SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Eve was talked into it.

And something rather like that is going on with a lot of the people now who are avoiding precautions, and on whom we might be wishing excruciating consequences.

Raises the question whether we're aiming all that ill will at the right parties really.

 

The Bangladesh study on masks that I mentioned was huge. I heard one of the scientists interviewed on the radio. In many villages there's no mask availability, so they provided whole villages with masks and easily found villages where there were very few masks for controls. He said that some people complained about the ethics of not providing masks for these control villages, and he said that they basically spent their entire budget on as many masks as they could buy, but they couldn't mask the whole country, so there were always villages available as controls.

The data was pretty clear--masks work at reducing the chances of catching Covid. Even cotton masks work. If you believe this large study was carefully done, as it appears to be, then I don't see the controversy.

 

the problem is the parts of the study that cannot be controlled, like mask types, mask fit, mask wearing constancy, number of people interacted with who are contagious, how much time is spent indoor vs outdoor, what types of activities were participated in and the list goes on and on.

 

They did carefully control for mask fit and mask type and wearing consistency.

Certainly these things can affect the results, but even with a cloth mask and bad fit, the chances of getting Covid were reduced when wearing a mask.

And the test included 340,000 people!

There comes a point where you have to ask if it is the test or if it is someone's refusal to accept results that go contrary to predetermined beliefs.

 

Of getting and spreading.

 

Just because there is not a properly randomized study does not prove something does or doesn't work.
Do you need a study to tell you that holding a stick of lighted dynamite between your teeth is a bad idea?

Pretty difficult to make that study, or a mask study, to be double blind as well.

Mike

 

Oriental countries have a culture of wearing masks for air pollution or other maladies. They seem to have significantly lower transmission than the USA.

Bob Wilson

 

I certainly mask up when going to an indoor location or crowded outdoor location. But no mask when out for a walk in the neighborhood. I don't understand the people walking by themselves, far away from anyone...or alone in their cars, with a mask on.

What do you mean by "full faith and confidence" in a vaccine when, at best, they are ~95% effective a few weeks after the 2nd shot? It makes perfect sense to get the vaccine, but then ALSO wear a mask when in crowded locations, especially indoors

There is absolutely NO confusion in any messaging that you can and should do both...until the number of potentially infected people walking around is at a much lower level.

Mike

 

Wow!
Looks like face diapers are going to be a back bench issue for now.

#iwillnotcomply seems to be something of a "thing" now, along with parents who are going to be forced to vax their kids over 12 or seek alternative daycare options...
Hospitals were some of the first institutions who mandated vaccines for those 'employed at will' and they were also some of the first that fired 'those that won't.'
HOWEVER (comma!)
I personally know of at least two local nurses who are unjabbed, AND work for hospitals that employ more than 100 people AND are critically understaffed.
I also know of several teachers whose intentions are to 'slow-roll' vaccine compliance checks for their kids over 12.......no word yet from the NEA or local administrators.

Kinda interesting that a a disease with a 99.5% survival rate that's treatable with 2 different kinds of vaccines that have an advertised 90+% efficacy rate inspires such a devout following for face masks.....AND a nakedly unconstitutional act by POTUS.

Interesting hill to fight and die on......

My beloved company mandated vaccines for salaried (non-"represented") employees a while ago.
Meanwhile.....
My beloved union talked out of one side of their face very recently about vaccines - curiously and almost for the very first time, voicing exactly MY views on the subject......

"CWA strongly supports vaccination to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. CWA recommends that CWA members be vaccinated with an FDA approved vaccine to protect themselves, their families, their co-workers, and their communities. Vaccines are a proven infectious disease prevention tool. COVID-19 vaccinations will save countless lives and help prevent serious COVID-19 disease and potential long term health problems associated with COVID-19 (aka “long haul COVID”).

CWA supports voluntary vaccination programs and opposes mandatory vaccination as a condition of employment."

It will be kinda interesting to see how they and their contemporaries react......

 

So true, ETC. I also find it interesting both Biden and Harris expressed doubt over the vaccine just last year, while Trump was in office but, now, are going full Marxist on us!

10-years ago, when I got the Swine Flu, the doctor gave me a mask to wear so I was less likely to spread it around and to go home and stay until I was better. In those days, the SICK wore masks and healthy did not. It's interesting how countries and states that do NOT have mask mandates ARE actually doing better than the others.

Where is the ACLU in all of this? Aren't they supposed to be the defenders of civil liberties even to the point of defending pedophiles and neo-nazi groups? Or maybe they are just a bunch of political hacks blindly obeying their masters in the Democrat party. (And the KKK were members of the Democrat party.)

And who the hell is the President to threaten Americans by saying crap like, "My patience is wearing thin"??? Isn't a politician supposed to serve and protect, not threaten and demand? Tyrants and dictators threaten and demand, at the point of using arms against the people.

Thank God we are an armed population in American, unlike poor Australians who allowed the government to disarm them years ago and look at the crap going on down under.

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbit it, Almight God! I know not know course others may take; but as for me, give me Liberty or give me Death." -Patrick Henry, Virginia House of Burgesses, March 23, 1775

 

Next stop, FHOP?

 

Asian culture leans heavily towards the sick wearing masks as BOTH a barrier and a warning to the not-sick.
Well....at least they used to.

Asian nations are also more compliant to authoritarianism, they tend to have different population densities, they smoke like John Wayne but eat much healthier diets than Lard Butt Americans AND have vastly different views on immigration.

In other words......they're different.
Thus, an apples to apples stare and compare is much more difficult for things like mask efficacy.

Facts don't care about people's feelings.

THAT's why people who sell pre-digested "news" have so many different ways of finding the "facts and studies" that align with their feelings.
Dot.gov does the same thing....and HAS for about the last 240 some odd years.

I'm sure that some pucker-butt out there has already notified the social credit administrators.....
We can discuss agreeably in the adult section about whether or not unvaxed, unmasked, or BOTH deserve to die (horribly or otherwide...) but DO NOT CRITICIZE dot.gov.....

Unlike sciencey things...FHOP_P IS a good place to wonder about things like that.

However (comma!) you really don't want to go down there!

If you think people act nasty towards airline flight attendants......you ain't seen nothing yet!

 

Yes, I've been to 18 other countries outside the US and Asian countries do tend to wear the masks (especially females) much more than other but it's primarily in the bigger cities. In smaller towns and rural areas they are just like everywhere else.

In today's WH press conference, Jen Psaki was asked why there is a requirement for businesses with more than 100 people to have vaccinations but it's not a requirement for illegals at the southern border. Her answer, "That's correct" and then moved onto another question.

It's purely political, folks....if Trump had tried to mandate stuff guess what reactions he would've gotten?

 

The difference between honest brokers and political hacks is demonstrated daily.....but the reason "scientific studies" are so often corrupted lies in the layers and layers of biases that are present in those who are NOT whipped up into a seething frothy mess by the newsies and the tech bros......and then there's the MONEY.

Labs cost bucks.
If you think that the military is profligately wasteful with 'not their' money then try to do optical oceanography, acoustics research, or any of the other 'hard stemmy' sciences..........on a budget!

That's why those few PIs who ARE honest with themselves about calling balls and strikes over the plate often find themselves at odds with their sugar daddies.....


Speaking of legal prostitution.....

USPS workers not included in Biden mandatory vaccination ...
https://www.postaltimes.com › postalnews › usps-worke...

Fact check.....FALSE!


They tried to claw the story back......but even though you can 'forget your past.....your past doesn't forget about YOU!

 

"Freedom" to freely spread communicable diseases has never been one of our protected civil liberties. Public health authorities have always had powers to quarantine or isolate known or possible disease carriers from disease-free communities. We used to force lepers into isolated colonies, and lock TB-patients into sanitariums. Several times we have required ships newly arrived from countries experiencing cholera or yellow fever outbreaks to anchor at quarantine stations.

Vaccine mandates have existed since General Washington camped out at Valley Forge.

The Supreme Court upheld vaccine mandates in 1905, in an case regarding mandatory smallpox vaccinations:

"The Court held that "in every well ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand" and that "[r]eal liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own [liberty], whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.""

The KKK was actually quite bi-partisan. And both major parties have subsequently shifted drastically and traded many members between them. Neither today much resembles what is was back then.

Where were you sleeping out the past handful of years, Rip Van Winkle?

 

Another quote from a justice in the Jacobson case:

Jacobson is an interesting case. The ruling makes a lot of sense. Sadly, some people like the eugenics crowd in the 1920s hid behind that ruling and used it to justify forced sterilization of people they called mentally feeble. The thing that gives me pause is that, when I got vaccinated, I was mainly protecting myself. It's still possible for me to carry the virus although, not being plagued with coughing and stuff, I'd probably be less contagious. Still, I'm the main beneficiary. But, when there are so many unvaccinated people overwhelming the hospitals, their decision to not get vaccinated is no longer a "my body, my choice" decision. Now they are interfering with countless other people's lives ... unless they also choose to refuse hospitalization. And then there's the effect on the families of those unvaccinated people who suffer the loss of someone they love. The "my body, my choice" attitude is profoundly selfish.

 

I’m not sure that this case is directly applicable to a federally imposed fine on an arbitrarily selected group of private companies….(100 or more) but it WILL make for a good jobs programme for lawyers.
I guess small companies have more rights than large ones?

Interestingly enough, OSHA will be the enforcement arm, IIRC….an agency even smaller than ICE.
Sanctuary cities, anyone?

States DO have the right to impose vaccines, period…..full stop.
However (comma!) absenting a little paperwork, the case for a federal imposition is ground less trodden…and, like I said before this is a very strange way to fight a very strange battle.

Film at 11….

 

There's nothing strange about mandated health programs. If, as someone said, it's the politician's job to serve the people, isn't it also the citizen's responsibility to comport themselves in such a way that they don't act against the best interests of society?

For that matter, isn't it in the Constitution that the government is to act for the general well being of the citizens? You don't support the well being of the populace by encouraging them to ignore modern medicine and science.

On a related note... My stupid sister in law has contracted Covid. She was able to convince her grown kids that masks were silly and vaccines were causing the disease. Obviously, she was not vaccinated. I don't feel sorry for her, but I do feel sorry for her husband who suffered massive brain damage after falling from a 30 foot tall platform last year. She's his only support. Did I mention that she was stupid? Yep, that fits well.

 

In one respect, OSHA provides ‘cover’ so the employers who want to avoid COVID isolation of staff can keep operating. The COVID advocating Givernors are checkmated.

Business owners have a vested interest in employees at work and returning customers.

Bob Wilson

 

Interesting read, one of vaccine developers:

Scientists’ egos are key barrier to progress, says Covid vaccine pioneer | Coronavirus | The Guardian