Musings —06.28.2020 08:57 AM
—Full of passionate intensity
One day, when historians try to determine why coronavirus beat us at the start, statements like this will figure prominently. pic.twitter.com/JdihNUXdmW
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) June 28, 2020
Same reasons and advice as given by the WHO, Trudeau, Hajdu, Tam, and the Canadian media at the time.
Note: I am pro-mask. Wear one in every establishment I enter since before our government and media were saying not to.
Some politicians, Trudeau and Biden are prime examples, continually tell us we should trust in science like they do. Okay, which scientists?
The ones who told vociferously told us masks don’t work? Examples; Dr. Tam, US Surgeon General, the WHO. But now they say we must use masks. Were their original scientific pronouncements wrong? Did the science change? What NEW evidence have they found?
While the scientists said masks are only 30 to 70% effective so we don’t recommend them, I said masks are pretty cheap insurance so I started using them.
Remember when the scientists said travel bans don’t work? And the politicians chimed in calling travel bans racist and xenophobic? Now we have travel bans.
Remember when many politicians trusted scientists epidemiological models? Some politicians like New York’s Andrew “trust in science” Cuomo, emptied hospitals of seniors (some ill with COVID) and sent them to senior care facilities. Result? Thousands and thousands of deaths as COVID spread like wildfire through senior care facilities.
This brings me back to “Which Scientist?” When a politician says “trust in science” we should ask them “Which scientists?”
We are starting to see too much Soviet Science; i.e. the “science” trotted out to support politicians’ beliefs. The “science” where questions are met with shouts of “denier” and “you are anti-science.”
Real science invites questions and debate. It’s how science advances.
An excellent example of this is the treatment of stomach ulcers. Remember when stress was the primary cause of ulcers? Along came two doctors who questioned medical science. They said bacteria were responsible for stomach ulcers. They were subjected to ridicule by scientists and the medical profession who maintained that ulcers were caused by stress. But they persevered for years. For their work on H. pylori, Marshall and Warren shared a 2005 Nobel Prize. Today the standard of care for an ulcer is treatment with an antibiotic. And stomach cancer — once one of the most common forms of malignancy — is almost gone from the Western world.
I think that any analysis of COVID response, after the fact, has to take into account what was generally known and understood at the time. It also needs to take into account the most-pressing issues of the time, and how society was reacting.
Recall how much of society went into a collective freakout in the early days of COVID, but in the wrong ways. Toilet paper for some reason was seen as the most critical thing. That shows you people’s mentality at the time.
Also at this time, the biggest shortages were PPE for front-line workers. The same people hoarding toilet paper were also hoarding face masks (N-95 as well as non-medical), latex gloves, hand sanitizer, and the like. There was general confusion and semi-chaos, as hospitals tried to stock up for the anticipated influx of patients.
As with much of COVID so far, a lot of the blame goes squarely back on the citizenry. If not for the hoarding of things, and the general stupidity of the population, people like the WHO and U.S. Surgeon General (and Canadian government) wouldn’t have to make overboard statements like the one above.
I’m actually somewhat surprised that people didn’t just revert to anarchy.
*overbroad*, not overboard
“I’m actually surprised that people didn’t just revert to anarchy.”
Tell that to certain protesters. Especially those in CHOPistan and NYC City Hall.