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Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

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61–70 of 196 posts

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Donning. As in "don we now our gay apparel," and so forth.

I'm just amazed he got doffing correct but donning incorrect, most people don't know the word doffing in my experience.

i just googled "don and doff" to see if I could find any shared etymology with "on and off" or if that was a coincidence... and discovered that "donning and doffing PPE" is a thing, hence, not so surprising that somebody would learn it or know it.

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#62

In Sweden people continually blow their nose by holding one nostril and blasting the mucus from the other straight out into the air. Joggers of both sexes (but mostly men) do this all the time, even with other people all around them on the street. When I last got the subway an older guy did it on the platform, just before the train doors opened and the passengers walked out - presumably straight through the fine drop…

In the United States, this is called the "farmers' handkerchief."

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#63
post #9

I predict we’re going to look back at ourselves in a few years and find a few things particularly egregious, much as we look back at “smoking is good for your health!” ads from the 1950s: 1. Our early guidance that masks don’t help (because we needed to save the real masks for healthcare workers); and 2. Our collective obsession around Mar-Apr 2020 with surface disinfecting. The shortage on Clorox wipes, the obsessiv…

>Our early guidance that masks don’t help (because we needed to save the real masks for healthcare workers) I see this mentioned a lot, is this really a big factor? Did a ton of people genuinely begin the pandemic by believing officials and then after a few weeks start to disbelieve officials? That just doesn't make sense to me. I mostly see this issue used as a bad faith cudgel to justify not wearing a mask now, but…

I remember researching mask effectiveness when it was spreading around China but hadn't made it out anywhere else (that we knew about) and everyone thought it was just going to be another SARS.

I personally couldn't find a single English article that said mask were anything besides a placebo for the person wearing them if they wanted protection from others. That instinctively made no sense that a barrier in front of your mouth and nose provided zero protection and I'm glad I didn't trust the lack of study in the west as evidence of ineffectiveness and kept trying to secure masks for myself and my family before the lock downs hit.

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#64
post #14
post #9

I predict we’re going to look back at ourselves in a few years and find a few things particularly egregious, much as we look back at “smoking is good for your health!” ads from the 1950s: 1. Our early guidance that masks don’t help (because we needed to save the real masks for healthcare workers); and 2. Our collective obsession around Mar-Apr 2020 with surface disinfecting. The shortage on Clorox wipes, the obsessiv…

1. Was just a flat out lie by various public health officials that they justified for the greater good. It was probably the biggest and easiest-to-prevent mistake of the pandemic, and it certainly cost many lives. 2. It still makes sense to wash hands, use gloves, and wipe down anything coming into your house that was recently touched by strangers. There's no good reason to allow a known vector, even if it's lower ri…

Was #1 a flat-out lie? I though the CDC said that "masks work" was a statement with insufficient peer-reviewed evidence for them to make it their official advice at the time, especially as they were cognizant that a run on masks could deny HCWs access to the tools of their trade. In other words, they were irresponsibly careful.

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#65

In Sweden people continually blow their nose by holding one nostril and blasting the mucus from the other straight out into the air. Joggers of both sexes (but mostly men) do this all the time, even with other people all around them on the street. When I last got the subway an older guy did it on the platform, just before the train doors opened and the passengers walked out - presumably straight through the fine drop…

That reminds me of a certain face washing scene from Vikings where they are blowing their snot into the same bowl of water.

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#66
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Was just a flat out lie by various public health officials that they justified for the greater good. It was probably the biggest and easiest-to-prevent mistake of the pandemic, and it certainly cost many lives. 2. It still makes sense to wash hands, use gloves, and wipe down anything coming into your house that was recently touched by strangers. There's no good reason to allow a known vector, even if it's lower ri…

What part of 1. Was a lie? It's a fact many hospitals were extremely lacking in PPE, especially when it came to N95 masks, at the start of the pandemic. There was a shortage/crisis to the point where there were many local compaigns to manufacture basic PPE like cloth masks and face shields for hospitals. How could you forget about that so quickly?

Except they didn't say "They work, but don't buy them because the hospitals need them". Here's what they said: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-fauci-outdated-...

At least to me, that was pretty dismissive about them. That set the tone for a very large set of people.

Edit: This was US based. I do not know what other countries were saying.

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#67

In Sweden people continually blow their nose by holding one nostril and blasting the mucus from the other straight out into the air. Joggers of both sexes (but mostly men) do this all the time, even with other people all around them on the street. When I last got the subway an older guy did it on the platform, just before the train doors opened and the passengers walked out - presumably straight through the fine drop…

This is a thing old farmers do. Usually not around too many other people though.

Indeed the Swedish name for it indicates the farmer origins of the practice - but I’m talking about the streets of central Stockholm.

Honestly, I genuinely don’t understand why no-one has even thought about this really common habit, and warned people not to do it.

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should have been illegal for health officials to knowingly lie to the public.

Why only health officials?

The bar is higher for professionals speaking in their field of expertise

Re: Coronavirus is in the air – there’s too much focus on surfaces

#70
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just amazed he got doffing correct but donning incorrect, most people don't know the word doffing in my experience.

i just googled "don and doff" to see if I could find any shared etymology with "on and off" or if that was a coincidence... and discovered that "donning and doffing PPE" is a thing, hence, not so surprising that somebody would learn it or know it.

Huh, Wiktionary suggests that these came from "do on" and "do off" or similar phrases in Middle English. I never realized that!
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