Friday, May 29, 2020

Five Blind Mice

























As a couple of posters have already referenced it, we'll fisk this metric f**kton of bullsh..., er, rose fertilizer, originally posted in the NEJM a couple of months back, and unaccountably burped back up (or more likely, shat out) again this week.

1) That's not a "study". As it's conspicuously labeled "Perspectives", it's sheer OPINION.
And we all know what opinions are like (and in this instance, for exactly the same reasons).
In this case, by an over-educated and under-bright pack of bumbling baboons.

2) The authors are clearly axe-grinding jackholes, their entire thesis is unsupported patent horseshit, and the purpose of wearing cloth/surgical masks (which is what 99.999% of people have on) is always to protect others from you, not to protect you from others, and anyone who doesn't know that is not only a jackhole, they're too stupid to be writing papers anywhere.

At their intended purpose, such masks excel, as they have for 150 years or so since they were pioneered for maintaining asepsis in surgery.

3) For bonus points, the Five Blind Mice who authored that codswallop have about 45 years of post-secondary education between them, and yet none of them noticed they contradicted themselves a couple of paragraphs after that corker:

"...fundamental infection-control measures.

Such measures include vigorous screening of all patients coming to a facility for symptoms of Covid-19 and immediately getting them masked and into a room;
"

IOW, fundamental infection control is masking people to curb the spread of cough and sneeze droplets, the exact method of transmitting Kung Flu against which face masks excel.

Some people tell me I can't fix stupid; I say I can, if you'll let me use a big enough hammer.
Those five degreed jackasses should be horsewhipped until the whites of their bones show, and then be dipped to the neck into a vat of rubbing alcohol. Daily. For a month.

4) Don't get fooled by something just because it's posted by NEJM.
We can't help such poly-degreed dimwit fucktards pulling their scrub pants down and spanking their own asses in public. But we can point and laugh when we catch them at it.
Like in this case.

If the NEJM had a comments section, these five @$$clowns would be getting the nationwide shellacking they richly deserve. But apparently, they were all sick the day they covered wearing a surgical mask in surgery, to prevent spreading infectious diseases.

[Hint for the terminally obtuse, who want to post links to even more half-assed "studies": you wear those masks to prevent the spread of virus-laden droplets FROM you, not TO you, which is why everybody out and about is supposed to wear them. One unmasked @$$hole being an individual screws the pooch for anyone within 10m of his sneeze. Any claims that they'll protect you is based on incidental blockage of inhaled particulates, and the gaping holes around the face seal render that a game of something like 50% to 80% efficiency at best, down to 0%, depending on how sloppy you are at wearing it, and how much viral load you're exposed to. If you're among unmasked people coughing and sneezing, you want an N95 or better, not something you got on the 'net for two bucks, or sewed yourself at home. And the viral particles are contained in droplets, which makes them one helluva lot bigger than dry individual virii, so stop with the recockulous claims that "masks won't work against a virus". It's worked empirically for a century and a half already. 10,000 surgical suites aren't wrong. And you're at least a month behind on the conversation. If you cannot grasp these concepts, you're not tall enough for this discussion, this blog, or, probably, the internet itself. Check yourself before you wreck yourself, and stop posting utter bullshit like you found a diamond mine.]

And since I doubt even my brighter readers (at least hose outside the medical field) make a regular practice of perusing the NEJM, I suspect some other MSM sh*thead who flunked eighth grade science posted an excerpt or linked to this story, and fell all over himself getting it to press without any intervening thought occurring, let alone any one of five simple but obvious questions, before inflicting it on humanity to a broader audience, chiefly to stir confusion.

Mission accomplished, @$$wipe.

Now tell us the one about if a woman weighs the same as a duck, she's a witch; and how we know the earth is banana-shaped.


17 comments:

T said...

I think this describes our current situation quite well.


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Termite

Survivormann99 said...

Aesop,

I wrote, "One study contradicts the next. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372"" and you responded by saying that it was not a study.

You are correct. I had previously complained about the "conflicting studies," and I was alluding to that issue when I wrote that. Yes, the New England Journal of Medicine article did not involve a study. I confess to reading the beginning of the article and saying, "Ah, Jeez" and not continuing to read the rest because I simply didn't care. Right or wrong, for me it became just another example of expert blathering, the white noise of this pandemic.

The point is that the New England Journal of Medicine may well be the most prestigious medical journal in the US. If it isn't at the top of the heap, it is right there close by. Matters and conclusions discussed there carry additional weight. The points made in this article come after so much contradictory information from others.

Laymen are tired of "ping pong match opinions" by the so-called experts, and matters have boiled over. The experts have cried "Wolf!" so often that the people simply don't care what they say anymore. People have had enough of the half-baked experts and their half-baked studies.

If people wait for the experts to agree on every aspect of this pandemic, there will be no country left. People want to move on and let the chips fall where they may.

P.S. Let's wait and watch to see if there is an explosion of WuFlu after the riots that are occurring across the country. If an explosion of new cases among the rioters doesn't occur even though people were mostly not wearing masks and were mostly not maintaining social distancing, then the experts were clearly wrong once again.

If there actually is an explosion of new cases, that is a 2-fer for the rest of us. The experts will be seen to have been correct and the scumbag rioters will suffer. All good.

Aesop said...

Hence my scathing review of that load of twaddle published by NEJM. But the authors are Massholes from Harvard and MassGen, so somehow such utter bullsh*t slipped by whatever Stevie Wonder they have editing things there.
As noted, there's a reason they don't offer real-time comments back on tripe like that. Their site would melt down.

Nota bene: There will only be an explosion of disease among rioters if at least one of the rioters is an asymptomatic or symptomatic carrier of Kung Flu.
The disease doesn't spontaneously generate, or low-crawl up anyone's driveway to butt-f**k them in their sleep.

For most of the country, based on actual numbers, the incidence of viral penetration to the population is 1-3% or less. In many places, including entire low-population states, it's barely a fraction of 1%. If those infected there cleared it during the recent stay-at-homes, this should taper off quite nicely.

Bigger cities, however, where there are thousands of active cases, will fare notably poorer, and probably fuel Wave II.

Aesop said...

@Termite,

Operation Enduring Clusterf**k"
Classic!

If it wasn't out-of-stock, I'd order 100 of those, and pass them out at work.

Jonathan H said...

From what I've read, 6 feet isn't enough to prevent aerosol/ airborne transmission (of course, it depends on the environmental conditions). What do you think the necessary standoff distance is in work case conditions?

Aesop said...

If both parties are wearing cloth/surgical masks, 6' is plenty far enough.

If neither party is, you want to be 30' away from each other.

Jonathan H said...

I would think that means actual professionally designed and tested masks, not something home made from a design on the internet.
I've seen too much variation in material and design of home made masks to trust that they all do their job properly (which doesn't even get into the improperly worn masks).

Aesop said...

@Jonathan H,

That'd be incorrect, because the whole point of such a mask is to catch your effluvia, and intercept coughs and sneezes outbound, not to stop particulates inbound (though it can help with that somewhat, depending on fit and material used).

That step turns a sneeze, which normally sends particles of slobber-encapsulated virus outward 25' at 200MPH, stops them at 0 inches, and turns an explosion into a fizzle of infectivity.

This is the whole purpose behind those masks, and the reason use must be universal out and about. If you were looking to protect yourself, you'd need to be wearing an N95 or better mask, properly fitted, with no facial hair or other obstructions to a good tight seal. And eye pro, for the 0.01% chance of virus ejections hitting you in that mucous membrane as well.

If you take a simple surgical mask, stay a couple of feet away, and add handwashing to the fact that you can't touch your nose and mouth, you can curb about 99% of the chances to acquire Kung Flu (or any other virus). A simple face mask and those steps makes it difficult (not impossible) to acquire any virus through casual contact, but more importantly, keeps you from coughing or sneezing your germs onto everyone within 10 meters' distance. If we could weed out the Gilligans in society, that would pretty much kill this pandemic in its tracks in a few weeks. That we cannot shows you how much raw stupidity is walking around everywhere, despite 100K deaths.

We've covered this material multiple times. If the media hasn't as well, to the point of making the "masks don't work" @$$clowns look like exactly the jerks they are, and for people to spot the codswallop with a casual glance from 50 paces away, that's on them, but they haven't been beating that drum often nor loud enough, obviously.

Unknown said...

The article claims that spread comes from symptomatic carriers and from prolonged exposure. If this is the case, as long as you are not symptomatic and not putting others in prolonged exposure situations you are not putting others at risk by not wearing a mask.

Aesop said...

Which exact recockulous claims are why the article, exactly as noted, is a steaming pile of bullshit by a bunch of Half-Bright Scholars.

Tucanae Services said...

I am no health care practitioner, hence making no claims. But as an observer of things human I would hazard few if any wearing a mask are really doing any good:

* One store I saw an individual covering their mouth but eyes and nose was exposed.
* Almost everyone I see on the street wear no eye protection. Typical prescription glasses I assume do not count.
* One person I saw was wearing a face shield, no mask.
* Have mask variations that are everything from muslin cloth to an N95. Most which fit poorly.

Then of course there are claims and counter claims as to the deadliness of Covid. All I can surmise is that its not Andromeda Strain. So my reaction -- I am healthy, I am going to live my life, screw the mask. I follow the typical flu regimens typical for a normal flu in the season. If in span of time I do get sick, I will quarantine myself and save people the concern.

This may inflame our host, and I apologize if it does. But the numbers actual have not matched the projections -- ever.

Aesop said...

@Tucanae Services,

https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/04/why-masks-and-gloves-will-and-wont-ever.html

It's your life, literally.

I've already admitted five people to the hospital with Kung Flu this weekend, our hospital probably did 20+ new cases since Friday, half a dozen of which went to ICU, and we bagged and tagged one for the morgue, who died about eight times in half a day before it became a permanent condition.

The youngest (a co-worker) is late 20s, and the average age was mid 50s.
This ain't imaginary, it ain't "just the flu", and if you get it, and it f**ks you up, God help you. 1 chance in 30-40 of that is not a lottery I'd want to "win".

And since I have the option, I'm wearing an N95 when I go out and about.

I'm also at a greater risk at the store than I am in the hospital, but that's because some people simply have to grab the hot stove their ownselves to believe it'll burn them.

"People can ignore reality, but they cannot avoid the consequences of ignoring reality." - Ayn Rand

Best wishes in any event, but advise not getting this. It's seriously no fun.

Tucanae Services said...

Aesop,

I fully understand that if I get CoVid, my chances get exponentially worse being as I am the target audience @ 68.

Considering your occupation I too would wear the N95. In your field it would be an expected precaution. But I put it to you, we can't even develop a fully qualified flu vaccine and we have been at it since what? 1990 in earnest. At this juncture it appears herd immunity maybe our only long term non-solution if that is even possible with this beast.

Keep it coming Sir. Even this crotchy ole bastard can learn something.

OvergrownHobbit said...

That step turns a sneeze, which normally sends particles of slobber-encapsulated virus outward 25' at 200MPH, stops them at 0 inches, and turns an explosion into a fizzle of infectivity.

But how? Sure, coughs makes sense, but sneezes? There's no seal on those flimsy little cloth masks, so why isn't the virus laden sneeze travelling, as you say, at 200mph, simply going round all the sides? Or even through?

It's not a cell membrane. Or a directional valve.

Thanks for the link to all things mask btw. That's exactly what I was looking for back we could not find N-95s for the aged parent.

I'm also chuffed that my home-made decon trap - paper bags labelled with the day of the week - will work if you have at least 7 masks.

Aesop said...

Physics.
Slobber-encapsulated virii from a sneeze either hit the mask, and stop, or bounce back, and hit your face.
A non-zero number might travel an inch or three in a pancake-shaped dispersal zone parallel to your face around you, but not far, nor fast, and the odds of any of them traveling to anyone even 3' away is infinitesimally small.

Mount one open, and shoot it with a squirt gun. Let me know if anything penetrates beyond it.
QED.

Had I the time or energy, and wherewithal, I'd do exactly that, film it, and put the vid on YouTube for the folks that can't grasp things without pictures.

Then they'd tell me I used fake water in the squirt gun, and the party would be on.

Marina said...

Aesop, hope your exploratory travels went fine and you found what you were looking for. I appreciate the info on the masks (again since you'd done it before). One thing you didn't cover are the visors.
I wonder about the effectiveness of a good visor coupled with a 3 layer cloth mask.
I'm talking here about a visor that is closed at the top with a sponge material, the sides come quite close to the ears, it's ends 2 inches below the chin. When you look at a person wearing one it's definitely not a triangular shape with the sides all open (have seen many people with those) but it's rectangular with the sides much closed up close to the ears.
The 3 layer cloth mask has the adjustable metal nose wire to secure the mask to the face.
I know it's not a N95 but these things are hot and I'm trying to find a decent alternative till fall.
What would be your assessment of this set-up ?Thanks.

Aesop said...

A visor is an impermeable barrier that'll stop anything moving on a direct line to your face.
Like the Maginot Line in 1939, things can just go around.
But it's longer odds, and decreases the likelihood of contracting the disease.

The surgical masks provide a partial protection. 5%-60%. An N95 provide 95% protection. Their main use is to keep your coughs and sneezes inside, rather than disseminating your germs to others, which is why they only work with near-universal usage.

That may be enough, provided you get rid of wet/compromised masks, and wash your hands, to avoid contracting Kung Flu.
Even a Level A Encapsulating HAZMAT Suit with SCBA isn't perfect. Maybe 99.98% effective, but nothing is 100%.