Facebook Re-Post
I posted this originally on Facebook, and believe I need to repost here to insure it’s survival
While I don’t post here often, and I know almost no one ever reads anything here, I did post something on Facebook that may be removed. It is possible that google won’t index my site and it will get sandboxed for this.
I have tried to stay out of politics, but somehow the CDC and Dr. Fauci have become major political players, and I think we need to get together on this instead of fighting over media hype.
The post:
I get yelled at daily from both sides at my “day job”. So before you scream at me for being “deplorable” or a “useful idiot”, please read this and fact check it if you don’t know me or trust me.
I work in a very confined and shared space. The Covid Rates at my day job are low because we follow the simple rules the CDC and WHO started us off with nearly two years ago.
Virus Facts:
Asymptomatic People can spread a virus. Vaccinated People can spread a virus. Symptomatic or (masked symptomatic) can spread a virus 50% faster and for many more days. Masks are most effective at blocking virus within 36 hours of symptom onset (ncbi published study). A mask “May block up to 80%” of exhaled virus.
Read Between the lines
Read the last two lines like an attorney. “Within 36 hours”, refers to the symptomatic person wearing a mask. This has been common practice in Japan for years. The next line says “May” and “up to” and “exhaled”.
The Culture of Courtesy Effect
Japan has only 15% vaccination rate and 1/10th our covid death rate. No where could I find that a mask blocks inhaled virus. Aerosol transmitted virus can enter through the eyes, and PLEASE don’t make us all wear face shields too. When the Japanese have a cough or runny nose and leave the house, they wear a mask. It isn’t a badge of shame, it is a badge of courtesy. They are respecting others around them.
Now consider those numbers like a statistician.
There are many “studies” saying that symptomatic people only infect 50% more people than asymptomatic. In all of the studies I have read the number of asymptomatic people varied from 18% to a high of 40%.
So even in those studies if there are 30% more people (average of the five studdies I read) with Covid that become symptomatic and they infect 50% more people each (study ranges were 44-77%), then the real answer is that symptomatic people are the cause of about twice as many infections as asymptomatic. That means if we can keep symptomatic (sick) people at home instead of giving them cold medicine and sending them off to school or work, we can slow the spread by nearly 67%.
Look Around and Get Real
Given that most people don’t wear a mask properly and take it off to sneeze or cough, I bet the real mask reduction number isn’t anywhere close to the 67% we could be getting by simply washing our hands and staying home when sick. Oh wait, washing hands wasn’t anywhere in any study about masks or Covid-19 specifically. So we could do better maybe.
The Handwashing Paradox.
Every study says handwashing helps, but there is no real way to know. What they do know is that in 1850 Dr. Ignez Semmelwieis stood up in Vienna and said three words that changed the world. “Wash your hands”. He discovered almost accidently that by washing his hands between patients, specifically mothers giving birth, that the disease and death rate of the newborns dropped dramatically.
A Trek across Utah and Zion
Trekking across Utah last week was great. St George was a wonderful place to visit. Not one mask in sight. I know a few people are going to disagree, but please read all the facts, not the media hype before screaming back at me.
As soon as I crossed into Nevada, I learned #maskstupidity was back. We ended up driving through Del Taco instead of having a nice dinner out.
So I Ask You,
Why do I need a mask?
Why do I need a vaccine? (#NOYB if I did or didn’t.)
Why does the highway sign say “Get Vaccinated, Get Your Life Back”, and yet vaccinated people still need to wear masks.
When SARS1 was here, did you wear a mask?
When SARS1 was here, did you stop going to work?
When SARS1 was here, did you get a vaccine?
Do you remember when going to a concert was an act of rage against the machine? Now New Yorkers happily show a vaccine card to get in? Concerts and rock music were a protest against “they” and “them”, now they and them are who we are supposed to trust? What happened? How did Hollywood and Music become “they”?
Why do people get ugly when someone doesn’t wear a mask and say nothing when half of the people walk out of a restroom without even looking at the sink. I don’t care what you did in there #washyourhands people.
What happened to “an ounce of prevention”?
That sounds like washing your hands and staying away from sick people.
I agree with the WHO and CDC’s initial recommendation to beat this, wash your hands and stay home if you are sick. If you take cold or flu medicine don’t leave the house, you are sick. Masking the symptoms doesn’t make it better, it makes you contagious and hides the warning signs from other people. If you take aspirin, tyloenol or any other fever reducer because you are hot, stay home, call a doctor, but don’t go out and spread it around because you already paid for those cheap airline tickets or concert seats.
Sadly it appears we are too selfish to follow the simple guidance that actually works, and are too civil to send “sick” people away, so we all have to suffer. It makes no sense to me. I believe someone said once “In a perfect socialism, we all reap the rewards together, in perfect communism we all share the pain together.” I think I am beginning to understand this quote.
I don’t give a rats’ ass if you wear a mask. I won’t unless legally bound to, and will not eat or shop anywhere other than inside an airport if a mask is required. I think that the mask and the vaccine are both an infringement of my freedom and civil liberty.
Write your reps, end the stupidity, stay home when sick, send people home when they are sick. Masks and Vaccines should be a choice, not an infringement of our civil liberties because “they” say so.
Do your part so we can all move forward. The easy way out of “wearing a mask” isn’t working.
If you don’t know how to write your representative here is a free tool to find them.
(I have no affiliation with nor do I endorse commoncause.org.)
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