SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

The simplest and most effective ways to avoid contracting or spreading covid are (in no particular order): Wash your hands often. Wear a mask. Avoid large gatherings. Get vaccinated if medically able to do so. This isn't a list with an agenda - it is a list of scientifically supported methods to combat covid.

While some of the alternative therapies on the list may be true, I personally just feel that lists like these are part of the problem right now. Because I'm sorry but mouthwash and sunlight, while they may kill some viral cells, just are NOT the same as a vaccine designed to target those specific viral cells. They just aren't. I mean.... garlic has antibacterial properties, but you wouldn't treat a bacterial infection today with garlic if penicillin is available. To me all these "alternative therapies" read just like that.

This should have NEVER been allowed to happen!!!

If 'this' refers to the pandemic, how could it have been stopped? Pandemics occur periodically throughout history. Given the growth and concentration of the human population, the surprise is that it took so long to happen.

The pandemic response plan developed under *** NO POLITICS **.

*****

The vast majority of vaccine recipients don't experience serious side effects.

And prevention is generally much better than a cure.

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I don't see omicron as an argument against vaccines. We have no trouble accepting a new flu vaccine every year. It makes sense that we might need new vaccines as the Covid-19 virus evolves.

Yeah, it could become endemic. There's no cure for the 'common cold'. OTOH, it took 100 years to wipe out smallpox.

*****

The province's lack of numbers is troubling. However, I heard the author of The Great Influenza say that he expected lots more documentation than he actually found, and that was due to the fact that the docs were working so hard to fight the flu that they had neither the time nor the energy to keep good notes. Besides, lots of the researchers caught the flu themselves and died.

You live in a legislative district, right? Why not push your representative to demand the numbers?

*****

Without the vaccines, so many people would be infected that they would have to wait so long to see a doc to get the MCAs that it would be too late for them.

You know we can come up with a nasty variant in Kentucky or Ontario as easily as anyone in any other place can.

Or we could come up with a milder variant. Why the doom and gloom all the time? Either way, yes it could come from anywhere, but the point remains the same, the majority of the worlds population isn’t vaccinated. Blaming your neighbour for another variant is pointless and benefits no one.

Herd immunity is the pipe dream at this point.

Just another example of media and politics destroying medicine. "Herd immunity is a scientifically proven phenomenon. To ask an epidemiologist if they believe in herd immunity is like asking a physicist if they believe in gravity. Those who deny herd immunity may also wish to join the flat-earth society." Quote taken from FAQ of the GBD. Don’t like the source, I just watched a great interview from a YouTube channel called UnHerd, they interviewed professor Cyrille Cohen, head of Immunology at Bar Ilan University and a member of vaccines advisory committee for the Israeli government. He discussed omicron and herd immunity. There are many more, but at this point, believing in herd immunity is either political or scientific, you get to choose which side you want to be on.

We failed.

Once again, why the doom and gloom. Claiming we failed is to pretend we had a chance at control to begin with. And not based in reality.

Who are healthy people, btw?

I don’t care for anecdotes much, they serve little purpose in the much larger picture. But once again, when 80% of the COVID cases are under 65 and over 80% of COVID deaths are over 65, it’s clear where the concern should be.

Do we even know the long term effects of being sick with COVID? Personally, I wouldn't volunteer to be that sick twice in a year to avoid a vaccine.

We know as much as we do about long term effects of the vaccine. But look at the numbers, unvaxxed, vaxxed, we’re all catching omicron. So once again we’re all in this together. However you made your choice to try and not get that sick, that was your choice. Others made theirs.

So what did I read wrong? What did I miss? It ain't fear-mongering if it's reality

I invite anyone interested, in an exercise of critical thinking and the opportunity to discern to read the Great Barrington Declaration and Dee’s description of it. I’ll let you all decide for yourselves. Because unlike comments made in this thread, being able to discern is fundamentally human and education is paramount to that ability.

Want2B, the real issue I have with this point is to remind everyone that we simply do not have the credentials and experience to discern for ourselves what fits, plain and simple.

I believe the person who stated what I quoted definitely HAS the credentials AND experience to tell the rest of us what she said. From THAT and other statements...I believe we CAN understand what is going on even if we don't have the education to understand the whole picture. There are fringe factors on both sides of this...and people have been able to discern for themselves what to do. I don't know what is IN a vaccine to know it works well...or in MY family...to know that it can adversely affect the rest of my life.

Someone pointed out this morning that monoclonal antibodies CAN have adverse reactions for certain people. I could have said that was FALSE because NOT ONE person that I know of who has had the treatments has had adverse reactions. However...I can discern that this HAS happened...and I can adjust my perspective on that. It IS that simple...we do it every day .

I am very HAPPY to see you are feeling better tushnurse . I am happy that your family is doing well too! Sadly...my state is still not getting sotrovimab .

Because I'm sorry but mouthwash and sunlight, while they may kill some viral cells, just are NOT the same as a vaccine designed to target those specific viral cells.

I totally AGREE! However...vaccinated people are still having breakthrough infections. MAYBE doing some of these things will HELP them to not get the infections. In any case...it wouldn't hurt...correct? For unvaccinated people the things on this list could be what keeps their viral load down...which is what will keep people out of the hospital. Keeping hospitals from being overwhelmed is a GOOD thing...and if this HELPS to do that...what is wrong with that?

If 'this' refers to the pandemic, how could it have been stopped?

I would have thought that retention would have been a good thing to try. Transparency would have definitely HELPED!! I won't go further because I don't want it to turn political. But this...And prevention is generally much better than a cure...is so TRUE!!!

Without the vaccines, so many people would be infected that they would have to wait so long to see a doc to get the MCAs that it would be too late for them.

When Hurricane Ida hit...no one could see a doctor because of the destruction of the utilities. But a makeshift treatment area was done...and people could go with a positive test and be given the treatment without waiting. The monoclonal antibody treatment sites were ramped up in one state for sure and things were going very well there. This state was using the one treatment that works on Omicron.

I invite anyone interested, in an exercise of critical thinking and the opportunity to discern to read the Great Barrington Declaration and Dee’s description of it. I’ll let you all decide for yourselves. Because unlike comments made in this thread, being able to discern is fundamentally human and education is paramount to that ability.

Honestly...I never read it. I will go and read it...soon. Going to get ready for a date night now !!

Thank you for your contribution to this thread Loukas . I thought you were going to stop since it seemed to have devolved...but you do make good points and I really appreciate your insight...as I do the others too !!

I invite anyone interested, in an exercise of critical thinking and the opportunity to discern to read the Great Barrington Declaration and Dee’s description of it. I’ll let you all decide for yourselves. Because unlike comments made in this thread, being able to discern is fundamentally human and education is paramount to that ability.

Oh please do. And also explain how herd immunity works with this particular virus.

Covid once it escaped to the general world population was always going to go endemic and wasn't going to be contained by vaccination. Vaccination can and has helped mitigate the effect but it's not going to kill covid off. The only disease we eradicated with vaccinations was smallpox. This was predominately due symptoms being readily apparent, to being a human only disease, and time from exposure to symptoms is short. Covid checks none of those boxes. We knew early on that some super spreaders were asymptomatic altogether. The symptoms outside of the loss of taste and smell are common to other colds and flus. By the time the loss of taste kicks in you have been contagious for day or two. We have found covid in domesticated dogs, large cats in zoos, and in my state even wild deer. I believe they have found it in hamsters in South Korea recently. That means the belief that if only everyone would vaccinate we could eliminate future variants is more of a religious belief than reality. The original guidance was up to 14 days from exposure to first symptoms enough said there. Way too easy to have a large outbreak going before people start going symptomatic. That's what basically happened around the world prior to China going publicly announcing sars-cov2. There were cases already spreading around the world. We just didn't know it at the time.

FWIW My entire family is vaccinated and boosted. We've weighed the risks and for us it is the better option. I also dropped out of any public events prior to it being mandated almost two years ago. There were members of my circle that have high risk factors and wasn't going to be the bridge that exposed them to this. It was clear even in early March this wasn't going to be another Flu.

[This message edited by grubs at 8:03 PM, Tuesday, January 18th]

But if you want a more complete breakdown of how I view the Barrington Declaration, I'll indulge you.

The Great Barrington Declaration – As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.

Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.

Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.

There are no lockdowns right now. While my kids might have missed out on in-person schooling, they also missed out on getting COVID during the non-vaccine days. I worked from home and missed out on getting COVID too. We missed out on spreading it to others during this time. Many who missed cancer screenings also missed dying of COVID. Though I don't recall doctor's offices and hospitals being closed for business, so I'm not sure why we would have missed out on those things. I'm also not sure why missing in-person school for a year would have had higher mental health damage than losing more loved ones to a disease.

Fortunately, our understanding of the virus is growing. We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza.

As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls. We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity – i.e. the point at which the rate of new infections is stable – and that this can be assisted by (but is not dependent upon) a vaccine. Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity.

The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.

Again, children spread the virus to the elderly and vulnerable. Long-term care facilities have employees. Those employees have children. Those children live in the same home as the employees. How would these patients be protected while we build this immunity? What was the plan here?

Adopting measures to protect the vulnerable should be the central aim of public health responses to COVID-19. By way of example, nursing homes should use staff with acquired immunity and perform frequent testing of other staff and all visitors. Staff rotation should be minimized. Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered to their home. When possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside. A comprehensive and detailed list of measures, including approaches to multi-generational households, can be implemented, and is well within the scope and capability of public health professionals.

Aha. So we...what? Only have nursing home employees who have had COVID? How does that work? Infect them on purpose and those who live keep their jobs? Who does these jobs while the employees are home recovering and contagious? Or, are you suggesting that the employees should be forced to get vaccinated to keep their jobs? But personal freedom! And given that getting COVID once does not make one immune from getting it again, what then? And, I must point out that this absolutely ignores the risks of long-COVID or the unknowns about what long-term effects there are from being so sick with it.

Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold. Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.

Again, who is vulnerable? Yes, my brother is an anecdotal example. I have lots of other ones too. The vaccinated people I know who have had COVID with symptoms are experiencing minor colds. The unvaccinated people I know who have COVID with symptoms have been pretty damned sick. "Healthy" people. But forget that. Who is not considered vulnerable and how do you know? I honestly made a list of my vulnerable pros and cons and I'm not sure where I land personally. If I got it and was fine, well of course, because I'm not vulnerable. If I got it and was hospitalized for one or two possible comorbidities, I clearly was one of the vulnerable and should have stayed home hiding while everyone else went out and did their thing.

Here are the primary comorbitities listed by the CDC:

Cancer

Cerebrovascular disease

Chronic kidney disease*

Chronic lung diseases limited to:

Interstitial lung disease

Pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary hypertension

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Bronchiectasis

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)

Chronic liver diseases limited to:

Cirrhosis

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Alcoholic liver disease

Autoimmune hepatitis

Diabetes mellitus, type 1 and type 2*

Heart conditions (such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies)

Mental health disorders limited to:

Mood disorders, including depression

Schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2)*

Pregnancy and recent pregnancy

Smoking, current and former

Tuberculosis

Now look around you at the general population. Some of these seem to be pretty common, don't they? Are people with any of these things "vulnerable"? There aren't going to be that many people out and about getting herd immunity risk-free in this scenario. Lots of people have comorbidities without knowing it. I have fatty liver disease. I discovered that as a non-obese person only because I tried to donate a kidney to my aunt and had the most comprehensive health screening of my life. There is no way I would have had any clue I had that otherwise. But, comorbidity. Makes me vulnerable. I also used to smoke. I feel like a pretty healthy person, but there you go.

But hey, this amazing thing called a vaccine can actually confer immunity to those who suffer from comorbidities. If they still get Omicron, they're probably not getting very sick from it. Going in bare-back on this one didn't seem too smart pre-vaccines. You talk about limiting healthcare options...whew...people would be dying in the hospital parking lots from non-COVID stuff for all the COVID patients.

So yes, I've read it. It just does not seem well-thought out to me.

[This message edited by DevastatedDee at 8:13 PM, Tuesday, January 18th]

I totally AGREE! However...vaccinated people are still having breakthrough infections. MAYBE doing some of these things will HELP them to not get the infections. In any case...it wouldn't hurt...correct? For unvaccinated people the things on this list could be what keeps their viral load down...which is what will keep people out of the hospital. Keeping hospitals from being overwhelmed is a GOOD thing...and if this HELPS to do that...what is wrong with that?

W2BHA, there is nothing wrong with a vaccinated person using a virus-killing mouthwash. You're right, it can't hurt.

What CAN hurt is SO many unvaccinated people seeing an article headed 'MOUTHWASH KILLS COVID' and using that INSTEAD of just getting the gol-darn vaccine!! And a LOT of people are doing this - putting alternative (and in many cases, scientifically dubious/snake-oil-type) 'cures' on an equal effectiveness footing with the vaccine, and that is just wrong wrong wrong. Sorry, but it is just WRONG to do that. And science and proven scientific fact say it is wrong to do that - that's not just my 'belief'.

So I will say it again - the simplest and most effective ways to avoid contracting or spreading the covid virus are (in no particular order):
Wash your hands often.
Wear a mask.
Avoid large gatherings.
Get vaccinated if medically able to do so.

By way of example, nursing homes should use staff with acquired immunity and perform frequent testing of other staff and all visitors. Staff rotation should be minimized. Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered to their home. When possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside. A comprehensive and detailed list of measures, including approaches to multi-generational households, can be implemented, and is well within the scope and capability of public health professionals.

<sucking on my albuterol inhaler because since my 2 bouts of COVID my lungs turn to shit with any and every cold or respiratory infection.>

Nursing homes are lucky to have ANY staff. Vaccinated or not. "Naturally immune" or not. We are in "contingency mode" staffing and could be in "crisis mode" at any given moment. Right now we have COVID + staff working in the COVID unit, patient to nurse ratios almost double the level we typically had prior to COVID but the patients are much higher acuity and need more care.

And my parents did not go anywhere for almost a year. My sister shopped for them and brought groceries. We did everything in our power to protect them but my adult niece ended up exposed through her job and my parents both ended up with COVID.

That paragraph is enough for me to completely disregard anything else the GBD has to say. Those of you who keep stressing how we all get to make our own choices just seem to conveniently forget that you do not live in a vacuum. Your choices affect others and to me, that is the bottom line issue. That's why "respectful dialogue about COVID" is so difficult to achieve. Because it always boils down to personal rights with little or no personal responsibility or accountability to the greater community.

Until I die, I will never understand how this issue became so divisive and politicized. I will never understand how very simple, noninvasive measures such as masks and social distancing were ridiculed and disregarded by so many people that mandates were enacted when it became clear that a large portion of our society were not going to voluntarily do anything they found inconvenient.

It's maddening.

I will never understand how this issue became so divisive and politicized. I will never understand how very simple, noninvasive measures such as masks and social distancing were ridiculed and disregarded by so many people that mandates were enacted when it became clear that a large portion of our society were not going to voluntarily do anything they found inconvenient.

TBH I don't understand why so many had an issue with those either. For my hermit self, hearing "stay home and avoid humans like the plague" as an actual government-suggested thing was like, the BEST gift ever!

That paragraph is enough for me to completely disregard anything else the GBD has to say. Those of you who keep stressing how we all get to make our own choices just seem to conveniently forget that you do not live in a vacuum. Your choices affect others and to me, that is the bottom line issue. That's why "respectful dialogue about COVID" is so difficult to achieve. Because it always boils down to personal rights with little or no personal responsibility or accountability to the greater community.

Yes. That. There are for sure people who are okay with a higher death toll because they consider that less-damaging than limiting personal freedoms like shopping without a mask or whatever. Those people assume they won't be among the dead, I guess, or maybe that no one they love will be either. Just the amorphous "other people" with flaws like age and physical ailments. Quite Darwinian.

"Until I die, I will never understand how this issue became so divisive and politicized. I will never understand how very simple, noninvasive measures such as masks and social distancing were ridiculed and disregarded by so many people that mandates were enacted when it became clear that a large portion of our society were not going to voluntarily do anything they found inconvenient"

Yes. Yes. Yes.

TBH I don't understand why so many had an issue with those either. For my hermit self, hearing "stay home and avoid humans like the plague" as an actual government-suggested thing was like, the BEST gift ever! 

Omg this exactly!!!

Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed.

I live in Texas, nothing is closed. I did however, receive an email from the school district asking if there were any parent volunteers to help run the schools because too many staff members were out sick. My high school senior says school is a ghost town. No one is well enough to attend.

Children’s hospital is at capacity as well as the major hospitals in our area.

Covid testing is about a 4 hour wait. The pharmacies didn’t have openings for up to two weeks.

By way of example, nursing homes should use staff with acquired immunity and perform frequent testing of other staff and all visitors. Staff rotation should be minimized.

We do get tested twice a week. Minimizing staff rotation is nearly impossible due to the fact that every week we have people testing positive and unable to work. We have nursing staff working doubles all of the time.

Visitors do not not require testing because you know, freedom. We require that visitors wear a mask but they feel like it is unnecessary once they are in their loved one’s room. So now they sit in an enclosed space maskless, coughing, kissing dad or grandpa. Then the positive tests start rolling in. It’s terribly frustrating.

I believe the person who stated what I quoted definitely HAS the credentials AND experience to tell the rest of us what she said. From THAT and other statements...I believe we CAN understand what is going on even if we don't have the education to understand the whole picture. There are fringe factors on both sides of this...and people have been able to discern for themselves what to do. I don't know what is IN a vaccine to know it works well...or in MY family...to know that it can adversely affect the rest of my life.

But again, Want2Be- if you agree you don't have the education to understand the whole picture, then what makes you gravitate towards the side where the FEWEST scientists are? Doesn't it seem like quite the leap, when you can't really differentiate between two positions, to firmly believe that the side with the least amount of research and evidence is correct, and that there is some kind of suppression of this correctness for whatever reason? (Personally, I think anyone who believes that government is intelligent enough to pull off mass conspiracy theories has never been a project manager or worked for the government!).

Wouldn't it make SENSE that the side that has the most documented evidence, the most scientists saying, this is so, is correct?

Or rather, what makes you think that so very many sources from so very many different countries and occupations are all wrong?

When you look at it like that, to me, it's very hard to understand why one would believe that we must go in search of the "truth" which we aren't qualified to understand.

I am not a mechanic. If I go to see 5 different mechanics because there's a knocking sound in my car, and four of them tell me there's an engine problem and one tells me I have a ghost, it feels a bit farfetched to think that maybe information about ghosts is being hidden from me so I can't make a fair decision. Or should both sides be presented here equally so I can make my own choice? I can't evaluate the credentials of the mechanics with no experience, but maybe if I believed in ghosts I'd be more likely to believe in one again.

Correct, we don’t live in a vacuum. Lockdowns and mandates have very wide spreading consequences. That’s why ideas like the GBD exist. Those afraid of sickness and death talk about compassion and selflessness as though they are the only ones who care. They forfeit social consequences for a narrow view of compassion, with little to no regard for the actual cost of those social consequences, most of which can’t be seen until much further down the road. But here we are, further down the road but still not that far yet. Inflation rates have sky rocketed, supply chains disrupted, hospitals firing heathy staff and complaining about shortages, who knows the consequences of keeping our children from school and on and on. Every lockdown is going to have a ripple effect and we’ll all suffer for that. I mean it’s so simple, people can’t work, they can’t pay their bills, they don’t have extra money to pay the next person for their work, then they can’t pay their bills or don’t have extra money…. Which is fine if you were financial stable going into the pandemic, but many weren’t. Housing costs here are mind boggling, I don’t know how a young adult is going to start out.

It’s easy to say you care about those who are most vulnerable to COVID. By far the easiest position to take. And if your policies evolve around that, they are likely to be the most favourable, because the consequences of those policies are much harder to see. But that in no way makes it right by virtue alone. Which often seems to be the argument from those who hold the position. When I hear folks make arguments like "I miss drinking at bars and eating in restaurants with no restrictions so if some people die or suffer permanent health damage from long COVID, I'll just hope it's not me" I wonder if they actually thought it all the way through. People work at those restaurants and bars, they have bills to pay, they are people. This idea of essential work just baffles me, any work paying your bills is essential work, period. So to them, it would be quite easy to argue those who don’t care about their livelihoods are selfish. It’s the fundamental flaw with the selfish argument with regards to COVID. From just about anyones viewpoint, you could be selfish for what you are asking of them. Hence the reason for individual choice.

Let’s not forget. We weren’t asked to make minor inconveniences when this pandemic began. Millions lost their jobs. Lockdowns we’re far reaching and for a while, the world stopped. At a great cost to many. The policies we see now didn’t start with masks and social distancing. There’s reasons why COVID is divisive. Actual freedoms were the very first thing governments attacked. For many nations, they still are. So if that doesn’t happen to be you, consider yourself lucky, for myself and others we’re not as fortunate.

As far as the GBD specifically is concerned, I have no desire to argue it’s counterpoints, nor convince anyone of it’s merits. This topic is far too tribal for that and rather pointless since none of us are policy makers (at least to my knowledge). I invited you to check it out, some of you have, Dee seems to have clarified her description of it, and the revision is a far cry from her original thoughts. With that. Let’s see what insanity the next wave of COVID hysteria brings.

[This message edited by Loukas at 11:28 PM, Tuesday, January 18th]

Ellie, love the Abe Lincoln.

"hospitals firing heathy staff and complaining about shortages,"

If you are referring to the vaccine mandate, our hospital which employs almost 30,000 people lost no doctors. Almost all other staff that requested an exemption from getting the vaccine had it approved.

There are fringe factors on both sides of this...and people have been able to discern for themselves what to do.

But again.... while this is a factually accurate statement on it's face, the issue for me is the context in which it used.

"Vaccines work" and "vaccines are safe for a significant majority of the population" are not 'fringe factors'. Those are scientifically verifiable FACTS.

Does a small (like really small percentage - per CDC - about 0.014% have had bad reactions up to and including fatal ones) of the population experience adverse reactions and side-effects? Yes, and that is true of every vaccine ever made. From what I have been able to suss out, it seems like a way higher proportion of the bad effects have happened with the J&J vaccine than from Pfizer or Moderna ones.

Has a significantly higher percentage of that same population died from/contracted/is now suffering ill-effect/long term issues due to covid? Also yes (death rate is somewhere in the 0.25-0.30% range, so in layman's terms you are around 18 times more likely to die from covid than to have a bad reaction to a vaccine for it).

As for long-covid (where recovery can take 6 months to ?? after having covid), most reputable outlets say that around 40% of covid patients will have long-covid, and that figure jumps pretty significantly for covid patients who require hospitalization (which at this point is made up of mostly unvaccinated patients). So of the total 67.7MM cases in the US, if we just round down slightly to say 35% (allowing for possibly false long covid reporting), that means potentially 23.MM covid patients could have symptoms that last months or even years.

"Sunlight kills covid" or "mouthwash kills covid", while true on their face, are NOT contextually accurate statements. Sure, a covid cell sitting in sunlight will die and a covid cell submerged in anti-viral mouthwash for some period of time will maybe die, I'm with you there. But sunlight killing covid in a human host or mouthwash being used is patently not like sunlight killing covid sitting in a petri dish under a uv light or a covid cell submerged in a vat of mouthwash. The context around those two 'factual' statements matters hugely when discussing covid and how best to combat it.

Or going back to my earlier example - garlic has antibiotic properties. So does penicillin. Those are both factual statements.

But one of those substances is FAR more effective at killing bacteria than the other one is. Which is why doctors don't prescribe garlic for strep throat.

[This message edited by EllieKMAS at 12:10 AM, Wednesday, January 19th]