COVID-19 Discussion

[Fummins]

Internal combustion engines are not susceptible to viral attack the way humans are, a tragic flaw.

[Clessy]

This sums up how I feel. Buy into the media hype all you want but the media is here to make money and fear sales.

[Pryme]

So, you're saying you don't have the studies and rely on others to back up your claims? Why should I or anyone else provide evidence of your claims? They're your claims.

The Yale study focuses on childcare settings alone - not schools - and they emphasize success through everything you have railed against - handwashing, symptom screening, social distancing, mask-wearing, and limiting group size. So the article supports part of your claim, but not in the way you have professed but rather in all the methods you have ridiculed.

I'll quote the article of the study, presuming you haven't yet read it yourself.

Child care not associated with spread of COVID-19, Yale study finds

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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Say that Young Children in Childcare Centers Can Spread COVID-19



Since the March lockdown many schools were closed throughout the summer. Local authorities struggled to find a way to continue providing education while not exposing their students to unnecessary risks and without a whole lot of evidence-based data they did the best they could. It's not a job to envy and it is not a job to ridicule. There's much more to learn about this pandemic but I simply don't understand the need to disparage others for doing what they think is best to protect their community. Pryme, I would like to think you are better than that.

Link me to where I "railed?" Against all of those things.
I am a firm believer in washing your hands....like has been common sense forever. I'm also all for physical distancing during this time. It's logical and makes sense. Masks however, as used by the general public, are most likely causing more spread.

Just because I post something I've read along the way doesnt mean I'm going to archive it for a debate in the future.

[7milesout]

Clessy - I think that video does a fair job of demonstrating the liberal mindset versus the conservative mindset. And it is how I feel about the situation also. I'll wear a facemask for a little while longer to appease the bed-wetters. But I don't believe it is doing much for me or anyone else. As the example of put it on as tights as you care to, spray a bit of hairspray on it and see if you don't smell / possibly taste hair spray, is why I don't believe the masks do much. And if doctors / surgeons were to gown up in preparation to avoid catching a virus, it would be a lot more than a stupid simple facemask.

When I put on my glasses with my mask, they fog when I breathe out, and clear when I breathe in. Am I to believe a covid germ floating in the air cannot take a sharp turn around my mask and get in to my body the same way the air does? Ha, preposterous.

I can understand those who are susceptible trying to stay away from others (like my dad does). From what I understand, the vast majority dying from covid are over life expectancy age and have other conditions that exacerbate the sickness. All the rest of this lockdown, facemask, social distance hyperbole is very much like the video. I have more patience than others, so I will tolerate the bed-wetters a while longer. But if this lock-everything-down mentality continues much longer, my patience will wear thin. However I live in a state that is more reasonable than the lefty states. Everything in life is a risk. I ride street bikes, that is far more dangerous than this covid crap. And I actively choose to do it. It makes me feel alive and excited. And I choose to LIVE before I die.

[Dirk Diggler]

Clessy - I think that video does a fair job of demonstrating the liberal mindset versus the conservative mindset. And it is how I feel about the situation also. I'll wear a facemask for a little while longer to appease the bed-wetters. But I don't believe it is doing much for me or anyone else. As the example of put it on as tights as you care to, spray a bit of hairspray on it and see if you don't smell / possibly taste hair spray, is why I don't believe the masks do much. And if doctors / surgeons were to gown up in preparation to avoid catching a virus, it would be a lot more than a stupid simple facemask.

When I put on my glasses with my mask, they fog when I breathe out, and clear when I breathe in. Am I to believe a covid germ floating in the air cannot take a sharp turn around my mask and get in to my body the same way the air does? Ha, preposterous.

I can understand those who are susceptible trying to stay away from others (like my dad does). From what I understand, the vast majority dying from covid are over life expectancy age and have other conditions that exacerbate the sickness. All the rest of this lockdown, facemask, social distance hyperbole is very much like the video. I have more patience than others, so I will tolerate the bed-wetters a while longer. But if this lock-everything-down mentality continues much longer, my patience will wear thin. However I live in a state that is more reasonable than the lefty states. Everything in life is a risk. I ride street bikes, that is far more dangerous than this covid crap. And I actively choose to do it. It makes me feel alive and excited. And I choose to LIVE before I die.

And yet Georgia flipped blue! Recognizing healthcare as a human right, ending prohibition on cannabis, the winds of change are blowing my friend! Full disclosure - those are the only 2 political issues I care about lol. I'm all for bringing back the Whig party, the balanced party that elected 5 presidents because it was dead smack in the middle until the issue of slavery tore it apart.

[Eggman]

Link me to where I "railed?" Against all of those things.

Ok:

Masks are a total joke!!! And the words "social distancing " should give you pause.

Covid lockdowns are completely out of control and not remotely based on actual science.

You got me on handwashing - I was lost in all the complaining.

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Just because I post something I've read along the way doesnt mean I'm going to archive it for a debate in the future.

Sounds like another way of saying 'Don't question my opinion.'

You've been keyed up about this pandemic for quite a while. Does anyone really like it? We're all suffering - why add to it and spread it around?

You've sold off your Mirages long ago and come back to visit the forum, which would be nice if you talked about Mirages but instead kvetch about this stupid disease. It's tiresome.

[Eggman]

Tensions rise over masks as virus grips smaller US cities

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and RYAN FOLEY

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Arguments over mask requirements and other restrictions have turned ugly in recent days as the deadly coronavirus surge across the U.S. engulfs small and medium-size cities that once seemed safely removed from the outbreak.

In Boise, Idaho, public health officials about to vote on a four-county mask mandate abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday evening because of fears for their safety amid anti-mask protests outside the building and at some of their homes.

One health board member tearfully announced she had to rush home to be with her child because of the protesters, who were seen on video banging on buckets, blaring air horns and sirens, and blasting a sound clip of gunfire from the violence-drenched movie “Scarface” outside her front door.

“I am sad. I am tired. I fear that, in my choosing to hold public office, my family has too often paid the price,” said the board member, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. “I increasingly don’t recognize this place. There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all.”

Boise police said three arrest warrants were issued in connection with the demonstrations at board members’ homes.

In South Dakota, the mayor of Rapid City said City Council members were harassed and threatened over a proposed citywide mask mandate that failed this week even as intensive care units across the state filled with COVID-19 patients.

The tensions are flaring amid an epic surge in U.S. deaths, hospitalizations and infections over the past several weeks.

The U.S. topped 3,000 deaths Wednesday in what is a single-day record, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That’s surpassed the level seen during last spring’s peak in and around New York City. New cases per day have rocketed to more than 200,000 on average, and the number of patients in the hospital with COVID-19 stood at almost 105,000 on Tuesday, another all-time high.

The grim figures led the usually stoic health director of the nation’s most populated county to become emotional. Barbara Ferrer described “a devastating increase in deaths” in Los Angeles County, with the total hitting 8,075 on Wednesday.

“Over 8,000 people who were beloved members of their families are not coming back,” Ferrer said, fighting back tears.

Meanwhile, protesters in Montana’s Gallatin County have gathered for two consecutive weeks outside the Bozeman home of county health officer Matt Kelley to decry regulations, including a statewide mask mandate. They have carried signs reading, “We refuse to be your experiment” and “Oxygen is essential.”

Last week, around 80 people lined Bozeman’s Main Street to support Kelley and other health officials.

In Montana’s Flathead County, where officials recorded 17 coronavirus-related deaths over 18 days and resistance to masks runs strong, the interim public health officer is resigning when her contract is up at year’s end, citing a lack of support from local authorities for measures to control the scourge.

In Helena, Republicans who control both chambers of the Montana Legislature denied a request by Democratic lawmakers to require masks be worn inside the Capitol during the legislative session next month.

In Missouri, Greene County officials recorded 51 COVID-19 deaths in the first eight days of December as hospitals overflow and hundreds of health care workers are quarantined. The area’s two major hospitals asked the city of Springfield, the county seat, to renew the city’s mask mandate before it expires in January. The county itself does not have a mask mandate, nor does the state.

As the deaths pile up, Springfield Mortuary Services owner Brian Simmons is overseeing the embalming and cremation of COVID-19 victims as his own 48-year-old daughter battles the virus. She spent the past week hospitalized on a ventilator in one of the city’s overwhelmed hospitals.

“You are just helpless,” he said. “There is nothing you can do about it. We haven’t seen her since she’s gone in.”

South Dakota has suffered through the country’s worst rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita over the last week, but Gov. Kristi Noem has been ardent in her opposition to mask mandates or other aggressive efforts to slow infections.

That hands-off approach drew vocal support at Rapid City Council meetings, even as doctors warned that the only large hospital in the western half of the state is facing a crisis and patients are being flown out of the state. The meetings drew hours of testimony from people who said the dangers of the virus are overblown and that mask requirements violate their liberties.

Dr. Stephen Neabore, who works in the biggest hospital system in the region, said he has been frustrated as he tries to persuade people to wear masks. After working in New York City and studying medicine in England, he said, he sees a distinct skepticism toward government around him.

“I still see people out here that will tell me that they don’t believe it’s any worse than a common cold,” he said.

The City Council in Palmer, Alaska, rejected a mask mandate Friday for the community of 7,300 residents about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Anchorage.

Opponents questioned the effectiveness of masks, wondered why a mandate more common in larger communities was even being considered, and threatened to take their business online or to the neighboring city of Wasilla, which doesn’t have a mask order.

Many implored the City Council not to follow the steps of “liberal” Anchorage in forcing residents to require face coverings.

“We are not Anchorage and should not be treated as if we are,” Rhonda Hayhurst said in an email to the council. “I moved out here to get away from tyranny as being imposed by the Anchorage administration.”

Coronavirus deaths also have been rising rapidly in rural parts of Iowa, where many people disdain masks. Among the hardest hit is O’Brien County, population 13,800, where 42 deaths have been blamed on the virus.

Ty Rushing, who covers the region as managing editor of the Northwest Iowa Review, said obituaries in his newspaper have been piling up.

“It’s sad to say, but I think people are just numb to it or they are sticking their head in the sand about it,” Rushing said.

In Iowa’s Harrison County, 47 deaths have been attributed to the virus out of population of about 14,000. Most of the deaths have resulted from outbreaks at nursing homes in small towns like Dunlap.

Dunlap City Clerk Meredith Van Houten said almost everyone in the town of about 950 people has a connection to those who have died. She said one was her old neighbor.

“It’s a horrible time right now,” Van Houten said.

People are apparently suffering from derangement. Here we have local citizens who ran for and were elected to a local public office in order to serve their community and they are being accused of constructing a Communist takeover of their little town. It's not a coordinated effort to undermine Democracy, it's individuals using the best information available to better protect their own neighbors. Instead, they receive death threats against themselves and their family.

It's much too easy to cherry-pick information and use confirmation bias to make things appear different than they really are. It's important to step back and remember we are all trying our best to deal with this and keep things from getting worse.

[7milesout]

And yet Georgia flipped blue!

You are correct. It remains more reasonable though, until it gets more and more blue. However, I like the mentality of us on the blue side. It's why I have a blue truck and a blue Mirage.

EVERYTHING should be FREE. For example, eating is a human right. I can't live if I don't breathe and eat. I don't have to pay to breathe. Why should I pay to eat?

I think we should all be allowed to go into the grocery store and GO HOG WILD, for FREE! Heck when that happens (as it should), I'll back my pick-up truck to the meat department and load that sucker up! Why not, it's all FREE! Everything should be FREE! ALL the food, weed, meth and crack you can consume FREE FREE FREE, VOTE FOR ME!

[Dirk Diggler]

You are correct. It remains more reasonable though, until it gets more and more blue. However, I like the mentality of us on the blue side. It's why I have a blue truck and a blue Mirage.

EVERYTHING should be FREE. For example, eating is a human right. I can't live if I don't breathe and eat. I don't have to pay to breathe. Why should I pay to eat?

I think we should all be allowed to go into the grocery store and GO HOG WILD, for FREE! Heck when that happens (as it should), I'll back my pick-up truck to the meat department and load that sucker up! Why not, it's all FREE! Everything should be FREE! ALL the food, weed, meth and crack you can consume FREE FREE FREE, VOTE FOR ME!

So I guess all the other Western Industrialized nations are complete idiots for having healthcare for all huh? I get your child-like, angle of sarcasm though. I can do that too lol! "Hurrrr durrrr Canada, UK, Germany, France, New Zealand, Australia, ALL PINKO COMMUNISTS! Trying to take muh rights away! Trying to force muh kids to use weird pronouns. Trying to take my 300 assault rifles from muh kids! Trying to replace Jesus Christ with Obama as emperor of Murica! Trying to make my billionaire friends, who respect me, pay more in taxes so losers can see a doctor they don't deserve. Trying to take away the only welfare I support, corporate welfare! Trying to take away muh social security (an actual socialist federal initiative). See I can do this too lol. I like ya brother and I want to meet in the middle with all my fellow Americans but we need "a New Deal" like FDR gave us if we are to end this unprecedented level of polarization between both sides. Otherwise we will be facing a balkanization of the states at best or civil war at worst by the year 2100 and I know my side is terrible at war and your side is terrible at being civil lol. Seriously, I don't think I could whip a squad of gender studies students into an effective fighting force lol.

[dspace9]

Tensions rise over masks as virus grips smaller US cities


People are apparently suffering from derangement. Here we have local citizens who ran for and were elected to a local public office in order to serve their community and they are being accused of constructing a Communist takeover of their little town. It's not a coordinated effort to undermine Democracy, it's individuals using the best information available to better protect their own neighbors. Instead, they receive death threats against themselves and their family.

It's much too easy to cherry-pick information and use confirmation bias to make things appear different than they really are. It's important to step back and remember we are all trying our best to deal with this and keep things from getting worse.

I saw those nutjob protestors on TV the other night.

Things have gone really Looney Tunes in the USA. Not sure exactly why... the extreme polarization...Public officials work for the benefit of everyone! I think the internet is partly to blame, people finding like-minded morons to reassure them that their version of 2 +2 = 5 is correct And they're allowed to have guns!? France invented Liberty, and your average schmoe isn't allowed to arm themselves like a small militia. Public health care makes sense! Viruses aren't individual things.

To quote Foama, so much is obscene in the USA now. I worry it's 1935. Hope y'all can turn the tide to reasonable, otherwise I see succession happening again

Honestly it's like watching the Circus from the bleachers up in Canada. So extreme!

Ain't that a shame because I love so much of the USA.. too bad half the population doesn't believe in democracy any more.