493
H5N1 Bird Flu Isn’t a Human Pandemic—Yet. American Contrariness Could Turn It into One
(www.scientificamerican.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
493 points (98.2% liked)
News
23268 readers
1692 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
The CDC said that masks would not be very effective at preventing you from getting the disease if you don't already have it. They are however extremely effective at preventing you from spreading it if you are already infected.
THAT is the difference.
Yes, masks (not just N95 masks either) were indeed in short supply when the pandemic hit and the morons were buying them up like hot cakes in an effort to be "protected" from getting the virus. Except even if you are wearing a mask the virus can get in your eyes or get on your skin and get wiped on you nose, mouth, and eyes and you can get it. The only way to prevent the spread is for those who are infected to stop spreading the disease and masks are extremely effective at that.
Fauci and the CDC didn't lie, they were trying to stop idiots from hoarding masks that were in desperate need in hospitals and immediate care facilities. They just underestimate how unfathomably dumb you all are.
I don't know why you're lecturing me about this and including ad hominems, I understand how the virus spreads and take it very seriously, including masking where appropriate and getting the vaccine 4 months before it was available to the general public. I'm merely explaining how the CDC bungled the messaging at the beginning of the pandemic, it absolutely contributed to the amount of confusion. The public is simply not mentally equipped to handle that level of nuance, the CDC should have just said "masks work, wear one" and left it at that. The level of detail you explained is correct, and it's way too much detail for the average brainrotted Facebooker to understand.
This is why. It's not true. This is not what they said. At all. They said what I outlined above.
What you said here is what has been distorted by conservative media in the smear campaign against Fauci. A man we owe a great debt too and yet he continues to get threats and hate because of the absolute distortion of what he was saying and doing during the pandemic. All in an effort to shift the blame for how bad things got away from the great orange dipshit who bungled every aspect of our response to the disease when it hit the world.
Don't take it from me, here is the literal CDC Facebook page telling people in Feb 2020 not to wear masks. And here is a scientific paper analyzing comments on their Facebook page comparing reactions of citizens to that Feb 2020 announcement, and the later April 2020 announcement where they did recommend masks. The paper explores lessons public health officials can learn from the failed messaging, it's important to learn what we can so we're ready for the next one. I do believe they were doing their best but this messaging was a mistake and it absolutely contributed to the confusion around this virus early on.
CDC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cdc/posts/pfbid02f4JBbsKWeEvZe1c6V1Gsvs1jDixoH9qRpwonebiY4QtaJGVaXs9K4FnNqB91cAm3l?__cft__[0]=AZWtQDpU3TRZ9RTLJrbXWOi98FW5DhWq8Uskn3vssi5Eh_t3VEgPvRH2NGGcIJrcpVwGLFBS-lk3i80XNb7v9dR_N2knM_cpoGlnaIB32ak2QhdrBzTxiC_xSYgwGTTLxc-DYG_nCjemFllecZwyR2vo&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R
Paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10298096/#B3-ijerph-20-06062
This literally says exactly what I just did. Wearing a mask will not protect you from getting covid or any other disease but it can protect other people from catching it from you by stopping you from spreading it.
P.S. and yes, at the time healthcare professionals needed the masks desperately so that they could administer to patients without the fear of spreading the disease all over the place if they caught it because COVID has such a long incubation period that overlaps significantly with its shedding phase.