Mask mandates have been lifted now in hospitals? Even in Ontario? I wouldn't know and didn't know because the idiotic medical tyranny based on no evidence put me off going to the doctor for good.
I'm lucky that my GP didn't wear a mask and didn't expect me to in his office, even though the clinic where he operates had (and still has!) a mandatory mask rule. He just closed the door and we'd have a good chat, face to face. And BTW - I never tested positive for Covid, despite mandatory testing during travel, quarantine, etc - nor did I ever have Covid symptoms. But the Covid culture persists....with folks in my apt. building, in my community centre, in the streets voluntarily masking. I don't even try to make eye contact with masked people, not unless I really have to. They are not people I want to know. I figure the non-medical masks they wear are certainly not to prevent the spread of viral infection. The fancy cloth masks are intended to make a fashion statement while keeping the wearer anonymous. The disposable masks from China simply nurse their phobia.
My doctor was raided by thugs from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. His files and computers were removed and he was questioned for two hours by a power mad hired interrogator. All because he had the temerity to prescribe Covid treatments.
It's really terrible what's happened to people. I often see someone on public transit who is still wearing a mask, gloves and a face shield on a regular basis. I feel incredibly sad for them and also frustrated with the fact that it happened in the first place.
Just to play "devil's advocate". I have three young children under 12 and all of the restrictions we experienced were hellish for sure, and I do think the lack of "face-to-face" was quite detrimental to social development. With that said, I didn't contract a cold or flu for nearly two years straight, and I'm one of those folks that had to work out in public (so, I wore a mask whenever indoors). Masks and lockdowns do work; we have to stop arguing about that. What is up for debate is "was it worth the social cost"? It's a public policy "calculus" that has to weigh lives saved vs lives lost, and all of those people and cultural systems caught in between. To make it a "freedom" vs. "saving lives" debate is just stupid. This a "trolley problem" of how do we weigh our values and with that information do we turn the train toward freedom or toward saving lives? Are there other avenues that can balance and avoid this choice?
This really is a public policy issue that cannot be decided in absolutes. Why? Because saving one life isn't worth destroying freedom for millions. And preserving your personal mundane freedoms isn't more important than life itself.
We need an honest approach to this problem because it will happen again...and again...and again...
This is true. The problem was a lack of actual cost-benefit analysis. Everything was filtered through the lens of “does it bring down Covid case numbers (not deaths))”. But even here there are issues. While it’s true that isolating yourself from every other person mitigates infection risk, it only “works” in the short term, unless there is a treatment coming or some other reason to think the future will be different. Otherwise it’s just deferral (which was the two weeks to slow the spread stuff).
As for the mask question, I would just say that the data at the level of public intervention is scant and speaks against the widespread use of masks (especially non surgical which we did forever). Your anecdote about not getting sick is simply that. It could be countered by someone else saying they wore a mask every day and got sick every third day regardless. The data we have from Bangladesh etc suggests they don’t “work” in any impressive way at the population level - as a behavioural intervention. If people wear a respiratory everywhere for the rest of time, it’s true, they won’t get respiratory viruses. But that’s not how normal people (including most doctors) operate.
The mask might work in clinic once, but unless I wear it well with every patient, every day, and don’t take it off around any colleagues and keep it on with my own kids, it’s largely moot.
It’s about a trade off as you said, but I’d argue it’s not about weighing something that works against seeing peoples faces. The trade off is between something that kinda may work on the individual level sometimes but not so much in the big picture, and the loss of social interaction.
The evidence for indefinite lockdowns working is as flimsy as most masks. Focused protection is better as the virus harms the aged most. The risk is age stratified. Everyone else, and kids especially need never be locked down for this virus. Quarantine and closing borders are still valid in the right context. Canadians were told it was racist to request these things and many planes from wuhan were permitted instead.
It is hard to trust experts who are too scared to look at you. I once did a phone call checkup and was amazed that almost zero diagnostic tools were used. And her level of confidence everything is fine seemed rooted in hope more than anything else. The same doctor had pushed me to get a flu shot before covid. i’ve never been as sick with the flu as I was after. Then she was posting anti convoy material on twitter with no clue that it suggested a disregard for basic human rights. Yet worse were the midwives who withheld epidural from my wife while saying she repeatedly she should be tested for covid (no symptoms) and when the doctor came after, he didn’t know she’d had no anaesthetic and so he started digging around inside wondering why she was screaming. Then they gave her fentanyl. It was like they were in a trance.
Mask mandates have been lifted now in hospitals? Even in Ontario? I wouldn't know and didn't know because the idiotic medical tyranny based on no evidence put me off going to the doctor for good.
I'm lucky that my GP didn't wear a mask and didn't expect me to in his office, even though the clinic where he operates had (and still has!) a mandatory mask rule. He just closed the door and we'd have a good chat, face to face. And BTW - I never tested positive for Covid, despite mandatory testing during travel, quarantine, etc - nor did I ever have Covid symptoms. But the Covid culture persists....with folks in my apt. building, in my community centre, in the streets voluntarily masking. I don't even try to make eye contact with masked people, not unless I really have to. They are not people I want to know. I figure the non-medical masks they wear are certainly not to prevent the spread of viral infection. The fancy cloth masks are intended to make a fashion statement while keeping the wearer anonymous. The disposable masks from China simply nurse their phobia.
My doctor was raided by thugs from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. His files and computers were removed and he was questioned for two hours by a power mad hired interrogator. All because he had the temerity to prescribe Covid treatments.
These people will never admit their guilt.
It's really terrible what's happened to people. I often see someone on public transit who is still wearing a mask, gloves and a face shield on a regular basis. I feel incredibly sad for them and also frustrated with the fact that it happened in the first place.
Just to play "devil's advocate". I have three young children under 12 and all of the restrictions we experienced were hellish for sure, and I do think the lack of "face-to-face" was quite detrimental to social development. With that said, I didn't contract a cold or flu for nearly two years straight, and I'm one of those folks that had to work out in public (so, I wore a mask whenever indoors). Masks and lockdowns do work; we have to stop arguing about that. What is up for debate is "was it worth the social cost"? It's a public policy "calculus" that has to weigh lives saved vs lives lost, and all of those people and cultural systems caught in between. To make it a "freedom" vs. "saving lives" debate is just stupid. This a "trolley problem" of how do we weigh our values and with that information do we turn the train toward freedom or toward saving lives? Are there other avenues that can balance and avoid this choice?
This really is a public policy issue that cannot be decided in absolutes. Why? Because saving one life isn't worth destroying freedom for millions. And preserving your personal mundane freedoms isn't more important than life itself.
We need an honest approach to this problem because it will happen again...and again...and again...
This is true. The problem was a lack of actual cost-benefit analysis. Everything was filtered through the lens of “does it bring down Covid case numbers (not deaths))”. But even here there are issues. While it’s true that isolating yourself from every other person mitigates infection risk, it only “works” in the short term, unless there is a treatment coming or some other reason to think the future will be different. Otherwise it’s just deferral (which was the two weeks to slow the spread stuff).
As for the mask question, I would just say that the data at the level of public intervention is scant and speaks against the widespread use of masks (especially non surgical which we did forever). Your anecdote about not getting sick is simply that. It could be countered by someone else saying they wore a mask every day and got sick every third day regardless. The data we have from Bangladesh etc suggests they don’t “work” in any impressive way at the population level - as a behavioural intervention. If people wear a respiratory everywhere for the rest of time, it’s true, they won’t get respiratory viruses. But that’s not how normal people (including most doctors) operate.
The mask might work in clinic once, but unless I wear it well with every patient, every day, and don’t take it off around any colleagues and keep it on with my own kids, it’s largely moot.
It’s about a trade off as you said, but I’d argue it’s not about weighing something that works against seeing peoples faces. The trade off is between something that kinda may work on the individual level sometimes but not so much in the big picture, and the loss of social interaction.
The evidence for indefinite lockdowns working is as flimsy as most masks. Focused protection is better as the virus harms the aged most. The risk is age stratified. Everyone else, and kids especially need never be locked down for this virus. Quarantine and closing borders are still valid in the right context. Canadians were told it was racist to request these things and many planes from wuhan were permitted instead.
Please see Dr. Prasad's writing here: https://sensiblemed.substack.com/p/the-cochrane-mask-fiasco?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fcochrane&utm_medium=reader2
I respectfully reserve the right to argue about anything.
It is hard to trust experts who are too scared to look at you. I once did a phone call checkup and was amazed that almost zero diagnostic tools were used. And her level of confidence everything is fine seemed rooted in hope more than anything else. The same doctor had pushed me to get a flu shot before covid. i’ve never been as sick with the flu as I was after. Then she was posting anti convoy material on twitter with no clue that it suggested a disregard for basic human rights. Yet worse were the midwives who withheld epidural from my wife while saying she repeatedly she should be tested for covid (no symptoms) and when the doctor came after, he didn’t know she’d had no anaesthetic and so he started digging around inside wondering why she was screaming. Then they gave her fentanyl. It was like they were in a trance.