I don't believe lying to the American people to cover up for a supply chain shortage was the right play. Just gives people more of an excuse to not listen to experts/officials. It's frustrating to watch people not willing to sacrifice and stay the hell home. I also find your rants hilariously one sided. Not one mention of the protests. So when Mayor Turner was leading a 60k march in Houston and openly hugging people on stage that had no impact on the virus explosion in Houston? This virus coming during a presidential election year is one of the bigger problems. Too many from both sides care more about winning an election than stopping the spread of the virus. See the protests, see the stupid Trump rally, see the stupid church goers, see the stupid statue destroyers, see the stupid bar patrons. Stop congregating and stay the hell home.
You aren't making any sense here. Risk is derived from numbers, you do understand that right? As for injuries, considering that 50% of people infected with Covid WITHOUT any symptoms still develop long-term lung damage, Covid will likely injured many millions of people. Of course that won't get you to wear a mask because let's be honest, to you this is more about politics than your health.
I responded to @bigtexxx a few times. We seriously would all be better off if we ignore him. Productive conversations are good, but he is not actually willing to discuss and is just being an ass. He doesn't care, I say just let him be. Ignore would probably be the best way to go for all of you that can't stop being triggered.
I agree. The mask messaging by the CDC early on was dumb. Anyone following the first SARS could see that wearing masks could contain the illness to a large percentage than w/o one. People are slobs and rarely cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing. There was (still is) a stigma that wearing mask is foreign and weak. I also agree to some point that the media and epidemiologists did not do enough to preserve their messaging and distorted it by claiming that protesting civil rights was a more important public health issue. One thing I don't agree with is that the protestors didn't march the streets to win an election. They, like church goers, did what they felt was most important. Ofc, self isolation is not sustainable. Where's our mass testing that allows the President to not wear a mask to "look strong and competent"? Where's our roadmap that gives us an idea of how much longer we have to maintain our cabin fever? Duuhhhhh red team bad. Blue team gud.
That statement says it all. A doctor tells you first hand and you scoff at his attempt to enlighten you to the truth. Is it political with you, arrogance, or lack of empathy? Seriously, it makes no sense. You act like you believe Trump more than the doctors who are sending out warning signs and giving first hand reports. So again I ask you to answer these seven questions. A simple yes or no. 1. Do you care if any of your family members get Coronavirus? (Wife, children, parents, grandparents, aunt's, uncle's, cousins, in-laws or extended family) 2. Do you think the risk of anyone in your family being hospitalized for Covid-19 is nothing to worry about? 3. Do you care that if they were hospitalized that they would be isolated from you being there with them? 4. Do you believe that if they were hospitalized that they could not have the possibility of any further health complications afterwards? 5. Do you have anyone in your family who could be vulnerable to more serious complications if they were infected? 6. Do you have anyone in your family delaying medical treatment or testing because they think the risk of getting Coronavirus is worse than waiting? 7. Do you believe nobody in your family could actually die from Coronavirus if they got it?
Some positive news? My coworkers parents are in their early 70s, fairly active and still working. However they decided to attend a graduation party for their coworkers kid. No masks, lots of hugging, etc. They caught COVID and needed to be hospitalized for a few days. But they were discharged and are home doing OK.
You realize it takes years to develop that IF the virus doesn’t mutate yearly like the flu. I don’t think we have that kind of time economically and I don’t think people really realize what that means in terms of death. I honestly don’t know if it would be better to just lock down again but even more restrictive this time. I would almost surely lose what’s left of my job then so it would massively suck, but if the short term sacrifice affords us an actual recovery that spares us years of dealing with this virus then it’s the better decision. The theory of Herd Immunity has been what the right has wanted from the get go for some reason. Why have they been so obsessed with such a miserable long term cluster F? We are essentially going the herd immunity route now whether we want to or not. Tell me whether this looks like success to you?
I used to be anti-ignore function but really there is a peace of mind in not having to read troll poster posts. It'd be one thing if they were funny, but they're not even that.
Great post, and I completely agree with everything you said.. Also, thank you for putting your life on the line to try and save others during this pandemic. Doing so is a truly noble sacrifice, and I appreciate all the healthcare workers on the front lines during this crisis.
The only thing I’d say, @BallaDoc : be careful about leaving TX for perceived more science-friendly places. As a scientist living in allegedly science-positive Cali, we’re still struggling to get people to maintain social distancing and masks. you may have to just hunt up a good county or small town somewhere and hope the politics and culture stay reasonable. But to really find a reality-based society, I fear it would mean leaving this country at this point.
^re: California: [vox]How California went from a coronavirus success story to a worrying new hot spot Too long to repost. Essential workers are hitting migrant communities hard. They've pretty much been doing their day to days out of necessity. Beach reopenings and protests weren't as bad as bars and restaurants reopening earlier. Outdoor vs Indoor was a big difference. Also, SoCal broke mask rules more frequently than NorCal people. Can't hide that beautiful plastic mug behind a mask can we? The short of it, experts say, is that much of California let its guard down. While the state, and the Bay Area in particular, was among the first in the US to embrace a shelter-at-home order, parts of California have since relaxed or outright halted those measures, letting the coronavirus creep in bit by bit. Meanwhile, precautions against Covid-19 have been inconsistently adopted by the public and businesses — especially as some of the recommended practices, such as wearing a mask, have become politicized. At the same time, the state has seen major outbreaks in nursing homes, in prisons, and among migrant workers — many of whom are deemed “essential” and are therefore forced to work — that have driven up coronavirus cases further, simultaneously planting seeds for broader community outbreaks. It’s this mix — of relaxed social distancing policies, inconsistent adoption of precautions, and rise of new Covid-19 hot spots — that have led to California’s turn for the worse. That combination seems to have hit some demographics particularly hard: Cases are especially rising among younger groups — who are perhaps more likely to take advantage of, say, bars reopening — and in Latin communities, where people are more likely to work for businesses deemed “essential,” such as grocery stores or farms. “The story of California is the story of why we all have to do more,” Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco, told me. “I don’t think we can easily point to a totally outrageous government policy or a totally outrageous citizen action or a totally outrageous anything. It really is that all of these things together matter.” As the state reopened, she argued, “We actually should have upped our game at that time, not just be complacent that we had done so well while we were sheltered.” Some of the overall uptick in cases is likely due to more testing. All else held equal, more testing will catch more cases. But testing isn’t the whole story; it can’t explain why, for one, hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 have dramatically risen as well. What's left out are the death threats that cause public health officials to resign because they were against reopening too soon.
