• rusticus@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Fuck this joker. He’s the IDIOT that said, as the SURGEON GENERAL, “Seriously people - STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!” (Tweet was then deleted). He should lose his medical license and be imprisoned for the excessive number of deaths his lies caused.

    • El Barto@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      When exactly did he say this? At the beginning of the pandemic when things were still uncertain?

      I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you if he said that at the beginning. To be clear, I know masks were an effective protection against the coronavirus. But at that time there was a lot of uncertainty, first, and second, he was half-right: there was a shortage of masks, and medical professionals needed them at a very critical time. I followed that advice. Then when the CDC said “oops, no actually DO wear masks!” I started wearing them.

      So… I’m not saying he was right. I’m just saying we should judge people in context. Don’t pile him up with the true idiot anti-mask bundle.

    • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      They were lying in order to get as many masks as possible to healthcare staff. Perhaps they saved more lives doing so

      • Patches@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        And perhaps they didn’t.

        I’m not putting the full blame of the Anti-Covid nonsense on him - but that decision was certainly straw on the camels back. I know I will never forget.

        • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Sure, and I agree it was a bad idea because it burned so much credibility. And secondly, I can’t imagine it making a real difference. Those who had the means to acquire masks at that time wouldn’t be dumb enough to believe it.

          And I also agree that it’s good to remind everybody every once in a while.

          But my main point is that they didn’t lie because they are bad people that were preparing the masses for a one world government - they did it because they saw hospital staff falling ill or dying at unsustainable rates and were willing to do almost anything to slow that.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          8 months ago

          Smart people understand that science is fallible. As more information becomes available, science can be corrected.

          Covid denialism came out of mishandling that. People believing that since science wasn’t infallible, it can’t be trusted.

          It’s a problem with the state of education in this country. Same reason why people don’t believe in gravity because “it’s just a theory”.

          • Patches@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            There is a distinct difference between science being fallible, and being told that Life Preserver Jackets won’t save you - while you’re on a sinking ship - and every medical professional around you goes to extreme lengths to acquire as many life preservers as possible.

            They at no-point-in-time believed masks were pointless.

            I get it. I really do. Doesn’t make it right.


            Just in case:

            Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected

            • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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              8 months ago

              I don’t agree with it, but I get it.

              We had a very limited supply of masks in the country. Remember, we had people volunteering to stitch cloth masks or 3D printed “straps” for face shields…to donate to doctors and nurses who couldn’t get enough masks to stay safe. Breweries and distilleries were re-tooling to make hand sanitizer.

              Meanwhile we were already at the start of the supply chain itself collapsing.

              We were at a point where Trump was hijacking intercepting shipments of masks to scalp redistribute them to the highest bidder hospitals that needed them more.

              Now, if they had said that day “everyone needs to wear a mask in public”, that would have completely toppled the supply for hospitals, and I’d say it’s significantly more critical for frontline workers to have them than people who were able to hunker down and wait until Easter when the whole thing blows over (womp womp).

              You know that any other messaging would’ve caused a rush on face masks and frontline workers, and probably made the whole thing worse.

              In retrospect it’s easy to say that they should have been transparent about the messaging. But in retrospect, we also know that most people are selfish assholes.

              • Patches@sh.itjust.works
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                8 months ago

                You don’t get to play the Prisoners Dilemma, publicly betray the other as your opening gambit, and then foam at the mouth that everyone is refusing to cooperate for the next 3 years.

                There is no point in arguing this.

                You can believe the ends justify the means however you want.

                I watched people very-close-to-me die from COVID in front of me as an essential worker. I was told a mask would not save my life. I was a pig for the slaughter.

                Science can be infallible. People aren’t. I will never trust the CDC again.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching

      That’s technically true, but the correct answer is more nuanced then the average adult has the attention span to understand or the character limit of twitter.

      Masks are better at stopping the wearer from spreading it to other people, but a lot of people were getting infected through spit going into their eyes. Did this post occur during the mask shortage were even surgeons couldn’t get the masks they needed to do their work? The quote you gave said to stop buying masks, not to stop wearing them. Best practice was to use a reusable mask and face shield.

      • El Barto@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        We’ve already had this discussion ad nauseum since 2020. It’s 2024. Just stop with spreading information that can fuel the anti-mask bullshit.

        I understand that wearing eye protection can reduce the risk of catching the virus. But to say “masks are not effective” being technically true is irresponsible.

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          People only accepting simple answers are why so many people died. I never said masks aren’t effective. You reduced my comment until it lost it’s original meaning.

          • El Barto@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Yeah, sorry, man. Freaking anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers had me on edge for so long, that it was practically an automatic response.