COVID-19 ... how we cope :)

[Pargat Perrer]

I certainly don't. What's happened to us in the last 44 years? Not that **we** were anything to write home about 44 years ago but today faith in the basic integrity of others has almost vanished.

The following things have "happened to us":

1) The internet
2) Smartphones
3) Twitter
4) Facebook

A person like a Neil Frarey used to be limited to going to a local bar and whining, but now anyone can put up a website or a Facebook page or a Twitter account and get their opinions read by millions of others.

Opinions are like ass holes: we all have one, and they generally stink. So there is this growing cesspool of opinions out there, being read by millions every day. What is really being exposed is the underlying biases of the general population. The thin veneer of civilization is being rubbed away, exposing the rust and corrosion underneath.

[Steve Douglas]

Does ANYONE remember rage and divisiveness like this when governments made wearing seatbelts while driving mandatory??? Nope, didn't think so.

I do. There was grumbling in Ontario about it but not a lot of protests. Mostly just complaining. That was in the '70's for Ontario. It was later for the other provinces.

The U.S. was a whole other matter though. They didn't start to implement seat-belt laws until the 80's and there was a lot of controversy. As with everything in the U.S. it was done at the state level and different states have, ummn, different attitudes toward things, particularly the role of government in their lives. I think New York was the first to implement it and it moved on from there. I think there's still at least one state that doesn't have mandatory seatbelt laws.

Steve

[Peter McKillop]

The following things have "happened to us":

1) The internet
2) Smartphones
3) Twitter
4) Facebook

A person like a Neil Frarey used to be limited to going to a local bar and whining, but now anyone can put up a website or a Facebook page or a Twitter account and get their opinions read by millions of others.

Opinions are like ass holes: we all have one, and they generally stink. So there is this growing cesspool of opinions out there, being read by millions every day. What is really being exposed is the underlying biases of the general population. The thin veneer of civilization is being rubbed away, exposing the rust and corrosion underneath.

LOL!!! Pargat, I hope you're not a young person. It would be a shame to be so cynical so early in life. :)

[Neil Frarey]

The following things have "happened to us":

1) The internet
2) Smartphones
3) Twitter
4) Facebook

A person like a Neil Frarey used to be limited to going to a local bar and whining, but now anyone can put up a website or a Facebook page or a Twitter account and get their opinions read by millions of others.

Opinions are like ass holes: we all have one, and they generally stink. So there is this growing cesspool of opinions out there, being read by millions every day. What is really being exposed is the underlying biases of the general population. The thin veneer of civilization is being rubbed away, exposing the rust and corrosion underneath.

Speak for yourself, thanks.

I've never gone to a local bar and whined ... ever. RA Field House along with others from the RACC, okay. But NEVER have I gone to a local bar, as you try to paint me doing, ... ever. Never understood the point ... unless to play chess!

Cafe WIM ... different story. And yes, there were a lot of opinions being freely expressed ... great cafe!

We clear, Pargat? Don't let this get out of your control.

Is there a moderator ready for this? Dark Knight?

[Sid Belzberg]

Who do we believe? Heneghan is *just* a general practitioner, according to available info. But then again, Einstein was *just* a clerk of some type when he started thinking about the big stuff. A few weeks ago you provided a link to a very interesting article by a fellow named Doidge. On the surface, it was a brief history of the ups and downs of HCL but, more importantly, it was Doidge's contention that the HCL controversy was a manifestation of a decline in the public's level of confidence in the trustworthiness of so-called evidence-based science due to things like lack of transparency, conflicts of interest, sloppiness, politicization of results, etc. So, who do we believe regarding the efficacy of masks? As a matter of curiosity, Sid, do you wear a mask?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Heneghan
https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/dr-car...l-leaders-list

[Peter McKillop]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Heneghan
https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/dr-car...l-leaders-list

Yes....well, I guess I wasn't clear enough about what I was after. What I want to know is: why the hell should we believe Heneghan? He's a GP. Maybe he's a particularly brilliant GP - maybe he isn't. What's so special about him that we should value his opinions on masks above those of, say, our own public health officials here in Canada?

Or those of Johns Hopkins Medicine? https://www-hopkinsmedicine-org.cdn....u-need-to-know

Or those of The New England Journal of Medicine? https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2026913

etc.

[Ed Seedhouse]

B. C. now has a mask mandate for everyone over two years of age in all public indoor spaces, except for those with a valid medical exemption. Also, stay at home except for essential travel. No visits from anyone you do not already live with. Period two weeks from today unless extended,

[Pargat Perrer]

Speak for yourself, thanks.

I've never gone to a local bar and whined ... ever. RA Field House along with others from the RACC, okay. But NEVER have I gone to a local bar, as you try to paint me doing, ... ever. Never understood the point ... unless to play chess!

Cafe WIM ... different story. And yes, there were a lot of opinions being freely expressed ... great cafe!

We clear, Pargat? Don't let this get out of your control.

Is there a moderator ready for this? Dark Knight?

For starters, I never actually wrote that you ever did go to a bar and whine... for all I know, you aren't old enough yet. I included your name because you whine here about the Democrats just the way the typical bar patron would have done back then, trying to convince us all that Democrats are all bad all the time. Lucas Davies has been making you eat his dust, as I think the expression goes.

Out of my control? I have no idea what you mean by that. Some kind of intimidation tactic, which I will ignore.

Moderator? Well, I have no idea about Mr. "Dark Knight", but he never seems to be here, even during the very acrimonious name-calling that went on just before the election.

This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine Bennis (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) makes decisions on what movies to rent from Blockbuster (yes, Blockbuster!) based on the reviews of a mysterious person who she has never met. The reviews sound so intelligent, so reasoned, so informed.... she even thinks she may be in love with him. At the end of the episode, she traces him down to an apartment, and he turns out to be a 15-year-old kid who needs his mother's permission to even come to the door and meet her.

[Sid Belzberg]

Yes....well, I guess I wasn't clear enough about what I was after. What I want to know is: why the hell should we believe Heneghan? He's a GP. Maybe he's a particularly brilliant GP - maybe he isn't. What's so special about him that we should value his opinions on masks above those of, say, our own public health officials here in Canada?

Or those of Johns Hopkins Medicine? https://www-hopkinsmedicine-org.cdn....u-need-to-know

Or those of The New England Journal of Medicine? https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2026913

etc.

https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/about-us/our-history
https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/carl-heneghan

[Hans Jung]

Mexico 100,000+ deaths and over a million cases.

[Peter McKillop]

https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/about-us/our-history
https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/carl-heneghan

You've established that Heneghan has solid academic qualifications but you haven't answered my question. In the USA, Canada, and Europe, there are likely thousands and thousands of physicians and scientists who work as epidemiologists, or whose work impinges on that field, who are as well or better qualified as/than Heneghan. According to the CDC there are more than 3,000 epidemiologists just in the US: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6733a5.htm

What is so special about Heneghan's mask advice that we should give preference to it? In any event, given what follows, why do you care whether anyone wears a mask?

Low hospitalizations and lots of cases means the pandemic is over and the casedemic has begun. Stop trying to scare people. PCR positive are numerous false positives. Deaths are dropping to low low numbers.

[Ed Seedhouse]

What is so special about Heneghan's mask advice that we should give preference to it?

It fits Sid's fixed ideas of what reality is so to him it must be correct. That the vast majority of epidemiologists disagrees with that is, to Sid, irrelevant.

[Sid Belzberg]

It fits Sid's fixed ideas of what reality is so to him it must be correct. That the vast majority of epidemiologists disagrees with that is, to Sid, irrelevant.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-77093-z

[Ed Seedhouse]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-77093-z

What the hell does that have to do with the matters under discussion?

BTW, for people with Kidney disease, like me, vitamin D3 supplementation is contraindicated. Helps make kidney stones.

[Hans Jung]

North Dakota has passed 10% of population infected.