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The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

wired.com

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Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#301
post #149
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one peculiarly shrill post. Can you explain your mention of "division, hatred, polarization, radicalization" related to this article? I'm not saying you're wrong but it's a very strange opinion and seemingly entirely disproportionate.

It's tough to explain. It's something to do with not standing on any particular side, but attempting to cast blame and start arguments. If you read through the HN comments, and think about the bigger picture and what will result from the publishing of the article, isn't the most lasting effect pitting one group against another? Hasn't the article done a great job of doing that, and is that not the primary effect of t…

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Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#302
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a lot of coworkers say this all the time and yet they would still call in sick from time to time…there’s a lot of confirmation bias that makes people blind to their own experiences.

Calling in sick is a lot different than actually being sick. Especially if you happen to work in a place with use-it-or-lose-it sick days.

We didn’t have that. Sick days accrued. And there was no point in taking sick days like that. This team was a very well functioning team, honestly one of the greatest places I’ve worked. I just found this bit a little ironic.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#303
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can clearly look at year-over-year statistics and see the increased death count. What do you think caused it? An increase in eye-sight-related car accidents? All the people complaining about 'comorbidities' don't understand how cause of death is reported. When someone has Cancer, but dies from Pneumonia, should they list Cancer or the Pneumonia? All diseases have some 'comorbidities'. But if they didn't have Covi…

Sweden has the lowest excess deaths count in the western world. They didn't lock down. That's not a coincidence. Lockdowns increased social dysfunction, and this is the root of excess deaths. Funny how you also aren't mentioning the education disaster that the hysterical, statistically illiterate cowards who closed schools caused. Schools in EU and Asia were open. Just the North American fools closed theirs. Btw, I k…

> Sweden has the lowest excess deaths count in the western world.

This is false and full-on misinformation. It's sad to to see it in a forum like HN.

> They didn't lock down.

This is misleading as well. The Swedish public works differently. There is a high trust in government and authorities. The govt said this is dangerous, stay at home if you can, so people did. The degree of distancing was on par with all other Western countries. Source: I live there.

It's not possible to do this in other countries because people wouldn't give a damn unless there is a fine.

I won't comment the rest, you are too deep into conspiracy theory territory.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#304
post #28

Interesting that everyone is talking in past tense in this thread. Where I live hand sanitiser is still everywhere and people still use it all the time. I don't recall ever seeing it outside of hospitals prior to the pandemic.

I miss it now. Cleaning your hands before eating is not a bad habit to have.

I always did and still do clean my hands before eating. I don't see how it's related to hand sanitiser or COVID.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#305
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss it now. Cleaning your hands before eating is not a bad habit to have.

I always did and still do clean my hands before eating. I don't see how it's related to hand sanitiser or COVID.

Having the sanitizer waiting for you as soon as you approach an eating place - without having to find a restroom with running water and soap - is convenient. Even if it doesn’t change anything for you, you can surely see how it can make a difference for others.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#306
post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always did and still do clean my hands before eating. I don't see how it's related to hand sanitiser or COVID.

Having the sanitizer waiting for you as soon as you approach an eating place - without having to find a restroom with running water and soap - is convenient. Even if it doesn’t change anything for you, you can surely see how it can make a difference for others.

Carry hand sanitiser with you. Using hand sanitiser isn't cleaning your hands, though.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#307
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden has the lowest excess deaths count in the western world. They didn't lock down. That's not a coincidence. Lockdowns increased social dysfunction, and this is the root of excess deaths. Funny how you also aren't mentioning the education disaster that the hysterical, statistically illiterate cowards who closed schools caused. Schools in EU and Asia were open. Just the North American fools closed theirs. Btw, I k…

> Sweden has the lowest excess deaths count in the western world. This is false and full-on misinformation. It's sad to to see it in a forum like HN. > They didn't lock down. This is misleading as well. The Swedish public works differently. There is a high trust in government and authorities. The govt said this is dangerous, stay at home if you can, so people did. The degree of distancing was on par with all other We…

It's not false, and it's not "full-on misinformation". You provide zero sources to refute this claim, and claim that you "live there", as if that makes a single difference with the statistics or data.

Sweden indeed has the lowest excess deaths from all cause mortality, according to the OECD statistics referenced and linked to in this article, which is one of hundred published on this topic. Note that Sweden's excess deaths were not the lowest in the height of the pandemic, but fell to the lowest in 2022.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/sweden-covid-and-excess-...

"Conspiracy theory territory" is an ad-hominem smear with zero substance behind it. I said nothing in my comment to claim any "conspiracy", and if you think that then you should reread what I wrote.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#308
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of people who still won't go to church because of all of the above and are, for all intents and purposes, still deathly afraid to leave their homes. Regardless of what some might say in argument against your point(s), I absolutely do think that part of the public health emergency was the abject panic that ensued following COVID. I stopped exercising caution earlier on in the pandemic, because in my estimation…

Both you and I had similar experiences. My wife was hospitalized for unknown bacterial infection what the doctors assumed was caused by masks. I contracted covid in February 2021, before my age group was eligible for vaccine. Like you I had recognized relatively early on that my level of physical fitness and nutrition likely made it low risk for me. Like you I had minimal symptoms except for a total loss of sense of…

> Like most things with covid, the null hypothesis was inverted. Instead of assuming that like the vast majority of viruses, natural immunity was a thing, they inverted it to assuming that natural immunity was not a thing until proven otherwise.

This is not "inverting the null hypothesis", it's the precautionary principle. The danger is unknown, there were indications that the virus was spreading rapidly and ICUs in certain pockets of the world filled up quickly early on, so it's better to be too careful than not careful enough.

Let's just look back at 1918. 17-50 million dead who'd have loved to have had the option for a more cautious handling of the situation. I'm glad we didn't have to repeat that, even though some of the measures definitely went to far, especially in hindsight.

> Living in Boulder, one of my favorite things was noticing how the same exact people who refuse to eat genetically modified vegetables for produce of any kind elevated a genetic products efficacy above the organic immunity provided by the human body fighting off the actual virus.

What does this have to do with living in Boulder?

Living in a Nordic country, one of my favourite things was noticing how the exact same people that have no problem with GMO food were talking about WHO and Bill Gates running gene experiments on the world populace with mRNA vaccines.

> No matter your position on natural immunity from covid, I think we can all agree that a person refusing to eat genetically modified produce having this opinion is irrational and inconsistent.

Just because you don't agree with their reasons or don't know them does not make their behavior irrational or inconsistent. One could argue that a single shot (or 2-3) with a well-understood mechanism vaccine against a pandemic virus is worth the risk while daily nutrients coming from GMO plants are not worth that risk for personal health and the environment impacted by it. I don't share most of that view, but I don't consider anybody holding it to be irrational. So, no, we can't all agree on that.

> I think I eventually concluded that the vast majority of the public are mathematically and statistically illiterate,

Math education levels in the world, especially in North America, leave a lot to be desired, I agree with that. But let's not call everybody illiterate who is of differing opinion. Especially as somebody who accuses others of ad hominem and may themselves need a refresher for concepts like "null hypothesis".

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of people who still won't go to church because of all of the above and are, for all intents and purposes, still deathly afraid to leave their homes. Regardless of what some might say in argument against your point(s), I absolutely do think that part of the public health emergency was the abject panic that ensued following COVID. I stopped exercising caution earlier on in the pandemic, because in my estimation…

To be fair, not going to church was about the most impactful thing somebody could to if going to church was a normal activity. And this is probably still saving those people some cases of flu and influenza. This has to be weighted against the benefit, but in a time of free-spread and lots of people dying, closing churches was a very good policy.

In hindsight, much more important than closing schools.

Re: The explosive legacy of the hand sanitizer boom

#310
post #33
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I live in the Bay Area, and my neighbors still do this shit .

I saw someone driving alone in their car wearing a mask two days ago. I live in Kansas.

They could be thinking ahead so they dont forget it when they get to their destination.

They could have forgotten it when they got in the vehicle from their last destination.

There may be a kid in the back seat you couldn't see that they are trying to protect (or protect themselves from).

I personally don't understand why this is remarkable. In no way are they hurting or affecting you. Why does it matter to you if they mask?

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