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For the past two years I've been telling anyone who'll listen that the WHO screwed up by telling people not to wear masks, by claiming transmission wasn't via a

by strken 5y ago

For the past two years I've been telling anyone who'll listen that the WHO screwed up by telling people not to wear masks, by claiming transmission wasn't via aerosol particles, and by opposing border closures. I spent a long time getting into arguments about the lab leak theory being almost impossible to disprove. In my comments on HN there's one calling out an article about mask-wearing for drawing the exact wrong conclusion from a study of cloth masks. I reserve the same right to call out Joe Rogan when he's wrong. He is not special.

eggy 5y ago
Not denying your right, never have, but choice of where to apply your scrutiny and time spent on it says a lot. A very popular fight commentator, comedian, pod caster, or the people actually creating the guidelines you and your family will live under, right or wrong, is another. Choose your battles kind of thing. I am more fearful of the quiet wrong doers. NYT finally admits many emails in Hunter Biden laptop are authentic. NPR, others dismissed it all as a waste of time, Russian disinformation. Jack Dorsey censored anyone trying to share the NY Post article even through PMs. Joe Rogan has many different people on his show. I find it entertaining and thought provoking. I can't say the same for mainstream media; I am very saddened and worried by this more than Joe Rogan. As a matter of fact, I am happy he stirs the pot. To paraphrase the WAPO's line, "Democracy Dies in Silence".
wernercd 5y ago
simonh 5y ago
They did screw up, that’s true. Almost everyone everywhere has been wrong about this virus, mostly several if not many times. That’s because for a long time we were working with very limited and sometimes contradictory or misleading information. I do not believe that the WHO did this for nefarious reasons, or knowingly lied, although they did make some mistakes as a result of leverage and coercion by various states. I blame those states more than I do the WHO.
- strken 5y ago
  Screwing up disaster response for non-nefarious reasons doesn't bring back the dead. The WHO screwed up for systemic reasons that commentators, at the time and without the benefit of hindsight, were able to call out. Specifically, they repeatedly claimed there was "no evidence" for cloth masks and "no evidence" for aerosol transmission. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and the organisation meant to coordinate a global medical response should know that. Many respiratory viruses spread by aerosol transmission, and it would have been responsible to say "we do not have enough evidence to say how COVID spreads yet." Additionally, there was evidence for the efficacy of cloth masks, but the papers were studying whether cloth masks were adequate replacements for surgical masks and N95 respirators in hospital settings, and they (rightly) concluded that cloth masks weren't as effective as actual PPE, from which the WHO (wrongly) concluded that cloth masks weren't effective at all.

by strken 5y ago

eggy 5y ago

Not denying your right, never have, but choice of where to apply your scrutiny and time spent on it says a lot. A very popular fight commentator, comedian, pod caster, or the people actually creating the guidelines you and your family will live under, right or wrong, is another. Choose your battles kind of thing. I am more fearful of the quiet wrong doers. NYT finally admits many emails in Hunter Biden laptop are authentic. NPR, others dismissed it all as a waste of time, Russian disinformation. Jack Dorsey censored anyone trying to share the NY Post article even through PMs. Joe Rogan has many different people on his show. I find it entertaining and thought provoking. I can't say the same for mainstream media; I am very saddened and worried by this more than Joe Rogan. As a matter of fact, I am happy he stirs the pot. To paraphrase the WAPO's line, "Democracy Dies in Silence".

wernercd 5y ago

simonh 5y ago

They did screw up, that’s true. Almost everyone everywhere has been wrong about this virus, mostly several if not many times. That’s because for a long time we were working with very limited and sometimes contradictory or misleading information. I do not believe that the WHO did this for nefarious reasons, or knowingly lied, although they did make some mistakes as a result of leverage and coercion by various states. I blame those states more than I do the WHO.

strken 5y ago
Screwing up disaster response for non-nefarious reasons doesn't bring back the dead. The WHO screwed up for systemic reasons that commentators, at the time and without the benefit of hindsight, were able to call out. Specifically, they repeatedly claimed there was "no evidence" for cloth masks and "no evidence" for aerosol transmission. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and the organisation meant to coordinate a global medical response should know that. Many respiratory viruses spread by aerosol transmission, and it would have been responsible to say "we do not have enough evidence to say how COVID spreads yet." Additionally, there was evidence for the efficacy of cloth masks, but the papers were studying whether cloth masks were adequate replacements for surgical masks and N95 respirators in hospital settings, and they (rightly) concluded that cloth masks weren't as effective as actual PPE, from which the WHO (wrongly) concluded that cloth masks weren't effective at all.