Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Sometimes I Laugh
I used to read both conservative and liberal articles at about an 80/20 ratio, four times more conservative than liberal. But over time, I have noticed that it is hard for me to maintain even a 98/2 ratio. I know this is not good; it's like moving into a bubble of thought from like minded individuals, rather than hearing other views which challenge mine. But it was the ever rising stupidity quotient in lefty articles that is primarily the cause of my abandonment of lefty articles. There is no challenge for me to react to when the article is written by someone without actual knowledge of history or science -- by a moron, in other words.
But, I have begun to try to read more articles on the left and I have discovered something of value. I laugh at them when they are particularly stupid, where I used to just growl in annoyance. Here is a sentence from a particularly moronic article about how Joe Biden should react to President Trump in order to beat him in November (yeah, good luck with that).
Imagine it is October. Americans have forgotten about Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is subsiding as vaccines come to market or mask wearing and social distancing take hold and finally work.
Yeah, the mask wearing and staying 6 feet away from other people, which has not actually slowed the transmission of the slightly more deadly new flu, will certainly work if we just stick with it long enough.
Surgical masks came into existence, starting in the late 1800s, to stop bacteria, the smallest of which are about 80 microns across, from escaping the mouth or nose of the surgeon operating on a patient and landing in the incision and causing an infection. Obviously, you can't wear a mask, that stops any air from reaching your nose and mouth, for long before you are passing out from hypoxia. So, the weave of the masks creates holes in the mask, which, in the best masks, measure about 10 microns across. These surgical masks can indeed stop most harmful bacteria. But viruses are smaller. Covid 19 is less than one micron across. There is no reason to think these masks stop the spread of the virus.
Sometimes the makers of the masks will be honest about their product.
Labels: Mask Lore
