Posted on 05/07/2021 7:18:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
If you wanted to teach a class on how to cause confusion and distrust, you would follow the U.S. government's coronavirus playbook. A lot has been written about the historically low levels of trust Americans have in their leaders and institutions. There's been less analysis on what happens when a government has no faith in its own citizens. We are seeing the results today. From the start of the pandemic, health authorities have chosen gamesmanship over honesty. This has resulted in muddled and inconsistent messaging from national leaders. The end result is a broken country of citizens at one another's throats. Mask fights, deboarding flights and, of course, the crazy people driving around alone in their cars with masks on all stem, at least in part, from a government that refused to treat Americans like adults who could handle the truth.
It's important to note that the government has done a lot of good things in response to COVID-19. In the area of vaccine development, we have done more, faster than any other large country. The combination of heavy government subsidies and an innovative free market system produced strong, reliable vaccines at a record pace. We crushed efforts by China, Russia and others to fight COVID-19 with medical innovations. This is why America is ahead of Europe and most of the world. We should celebrate the much-maligned pharmaceutical industry and the administrations of both President Donald Trump, whose Operation Warp Speed was a historic achievement, and President Joe Biden, who helped quicken the vaccine distribution. Outside of medical innovation, however, the government's response has been marked by a failed communications plan that shows extreme distrust of the American people.
The government famously began their COVID-19 communications with a lie about masks. Despite what some of the fever swampers may tell you, masks work. That's why doctors wear them around sick people. They aren't perfect, of course, but they do help. Numerous high-ranking officials took part in the lie that mask's aren't effective, including Dr. Anthony Fauci. They defend the lie now by noting, correctly, that we needed to conserve as many masks as we could for health care workers who truly needed them. Fair enough, but there was another option that our leaders didn't seem to consider: Tell the truth. They could have told the American people that it's going to require some sacrifice and that we need to come together as a society to fight this contagious disease. They could have told everyone that the first step of the fight is saving the professionally made masks and other protective equipment for the first responders. As part of this message, they could have reminded people that the young and healthy probably weren't in extreme danger (something we already knew, even then). There will always be people on the margins who won't cooperate, but I would bet most Americans would have rallied around such an honest message.
After lying about the masks, the government lied about lockdowns. Remember when this all started and we were told to lock down briefly in order to "flatten the curve"? In many states, that turned into extended lockdowns that destroyed American businesses and families. Why? Couldn't people have managed to safely go about some semblance of life while taking some prudent precautions? Our government never gave them the chance.
We have known for months that wearing masks outside when walking or running is just silly. The air dissipates quickly, and the research shows these fleeting encounters with others aren't responsible for much disease transmission. The risk is tiny, yet in many places, outdoor mask mandates were the norm. Now, for those who have been vaccinated, the risk is negligible. Yet it took a while after vaccinations were available for the CDC to change their outdoor mask guidance, and leaders are still not able to send a consistent message. Did you see the picture of Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband kissing each other outdoors with their masks on? What message are they trying to send with that insanity?
Intentions aside, people are getting two messages. The first is that the truly responsible people are still wearing their masks, so we all should. This has likely caused more conflict on America's streets than any other government communications foible. The second message is the vaccine doesn't seem to help much. If the vaccines work as well as our officials claim, why are they all still running around outside with their masks on? It's a reasonable question, yet it's one that all these smart people don't seem to have considered.
The biggest and most destructive part of the government's dishonesty is school closures. The kids should be back in school. The scientists have agreed for a long time now that the risks of in-class learning are manageable. On this one, the dishonesty is of a slightly more sinister variety. Just look at which politicians are making excuses for the school closures and where all the teachers unions political donations go.
All the dishonesty and gamesmanship from top national leaders comes with huge downsides. The next time the government has something important to say, about vaccines, for instance, people will be less likely to believe it.
They didn’t do any of this during the Asian Flu Pandemic of 1957.
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Better than that.....In the middle of the world wide Asian Flu pandemic of 1957 we boarded ships and went to Asia - not in a hostile sense, just a REGULARLY scheduled deployment which we carried out.
Prior to that was the Polio ‘problem’ and TB was in the ‘final fling’ in my early years which also had BOTH my parents working as RNs in Sanitariums.
(YES, my father was an RN, I realize today one would say it was two of the same sect...HA)
Then people wonder why I don’t agree with suffocating myself with a diaper, and when I wanted to keep people at an ‘arms length’, I was considered a social pariah...
Chicken Little gets a big guffaw on a daily basis....
You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet! Wait till they tell us we have to wear our underwear on the outside so that the Underwear Police can see if it’s clean.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
‘Old Chestnut’
The soldiers were disgruntled and being rebellious and the Sarge told the LT that the men had not had a real hot meal or a decent change of clothes for two weeks...
The LT told the Capt and it made its way up to Gen Patton who addressed the men
“You are doing a great job and facing adversity and as a reward we are going to change underwear and socks today.
Jones, you change with Smith, Riley you change with....etc etc”
Problem solved.
At the local park several months ago, signs were put up saying to wear a mask. Most people ignored the sign. The signs are now gone. I did see stupid people wearing a mask while bike riding. I saw 2 groups of people near each other. One having a good time mingling and another sitting on the grass in a circle 6ft apart.
We have been had. COVID-19 0.03% 2021 (as of March 15)
See https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/the_incredible_vanishing_flu.html about virus and mask size and flu.
Visualized: the World’s Deadliest Pandemics by Population Impact
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-deadliest-pandemics-by-population-impact
Masks do not block viruses. 1,000 times smaller then the weave of face masks.
CDC Covid-19 Survival Rates as of 10/2020
Age 0-19 — 99.997%
Age 20-49 — 99.98%
Age 50-69 — 99.5%
Age 70+ — 94.6%
Pandemic Death Toll by % of Population Year of Population Estimate
Black Death 51.0% 1300
Plague of Justinian 19.1% 500
Smallpox 12.1% 1500
Antonine Plague 2.6% 200
Spanish Flu 2.5% 1919
The Third Plague 1.0% 1850
HIV/AIDS 0.7% 1981
COVID-19 0.03% 2021 (as of March 15)
CDC report that shows that only 6 percent of reported COVID deaths were people who died of COVID alone
I should point out that IF you get the chinese virus those are the survival rates. The mask does not stop any virus as the virus is so small.
95% of the flu “disappeared” First time in history too.... that is because states and hospitals make a lot more money if you are diagnosed with the chinese virus, so they lie about the flu and say it is the chinese virus.
Note that the news media, gov’ts, the communist chinese do not want you to called it the chinese or wuhan virus even though every other virus is named for the place it originates.
Also note that the news readers and ‘entertainment’ people do not wear mask and they are not dying. Not a sniffle.
I stopped reading when I came to “The government famously began their COVID-19 communications with a lie about masks. Despite what some of the fever swampers may tell you, masks work. That’s why doctors wear them around sick people.”
Let’s add what he forgot to mention. Surgeons and other operating room medical staff wear masks in carefully controlled sterile environment. The mask is used to prevent bacterial contamination of the surgery site. These masks are properly designed to provide the needed filtration. Their effectiveness diminishes over time. So fresh ones are needed after about 4 hours. Oh and they must be worn correctly.
So. no. They typical face covering you see Mr. Joe wearing
for 7 hours with sweat getting it sopping is not the same thing at all.
Masks can help - if they are the proper masks, fitted properly, handled properly and changed by the user, and are used for the proper reasons (such as over open wounds to prevent spray or leakage, or bacterial infection). They are not effective with viruses unless they are special masks used with special precautions and circumstances.
Otherwise, show me the "science" for usefulness with the procedures and the polyglot trash masks the public is wearing today. It is not there.
There’s no reason the cabin audio/video system can’t snap an image of at least the driver’s face from time to time, and the audio can be continually recording to detect if the passengers are complying (or not)! Then, auto-bill them a fine as determined by the number of infractors! If the fine has not been paid within 100 miles, the police will be notified and pull them over for double the fine. Fine tune this capability for fining RATS only.
“You go now You no good time!”
@ post 5 - Agree
“Basically, if you love your carbon dioxide, you can keep your carbon dioxide!”
Amen brother, I am 76 and on 24 hour a day oxygen due to pulmonary fibrosis. I am on 100 percent disability since the VA ruled that my lung problem is service connected due to asbestos exposure and still some of these supposedly medically educated people don’t understand when I tell them I CANNOT wear a mask. If I tried to wear one I probably would not live more than a few minutes because it feels as if my face is in an oven and my oxygen saturation drops like a rock thrown from a mountaintop. Those things are bad news for even a young healthy athlete if worn for long.
In short the whole story of the masks makes IDIOCRACY look like paradise. I never dreamed I would see so many previously intelligent seeming people act like such dingbats.
Ain’t it amazing how when Trump was saying we would have a vaccine before the end of 2020 that was too soon, it was impossible to develop an effective vaccine so fast and it took years to safety test a new vaccine but now that the dimwits are taking credit for everything Donald Trump did the vaccine is totally safe and everyone should get it at the earliest possible time.
I’ve done similar from time to time. And I’d point out that many times you can’t tell if there is a passenger in someone else’s car just at a glance. . The Uber drivers, for example, are required to wear masks even if they are driving a minivan and the guy is all the way in the back. Don’t sweat the negative responses you’re receiving.
I’m going to presume folks are not aware of virus mechanisms.
They are about 90 nanometers in diameter and this is a great deal smaller than the aperture of masks. So the mask won’t stop a free floating virus. But. Viruses are nearly never free floating. They are generally attached to some respiratory droplet, which is larger than a mask aperture.
But the important thing here is mechanism. The english phrasing we hear is very deceptive and essentially wrong. Like . . . you get a virus in your nose and inhale and that virus will go hunting lung cells to attack, cut an opening in a cell membrane and convert the machinery of that cell from its original purpose to a new purpose of making 100s of copies of the virus.
Well, no. It’s all very numerical. The virus doesn’t hunt. It doesn’t attack. It’s not alive. It gets inhaled and most likely it gets exhaled. It is just as likely to be exhaled around the edge of a mask as it was to get inhaled around the edge of a mask.
But as I said, it’s numerical. One virus probably gets exhaled. And if not exhaled it doesn’t hunt anything. It floats in the air of your lungs and maybe it bumps into a lung cell and gets ensnared by the spike proteins on its surface. Then normal respiration rubs those spikes against the cell membrane and that’s how it gets inside. It doesn’t cut its way in. It’s not alive.
And so, you can see how numerical is how it all works. If you get fewer virus particles on droplets into your lungs, you have lower chance of a massive ensnarement on many lung cells taking place.
And a way to get fewer is to have some filtration around your mouth and nose . . . in the form of a mask.
I'm in that same position, but I just pull the mask down to my chin or throat, then (temporarily) pull it up until I'm past the door monitor, then down again. No customers or staff say anything.
Been seeing a few more people without masks lately; an encouraging sign. A few stare at them. Funny thing, I do basically the same, but as long as they see a mask SOMEWHERE they seem comforted.
Don’t we all? I mean, what if you have a wet dream?
You can probably get a deal on Giza sheets.
‘And a way to get fewer is to have some filtration around your mouth and nose . . . in the form of a mask.’
and you are of the opinion that the masks you see being genearlly worn are the least bit effective as filtration devices...? after being fiddled with all day, adjusted and readjusted, worn on top of flowing beards, becoming sodden with normal respiratory droplets hour after hour...?
when I see responses such as yours, while I get that in a perfect world with perfect circumstances these masks are theoretically effective, I just want to ask; how long are you proposing we be mandated to wear them...? and how long must we be in someone’s presence to infect them...? and how far do droplets travel, that we should be required to cover our nostrils, and thus prevent normal exhalation...?
I want to ask how anyone can think that when the score is tallied, that the good of masks outweighs the bad...
The math is called Excess Deaths.
Last year, there was about a 20-30% increase in deaths of the 65-plus population of all causes in comparison to a typical year pre 2020.
That number is reality. And that number was achieved with all of the social distancing and masks that were used throughout the year.
If nothing had been done, what do we think that number would have been? What’s an acceptable number? As I recall, pre virus, 1.7 million Americans 65-plus die each year. We added 30% to that number last year. What’s an acceptable increase for you?
How many additional deaths above the multi-year typical are you willing to accept, and by accept one would mean — endure without taking any steps to try to stop it.
How many deaths were averted by wearing masks? I don’t know. Neither do you. That’s a very difficult calculation. But it’s a calculation you don’t really have to perform if you decide that a 40% increase in 65-plus deaths is acceptable.
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