Friday, July 30, 2021

For Crying Out Loud, Just Wear A Mask Already!

... the Scientific Community says so!

Vaccinated people must wear them, too. SCINECE!

This is a woman. SECINES!

Bring in more illegals! SCEINICE!

Writers for big name publications know about children. SICENEC!


Your actions can stop the spread of Covid. SEINCCE!

4 comments:

tim eisele said...

Regarding the picture of the weightlifter:

"In Hubbard's case, she's not seen as a strong medal contender. The New Zealander is ranked 15th in the world in the super heavyweight 87 kilogram-plus category, according to the International Weightlifting Federation. Her best total is 285 kilograms -- significantly lower than top-ranked Li Wenwen's 335 kilograms."
(https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/03/sport/transgender-athletes-tokyo-olympics-intl-hnk-dst/index.html)

With at least 14 women who are stronger, it doesn't sound like being transgender is helping Hubbard that much, if at all. At least, not in a sport that sensibly uses weight classes instead of having everyone compete against everyone else regardless of size.

K T Cat said...

Tim, I've been thinking a lot about your strong arguments in favor of masks and wondering, as you have in these comments, what my problem is. I think it boils down to this: the loss of faith in institutions will outlast the effects of the Wuhan Flu.

I do science, engineering and now systems analysis for a STEMish institutional organization. I'm watching my fields and the institutions to whom I gave my career burn their credibility to the ground in exchange for moral onanism. That's the theme of all of this and the masks are just a handle I can grab to work out the real issue.

Ben Shapiro points out that there are 71,000,000 Americans under the age of 18. Less than 500 of them have died from the Kung Flu. Double that number have died from pneumonia in the same period of time. Almost all of the Covid deaths have happened to kids with very severe comorbidities. Yet, we're being yelled at to give those 71,000,000 what amounts to an experimental vaccine.

Why no discussion of the relative risks compared to other things in life? That's required if you do science. Instead, that's all hushed up while our (my) institutions scream about SCIENCE.

The trust lasts until it's revealed that we were lying or, at best, severely shading the truth. After that, it's perfectly reasonable for the public to treat us like what we've become: charlatans.

There's a blog post in all that.

tim eisele said...

I am mainly puzzled by the fact that I can't really see your rationale behind who you decide is lying, and who you decide to trust. Like when you are quoting Ben Shapirio, who apparently says:

"Double that number have died from pneumonia in the same period of time."

That's a weird distinction to make, since pneumonia isn't so much a distinct disease, as it is a common complication of lung diseases like Covid-19

"Viruses, bacteria, and fungi can all cause pneumonia. In the United States, common causes of viral pneumonia are influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). A common cause of bacterial pneumonia is Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). However, clinicians are not always able to find out which germ caused someone to get sick with pneumonia."
https://www.cdc.gov/pneumonia/causes.html

So some fraction, maybe even most, of those pneumonia deaths were probably caused by a covid infection that didn't quite clear up, but had progressed far enough that they didn't test positive anymore by the time pneumonia set in. And even if you assume the less-than-500-deaths number is in fact accurate and all the pneumonia deaths were from something else, what about the kids who get lung damage that lays them open to later infection? Lung damage lasts a long time. My father had breathing issues all his life as a direct result of a lung infection he had as a child, and my wife's father died of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) that was caused by lung damage from when he was much younger.

People like Ben Shapiro are making a living off of stoking outrage, and are not above twisting definitions and cherry-picking statistics to achieve that. Why do you trust them any more than you trust anyone else?


One Brow said...

Less than 500 of them have died from the Kung Flu.

The Trump Flu also causes long-lasting side-effects for thousands of kids that haven't died. Don't their lives matter as well?

https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/HealthU/2021/05/19/how-covid-19-affects-kids-long-term/

'... up to 40 percent of children in Italy and approximately 15-20 percent of children in England are experiencing “long-haul” COVID-19 symptoms.'

Yet, we're being yelled at to give those 71,000,000 what amounts to an experimental vaccine.

It's only "experimental" in the sense that not all the paperwork has been processed.


Why no discussion of the relative risks compared to other things in life? That's required if you do science.

Technically, that would be required to do public health, and it is being done. There isn't a lot of public discussion because most of the public has trouble thinking beyond "mandates are salvation" or "mandates are tyranny". Everyone I've talked to in public is very much weighing the harms of mask mandates (almost non-existent), mandated vaccinations (minimal), and business closures (substantial) in making their recommendations. If you are really interested in the process, you can find the discussions.

Instead, that's all hushed up while our (my) institutions scream about SCIENCE.

If you're not willing to trust or accept counter-intuitive (to you) notions about the findings of science on issues of public health or gender, you're not really about science at all.

I completely agree Flora Gill is off-base, but she's not a scientist, and I'm not ware of any scientific findings she's using to support her (since-deleted) position. However, she does have degrees in philosophy and theology, so maybe she came to that position through prayer?