tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post5290942657063380705..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: Whoppers to the Left, Whoppers to the RightGus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-26047949203873642792020-09-03T12:33:46.825-06:002020-09-03T12:33:46.825-06:00I receive posts in my FB feed from one of those gr...I receive posts in my FB feed from one of those groups that makes ridiculous claims about COVID-19 being a globalist conspiracy so that Bill Gates can inject us all with microchips for population control and reduction. (No, that is not an exaggeration of one of their frequent refrains.) It's all part of an approach that basically applies Leninist techniques to anyone who disagrees with them to tar them as Marxists; in the words of Lenin, as quoted by Richard Mitchell in one of his finest essays, “Why should we bother to reply to Kautski? He would reply to us, and we would have to reply to his reply. There’s no end to that. It will be quite enough for us to announce that Kautski is a traitor to the working class, and everyone will understanding everything.” Or it is just enough to announce that they are Cultural Marxists or Obleftivists or traitors (the last a word they like to throw around with gay abandon in the certainty they don't have to say it to anyone's face, which would be unhealthy for them); and of course any articles stating anything they don't like are "Luegenpresse," pure and simple. (No, they insist, <i>of course</i> they're not Nazis; they just think Goebbels was a masterful sociopolitical analyst, I guess.) Thus, the Russian dossier shows the whole opposition to Trump is Russian-fed slander, and all the testimony of people who stated publicly under their own name things that Trump did is evidentiarily speaking "hearsay," then in comments to a succeeding post go to great lengths stating why the QAnon people are trustworthy and Pizzagate was true, indicating that either they don't know what "hearsay" means or, more likely, don't give a damn so long as they build more of their narrative, trusting that people who agree with them will be too inflamed to keep track of all the other things they've said or think about it critically.<br /><br />One example from last year was when they recycled a picture on 3 July of Somali children in a park in the US waving Somali flags, commenting something about how they're all traitors, so send them home. I looked around and found that the picture was taken on 30 June but posted on 3 July to really inflame the readership, and after one minute of Internet searching found that 1 July is Somalia's Republic Day. Were they celebrating that? Probably, just like my Canadian friends in grad school would celebrate Canada with us Yanks on the 4th, and just like we expats in other countries would gather on the 4th for burgers and beers, though alas no fireworks. Hardly a sign of disloyalty, and if the people had been white they wouldn't have commented on it, but don't I dare say that since they're NOT racists, it's just an empirical fact that all the people from s***hole countries (they LOOOOOVE that phrase) just so happen to be brown...and occasionally in the comments they'll tease the readership that there's a solid reason for that, but not racism.<br /><br />After that it's no surprise the stuff they say about COVID-19, and not even a surprise the fallacies they employ.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-77888882205406730662020-09-03T08:19:02.713-06:002020-09-03T08:19:02.713-06:00"Even if aerosols don't evaporate..."..."<i>Even if aerosols don't evaporate...</i>"<br /><br />Yes. And that's exactly why avoiding confined spaces with poor ventilation is so important.<br /><br />As far as live virus inoculation goes, that's a measure I wish would get some attention, but IIRC, little is known about the relationship between load of this virus and severity of disease.<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-45042495432900073152020-09-02T21:18:34.584-06:002020-09-02T21:18:34.584-06:00Even if aerosols don't evaporate, they should ...Even if aerosols don't evaporate, they should dilute into the air and seldom transmit the viral load necessary to produce a severe case. <br /><br />But low viral loads might transmit a weak infection and grant immunity in the same way variolation did for smallpox. So, all of the interventions (government and individual) which delayed that immunity perhaps, especially closing schools and universities, may have actually increased the number of deaths.<br /><br />My strategy is to protect the vulnerable but let the children and university students run wild. <br /><br />Or voluntarily inoculate all the non vulnerable population with a small dose of live but/or weakened virus.SteveDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02293013458202819071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-91011392751142049462020-09-02T14:41:37.712-06:002020-09-02T14:41:37.712-06:00In line with the idea that a lower viral load can ...In line with the idea that a lower viral load can allow one to escape illness, or at least a severe case, I would guess that aerosols are mainly a hazard in hospital settings, or crowded, confined spaces. IIRC, the viruses need moisture, so the infectiousness from an aerosolized virus is short-lived as its tiny, airborne, droplet evaporates.<br /><br />My (admittedly layman) thinking is that droplets carry more viruses, but fall to the ground quickly, and aerosols, fewer. The latter can stay airborne, but the water evaporates from them fast enough that they don't remain a threat for long, and can only collectively have enough viral load to cause infection. <br /><br />That's my two cents. I welcome correction.Gus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-792445931319392862020-09-02T08:49:14.979-06:002020-09-02T08:49:14.979-06:00Thanks for saying this, Gus. All the gloating abou...Thanks for saying this, Gus. All the gloating about CoVid only being the sole cause of death in 6% of the cases had me scratching my head. It’s not a case of dying from the virus rather than with the virus. In addition to those comorbidities caused by Covid-19, which you point out, that 6% leaves out cases where CoVid is the primary or secondary (but not sole) cause of death in which the additional comorbidities were not caused by Covid-19. This seems to me to be more bad news than good because I thought the number would be lower than 6%. If taken at face value, it means that CoVid can kill many otherwise completely healthy people.<br /><br />If it takes three health conditions to kill you, you would still be alive today if you only had two of them. Many if not most of the non 6% death would still be alive if they hadn't contacted CoVid-19.<br /><br />Reminds me of a video recently of a guy I saw vaping with a mask, demonstrating that masks don't stop aerosols. That's a straw man because no one claims they do. The stop large water droplets which is the primary means by which most respiratory viruses spread. Even if CoVid19 can be propagated in some instances by aerosols (and I think the jury is still out on this), it is highly likely this will be large factor in the spread. <br />SteveDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02293013458202819071noreply@blogger.com