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Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

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Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#111

Post by reify »

I also questioned the vialibily of face masks early on in the the covid scare..

I have grown mushrooms at home for many years and to prevent contamination entering my grain bags and jars, I have to use an extremely fine filters.

I use a Microppose Synthetic Filter Discs which have a 99.97% Filtration efficiency down to 0.22μm (microns).

The standard face mask is 0.3μm and is 95% efficient at 0.3 microns. This means that the filter media is effective at filtering 95% of airborne particles as long as they are larger than 0.3 microns in diameter.

The Coronavirus molecules tend to be about 0.1 microns in diameter

Masks do not prevent Coronavirus molecules from passing through the mask, However, Coronavirus molecules do not float freely around in the air and usually travel around as part of fluid droplets that become airborne created by coughing and sneezing.

These droplets are supposed to be about 0.5μm so the masks could prevent water droplets from entering the body.

I still have my doubts though.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#112

Post by reify »

dailykoder wrote: post #14

I still desperately want to know the current (scientific) state of wearing a mask. On the one side we have people that say 'our bodies need to learn again to fight against viruses' and the other side which wants you to put on a mask even if you have the smallest sign of a common cold. - Though, I do understand the fear of people who have/had long covid, MCFS or do know people who have, but I don't know what conclusio…

I also questioned the vialibily of face masks early on in the the covid scare..

I have grown mushrooms at home for many years and to prevent contamination entering my grain bags and jars, I have to use an extremely fine filters.

I use a Microppose Synthetic Filter Discs which have a 99.97% Filtration efficiency down to 0.22μm (microns).

The standard face mask is 0.3μm and is 95% efficient at 0.3 microns. This means that the filter media is effective at filtering 95% of airborne particles as long as they are larger than 0.3 microns in diameter.

The Coronavirus molecules tend to be about 0.1 microns in diameter

Masks do not prevent Coronavirus molecules from passing through the mask, However, Coronavirus molecules do not float freely around in the air and usually travel around as part of fluid droplets that become airborne created by coughing and sneezing.

These droplets are supposed to be about 0.5μm so the masks could prevent water droplets from entering the body.

I still have my doubts though.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#113

Post by blindriver »

jaapbadlands wrote: post #94
blindriver wrote: post #7

The biggest takeaway is don’t lie to the public, no matter how moral you think you are being. Credibility of and trust in the scientific establishment has been ruined for an entire generation. Telling people under 18 to get the vaccine or not attend school, or that vaccine immunity was somehow magically better than natural immunity were the two things that really turned me against it. And this is after I myself got t…

Building immunity via vaccines rather than naturally deprives the living virus a potential host to evolve in. It also means you don't have to contract the virus in order to build immunity, meaning the first time you get the virus, a vaccinated person's body would be more prepared, which means more people could more contract the disease at once, without collapsing the health system - allowing it to be safer at the com…

No, they were telling/forcing people who already got covid that they needed the vaccine as well. I know this because it happened to my children in California. Then they justified it by lying to us that vaccine acquired immunity was better than natural immunity through infection. This didn’t sound scientific at all but they let it continue because they wanted everyone to get vaccinated for some reason.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#114

Post by ducdetronquito »

mwelpa wrote: post #48
ducdetronquito wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To continue on sfblah's comment (just above mine): in France, before the mask mandate that came after the first covid lockdown, I don't remember a single doctor/nurse* to wear a mask to do their job even during intense period of sickness like in winter or even during previous pandemics. I don't remember anyone wearing a mask either in the doctor's waiting room, even when it was fool of sick people (old and young mixe…

Doesn't it depend on the medical center these days? In Poland everybody was so crazy about it that even police used to go on public transport (trams, buses) to check if everyone have their masks on, but now some doctors ask you to wear a mask (then they provide it as well), some not. Same thing in hospital.

Yeah I think these days it depends on the doctor: some don't care, some asks you to wear one. But I admit I may be wrong here, I'm lucky to be healthy and my family too so we pretty much never go to the doctor.

We had this police operations too, even in restaurants where you had to have your mask when standing up (like going to the toilet, paying the bill, etc..), but you could take it off at your table.

I remember during the first lock down we were forbidden to go 1.5km from home except to go buy food: there was a large parc close to home so a lot of families would go there to chill, play with kids, do running, etc... but after 3 weeks the police noticed and they were going around in the parc to fine everyone. Most people were more afraid to get caught than to get sick, even old people.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#115

Post by vitehozonage »

01100011 wrote: post #49
atorodius wrote: post #28

I skimmed the article but did not find my question answered: what's the current view on whether the political and social response was properly done?

Properly done with what the consensus opinion was at the time the decisions were made, or properly done in hindsight and colored with political bias? It's weird to me how quickly folks forgot the depth of our ignorance during the beginning of covid. Do you remember when we all started washing our groceries when we got home because we weren't even sure if covid survived on surfaces? Remember when we were desperate to…

You seem to have the timing all different compared to my memory. I remember when there were less than 1000 cases worldwide (i remember clearly because i developed a tracker that kept count even then). That was when i personally was scared because we knew nothing about it. But during that time, the mainstream opinion was that nobody cared. Infected Chinese people were allowed to fly all over the world, there were zero controls, for i think over a month - maybe 2 months - after it began spreading.

Then in February we got strong data that had a low fatality rate and mostly only threatened old people, similar to the flu, for example from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that provided a clear view since it was a closed environment with a lot of older people where everyone could be tested. Only after this did the lockdowns start and then continue for years.

So i think the response was catastrophic. There was no response at the time when it was an unknown disease and it could have been an existential threat for all we knew. Then there was an irrational over-response that lasted very long when we had strong data that indicated it wasnt that much worse than the flu. So now people wont even take it seriously or trust any messaging next time there is a potential pandemic. It is difficult to imagine a worse response or outcome.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#116

Post by jhanschoo »

modeless wrote: post #45
dailykoder wrote: post #14

I still desperately want to know the current (scientific) state of wearing a mask. On the one side we have people that say 'our bodies need to learn again to fight against viruses' and the other side which wants you to put on a mask even if you have the smallest sign of a common cold. - Though, I do understand the fear of people who have/had long covid, MCFS or do know people who have, but I don't know what conclusio…

> our bodies need to learn again to fight against viruses This is unequivocally false. There is zero benefit to exposure to almost all viruses that infect humans. At best you would get sick and then have limited immunity to that single strain for a period of time, but getting sick is always worse than not getting it. You're not going to get immunity to the flu by "exercising" your immune system with colds or vice ver…

> The only exception I'm aware of is chicken pox, where getting it young had better outcomes than getting it in adulthood so it made sense to seek exposure, but we have a vaccine for that now which is significantly better than ever getting it.

Indeed, please consider a chickenpox vaccination over inducing exposure if it is a choice between the two; there is a significantly lower risk of shingles.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#117

Post by ducdetronquito »

wkat4242 wrote: post #56
ducdetronquito wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To continue on sfblah's comment (just above mine): in France, before the mask mandate that came after the first covid lockdown, I don't remember a single doctor/nurse* to wear a mask to do their job even during intense period of sickness like in winter or even during previous pandemics. I don't remember anyone wearing a mask either in the doctor's waiting room, even when it was fool of sick people (old and young mixe…

Yeah here in Spain nobody does masks anymore either. Except some tourists. I'm glad, I always found it a super heavy burden, for me even worse than the lockdowns. But this is due to prior respiratory issues and PTSD related to that. For other people it will be a lot easier. For me I'll just take the risk as it comes, I'm sure it's a bit higher without them but there's many things that can kill you in this life. For m…

Yeah me too, I could not stand it.

I do agree with you !

Focusing on being healthy is in my opinion way more beneficial to avoid being sick in general than trying to avoid being sick at all cost. Being stacked by millions in cities living unhealthy lives is definitely not helping to prevent being sick. I move to the country side after the last lock down, ~50km from a big city to still be close to work, and it's been very relaxing and good for my family's overall health.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#118

Post by defrost »

exe34 wrote: post #110
defrost wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they just delayed the inevitable. We did, and the inevitable was 99% double vaccination, very few serious (hospitalisation) cases, very few deaths, at the cost of business as usual within the state and goods being quarentine 'airlocked' in and out across the border.

Sounds like you guys did pretty well :-) Here in the UK we always locked down too late, which meant we had to go for longer, and then opened up too early, and offered people free food so they would spread it around again, which meant we had to lock down again. And we sent sick people into old people's homes and then went shocked pikachu when a load of them died.

Yes, thankfully.

I wrote a longer reply but for some rare unknown reason HN ate my homework :( .. and it's late in the day here ATM.

Re: Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting

#119

Post by thr3000 »

oneshtein wrote: post #105
alex1138 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lab leak matters when studying viral transmission (and general characteristics of the virus), especially if it's been enhanced via gain of function research It also matters when the basic doctor-patient relationship is interfered with

If we look at final report of Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic: COVID-19 ORIGIN: COVID-19 most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The FIVE strongest arguments in favor of the “lab leak” theory include: 1) The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature. Yes. 2) Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary t…

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