Michael Lesher @ Zero Hedge:
I never thought I’d see the day when publicly wearing a muzzle would constitute a proof of virtue in the same country whose government, less than twenty years ago, rationalized the bloody invasion of Afghanistan as a way of saving women from veiling their faces.
But then, I never thought I’d hear American liberals proudly denounce supporters of the US Constitution as a “death cult,” nor that I’d actually start to find Donald Trump sounding almost reasonable.
But at least there’s one thing we can all be sure about: “mainstream” news media, busily cheerleading for the death of freedom, will continue to gush with absurdities, self-contradictions and victim-shaming memes in their propaganda war to Keep America Gagged. The Bill of Rights (in case you haven’t noticed) is history; today, we demonstrate our patriotism by creeping around hiding our faces. Dissenters need not apply.
If you think I’m exaggerating, I suspect you haven’t been paying attention. Recently I had the poor judgment to turn on National Public Radio for about an hour, under the impression that I was going to learn something about the day’s news.
I could have saved myself the trouble. During the hour in question, I learned nothing at all about the presidential election campaign (now in its final months), nothing about the tens of millions of my fellow citizens whose jobs have been snatched away by government fiat, nothing about climate change, nuclear arms buildups, international refugees or growing worldwide poverty – nothing even about the intensification of air and water pollution authorized by recent federal regulation, although pollution kills an estimated 100,000 Americans every year.
No – for a solid hour, I heard the following: that COVID19 – in reality, at most, a moderately serious flu virus – is the worst medical threat the United States has ever faced; that this “deadly” virus (the word “deadly” was repeated obsessively, even though the disease is fatal in a tiny percentage of cases) has been empowered by a conspiracy of Republican politicians serving the arch-demon Donald Trump; that recent data showing the rapid decline in deaths attributable to the virus may have been faked, because the numbers aren’t what the “experts” want them to be; and that a massive increase in COVID19 tests – primarily among people between 20 and 40 years of age who are subjected to swabbing because their employers demand it, not because they’re in any danger – cannot possibly have anything to do with a rise in the number of reported infections, and that anyone who dares to suggest otherwise is “putting lives at risk.”
But the real theme of the hour was masks, masks, masks: how to make them, how to wear them, their different types, who doesn’t seem to have enough of them, and why muffling our faces (even though no such thing was ever demanded of us during dozens of past viral outbreaks) is absolutely, positively good for us all.
I waited in vain for some mention of the fact that every single order requiring the wearing of muzzles in the US is probably unconstitutional, a matter that National Public Radio – which once prided itself on its legal affairs reporting – might have been expected to care about.
Nor did anyone mention that just a few months ago, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention was explicitly advising against a general mask-wearing regime, as was Anthony Fauci, the High Priest of COVID19.
No, facts would only have complicated matters. After all, we already knew what good little boys and girls were expected to do with those muzzles. At the close of each weather forecast, just in case anyone had missed the point, the reporter said cheerily, “And when you go out – put on a mask.” “And drink milk with every meal,” I half expected him to add, but I guess self-conscious condescension would have spoiled the effect.
Put on a mask.
In well over half a century, I cannot remember a weather report that ended with a brisk piece of non-meteorological advice, let alone a patently silly one – after all, if these magical masks were to make any difference, their greatest usefulness would have been at the beginning of the outbreak, not on its heels.
While in some circumstances masks can provide a modicum of protection, by and large they are nothing but a billboard for fear.
A picture ought to be worth a thousand words: Petri dish cultures resulting from identical exposures of a sterilized argar medium, with and without the test subject wearing a mask. To make the point clearer, think of the petri dishes as your own unexposed lungs.
If you would like more words, here’s a detailed description of the experimental demonstration, which was conducted by the Microbiology Lab at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children’s Hospital, under the direction of Dr. Richard Davis.
@Greg: You really are stupid greggie the rock! That is bacteria they cultured! We are talking about controlling a virus that is much smaller. I posted facts on another uninformed post you made about masks.
@Randy, #3:
Exactly as with the bacteria in the Petri dish demonstration, the COVID-19 virus is carried by droplets expelled whenever a person breathes, talks, sneezes, or coughs. What is being demonstrated here is that wearing a mask significantly reduces the droplets that are expelled to freely float through the air around an infected person. The bacteria here are serving only as markers to show where contaminated droplets go. Nobody is pretending anything else.
Pig-headed refusal to see a simple truth that can be clearly demonstrated by an elementary school level science experiment is going to cost the lives not only of the pig headed, but of a lot of people they come into contact with. It will also extend mounting damage to the nation’s businesses and economy far longer. The unforgivable thing about this is that it is unnecessary. Simple, common-sense measures are all it would take to make a big difference.
@Greg:
What is being demonstrated is what happens to bacteria. size and density matters. What size droplet of water does it take to carry a .15 micron virus compared to a 30 micron bacteria. Inertia is at work here. The denser particle is more likely to be impacted on the mask while the smaller particle in a smaller droplet of water is more likely to escape from the mask that does not meet the ATSM standards. The way a smaller particle reacts within the mask is also different due to size and density.. Brownian movement also has a role in the capture of particles within the mask. Continuous breathing provides a constant change in velocities on particles causing them to be removed and rein-trained in the space within the mask and behind the mask. relativity also causes the water droplets to grow larger and smaller. The virus can survive in the mask with out water droplets and can move through and around the mask.
greggie the rock, again, you need to stick with topics you know. Not sure what that would be , but take the advice. Your example does not work with a virus with a long life only bacteria. Have that company culture a virus the same way.
You’re spreading dangerous nonsense.
Brownian motion does affect the dispersion of nanoparticles, but the inhalation of contaminated droplets is the actual mode of transmission. A single virus might make you sick, but the risk of serious infection for healthy people almost certainly relates to the initial viral load, or the size of the viral dose at the point of exposure. This has to do with whether or not the body’s immune responses can win the race with an exponentially multiplying virus. If an inhaled moisture droplet is carrying hundreds or thousands of individual virus, that’s the number that multiplies exponentially. That gives the infection a huge head start against the immune system. Starting against one virus, the body has a much better chance of suppressing replication.
It would be interesting to know where the phony arguments against mask usage in the United States are actually originating. It might be a deliberate effort to promote division and weaken our national economy by encouraging behavior that promotes the spread of the infection. Disinformation has vectors, just like the damn virus. Does anyone believe a foreign power that put a bounty on the heads of our military personnel wouldn’t fund false news calculated to inflict damage?
@Greg:
That would be Fauchi, then we looked for proof they were ineffective, and found it.
If masks were effective why when the chinese who wore masks to try to filter heavy air pollution had such a severe breakout that the hopsitals were over run and people died in the streets? The crematoriums working full bast to hide the full account of the dead.
Why dont they just give prisoners masks and not set them free?
Its a sham brother a compliance marker, a reminder of the endless padded death count screeched on TV.
@Greg:
And where greggie the rock do you find this fact. You have no idea what you are talking about. You are using greggie the rock logic.
That part is easy. Just look at the people who are promoting masks. Tell me why anyone is wearing a mask in the White House press briefings. Everyone in the room has been tested and are negative, but they continue to jab the president for not wearing one. Most is political. As far as a foreign government paying to have a US military member captured or killed, that is not new. Everyone of my rank in Iraq were worth $30,000 if captured. It has always been that way. Someone who is the enemy is always willing to pay to hurt a US person. Just look at how much the DNC paid for the fake dossier when trying to get the President. Maybe we should try all of them for treason and hang them.
@Randy, #8:
I already knew because I am ignorant of neither the simple exponential mathematics of viral and bacterial replication, nor of the fact that the human immune system is incapable of a full-force response to infection instantaneously. It takes time to develop and strengthen, during which it’s in a race against the replicating and damaging microorganism that has invaded the body.
Because there’s a significant delay between being tested and knowing the test results, which means that anyone in the room with the President and his staff might be a carrier. And because the press conferences are carried on national television, and the public draw conclusions about how they themselves should be responding based on what they see and hear on TV.
@Greg:
Hey, Comrade Greggie, your favorite organization of grifters, AKA The Lincoln Project, is rapidly falling apart.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/21/lincoln-project-founders-have-ties-to-russia-tax-troubles-docs/
@Greg:
Thank you greggie the rock for finally admitting what we already have known for a long time! It is much more complicated than you describe. Go home greggie the rock!