On 1/14/2021 9:50 PM, AMuzi wrote:
> On 1/14/2021 8:17 PM, John B. wrote:
>>
>>>> So what is the solution?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Stop flogging the innocents already! Sheesh is that so hard? >>
>> What does that mean?
It was code. Only those with the code book can translate it.
>> No face masks? No "social distancing"? All businesses open and people
>> allowed to congregate in large groups? Allow free travel from anywhere
>> to anywhere?
>>
>
> Citizens, as adults, can and should make decisions in their own best
> interests as they are perceived.
Sorry, that's simplistic. That means the "citizen" who knows absolutely
nothing and cares even less gets to lick the doorknobs at a drunken
party (or perhaps a Trump rally) with thousands of other drunkards, then
spread his or her disease far and wide. The poor schmuck collecting the
drunkards money at the next store he visits, or the Uber driver who
gives him a lift, or the guy passing him in the hall as he coughs into
open air don't get to act in their own best interest.
> You cannot point o a correlation between punishment and outcome.
"Punishment" is a loaded word you're using deliberately.
> Some
> Governors closed everything, ruining the lives of millions (and their
> own tax revenues to boot) and others didn't. The death rates among them
> are all over the place; some high, some low but there's no correlation.
First, it's a multi-variate problem. But ISTM there is correlation.
Which major industrialized country had the most disorganized response to
the virus? Which major industrialized country has the highest case load
per capita now, and for the past many months? And which states saw
surges in case counts after which events?
> If masks are magic, why can't I visit hospitalized people with one? Or
> elderly in care homes? Hospitals remain prime disease vectors and yet
> have 100% face-rag compliance. Where the hell is the 'Science'?
Please don't start a paragraph with "magic" and end it with "science."
Nobody ever said masks are magic, or prevent ALL cases of COVID. But
_if_ hospitals are "prime disease vectors" (which I have not heard) it's
pretty likely because the concentration of COVID patients is much higher
there than in the world at large.
Flip the question. If masks are so useless, why is it that people with
the most medical training and experience are still using them? Why are
they still advocating them? What is it about all that medical training
that deludes them?
> Today our local martinet Governor received a nugget of wisdom
> (apparently from heaven, no other source cited) and decided that a
> critical number of putrid unwashed suddenly changed from 10 people to 50
> people. I'm sure there's some rational scientific basis under which 10
> people last Sunday was certain death but now on Thursday 49 are safe.
> That 50th person? Whoosh, they all die! Can't wait for the video.
I'd guess that any governor's decision at any time comes from a blend of
science and politics. Our governor and health director were doing a
better than average job in the initial phases of this mess. Then
anti-Semitic pickets carrying purposely intimidating guns picketed the
health director's house. Then the Republican legislators worked like
hell to remove the applicable authority of the health director and
governor. The highly praised health director quit, the first replacement
backed out at the last minute, and the governor is now trying to achieve
_something_ without riling up people who still think the entire thing is
a hoax. Politics is the art of the possible.
> One of the worst features of 2020 is the raising of the word 'Science'
> to a cudgel of political correctness with no actual numbers or data
> behind it. Reification of 'Science' makes a mockery of actual science.
And the flip side of that coin is the (nearly) half of the country that
thinks science - indeed, reality - is whatever fits their preordained
political beliefs.
He spoke badly. But the first was at a time when any type of mask was
hard to get and medical personnel badly needed them. (I had some N-95s I
donated to a local hospital. They actually sent someone here to pick
them up.) Fauci said masks were not perfect, as some people seemed to
think. He never said they were useless. He said save them for medical
workers, indicating they are _not_ useless.
In general, ISTM that scientists and medical professionals have been
adapting to new knowledge as science has produced it. Politicians have
had to react to their voters behavior, whether that's been rational or
not. So recommendations and rules have changed.
But the people who already know everything have never changed their tune.
--
- Frank Krygowski