The Sound Of Settled Science

15 Replies to “The Sound Of Settled Science”

1. Is no one capable of inductive reasoning these days? Cruise ships are VERY good at dealing with surface dwelling germs thanks to Norwalk Virus. Norwalk is generally spread through fecal-oral transmission. People who don’t practice good hygiene after wiping their tushies and touching everything around them are the primary culprits. Cruise companies know this and clean the living shit out of as many shipboard surfaces as possible these days.

   The fact that COVID-19 went through cruise ships like a hot knife through butter was a pretty solid indicator that this bastard was airborne from the get-go. Hearing Dr. Tam keep blagging on about washing of hands when it’s pretty damn obvious that it doesn’t make that much of a difference is seriously irksome. Now she’s late to the “wear a mask” party, which is where we all should have started. Except we weren’t allowed to because there aren’t enough masks stockpiled for our health professionals, let alone the public. At the very least they should have been encouraging people to wear SOME sort of cloth face covering at least two months ago.

   We are governed by idiots and too much of what passes for medical advice is influenced by them in harmful ways.

   1. Sean,

      Agree on the reasoning point. Too often modern academics want evidence based decisions. Unfortunately it takes years to get that data. And notice how academics don’t volunteer to be in the control group.

      Re masks and washing hands. What’s the downside? Is it less than catching the disease?

      I used to travel twice a month to the US for many years. It seamed that I was always getting the flu or a cold. Americans like to shake hands even if they’ve seen you two weeks before. I then started washing my hands a lot. I’d shake hands before a meeting started then go wash my hands. As soon as I got off a plane, wash my hands. Result? Some years I didn’t get sick at all.

      The experts say home made masks don’t work. They’re only 20 to 70% effective. Sounds like cheap insurance to me.

      Any time an expert says something the first thing I look for is their motive. The second thing – what assumptions did they make? The third thing – what’s the downside from following or not following the ‘expert’ advice?

      1. Washing your hands often is a good idea no matter what and I say this as a former chef. I’ve also purchased some cloth masks with filter pockets to wear in public and I practice social distancing as much as possible. I’m hoping that every little bit counts. My heart is such a piece of crap that my odds of surviving this virus are not wonderful.

   2. May I beg to differ. We are governed by politicians without any scientific understanding or training advised by young policy analysts who are political and social science graduates without any real world experience who are afraid to hurt the feelings of interest groups.

   3. Speaking of inductive reasoning … how did mankind manage to survive prior to indoor plumbing, textile factories, and modern N95 geo-textiles ? How did some people survive the Black Plague? Avoiding other humans, wearing masks, and Howard-Hughes-compulsive hand washing didn’t play much of a role. No … it was herd immunity and … sorry to say it … natural selection. Innate robust biology saved our forefathers and mothers who lived to reproduce.

      Nature is a bitch. The weak and diseased are always the “prey”. Not that a virus is capable of “intent” … but is certainly equipped for “opportunity”. Something deep in my psyche acknowledges that such out breaks may simply be Nature’s way of thinning the herd. And trust me … I know I’m no longer a spring chicken with a robust immune system … so the ChiCom-19 might just find a wonderful opportunity with me.

      I have a very disturbing theory … that I cannot easily dismiss as some primal Nazi-like Schadenfreude urge … that our modern society is screwing with nature’s laws of natural selection … and we may eventually pay a huge price. The weakest of our society are now propped up, via extensive welfare programs, economically, and medically far more than ever before in human history. We pay for uneducated, unmotivated, poor girls to give birth to large litters (government paychecks) of children who mostly repeat the cycle of poverty and dependence. Sorry to say, but these people were not treated quite so nicely by nature, prior to our wealthy Welfare State. They’d learn to either survive or die. And biologically, the weakest among us did not reproduce as they barely made it out of childhood. The graveyards of the 1800’s I’ve visited are filled with the sad headstones of small children.

      So when does the human herd grow so large that a good old fashioned pestilence comes for our overpopulated (I’m not claiming we’ve reached that tipping point yet) human herd and takes out large percentages of us? And 6ft of separation, colorful hand-sewn surgical masks, and 3M won’t save us. Only a robust Physiology will. Only a random freak of natural resistance will save anyone?

      PS … the longer we remain economically knee-capped … the faster “disadvantaged” communities will be dying from the ChiCom-19. It will spread through the weakest of our herd like wildfire. And the Democrats will speak of nonsense such as “structural racism”. Too bad none of these elected officials and big mouths took no more than a middle school biology class and not a single physiology class whilst collecting a “college degree” in “Racial iniquity”

2. Lack of evidence? Look here, I heard that an anonymous nerd crunched the numbers so there you are.
   That there is not only an appeal to authority, but the beauty of it is that the ‘authority’ isn’t even an actual real person. Forget evidence.
   It was good enough to sell the B.S. that Max didn’t throw the election for the CPC the next day before the numbers were even tallied.

3. It’s the most obvious lie by public officials I’ve ever seen. Masks don’t work and we need them for medical staff to protect them. Which is it nutbags? The answer is they hate you and want you to die.

4. SDA posted a link to the Joe Rogan / Michael Osterholm discussion from MARCH10th. In the transcript, link below, Osterholm said about the Coronavirus:

   “this really is acting like an influenza virus, something that TRANSMITS VERY, VERY EASILY THROUGH THE AIR. We now have data to show that you’re infectious before you even get sick and in some cases quite highly infectious. Just breathing is all that you need to do.”
   https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/joe-rogan-michael-osterholm-podcast-transcript-infectious-disease-expert-talks-coronavirus

   AND, we know that reducing the concentration of virus helps: “whether you get severely ill or only get a mild cold – can sometimes be determined by how much virus actually got into your body”. I told my very senior parents who flew from coast to coast three weeks ago to wear a mask to reduce the quantity of viral particles entering their lungs. They are still well.
   https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-questions-about-covid-19-and-viral-load/

   It’s all about improving your odds. Having said that, I’ve never had a flu shot…

   1. What’s this? You listened to a long form discussion with a Pandemic researcher. One, who didn’t get hired due to affirmative action/identity politics, in order to re-balance the universe, and you paid attention to it, too. This instead of only meekly listening to Liberal politburo propaganda ?

      “How dare you !” – I can hear her shout all the way from Sweden.

      “whether you get severely ill or only get a mild cold – can sometimes be determined by how much virus actually got into your body” – Dr. Michael Osterholm.

      The above is dangerous information. It calls into question the justification for shuttering the Canadian economy.

      The free Chinese of Taiwan and Singapore didn’t shut down their economy but acted fast, practically and was thorough on follow-up with travelers. Somebody has some explaining to do… How about a value for money Auditor General Report on federal government preparedness and response to the pandemic?
      That is a resolution tailored for a minority government.

5. I’ll bet every knuckle-dragging red-necked construction worker in Canada has at least one or more heavy duty filter masks at home. The one with a screw on/snap on filter of different degrees of application. So why are first responders walking around with ill-fitting cloth or paper masks? Where are the industrial/construction masks that would be better suited to this emergency? When WWII broke out how long did it take the Brits to start producing gas masks for the population? We are now two plus months into this pandemic and we’re importing masks of dubious quality from China!!!!! This government is playing with less than a full deck.

   1. short version? those masked aren’t approved for “medical” use, because it requires different and more expensive testing.

6. “The experts say home made masks don’t work. They’re only 20 to 70% effective. Sounds like cheap insurance to me.”
   — Joe

   “It’s all about improving your odds.”
   — Paul Harvey page 2

   Imagine if we had a TREATMENT that was 20% – 70% Effective? We would move Heaven and Earth to get that treatment to everyone in the World.

   Mask up!

   Make a mask, Buy a Mask, Beg a Mask, just wear a mask!

   Wash your hands!

   Stay home!

7. The Corrupt Canadian authorities fear masked citizens.
   We might start considering the numerous advantages of wearing these things.

   Antenor is dead right,I was going through my worksite PPE ,I have screw on particle filters rated at N100,some for organic Vapours and some I can’t read the cheat sheet on.

   These masks provide a proper seal,allow you to wear safety glasses without fogging up,hell 4 out of 5 still have all the one way valves intact,
   are comfortable to wear for hours at a time and provide good face cover to F up facial recognition systems.

   Antifa have been getting away with attempted murder for years now, the phoney blockaders were mostly masked and the bagged muslims still walk amongst us..
   So why should we forgo the pleasure of being hard to identify?
   Especially after watching those two bozo’s interviewing Ezra,why should we be the only people obliged to comply?

   Civil disorder is so much easier when you can hide your face .
   So our fearless leaders are terrified of masked Canadians, because of how they know they would behave if granted anonymity.
   Being stupid and evil does predispose one to assuming everyone else is too.
   Just look at your “average” Liberal.

8. We have been stuck home now for three weeks. I have watched every NHL game since 1948.

   Seriously considering putting on my mask and running up and down the street naked, screaming ‘I am Chinese, if you please.’
   ‘I am Chinese, if you don’t’ please.’

   My luck would be I am arrested and placed in a quarantine holding cell with a French criminal named Chatterly Leroy-Virus.

   Life is great until you get run over by a Canadian beer truck. Oh. If you survive,
   Please Wash Your Hands.

9. Work has been promoting a news segment showing how effective handwashing is at killing viri. I think it was from NBC. It showed how much of a pseudo-virus was present on the hands after washing for 5 seconds, or 10 seconds, or 20 seconds. And, unbelievably, all traces of the virus were gone at the 20 second mark.

   My first thought on seeing the video was “how stupid do they think we are? That’s obviously fake.” Yup, settled science is right.

   Because settled science is an oxymoron. Science always asks “what if?”, and cannot be settled. The theory of gravitation is always right. Until it isn’t. How dare a patent clerk challenge the mightly Newton?