Why are you so aggressive when discussing this? I’m simply asking questions and looking for answers. If you don’t know the answer, by all means just say so. Don’t go off on a tangent and start with the accusations. You’re trying to get me to bite on the mask question, but I won’t take it. But lemme guess- You’re one of those “shut up and put on a mask!” types. Especially when it comes to questions you don’t have the answers to. Fact of the matter is a once in a century government mandate should be heavily scrutinized, not shunned when questions are asked. Your hatred for anyone questioning the status quo is alarming, to say the least. But it is your board, so you will win, regardless of logic and facts.
TB and COVID are similar in some meaningful ways. However, it seems to me that COVID is far deadlier, especially since it's a "novel" virus, whereas we've known about TB for years and have decent mitigation strategies in place. That's very biased towards a US perspective. For that matter, malaria is a nightmare to the developing world, and yet it doesn't affect US interests much, so it's relegated to the Gates Foundation or USAID. You're right, we haven't politicized TB. We've damn near eliminated it. I recall having to get a TB test as part of my onboarding for a state job. We can test for it, we can vaccinate against it and we can trace an outbreak of TB. For a TB outbreak in a school, I recall training plans on what to do. I think the mindset you're looking for is "TB is factored into our notion of acceptable risk." and COVID-19 is not. We can't vaccinate it yet, we don't/can't/won't trace it well or test it well. Also, COVID-19 is as of right now, deadlier than everything except heart disease and cancer for Americans. TB is not anymore and poses no credible threat of climbing up the ranks. Because a lot of people "simply asking questions and looking for answers" aren't doing so in good faith and lots of "logic and facts" are being thrown around that are neither. It's infuriating when double standards are applied to the truth: Trump claimed it was a hoax, CDC said "don't buy masks" and people are saying "See? Both were wrong!" Yeah, but on vastly different levels. I agree that the government's actions here should be scrutinized. I concur that the mask mandate isn't the solution it's being made out to be (y'know why?...because actual solutions got cocked up along the way). However, it's the best thing we have going right now, and people are very visibly over-reacting to a pretty tame requirement. Fuck, banks make you take off your hat and sunglasses and no one screams "muh liberty, muh Ray-Bans!". Some of us believe catching this virus isn't a foregone conclusion. We believe if it continues to spread, it will kill an unnecessarily large amount of people, whose death or disability could have been avoided. We believe that we're better off listening to the CDC and the public health authorities, even if they were wrong earlier, and staying updated so we keep pace as their understanding of how to treat and combat this virus evolves. Some of us are willing to endure a little discomfort for the greater good and not bitch about it, and do our part to avoid the "tragedy of the commons" engulfing the whole Goddamned nation. Some of us are content to have faith that this can be beaten, and it will not depend on politicians feeding us talking points. However, the reality is what we see on the ground: one disease is out of control, killing 1,000 Americans a day, infecting thousands more. TB is....not, nor has it been for many years.
What I find so incredibly interesting is that I don't see it as the government saying it, I see it as the premiere medical professionals around the world saying it. And yeah, I do accept it. I don't go looking for some bullshit government conspiracy, or even assume that I am anywhere close to being able to figure out the answer myself. I trust in the medical professionals, full stop. I ask questions, but I don't question their motives or conclusions. I ask questions to better understand, knowing that I full well WON'T understand, because it's fucking complex, and they have spent decades of their lives doing this work. I don't fall back on a stance of "I won't do it unless they satisfy me that it's worth doing". That's up there with the flat earth society and anti vaxors. I work toward helping the community by doing what is asked of me, not saying "not going to do it until I can prove it to myself". So yeah, I've been asked by smart, scientific people to wear a mask in public, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Period. Full stop. And yeah, I am being a bit confrontational, because the "won't wear a mask because Merica and our Freedom" reaction is fucking bullshit, and needs to die off, because it is literally killing people. The only reason this is "politicized" is because you are making it so. If you won't wear a mask in public, based on all the information out there right now, I think you're an idiot.... and not the fun kind that we try to have around here, but a full-blown, moronic, going to kill people because you're too stupid to know you're stupid, Idocracy-starring idiot.
If it wasn’t being politicized, then we wouldn’t allow riots to continue unmasked. If we’re going to save millions of people then fuck these illusions of safety like bandanas and the like. Break out oxygen tanks and full blown decontamination tents. Unrealistic and costly? Well so is shutting down the country to the cost of trillions of dollars. Perhaps there’s common ground to be found. But the inconsistencies in policy fighting this create suspicion and rightfully so.
We treat TB differently because TB can be treated by antibiotics. In the few cases where drug-resistant TB crops up, we literally quarantine the infected for months on end. And not the "quarantine" we have now where you can go to a bar as long as you sit on the patio, but the kind of quarantine where they lock your hospital room door so you can't leave.
Who ALLOWS riots? I would give some serious cash for a framed copy of my "riot permit" hanging on my wall. All safety is an illusion at some level. The question is where do we draw the line? If you want to stroll around with an o2 tank and a hazmat suit, be my guest. We've drawn the line at a barely accepted minimum, and it's not working as well as it should and people are acting like they were asked to drag around a crucifix they are stapled to. You don't NEED to have an o2 tank and a hazmat suit to safe millions of lives, in public health/public safety terms we're looking for the "minimally invasive, predominantly effective" solution. That math is exactly what you think it is: what's the safest possible thing people will actually fucking do? Put it bluntly: you think there aren't folks reporting to work all haz-matted up? They don't wish it on the rest of us. Find one of them and ask them. This virus is being politicized, and that absolutely needs to stop. You know who don't give a shit about politics? The virus and the dead. Keep in mind the trillions of dollars spent and the shut down was not a foregone conclusion. This was avoidable. Also, instead of disparaging the weak preventive measures we're being asked to comply with, take a real good, close look at what those trillions were spent on. From my perspective, rioters not being safe isn't the issue. The issue becomes apparent when you follow the money. Today, 1,000 people died needless deaths. These are not 1,000 dead from decades of smoking, or being 100 lbs. overweight (ie, things they could have changed via behavior to mitigate and have some personal responsibility for). These are 1,000 Americans that got coughed on by the wrong asshole. At 200,000 dead, it shouldn't be a tall order to say to the country "don't be an asshole". ALL policies have inconsistencies, just google "Texas death penalty retarded". Which ones matter to you? "Unmasked riots?" Trillions in funding being spent with no oversight? A minimally invasive requirement to prevent SOME measure of the spread of this nightmare?
The inconsistencies in policy are due to HORRIBLE leadership throughout the country. There hasn't been a strong federal policy to stand by and state by state, depending on what side of the aisle you sit on, the response and guidelines are so far apart it's shocking. This has been politicized because that's where we are in the country right now. We can barely operate our government in any manner because we as a country are so divided, we can't even come to a compromise on helping states, schools, unemployed during one of the worst disasters our country has seen in a century. As far as the mask issue. There's no reason to not wear one, especially in enclosed spaces where you will be for a long time. I'm not walking around downtown with a mask on, but if I go into a store, I have one with me and put it on. How effective are they? Couldn't tell you, but in the absence of a vaccine, a reliable treatment, extremely efficient trace and contact programs, I'll stick with doing the absolute bare minimum in trying to not catch a new virus which is causing a global pandemic. Why don't we care about TB vs this? TB has a vaccine, reliable treatment, and a extremely good trace and contact program. Sure, it can be spread in a similar trajectory as Covid, but I'm not too concerned about it in the US because, well, it's not a problem. Outside of the US, sure, it's an issue and I can't do anything to help that. Same as how I can't magically solve water shortages or famines or the litany of problems around the world which are way too large and complex for one entity to take over and force everyone to operate in a specific way.
That's not true. We have plenty of evidence that initial viral load matters and wearing a good face mask helps with that. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/20/8932...suggests-masks-protect-those-wearing-them-too
She also referenced a factory setting where everyone wore mask but had very few symptomatic infections even with a high rate of infected people. There are multiple reports showing the same thing, lots of infection but very high asymptomatic cases. Also, as she noted, JAMA published a health care worker showing the same thing. Initial viral load matters, which is true for a lot of viral infections. And a proper mask will help with that.
If your son carries you out of the store, are the employee's really the pussies? https://www.reddit.com/r/CovIdiots/comments/i7uusa/son_has_to_carry_out_tantruming_father/
The difference between Covid and TB? Some perspective from a person with 25 years of experience in various facets of healthcare: I was exposed to TB a couple times. Got a phone call, told to take an antibiotic prescribed to me, case closed. If exposed to Covid, assuming I’m made aware, I immediately have to figure out where I’m gonna be able to quarantine for two weeks away from my family. Assuming I haven’t exposed them already. If I’m “asymptomatic”, I still don’t know if I’ll end up with one of a host of potentially debilitating problems as we’ve discussed here already. If symptomatic, I have to hope I get through it, again, without infecting my family. Or requiring hospitalization. Or dying. That’s the difference, and it’s fucking huge. It’s also why the anti-mask, “it’s just the flu” assholes among us piss me off to no end.
From the article: "GANDHI: And what we want to do by wearing a mask is get down the bad stuff about this virus that it can cause very severe illness. And, yes, we've absolutely not only seen that in countries but even in settings where there are outbreaks but everyone masked, there's, like, a 95% rate of not having symptoms at all. There was actually a outbreak in a chicken factory, outbreak in a seafood factory in this country. But everyone was masking. And it was 95% asymptomatic rate of infection."
No, he’s the pussy because he instantly pulled the “Okay, they’re holding me so now I’m tough” move I’ve seen approximately 23,467 times in my life. I wonder how often his kids separate him from their mom whenever she has the nerve to get opinionated. I still don’t get these public displays of crybaby-ness. You are going to be recorded, you are GOING to get identified and shamed, and probably lose your job. Everyone is a tantrum-throwing adolescent. EDIT: never mind, I see the video was filmed in Tucson. Now his behaviour seems normal.
Yes, there is a minimum amount you have to encounter to become infected. The higher you go above that threshold the worse the infection will be. Keep it at the lowest level and the infection will be milder for most people. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-sp...lthcare-workers-11-of-us-covid19-cases-65525/. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/07/418181/one-more-reason-wear-mask-youll-get-less-sick-covid-19 To me the evidence is overwhelming. Regardless, everyone wearing a mask will greatly reduce illness and death from this virus.
Conspiracy theory time: Are these the new Candid Camera/Jackass pranks? These weirdos (mostly) always seem to be acting alone. Except they don’t need their friends to stakeout and film them anymore, because they can simply count on the first person that sees them filming them and putting it on Youtube.
That's flawed and easy to pick apart. They don't get the recognition, likes or ad revenue if they don't post it themselves. That leaves the only logical explanation, that these people are just assholes destroying property.
If a mechanic tells me that the squeaking I'm hearing when I stop my car is because of my brakes, that mechanic should be legally obligated to brain me with a tire iron if I told him it was from my tail light because I read it on Facebook and "did my research". I cannot understand how some people choose not to believe someone who made the decision to pay an outrageous sum of money for the privilege of learning this stuff and has literal hands on experience with it.
So what I've deduced, since @toytoy88 didn't die but felt pretty terrible, is he only took a medium-sized load to the face rather than a huge load.
I respectfully disagree... I think he took a relatively medium-sized load to the face, but due to his size and redneck metabolism, it actually was a huge load.