Y'all can do what you want, but I'll not be paying any attention to what the CDC tells me. Or anything on TV or the internet.
I'm driving out to California tomorrow morning... again... let's see if they try to arrest me for not wearing a mask in public.
I've recently received first hand information from multiple sources which reveals that positive test results are being faked on a massive scale. It is now clear to me that fraud exists at all levels of this so-called pandemic.
This "pandemic" is, as I suspected from the beginning, total bullshit.
I'll continue washing my hands as I always have, and when forced to wear a mask in order to buy groceries, I will do so.
Simply stated, the information that we're all arguing about is wrong. All of it. There are only vestiges of truth in any of it.
I'm more worried about the "coin shortage" than any germs that might be floating around. I'm sure as shit not going to get "vaccinated". In fact, I'd recommend that none of you do, either.
The government is collecting all the cash, starting with coins. The seventh seal has been opened, the Beast walks among us. Let's worry about that instead.
Y'all can do what you want, but I'll not be paying any attention to what the CDC tells me. Or anything on TV or the internet.
Once again we are on the some wave length.
Good luck with the California trip. Unfortunately my son who lives there has bought into all this crap to the point where he hasn't spoken with me in months.
So I had a talk with my doctor the other day. He's says I seriously need to loose weight. He says I'm living on youth - I'm 44. - but that's going to change.
After the conversation about my weight and some other issues I have, we go on to talk about the COVID virus...
I ask him if masks are really helping stop the spread. He says, "Well I'm mandated to wear one, and the goggles..."
I then just asked straight up, with my health issues, what are my chances of surviving the disease? He said they are really good. This surprised me, as I figured I was 'high risk'. He said even in the state of health I was in, his honest opinion was I would live. It would be like a really nasty flu, but I would make it.
I have had this doctor for 10+ years. He has been terrific, always honest, never sugercoats anything. He has pissed me off a time or two with his honesty as a matter of fact. I absolutely trust his opinion. While I understand he could be wrong, for him to say I'd live is something I'm pretty much taking to the bank. Some may think that's foolish thinking, but I wasn't living in fear before, and I'm definitely not going to now.
It's a great country . . . each person, as we've beautifully illustrated, gathers information from sources they trust and decides on their personal course of action.
What up Sifo? Please avoid the personal insults. Some of us may be idiotic some times. It's not nice to call it out so mean spiritedly.
I'm not even sure what the disagreement is. I guess the relative seriousness or magnitude of the China Virus threat?
Meh. It is what it is. There's no stopping the virus, just mitigating outbreak severity, flattening the curve. So long as we do that, and hospital capacity is not over-run, all is good.
Interesting to note that NYC, or at least portions of it are plausibly seeing the effects of herd immunity there.
At 44 you have less than a 1 in 10 chance of death from Covid-19.
40 years older, it's close to 1 in 5. Worse if you're in a nursing home in Minnesota.
I repeat, you wear a mask so you don't spray others. Common courtesy in an epidemic. Also you get a little protection from other's spray.
You want to be perfectly safe? Go be a hermit, and only eat food packaged before Nov. '19. No? Then understand And mitigate your risk. Especially if you interact with elderly.
And it's camo. If you're a Sheepdog, it's to hide among the sheep. A public declaration you aren't a Karen.
And since there's plenty of political masks for sale, if you like you can target trigger and shop for groceries at the same time.
I compliment the clever ones, it's the New Flirtatious non threatening way to cheer up the poor overworked staff at the store.
Oh, feel free to resent the politicians that decree their Big Donors big stores safe & the little shops death traps. Remember, and vote against them.
Out of my own acquaintances, 3 have died from this, and the closest to me was 55. In the same time period 3 have died from cancer, one kidney failure, and one stroke.
I'm running out of intelligent contemporaries I went to school with.
TX and FL are on the rise...but I still wonder how much is actual cases, and how much is swing-state electoral vote shenanigans.
Today's PA news (it was on while I was getting ready for work) was talking about "the pandemic" for about ten minutes, and "town hall meetings" about it and about small businesses...then, as a footnote (think, "verbal small print") they commented for three seconds that "case counts have been dropping throughout PA for the last week or so".
"Oh, by the way...we don't want to DWELL on the good news, but legally this means we can say we're 'un-biased'".
They are not arresting in CA. Local jurisdictions are starting to enforce fines from $50-$250. Mostly LA and SF extended urban areas but also Marin, Napa, and Yolo counties.
Ban police from using the most effective non-lethal measures for riot control, thus forcing them to risk their lives, or use lethal force when overwhelmed by violent rioters.
Badmouth, smear, and defund the police.
If you cannot see what is being perpetrated, you are willfully blind.
The virus is not even close to the humanitarian horror that is brewing in our country right now.
Imposing shutdown thus destroying large swaths of small business
vs
Tolerating more severe outbreaks and another 10,000 mostly old sickly people passing on
How do you choose?
There are other consequences with shutdowns:
harm to childrens education,
denial of needed elective surgeries and critical health diagnostics,
loss of hospitals due to loss of business,
a massive increase in mental health issues including substance abuse, suicide, domestic violence, and child abuse...
more...
Someone capable needs to look at those issues in total and make the call. Focusing only one the immediate medical effects of the virus is irresponsible. My sense is that the shutdown cure is far worse at our current point than the disease.
We now know how to treat and control the outbreaks.
a massive increase in mental health issues including substance abuse, suicide, domestic violence, and child abuse...
That is the biggest issue. All of the others in the list...feed this one.
If you isolate humans (a social animal) for any length of time, you WILL have mental issues. Isolate humans who are still in their formatory stages (children), and those mental issues will stay with those humans for the duration of their lives.
Both on the "herd Immunity" misinformation/myth and the real baseline utility of wearing a mask.
You wear one so that if you are sick but don't know it yet, you reduce the chance of killing strangers, and their loved ones.
"But I'm not sick!" some may say. How do you know? Typhoid Mary is infamous and she was real. There are countless cases where exposed, and actively spreading people either caused, or worsened an epidemic.
What's the time period where you can have Pooh's Breath, are spraying viruses around, and don't know or are in denial that you are sick? How many days are you infecting others before you get symptoms, if you ever do, bad enough to go to a doctor?
I'm no hypocondriac, If I had a mild fever, and aches and pains, I'd assume a summer cold, and not change my habits, IF IT WAS SUMMER 2019! Today, I'd tell my loved ones I was self isolating, and inform my doc. I'm high risk so... If I need care, I want to not harm others, so they have to know I might be infectious and take appropriate precautions.
And the Loved ones angle is Important. I wear a mask at Walmart. I don't wear one visiting relatives, or at home.
One reason I consider News Minion Cuomo a real POS is his public virtue display of "look at me, hiding in the basement to protect my family and the world! Aren't I Awesome?" when he, in reality did not. I wonder how many takes it took to get the perfect "rising from isolation for the first time" video just right? Mutter mutter.....
So the only number that I think is worth paying any attention to, and even that number is not so helpful is mortality because that’s a hard and fast number.
Hmm...where have I heard that before...?
So the case number is almost irrelevant. And that’s because there’s a lot of inaccuracies with the testing. And also even if the test is accurate, most people are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. So it’s not that important to know. So the case number, which you see rising all the time in the news is basically irrelevant. And if you had told us a few months ago, that that was the number that the media was going to go crazy over, we all would have just laughed at that. I mean, that’s essentially herd immunity. There’s lots of people out there who have tested positive without symptoms or with very mild symptoms. So the only number that’s worth paying attention to is mortality.
Simone Gold: (18:33) When you look at the mortality, this is a disease that takes, that unfortunately kills our most frail members of society. People with multiple comorbid conditions, specifically diabetes, obesity is a big one. We don’t talk about that, but it is. It’s a fact. Coronary artery disease, severe coronary artery disease, people like that. And also if you’re older, it’s a risk factor. But the biggest risk factor is if you have comorbid conditions. If you’re young and healthy, this is not … You’re going to recover. If you’re under 60 with no comorbid conditions, it’s less deadly than influenza. \black
Hmm...also seems familiar...
}This seems to come as great news to Americans because this is not what you’re being told. I would say the answer is it’s very difficult to get accurate numbers.
Dr. Stella Immanuel: (26:06) We’re talking about, we can’t open our businesses. We can’t go to school and parents are scared to get treated. And I personally, have put over a hundred people on hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis. Doctors, teachers, people who are health care workers, my staff, me, I see over 15 to 20, sometimes 20, 15, 10 patients a day. I use a surgical mask. I’ve not been infected. Nobody I know has been infected that’s around me. So this is the answer to this question. You want to open schools, everybody get on hydroxychloroquine. That is the prevention for COVID. One tablet every other week is good enough. And that is what we need to get across to the American people. There’s prevention and there is cure. We don’t have to lock down schools. We don’t have to lockdown our businesses. There’s prevention, and there is cure. So instead of talking about a mask, instead of talking about lockdowns, instead of talking about all these things, put our teachers on hydroxychloroquine.
Dr. Stella Immanuel: (26:59) Put those that are high risk on hydroxychloroquine. Those that want it. If you want to catch COVID, that’s cool, but you should be given the right to take it and be prevented. So that’s the message. All this stuff that we’re putting together, it’s not necessary because hydroxychloroquine has a prevention. Hydroxychloroquine is a prevention for COVID.
>>> Death is irreversible. The rest is just suffering, which, compared with death is mostly an inconvenience. Maybe this is just a 'pagan' thing.
Maybe you've not heard about all the people who freely choose death every day in order to end the suffering they experience? Suffering is just an inconvenience? Care to rethink that? Try walking around with a pebble in your shoe for a week. Just a week. Just a pebble in your shoe.
Passing from this life is inevitable.
Sometimes taking the issue to extremes helps understanding:
If suffering is just inconvenience, and death is to be avoided due to its permanence, then to save one 80 year old's life, you'd sacrifice 40% of the minority owned businesses in America?
If it was my own life at stake versus such dire consequences to so many, I'd not look for my own life to be saved. Maybe that's just me.
The issue deserved seriousness, not flippant meme-speak, don't you think?
While I'll skip the relevance of using Covid-19 as an excuse to fund projects not obviously connected, like "the FBI building" I have to defend the Speaker's support for Marijuana legalization, ( I am NOT advocating funding buying pot with tax dollars ) as I see it as unusually selfless!
After all, she's a producer of alcoholic beverages, and Pot is competition. It might cut into her winery profits! Selfless!
I'm unaware of any studies using Cannabis as therapy for folk infected with Covid-19, and it seems unlikely that inhaling smoke or vaping is good for the lungs.
But as therapy for folk in government imposed lockdown, unemployed, or even just rational isolation, cannabis may well rival wine and beer as an escape from unwanted emotional states. ( withholding judgment as to the value and potential harm of getting wasted instead of dealing with life by other means. Like educating yourself and healthy exercise & diet )
And, important for diabetics, marijuana is Zero Carbs! Unlike wine, beer, etc. Although the Twinkies traditionally ( according to movie lore ) consumed are definitely not low carb.
Also, to be completely honest, I have an ulterior motive for supporting Cannabis legalization. If millions of leftists are too stoned to remember to vote, it's really good for America.
In 1963, long before memes were a thing, my partner considered suicide after being processed out of the navy near San Francisco. He got to midspan of the Golden Gate bridge and searched his feelings. He rejected his Baptist upbringing, but he could not go back home to Joplin, MO and face his family and childhood friends who he loved. The people at St Mary's Cathedral on California Street in SF would not speak with him, and I am still a little angry about that. But he still thought that suicide was not God's plan and so he decided he would stay in SF. So he descended into the street life of Polk Street in SF (the precursor to the Castro district) which was a bit of a sexual hell hole, but over the next 20 years he was ultimately able to kick the street life, the drugs, the hustling lifestyle, the death of many of his street friends. He got a job and faced his family, and they accepted him. I am profoundly grateful for his flawed Baptist upbringing because ultimately it made him turn around in that crucial moment, all before I ever met him. Suffering is for survivors, joy is a luxury, get as much of it as you can while you can. I would rather not wear a pebble in my shoe, if I got some inoperable foot condition that crippled me for life, I don't think I would consider suicide, I think I would stop walking and try and learn banjo instead. IMHO suicide is foolishly selfish because much of the joy in our lives comes from others. Even though I reject formal Christian texts I would use them to discourage suicide but ultimately nothing can stop someone from suicide if that's what they really want. If sacrificing yourself to the economy gives you joy, I would raise a glass in your memory, but I would not at all assume you spoke for all seniors.
If I actually made decisions about the economy and was a Republican, I would certainly try to save as many 80 year olds as I could because they tend to vote Republican. It would crash the economy temporarily, but IMHO a strong dose of economic chemotherapy is worth a quick cure. Once the problem is controllable the economy can reopen, and the problem largely vanishes. A half dose of chemotherapy only prolongs the suffering and has fewer chances of curing the underlying problem. That in turn, lessens confidence in the market, sacrificing the economy anyway.
Once the problem is controllable the economy can reopen
That's the problem - it IS controllable. Read the transcript that I was quoting yesterday. Those are doctors, boots on the ground, actually TREATING PATIENTS. No politics, just fact.
It can be controlled.
We're not allowed. (see: bans on HCQ at the state and Federal levels - for political reasons).
Funny...then why have they been using it for decades, for other diseases? It builds up in the lungs if you over-medicate (overdose), but if you read the transcript it is stated that 200mg HCQ every OTHER week, plus zinc daily, handles the prophylaxis duties quite well. Covid may be "uncontrolled" as to spread, but with the HCQ and zinc in your system and in your lungs (again, stated clearly in the transcript above), the virus has no way to bond to the host cells, and thus no way to replicate.