Pandemic: Life on the ground

[Gadianton]

Well, you know, it was a long night of surgeries including bullet and hatchet wounds but all in a nights work. I guess people have to decide whether they're going to believe a nurse or a world class surgeon? Hey, anybody can claim anything on the Internet.

I wouldn't want to stop anyone from making up an occupation and then claiming fake statistics. I will point out, a real professional will be able to find an objective source for their data if it exists, and if they can't, they will elect to shut up because they realize if the shoe were on the other foot, they, as a professional, wouldn't take anyone's word for controversial statistics either.

[Gadianton]

When I was twelve, I used to hear arguments like this at school sometimes: "My cousin is in the army and says X" ; "Oh yeah? My brother is special forces and says Y!".

The same thing that makes the brother more credible for otherwise baseless claim Y vs. baseless claim X is the same thing that makes a surgeon more credible than a nurse in my example.

I have a post on this forum from a few months ago where I researched the original posts of Q. Q's first post on 4chan was to back up a wild claim by a very disturbed-sounding individual who was claiming all kinds of things, and in this case, this individual claimed that Hillary Clinton was about to be arrested over the weekend. The claim was laughed at. Think about it. This is Q himself, who is arguably a greater patriot than even Sean Hannity, posting among the most loyal patriots in the world, and nobody originally believed him. It took a couple of months for even Q to gain traction among his own people.

A person comes to this form as an adversarial persona and spends a couple days mostly telling everyone to f off. That person then claims to have inside knowledge due to profession that neither vaccines nor masks work at all, a claim that I've not seen any support for from any credible sources. Both claims, of course, could be true. Perhaps this person really has such a profession, and perhaps this person really does have paradigm-changing information that is not accessible to the common people of this forum. The problem is, how to communicate that? If not even Q could sell his inside status and knowledge to his very own fellow patriots initially, then how in the world can a new adversarial poster on this board sell their inside knowledge to his or her adversaries on the third day of posting?

An Interlude:

Before going down the path that the data from mainstream media is itself a fabrication, let me point out one thing. When the pandemic first broke out, it was obvious that virus spread information was becoming highly politicized. So I looked for published studies on the effectiveness of masks with other viruses that were published prior to coronavirus. All the pros and cons from those studies, prior to the politicization of masks, come to the same basic familiar conclusions that we've all heard. And so I started wearing an N-95 mask to stores and I ditched the gloves and obsessive hand washing. The CDC's information on masks has been inconsistent from the start. There is at least one article I found on CNN from 2017 (If I recall correctly) that was highly critical of wearing masks to prevent the spread of flu -- now it's gospel doctrine that nobody can question. Yes, a lot of politics. But, it's just a small amount of additional effort to get past politics and actually find good information. That information likely won't be overturned by one persons experiences without substantial effort to prove their case.

Back to the program:

So how does this uphill battle of selling the truth to unbelievers work? Well, let's return to Q for a moment. I never found Q's ideas very original or creative. I'm not sure how his influencers picked him, but Q does have some interesting qualities. On a board where everyone is mostly telling each other to f-off, Q is an undeterred professional. If he's not believed, or if he's criticized, or outright ignored, he moves forward and presents his case with full confidence.

It will be nearly impossible to sell one's insider knowledge to adversaries one is telling to f-off constantly, even if it is believed that the adversaries are hypocrites who themselves are the ones telling the people they don't like to f-off. However, it's not impossible. I, for instance, do not care if somebody tells me to f-off if they have something profound they can teach me. But the profundity better find itself quickly.

Upgrading one's posting style to professional is a great first step, but it's not the only step nor fully necessary. Next, one needs to present convincing facts. A career medical professional may be able to find some web resources I'm not familiar with to present her case. If that's not an option, then the only other real option is details about one's occupation that make the occupation believable, and then a great explanation as to how the controversial data is gathered and just in general, more details surrounding the whole story that explains where the numbers come from.

[Jersey Girl]

This isn't exactly pandemic related though it does relate to life on the ground and there is a pandemic going on so...

The air quality is miserable in my location due to smoke haze from the fires west of us. What was considered unhealthy for sensitive groups yesterday, is now rated unhealthy today. That means everyone.

Went outside to do a bit of outdoor work. With a mask. It's entirely sickening out there!

I'll still brave it out there with a mask only now my project is going to take longer. I'm deathly allergic to wood smoke and it's components. It's number one on my list of stuff I cannot tolerate.

I am sure there are others here experiencing the same and far worse than we're getting it here. This commentary isn't intended to set off a debate about solutions. But reports from you guys?

I do know our firefighters deployed to CA to give mutual aid.

How's it going in your area on the ground re: wild land fires? Anyone over the pond getting hit from the fires in Greece?

[Res Ipsa]

This isn't exactly pandemic related though it does relate to life on the ground and there is a pandemic going on so...

The air quality is miserable in my location due to smoke haze from the fires west of us. What was considered unhealthy for sensitive groups yesterday, is now rated unhealthy today. That means everyone.

Went outside to do a bit of outdoor work. With a mask. It's entirely sickening out there!

I'll still brave it out there with a mask only now my project is going to take longer. I'm deathly allergic to wood smoke and it's components. It's number one on my list of stuff I cannot tolerate.

I am sure there are others here experiencing the same and far worse than we're getting it here. This commentary isn't intended to set off a debate about solutions. But reports from you guys?

I do know our firefighters deployed to CA to give mutual aid.

How's it going in your area on the ground re: wild land fires? Anyone over the pond getting hit from the fires in Greece?

We've been luck so far that the prevailing westerlies have prevailed and blown the smoke from fires east of the Cascades to the east. My brother lives in Leavenworth, which is just on the other side of the mountains. When we've been in the green, he's been in the red and purple. So our good fortune is your bad fortune. We have had several days with smoke plumes aloft (easy to spot by looking at the boundary between sunlight and shadow -- the light has an orange tinge.) But at ground level, I think our AQI has stayed in the green zone. In past years, we've had stretches during "heat domes" where the winds shift and pump the smoke over the Cascades and down to ground level. And, allergic or not, it's miserable.

[Jersey Girl]

This isn't exactly pandemic related though it does relate to life on the ground and there is a pandemic going on so...

The air quality is miserable in my location due to smoke haze from the fires west of us. What was considered unhealthy for sensitive groups yesterday, is now rated unhealthy today. That means everyone.

Went outside to do a bit of outdoor work. With a mask. It's entirely sickening out there!

I'll still brave it out there with a mask only now my project is going to take longer. I'm deathly allergic to wood smoke and it's components. It's number one on my list of stuff I cannot tolerate.

I am sure there are others here experiencing the same and far worse than we're getting it here. This commentary isn't intended to set off a debate about solutions. But reports from you guys?

I do know our firefighters deployed to CA to give mutual aid.

How's it going in your area on the ground re: wild land fires? Anyone over the pond getting hit from the fires in Greece?

We've been luck so far that the prevailing westerlies have prevailed and blown the smoke from fires east of the Cascades to the east. My brother lives in Leavenworth, which is just on the other side of the mountains. When we've been in the green, he's been in the red and purple. So our good fortune is your bad fortune. We have had several days with smoke plumes aloft (easy to spot by looking at the boundary between sunlight and shadow -- the light has an orange tinge.) But at ground level, I think our AQI has stayed in the green zone. In past years, we've had stretches during "heat domes" where the winds shift and pump the smoke over the Cascades and down to ground level. And, allergic or not, it's miserable.

I did some investigating. Apparently our state has the worst AQI in the Western hemisphere today.

[Res Ipsa]

We've been luck so far that the prevailing westerlies have prevailed and blown the smoke from fires east of the Cascades to the east. My brother lives in Leavenworth, which is just on the other side of the mountains. When we've been in the green, he's been in the red and purple. So our good fortune is your bad fortune. We have had several days with smoke plumes aloft (easy to spot by looking at the boundary between sunlight and shadow -- the light has an orange tinge.) But at ground level, I think our AQI has stayed in the green zone. In past years, we've had stretches during "heat domes" where the winds shift and pump the smoke over the Cascades and down to ground level. And, allergic or not, it's miserable.

I did some investigating. Apparently our state has the worst AQI in the Western hemisphere today.

Oh man, that sucks. I hope the wind shifts soon and gives you break.

[Jersey Girl]

I did some investigating. Apparently our state has the worst AQI in the Western hemisphere today.

Oh man, that sucks. I hope the wind shifts soon and gives you break.

Thanks. Possibly Tuesday if the predictions are accurate.

[Jersey Girl]

FYI I don't mean my comments to take away from the severity of the damage to those parts of the country. We've lived through our own experience with fire. I wish it on exactly no one.

[Res Ipsa]

FYI I don't mean my comments to take away from the severity of the damage to those parts of the country. We've lived through our own experience with fire. I wish it on exactly no one.

Oh no, I totally get it. I didn't read anything you say as minimizing the harm from the fires as opposed to the smoke.

[Jersey Girl]

FYI I don't mean my comments to take away from the severity of the damage to those parts of the country. We've lived through our own experience with fire. I wish it on exactly no one.

Oh no, I totally get it. I didn't read anything you say as minimizing the harm from the fires as opposed to the smoke.

Okay good. I just know some of our posters are closer to the West Coast fires than I am. I don't want them to think I would disrespect the situation they're likely dealing with. I hope one of them will catch this and give us a report.

And...if I were a smart person I would have gone to the farm stand that I wanted to visit yesterday. Had I done that I would have turned out a couple of batches of strawberry jam by now. But no. I don't learn. So I'm complaining that I have to do planned outside work in spurts today in a mask with all allergy weapons known to humankind on board!