Re: Corona Virus: is it the beginning of the end?
Accman, I challenge you to answer me one simple question. If you can do it in a manner consistent with sound argument, I'll let you alone.
Here's my question.
If masks are completely ineffective at dealing with Covid-19, why do areas where mask-wearing is being practised possess lower infection and death rates? What is the criterion or criteria that we are not considering which somehow invalidates the wearing of a mask as a valid means of lowering (read: not eliminating) the spread of Covid-19?
Ethin did not misunderstand the article you cited, BTW. He simply said that you're hanging all of your argument on the presupposition that if masks aren't perfectly effective against influenza, they can't possibly help with Covid-19. This is extremely shortsighted and philosophically questionable at best. You can't use a study on influenza to prove that Covid-19 falls into the same camp unless you also definitively demonstrate that what works for one must work for the other.
For example, if I did a basic study which said that rubber balls of 5CM or more in diameter won't fit down a pipe (just work with me here), I could state that wooden balls with a diameter of 8CM or greater also wouldn't fit down the pipe. This is due to basic math stating that 8 is greater than 5, and basic science stating that rubber has some elasticity while wood does not. If I made the statement about wooden balls without actually proving it, it could still stick, at least to some degree.
What you're doing is like saying that because a 5CM rubber ball won't fit down the pipe, a 5CM piece of bread won't fit down either.
A few factors that you haven't considered, and which by nature would be part of the link you provided:
1. The flu has generally fewer complications than Covid-19
2. Covid-19 seems to spread more quickly and readily than influenza, on the whole
3. We have a flu vaccine, which while not perfect, is way better than what we have for the flu
Add all of this up, and what you end up with is a scenario where using a mask to try and avoid getting the flu is perhaps not worth it, given the generally milder symptoms, treatment options and lowered chance of spread. Yes, it's still a virus. Yes, it can still spread. Wearing a mask would probably help at least a little. But it would make sense to say that the overall burden of wearing a mask to combat the flu is perhaps not worth it.
But instead of dealing with any of that, you simply rushed off and used your latest link to haughtily justify your self-righteous position. What else is new?
The point is, there is not enough provided data to validate your tying influenza and coronavirus together, and what you're trying to do here is not good science at all. This is why I made my comment about mental gymnastics; you're apparently willing to throw Fauci under the bus because he had the teemerity to drink water at a hot baseball game, but in the next breath you're trying to draw scientific conclusions based on the wrong evidence, while ignoring several key factors which must be part of any deep analysis of the issue.
Put bluntly, Accman, you are not equipped with the requisite critical thinking skills to be trusted here. You have the liberty to make your own choices, but that liberty also comes with consequences. One of those consequences is that people like...well, a bunch of the rest of us, let's just put it that way, are going to call out your idiocy for exactly what it is. If you don't like it, you shouldn't have come around here trumpeting your viewpoint. You can't go stating controversial things and then get pissed off when people challenge the hell out of them. That just doesn't work in real life. It just makes you look entitled. "I want to say things that will upset people without having to answer for them. I want to be able to misinform people without being challenged". That's exactly what you seem to want. Well, it isn't going to happen. Not on my watch. Every time you pop your head up and spew nonsense, I will be there to destroy it. Every time you put forward a conspiracy theory, I will be there to knock it into a cocked hat. If you don't like that, I encourage you to learn a thing or three about critical thinking and actually come to me with arguments that hold up logically, make sense and actually require adult discussion. Until such time that you do that, all you are is a potential threat to anyone who reads the bullshit you're propagating, and I see no reason why I or anyone else should stand aside and let you spread misinformation that could straight-up get people killed if it goes far enough.
You want to say that anchovies are awesome on pizza? Go right ahead.
You want to say the Pirates are the best baseball team? I might disagree with you, but knock yourself out.
You want to talk conspiracy bullshit about Covid-19 as if you have a valid seat at the table? No, not happening. I confront this when I hear it from uninformed members of my family, I confront it on social media, and I'm confronting it here. If I can convince even one person not to listen to your lies and propaganda, I consider it worth my time. Because even if I don't end up convincing you personally - and let's be real, I know that I won't - I'm more than happy to simply destroy your credibility on the subject to such an extent that nobody will listen to you when it comes to Covid-19 anymore. I truly do feel that you and the misinformation you're spreading represent a potential threat. I cannot and will not use staff power to deal with you, as that would be a gross abuse of said authority, and I'm many things, but a tyrant I am not. But checking you at every turn? Shredding your arguments? Making absolutely, 100% crystal clear that you don't have a leg to stand on in this specific arena? Sure, I'll do it. And like I say, all it takes is one person to think twice, one person to go "hmm, you know what, Accman's maybe not the person to go to about this" for me to consider this worth the effort.
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