Is a 2021 season going to happen?

[JoeMauer89]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

MD, very much respect your opinion and your posts are usually quite informative. Please for the love of god, quit defending anything that DocBarrister posts. Even if there is a kernel of truth in it, hes purposefully divisive, rude, xenophobic at times and has some sort of agenda that for the life of me I cant figure out. Cut the crap with this QAnon Conspiracy bullcrap. There can and does exists too schools of thought in regards to the pandemic. The truth probably lies closer to the middle. Nothing about Europe's society can be compared to our society, its bad comparison in a multitude of ways. If the colleges want to proceed to go ahead with College Football, its THEIR DAMN prerogative. It has not bearing on whether or not there will be a 2021 Lacrosse Season. That decision will come in a few months as we continue to gain an even better understanding of this disease and all the risk factors/treatments/immunity thresholds. I am young person myself, a LOT younger than most of the posters on here. I DO NOT think this virus is joke. But the response to it has been completely OVERBLOWN. I am allowed to have that opinion and not be told its QAnon conspiracy bullcrap. As someone living in Nassau County NY I see the effect the stringent restrictions continue to have on MANY aspects of society on a daily basis. A lot of these effects are quite negative and are most certainly caused by THE RESTRICTIONS, not the virus itself. When you have a governor that is a pompous as King ANDY he will fool you into thinking that his and ONLY his actions are the reason NY continues to be the safest place in the US relatively speaking in regards to the CV-19. He refuses and purposefully chooses not to acknowledge many other factors that are much more scientific in nature. The virus running RAMPANT in NY for quite a while and infecting a very large portion of the susceptible population within the NY Metro Area has had a massive effect as well. I going into to work every day in Queens NY, not everybody is wearing masks and practicing good hygiene. There are other factors at play here, the illness seems to be much milder in nature whether that is due to the age profile of who it is infecting/susceptible population dwindled due to having it early on/MUCH improved testing and tracing etc. Its a combination of all those factors. I promised you masks are only one part of the equation. There are many other factors, please keep those mind. I know you know this but you constantly try to paint people like JBFortunato as some "right wing" looney when in fact he is NOT wrong. As a young person who does not have a wife and children yet, various aspects of the restrictions really do affect me in psychological way. When you have a family and kids its a much different story, having to stay locked inside for two months with them during a quarantine. So please don't knock younger people for acting the way they do, I am sure you did it at one point and it probably helped to shape the adult you are today in a positive manner. Those experiences were invaluable to your life. A family friend who is a doctor said to m recently while acknowledging the serious of the virus, "Human beings are meant to live their lives, not go to all costs finding ways to not die" I felt this rang true, there is much more to life than to stop it as we know it at all costs to avoid dying. We take more and more risks a this pandemic continue to get better, and yes I think it has gotten much better than March/April. This is relatively speaking, nobody is saying its all roses but the negativity helps NOBODY, not a soul. Negativity falsely posited as, "just posting the facts/reality is nonsense" One can always find positivity in anything and this Pandemic is no different. The more positive we stay, the more we can use that positivity to continue to hell ourselves out of this situation. This "NEW NORMAL" bullcrap is so counterproductive, because ultimately no matter how bad it seems this situation is only TEMPORARY.


*Again MD, I respect you as a valued poster within this Forum. But please do not defend DocBarrister. Its futile. And even if you are not, it clearly comes off as if you are

Go Twins!
JoeMauer89!

[Deacs24]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

Yeah - how is that "its just a flu" doing? The MSM was saying this stuff while travel from the source was being shut down. I know we are in crazy election season mode, but the hypocrisy is mind-boggling (on BOTH sides). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVDPVBZF2Xg

And with regard "injecting bleach," this has been debunked by PolitiFact - hardly a right-wing group: https://www.politifact.com/article/2020 ... nfectant-/

An excerpt:
The briefing transcript shows that Trump did not say people should inject themselves with bleach or alcohol to treat the coronavirus. He was asking officials on the White House coronavirus task force whether they could be used in potential cures.

[MDlaxfan76]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

Yeah - how is that "its just a flu" doing? The MSM was saying this stuff while travel from the source was being shut down. I know we are in crazy election season mode, but the hypocrisy is mind-boggling (on BOTH sides). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVDPVBZF2Xg

And with regard "injecting bleach," this has been debunked by PolitiFact - hardly a right-wing group: https://www.politifact.com/article/2020 ... nfectant-/

An excerpt:
The briefing transcript shows that Trump did not say people should inject themselves with bleach or alcohol to treat the coronavirus. He was asking officials on the White House coronavirus task force whether they could be used in potential cures.

I would hope you detected the sarcasm.

My point is that there are indeed idiots who believe fruitcake things and spewed them on here.

the "it's just a Flu" and it's going away (much less 'magically') was NOT being promoted by any of the legitimate health scientists, at any point.

And I watched Trump live ask that enormously stupid question...and yes, there were idiots who actually believed it made sense. I don't recall any posters on here doing so, but sure has been a lot of other idiocy spouted.

[JBFortunato]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

Are you encouraging me to drink bleach.

Chill out brother. You’re getting awfully angry at a Russian bot.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

MD, very much respect your opinion and your posts are usually quite informative. Please for the love of god, quit defending anything that DocBarrister posts. Even if there is a kernel of truth in it, hes purposefully divisive, rude, xenophobic at times and has some sort of agenda that for the life of me I cant figure out. Cut the dump with this QAnon Conspiracy bullcrap. There can and does exists too schools of thought in regards to the pandemic. The truth probably lies closer to the middle. Nothing about Europe's society can be compared to our society, its bad comparison in a multitude of ways. If the colleges want to proceed to go ahead with College Football, its THEIR DAMN prerogative. It has not bearing on whether or not there will be a 2021 Lacrosse Season. That decision will come in a few months as we continue to gain an even better understanding of this disease and all the risk factors/treatments/immunity thresholds. I am young person myself, a LOT younger than most of the posters on here. I DO NOT think this virus is joke. But the response to it has been completely OVERBLOWN. I am allowed to have that opinion and not be told its QAnon conspiracy bullcrap. As someone living in Nassau County NY I see the effect the stringent restrictions continue to have on MANY aspects of society on a daily basis. A lot of these effects are quite negative and are most certainly caused by THE RESTRICTIONS, not the virus itself. When you have a governor that is a pompous as King ANDY he will fool you into thinking that his and ONLY his actions are the reason NY continues to be the safest place in the US relatively speaking in regards to the CV-19. He refuses and purposefully chooses not to acknowledge many other factors that are much more scientific in nature. The virus running RAMPANT in NY for quite a while and infecting a very large portion of the susceptible population within the NY Metro Area has had a massive effect as well. I going into to work every day in Queens NY, not everybody is wearing masks and practicing good hygiene. There are other factors at play here, the illness seems to be much milder in nature whether that is due to the age profile of who it is infecting/susceptible population dwindled due to having it early on/MUCH improved testing and tracing etc. Its a combination of all those factors. I promised you masks are only one part of the equation. There are many other factors, please keep those mind. I know you know this but you constantly try to paint people like JBFortunato as some "right wing" looney when in fact he is NOT wrong. As a young person who does not have a wife and children yet, various aspects of the restrictions really do affect me in psychological way. When you have a family and kids its a much different story, having to stay locked inside for two months with them during a quarantine. So please don't knock younger people for acting the way they do, I am sure you did it at one point and it probably helped to shape the adult you are today in a positive manner. Those experiences were invaluable to your life. A family friend who is a doctor said to m recently while acknowledging the serious of the virus, "Human beings are meant to live their lives, not go to all costs finding ways to not die" I felt this rang true, there is much more to life than to stop it as we know it at all costs to avoid dying. We take more and more risks a this pandemic continue to get better, and yes I think it has gotten much better than March/April. This is relatively speaking, nobody is saying its all roses but the negativity helps NOBODY, not a soul. Negativity falsely posited as, "just posting the facts/reality is nonsense" One can always find positivity in anything and this Pandemic is no different. The more positive we stay, the more we can use that positivity to continue to hell ourselves out of this situation. This "NEW NORMAL" bullcrap is so counterproductive, because ultimately no matter how bad it seems this situation is only TEMPORARY.


*Again MD, I respect you as a valued poster within this Forum. But please do not defend DocBarrister. Its futile. And even if you are not, it clearly comes off as if you are

Go Twins!
JoeMauer89!

1,000,000 will have died from COVID-19 by the end of September. That is just the deaths. This does not include folks with lingering health problems. If it doesn't kill you, it can cause lung, heart, brain and other organ damage. There is a lot we don't know yet. Hopefully a good therapeutic is out soon. I am more hopeful in a good therapeutic than I am a vaccine in terms of helping us get back to something normal.

[JoeMauer89]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

MD, very much respect your opinion and your posts are usually quite informative. Please for the love of god, quit defending anything that DocBarrister posts. Even if there is a kernel of truth in it, hes purposefully divisive, rude, xenophobic at times and has some sort of agenda that for the life of me I cant figure out. Cut the dump with this QAnon Conspiracy bullcrap. There can and does exists too schools of thought in regards to the pandemic. The truth probably lies closer to the middle. Nothing about Europe's society can be compared to our society, its bad comparison in a multitude of ways. If the colleges want to proceed to go ahead with College Football, its THEIR DAMN prerogative. It has not bearing on whether or not there will be a 2021 Lacrosse Season. That decision will come in a few months as we continue to gain an even better understanding of this disease and all the risk factors/treatments/immunity thresholds. I am young person myself, a LOT younger than most of the posters on here. I DO NOT think this virus is joke. But the response to it has been completely OVERBLOWN. I am allowed to have that opinion and not be told its QAnon conspiracy bullcrap. As someone living in Nassau County NY I see the effect the stringent restrictions continue to have on MANY aspects of society on a daily basis. A lot of these effects are quite negative and are most certainly caused by THE RESTRICTIONS, not the virus itself. When you have a governor that is a pompous as King ANDY he will fool you into thinking that his and ONLY his actions are the reason NY continues to be the safest place in the US relatively speaking in regards to the CV-19. He refuses and purposefully chooses not to acknowledge many other factors that are much more scientific in nature. The virus running RAMPANT in NY for quite a while and infecting a very large portion of the susceptible population within the NY Metro Area has had a massive effect as well. I going into to work every day in Queens NY, not everybody is wearing masks and practicing good hygiene. There are other factors at play here, the illness seems to be much milder in nature whether that is due to the age profile of who it is infecting/susceptible population dwindled due to having it early on/MUCH improved testing and tracing etc. Its a combination of all those factors. I promised you masks are only one part of the equation. There are many other factors, please keep those mind. I know you know this but you constantly try to paint people like JBFortunato as some "right wing" looney when in fact he is NOT wrong. As a young person who does not have a wife and children yet, various aspects of the restrictions really do affect me in psychological way. When you have a family and kids its a much different story, having to stay locked inside for two months with them during a quarantine. So please don't knock younger people for acting the way they do, I am sure you did it at one point and it probably helped to shape the adult you are today in a positive manner. Those experiences were invaluable to your life. A family friend who is a doctor said to m recently while acknowledging the serious of the virus, "Human beings are meant to live their lives, not go to all costs finding ways to not die" I felt this rang true, there is much more to life than to stop it as we know it at all costs to avoid dying. We take more and more risks a this pandemic continue to get better, and yes I think it has gotten much better than March/April. This is relatively speaking, nobody is saying its all roses but the negativity helps NOBODY, not a soul. Negativity falsely posited as, "just posting the facts/reality is nonsense" One can always find positivity in anything and this Pandemic is no different. The more positive we stay, the more we can use that positivity to continue to hell ourselves out of this situation. This "NEW NORMAL" bullcrap is so counterproductive, because ultimately no matter how bad it seems this situation is only TEMPORARY.


*Again MD, I respect you as a valued poster within this Forum. But please do not defend DocBarrister. Its futile. And even if you are not, it clearly comes off as if you are

Go Twins!
JoeMauer89!

1,000,000 will have died from COVID-19 by the end of September. That is just the deaths. This does not include folks with lingering health problems. If it doesn't kill you, it can cause lung, heart, brain and other organ damage. There is a lot we don't know yet. Hopefully a good therapeutic is out soon. I am more hopeful in a good therapeutic than I am a vaccine in terms of helping us get back to something normal.

TypicalLaxDad,

Acknowledged, thank you for the measured response. Each and every day we are finding out more to our own benefit towards contributing to get back to the level of normalcy that all of us need in lives, for one reason or another.


Go Twins!
JoeMauer89!

[MDlaxfan76]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

MD, very much respect your opinion and your posts are usually quite informative. Please for the love of god, quit defending anything that DocBarrister posts. Even if there is a kernel of truth in it, hes purposefully divisive, rude, xenophobic at times and has some sort of agenda that for the life of me I cant figure out. Cut the dump with this QAnon Conspiracy bullcrap. There can and does exists too schools of thought in regards to the pandemic. The truth probably lies closer to the middle. Nothing about Europe's society can be compared to our society, its bad comparison in a multitude of ways. If the colleges want to proceed to go ahead with College Football, its THEIR DAMN prerogative. It has not bearing on whether or not there will be a 2021 Lacrosse Season. That decision will come in a few months as we continue to gain an even better understanding of this disease and all the risk factors/treatments/immunity thresholds. I am young person myself, a LOT younger than most of the posters on here. I DO NOT think this virus is joke. But the response to it has been completely OVERBLOWN. I am allowed to have that opinion and not be told its QAnon conspiracy bullcrap. As someone living in Nassau County NY I see the effect the stringent restrictions continue to have on MANY aspects of society on a daily basis. A lot of these effects are quite negative and are most certainly caused by THE RESTRICTIONS, not the virus itself. When you have a governor that is a pompous as King ANDY he will fool you into thinking that his and ONLY his actions are the reason NY continues to be the safest place in the US relatively speaking in regards to the CV-19. He refuses and purposefully chooses not to acknowledge many other factors that are much more scientific in nature. The virus running RAMPANT in NY for quite a while and infecting a very large portion of the susceptible population within the NY Metro Area has had a massive effect as well. I going into to work every day in Queens NY, not everybody is wearing masks and practicing good hygiene. There are other factors at play here, the illness seems to be much milder in nature whether that is due to the age profile of who it is infecting/susceptible population dwindled due to having it early on/MUCH improved testing and tracing etc. Its a combination of all those factors. I promised you masks are only one part of the equation. There are many other factors, please keep those mind. I know you know this but you constantly try to paint people like JBFortunato as some "right wing" looney when in fact he is NOT wrong. As a young person who does not have a wife and children yet, various aspects of the restrictions really do affect me in psychological way. When you have a family and kids its a much different story, having to stay locked inside for two months with them during a quarantine. So please don't knock younger people for acting the way they do, I am sure you did it at one point and it probably helped to shape the adult you are today in a positive manner. Those experiences were invaluable to your life. A family friend who is a doctor said to m recently while acknowledging the serious of the virus, "Human beings are meant to live their lives, not go to all costs finding ways to not die" I felt this rang true, there is much more to life than to stop it as we know it at all costs to avoid dying. We take more and more risks a this pandemic continue to get better, and yes I think it has gotten much better than March/April. This is relatively speaking, nobody is saying its all roses but the negativity helps NOBODY, not a soul. Negativity falsely posited as, "just posting the facts/reality is nonsense" One can always find positivity in anything and this Pandemic is no different. The more positive we stay, the more we can use that positivity to continue to hell ourselves out of this situation. This "NEW NORMAL" bullcrap is so counterproductive, because ultimately no matter how bad it seems this situation is only TEMPORARY.


*Again MD, I respect you as a valued poster within this Forum. But please do not defend DocBarrister. Its futile. And even if you are not, it clearly comes off as if you are

Go Twins!
JoeMauer89!

Joe, that's quite a diatribe, but I want to treat your views with the same respect you express for mine.

Let me also say, upfront, that I hear you about the personal toll that isolation can have, it's an incredibly stressful time. I can and do feel your pain. It's real.

I hope you can hear and feel mine. We have a multi-generational household. My 26 yr old son is home from Shanghai with us, working crazy hours, separated from his girlfriend now for 5 months, she's in LA with her family. My wife and I are 60+, so at elevated risk. My 83 year old mother lives with us half the year. My son, therefore has isolated himself with us, after doing so with my mom in Florida when he first returned to the States, taking care of her. He works crazy hours as so much of his business is on the other side of the world. In addition, my 64 year old brother in law, wife's side, has diabetes and lives in our basement, meals with us.

My sister and her husband, both 60+, live next door. She's at elevated risk because of weight. One of her daughters is home (was in DC) with them, other daughter and her son live in SC. The son recently contracted COVID from a knucklehead roommate who didn't isolate despite symptoms, didn't tell him. Before being aware, and getting his own symptoms and diagnosis, he drove the other sister and her boyfriend to the airport to fly to NH to visit the family at a the lake where my mom does august. Boyfriend became symptomatic and has since tested positive. Daughter who moved home from DC was also there, with her boyfriend, and grew symptomatic and also tested positive. So, 3 of the 6 total young people had been tested positive...so far, the older folks have not tested positive, but believe me, we're holding our breaths. Young people were distraught that they might have infected their grandmother...

We've been trying really hard to keep things safe, minimizing contact in situations where risks are high. But that didn't mean we couldn't bring friends over to our patio (we did a lot of this with my mom's pals) so that there was at least some interaction, if socially distanced. Playing for time for the vaccine and therapies. Doing what we could to manage the emotional stress.

but a knucklehead...

Doc is often extreme in his hyperbole, but on the science, he's pretty much spot on. I disagree with any need to 'censor' the stupidity some posters spew on here, even if I agree with him that such views are indeed quite dangerous to the rest of us. Pushback on the stupidity is adequate IMO.

On the other hand, I'm fine with Twitter making that call, as the power of that platform IMO creates some real responsibility...this forum has far less reach and there's adequate pushback from posters on here for the truly dumb stuff that a reader has two sides of any set of views to consider, whereas Twitter and other social media tend to exacerbate information bubbles through their algorithms.

But yeah, the QAnon connection to some of this crappola is real, so are the Russian trolls. Be aware of it.

I'd agree with you that there's some middle ground. Indeed, that's what most of us have actually been saying since early on. If we ALL behave carefully, we CAN work and some play with R<1. That would have required more patience and more social compliance across the country in the initial hard shut down, but getting the incidence low could have allowed a test, trace, isolate strategy. Universal mask adherence would have dramatically reduced R as well, ongoing.

But we didn't.
And that was not inevitable, at least not to the extent we blew it.
It was poor leadership.

I'm not simply comparing to European analogues, which have many similarities in political systems to our own. But also Asian...that's what I meant by the societies where social compliance was high, primarily because of past pandemic events. Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, etc. And yes, the draconian response from China.

Now, on JB, yeah, he's grossly wrong on masks, and in his general attitude of not caring about others.
We have several such posters on these threads.

I'd like to see sports be able to continue, for the entertainment, and for the non-professional athletes. But obviously not at certain costs.

[MDlaxfan76]

Telling people to jump off the cliff, there's a soft landing...trust me

Ok QAnon. Ok Russian trolls. Ok Trump Cult.

"facts"???

How's that "it's just a flu" doing?

Have you tried drinking some bleach?

Are you encouraging me to drink bleach.

Chill out brother. You’re getting awfully angry at a Russian bot.

Glad to see some sense of humor.
Perhaps my own sensitivity is explained in my post above in response to Joe.

[admin]

The fear porn garbage that you churn out would have been very effective four months ago, but we know what we're dealing with now. Lockdowns were a disaster, masks are useless. Elderly and vulnerable should study and work from home, the rest of us should get on with it.

Go hide under your bed Doc.

JB, I'm tempted to edit your post, specifically the "masks are useless", because it's undeniably untrue and the kind of misinformation that could do damage and... I'm not going to. I'm going to give our readers the benefit of the doubt.

[HooDat]

The fear porn garbage that you churn out would have been very effective four months ago, but we know what we're dealing with now. Lockdowns were a disaster, masks are useless. Elderly and vulnerable should study and work from home, the rest of us should get on with it.

Go hide under your bed Doc.

JB, I'm tempted to edit your post, specifically the "masks are useless", because it's undeniably untrue and the kind of misinformation that could do damage and... I'm not going to. I'm going to give our readers the benefit of the doubt.

Is it, undeniably, untrue?

A serious question - every dang day some idiot from one side of the aisle or the other says something new to counter something the other side said - or even they said a month before. The only thing that I think is undeniably true on COVID is that no-one seems to have a clue. Every doctor that I talk to says that the medical community has been guessing since the beginning and now the politics are such that we can't get real questions let alone real answers - from anybody.

[johnnyonthegunpowder]

Everything is real, nothing is fake. Fake news has real consequence. I live in a place that is by its nature socially distanced. No one wears masks at the store or anywhere. If you are wearing a mask, you are most likely a tourist. Yet, several family members live in Brooklyn and Manhattan and they take extreme precaution, yet do not even know of anyone who has had it. As a libra, the hypocrisy from msm is infuriating and it leaves me skeptical, but I'm still going to take precautions as if I believe it is real. I've come to understand Covid as a religion. I am not going question anyone's belief that Covid warrants all of these measures, but nor am I going to question anyone's belief that it does not. I'm reminded of the poem by the writer Sarah Manguso:

This Might Be Real
How long in a cold room will the tea stay hot?
What about reality interests you?
How long can you live?
Were you there when I said this might be real?
How much do you love?
Sixty percent?
Things that are gone?
Do you love what’s real?
Is real a partial form?
Is it a nascent form?
What is it before it’s real?
Is it a switch that moves and then is ever still?
Is it a spectrum of cross-fades?
Is what’s next real?
When it comes will everything turn real?
If I drink enough tea to hallucinate, is that real?
If I know I’m waiting for someone but I don’t know who, is he real?
Is he real when he comes?
Is he real when he’s gone?
Is consequence what’s real?
Is consequence all that’s real?
What brings consequence?
Is it what’s real?
Is it what turned everything to disbelief, the last form love takes?

[MDlaxfan76]

The fear porn garbage that you churn out would have been very effective four months ago, but we know what we're dealing with now. Lockdowns were a disaster, masks are useless. Elderly and vulnerable should study and work from home, the rest of us should get on with it.

Go hide under your bed Doc.

JB, I'm tempted to edit your post, specifically the "masks are useless", because it's undeniably untrue and the kind of misinformation that could do damage and... I'm not going to. I'm going to give our readers the benefit of the doubt.

Is it, undeniably, untrue?

A serious question - every dang day some idiot from one side of the aisle or the other says something new to counter something the other side said - or even they said a month before. The only thing that I think is undeniably true on COVID is that no-one seems to have a clue. Every doctor that I talk to says that the medical community has been guessing since the beginning and now the politics are such that we can't get real questions let alone real answers - from anybody.

come on, HooDat, yes, it's undeniably untrue..unless you have some sort of understanding of those words that I do not.

If you mean that there are "deniers" in the world, ok...but with zero credibility. Zero.

It's not an 'aisle' thing, or sure as shooting' should not be.
Want to get mad at someone, focus on those who made it partisan instead of listening to the scientists as they figured out what sort of virus it is, how it spreads, and what works. The scientists' understanding evolved quickly, as they studied it, and it will continue to evolve as we have more and more experience with it.

But not an aisle thing; just listen to those who've spent their lives battling infectious diseases.

It's not rocket science that masks and distancing help reduce spread with respiratory, airborne viruses. Proven.

One aspect we did not understand initially, despite knowing it was respiratory, was that the spread could occur from asymptomatic carriers...that's unusual. And it makes the necessity to wear masks even more important.

This has only grown more clear with time.
so, the countries which immediately adopted universal mask wearing did far, far, far better than countries which did not have that immediate reaction, much less the US where it became a dumb political matter.

[HopFan16]

Is it, undeniably, untrue?

Yes. Masks work. The science has been clear for many months and the results are conclusive. If you don't trust the science for some reason then just use common sense. The virus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets from coughing, sneezing, and talking. Those droplets can then hang in the air, especially when you're indoors in places with bad ventilation. The mask covers your nose and mouth. When you cough/sneeze/talk, many of the droplets are caught by the mask. You're significantly reducing the risk of transmitting the virus to someone else in your vicinity. You're also reducing the amount of potential virus particles in the air. Beyond lowering the chances of transmission there's also lots of evidence that virus load has a relationship to the severity of symptoms. So even if masks don't prevent 100% of virus droplets from getting into the air, merely reducing the number of them might mean that people who do get infected nearby don't get as severe of an illness. On the flip side, when you wear a mask, you also reduce your own likelihood of breathing in someone else's droplets. The hard data in several countries has proven all of this many times over but at the end of the day just use your brain. When you put the cover over the bad thing, less of the bad thing comes out and fewer people get the bad thing into their bodies.

[Matnum PI]

The quote was "masks are useless". This is most certainly undeniably untrue. it's like saying, a surgeon wearing a face mask during an operation is useless. It's simply a ridiculous statement that you'd think the world at large would scoff at but, for whatever reason, there are people who buy into this perspective, all in. It's a strange thing. What someone said which is true is that there's so much that we do not know. but this doesn't mean that we know nothing. e.g. We know that contracting the virus is less likely outdoors than indoors. And we know that face masks are useful.

As a semi-aside, I'm amazed that we're discussing this. It's like the racism discussion. There are so many relatively bright people within these forums and we end up discussing things that are relatively dumb. I dunno. Just amazes me that these conversations are even happening. Usually in the name of "free speech", "valuing all perspectives", etc. Strange.

[44WeWantMore]

Regarding masks:

As late as February 29, the Surgeon General was recommending against them:

@Surgeon_General

Feb 29
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!
http://bit.ly/37Ay6Cm

The best way to protect yourself and your community is with everyday preventive actions, like staying home when you are sick and washing hands with soap and water, to help slow the spread of respiratory illness.
Get your #FluShot- fewer flu patients = more resources for
#COVID19

I immediately took this as a little white lie: meaning you, the general public, should not come first, and if you hoard the masks, then healthcare workers, first responders, etc. will need to reuse their masks. What made it technically correct was that the null hypothesis chosen at the time was that in non-clinical settings, untrained mask wearers will not have statistically significant outcomes from non-mask wearers, and no conclusive study was available to contradict the null hypothesis (I seem to recall links to a couple of inconclusive studies in the late winter / early spring, but I cannot find them in 30 seconds of searching).

What changed? Of course the supply of masks is much greater now, and we have flipped the null hypothesis to the side of common-sense.

But, and here I disagree with the smartest, most thoughtful woman in the world, I maintain that little white lies are corrosive of credibility.

[bauer4429]

I agree. Early on the government knew masks helped but played it down and were less than transparent since there were not enough. They should have been honest. Hopefully some lacrosse teams will have seasons in 2021, but that will depend on their financial health. Reduced enrollment, Covid testing fees, loss of football, etc. will have such a detrimental impact that some institutions will drop sports. Some already have.

[FannOLax]

...and if (a very big IF, I know) there is a 2021 NCAA lacrosse season, will spectators be allowed in the stands? Right now, in the US (and Canada), MLB, NBA and NHL are playing without fans present, while at least some MLS games are allowing fans in the stadiums. In Europe, football/soccer play resumed this summer in empty stadiums. Before the Ivy cancelled the remainder of the 2020 season (soon to be followed by the rest of the NCAA), there were plans to allow a very limited number of spectators in to see games (I believe it was one relative per player). I hope that there is a 2021 season; but for me it would be bittersweet if there are games and I couldn't go to any.

[pcowlax]

Skeptical there will be a season but if there is I am actually optimistic that at least some spectators will be allowed (likely reduced capacity). This is nearly 6 months from now. Things will be better or they will be worse (genius, that). If better I think some fans will be let in. If worse they won’t be playing at all.

[Farfromgeneva]

Watch my boys in Geneva put an a** whooping in both Cornell and Syracuse this spring and no one will have been able to witness it. Ain’t that some $h*t!?!?

[suffolk]

@AlbertBreer

Objectively now, we have data from nearly 3 weeks of padded practices in the NFL, a month of camp at some colleges, and games starting in HS and college ... is there any evidence the sport is the super-spreader of COVID-19 some are positioning it to be?

Doesn't seem that way.