Coronavirus **personal experiences** thread

The internet has started a lot of new strange ways of seeing things. Cancel culture, fake news, etc. We still can believe most of what is told to us if we listen to the legitimate sources and not allow ourselves to be conned by bad actors with ulterior motives. Most news is not fake unless you get it from sources with agendas. They are pretty easy to spot if you are honest with yourself and don’t just listen to sources that reinforce your beliefs.

I don’t believe that there is any news source without an agenda. Objective journalism, if it ever really existed, died a long time ago and most don’t even pretend anymore.

True , personal filter has to be on constantly.

The problem is that many people don’t value knowing what is real and true as much as they value reinforcing what they want to believe. The fake news and false conspiracy theories are very popular, or there would not be a huge industry now that is paid a lot of money to churn out more of it to satisfy the demand and accomplish the financial or political goals (or both) of the people producing the stuff. We have much more information at our disposal now than even 20 years or 30 years ago - but our interest in evaluating the accuracy or inaccuracy of that information has not progressed beyond the Salem witch trials.

It isn’t that difficult to figure out where the most accurate sources of information are, on a given topic. If I want to learn about astrology, I ask an astrologist familiar with it. If I want to learn how to decorate a cake, I ask a baker. When it comes to learning what is true and what is not true with regard to a pandemic and deadly virus, I seek out sources who obtain their information using scientific methods best suited to producing accurate and reliable results on the relevant questions.

It helps to do a few minutes of reading on the basics of statistics, but it isn’t necessary to understand what a regression analysis is, or what a “p” value is, to know who produces peer-reviewed, scientific research with the least bias possible, and who will report changes in data and adjust their models, predictions, and recommendations accordingly. Unfortunately, many people have been led to believe (and want to believe) that any scientific body that changes its mind about a science issue because of new data, as it should, is “unreliable” or “lying.”

As for the major media, when one reads a report about a scientific issue in the major media, before deciding whether it is accurate or inaccurate one should determine where the reported information comes from and what methods were used to produce that information. Why should you give equal weight to everything everybody tells you, without considering where that information came from and how it was derived?

Again, if you’re motivated to learn about which media are more reliable for facts than others, there are sources of reporting on that that use methods that try to eliminate bias and determine who tells the truth, and who makes fewer mistakes in reporting, most often. But that is no substitute for always considering the source of the data being reported by the media source and looking at how that data was obtained.

:+1:

Alas, people love to be hateful. It’s not new, it’s just easier. BTW, what ever happened to those nice Neanderthals? I hear something killed them all off.

Makes me proud to see fellow members that see thru all the smoke to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Stay safe and wish you well. :+1:

But the problem is that even “scientific studies” can be tainted, like those sponsored by Vested Interests who “scientifically” found that second-hand smoke is harmless. And if The Authorities can’t be trusted, or even if they can but they’re just wrong, then that’s just as bad.

Eg, Medical Authorities once truly believed that ailments can be cured by either drilling holes in your skull to let out the evil spirits ‘til your head looked like a wiffleball, and that leeches or plain ol’ bloodletting would “let the heat out of your veins” to cure a fever. People who questioned those methods would likely end up burned at the stake, at least professionally, maybe even literally.

Even something as basic as washing your hands before cutting open someone and playing with his innards was ridiculed, don’t forget.

Point being that The Authorities can be wrong through basic ignorance or even corruption. Either one is bad, and going against Official Doctrine can get you blacklisted, or just ridiculed as a quack or “conspiracy nut”.

Having an open mind works both ways, in that you need to question everything, even (or especially) that which you’re spoon-fed.

Eg, why was HCQ actively vilified? Not just “we don’t know if it works”, but “No! It doesn’t work, and we absolutely forbid any doctors from prescribing or using it!”. Like, wow, talk about overreactions…

Alas, the problem is that people would have to take so much time to research even one snippet presented as fact that it would be a fulltime job in itself, so people take shortcuts and rely on The Authorities and trust (operative word) their pronouncements, if not out of laziness then just pragmatism, to save all that time.

But that’s still no guarantee that those pronouncements aren’t wrong, either through ignorance (“best evidence we have at the moment”) or corruption (“can’t have the unwashed masses believing otherwise”).

Not motivated at all anymore.

Call me Covid Burned out!
All the news is slanted, they don’t even try to hide it anymore. They all effing lie for $$$$$$

All this pandemic has shown me is how Wonderful Humanity can be in crisis or how Evil it can be.
Unfortunately Evil is winning by a long shot.

Forget the political divide, it goes well beyond that.

If you want to know who will win the US election, follow the money.
Sad but true.
Thank the almighty for Booze :slight_smile: like many others, am self medicating. It’s keeping me alive.
Peace out.

Keith

That they have. But this is based on typical flu season manifestations. This isn’t your typical flu. The USA has NOT had a mask wearing protocol before. If you wore a mask and were not Asian, they’d look at you funny (because in Asian culture, wearing a mask is commonplace when you’ve got a cold/virus). So, the flu would rapidly spread & infect a lot of people once windows & doors closed up for the cooler months. I have a feeling that if the social distancing & mask wearing protocol is kept up reasonably well, the autumn/winter spike won’t be as bad as forecast.

It’s not so simple. To be brief: HCQ with some other substances (like Zinc) seemed to help some people. But for some, it actually made matters worse. This is a deal breaker. Treatments must be effective & safe for a vast majority of people. They could not get enough consistent results for safety. As to why, it’s the rash of variations from person to person. This is why we’ve had such polarization about it. Someone takes a chance and it works for them, then they think it should for everyone and thus there’s a conspiracy to keep it out of the cure bucket. That’s just not true.

Alcohol kills germs, so you’re on the right track!

There’s this thing called “informed consent”. Even if a drug’s used off-label, if you know the risks and are willing to take them, you should be allowed to.

The problem, as usual, is that Our Benevolent Masters™ made that determination for us, that no, even if you want to, or need to, you won’t be allowed to.

Much better to overinflate peoples’ lungs to the bursting point instead, even if it kills them. (And it usually does.)

Always thought it keeps your immune system cranked up.
Alcohol is technically a poison.

Look how many times a Rocker quit the Booze, say they feel great and then BOOM, they are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, etc.
The booze kept it quiet, once it was gone the cancer cells said, “Here’s our chance, let’s get him/her”

Golfer John Daly comes to mind if you want an example recently.
My uncle Bob quit booze, got bladder cancer within 3 years and suffered a horrible death.

Maybe it’s just coincidence but makes you wonder.
Keith Richards is still alive and has an unbelievable memory.
Just saying.

I’m just going to quote this horrifying logic for later reference.

That’s some dicey rationalization there. Maybe the booze caused the cancer. I think it has some mood enhancing benefits that might help and your blood pressure may go down when you feel well. Ah, what the hell, I vote for drinking.

As of December 2018 Keith Richards had more or less completely given up alcohol for about a year already at that time

On a similar note, I knew a guy that worked until 85, retired, then shortly died. Some say he should of kept working and some say he should of retired earlier. Your call.

Quote away brother!

I understand the scandal about second-hand smoke allegedly being harmless - my mother died a few months ago from a stroke and other health issues stemming most likely from all the second-hand smoke she inhaled as a child. But as I said, above, trusting an “authority” merely because they are an alleged authority isn’t a good way to find the most reliable information about any issue, including virus prevention and treatment. You need to at least minimally evaluate the methods and source from which the evidence was obtained - and nobody would argue today that the early studies on second-hand smoke coming from the tobacco industry were quality science by today’s standards.

It doesn’t have to be a time-consuming, complicated process - we know, for example, that information coming from peer-reviewed journals, where the methods and data are discussed, is more reliable than a video from a guy who isn’t telling you much about where his data came from or how it was obtained. Some medical academic institutions have posted online a lot of quality, peer-reviewed information derived from good science about Covid-19. Johns Hopkins University is one example.

The fact that today’s scientists can’t be 100% sure about their data or conclusions is no reason to give the same credence to information coming from non-scientific sources. A weather forecast isn’t 100% accurate, but do you therefore decide to predict the weather by reading the coffee grounds remaining in your cup, or asking a fortune teller for the forecast? Of course not. For some questions, science is the most reliable way we have to get to the truth, even though it isn’t 100% right all the time about every question. One benefit of the scientific approach is that it has a correction mechanism built into it. That wasn’t the case with the early tobacco industry pseudo-science, and it isn’t the case with a lot of the information we see now on the web that is agenda-driven junk.

Hell, it goes all the way back to when the tobacco industry hired doctors to say smoking was good for you.