I just bought a pair of P-100 masks. They’re supposed to be better than N95 masks.
…they do plenty of good.
There was no “CoroanHoax2020.”
COVID-19 has killed millions worldwide, and caused long-term health problems for hundreds of thousands of people. It is, I’m afraid to tell you, very very real. It wasn’t a “common cold/flu.” It wasn’t “hyperbolized and weaponized for malevolent political purposes.”
I feel some sense of shame and embarrassment on behalf all of those who were (and still are) stupid enough to believe this, given how obvious it was that we were willfully being lied to about almost everything to do with this absurd hoax; including the rather obvious games that were being played in order to massively exaggerate the claimed death counts.
What we stupidly allowed the criminal who infest government to do to us, under the fraudulent guise of protecting us from this fake pandemic, was far more harmful to us—as individuals and as a society—than this disease itself ever had any potential to be. And too many people just believed the lies and fearmongering, not even daring to make any effort at all to open their eyes and see what was right in front of them to be seen.
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
…I feel some sense of shame and embarrassment on behalf all of those who were (and still are) inclined to believe that Covid isn’t real, that it wasn’t a global pandemic that killed millions, given how obvious it was that we were willfully not lied to about almost everything to do with this thing that obviously wasn’t an absurd hoax; even when there were rather obvious games that were being played in order to massively under-count deaths.
My eyes are very much open thanks. And what I saw in front of me was a global pandemic that killed millions.
LOL.
My eyes and ears quite clearly showed me plenty of objective, empirical evidence that Covid existed and killed millions of people worldwide.
Take it up with NIOSH, N95 literally stands for 95% effective at filtering non-oil particulate matter and I believe the filters are tested against 0.3 microns, whereas most aerosol from i.e. your mouth would be on the scale of 1 micron. I think the counterintuitive effectiveness of the filter design has to do with aerosol physics (diffusion? impaction?) but I couldn’t offer any further insight on that. Might be worth a new QZ or FQ thread, I’m sure we have bright minds here with expert knowledge on the subject.
~Max
Moderating:
@Bob_Blaylock , you are spouting covid misinformation and conspiracy theories, and you don’t even have the excuse of citing a bad source. It’s fine to disagree on opinions, but not on facts, such as that covid killed a huge number of people.
The part of your post about whether masks work is on-topic, and you provided data. You can post about that in this thread. And others can post explanations of why masks actually do work, and anyone can post references to actual studies testing whether mask material catches viruses in general and covid in particular. But you are forbidden from posting political conspiracy theories in this thread, and from denying that covid killed millions of people over the past few years.
I choose to believe what I can see with my own eyes, over the word of any “experts” that presume to tell me that what I see is not true.
To be fair, most people don’t have microscopes nor know how to use them, and of those that do, most probably don’t have theirs calibrated as I have mine, to be able to not only see small objects, but to know the size of what they are seeing. I can forgive most people for believing an “expert” who tells them that a rag across their face will protect them from a virus.
Most people simply have no grasp, no concept, no sense of scale, of how tiny a virus actually is, and what it takes to block one. Most people, on this subject, are very easily deceived by the “appeal to authority” fallacy. Not having the ability, in this case, to see for themselves, they’ll simply believe any lie on the subject from anyone that they think they can trust.
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
That’s what you’re telling us, alright. Just because you’re a right-wing apparatchik doesn’t make you any less of an apparatchik.
…well, we’ve got the choice to either follow the words of the public health officials (who in my country did a fantastic job of following the science and keeping us safe during the early stages of the pandemic) or following the words of a random person on the internet who hasn’t produced any peer reviewed work but has simply posted a screenshot of what they assert to be a mask under a microscope.
You are going to have to do a heck-of-a-lot-of-more-work if you want us to earn your trust on the subject of masking, and to discount the advice of our public health team.
At this point, we’re in a corner where I cannot respond in any meaningful way, without being censored and punished for posting what will be dishonestly dismissed as “misinformation” or “conspiracy theories”. Any attempt at an honest discussion of this matter has thus been shut down.
Just go ahead and believe what you will, without bothering to question anything, or apply any critical thinking to what you are being told to believe and obey, if that is your choice.
…I think that by applying the same standard of evidence with you that I apply to the public health teams here in NZ, I am bothering to question anything, that I am applying critical thinking to what I’m being told by you to believe.
Do you not think we should hold you to the same standard as we do everyone else in regards to masking?
Fair enough.
I do not claim any special authority or expertise, and there is no more reason why you should take anything I say as absolute truth, without question, without making some critical effort to verify whether what I have to say is plausible or not, than there is not to similarly question what an “expert” has to say.
I think an important difference between me and the “authorities” that we are being told to believe and obey is exactly that. I do not demand absolute belief and obedience as they do. I do not demand that views other than my own be censored, or that anyone be punished for expressing them. I encourage everyone to make every effort to see for themselves to think for themselves and to question anything that seems even the least bit dubious, even if I am the source of what is to be so questioned.
When valid claims and arguments are dismissed, and censored as “misinformation” or “conspiracy theories”, that ought to be a huge red flag for any critical thinker. It should be seen as prima facie proof of someone who knows damn well that his position cannot stand up to honest examination and discussion.
Those who want you to believe and obey them without question are the ones that you should least trust, no matter what “expertise” or “authority” they claim for themselves, or is claimed on their behalf by others.
Yes, we did not have the best president to help get the message out. Quite to the contrary.
I think a folklorist could definitely help in creating effective messages.
My point about being an MBA was merely that we are required to quantify everything, and preferably understand the dependability and sensitivity (e.g., sensitivity analysis) of all information in the chain of analysis. Saying, “We don’t know enough, so we can’t quantify anything,” doesn’t fly with business executives, and it shouldn’t when it comes to involving society in interventions to mitigate a pandemic.
“We’re making up. Yes, it will be a pain, but we believe we can save 100,000 lives doing so over the next six months. See our website to check our math.” I think this is the proper way to sell this type of initiative. One should pound a talking point like this and also come back to it later and talk about actual results.
The idea that the public is just too dumb to buy such a thing–I don’t buy it. In any case, you have to say something. Using concrete numbers instead of just, “This will save lives,” I think makes the message weaker to no one and stronger to those who care to think.
Also, I saw almost universal compliance in the “red states” of Alabama and Indiana with the mask mandates. I personally saw no rebellions or freak-outs with respect to them. So it did seem that people were wearing masks when they were told to do so. FWIW.
We arrived in St Martin yesterday for our yearly visit. I masked for the plane ride down, though I was in the minority.
We had lunch at a little cafe today (Gutside) that requires masking. We don’t do “nightclubs” but one we read about tests you (your expense) at the door for entry.
Experts are called that for a reason.
Have you ever sprayed water from a hose at a chain link fence, and noticed that if you hit the fence at the right angle, most of the water is deflected? Even though the holes in the fence are obviously vastly larger than a water molecule? There’s a lot more to how materials interact than just “does it fit through the hole”.
In the case of masks, the fibers carry an electrostatic charge that attracts and traps tiny particles. The reason they measure efficiency of blocking 0.3 micron particles is because those are harder to block than smaller particles (which are better trapped by the charge) or larger particles (which are more likely to be mechanically snared.) The material in N95 masks, and in proper surgical masks, is extremely effective at trapping the particles that carry covid virus. (Surgical masks are less effective mostly because they don’t fit as snuggly around your face.) This has been tested in general (that’s how they get the N95 rating) and it’s also been explicitly tested with the Corona virus. There was an experiment early on with hamsters. They had two cages of hamsters, one infected with covid and the other healthy. They connected the cages with a tube. The healthy hamsters developed covid. They reproduced this experiment but put a layer of mask material in the tube. The healthy hamsters remained healthy, and didn’t catch covid. This was published extremely early in the pandemic, and i don’t know if i can find it now.
Oh hey, i found it
This is from before they even acknowledged aerosol transmission. But this was a practical experiment using animals.
NY State is letting the mask wearing mandate in healthcare facilities lapse today and not renewing it. But, they are letting individual providers to extend it
I’ll probably still mask up anyway, as I do when I grocery shopping (even though we no longer need to).
So far, I’ve not caught covid. I HATE wearing a mask, but I’m in my sixties, as are most of my friends, and some are in their seventies and not in good health. My boss is 76, and his wife is older than that. I would never forgive myself if I made any of them sick or worse.
My B-I-L hasn’t worked in over a year, due to long covid.
Every time I think things are getting back to normal, one of my friends will venture out unmasked in public places and come down with covid. Two days ago, a hyper-vigilant nurse friend who let her guard down picked it up - she’s been in dance classes and likely got it there. I’m just not willing to take the chance that I could get long covid. Also, I’m not willing to lose any of my sense of smell and taste. My co-worker who got covid 4 months ago still hasn’t regained all of his sense of smell.
So I wear a mask at work if I venture outside my office, and in public places if I feel there’s not enough ventilation and too many people close by. If I’m in a car with other people, the windows are down. My furnace has a top-quality filter, and I have a couple of portable HEPA units at home for if I’m not the only one in the room. I don’t often ride buses, but when I do, I certainly mask. Some restaurants, I’m okay with, but others I’ve stopped going to due to not enough space and ventilation.
Yes, it can be harder to understand people’s speech when it’s behind a mask, but somehow, we manage. It’s not that big a deal.
I always think of blind people, who manage to hold conversations without being able to see anyone’s face.