3 ms·

Speaking for France, we had a lot of flat out lies throughout the pandemic. The most obvious one was on masks and their lack of protection, hammered week after

Speaking for France, we had a lot of flat out lies throughout the pandemic. The most obvious one was on masks and their lack of protection, hammered week after week by the gov spokesperson, until there was enough masks to be distributed. Then masks started to be pushed by the gov, people were encouraged to make their own, and we all know the story from there. There was no lack of information or evidence, and they paid a lot to keep a full stock of emergency masks up until two years before the pandemic stroke (and then fucked up by giving up on emergency preparation). It was just plain criminal lying to avoid being confronted.

nradov 5y ago
Masks in general provide very little protection. I recommend you listen to the explanations by infectious disease experts Dr. Monica Gandhi and Dr. Michael Osterholm. Only properly fitted N95 (or equivalent) masks provide significant protection. Throughout the pandemic most people weren't wearing those, and those who did mostly wore them incorrectly. https://peterattiamd.com/covid-part2/ https://peterattiamd.com/covid-part2/ https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VSukFrMYGae1ILd0e4HuR?si=FEwYWMPWQ72FwsqddgKung https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VSukFrMYGae1ILd0e4HuR?si=F...
- makeitdouble 5y ago
  > Only properly fitted N95 (or equivalent) masks provide significant protection. This! This is the bulshit we got fed for almost 6 months. Paired with "people don't know how to properly fit N95 anyway", "you touch four face 20 times in an hour on average, you'd be touching your mask the same" etc. All of it with that specific condecending tone of "you plebes are not as informed as we policy makers are, we know best". This slowly turned around when heavy mask wearing countries were clearly doing leaps and bounds better, and they started backpedaling, explaining that there was not enough masks anyway. People also progressively stopped freaking out about having to cover their face (in France in particular it was a thorny subject due to past religious controversies) so they didn't need weird purist "if it's not perfect why bother ?" excuses anymore.
- fivea 5y ago
  > Masks in general provide very little protection. I recommend you listen to the explanations by infectious disease experts Dr. Monica Gandhi and Dr. Michael Osterholm. (...) It literally takes less than 5min in Google to realize your criticism is utter bullshit, and even come across statements by Dr Monica Gandhi complaining that her comments were misrepresented and distorted to come across as authoritative anti-mask assertions. Please be more responsible and stop contributing to spread blatant misinformation.
  - nradov 5y ago
    Stop lying. I haven't posted any misinformation. You can literally listen to Dr. Gandhi's own words at the link I posted above. She spoke on the subject at some length, and answered several direct questions from a panel of other physicians.
    - fivea 5y ago
      > Stop lying. I haven't posted any misinformation. You can literally listen to Dr. Gandhi's own words at the link I posted above. Again, google it up. You can't fake this one. You do not need to take my word for it. Just have a shred of honesty and stop cherry-picking stale and debunked myths.
      - nradov 5y ago
        Stop posting misinformation about a serious public health issue. If you have a valid scientific or medical reference then let's see it. Otherwise you can't be taken seriously. Telling HN users to Google something is just sloppy and intellectually lazy.
dgellow 5y ago
Yes, I’m well aware of France situation, and yes your health minister was a joke with her posters in airports. Same for the Élysée spokeswoman who lied about not being able to use her mask. That was at the very beginning and was a complete disaster everywhere in Europe. Over time communication has been improved, governments have been quite transparent at communicating their decisions (relatively speaking). I don’t think it’s fair to pain the past ~2years as “governments lying” because of a few mistakes in time of high uncertainty.
- makeitdouble 5y ago
  > the past ~2years as “governments lying” because of a few mistakes in time of high uncertainty. They had (have?) the same attitude regarding school and children, only about last year/year and half were lower grade school kids mandated to wear masks. The two main contamination pools were work and school, and it was plain obvious to everyone that school had to be maintained for economic reasons, yet the edu minister never seemed to give up his “it’s all for the children” attitude while giving the finger to school staff requests. French gov avoided the most critical mistakes, and reacted better than some other countries in a number ways, including changing its position over time and making radical decisions when shit hit the fan. But what a bunch of dicks they were! I can’t remember how many large scale demo they managed to trigger during a pandemic when most people were freaking out and somewhat trying to be safe.

nradov 5y ago

Masks in general provide very little protection. I recommend you listen to the explanations by infectious disease experts Dr. Monica Gandhi and Dr. Michael Osterholm. Only properly fitted N95 (or equivalent) masks provide significant protection. Throughout the pandemic most people weren't wearing those, and those who did mostly wore them incorrectly. https://peterattiamd.com/covid-part2/ https://peterattiamd.com/covid-part2/ https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VSukFrMYGae1ILd0e4HuR?si=FEwYWMPWQ72FwsqddgKung https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VSukFrMYGae1ILd0e4HuR?si=F...

makeitdouble 5y ago
> Only properly fitted N95 (or equivalent) masks provide significant protection. This! This is the bulshit we got fed for almost 6 months. Paired with "people don't know how to properly fit N95 anyway", "you touch four face 20 times in an hour on average, you'd be touching your mask the same" etc. All of it with that specific condecending tone of "you plebes are not as informed as we policy makers are, we know best". This slowly turned around when heavy mask wearing countries were clearly doing leaps and bounds better, and they started backpedaling, explaining that there was not enough masks anyway. People also progressively stopped freaking out about having to cover their face (in France in particular it was a thorny subject due to past religious controversies) so they didn't need weird purist "if it's not perfect why bother ?" excuses anymore.
fivea 5y ago
> Masks in general provide very little protection. I recommend you listen to the explanations by infectious disease experts Dr. Monica Gandhi and Dr. Michael Osterholm. (...) It literally takes less than 5min in Google to realize your criticism is utter bullshit, and even come across statements by Dr Monica Gandhi complaining that her comments were misrepresented and distorted to come across as authoritative anti-mask assertions. Please be more responsible and stop contributing to spread blatant misinformation.
- nradov 5y ago
  Stop lying. I haven't posted any misinformation. You can literally listen to Dr. Gandhi's own words at the link I posted above. She spoke on the subject at some length, and answered several direct questions from a panel of other physicians.
  - fivea 5y ago
    > Stop lying. I haven't posted any misinformation. You can literally listen to Dr. Gandhi's own words at the link I posted above. Again, google it up. You can't fake this one. You do not need to take my word for it. Just have a shred of honesty and stop cherry-picking stale and debunked myths.
    - nradov 5y ago
      Stop posting misinformation about a serious public health issue. If you have a valid scientific or medical reference then let's see it. Otherwise you can't be taken seriously. Telling HN users to Google something is just sloppy and intellectually lazy.

dgellow 5y ago

Yes, I’m well aware of France situation, and yes your health minister was a joke with her posters in airports. Same for the Élysée spokeswoman who lied about not being able to use her mask. That was at the very beginning and was a complete disaster everywhere in Europe. Over time communication has been improved, governments have been quite transparent at communicating their decisions (relatively speaking). I don’t think it’s fair to pain the past ~2years as “governments lying” because of a few mistakes in time of high uncertainty.

makeitdouble 5y ago
> the past ~2years as “governments lying” because of a few mistakes in time of high uncertainty. They had (have?) the same attitude regarding school and children, only about last year/year and half were lower grade school kids mandated to wear masks. The two main contamination pools were work and school, and it was plain obvious to everyone that school had to be maintained for economic reasons, yet the edu minister never seemed to give up his “it’s all for the children” attitude while giving the finger to school staff requests. French gov avoided the most critical mistakes, and reacted better than some other countries in a number ways, including changing its position over time and making radical decisions when shit hit the fan. But what a bunch of dicks they were! I can’t remember how many large scale demo they managed to trigger during a pandemic when most people were freaking out and somewhat trying to be safe.