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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

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think complaining about flagging in general is helpful here. Science hasn’t ever meant that all viewpoints are equal. That would just be chaos. It’s also not decided by popular vote, but if you want peer review instead, then you’ll have to read a peer-reviewed journal rather than Hacker News comments.

I wouldn't claim all views are equal either, but people are mighty quick to jump on how misinformation is defined (even when that's been proven wrong) here, I don't equate it to many other things

Lot's of cranks are not sharing any information at all (so can't even be classified as "misinformation"), but pure unfounded opinions without any informative content (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42583516).

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

#122
post #34

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…

My understanding solidified around this take: Masks are great to slow the spread of the virus. So if you have a big wedding party coming up you might want to wear a mask in the subway in the weeks before your big day. But: Masks won't save you from the disease in the long term. There's no way you can escape viral respiratory infections in our society.

> Masks won't save you from the disease in the long term.

Bullshit. 4 years and counting. Understanding your respiratory PPE and utilizing it correctly is a wonderful thing.

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

#123
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't claim all views are equal either, but people are mighty quick to jump on how misinformation is defined (even when that's been proven wrong) here, I don't equate it to many other things

Lot's of cranks are not sharing any information at all (so can't even be classified as "misinformation"), but pure unfounded opinions without any informative content (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42583516 ).

Well, that's not any information on its own, but Fauci has a history most people aren't aware of, going back to at least the AIDS crisis

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

#124
post #111

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 t…

You might benefit from a more robust understanding of filtration mechanisms and updating your mental model of airborn covid to include the medium in which it's broadcast. Folks aren't outgassing raw virii with no associated droplet material, so your particle size is off. Additionally N95 can absolutely filter particulate well below the rated 0.3 microns, it's just less effective at doing so. Summary: masks absolutely filter airborn covid when rated material is used with correct fitment.

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

#125
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

[deleted]

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

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> During May 2022, Western Australia experienced sharply rising cases amongst the highest per capita cases seen anywhere in the world throughout the pandemic. Just delaying it to 2022 according to those same articles, as it had already exited the evolutionary fit population’s memory everywhere else in the world

Use of the phrase "evolutionary fit population" in this (or any) context strongly suggests you support some/most/all of the ideology behind eugenics. Godwins Law violation inbound in 3...2...1...

I’m referring to what happened, accurately

We have an aging population that has representatives like them, they optimized for themselves and it was not necessary for the rest of us. Beforesight, in hindsight, and we are still not represented in the mental health repercussions that should be weighed, especially amongst the maladjusted adolescent and now young adult population that makes more sense to have been optimized for in a functioning society.

And what did we do with slowing down how many elderly people died? We did not expand hospital capacity in but did buy time in a coincidence that has almost no standard of review. For example, In the US if only 100,000 people died instead of 1 million (or the 10 million some were afraid of), it still would be a political disaster for whoever was in office, the same at 10,000, or even the 3,000 matching 9/11. Its good that the hospital system didnt get overwhelmed, or for long in some municipalities, by mostly coincidence.

Response could have been tailored to factor in reality quicker, which is what ultimately happened anyway: A bifurcated system where those fit interacted with the world, and those not did not. Many of them are still functionally quarantined to this day. Could have been the same by 2021, everywhere.

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

#127

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 still desperately want to know the current (scientific) state of wearing a mask. 100% agreed. We wore masks pretty religiously (definitely when it was mandated, often when it wasn’t for a while). Several months ago, our household got COVID, one persons at a time. We always quarantined in a room, and wore a mask for the limited time we left quarantine. A couple months ago, my mom tested positive, while living with…

[dead]

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

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Oh yeah I love living in the city. Drinking and partying in clubs with hundreds of people in a tiny place (so masks really won't help anyway) until 6am. My life is not very healthy I know, but it's very exciting which is also important.

There was a commercial in Holland saying "If you have to watch your life flash before your eyes one day, you'd better make sure it's not going to be boring!". I subscribe to that, although the ad was for the army which I wouldn't find exciting at all :)

But I know many people who love the quiet life. I lived in a small town for a decade but it made me feel so restricted, I deeply hated it. People vary! And I don't have a family even at my age so I'd be pretty lonely outside the city.

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

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's of course wayyy oversimplified. There are many more differences between those places than just masking culture. You can't come to a conclusion without evaluating all the other factors. This is exactly the kind of pseudoscience argument people pull in that muddies the water (on both sides of the debate)

This is not a scientific argument (correlation is not causation), but it's an argument supported by numbers, not just words. If we look at scientific studies, they also confirm the some effectiveness of masks in reducing the risk of influenza or COVID-19 infection and mortality. One study on mice, I saw, showed that antiviral-coated masks increase the likelihood of developing immunity to infection BEFORE the infectio…

Yeah I'm not saying that masks don't help. Just that these numbers don't prove that. There's so many more cultural and medical differences.

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

#130
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding solidified around this take: Masks are great to slow the spread of the virus. So if you have a big wedding party coming up you might want to wear a mask in the subway in the weeks before your big day. But: Masks won't save you from the disease in the long term. There's no way you can escape viral respiratory infections in our society.

> Masks won't save you from the disease in the long term. Bullshit. 4 years and counting. Understanding your respiratory PPE and utilizing it correctly is a wonderful thing.

Hi there. You’ve left 21 comments about Covid and vaccines in the last three hours, now you’re cussing people out and it’s time to turn your phone off and go to bed.
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