Originally Posted by GogglesPisano

I don't have his number, but I'm guessing he would respond by stating the obvious: Widespread mask use and air filtration -- not by cleaning surfaces.

Originally Posted by ACEssXfer

Quick google shows masks mandatory in all German states while shopping or on public transport as of April 22nd with non compliance fines anywhere from 25-5000 euro.

Originally Posted by jetlaggy

Yes but 99.9% of your life you are not in public transport or shopping so barely any mask wearing. Just now are they getting serious with the mask wearing.

Originally Posted by flydrive

The Philippines, despite being the most mask compliant nation in the world, had a huge case spike over the summer just like everyone else.

How much more "serious" are we supposed to get?

Originally Posted by Ronaldo

Here. Trump can now replace career scientists with campaign donors, without cause. This is obviously a really good thing because we need to get rid of the smart people in this Idiocracy. Drain the smart people out of the swamp. Feed those crops Gatorade, they need electrolytes!

https://apple.news/A5jasnIOGTsKaR1zTu-Hacg

Originally Posted by Phins2right

What is stupid is believing a mask stops a virus. You know something you can't see without a electron microscope. The tip of your finger, 1 square mm, can literally hold 10s of millions of them.

Because of this small size; scientists, researchers and doctors really don't fully understand how virus truly exists in the outside environment. Since they are so small, they can attach to anything; pollen nodule, leaf, piece of dirt, an amoeba - just about anything. They truly are everywhere and anywhere.

Did you know that right now Huell, millions of sub atomic particles are passing right thru your body? They are called neutrinos. They are passing thru you and I right now - millions and millions of them. They are passing right thru us, the earth and off they go. They are small, like viruses. We interact with these. Things we can't see, all the time. In the case of neutrinos they pass harmlessly thru us, the earth and off into space.

Fortunately when we get to virus, albeit small, very small, we have a mechanism in our bodies to identify and fight it. Our bodies are constantly in a struggle with various bacteria, fungi and viruses. Our evolution got us to where we are at now. Giving us an upper respiratory system that is a fantastic fortress. Our immune system has developed over the millennia to combat these nano particles and micro organisms.

However, bacterial and fungi tend to be more lethal to us. A virus is just a mechanism. Normally healthy, uncompromised humans can shred a virus or bacterial infection in short order. That happens thousands of times, everyday for each of us 6+billion people. What happens when we have health compromised humans?

The reason the second week of infection is considered the "worry" stage (15 days to slow the spread remember) is NOT because of the virus; rather this is the time when a weakened immune system, either by exposure or by losing the balance battle cannot prevent the bacteria/fungi from taking off. Most people who die from influenza, coronavirus, even rhinovirus, do so primarily from pneumonia (bacterial infection) or some other systemic bacterial infection.

Aging, diabetes/obesity, liver disease, kidney disease, cancer, lung disease, other infections (viral/bacterial/fungal), stress, circulatory problems, cardiovascular disease, and several others all can cause weakened immune systems (that is why they are called “comorbidities”).

All of these things occur at a level where our senses cannot perceive them. Just like the neutrinos that are passing thru you right now without cause, you body is busy fighting off millions of little nasty guys - without you even being aware of it.

The issue I have with masks is this - maskers think the virus magically gets glued to the mask and never goes further. That is false. All that happens is the moisture droplet or whatever it was hitchhiking on out of an infected person dried up. You then, expel it. The virus did not disappear because the medium it was hitchhiking on coming out of you disappeared or dried up. The virus is very much viable, in your mask. By the mere exercise of breathing thru the mask you are transmitting.

In fact your mask is going to collect 100s of millions of these guys and every time you exhale, cough, sneeze or whatever with your mask on - you are just jettisoning those virus guys out. Masks don't stop the spread whatsoever. We don't know and have not been trained on mask wear and protocols like those in the medical and infections disease world. They normally don't wear a mask longer than 20 minutes to maybe half an hour. Surgical masks are different and are worn in a much different environment (its sterile where they are worn). They have protocols for fitting and disposal.

The virus protocol before April 2020 was quarantine of the sick and vulnerable with herd immunity being the primary directive. For whatever reason, that was nullified this time around subsequent to April 2020 (recall fauxchis pressers in feb and early mach - no masks).

My wife (the MD) and I had dinner with an colleague of hers up in ATL the other night. She works for the CDC. Been there since 2003. She can not understand the backtrack on the protocol - herd immunity. She is not a MD, but a biologist. An infectious disease expert (former US Army NBC type).

We've been led down a destructive path with this thing. Lied to, lives destroyed. The fact the infectious disease community took a decades long standing practice (herd immunity) and threw it to the curb should be telling. Leave it up to you to decide why.

Originally Posted by Huell

Uppers?