The numbers speak for themselves. 571k dead in the US. CDC said don't wear masks then later changed that to tell the masses to wear crappy cloth masks and to specifically NOT wear N95 masks.

Everywhere I've been people are wearing these crappy masks which clearly do little to nothing and which studies have shown can be worse than no mask at all. Then you got people with masks designed with big holes in them. Other people wearing little plexiglass masks that do nothing which are 1 to 2 inches in height a couple inches in front of the mouth. Everyone is handling their masks wrong, they are touching their masks, reusing their masks, removing them to eat in public, pulling them down to talk, to drink, etc.

To say the masks provide a false sense of security is an understatement. People felt comfortable getting packed into Walmart like sardines because they have a mask. The mindset is that if you follow the rules then you're safe. The rules were massively flawed. 571k dead in the US vs 1,800 dead in South Korea. It takes a lot more than some bad cloth masks worn poorly to prevent a major catastrophe.

It is pretty widely accepted that your chances of contracting the virus are affected by the viral load that you are exposed to which increases based on proximity to infection, exposure time to infection and mitigating circumstances. If you are trapped in an elevator for 6 hours with an infected person without mitigation you are extremely likely to catch the virus, if you take a 30 sec elevator ride with an infected person then your chances of catching the virus is much, much less.

I didn't mention the effect of vaccines, which do reduce the likelihood of infection as you say, but if you are in an environment with a 100% chance of infection then you still have a 5% chance of infection. Your post implied that vaccination meant that your chance of infection was only 0.5% which is inaccurate and misleading as it is very situation specific.

The use of masks has never been about stopping virus spread, but reducing it. Even if the use of masks only reduced the reproduction rate from 3 to 2.9, that would mean a lot of lives saved and greatly reduced pressure on healthcare services. In truth, the use of masks reduced that rate by significantly more than 0.1 - it didn't stop the virus in its tracks but it did reduce its impact in a very cost effective and easy to implement way.

In much of Asia many people routinely wear facemasks when they are even mildly sick, not because they are forced to, but because they have sufficient social conscience to not want to spread their germs throughout their community. It is a great shame that so many people think that their minor personal inconvenience is of greater importance than the impact of their actions on the wider community in which they live.

Actually more lives would be lost if people are going out sick because they feel it's ok to do so with a mask or if people are going out thinking they are safe to go out because they are wearing a mask. Both were happening in large numbers during the pandemic. Hell, elderly people were out playing poker well before any vaccine was readily available.

And again, not all masks reduce spread. Most of the masks that are worn are next to worthless or potentially worse than wearing no mask at all. The US did a very very very poor job of reducing the spread.

In South Korea just 10% of the population wears cloth masks.

The purpose of all the restrictions, at least as it was sold to the public, was to prevent the healthcare system from being overrun. The healthcare system will not be overrun anywhere where vaccines are easily accessible.

It is completely irrelevant how accessible vaccines are if they aren't taken or are but in insufficient quantity. In Israel and the UK vaccine uptake amongst those eligible has been over 95% - in the US it is far lower. India has vaccinated over 100 million people but their healthcare infrastructure is on the verge of collapse. Chile has vaccinated a large % of its population but is still suffering a very bad 'third wave' in spite of their success with vaccine rollout.

The two most dangerous words in the English language are 'Complacency' & 'Over-Confidence', whether you apply them in a Poker, Sports, Business, Govt, Health, Pandemic Response or any other setting.

This thread has a lot of using half-information to make valid-looking (sorta) but completely idiotic posts.

If you want to complain about your rights in regards to your health, go argue against seat belts or something. At least if something happens in a car accident, that's (mostly) contained to only harming you instead of infecting everyone you interact with.

Here, I'll even give you some bad faith arguments that are in the same vein as what the anti-maskers spew:
"Oh but seat belts don't do ANYTHING! Look at all the people who die in car crashes while wearing seat belts! Oh, if seat belts are supposed to be so protective, why do we have air bags???"

Give me a break. Stop listening to what politicians say, what news personalities say, what your dumb cousin on Facebook says, and listen to actual medical professionals that specialize in this (and not completely unrelated medical professionals like optometrists that get propped up to push an agenda). "Oh well the CDC was wrong that one time!" Yeah, duh. This **** was new and decisions had to be made instantly to try to save as many lives as possible. Science takes time. How do you deal with a problem that you've never seen before without testing possible solutions? If scientists were able to get things 100% right without ever being wrong, they wouldn't be scientists. They'd be gods. I mean hell, Trump said COVID would be like 3-4 cases and then go away like a miracle. He was insanely wrong and yet most of the people who are super anti-mask (you know, the ones who loudly tout how the CDC was wrong that one time) still worship him.

Agree

The fact Fauci says you have to wear a mask and social distance after you had the vaccine is completely against the science and sends the message that the vaccine isn't effective. It causes less people to get the vaccine.

If people want to risk their life by not taking the vaccine that is their choice. Their life, their choice. Where I live everyone has access to the vaccine. You want to be safe, you take the vaccine, not force others to wear masks that don't even work.

I spent half a year during the pandemic not leaving my house/neighborhood. I then spent the next half year+ triple masked. Now I go where I want, how I want, and with no mask.

Gaming commission is updating restrictions to 80% capacity with 3 ft social distancing. Effective May 1. I don't know what that means for plexiglass.

When Clark county gets to 60% vaccinated casinos will be 100% open with no social distancing requirement. That will be the end of plexiglass for sure. So if you don't like plexiglass get vaccinated.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/busine...may-1-2337503/

Living far away I am obviously not as updated on what Fauci is saying on a daily basis, but some of his statements seems horribly incompetent. For example, he was asked a few weeks ago about how it could be that states with no lockdown actually had fewer cases than those in lockdown:

https://twitter.com/crk_texas/status...44073066049538

His reply was "There's a difference between being in lockdown, and the people obeying the lockdown". In other words, just blaming the American people for the high number of cases, not a shred of humility or even considering that lockdowns might not be the best way to go.

And obviously stuff like having to still wear a mask and social distance ever after the vaccine sends a horrible signal out to the public. There is no reward in that, nor does it make people already skeptical about the vaccine more motivated to take it. Had some sort of normalcy been offered, I am pretty sure that could entice more people.

Because of air quality

This is so true, I was ready to get vaccinated here in the UK when all sort of bad news started to come out in terms of all the things we'd have to do even after the vaccine.

Bearing in mind I'm low risk due to my age and overall fitness levels + the risk of being ill after taking the vaccine + unkown secondary effects + no guarantee of going back to normal + plummeting cases locally = no, thanks, I'll wait to see where we are late summer -

If vaccine uptake in Israel is 95%, why does it seem like they almost completely stopped vaccinating people once they hit 55% coverage?

Lmao your comparing mask to seatbelts. By listen to professionals who specialize in this, do you mean people like that little worm fauci? The cdc was wrong only one time and corona virus is a brand new deal? There are 20 year old cans of Lysol out there that states it’s contents kill coronavirus. Science takes time yea I’ll agree with you on that one because they been trying to come up with a coronavirus vaccine for decades(they’ve had some issues getting it through safety). Now that you brought trump into it, didn’t he try to restrict travel from China (the epicenter)very early on and catch all kinds of hell from the other side who basically downplayed the virus back then. Why should we take the higher ups even remotely serious about anything they say on COVID when they let them flood the gates and come on in untested at the border? Just so you know I’m not a trump worshipper either just get real tickled at all the skin he can still get under I means it’s comical to say the least. I don’t even know why corona is still a issue now that ol liar liar pants on fire is president after all he said he was going to end it he had a plan remember. Tell me do you really wholeheartedly believe the death rate numbers the cdc puts out? It’s pretty common knowledge that elderly people dying from old age around these parts are often listed as dying from COVID. Know for a fact that you can’t raise enough hell to get a bogus COVID cause of death changed on a death certificate either. I believe I know more people that has had COVID than I do that hasn’t had it and can say I only know one who has died from COVID and due to his possibly (self inflicted)health problems would’ve likely succumbed to something like say a decent case of say h1n1.
All this said I believe it is a Real thing and people really are getting sick and sadly passing away from it. Its definitely a health concern that needed addressed and not politicized. But guess what it didn’t quite go that way did it. I mean just read your post you just couldn’t help yourself could you? I bet if you are old enough you prolly still have part of your y2k stockpile lmao

Vaccines are a victim of their own success, with the vast majority of people who are most actively anti-vaxx not having personally experienced - let alone been alive during - times when things like tuberculosis, diptheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis, and typhus were real threats to the health of those in first world countries. No one talked about herd immunity until recently. Why? because if anything everyone used to count the days until they could get vaccines. I'm just glad my grandmother, who endured lifelong disability due to having survived a case of polio, isn't alive to see what's unfolding.

So does this mean that you dispose of your mask and don a new one ever 90 minutes when your out in public? You definitely haven’t been to my local Walmart post Covid because they packed in there like sardines without mask. But on occasion you would’ve encountered a individual with a mask down around their chin that would suddenly pull it up as others approached them. Lol
Yea the wear a mask and pull it up and down every other minute is on a whole other level of stupid, unless you wash your hands ever time before you touch your mask or face.
Oh and the signs on the floor in Walmart that directs the flow of traffic down the isle was genius wasn’t it? I didn’t even notice those till some really fat b***h tried to get ugly with me cause I was going the wrong way. That’s when I suddenly realized that just because someone is really fat in their mid 20s or early 30s and smells like cigarettes, that it doesn’t mean they don’t take their health serious.

Can't tell if you're 9 or 109

jesus ****ing christ

That is big news, thanks for posting.

skipped your meds this morning, did ya ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-LivK4-78

Ha ha are you as high as that cloud?

guys, you've been around the 2p2 streets long enough to know that when you read a text wall you get what you deserve

played at the V last week, and didn't mind the masks at all. Plexiglass was fine and zero bother except in the 2 and 7 seats, the vertical pane in front of you made things tricky at times with reflections.

Also, allegedly, plexiglass def makes it tricky if certain edible items are consumed before playing. Something being both transparent and reflective, combined with altered state, is uh yeah.

If everyone was wearing their masks properly there would be a lot of players saying "Huh" "What did you say" "Say Again" and just a bunch of people that sound like this: