COVID Lockdowns Were a Giant Experiment. It Was a Failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Yes, they were a failure. But I think in the beginning (March-April 2020) no one knew what the hell to do.

By summer 2020, it was becoming quite clear that covid wasn't really a serious concern for fairly healthy, non-elderly people.

Hindsight is 2020. Restrictions and mask mandates continued for FAR too long, and there wasn't enough emphasis on taking care of your health - going outside, exercising, eating your vegetables, etc. But I can't fault anyone for decisions in the early days - it was novel to all of us.

There was an emphasis on taking care of yourself. Early on non elderly were dying too.

Covid deaths have always been *heavily* concentrated among the old and those with significant comorbidities.

Many adults died, some had comorbidities, some didn't.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Assuming you didn't own a restaurant or a gym or want to go to a park.

They were very brief and restaurants reopened via carryout. Many struggled before and those that did well changed their business model to make it work. Others rightfully shut down.

You really don't have a clue. The forced change to a carry out model devastated restaurants. You can just retool overnight for something like that. It's not just buy some styrofoam takeout containers and let's go.

Actually many restaurants did just fine converting over. You sound like you have some serious issues if you are so inflexible and covid was so traumatic for you. Seek help.

Care to back that opinion up that many restaurants did just fine? Or are you making thing up out of thin air?

They are still open and busy. That means they are doing just fine. Some of the owners are opening up other restaurants... they are doing just fine if not very well. Many that shut down needed to close anyway.

Did you lose your business? Is that why you are so bitter?

Grow up and move on already. Millions of people died and all you care about is a playground.

You are intentionally missing the point. We care about mitigations that work, not performative measures that make a small, vocal, nutjob minority happy.

You don’t care about mitigation or you’d do simple things like masking indoors. So, stop pretending and stop with the silly comments that have no meaning to you like businesses struggling.

Funny, I remember when the CDC said wear a mask and everyone celebrated. Then the CDC said, you don't need to wear a mask, and suddenly, the CDC was the great Satan. You aren't interested in mitigations, you are interested in what makes you *feel* safe.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Assuming you didn't own a restaurant or a gym or want to go to a park.

They were very brief and restaurants reopened via carryout. Many struggled before and those that did well changed their business model to make it work. Others rightfully shut down.

You really don't have a clue. The forced change to a carry out model devastated restaurants. You can just retool overnight for something like that. It's not just buy some styrofoam takeout containers and let's go.

Actually many restaurants did just fine converting over. You sound like you have some serious issues if you are so inflexible and covid was so traumatic for you. Seek help.

Care to back that opinion up that many restaurants did just fine? Or are you making thing up out of thin air?

They are still open and busy. That means they are doing just fine. Some of the owners are opening up other restaurants... they are doing just fine if not very well. Many that shut down needed to close anyway.

Did you lose your business? Is that why you are so bitter?

Grow up and move on already. Millions of people died and all you care about is a playground.

You are intentionally missing the point. We care about mitigations that work, not performative measures that make a small, vocal, nutjob minority happy.

You don’t care about mitigation or you’d do simple things like masking indoors. So, stop pretending and stop with the silly comments that have no meaning to you like businesses struggling.

Funny, I remember when the CDC said wear a mask and everyone celebrated. Then the CDC said, you don't need to wear a mask, and suddenly, the CDC was the great Satan. You aren't interested in mitigations, you are interested in what makes you *feel* safe.

The initial lying about the fact that N95-level respirator use was clearly needed to reduce the risk of COVID infection (because it is airborne!) was dumb and will go down as a historical embarrassment.

I personally celebrated when they admitted they were full of it on that score. (I had already bought and was using an N95 respirator at that point; how you looked at me while I did it or whatever you have to say about it now is of no interest.)

I now think they’re idiots and will look like shills for minimizing masking in their public health messaging to individuals still trying to avoid getting COVID.

IDK what that all means about my relationship to the CDC. At any rate, it’s not as straightforward as you wish it were.

[Anonymous]

Not a pandemic. They wouldn’t have allowed unvaccinated hordes to flood over the border if it was an actual pandemic. Total lies and manipulated stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly at this point who cares. We did the best we could under a unique and heretofore inexperienced event. This is for scientists to be studying to plan for future pandemics. Getting angry now is ridiculous.

This. I agree with this completely. What's the point in being crazy about a very unique situation - 3 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Not a pandemic. They wouldn’t have allowed unvaccinated hordes to flood over the border if it was an actual pandemic. Total lies and manipulated stats.

= Trump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Yes, they were a failure. But I think in the beginning (March-April 2020) no one knew what the hell to do.

By summer 2020, it was becoming quite clear that covid wasn't really a serious concern for fairly healthy, non-elderly people.

Hindsight is 2020. Restrictions and mask mandates continued for FAR too long, and there wasn't enough emphasis on taking care of your health - going outside, exercising, eating your vegetables, etc. But I can't fault anyone for decisions in the early days - it was novel to all of us.

There was an emphasis on taking care of yourself. Early on non elderly were dying too.

Covid deaths have always been *heavily* concentrated among the old and those with significant comorbidities.

Many adults died, some had comorbidities, some didn't.

They overwhelmingly (OVERWHELMINGLY) had multiple comorbidities. The claims of "healthy and died of covid" were people who were very out of tune with their health.

We did not see healthy people (who had annual wellness exams and passed with flying colors every year) dying of covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Agree with this but would add that in my neighborhood, outside masking and social distancing continued for much longer. I remember there being debate on the local list serve when people started unmasking on the sidewalk in spring if 2021 because they were vaccinated. Some people wanted everyone to keep masking outdoors and were upset by it.

In this same neighborhood, both my spouse and I got hassled at various points for not being masked outside even though we were far from other people. My DH once got yelled at out a car window for being unmasked on an otherwise empty sidewalk. Once a woman yelled at me from across the street for being unmasked (no one else was around). Another woman got mad once because I was walking down a wide sidewalk with my 2 yr old who was eating a granola bar, and the woman was angry to pass my toddler unmasked.

I wore a mask to go running for about 8 months because everyone saw that fake meme of a runner spewing Covid particles. I didn't want people to hate me, so I wore a gator while running. Then there was a "study" (debunked but people didn't read the debunking) that said gators actually spread more Covid. So then I had people yelling at me on my runs "gators don't work!" I started running at 5am or 10pm and running in the street so that I would encounter fewer people.

People really lost their minds for a while, and a lot of people who claimed to be following the science were actually following their own anxiety to weird, fascist places and calling it "science."

Where was this? I've read about this degree of batsh#t insanity but thankfully dealt with none of it in Western Fairfax.

DP, but I’m betting MoCo. This level of crazy went on for 2.5 years. We were only allowed to take off masks at the gym in late Spring of 2022

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Honestly at this point who cares. We did the best we could under a unique and heretofore inexperienced event. This is for scientists to be studying to plan for future pandemics. Getting angry now is ridiculous.

This. I agree with this completely. What's the point in being crazy about a very unique situation - 3 years ago.

The point is to figure out which strategies or approaches were worth it and which weren’t, so we can do a better job if something like this happens again.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Honestly at this point who cares. We did the best we could under a unique and heretofore inexperienced event. This is for scientists to be studying to plan for future pandemics. Getting angry now is ridiculous.

The problem is we weren’t allowed to ask questions and dissenting views were discouraged. Anytime you’re not allowed to ask questions or push back on something you should be concerned. The climate at the time didn’t allow questioning of precautions.

What are you talking about? There were plenty of people who questioned everything and did whatever they wanted anyway. It’s not like the police came and arrested people for expressing dissenting views. Even in early covid when people were dying, plenty of people questioned why they had to be inconvenienced to save other people’s lives and behaved accordingly. Lockdowns were never going to work in this country because we are a narcissistic and selfish society who rarely behave for the greater good of community.

+1 million - one of the most notable things about the COVID response was the almost immediate rise of a faction of loud people that were determined to push back against any measure that would inconvenience them in the slightest.

The measures were dumb. Just delaying the inevitable.

The truth is, we don't really know. There were too many people who ignored measures or implemented them improperly (see people with masks under their noses). And I don't trust a lot of data. See the lady on one of these threads who talks about how they were supposed to have a covid test before getting on a plane and the nurse came, they paid her to just go away, and she didn't do the test. So how many people did that nurse NOT test but report as negative? Repeat that kind of BS all over the country and you get suspect, useless "data".

So when people go on on here about "the data" i almost have to laugh. Except that it's so sad. What decent data do we really have?

And these same people are saying outright they will ignore public health directives next time around because of what they have "learned". Even though they have no idea what could be the cause of the next pandemic and how it will differ from covid.

God help us all.

Measures that the public is unable or unwilling to perform reliably are not effective public health measures. That should be a major lesson from the pandemic response. We spent 18 months keeping kids out of school and telling people to mask while walking on the sidewalk or between the restaurant table and bathroom rather than actually focusing on measures to help those at risk of severe illness.

We are talking about two different kinds of effective. There is effective re: preventing spread of a disease. Masking and some of the measures, had they been implemented widely and properly, could have done that.

You are talking about PR. Find me anything you can get all Americans to do these days. Americans are a bunch of stupid, entitled little sh**s who won't do much of anything if it inconveniences them.

Different things. And Americans' stupidity is not a valid reason not to try when something like a pandemic happens. But it is not encouraging for the future.

Also, plenty of the masking policies and mandates that were in place were not practical, effective, or necessary. Did you have a preschooler in the pandemic ostensibly subjected to all-day masking at age 2? Did you have children with ASD or sensory processing disorders? Did you live in a jurisdiction that required masks on the sidewalk, but not at a restaurant table?

That may be true, but not everything was worthless. And think if all the adults had masked properly whenever they needed to. Would have meant the littlest kids could skip. But Americans always think they individually know best. And most Americans are not very bright. So do the math.

Ugh this is the type of moralistic “logic” that was so prevalent during the pandemic. The whole fallacy of “if people would just do X then we could finally do Y.” But in reality there was never any support for masking very young kids and we all knew they couldn’t actually do it well (not to mention the masks came off for snack and nap, so it was just arbitrary having it worn part of the day). And your claim about Americans is funny, you think your views are the superior one, but even the WHO said no masking for kids 5 and under. America was the outlier with young kids.

Your post makes no sense. You are arguing as if I recommended masks for kids which I did not. Why did the WHO not recommend masks for kids under 5? Because they can't wear them properly, correct. So the point was, the adults wear them, because they should know how. And my point is American's are stupid, which you...agree with?

Ugh back at you. You are an idiot who can't read.

You literally admit kids 5 and under couldn’t mask properly but at first argued if adults had masked the littlest kids could have skipped masking … which makes no sense. Restrictions for the youngest kids should never have been tied to adult restrictions. Young kids masking was never going to work even had all the adults masked or not masked or half masked or whatever they were going to do.

So arguing that little kids could have stopped masking of only adults had done what they were supposed to do is basically just admitting the mask restrictions were punitive toward kids because the adults wouldn’t mask.

Plenty of young kids masked and were just fine with it. Others were not but some of it had to do with the parents, more than the kids.

So the World Health Organization was wrong? Three year olds masking except for naps and snacks was a success, and the ones who couldn’t mask correctly were because the adults in their lives failed them? But overall masking preschoolers with pieces of cloth, even through spring 2022 a year after vaccines rolled out, was great public policy?

You’re sticking with that logic with everything we know now in almost 2024?

Just brilliant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Agree with this but would add that in my neighborhood, outside masking and social distancing continued for much longer. I remember there being debate on the local list serve when people started unmasking on the sidewalk in spring if 2021 because they were vaccinated. Some people wanted everyone to keep masking outdoors and were upset by it.

In this same neighborhood, both my spouse and I got hassled at various points for not being masked outside even though we were far from other people. My DH once got yelled at out a car window for being unmasked on an otherwise empty sidewalk. Once a woman yelled at me from across the street for being unmasked (no one else was around). Another woman got mad once because I was walking down a wide sidewalk with my 2 yr old who was eating a granola bar, and the woman was angry to pass my toddler unmasked.

I wore a mask to go running for about 8 months because everyone saw that fake meme of a runner spewing Covid particles. I didn't want people to hate me, so I wore a gator while running. Then there was a "study" (debunked but people didn't read the debunking) that said gators actually spread more Covid. So then I had people yelling at me on my runs "gators don't work!" I started running at 5am or 10pm and running in the street so that I would encounter fewer people.

People really lost their minds for a while, and a lot of people who claimed to be following the science were actually following their own anxiety to weird, fascist places and calling it "science."

Where was this? I've read about this degree of batsh#t insanity but thankfully dealt with none of it in Western Fairfax.

DP, but I’m betting MoCo. This level of crazy went on for 2.5 years. We were only allowed to take off masks at the gym in late Spring of 2022

DP. That is INSANE.

In VA, gyms reopened in early June 2020. Masks were not required at all for working out, but some facilities required them for "walking around" and in the locker room (but it was not enforced). I returned to my gym a few days after they reopened, and it wasn't until August 2023 that I got covid (and it was wayyyy better than getting the flu).

No, I'm not a Trumper. Neither were any of my gym friends that returned to work out right away. We were interested in taking care of our overall mental and physical health - covid was not the only health concern (we were low risk 40-somethings).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Agree with this but would add that in my neighborhood, outside masking and social distancing continued for much longer. I remember there being debate on the local list serve when people started unmasking on the sidewalk in spring if 2021 because they were vaccinated. Some people wanted everyone to keep masking outdoors and were upset by it.

In this same neighborhood, both my spouse and I got hassled at various points for not being masked outside even though we were far from other people. My DH once got yelled at out a car window for being unmasked on an otherwise empty sidewalk. Once a woman yelled at me from across the street for being unmasked (no one else was around). Another woman got mad once because I was walking down a wide sidewalk with my 2 yr old who was eating a granola bar, and the woman was angry to pass my toddler unmasked.

I wore a mask to go running for about 8 months because everyone saw that fake meme of a runner spewing Covid particles. I didn't want people to hate me, so I wore a gator while running. Then there was a "study" (debunked but people didn't read the debunking) that said gators actually spread more Covid. So then I had people yelling at me on my runs "gators don't work!" I started running at 5am or 10pm and running in the street so that I would encounter fewer people.

People really lost their minds for a while, and a lot of people who claimed to be following the science were actually following their own anxiety to weird, fascist places and calling it "science."

Where was this? I've read about this degree of batsh#t insanity but thankfully dealt with none of it in Western Fairfax.

DP, but I’m betting MoCo. This level of crazy went on for 2.5 years. We were only allowed to take off masks at the gym in late Spring of 2022

DP. That is INSANE.

In VA, gyms reopened in early June 2020. Masks were not required at all for working out, but some facilities required them for "walking around" and in the locker room (but it was not enforced). I returned to my gym a few days after they reopened, and it wasn't until August 2023 that I got covid (and it was wayyyy better than getting the flu).

No, I'm not a Trumper. Neither were any of my gym friends that returned to work out right away. We were interested in taking care of our overall mental and physical health - covid was not the only health concern (we were low risk 40-somethings).

I find it concerning that nearly 4 years after the pandemic started whenever someone wants to reasonably question whether certain mitigation efforts were worthwhile in retrospect they still have to caveat the fact they aren’t a Trumper.

As a dem, I don’t think it’s a good look for our party that one has to prove they’re not a Republican in order to engage in rational discussion of health policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Agree with this but would add that in my neighborhood, outside masking and social distancing continued for much longer. I remember there being debate on the local list serve when people started unmasking on the sidewalk in spring if 2021 because they were vaccinated. Some people wanted everyone to keep masking outdoors and were upset by it.

In this same neighborhood, both my spouse and I got hassled at various points for not being masked outside even though we were far from other people. My DH once got yelled at out a car window for being unmasked on an otherwise empty sidewalk. Once a woman yelled at me from across the street for being unmasked (no one else was around). Another woman got mad once because I was walking down a wide sidewalk with my 2 yr old who was eating a granola bar, and the woman was angry to pass my toddler unmasked.

I wore a mask to go running for about 8 months because everyone saw that fake meme of a runner spewing Covid particles. I didn't want people to hate me, so I wore a gator while running. Then there was a "study" (debunked but people didn't read the debunking) that said gators actually spread more Covid. So then I had people yelling at me on my runs "gators don't work!" I started running at 5am or 10pm and running in the street so that I would encounter fewer people.

People really lost their minds for a while, and a lot of people who claimed to be following the science were actually following their own anxiety to weird, fascist places and calling it "science."

Where was this? I've read about this degree of batsh#t insanity but thankfully dealt with none of it in Western Fairfax.

DP, but I’m betting MoCo. This level of crazy went on for 2.5 years. We were only allowed to take off masks at the gym in late Spring of 2022

DP. That is INSANE.

In VA, gyms reopened in early June 2020. Masks were not required at all for working out, but some facilities required them for "walking around" and in the locker room (but it was not enforced). I returned to my gym a few days after they reopened, and it wasn't until August 2023 that I got covid (and it was wayyyy better than getting the flu).

No, I'm not a Trumper. Neither were any of my gym friends that returned to work out right away. We were interested in taking care of our overall mental and physical health - covid was not the only health concern (we were low risk 40-somethings).

I find it concerning that nearly 4 years after the pandemic started whenever someone wants to reasonably question whether certain mitigation efforts were worthwhile in retrospect they still have to caveat the fact they aren’t a Trumper.

As a dem, I don’t think it’s a good look for our party that one has to prove they’re not a Republican in order to engage in rational discussion of health policy.

As a Dem, I think it's concerning that you seem to be of the belief that "rational discussion of health" is not subject to criticism, with regards to Democrat officials and legislators. Many, many Dems effed up in their policy - and knowingly so. Both sides presented a poliarized prescription of how to handle covid, and both were more interested in "winning" rather than present a livable, rational, moderate, and one-size-does-NOT-fit-all approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Agree with this but would add that in my neighborhood, outside masking and social distancing continued for much longer. I remember there being debate on the local list serve when people started unmasking on the sidewalk in spring if 2021 because they were vaccinated. Some people wanted everyone to keep masking outdoors and were upset by it.

In this same neighborhood, both my spouse and I got hassled at various points for not being masked outside even though we were far from other people. My DH once got yelled at out a car window for being unmasked on an otherwise empty sidewalk. Once a woman yelled at me from across the street for being unmasked (no one else was around). Another woman got mad once because I was walking down a wide sidewalk with my 2 yr old who was eating a granola bar, and the woman was angry to pass my toddler unmasked.

I wore a mask to go running for about 8 months because everyone saw that fake meme of a runner spewing Covid particles. I didn't want people to hate me, so I wore a gator while running. Then there was a "study" (debunked but people didn't read the debunking) that said gators actually spread more Covid. So then I had people yelling at me on my runs "gators don't work!" I started running at 5am or 10pm and running in the street so that I would encounter fewer people.

People really lost their minds for a while, and a lot of people who claimed to be following the science were actually following their own anxiety to weird, fascist places and calling it "science."

Where was this? I've read about this degree of batsh#t insanity but thankfully dealt with none of it in Western Fairfax.

DP, but I’m betting MoCo. This level of crazy went on for 2.5 years. We were only allowed to take off masks at the gym in late Spring of 2022

DP. That is INSANE.

In VA, gyms reopened in early June 2020. Masks were not required at all for working out, but some facilities required them for "walking around" and in the locker room (but it was not enforced). I returned to my gym a few days after they reopened, and it wasn't until August 2023 that I got covid (and it was wayyyy better than getting the flu).

No, I'm not a Trumper. Neither were any of my gym friends that returned to work out right away. We were interested in taking care of our overall mental and physical health - covid was not the only health concern (we were low risk 40-somethings).

I find it concerning that nearly 4 years after the pandemic started whenever someone wants to reasonably question whether certain mitigation efforts were worthwhile in retrospect they still have to caveat the fact they aren’t a Trumper.

As a dem, I don’t think it’s a good look for our party that one has to prove they’re not a Republican in order to engage in rational discussion of health policy.

As a Dem, I think it's concerning that you seem to be of the belief that "rational discussion of health" is not subject to criticism, with regards to Democrat officials and legislators. Many, many Dems effed up in their policy - and knowingly so. Both sides presented a poliarized prescription of how to handle covid, and both were more interested in "winning" rather than present a livable, rational, moderate, and one-size-does-NOT-fit-all approach.

I don’t think you understood my post at all.

I agree that many dems messed up policy and we should absolutely be critiquing the handling of COVID.

But I was pointing out the fact that in order to make any sort of critique it feels like you have to disclaim that you’re not a Trumper. I remember when I first started questioning the efficacy of masks for children or continuing to keep schools shut down, I felt like I couldn’t say this stuff out loud IRL or else risk accusations of being MAGA.

It’s like scientific questioning somehow became a thing that democrats couldn’t do. And even now in Nov. 2023 someone who is reasonably pointing out that masking in a gym as recently as 2022 was insane has to caveat their post with the fact they aren’t a Trumper because we have come to associate critiquing masking with the far right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:My memory of it is that actual general “lockdowns” were brief and related to hospital capacity - we had to do whatever we could to avoid becoming New York.

The part that went on too long, was harmful and didn’t work well was remote schooling and masks for kids.

Assuming you didn't own a restaurant or a gym or want to go to a park.

They were very brief and restaurants reopened via carryout. Many struggled before and those that did well changed their business model to make it work. Others rightfully shut down.

You really don't have a clue. The forced change to a carry out model devastated restaurants. You can just retool overnight for something like that. It's not just buy some styrofoam takeout containers and let's go.

Actually many restaurants did just fine converting over. You sound like you have some serious issues if you are so inflexible and covid was so traumatic for you. Seek help.

Care to back that opinion up that many restaurants did just fine? Or are you making thing up out of thin air?

They are still open and busy. That means they are doing just fine. Some of the owners are opening up other restaurants... they are doing just fine if not very well. Many that shut down needed to close anyway.

Did you lose your business? Is that why you are so bitter?

Grow up and move on already. Millions of people died and all you care about is a playground.

You are intentionally missing the point. We care about mitigations that work, not performative measures that make a small, vocal, nutjob minority happy.

You don’t care about mitigation or you’d do simple things like masking indoors. So, stop pretending and stop with the silly comments that have no meaning to you like businesses struggling.

Funny, I remember when the CDC said wear a mask and everyone celebrated. Then the CDC said, you don't need to wear a mask, and suddenly, the CDC was the great Satan. You aren't interested in mitigations, you are interested in what makes you *feel* safe.

The initial lying about the fact that N95-level respirator use was clearly needed to reduce the risk of COVID infection (because it is airborne!) was dumb and will go down as a historical embarrassment.

I personally celebrated when they admitted they were full of it on that score. (I had already bought and was using an N95 respirator at that point; how you looked at me while I did it or whatever you have to say about it now is of no interest.)

I now think they’re idiots and will look like shills for minimizing masking in their public health messaging to individuals still trying to avoid getting COVID.

IDK what that all means about my relationship to the CDC. At any rate, it’s not as straightforward as you wish it were.

So, it's fine if you disagree with public health policy, but wrong for me to disagree with public health policy. You must be more of a medical expert than I am. What's your degree in?