One hell of a lot
My career was in science… medical research & some teaching and mentoring grad students in the lab. Masking should never have ever been political. Covid is a virus. No eyes, no brain, no hands or feet and no politics. It’s just an RNA strand nested inside a ball of protein with protein “arms” that let it stick on and then get into cells so that it can hijack the DNA machinery of the cell to reproduce itself. That’s all it does. No politics, no thought. Just make copies of itself.
Wear the damn mask.
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Much less overhead in development for “medicine” when no money goes to proving safety and efficacy.
And still, a high price can be had because it is “medical” treatment.
For con artists business types, it is a perfect business model.
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I didn’t exactly enjoy wearing a mask, especially once we were able to get the tight-fitting N95 type. It’s claustrophobia inducing, it makes it hard for others to hear you speak, and it made it more difficult for my wife to breathe because she has asthma. She really had trouble with them.
We wore them anyway during the worst of the pandemic because we’re not stupid, and still wear them on things like a bus or airplanes. But these are at least rational reasons for not liking masks. And then you have to layer on top of that, the refusal based purely on principle, when people don’t want the government telling them what to do. This was the main reason for those who objected.
All of them? You could always move to a state like mine in WA, where as long as you’re on the Western side of the Cascades and stay away from the extreme West coastal side of the Olympic Peninsula – basically Puget Sound and environs – you’re in a mostly liberal haven.
I often see people still wearing masks when shopping at the local Safeway, because there are a lot of older retirees in my small town. They’re mostly liberals, and they’re not stupid.
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Sigh, pulling this out again…
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Doesn’t the standard wingnut (I did my own research) treatment involve combining Ivermectin with large doses of Zinc. That’s what I had heard at the clinic–the local beer and burger hangout.
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Absolutely true.
I’ll suppose there’s an equally inexpensive stand in that can be prescribed using safe materials commonly available in a grocery store. For a disease like covid, it can be no worse than ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine and could still satisfy the prescriber’s animosity towards the medical industry or their patients.
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I’m a later Boomer, most of my schooling happened in the '70s, so I do know a little about the Me Generation. Were the '70s Me Generation worse than what we have now? I mean it really feels like the torch wasn’t passed, but stollen.
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Ditto 2016, and 2000 as well. Imagine the difference that an Al Gore approach to the climate crisis would have made with a two-decade head start.
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Why are we reading about Trump’s failed 2020 COVID policy now? We should have been reading about it during the campaign, though many of us remember. But you know the price of eggs and all.
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politicizing elements of the response, seemingly at random
Our Trump problem.
Being stupid doesn’t help. Being corrupt doesn’t help. Being mentally troubled doesn’t help. Being old does not help (I wish I could say otherwise).
But the problem with Trump is “the last man in the room” problem.
It’s like a football team lining up to do a halfback run up the middle when the quarterback attention-monger decides to try a flashy pass instead. Nobody wins that way.
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We’re talking about it now because most of his base are the folks who would be willing to take a horse de-wormer for a virus. DonOLD’s fan base are really, really, rich folks- or those who don’t believe in vaccinations, or looking out for anyone that isn’t them.
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Indeed. And now the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus is being detected in wastewater treatment plants across California. It’s just a matter of time before it becomes a pandemic.
And with the likes of Putin’s cock-holster* and his latest brown-nosing remora RFK Jr. in charge ….
*h/t Stephen Colbert
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Unfortunately we would likely have the standard RW response that the seeming failure was due to opponents not allowing complete implementation of their genius tactic.
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Avian Flu? Quacks?
I see a connection here.
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Yes, widespread in California wastewater but largely absent elsewhere in the country as of the week ending Nov. 16 (Wastewater Data for Avian Influenza A(H5) | National Wastewater Surveillance System | CDC ). With the following qualification:
Wastewater data cannot determine the source of influenza A viruses. Detections could come from a human or from an animal (like a bird) or an animal product (like milk from an infected cow).
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Two massive polls of the 2024 electorate—the network exit poll and the VoteCast survey used by Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and other outlets—show that Trump won the election because voters rejected the status quo and had positive memories of his first term. But on most issues, they oppose what Republicans want to do in his second term.
… … … … …
If voters opposed what republicans are about to do why the hell did they vote for trump and those meaning to impliment what the voters oppose ???
It makes no sense at all
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Give it time. And when found in several countries it will then be a pandemic
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