oldmanfan

Puts food on the table! Yep. We could all stand to be better with our general health and supporting our native immune systems. I’m as guilty as anyone if not more so!

I think zinc tends to help for many viruses. I take it when I get a cold. Seems to help but it may just be more psychosomatic.

I’m afraid you are likely correct. My guess is Covid may wind up like HIV. Antivirals will be developed and those will make the disease more of a chronic but liveable condition. That and behavioral changes; condom usage for HIV, masks and such for Covid.

My friend, as tragic as the deaths and the economic impact have been, the most damaging long term consequence of this pandemic is the refusal to accept science and medicine by a sizable segment of society. That may inflict damage that cannot be fixed. That could hopefully be due to viral mutations. Yep, our surgeries are minimal. You should see what the thoracic surgeons and orthopedic guys get into! My biggest exposure risk is processing sperm samples. My retirement plan is to go to comedy clubs and tell sperm stories.

I run IVF labs so I wear a mask when we’re doing egg retrievals and such. Masks are worn to protect the patient and the provider. My wearing one makes sure I don’t send droplets into a sterile space. My mask also prevents me from getting a face full of blood if spray occurs.

Your last paragraph is somewhat correct. A vaccine will be the best way to get herd immunity within a given population. Your other premise, inferring that we should just let the virus spread, is both immoral and not effective. Estimates are that at least 60% of the population would have to get Covid for the herd immunity you suggest. Right now it’s I think about 10% and you have over 200k fatalities. In such a scenario you would have millions die. Do you believe that is acceptable public health care policy, that we should allow millions to die? Here is what would likely happen if we just let the virus spread. Hospitals would get over run, health care workers would dwindle, public panic would ensue as death rates go way up, people would shut themselves away in their homes, and we would have a true collapse of the economy and social structure. Viruses don’t hang out and propagate on their own. They require a host and the host’s cells to replicate. Until effective vaccines are available, our best bet is to limit the access of the virus to new hosts, by using mitigating strategies. They aren’t perfect and you are correct that people need to be more cognizant of proper mask usage. But that does not mean they aren’t effective. We know they are. We all have to pull together

You are confusing mitigation and absolute prevention. Fauci and all other responsible scientists changed their positions on masks as the understanding of the science and spread of the virus developed and it became clear masks helped prevent droplet transmission. Likely reasons why they have not completely gotten rid of the virus is that not everyone wears them, some do not wear them correctly, and in crowded places with inadequate ventilation the virus spreads more easily.

This has been covered a number of times. This interview was, I believe, early in the pandemic. At that time the recommendation was for the public to not wear masks because they wanted to ensure an adequate supply of masks for health care facilities as they were hit with patients. As the science and study of the virus and it’s mode of transmission became clearer, the usefulness of masks in helping combat spread became clear. This us how science works and as a scientist for 40 years it really surprises me how many people don’t or won’t understand that process. Take the study you quoted. The main conclusion from the data is that you increase odds of infection in restaurants or bars/coffee shops. Where one removes one’s mask.

This study was what went on in different indoor spots with a limited number of participants. Google studies on masks and Covid and you will find many peer reviewed studies showing how masks help prevent droplet spread.

Because it’s killed over 200k people and rising, and others who have not died will have long term effects. And there are not multiple proven effective treatments.

It’s going to be with us for quite a while unfortunately.

Go read what SDS put up about what should be done with this forum. You are a perfect example of just wanting to exist in your own echo chamber. As a society we all have to coexist and come together to fight this thing. We can do that by all of us pitching in and doing the things the experts advise, and that the science and data support.

No one in the audience asked that question. Perhaps it is because the source of those are at issue. I find it highly questionable at best that some guy all of a sudden found a hard drive in the trash that had such things, and miraculously right before the election. You don't find that odd?

They are based on the data that are in peer reviewed journals. and government employees do not have a profit motive. I don't work in virology or infectious diseases so you are correct, I have not done independent studies. You seem to want to tear down the entire scientific community, a community that has has discovered cures for diseases since the times of Lister and Pasteur.

You want me to look up names of scientists at the CDC who work on this? academic medical centers? Pharmaceutical companies? really? As for profit motives, pharmaceutical companies have them. But I am on an FDA panel and I can tell you I have to submit volumes of material every year to show that I do not have competing outside interests. And government employees like Dr. Fauci, if they develop a treatment or such as a government employee, means that rights to that are the government's.

My opinions are based on the science. If there is anything worse than the deaths that have occurred from Covid and the economic impact, it is that the pandemic has shown us that we have a society that increasingly refuses to accept things like data and fact and science. That may be more dangerous than anything for the long term. We are free men. I express my freedom by doing what I can to help make sure my neighbor doesn't get this disease. What are you doing?

Every competent scientists says you are wrong.

If we all do our part and help each other, then hopefully not. But you see what's going on now, infection rates are climbing in many states. Because people aren't listening.

How about people at the CDC? How about folks like Dr. Fauci who is the world authority of infectious disease? How about experts in epidemiology and other infection disease and public health experts who have spent their professional lives dedicated to figuring these things out?

From a national standpoint? Tell everyone to wear a mask. Why would that be hard to do from a national standpoint? tell everyone to wash their hands often. How is that hard to accomplish from a national standpoint? Tell everyone to distance when it is possible to do so. Why is that hard to do from a national standpoint? I get the effect on the economy and such. My daughter is an actor and her field has been really hit hard by this. But in my community businesses are open, churches are allowing folks in again. They just need to do those three things. Here's my question: why be so damn stubborn?

What Biden has said is that he will listen to the experts. What the experts have said is that if we all do our part and wear masks, wash our hands, distance when we can we can help prevent spread and actually allow things to open up more.

I don't know why about zinc; in general it has anti-viral properties but by itself likely will not curtail this epidemic. And drop the fear porn stuff, this is a highly contagious virus that has affected and killed millions across the globe.

Yeah, and they didn't, so get over it. The way to eradicate this virus right now is to deprive the virus of a host. The way you try to do that in the absence of a vaccine is to keep the virus from spreading, and the way you do that is with good hand washing, distancing, and masks. I am not arguing that we should not all try to keep healthy immune systems, diets and such but the horse is out of the barn right now.

I take zinc myself. Evidence suggests zinc has antiviral properties.

here's another big word. Mitigate. Masks are not 100% effective and no one has said they are. But they are a part of a strategy to mitigate spread.