₿oogaloo
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I still stop by and read the articles at NC, but I only rarely read the comments anymore. I posted a few times in the past, but then I was blocked after I posted comments critical of MMT. I donated a couple of times during past fundraisers because I think they do a good job overall. But still, it’s a bit odd to keep receiving requests for money from a site where I am not even allowed to post. As long as I ignore the comments, I still think NC is a great blog. Many of the posts I agree with. For those that I disagree with, I usually concede that they made some good points that made me think . . .
@Polder Dweller @Kimo
The case for masks was never that wearing a mask protects the person wearing the mask from getting infected by blocking all the virus particles.
The case for masks is that they keep more of the infected person’s sputum out of the air. And they make wearers more conscious of touching their faces, and thereby hopefully encourage better hygiene. And even if people do become infected, wearing a mask can reduce the initial dosage and this is better with disease outcomes.
I realize that correlation is not causation. But if you look at transmission rates in densely-populated mask-wearing Asia, these countries have fared much better. Why? Is it because Asians have better hygiene practices? Is it because Asians are in better health? Is it because Asians have more natural immunity? Or is it because Asians wear masks? What is your theory?
In his presentation he suggests that Vietnam has done well because the people are healthier. But being healthy doesn’t mean you do not get infected — it just means that you are less likely to get seriously ill or die. He is mixing these up. And he shows a graph showing that masks did not stop a second wave in Vietnam. But look closely and the wave he is talking about is in the range of 20 new cases per day. In a country of almost 100 million people, that’s not much of a wave.
Plus the evidence showing that most cluster infections are traced to places where people have not worn masks.
I agree with Michael in part, disagree in part.
Lockdowns work, but they only work if they are well-timed and well-executed. In the West the lockdowns were late and poorly executed. To the extent Michael’s rant is directed at poor execution, I am on board. But to the extent he suggests that the proper response from the beginning was to do nothing and “take it on the chin” UK style, I completely disagree.
The circumstances in Sweden are quite different than in many other countries. Sweden is sparsely populated. Swedes naturally self-distance. That’s why the Swedish economy suffered even though businesses remained open. And it appears Sweden got lucky in the sense that it now appears that it is possible to reach herd immunity with 20% infection rate. AT the time the policy decision was made, the best guess was that it would take 80%. And that was based on the wrong understanding that immunity would come primarily through B-cell antibodies.
I am grateful to be in a country where the response was early and well-coordinated. Most people bought in and cooperated. We never had a lockdown in Korea — we never needed one because the early response kept everything contained. I have been working in the office every day since January except for two days when I was out to be tested (24 hour turnaround here before we get out results). As a result, People here benefit from all of the knowledge and research we have learned over the last nine months by letting most of the rest of the world act as the guinea pigs.
The “world response” is incorrect? How can you say that when the response has been so different in so many places? I say the US response of bailing out the rich while throwing crumbs to the masses is the wrong response. The proper response should have been a jobs program. Not a temporary rent or mortgage moratorium.
And to suggest that the Swedish response is right for everyone? Try selling that line in China and India.
As for your argument that we all need to come to terms with our own mortality, I could not agree more. But this mindset that we should embrace the risks to health and just get back to work . . . that’s the propaganda coming from the corporate overlords you claim to oppose . . .
Just my $0.02
From an ethical perspective, infringement on our rights to fight covid seems to be different from the infringement of rights being imposed on Assange.
Agreed. But the problem again is that we no longer live in a democracy, Politicians are not responsive to the people, so there is no meaningful debate, no nuance, no compromise, no accountability, no proportionality, no commitment to making decisions that make sense. Decisions are made by lobbyists who are guided by their own agendas.
So rather than revisit all infringements to our liberties to see if they make sense under the circumstances, we are left with two camps — one camp that always opposes any regulation (and is ineffective because it is so inflexible) and one that accepts whatever the lobbyists decide. So we never have a chance to revisit monstrosities like the Patriot Act. It is not on any politician’s agenda. Which makes every infringement on liberties seem to some like a black and white war of attrition.
Ilargi, we are still here. Regarding Assange, there is not much new to add. On weekends I wear my “Free Assange” t-shirt around the neighborhood as a very small act of resistance. It is largely symbolic — most people here have no idea who he is. What else can we do when democracy is dead, the politicians are not responsive to the people, and the court is a kangaroo court? Sometimes I think the best we can hope for Julian is that Trump loses the election and pardons him as an act of defiance against the deep state. But I am not holding my breath on that because Trump is not a man of principle. If he was, Julian would have already been pardoned.
Picasso was a great master for ideas, and shapes, but I have never been able to warm up to his color choices. So many paintings that I would prefer to see in a different choice of colors. For that reason I have always has a preference for Klee, another regular at TAE, who has a sense for color that I can appreciate almost every single time. .
Dr D always makes some good points, but I have grown weary of the rants, and therefore tend to skip over or skim the longer ones. I share the view that it makes no difference whether he is a medical doctor or not — I have lost confidence in the authority of “experts” and therefore look at the substance. Dr D loses credibility in my mind when he dismisses masks without any scientific basis (other than to say that it is theoretically possible to still be infected while wearing a mask because the viruses are smaller than the holes in the mask — but ignoring that viruses travel in much larger droplets). Here in Asia use of masks is widespread. And it seems that in every intsance of a new cluster infection, especially those with the so-called super-spreaders, it has always, always, 100% of the time — been a situation where people were in a confined indoor space where people were not wearing masks. I have not heard of a single instance, in any country, at any time, since the beginning of this pandemic — of a new cluster starting where most of the people were wearing masks. Perhaps there is one example out there? Somewhere? Anywhere? Together with millions of other Koreans I ride the bus every day during rush hour. People are packed on buses and in subways. Masks are mandatory. Thousands of buses. Hundreds of subway trains. And yet there are no cluster infections traced to public transportation — not one. The common cluster infections are churches, karaoke bars, dance clubs, multi-level marketing schemes, and occasionally a restaurant or cafe — all places where people have taken off their masks.
Coincidence?
Ilargi, I am not doctor, but I have been collecting snippets of possible protocols, including John Day’s Vitamin D recommendations.
I raised my Vitamin D from 19 to 62 over five months following John’s recommendation of 10,000 per day for the first month and 5000 per day after that. Normal range is between 30 and 70 (with the higher end of the range being better than the lower end).
I eat one Brazil nut per day for the selenium. Brazil nuts are the best natural source of selenium, which you need for your selenoproteins.
Chloroquine and hydroxycholoroquine work best when given with zinc, and that is because they act as a zinc ionophore (helping the zinc get into the cell where it can disrupt viral replication). But you need a prescription for those (unless you want to take your chances with chloroquine for the aquarium — NOT recommended).
Other known zinc ionophores are the common antioxidant supplements Quercetin and epigallocatechin-gallate (EGCG). EGCG is found in green tea. I will start taking these supplements with my zinc piconolate supplement if and when people in my circle start to get infected, or at the first sign of any symptoms (before I get to the doctor to ask for a HCL prescription). More on the zinc ionophores here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25050823/
There is also some data that Famotidine (pepcid) may help, and there clinical trials ongoing, as John linked to. As I see it, pepcid is cheap and there is no downside to using it (I am not aware of any risky interactions with zinc, quercetin, or EGCG), so I would give it a try, though it is not in my medicine cabinet at the moment. This report says that it does not work — at least not directly (though who care if it works directly or indirectly, as long as it works, right?):
A popular heartburn medicine doesn’t work as a COVID-19 antiviral
If the zinc ionophores do not work and a case takes a turn for the worse, including hospitalization, then it is onto the MATH+ protocol, which you can find here:
I need to read up on the Ivermectin.
Interesting that doxycycline(an antibiotic) is effective against a virus -I wonder how that works?
I think that is to treat the secondary infections that attack diseased tissue, particularly in the lungs
“If the antibodies disappear quickly [to zero for 83% of people within 2 months, and almost 100% after 3 months] then how useful will a vaccine actually be? It is claimed that 50% or more of the population are naturally resistant to the virus.”
According to one of the recent Chris Martenson videos, the key may be understanding the difference in the role between B cells, which produce antibodies, and T cells, which have a different function in the immune system. T cells appear to have their own mechanism for recognizing something they have seen before — they do not rely on antibodies for this. The theory is that up to 50% of the population might have natural immunity because they have already had common colds caused by other coronaviruses. The T cells that fought off that earlier minor infection know how to put down sars-cov-2. So the best vaccine against this virus might be to catch a common cold caused by another coronavirus.
Monetary velocity dropped from 1.38 to 1.09 in Q2 as reported at the end of last week – an unbelievable one quarter drop, especially from the already low 1.38. All of the dry tinder is there. Watch out for when that trend turns.
So the discussion of gold has carried over from the last thread. Consensus seems ot be that USD will continue as the reserve currency for the foreseeable future. And then Patricia asks the money question:
“Why does there have to be a reserve currency particularly when that currency is used as a weapon as the US$ is now?”
Indeed. Why does there need to be a reserve currency? Reserve status gives “exorbitant privilege” but also erodes the underlying economic structure of the reserve issuer. Nobody wants reserve status now. China does not want to give up its mercantilist model. The EU (Germany) will not agree to run permanent trade deficits. So what if the next international system does not have a reserve currency at all? What if, instead, we move to a system with a reserve asset that floats against all currencies? What if that asset is gold? Not a return to a gold standard — because no government needs to make its currency convertible according to a fixed exchange standard — and no government ever will. Under such a system, countries will no longer need to accummulate huge foreign currency reserves — the reserves will be primarily gold. Trade can be conducted in any currency — the USD can continue this role without being the world’s reserve currency. The biggest difference between this model and the current system is that foreign governments will no longer have a need to accummulate USD reserves to defend their currencies. It seems like a win-win for everyone except the elite parasites who need exorbitant privilege to go on indefinitely.
This seems to be to be the most likley model for the next system. The USD system will come to an end, but EUR and CNY will not step into it shoes. The next system won’t look anything like the current system.
KImo, I am not sure about your comment equating odors and doses of viruses. Dr D made a similar comment awhile back in reference to perfume, but I think it is not true. The molecules that cause smell are just that — molecules. They do not need to hitch a ride on a water droplet, big or small. They can float around in the air independently, and your nose will pick up the smell when the necessary number of molecules come into contact with the receptors in your nose. These esters may be the same or similar size as corona viruses, but coronaviruses typically do not travel alone — they are expelled from their host in a water droplet, which may be big or small, and which may contains hundreds or thousands of virus particles. Perhaps it is small particle that lingers in the air until the water evaporates, so the virus particles are floating around alone, like the esters. You may breathe them in, but they are unlikely to cause disease because there are not enough of them concentrated in a single dose. The amount of virus you are exposed to as a key factor in whether you get sick.
So I understand the logic of the McDonald’s 5 minute rule — give a couple of minutes for the larger droplets to settle to the floor. But it seems far more efficient to take the alternative measure of making sure the droplets don’t get into the air in the first place.
Scott Adams pointed out that we’re only at halftime
It will be interesting to see what happens over the second half of the year. Will the percentage of severe cases increase as the weather gets colder, Vitamin D levels drop, and people go through seasonal hormonal changes? Many were predicting this would die out in the summer months, and then come back in the fall. They were half right. The number of cases has increased, but the severity of the disease has tapered off. Will that reverse? We should know by the time we reach the winter solstice.
How can we be sure of herd immunity if this is a disease you can catch a second or third time? Will the second or third infection be more severe than the first? Or milder? Or will it just attack different organs and have a different progression every time? Can a young healthy person who had no trouble fighting it off in season one expect the same outcome in season two? I would like to see more data.
Meanwhile, we have learned a lot over the last six months. Protocols have improved and will continue to improve. We have all had a chance to boost our immune systems to get ready for this. I am not as worried about it as I was in February. But I still do not want to catch it, and I do not want my family members to catch it.
I think it was inevitable that the US would surrender. It was never equipped to fight, and never had the will to fight. A proper resistance requires getting everyone on the same page — something that just ain’t gonna happen in the US.
John Day: Well I finally got my Vitamin D test results back today. They were abysmally low when I got them checked last December. In early February I saw your suggestion to take 10,000 per day for a month, then cut back to 5.000 per day. So that’s pretty much what I did, except that because my starting point was so low, I took 10,000 per day for closer to two months in the beginning. And I spent a bit more time in the sun.
So now I am at 61.45 — much better than before.
Healthy People Should Not Wear Face Masks
Haha. Just look at the scoreboard! The gold medal goes to the country where the greatest percentage of the population believes healthy people should not wear face masks.
Meanwhile these quotes from the Deputy Chief of the Korea Center for Disease Control:
“At this point, any talk of an exit is at best a wishful expectation.”
“Practicing physical distancing, heeding personal hygiene and wearing face masks remain the most effective tools to curb the transmission.”
“But if you look at how the pandemic is unfolding outside the country, the situation is completely different.”
“When this international crisis will peak is quite unfathomable.”
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200714000173&ACE_SEARCH=1
Korea has now fallen to 68th place, and keep falling.
Interesting; the mask debate seems to be a western, cultural, problem.
Here in S.E. Asia, no such debate is in evidenceSame in N.E. Asia. But much of Asia became accustomed to masks because of the chronic air pollution problem. So it was no big deal to start wearing masks for sanitary purposes too. I can understand why Westerners have been so resistant. They are just not used to it. It’s like telling a deep-in-the-jungle tribe that the women should cover their breasts and everyone should cover their genitals in public. They may hate it at first, and feel that it impinges on their freedom, but then later it will seem natural.
An upside to masks: They help thwart the Orwellian facial recognition software. Why doesn’t anyone mention this? I am all in favor of rolling back the totalitarian security state — but masks are the wrong battle to fight. Defunding Homeland Security and the NSA, and repealing the Patriot Act — these are the fronts to fight that battle.
But how did they make it, Boogaloo? The amounts of work going into that kind of thing looks staggering.
I am presuming that the interviews are genuine, but the actors are talking about other characters and other roles. One need to find actors that look a little bit like politicians, then watch hours of these interviews, then snip out the right words, then do a photoshop on the still shots. It’s brilliant.
Speaking of making difficult videos, I have always been impressed with this one, done all the way back in 1988: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjLCJKoot4U
We are being surveilled and sorted and ranked.
Very true. And this is where the outrage should be directed. The Patriot Act should be dismantled. The big tech companies should be broken up. Two dozen intelligence agencies should be consolidated into one. Data protection laws should be strengthened. And Julian Assange should be out of jail.
I know I am beating a dead horse, but the combined population of those 12 countries is 492 million compared to a population of 331 million in the USA.
Japan (126m), Vietnam (97m), Thailand (70m), Myanmar (54m), Korea (51m), Malaysia (32m), Taiwan (23m), Cambodia (16m), Hong Kong (7m), Laos (7m), Singapore (6m), Mongolia (3m)
The 2020 trailer was hysterical. I had to watch it three times before I started sending it to people I know who will appreciate the humor.
Worldometer shows 73,388 cases in the US in one day. That one day total is more than the sum total of cases from the beginning of this pandemic from the following 11 countries in Asia, most of which are densely populated and wear masks:
Japan (22,890)
Korea (13,612)
Malaysia (8,737)
Thailand (3,236)
Hong Kong (1,656)
Taiwan (452)
Vietnam (381)
Myanmar (339)
Mongolia (262)
Cambodia (166)
Laos (19)
Total = 51,750If we add in the 47,126 cases from Singapore, which is a bit different because most of the cases came from foreign workers packed into very small dormitories, these 12 countries still total only 98,876 cases.
The gold (USA), silver (Brazil) and bronze (India) champions will be the guinea pigs for the rest of the world — taking it on the chin for the good of the team.
Hear, hear! Odd that so many- most everyone, in fact- either can’t or *won’t* see this..
What I find odd is that it is mostly the North Americans, or a subset of them, who frame this as an issue of tyranny and totalitarianism, and who seek to subvert measures that doctors and public health authorities recommend. I do not see that reaction throughout the rest of the world — at least not as strongly as I see it in North America. Is the rest of the world wrong? Misguided? Oblivious? Clueless? Blind? Is it only in the land of the free and the home of the brave, the last free country on earth, the city shining on a hill, that clear-minded individuals can see what is really at stake — the end of liberty? And masks are really the new chains, a modern form of enslavement?
For some, seeing is not believing.
Look at the data.
The data shows lower transmission rates in countries with widespread use of masks. What do you attribute that to? Dumb luck?
Masks help because they train people not to touch their faces. They help because they reduce the amount of virus expelled into the air. The amount of virus you are exposed to is one of the key factors affecting whether you get sick, and if you do get sick, how sick.
Why do I see on TV that China wears Full body protection with booties and respirators when dealing with covid19. Are some people paranoid about safety or doing the right thing.
This thing came out of a lab. Probably the Wuhan lab. Maybe an American lab. But all of these “gain of function” virologists were working together, helping one another, sharing research. If it came out of the Wuhan lab, then they know more about it than anyone. If it came out of China, and the Chinese are now taking it seriously, then I will take it seriously.
It looks like antibodies do not last. And it looks like this thing has multiple entry mechanisms and attacks multiple organs. First time around might be mild for many people, especially in summer. But second, third, fourth time around? Perhaps different symptoms/disease progression every time? This thing is not natural. The “gain of function” virologists know that. The ones in the West are keeping their mouths shut in hope that the gravy train keeps flowing. The ones in China hav probably told the CCP all they know. And you see the CCP’s response.
Take from that what you will.
Hmmm. I am not sure I am buying these fictional pictures. The incoming water would slowly kill those trees and change the vegetation. Wind and storms would make it impossible to have a spotless monument surrounded by all of that green swampy water. The picture shows what a temporary flood might look like, but not the long term consequence of rising waters from global warming.
BLM is no revolution. It’s just a mob. A true revolution targets institutions, not individuals. And even those fake revolutions that roll out the guillotine for individuals, they only have a chance of success if they target the key individuals in those institutions, rather than Joe Sixpack out on the street. BLM is a sideshow. It is designed to quench the thirst for blood while the looting continues. Nope, there will be no coming together to fix things — not when it is impossible to even have a conversation about what needs to be fixed.
By the way, for history lovers out there, may I recommend Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcast. Right now I am listening to Season 10, which covers the Russian Revolution. It is nice to hear such an informative podcast that does not seek to persuade, but to simply explain what happened and why. He is a good storyteller. Years ago I listened to his History of Rome podcast, which was brilliant — and which inspired a lot of other history podcasts.
When the coronavirus hit, I was optimistic that it would be the catalyst for a lot of positive changes in the US. I figured that people would demand a better health care system. I figured that the slowdown would be the pin that would reset the financial system. I figured that people would demand policy changes that put main street before Wall Street. Forget it. Americans are too stupid and too propagandized to find their way out of this mess.
Antifa apparently has no idea what fascism is. If they had any idea, they would be attacking the unholy alliance of the Fed, the DC Swamp, and US mega businesses — the very definition of fascism. But rather than direct their wrath at institutions, they pick on individuals who have no power. And not to demand meaningful change, but for their own individual therapy.
BLM could have been a movement for positive change, one that brought people together. I had always thought of BLM as meaning “Black Lives Matter too” — in the spirit of MLK. But now you can be fired for suggesting that everyone’s life matters — something that I never regarded as being particularly controversial. BLM has been brilliantly co opted to turn justified indignation against police violence and police culture into a race war. The US has lost its collective mind.
Meanwhile, the looting continues, and only a few seem to notice. Or care.
And now the evidence is piling up that there may be no herd immunity for this virus. The antibodies don’t last long enough. And this thing attacks too many organs, and has too many entry mechanisms. Because it is not natural. Because it came from a lab. But people do not seem to care. Instead of demanding an end to “gain of function” virology research, people just shrug it off. Very few want to know the truth about where this came from.
The world has gone mad. I am tempted to leave the city, move to the country, unplug from the internet, and retreat from the madness. Unfortunately family obligations will postpone that for a while. But what will the world look like 10 years from now? Craziness.
So today I went for my annual routine medical checkup. Before I went, I got out the results of my bloodwork over the last five years. I focused on the Vitamin D3 levels:
2015 = 24
2016 = 32
2017 = 30
2018 = 31
2019 = 20
2020 = ???
Yes, all horrendously low. For way too long. I won’t get the 2020 results for another 2 weeks. I could have received results much sooner, but I opted for snail mail delivery rather than email, because I prefer to receive a printed book rather than an email. I started following John’s advice in January, and I took 10,000 IU per day for a month (or two!) before cutting back to 5,000 IU per day ever since. So where will my Vitamin D come out? Hopefully much higher. I took a conservative approach by taking it orally. Most Koreans prefer to receive the injection to bring it up a lot faster . . .This is not what happened back in April.
It has been weeks since I have seen pictures of mass graves and body bags stacking up. Something has definitely changed. Dr. John says that the case fatality rate is only 3 per 1000, rather than 3 per 100. But it seems to be that the rate back in April was actually closer to 3 per 100, at least here in Korea where testing dispelled the speculation than maybe 10x more people were actually infected.
Has the virus weakened? Has the weather made a difference? Has natural Vitamin D made a difference? Will a second wave come back stronger in the fall?
I am keeping an eye on Chile and Argentina — the two countries in the Southern Hemisphere with long nights and cold winters. Argentina seems to be doing (relatively) well, but that does not seem to be the case for neighboring Chile.
We are still here Ilargi. I guess I was not very surprised by the new numbers, which were led by Brazil — no surprise there. The numbers also peaked towards the end of the week, consistent with the trend. US numbers over 30,000 for the first time in weeks. No surprise there, though some will say that is not enough to count as a spike.
Here in Korea people are very good about masks in the city. Not as much in the rural places. Many people are traveling domestically this summer because international travel is mostly shut down. I read yesterday that it will be necessary to make a reservation to go to the beach. The beaches will surely be packed.
As for why there have been fewer comments, speaking for myself, I am in a malaise. The virus has been politicized and we are swimming in a sea of propaganda and disinformation. Kimo’s post is Exhibit A. I had hoped that there would be a silver lining, and that the virus would be the pin that popped the bubble and ushered in needed changes, but it looks like that will not happen soon. People are in the streets, which in the only way to bring about change, but now that is being co-opted by dark forces. Meanwhile, the financial looting continues And the system grows more corrupt by the day.
Like the groundhog, I conclude six more weeks of winter and go back underground.
This is scary. 50% of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 patients had abnormal lung CT scans. https://t.co/LvDKnoNsXQ
This strikes me as being the most newsworthy item of the day, though it could be easy to miss given that it was so short.
Indeed; it’s one of many reasons I no longer see any point in commenting………………….
The madness has also sapped my energy, not that I ever commented very much.
I’ve watched a large number of us here on TAE alter opinions over time as data has emerged.
I know I have. At first I thought this was a respiratory disease and that hospitals would be overrun because of a lack of ventilators. But now I understand that this is not a respiratory disease, but a disease that attacks the lungs, the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, intestines, testes. Before, I assumed that anyone who caught this and recovered would have immunity from future infection, but now I am not so sure because the data shows that this is not like a typical respiratory disease. Before, I assumed that those who recovered would recover fully, as one recovers from the flu. But now I realize that some patients who recover might suffer permanent damage to lungs or other organs.
Before, I assumed that Fauci was underestimating fatalities when he predicted on March 30 that 100,000 to 200,000 Americans would die from the disease. But now in hindsight that looks pretty accurate, assuming that there is no second wave, but still perhaps too low. Not that I accept anything else Fauci says, especially about remdesevir vs hydroxychloroquine. I only mention it because some here have insisted that all models are completely wrong and should be thrown out . . .
I think that most everyone who has been looking at the data has learned some things since this all began. But the data does not tell a single story, and I think we need to beware the propagandists who are trying to manipulate data to promote an agenda — and there are plenty of them out there on both “sides”.
So now NZ is going to remain isolated from the world forever? Or hold out for the second coming of a 100% effective vaccine?
Thjs strikes me as a false dichotomy. A third option could be to wait and see if the virus continues to weaken in its virulence even after the cold weather returns, and then reopen the border if that trend continues, which it may. A fourth option could be to reopen the border with other countries that successfully contain the spread. A fifth option could be to wait until there is more research on how to effectively treat symptoms (not talking about a vaccine or a cure, but just a better way to manage the disease). The point is that NZ now has choices that many other countries do not.
So, if I can smell someone’s cologne instantly through a mask, how good are viruses, which are far smaller? Masks then do NOT work in NYC – AT ALL —
I am not sure that this passes the smell test. As I understand it, the esters that make up most aromas in cologne are low molecular weight compounds that do not need to hitch a ride in a water droplet. It takes a few molecules to register a smell. In contrast, SARS-Cov-2 is transmitted primarily by droplets, with thousands or millions of viruses packed in a single droplet. There was some speculation that SARS-Cov-2 might be aerosolized, and it might be possible, but is certainly not the main route of transmission. For an infection to take place, dosage is important, and it is doubtful whether just a single virus particle can cause disease. In any event, it is common ground in the medical community that masks work best when work by the (asymptomatic) infected person to reduce the volume of droplet transmission in the immediate vicinity. Is there a single medical profession who will deny this?
Floyd rapidly returned to his roots, and tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a local store.
Germ, you have dredged up stuff from more than 20 years ago, stuff that suggests a violent past. Can people change? Can they repent? Even if Floyd did something illegal here, nothing indicates violence. Nothing suggests that he was armed. Even assuming Floyd should have been arrested, the penalty for “passing” a counterfeit bill is not death.
Everybody should be outraged by this, and not just because of the apparent racism. This is inexcusable police brutality. The police cannot be the judge and executioner even before someone arrested gets to the police station. There was no need to put a knee on his neck. And the other three imbeciles — completely useless. The US needs police with a spine and a conscience, not moral ciphers like these four.
Elections do not work in America. The system is too corrupt. The only way to bring about meaningful change is for people to take to the streets. That has finally started to happen, though I have to admit that the triggering event caught me by surprise. I cannot believe that anyone could be as callous, stupid, merciless and depraved on camera and in broad daylight as Derek Chauvin and his three spineless sidekicks. It would be a great step forward if America’s rage was redirected towards the people and institutions at its rotten core.
This morning I was listening to one of my regular podcasts, one that focuses on health and fitness. The focus of the show is not on the current pandemic, but that occasionally does come up in the conversation. One of the issues they were talking about was the nature of the one dimensional “one size fits all” draconian response in the US, and the mental health effects it is having. They brought that back to the problem of the corporate media, and the shortage of objective, balanced, scientific information, and then a comment along these lines: “If I had to rely on the mainstream media and social media for my sources of information and viewpoints about this virus, I would go f&%#ing crazy.” In my gut I think I know what he is saying, but I cannot really be sure because I do not watch any mainstream media, and I never did the social media thing. No Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus for me. Too toxic.
For all the recent talk about the lockdowns increasing depression and suicide, I wonder how much of that comes from the toxic effects of social media. Presumably people stuck indoors will spend more time watching the MSM and online social media. Should we be surprised if the suicide rate goes up?
In Japan, Hana Kimura, a 22 year old female professional wrestler committed suicide on Saturday. I had never heard of her before. I do not watch pro wrestling. I had no idea that Japanese women were into that sort of thing. But her death is a big story in Asia now. The reason: cyberbullying. People posting online that they wished she was dead. The day she died she tweeted: “Every day, I receive nearly 100 honest opinions and I cannot deny that I get hurt.” She also wrote: “Thank you for giving birth to me, Mom. I wanted to be loved in life.”
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3085992/japans-hana-kimura-mourned-terrace-house-cast-say-theyOf course these types of tragedies happened long before the virus came along, but I would expect a lot more of this overdose on toxic media during the present crisis.
Back to the podcast, they also lamented that organizations like the WHO and CDC have done absolutely nothing to empower people to look after their own health to improve the odds of a better outcome if they do get sick. Nothing about the importance of vitamin D, good nutrition, more exercise, or getting people ready. Where to go for meaningful useful information? I would go f&%#ing insane if not for sites like TAE. Once again, thanks to Ilargi for all of the hard work.
Ilargi, yes, I was referring to a change in the people’s reaction, not the virus. I think the US oligarchs are confident that they can manage this without it blowing up the US sickcare racket, but only if people stay employed, so time to increase the pressure to get people back to work. It is a full on propaganda war now. The majority in the US seem to favor the lockdowns and are no rush to go back to normal, at least according to the polls. But now propaganda will need to change that.
Bill7, not sure what sites you had in mind. The sites I was reading were saying that “we’re going to run out of hospital beds / ICU hospital beds / ventilators, and millions are going to die! IF there is no policy response to flatten the curve and bring the R0 down below 1.” The second half, the part in bold, is the important part.
Was there a policy response? Was there a lockdown? Was there social distancing? Are people wearing masks? Are people washing their hands more often? Is testing now more widely available? If so, isn’t the natural consequence of the actions that we do not run out of hospital beds and millions of people who would otherwise die continue living? Wasn’t that the whole point? What is there to retract? Not that I expect you to answer the question . . . .
Ilargi, I do not know how you maintain your sanity. I believe that the situation has fundamentally changed, recently, and now the tide is coming in. We cannot fight the tide with science, facts, reason, good faith or logic. The power of propaganda will sweep it all away. Economies will be reopened regardless of the consequences to the little people, and the propaganda will make them believe this is all for their own good. Is there an antidote?
