fauci will “consider” showing up for Congress to answer for all the damage and harm he did to our children, our society, our health, and our mental health. Here’s what Megyn Kelly says about that.
About Me
I make a big deal about understanding the source and context of an opinion, so you might want to know a little about who I am and how that influences by opinions. The opinions I state here have nothing to do with the organizations and people who hired me, but that experience and training has…
Old Journalistic Ethics vs. Social Media Screeds (updated below)
Back when I started in journalism (back in the era of print journalism), I was taught that every news story had to have some research, so it wasn’t just a repeat of what someone else had said. We were supposed to get opposing points of view, if there was a point of view, and if…
The COVID Masks
First responders have rules and protocols they need to follow in various situations. For respiratory pathogens (like tuberculosis, ebola, and COVID-19), the protocol was for the responder to don an N95 or better (or HEPA) mask and then place one on the patient. I am not making this up; if I failed to use proper…
Share Your Craziest COVID Memories Here
I’ve just got the first copies of my book about the COVID response out, and it details a lot of the craziness and madness of the response — much of which has already been forgotten. In the book, I recount seeing a woman with an entire cartful of toilet paper coming out of Home Depot…