Whoa! I finally changed the look of my website after like 5 years. It’s about time. I’m still messing around with it a lot and trying different things out, so it might look completely different later on, or it might not. WHO EVEN KNOWS.
Who cares though, bro. We’re in the middle of a *reverb engaged*…
Remember the pandemic? The pandemic the media somehow forgot about for the last two or three weeks? There’s an explanation for that. You see, evidently the virus went away as a sign of solidarity for the protests, as viruses are wont to do. Granted, there are still huge protests going on right now, but according to the media, these people are magically safe. People gathering for any other reason are still in danger and endangering other people though. That’s just how science works. Deal with it, dude.
It was a mere 2 months ago that people were being arrested for things like walking or paddle-boarding alone on the beach. Both activities have a 0% risk of infection. You can’t infect anyone else if there’s nobody around you. Ironically, police intervention actually increases the chance of infection. Can’t arrest anyone while also observing the 6 foot rule. These types of arrests were gross government overreach, and completely not in line with the science on the matter.
Now we’re at the point where these arrests have all but ceased as the number of violations has become astronomical. Nothing has changed as far as how viruses thrive. Not wearing masks and not maintaining a distance of six feet are still the prime spreaders. Every protest has been in gross violation of both of these rules. From a moral standpoint, most would argue that these transgressions are justifiable. The law doesn’t always operate on morality however. If anything, this just shows that if enough people violate a mandate, the government will just shrug its shoulders and move on. They can’t arrest everyone after all.
A common argument for the protests is that “everyone is wearing masks” and that “the virus is worse indoors”. Both of these are half-truths.
First off, not everyone at these protests has been wearing masks. Not even close.
A decent amount of people in the above photo aren’t wearing masks, quite a few have their masks down, and there’s no way of telling if those currently wearing masks left them on for the duration of the protest. It’s hot outside most places, and it’s hard to breathe through a mask in the heat. Six feet of distance obviously isn’t being observed here either. It does you no good to have a mask if it isn’t covering your nose and mouth, especially in a crowd where people are chanting and/or yelling, which spreads the virus. The above photo might in fact be a viral disaster. It’s also fairly par for the course given the number of photos I’ve seen from different cities, states and countries.
Once again, you can acknowledge that these protests might be disastrous from a transmission standpoint, while also holding the stance that they are warranted.
Protests are also primarily safer outdoors than indoors. One of the reasons Covid spreads easier indoors is due to the fact that it’s harder to engage in social distancing outdoors, i.e. the six-foot rule. If people are standing shoulder-to-shoulder outdoors for extended periods, this benefit is largely negated however. The only safety measure you have in place at that point are masks. Unless there is a breeze, the virus really isn’t going to be dispersed upward. The particles can remain in the air for quite a while; most reports I’ve seen say up to 3 hours.
During an indoor gathering, air conditioners merely blow the particles around without decent re-circulation and filtration. This is partly why most of the initial spread took place in office buildings, churches, and other indoor areas. It also turns out that sunlight does kill the virus to a degree, a point that was initially disputed:
Which brings us to now.
Trump is about to have a rally in Tusla, and it’s most likely going to be a disaster. Trump has made it a point to downplay the virus at every opportunity and avoid wearing masks because it’s become a part of his “too cool for school” image. Predictably, a lot of his die-hards have also become anti-mask and sometimes even downright conspiratorial about the severity (or existence) of Covid19. The BOK center holds almost 20,000 people, and the place will probably be packed. Between the lack of distancing (6 feet) and masks being optional, we’re about to witness an experiment in viral transmission.
Not to take responsibility off of Trump, because he has all the latest information at his disposal, and should know better at this point, but once again, the medical authorities have dropped the ball countless times during the last few months. I’ve posted numerous instances of people within the medical community downplaying the effectiveness of masks, including the US Surgeon General. Here’s one more instance of the mask flip-flop in effect:
This type of flip-flop is fueling the conspiratorial nonsense. Masks have always been effective. That’s why they’ve been common-place in parts of the world for decades. They help reduce the spread of airborne diseases, from the common flu, to past epidemics, like the swine flu. It’s pretty damning that any doctor was downplaying the effectiveness of masks at any point during the last few months. People who saw masks being downplayed initially are probably more prone to disregard further information from these sources, or any medical source for that matter.
In addition, you have non-science based policies like this:
The virus doesn’t care about why people are gathered together. It’s not only going to infect people who are having a backyard BBQ. These arbitrary policies aren’t making anything better. They should be reinforcing the importance of masks, soap, and the six feet rule, not pulling random numbers out of a hat. Also, what’s to stop any random gathering of people from merely stating that they are protesting something? 100-person protest-BBQs, here we come.
On top of that, we’re implementing pointless contact tracing measures:
New York is at it again.
It does absolutely no good to implement contact tracing unless you’re being thorough about it. Ignoring that someone potentially spent all day out in a crowd of 1000+ people completely defeats the purpose. This is why this type on contact tracing will never work. It isn’t going to be thorough enough. Contact tracing works in places like South Korea because it’s done via GPS, not a people filling out questionnaires and purposely ignoring critical info.
It’s unlikely that the U.S. could ever implement contact tracing of this type because it would be seen as invasive and unconstitutional. I doubt too many people on either side of the aisle want our shady government tracking our every move and peeping in on our credit transactions. Probably wouldn’t be a problem if we stopped electing people we can’t trust into office, but then it wouldn’t be America. *sick guitar riff plays*