Is COVID-19 the end of “Trust Science!!”?

_{May 11, 2020

Canada, Culture, Intelligent Design, Science}

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What happens when “science” is speaking with dozens of different voices, each a momentary flash of Truth unto itself?

Recently, some interesting facts came to light from Canada about who is really affected by COVID-19:

The National Institute on Aging says that as of May 6, 3,436 residents and six staff members of long term care settings had died of COVID-19, representing 82 per cent of the 4,167 deaths reported as of Wednesday…
Last fall, the National Institute on Aging warned long term care homes were plagued by conditions that increased the risk of spreading infections: people living in close quarters in residences faced with chronic shortages of staff, with little space or ability to enforce proper physical distancing measures, where poorly paid employees often work on a part-time basis at multiple facilities, increasing the risk.
The pandemic has borne out those fears.
Tonda MacCharles, “82% of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths have been in long-term care, new data reveals” at Toronto Star

I (O’Leary for News) recall being told explicitly months ago that COVID-19 mainly killed old and/or immune-compromised people. It must be so, at least in Canada, where there have been very few deaths among healthy young people.

So why close schools, throw young people out of work, shut down and maybe destroy their businesses, make it nearly impossible for young families to move, let heart patients die because their surgeries are postponed…

Do we need Albert Einstein to figure this out?: We know where the people in long-term care are. They’re in licensed government-inspected or -run facilities. If we had simply moved to address the problems outlined above and protect them, instead of sucker-punching young people’s lives, we might have saved many seniors, prevented much loss and damage, and weathered the storm much better.

But then we’d need to ignore the pack howls from “science.”

Once we climb back out of the hole we have so furiously dug for ourselves, let’s start thinking more about ignoring the pack howls from “science.”

After all, how many more of them can we afford?

See also: But IS there such a thing as pandemic science? Or is it just panic science? The problems that Lenzer and Brownlee identify in their screed as wrong science are normal components of a panic in a crisis. What it all really shows is that we aren’t as much smarter than our forebears as we think.

Comments

Jerry
You are talking nonsense again. You just contradicted yourself. For example, making someone comfortable with aspirin or acetaminophen is not a treatment. You then agreed there is no treatment and we have to wait for some pie in the sky something.
Are you seriously suggesting that treating the symptoms is not a treatment? Antiinflamatories, oxygen, intubation, acetaminophen, anti-viral drugs, are all used to treat viral infections. What there isn't is a cure, only prevention (i.e., vaccines and isolation).
You then agreed there is no treatment and we have to wait for some pie in the sky something.
I said no such thing. I said that someday we may have drugs in our tool chest in the same way that we have for bacterial infections. If you have a bacterial infection, an anti-biotic can cure you. You get a viral disease, there is currently no cure-all.
Meanwhile there are effective treatments
Thousands of professionals disagree with you.Ed George_{May 15, 2020
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VB
Ed the economy is based on demand, demand requires money, money is gotten by having a job, how many jobs will be lost if everyone is required to wear a mask? Here is one small example. I am quite familiar with the sports world. The amount of peripheral jobs created by the NFL, MLB, NBA, College Football, Basketball, etc are enormous, from the beer hawker to those that work at concessional stands.. How does one drink a beer have a hotdog and coke, go to the concession stands for food and eat with a mask? We are talking about thousands and thousands of jobs that just went poof. How about restaurants and bars?
I certainly sympathize, but I found it surprising that it was sports leagues who were amongst the first to cease operations due to COVID-19. That shocked me until I realized that the could be held legally liable shout there be an outbreak because of an event. My prediction is that when games resume, it will be the leagues that impose wearing masks and keeping concessions closed.Ed George_{May 15, 2020
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Is there a new cure for the virus? On the good news front, a California-based biopharmaceutical company claims to have discovered an antibody that could shield the human body from the virus. https://fxn.ws/2Z7Znuo
"We want to emphasize there is a cure. There is a solution that works 100 percent," Dr. Henry Ji, founder and CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics, told Fox News. "If we have the neutralizing antibody in your body, you don't need the social distancing. You can open up a society without fear."
Will one of the interesting things about this virus be that we may make some very interesting breakthroughs on how to stay healthy against viruses in general.jerry_{May 15, 2020
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Jerry: A nonsense statement. Make the case I am wrong with evidence and logic and it will make me look like a fool. Maybe not to me as you say but to any reasonable person. I am making the case that the conventional wisdom is wrong. Make the case that it is right using my questions and observations as the basis for it. I did lay out some of my reasoning above, what was wrong with it? Specify which things I got incorrect? For example, will masks reduce the number of deaths in the long run? Will flattening the curve reduce the number of deaths in the long run? We already know that your answer of reducing the burden on the health care system is not correct since it is far from over burdened. It is or was in some places. And the lockdown procedures changed the situation! That was why the lockdown was introduced so the health facilities WOULD NOT get overburdened. That may have been true in Lombardy at first but not in New York the next larges concentration of cases or anywhere else. So, you agree it was true in some places. (Are you sure about New York?) So it could have been true in more places if the rate of infection hadn't been slowed down? They are many separate issues so take one and discuss it. You pick.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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Asauber: Maybe. But you are still compliant out of virus fear, correct? I'm compliant with measures that help prevent me from becoming infected. I violate some others every day. I also have a very elderly relative that I'm trying hard to stay uninfected.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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JVL, "I already explained that I, personally, do not depend on any one source to draw my conclusions from so I assume you’re not referring to me!" Maybe. ;) But you are still compliant out of virus fear, correct? Andrewasauber_{May 15, 2020
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I think people (not just here) have answered those questions seriously. You disagree with the answers for various reasons. I’m happy to discuss any of those aspects of the situation but if you’re just going to tell me I’m wrong or I’m parroting the conventional wisdom then . . . should I bother?
A nonsense statement. Make the case I am wrong with evidence and logic and it will make me look like a fool. Maybe not to me as you say but to any reasonable person. I am making the case that the conventional wisdom is wrong. Make the case that it is right using my questions and observations as the basis for it. For example, will masks reduce the number of deaths in the long run? Will flattening the curve reduce the number of deaths in the long run? We already know that your answer of reducing the burden on the health care system is not correct since it is far from over burdened. That may have been true in Lombardy at first but not in New York the next larges concentration of cases or anywhere else. The hospital ship sent to New York City went home because there were no patients. The tent hospital city set up in Central Park closed down because there was no need. They are many separate issues so take one and discuss it. By the way I am under no illusion that anything I write will change minds here. It is well understood that most opinions are based on emotions and are immune to facts and logic. I do it for myself and I try to make my arguments logical and evidence based. This forum is just a means of examining what I believe is correct. So I actually look for people to prove me wrong. I actually ask for evidence to the contrary. Look at the comments RHampton made last night in response to my objections to his postings. He never once answered any questions I asked but just kept repeating the same points without justifying his position. He was using an argument from authority which is a fallacy. So justify your position.jerry_{May 15, 2020
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Asauber: Why not? If the fear works, why not use it? What would be the reason not to? That's not the same as it actually happening isn't it? Just because you think they would if they could doesn't mean they have. For some reason that's what you think is happening but there's no evidence it is. Yes, we do. And we have zombies who watch government briefings every day for their worldviews. I already explained that I, personally, do not depend on any one source to draw my conclusions from so I assume you're not referring to me!JVL_{May 15, 2020
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Jerry: Nobody seems to want to answer any of these seriously but just parrots the conventional wisdom. I think people (not just here) have answered those questions seriously. You disagree with the answers for various reasons. I'm happy to discuss any of those aspects of the situation but if you're just going to tell me I'm wrong or I'm parroting the conventional wisdom then . . . should I bother? In other words: if you're sure you're right and most healthcare professionals in the world are wrong then is there anything to discuss? But no one seems to be able to defend these actions in terms of saving lives. I did address that above; if you read it then I guess you disagreed with it. So does 'defending these actions' only mean agreeing with your assessment?JVL_{May 15, 2020
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JVL, "So, let me get this straight, you think over 150 independent governments in the world are all colluding to make sure we’re all good, compliant subjects and NO ONE has bucked the trend or spilled the beans?" Why not? If the fear works, why not use it? What would be the reason not to? "We don’t have rulers anymore" Yes, we do. And we have zombies who watch government briefings every day for their worldviews. ;) Andrewasauber_{May 15, 2020
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Again, the questions posed are not answered. We know the health care facilities in the US have not been over taxed. In fact they are shutting down in places with no patients to treat. So that is not a reason for a lockdown. We know there are treatments that eliminate the virus in most cases if done early. These prevent hospitalization and by definition eventually death for many. So that is a reason for returning to normal activity. We know that preventing people from getting the virus now is not preventing them from getting the virus eventually. We know that the longer we postpone normal life the more people will die from other causes. So this is a reason for returning to normal activity. We also know that the press is providing fake news about the various treatments. We also know that some of the prospective treatments and there are now many are extremely expensive. We also know that some of the effective treatments are incredibly inexpensive. I know the theory behind the wearing of masks. I know the theory behind the flattening of the curve and social distancing. But no one seems to be able to defend these actions in terms of saving lives. They may save lives in the short run from the virus, I agree but not from the virus in the long run. And in the mean time large numbers will die because of these measures, probably greater than will die from the virus. Nobody seems to want to answer any of these seriously but just parrots the conventional wisdom.jerry_{May 15, 2020
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Asauber: Don’t be obtuse. Who is giving the direction to lock down? So, let me get this straight, you think over 150 independent governments in the world are all colluding to make sure we're all good, compliant subjects and NO ONE has bucked the trend or spilled the beans? If you know any history, rulers desire compliance from their subjects. Don’t they? We don't have rulers anymore. Except maybe in Russia and North Korea and China. But even China ends up bending on occasion when they want something from the rest of the world.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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JVL, "Compliance to whom?" Don't be obtuse. Who is giving the direction to lock down? "For what purpose?" If you know any history, rulers desire compliance from their subjects. Don't they? Andrewasauber_{May 15, 2020
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Asauber: Compliance through fear. Not hard to see. Compliance to whom? For what purpose? And we aren’t locked down because of heart-wrenching scenes. Heart-wrenching scenes we have everyday, anyway. We are locked down because of numbers. Quite a lot of heart-wrenching scenes, all over the planet, from the same cause.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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JVL, "Marketing for what?" Compliance through fear. Not hard to see. "the heart wrenching scenes" And we aren't locked down because of heart-wrenching scenes. Heart-wrenching scenes we have everyday, anyway. We are locked down because of numbers. Andrewasauber_{May 15, 2020
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Asauber: Ah. I see this is where we have an issue. I don’t think we get to see any data. We get to see marketing numbers presented for mass consumption. What’s your opinion on that possibility? Marketing numbers? Marketing for what? I trust the health care professionals (some of whom have died) when they tell us to stay at home, when they ask for the right PPE, when they come on radio programmes and describe the heart wrenching scenes they have witnessed. When I see data that's more-or-less in agreement from different sources around the globe then I believe they are roughly correct.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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"I am trying to work from the best data I can find." JVL, Ah. I see this is where we have an issue. I don't think we get to see any data. We get to see marketing numbers presented for mass consumption. What's your opinion on that possibility? Andrewasauber_{May 15, 2020
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Asauber: Sounds like you are strictly a party-line guy watching daily govt briefings. Hardly. They've screwed a lot of things up. And I've always thought BJ was an idiot. Some of the government policies are good, some are okay and some are BS-crazy. Do you feel your position on COVID-19 is the result of independent thinking or do you think you are just repeating what you think is official information? I don't JUST listen to the government daily briefing! I've read comments here, I've listened to lots of science programmes and podcasts. I can't say I've got it all correct but I am trying to work from the best data I can find.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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JVL, Sounds like you are strictly a party-line guy watching daily govt briefings. ;) Do you feel your position on COVID-19 is the result of independent thinking or do you think you are just repeating what you think is official information? Andrewasauber_{May 15, 2020
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Asauber: In my area, extra facilities opened up to handle the worst of the COVID surge, then closed again without ever seeing any patients. Yup, in the UK as well (sorry, can't remember where you are). But, I think it was right to over-prepare in case the situation grew a lot worse a lot faster than it did. But they really should have locked down sooner and that would have slowed down the progress even more better. (Sorry, on of my old professor's expressions.) I watch the daily UK government briefing about the COVID-19 situation and they are all very proud that the hospitals were not overrun (not sure if they've got the PPE stuff sorted yet!) and I agree. But I also see that there are still hundreds of deaths per day and I think: we've still got work to do.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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"medical facilities will have more staff and resources to bring to bear" JVL, In my area, extra facilities opened up to handle the worst of the COVID surge, then closed again without ever seeing any patients. Andrewasauber_{May 15, 2020
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Jerry: I maintain that it is not. It will lead to a lot more dead because it just postpones the inevitable. Show me why I am wrong! Actually, postponing when some people are exposed and get ill will help improve the survivor rate because the medical facilities will have more staff and resources to bring to bear. IF everyone got exposed quickly there would be so many people on the critical list that some would not get the care they need. This is really one of the major points of the lockdown: flatten what would have been an extremely high infection peak and spread the cases out. Eventually most people will get exposed to the virus (hopefully the lockdown will prevent some of the most vulnerable from being exposed at all) and it would be good if there was enough medical aid to go around. Additionally, if some exposure is delayed long enough there's a chance for a vaccine. So masks and social distancing and such help save lives. Theoretically, if you could lock down the whole world for three or four weeks the pandemic would be over. The active cases would be resolved and the survivors would no longer be shedding the virus. Clearly that's not ethical or feasible or moral and I am NOT proposing that! And there is no agreement that there is an effective treatment. That's not me saying that, that's the CDC and the WHO and every professional medical organisation on the planet. It would also be immoral and unethical to administer a drug that is known to have some severe side-effects without being very, very, very sure it's worth the risk. Thankfully, vaccine trials are also being run right now. Quite a few brave and generous people (we're talking hundreds) are volunteering to test it. In fact they have to try and expose themselves to the virus! Those people are risking their own lives in hopes of saving others. No matter what your or their beliefs are you have to applaud that.JVL_{May 15, 2020
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Rhampton You fail to answer any of the basic questions. You just go on and on about the purpose of a face mask. Everyone knows all this. No need to find more links to the obvious. What you and anyone else who recommends using them do not do is show they are not counterproductive. Is extending the period that most of the population does not have the virus good? That is what masks are doing. Is that good or bad? I maintain that it is not. It will lead to a lot more dead because it just postpones the inevitable. Show me why I am wrong! For a few weeks you have been posting how people in food packing plants are getting the virus and shutting down the food supply. How many deaths will that lead to? Not once did you post how to prevent that. Others did because there is a treatment for the virus. Who is more compassionate? Those who want this to be over by using effective treatments or those who extend out the slow acquisition of the virus and its inevitable death rate. Is it all just for appearances to look good? While tens of thousands die as they virtue signal. If this true then how cynical and callous is that?jerry_{May 15, 2020
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. #66
"There are two types of people in the world. those who want to take care of themselves, and those who want big government to take care of them" Bob: What about people who want other people to be taken care of?
I have some sympathies with Bob’s comment. Certainly not his intent here, nor his proud aggravation against science and reason, but the tendency on display towards black and white thinking in some of the responsibilities we surely have. I know a story of a 59 year-old man incarcerated at a prison in one of our fine mountainous western states. He is a genuinely humble and frail man, having grown up as a sickly boy with significant needs and serious learning disabilities. Today he walks with a cane, carrying around a body showing all the remnants of a lifetime of menial labor, lack of education and routine drug abuse. He is a true story. Despite the odds against him (and years of stupid choices along the way) he found a woman “late” in life who helped stabilize his routines, check his thinking, and give him purpose. They married and had a daughter, who by all accounts, is a remarkable and gifted young teenager today. She lost her mother at 5 years old to cancer and was raised alone by her father (as a quirky, fun, and modest girl) until his incarceration. He had taught her from an early age that there was goodness in heaven and earth and to be self-sufficient above all else; the same things he was taught as a boy. After his wife’s untimely death, with the responsibility of taking care of his daughter and two older sons from a previous marriage, he slowly drifted back to marginal living and drug abuse. Then a day came when another sad-story meth-addict showed up at his home, physically hassling his live-in addict girlfriend while he was away. When the father and son showed up, they beat the guy up — which basically amounted to the father yelling while the older (19 yo) son beat the crap out of the other man. The father then instructed the son to pile him into his car and take him home, which the son did, leaving him sitting in the grass of his front yard, which is where they found him dead the next day. He is serving several years, while his son will serve for decades on end, his whole life cut short. It is the end of a story that his mother would say began in the 1970’s when he was just a sickly child. She doesn’t grant him anything even resembling a “pass” on the life he led, but it was a life that she knew nothing of. When she was raising him, it quickly became obvious that he struggled to learn (along with other difficulties). Among other things, they discovered that when he would read a page of text, he would follow the line of letters across the page, then drop down one line, and start back across the page in reverse. The mother enrolled him in a special school for children with his type of learning difficulties, and he began to show some slow but steady improvement. Then the “do-gooders” of the day — I say “do-gooders” as that ubiquitous group of enlightened individuals with generally good intentions and an uncontrolled will to enforce it on others — the “do-gooders” insisted that their state mainstream all children with learning disabilities, immediately throwing this struggling kid into a large Metropolitan high school system as a freshman (apparently for his own good). The mother, knowing the reality of the situation her son was in, flatly refused and fought them tooth and nail. She was eventually brought up in front of the county judge with threats against both her checkbook and her freedom if she did not comply. She had two other perfectly healthy children to raise, so she bent a knee and complied to the will of the state. Almost immediately thereafter, her other son started getting into trouble at school, fighting off the other boys who would hassle his little brother and his ways. A few weeks later, he ran away from home, ran away from the city his family lived in, left the state, and never returned, ever. So to the point of the story ... a few months ago, as this physically broken and contrite man sits in prison, with his body giving up what little it has left to give, he came down with an intestinal (colon) condition that required medications twice per day. Outside advocates (his older sister) had to force the state to address the ailment in the first place which, only after weeks of stalling, they eventually did. Around that same time, a guard who was apparently having a bad day (and doing what some guards are prone to do) punished him for some throw-away offense by moving him to the farthest bed away from the med station - the only place he can get his medication in a large complex of steel stairs and concrete floors. And on one of his many slow trips across the complex to get his medications, he tripped and fell in the stairwell and broke his foot. But he got up, toughed it out and made it back to his bed anyway. His forefoot then swelled up like a grapefruit and turned purple blue. The guards did nothing for 12 days, and then only under pressure, did they allow him to be x-rayed in an effort to discover what any sensible person already knew. This is one story I know among others, which are just the same. I find them repugnant and beneath a civilized society. But they are clearly not beneath us. These are our throwaway people, those who simply refused to live by our laws, and they are getting what they deserve. Those who claim to be Christians and atheists alike will line up to say so. It’s black and white. After all, this man is serving a prison sentence because of his willful disregard for the welfare of another human being, allowing that person to die after a beating that took place at his home. Why should anyone give a shit about his foot? Of course, the glaring distinction is that the willful disregard happening to him today comes from those who dole it out, and then pick up a paycheck from the state for doing so. If it was wrong in the first, it is equally wrong in the second, if not more so. One thing I know for sure, there is a certain mentality of individual — we all know them — who are simply abusive characters. It is their general nature, and our correctional facilities are ripe with them. We hire them because they are good at what they do — intimidate and control. And don’t get me wrong, there are clearly dedicated high-quality people throughout the profession, and I am also quite aware that our prisons are not full of broken men, quietly shuffling off to the bathroom with their cane. It is a world of tough choices for prison staff, who themselves would like to be alive at the end of their shift, to go home to their own families. But there is also a mentality inside these correctional facilities (apparently in all countries of the world) that enables a portion of the staff to simply (and often personally) wipe their feet on our prisoners, and that is a fact. More than a dozen correctional officers watched this man drag his swollen blue foot down the halls for days in order to retrieve his medications, and they did nothing. That can only happen in a place where it is okay to do so -- “okay” with the politicians who sell our correctional facilities to the highest bidder, “okay” with commanders in oversight, “okay” with the guard staff, and “okay” with a population who (by and large) allows it to happen. Unfortunately, I have been among the latter, and I offer no quick fixes, but I am sure we can do better than this. /soapboxUpright BiPed_{May 14, 2020
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one of the concerns is knowing if the cloth mask really works. Experts at OU (Oklahoma University) Medicine told KOCO 5 that cloth masks are fine because they're used for protecting others, especially in a situation where you can't keep that 6-foot distance. “ Anything that like even a bed sheet cover type of thing will work as long as it prevents like a spit from going through," Dr. Steven Crawford said. "If we put masks on them and they still cough, what's happening is that droplet is going onto the mask and not spreading out into the air." “ No matter the type of mask, whether it's the fancy N95s to ones that are handmade, those are not necessarily going to protect the wearer from getting ill," he said. "The issue of the mask is important to protect the other person from your own exposure. If you sneeze or cough in that mask, it's going to be more helpful than not wearing anything." https://www.koco.com/article/medical-expert-breaks-down-effectiveness-of-wearing-cloth-masks-in-public/32072506rhampton7_{May 14, 2020
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Any kind of a mask is better than no mask at all,” Johns Hopkins University Professor of Mechanical Engineering Rajat Mittal, said. “Protection from someone who has an infection and is wearing the mask is almost as important in this pandemic as protecting the person wearing the mask.” Mittal and his team published a report this month in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, showing much of the research on avoiding respiratory illness has not changed much since the Spanish Flu of 1918. Wake Forest Baptist Health anesthesiology chair Scott Segal says if you’re making a homemade mask, you can give the material a “light test.” Hold it up to the sun or a light to see if any light passes through it. If it does, it will not be a good filter. https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/05/14/coronavirus-masks-johns-hopkins-scientists-study/rhampton7_{May 14, 2020
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I, along with 18 other experts from a variety of disciplines, conducted a review of the research on public mask-wearing as a tool to slow the spread SARS-CoV-2. We published a preprint of our paper on April 12 and it is now awaiting peer review at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research that first convinced me was a laser light-scattering experiment. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health used lasers to illuminate and count how many droplets of saliva were flung into the air by a person talking with and without a face mask. The paper was only recently published officially, but I saw a YouTube video showing the experiment in early March. The results are shockingly obvious in the video. When the researcher used a simple cloth face cover, nearly all the droplets were blocked. This evidence is only relevant if COVID-19 is transmitted by droplets from a person’s mouth. It is. There are many documented super-spreading cases connected with activities – like singing in enclosed spaces – that create a lot of droplets. The light-scattering experiment cannot see “micro-droplets” that are smaller than 5 microns and could contain some viral particles. But experts don’t think that these are responsible for much COVID-19 transmission. While just how much of a role these small particles play in transmission remains to be seen, recent research suggests that cloth masks are also effective at reducing the spread of these smaller particles. In a paper that has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers found that micro-droplets fell out of the air within 1.5 meters of the person who was wearing a mask, versus 5 meters for those not wearing masks. When combined with social distancing, this suggests that masks can effectively reduce transmission via micro-droplets. https://theconversation.com/masks-help-stop-the-spread-of-coronavirus-the-science-is-simple-and-im-one-of-100-experts-urging-governors-to-require-public-mask-wearing-138507rhampton7_{May 14, 2020
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Of course there is recommended treatment. The same as with most viral infections such as the cold and the flu. Treat the symptoms. Hopefully, in time, we will have an tool chest full of drug options like we do with bacterial infections, but we aren’t there yet. The
You are talking nonsense again. You just contradicted yourself. For example, making someone comfortable with aspirin or acetaminophen is not a treatment. You then agreed there is no treatment and we have to wait for some pie in the sky something. Meanwhile there are effective treatments and tens of thousands are dying because they don’t get them. So I assume you approve of this situation where these tens of thousands are dying and not receiving the effective treatments since you say they don’t actually exist. Tens of thousands dead is ok but not wearing a mask is selfish. Then there is the potentially much larger number dead from a long term lockdown. Opening up hair salons and outdoor restaurants is not opening the economy.jerry_{May 14, 2020
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“Especially if it allows us to speed up the opening of the economy.” Ed the economy is based on demand, demand requires money, money is gotten by having a job, how many jobs will be lost if everyone is required to wear a mask? Here is one small example. I am quite familiar with the sports world. The amount of peripheral jobs created by the NFL, MLB, NBA, College Football, Basketball, etc are enormous, from the beer hawker to those that work at concessional stands.. How does one drink a beer have a hotdog and coke, go to the concession stands for food and eat with a mask? We are talking about thousands and thousands of jobs that just went poof. How about restaurants and bars? “I guess the question I have is, why are you so opposed to the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask? I am not opposed to anyone wearing a mask I am opposed to dictating to me that I have to wear a mask under threat of law. I am outraged that convicted felons are being released from prison while a Salon owner in Texas is at the same time being thrown in jail. I am tired of being lied to and told things that may or may not be effective. If someone wants me to wear a mask honestly all they have to do is ask! Vivid Vividvividbleau_{May 14, 2020
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Jerry
Could it actually slow down opening up the economy?
If it reduces transmission rates by a little bit it will allow us to relax some of the distancing preferences.
RCT’s are to compare different options. Right now there is no other option because there is no recommended treatment.
Of course there is recommended treatment. The same as with most viral infections such as the cold and the flu. Treat the symptoms. Hopefully, in time, we will have an tool chest full of drug options like we do with bacterial infections, but we aren’t there yet.Ed George_{May 14, 2020
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