7 ms·

On Fauci, see https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1342752109486166016 https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1342752109486166016 among other tweets from me n

On Fauci, see https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1342752109486166016 https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1342752109486166016 among other tweets from me naming him. I think Fauci fell a beat behind the narrative marching band in March when he said no to masks for the general population, and so had to make up a dumb story in June about how he nobly lied to save PPE for frontline workers in March. This is obviously false (HCWs wear fitted N95 or better masks, must maintain and keep both good fit and a working backup; these masks are not for gen-pop) and still bad for credibility (lying for the greater good is lying, and the greater good story of PPE conservation was itself a lie). Fauci is a dishonest careerist who has harmed many people over decades and misspent huge budgets. Larry Kramer knew this. Kary Mullis agreed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtgUGxxzB_c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtgUGxxzB_c. On masks, see https://rationalground.com/mask-studies https://rationalground.com/mask-studies and read the linked papers yourself, don't rely on Wikipedia. The Danish RCT was held up for political reasons (https://twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1317875526997102594 https://twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1317875526997102594), then published only with some weasel words added as quote-bait to deflect from the actual results: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817 https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817. Coronaviruses show strong latitude-dependent seasonality per Hope-Simpson's pioneering work on respiratory viruses. NPIs don't much affect disease progression. Correlation is not causation but anti-correlation is a big problem for those arguing masks help: https://rationalground.com/mask-charts/ https://rationalground.com/mask-charts/ https://rationalground.com/more-mask-charts/ https://rationalground.com/more-mask-charts/ I'm old, and per the CDC's estimated age-cohort IFR (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scena... — see Scenario 5 column, note IFR figures there are per unum not percentages), therefore more at risk of death from Covid-19. I wear a mask in any bad, mixed, or unknown-quality indoor air environment. This is my risk analysis and my choice, not yours. I don't wear outdoors and no one should, all contact tracing studies I've read agree on this (so do the many hypocritical politicians who've gone maskless without fear). So I object to gray-area-legal mandates for all, especially for young people. The policy reversal on masks last spring was not based on new science. It was in part a big rip-off (Newsom paid 4x and spent >$1B of the California taxpayers' money, this was obviously skimmed here before net-settled to China), and in large part a compliance exercise. That you jump into HN to police my dissenting stance is frankly worse in my view than Fauci being a corrupt careerist. I expect better from hackers and engineers.

jariel 6y ago
Wow, this is not a good look. There was absolutely a shortage of PPP among healthcare institutions in the areas that were hit by COVID. If 350 million Americans in a giant panic, decided to make a run on PPE, then there would be serious supply chain problems and it could have adversely affected the medical system. The strategy of prioritising Hospitals, in face of a pandemic (and they use all kinds of masks, not just N95) - was actually quite rational. In the initial phase of the pandemic, masks should be allocated where they have a very obvious effect. Then, once they can be produced in much greater quantities, then it makes sense for individuals to start wearing them whereby we can help a little bit with transmissibility in the general population. 'The Lie' was to downplay the effectiveness of masks early, and then embellish the effectiveness later on - but that is the communications strategy behind a rational plan. In a war, it's probably more important that the soldiers have access to weapons, they are the most effective at leveraging them. Having weapons at the home front might be helpful, but much more marginally so. There was a 'policy reversal' due to material facts on the ground with respect to PPE availability, but that's consistent with the overall strategy. As far as 'mask wearing in public' - it's not just 'your decision' because of the fact that you're putting others at risk and that due to the high nature of transmissibility, it becomes a systematic problem. It's not like wearing seatbelts where it affects mostly you. It's like if you were in an accident and not wearing a seatbelt, and as a result, you hurt 10 other people.
- BrendanEich 6y ago
  Daigou shoppers did buy up all over-the-counter masks in January and February, for some strange reason :-/. Amazon N95 and hazmat stocks ran low in those months too: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/coronavirus/ https://www.junglescout.com/blog/coronavirus/ Purell and water bottles ran short and gougers gouged. By March when Fauci spoke against mask mandates, civilian-mandated mask supply chains had recovered. We bought a bunch then without trouble. But early shortages and gouging for various products are all beside the point. Mandates on civilians that passed in March and April by county and state health orders were for people to wear polypropylene and cloth masks, not N95s or hazmat suits. Cloth and polyprop are not used by HCWs, and Fauci was not saying "yes" to people wearing those mandated kinds of masks, while saying "no" to people buying N95s. He was saying no to masks, period, full stop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06a4RriBrhg&feature=emb_logo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06a4RriBrhg&feature=emb_logo He gave the same long-standard talking points against mass masking that the WHO and CDC, as well as the US Surgeon General, had made.

jariel 6y ago

Wow, this is not a good look. There was absolutely a shortage of PPP among healthcare institutions in the areas that were hit by COVID. If 350 million Americans in a giant panic, decided to make a run on PPE, then there would be serious supply chain problems and it could have adversely affected the medical system. The strategy of prioritising Hospitals, in face of a pandemic (and they use all kinds of masks, not just N95) - was actually quite rational. In the initial phase of the pandemic, masks should be allocated where they have a very obvious effect. Then, once they can be produced in much greater quantities, then it makes sense for individuals to start wearing them whereby we can help a little bit with transmissibility in the general population. 'The Lie' was to downplay the effectiveness of masks early, and then embellish the effectiveness later on - but that is the communications strategy behind a rational plan. In a war, it's probably more important that the soldiers have access to weapons, they are the most effective at leveraging them. Having weapons at the home front might be helpful, but much more marginally so. There was a 'policy reversal' due to material facts on the ground with respect to PPE availability, but that's consistent with the overall strategy. As far as 'mask wearing in public' - it's not just 'your decision' because of the fact that you're putting others at risk and that due to the high nature of transmissibility, it becomes a systematic problem. It's not like wearing seatbelts where it affects mostly you. It's like if you were in an accident and not wearing a seatbelt, and as a result, you hurt 10 other people.

BrendanEich 6y ago
Daigou shoppers did buy up all over-the-counter masks in January and February, for some strange reason :-/. Amazon N95 and hazmat stocks ran low in those months too: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/coronavirus/ https://www.junglescout.com/blog/coronavirus/ Purell and water bottles ran short and gougers gouged. By March when Fauci spoke against mask mandates, civilian-mandated mask supply chains had recovered. We bought a bunch then without trouble. But early shortages and gouging for various products are all beside the point. Mandates on civilians that passed in March and April by county and state health orders were for people to wear polypropylene and cloth masks, not N95s or hazmat suits. Cloth and polyprop are not used by HCWs, and Fauci was not saying "yes" to people wearing those mandated kinds of masks, while saying "no" to people buying N95s. He was saying no to masks, period, full stop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06a4RriBrhg&feature=emb_logo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06a4RriBrhg&feature=emb_logo He gave the same long-standard talking points against mass masking that the WHO and CDC, as well as the US Surgeon General, had made.