Blade 619

Teachers I agree with. I'd do teachers and the over 60's or those with risk factor health problems. I would also be tempted to do repeat testers... the tests aren't cheap. A few issues... the vaccines are all 2 doses over a 4-8 week pattern and an injection not a nasal swab. You can believe it's fake if you like. I've seen to much of it to deny it.

Especially considering these masks aren't even N95, N100, R95, R100, P95, or P100. Almost everyone ran out of those in the opening weeks of Covid. I used to see people wearing N95 masks, and I've seen one random person wearing a P100 Respirator. The 3rd Party Cleaning Crew that my company brings in anytime an employee tests positive for Covid has some form of P mask (I believe its P100). These homemade/cloth/surgical masks are practically useless in protecting you from others, and only slightly better in regards to protecting others if you're sick. One of the survival blogs I read put an estimated effectiveness rating on those masks. Remember if a mask says 95 in stops 95% of particles. If it says 100 it blocks almost 100% of particles. N is for airborne particles (N95 is basically the bare minimum of effective protection), R is for airborne particles and partially oil resistant, and P is for airborne particles and strong oil resistance. So N95 is least effective against Covid while P100 is most effective against Covid. So its estimated that the homemade/cloth masks have a rating between 10-20 and low grade dust masks are maybe 30-40. Sure every little bit helps, but its barely anything. 10.1017/dmp.2013.43 Free PMC article Abstract Objective: This study examined homemade masks as an alternative to commercial face masks. Methods: Several household materials were evaluated for the capacity to block bacterial and viral aerosols. Twenty-one healthy volunteers made their own face masks from cotton t-shirts; the masks were then tested for fit. The number of microorganisms isolated from coughs of healthy volunteers wearing their homemade mask, a surgical mask, or no mask was compared using several air-sampling techniques. Results: The median-fit factor of the homemade masks was one-half that of the surgical masks. Both masks significantly reduced the number of microorganisms expelled by volunteers, although the surgical mask was 3 times more effective in blocking transmission than the homemade mask. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a homemade mask should only be considered as a last resort to prevent droplet transmission from infected individuals, but it would be better than no protection. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.17.20069567 The 3M brand mask worn as designed had a mean removal efficiency of 75%; with the exception of the Charcoal Air Pollution facemask and Sewn Mask J, which came close to this removal efficiency, all other masks achieved removal efficiencies of less than 60% (range of 30-60%) when worn as loose-fitting masks. The addition of a nylon stocking overlayer improved the removal efficiency for all loose-fitting masks, including commercial medical-type masks, by 15 to 50 percentage points and also decreased the time-based standard deviation (indicating more consistent particle removal); this provides a recommendation for mask efficacy improvement that can easily be implemented by individual mask wearers. If a transmission reduction is only 10-30% (though probably markedly higher in both parties wearing a mask) the USA alone is looking at a difference of 30-90k deaths. Easy to be dismissive when you're young and healthy and almost certainly going to survive anyway. I find it very bizarre that mask wearing and wanting to mitigate mortality and mobility has somehow become a political issue. Especially as it's somehow seen as a freedom issue. Even a few years ago people would sometimes be seen wearing masks as a way of improving their freedom and prevent CCTV tracking.

VII

This guy is a shit stirring moron.

The United States is not a Democracy... it is a Republic. No offence my brother, but it's been that way since we had to kick the British out, not once... but twice. The English Monarchy kind of left a really bad taste in our mouths, and it was decided that the U.S. Government would remain in the control of the will of it's people. Thomas Jefferson famously quoted that Democracy is 51% of the people stomping on the rights the other 49... this still remains to this day. This is why we have an Electoral College, where each state has a maximum capped amount of influence on a Presidential election. It's also why each state, regardless of population, carries an equal 2 Senators. Our Constitution limits the power of our Federal Government, and all power not granted to them in the Constitution, is left to the individual states... of which there are currently 50. This is why Donald Trump could not just send the National Guard into Portland to crush the riots. He didn't have the power to do that without the expressed consent of the Governor of Oregon. It would be an unconstitutional abuse of power. Anyone who does not like this system can offer up a Constitutional Amendment to change it. Instead of doing this... we just get a bunch of complaining. Interesting... a fair point!

No thanks... California doesn't choose the President. Though at the moment the republican voters in California might as well not exist? Seems oddly undemocratic that a Texan, Floridian, or Californian vote is worth approximately 1/4th of a Wyoming vote? Obviously not going to include the roughly 4 million US citizens (not including felony disenfranchisement as that's up to individual states as to how they want to disallow votes) with no voting rights to the congress / house of representatives... of the 3.5m with no way to contribute towards the votes for their president?

Definitely time for you guys to scrap your electoral college system.

"We fixed it" = "we're out by 10%" Might as well toss a coin... similar degrees of accuracy on a binary choice. On the bright side... gonna piss of the bookies haha.

I'm a life long American history buff, so I look at these things solely on what happened. I have no emotional horse in the race because I have no idea what living was like in 1850... and no one else does either, so forgive me that I don't feel the pain of their plight. I don't see the CSA as traitors. Things were very much different in 1850. No matter how wrong the institution of slavery was, it was the law at the time. More importantly, they are primarily seen as traitors as they lost the war. If the union forces lost and the confederacy won we could easily have been having the conversation in reverse.

I'm a real strong freedom of speech advocate. I really don't see much wrong in allowing people to advertise their stupidity. They fly that flag, and I have a pretty good idea of what they have in their head. That's an advantage to me. Symbols can't hurt you, and going down the road of protecting people from being offended, is complete insanity. I'm a life long Republican, and I choose to not wear anything about Trump or anything MAGA, because I don't want to be assaulted in public. That's what has become of our society... and I believe it's criminal to intimidate anyone from their expression. I guess that's the Libertarian in me, but I'm always up for a talk on politics if anyone wants a conversation. I never thought Americans could hate other Americans so much... I was wrong. There is that (quick reference for their thoughts)! Oh, I'm not bothered from an offence angle. Life is too short to worry about being offended. The Americans hating Americans bit is interesting... America was after all a refuge for many persecuted groups, and a country which has been a safe haven for refugees from the old world for quite a while. There's plenty of evidence of American vs American violence going back, normally against targeted groups (such as the Mormons / Natives / Blacks / Hispanics / Jews / southerners (in the north) / northerners (in the south) ). The currently situation is arguably the greatest polarisation since the civil war, though largely driven by trying to control the ever shortening news cycle and pretty much all sources of "news" being broadcast through a bias which is easily picked up if it's something you disagree with, and harder to identify if it's something you agree with. Just my $0.02.

An entirely fair response. I would agree that the flag of the USSR should be treated similarly to the Swastika given it's heritage. It's interesting though, I'm struggling to think of any major power's flag which could be seen as wholly unoffensive to fly.

Welcome back!

Only seen half of season 1 so far, but thoroughly enjoying it!

Double tap.

Though this is also exactly the case in real life.

Welcome back

At least that's a positive aspect of all this For some the real positive will be the economic crunch.

It's interesting, because people are taking better care of the hand hygiene etc we've seen a massive drop in many communicable diseases (norovirus etc). To be fair the UK was heading for a recession anyway so who knows what's brexit and what's corona.

Thursday

Welcome back! You're always welcome in milcom.

IV

For those who oppose the WHO, what organisation should have the role of declaring a pandemic?

Yep. The -ve values were created by the May WTI approaching, so oil traders were at risk of getting millions of barrels delivered to their business addresses.

Please do not let this get into you Sir. I admire your work, and those that need your help... but I like you more, and I would miss you greatly. Likewise! I've seen people younger and fitter than me experiencing significant pulmonary haemorrhage and myocarditis from this. There's a good chance neither will come of the ventilator. They are both young than you are too. This virus is going to give them a miserable death. I am also well aware my own personal risk is likely higher due to working in a high risk area and disease severity correlating with initial viral load. Well, I am not trying to trivialize the disease, and yes, it CAN be dangerous. But then you have to wonder whether sending the world economy into lockdown, with potentially hundreds of millions of people losing their jobs worldwide and a tsunami of bankruptcy of entire economic sectors is worth it. The problem with flattening the curve is that you have to enforce the emergency measures for a long, long, LONG time, and once you uplift them, the disease might just return like you hadn't even done anything. If we're just delaying the inevitable, then why do it? The global economic meltdown is unfortunate. Though if the whole world followed the part of Italy we'd be looking at around 219 million dead, which would potentially cause significant economic impact by itself. It's all about where you are right? If you're unwell with it and struggling to breath you're gonna say fuck the money keep me alive... if you're asymptomatic you'll be more concerned about the money.

I've seen people younger and fitter than me experiencing significant pulmonary haemorrhage and myocarditis from this. There's a good chance neither will come of the ventilator. They are both young than you are too. This virus is going to give them a miserable death. I am also well aware my own personal risk is likely higher due to working in a high risk area and disease severity correlating with initial viral load.