When it comes up heads at literally every protest worldwide, the rational thing is to stop doubting that it's just luck.

So mass gatherings are all good now in a pandemic. Who would have thought?

Nah. Only the ones that are outdoors with majority mask use and that keep non-participants at home. They weren't necessarily totally safe for the participants, just good in aggregate.

Oh right. Only the ones with hundreds of thousands of participants all jammed together. The small, local ones, no good. I get it now.

Big good, small bad.

Correct! Jamming 6000 people into an arena to hear Trump bloviate doesn't keep other people home. If there are going to be gatherings, they should be disruptive, outdoors, and masked, not avoidable, indoors, and unmasked.

It has to be turnout dependent. A lot of people, in the Uk at least, didn't protest because of covid. If we all had turned out then it could have been a covid catastrophe.

A great example of where the best answer is a combined strategy of supporters turning out and supporters staying away.

I get what Wookie is trying to say, but the thing is - that is not even that critical to the comparison. Outdoor rallies where most are wearing masks is just not the source of transmission as indoor non masked things like bars, clubs and eat in dining. That is why it is so great that the genuine people (who have beliefs like the fake troll joejoe) constantly drone on about pride parades and such while completely ignoring the behaviors that generated the vast majority of the issue.

A single overnight camp in Georgia created more cases in a day than happened in all of Canada, and there were some pretty huge rallies in Canada. No noticeable case increases from the rallies, but then we were not able to go out to eat indoors (only started recently) or go to clubs (still cannot) or overnight camps (still cannot). Gee, I wonder where the difference is between the USA#1 and Canada. Hint, it aint the rallies, regardless of whether rallies kept others home or not.

Yes.

Mass gatherings for causes I support = good.

Mass gatherings for causes I don't support = bad.


You had the entire profile of expertz having a mental meltdown that people were protesting to go back to work. Yelling and screaming that those protests were putting health professional lives at risk.

Then those expertz turned around and clapped in glee at the sight of tens of thousands of people jammed packed in the streets protesting for another cause.

It was very funny to observe people with "advanced education" doing all the mental pretzels in their head to justify it.

This is all hindsight 20/20. If we had hindsight 20/20 we wouldn't have shut down the economy either.


All the medical experts around the world back in March / April were so threatened by this virus (as they should be) and had so little information and data that they forced shut the economy down back in March and April. They ordered everyone to stay home, nobody go outside for weeks except for essentials.


You are telling me the same medical experts back in March / April would be okay for people to have mass gatherings in the 10s of thousands in the streets at the same time they forcefully told everyone to stay home?


But but but, the protestors wore masks and socially distanced (lol)! Well if they were certain that would be enough, the experts would have allowed the economy to stay open as long as people wore masks and socially distanced.

What I am saying is simple. Outdoor gatherings like that (which are different than planned festivals for reasons that have been stated) held when they were when most people at them were wearing masks were not a big source of spread. If they were then we would have seen it in Canada and would have seen it in other countries that also had the protests.

We did not see any spike, and that is not because Canadians have tougher skin due to all the poutine and peameal bacon consumed, it was because the main sources of spread (indoor gatherings at pubs bars restaurants etc)were removed from the equation for much, much longer than in the USA#1 and masks were not politicized like they were in the USA#1.

The protests were a nothingburger with regard to virus spread, but it is the only thing that some can cling to as they continue to ignore how their side downplayed mask wearing and pushed for extremely high spread places to re-open, and while it is sad - I am ok with their continued delusional messaging because it is helping the orange moron lose to LOLBiden.

The USA #1 is continuing to behave in a reckless manner, and that is not "hindsight." That is their current approach, so is your plan a few months from now when another 100,000 people have croaked to say "well, that is in hindsight, nothing we can do, it is what it is."

The choices made in August should be smarter than the choices made in March. The USA#1 made a lot of dumb choices in March and April, and that can be partially mitigated with less information at the time. What is the excuse for August? Is your plan to blame rallies for when the schools eventually have to close again?

August 6th data:

Canada population 38 million - total deaths - 4

USA#1 population 328 million - total deaths - 1,203


Must be the rallies that happened in both countries...

All the best.

1. Yes, people did know less about the disease at the start of March than they did at the end of May. Not sure why you find that shocking.
2. Shutting down harder gets the case load down sooner, so that when you go to a partial opening plus masks plus distancing, you have a roughly constant case load at low levels, rather than a constant case load at moderate or high levels.

They are "vital to the national public health", Joe.

That does not mean we would 'encourage them during a pandemic', but we can acknowledge that they are vital, while also realizing we cannot control the timing of them.

This is the one thing you seem incapable of understand as you keep conflating the two.

A thing can be " vital to the national public health"... full stop.

And that is why you are wrong and cannot seem to understand that you are.

Health professionals : We think issue XYZ " is vital to the national public health" and challenging gov't on it thru protest can be part of addressing it

Joe : Really?

Health professionals : yes

Joe : you realize they are planning to protest now when a pandemic is on, OR when a hurricane is incoming

Health professionals : oh, well we would hope they take precautions and protect themselves from those things

Joe : so you no longer think it is vital to national public health then right?

Health Professionals : no that is not how it works. Those things are not tied. Our thinking it is vital to the national public health does not mean we control anything they do

Joe : NO, if you say " vital to the national public health" that means you are encouraging them to go out in a pandemic or hurricane or anything else.

Everyone else not named Joe : No Joe that is dumb. You are conflating things due to your inability to comprehend things.

Joejoe is a fake, but real people with his beliefs can be too dumb to realize what they are saying, however some completely know what they are saying is nonsense, but it is how they deflect from the reality of the situation. That is normal politics, but this is not a normal topic. The USA#1 politicized what should have been a non political topic, and now they pay for the mess they created.

What joe and we saw Jim Jordan fishing for with Fauci, is a condemnation by Health Experts of the protests so that they then can reverse engineer that into a statement that then necessitates the Trump Militaristic crackdown as a necessary action.

It is obvious and pathetic as it is built on a specious premise we can all clearly see it (as Dr Fauci did) but around and around they go, fishing for it.


It is sign of the times.

If I state a lie and enough people keep repeating it, then it becomes true.

'Alternative Facts'.

Dear Smudger,

Kemp is god!

Priorities!

Can you differentiate between “we understand the risks and dangers but feel this issue is so overwhelmingly important” and “you that ain’t real”? Because by your posting it seems like you absolutely have no ability to distinguish the differences between the two.

Joe, thank you for providing the source as requested.

I agree with the other posters here that your spin of the text is not accurate.

To all...including Joe, I am sorry if this specific article was discussed in the past. I have not read the entire thread.

Protesting against not being able to go to bars is same as the unending murder procession of minorities and whites by police across the country.

Nice minimization.

Going to bars is a much bigger cause of spread. They protest to do it, but they will never say that behavior (of going to bars) spreads the virus many times more than masked outdoor protests. I guess I would say this take on that person's perspective


Mass gatherings for causes I support outdoors with masks = Mass gatherings for causes I don't support with masks

Mass gatherings outdoors with masks >>>> mass gatherings outdoors without masks

Any gatherings outdoors with masks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >> Indoor gatherings that last a long time with poor ventilation and no masks


Somehow that last equation is never part of their math. Perhaps it would be if they staffed up.

The conservative protests were to start opening the things that cause the most virus spread. If fair policing was a big covid spreader there would be actual hypocrisy to point out.

The politicization of the virus is terrible and the media bought right into this.

A Mississippi town welcomed students back to school last week. Now 116 are home in quarantine.

SMUDGERRRRRRRRR

Also this seems really irresponsible, is there any kind of science behind this?

"Within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more"????

Michigan official, when asked to put on a mask at a meeting, starts dropping n-bombs in a racist diatribe

So bizarre to see this confluence of racism and COVID denial together, just so shocking, next you might really blow me away by telling me this guy voted for Trump

He was clearly confused by the health officials like joejoe.

Also, to be fair, he was just elected to the road commission, so the guy cannot be a libertarian.