The Coronavirus Thread

[JimC]

I think that it's broader than capitalism, Brian. Our species mindset finds it very difficult to take long-term consequences seriously. It wasn't necessary during the millions of years we evolved in small tribal groups. Our overlay of rational thought cannot fully alter aspects of our core nature...

I agree, and I only say that because it's the structures and system of social relations we've allowed Capitalists to build across the face of our societies which are grinding the environment down to the bone - and with that our species' and the planet's capacity for self-regulate. Capitalism owns the regulatory framework and we only get to interface with it under a licence with strictly enforced terms and conditions.

I would add that "the structures and system of social relations we've allowed Capitalists to build" are ones which, unfortunately, fit well with many (but not all) of the deep cognitive structures built over time by evolution, the ones that involve both selfishness and the desire for immediate gratification with little thought of tomorrow. I'm aware that this is a pessimistic view, but there is a glimmer of hope. Those relics in our nature also include a fair dose of empathy and cooperation, normally only within our own tribe, but those tendencies can be harnessed to larger and larger entities, including the whole damned planet...

[laklak]

We need an alien invasion.

[JimC]

Do the alien mind parasites which have clearly burrowed into the brains of die-hard Trump supporters count?

[laklak]

I think those are a fungus.

[Brian Peacock]

How do you do a double blind study about wearing masks?

You'd need to find a placebo mask that neither the test subject or the researchers could distinguish from the real one....

[Svartalf]

You get two people on the same walkway to wear the mask over their eyes and see if they walk into each other.

[Scot Dutchy]

How do you do a double blind study about wearing masks?

This lak is the problem they come up against. Evidence is being created in the lab. It all well and good to quote lab results but actual data forget it but that is the par for the course with the Kool-Aid drinkers. The change at every point. Even Johnson cant keep up with them.

Nobody is talking about how the masks are being used. Almost all users have not got a clue. Where they are kept etc. How many disposable ones are not being disposed off? How many end up being put into an old trouser pocket or tossed back into a hand bag. It is really so ridiculous it is not true.

We need a double blind of a thousand people in each group for a month to test what? The impossible but that is what they prey on. They know it is not possible but it allows governments in certain countries to rack up the control. In Ireland people are terrified to go out. "You just dont do it".

And really look at the numbers (which not confirmed or investigated but we have to take them as gospel) are they really that desperate? We talk about Covid deaths when there is no agreed definition what it is. On the news here tonight it was said that 15 new cases were moved to IC. 15 bloody cases in a population of 17,5 million. Please.

It is so sad to see intelligent minds being so confused by drinking the Kool-Aid.

[NineBerry]

So, you don't know what "double-blind" means.

[pErvinalia]

How do you know the face mask aren't making the situation better than it otherwise would have been? Where's your non-fairy data?

Look at all the countries where there have been huge increases; Belgium, Spain, France and Germany. They all have mandatory mask wearing. It has not helped. Where is the data to prove it has helped. There is none on either side. They are made mandatory under the motto 'just in case' but the way they are being used has more chance of increasing the infection. Who uses them according to the WHO advice? No one.
I dont have to prove a negative and there is still no positive evidence.

You claim they've made things worse. That's a positive claim. Where's your data with control groups? That's right, you have none. You just work from your conclusion backwards.

[rainbow]

It is really so ridiculous it is not true.

Quite.

[L'Emmerdeur]

"My Kool-Aid is truthier than your Kool-Aid! "

[Svartalf]

Maybe, but mine makes you so strong you can collapse walls rather than look for a door.

[Brian Peacock]

My Kool-Aid is a reliable cure for male pattern baldness.

[pErvinalia]

My kool-aid brings all the epidemiologists to the yard.

[Brian Peacock]

The Price for Not Wearing Masks: Perhaps 130,000 Lives

Universal mask use could prevent nearly 130,000 deaths from Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, in the United States through next spring, scientists reported on Friday.

The findings follow an assertion by Dr. Scott W. Atlas, the president’s science adviser, that masks are ineffective, in a tweet later taken down by Twitter for spreading misinformation. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance recommending mask use in public settings, including public transportation.

A surge of infections, driven in part by neglect of safety precautions, has begun to overwhelm hospitals in much of the nation. More than 75,000 new cases were reported in the United States on Thursday, the second-highest daily total nationwide since the pandemic began. Eight states set single-day case records.

These numbers are likely to continue through the fall and winter, with a steady rise in cases and deaths until January and staying high after that point, said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and lead author of the report.

“We strongly believe we are heading into a pretty grim winter season,” Dr. Murray said.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, also offered a rough estimate of the pandemic’s toll in the United States: perhaps 500,000 deaths by March 2021, even with social distancing mandates reinstated in most states.

Other experts cautioned that, as with any model, the new estimates are based on many assumptions and should not be seen as predictions.

“It’s not a prediction or forecast, because we can will this number out of existence,” said Shweta Bansal, an infectious disease modeler at Georgetown University who was not involved in the new work....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/heal ... tates.html