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Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by clairity on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @02:22PM (#29556109)
it’s worth always keeping in mind that the only dichotomy that matters in political economies is that between the wealthy and powerful and everyone else, not left-right, black-white, east-west, socialist-capitalist, or anything else. it’s been this way for all of human history past and will likely be so for the rest of it too. that’s a sober position to take, not a cynical one, as some might argue. the more dynamic our political and economic engines are, the better for the general welfare (obviously at the extreme this breaks down, but we’re not in danger of that extreme any time soon, if ever).

masks provide no added protection in most common situations where they’re used, but provide much political leverage, which is why they’re popular. same with (non-sterilizing) vaccine mandates and other arbitrary public restrictions. these are political wedges, not effective public health measures. if we were worried about public health, vaccination status wouldn’t be considered at all, only infection status. we’d also be policing private behavior (family/social gatherings) much more invasively, rather than public behavior (grocery stores and restaurants).

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by johnchristopher on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @03:06PM (#29556780)
Your second paragraph assumes our governments have the means to do that. They don't. Which breaks the logic of your conclusion. And masks do add protection. Their political leverage is null. What is gained by authorities ? There's no advantages.

> if we were worried about public health, vaccination status wouldn’t be considered at all, only infection status.

Ww are worried. Infection status is considered. Vaccination status is considered. You are building a counter stance to drive a point that aims to minimize the covid problem.

You can fight reality with logic and interpretations and a different philosophical approach of the situation but facts don't care. Hospitals are regularly overwhelmed, people are dying when they shouldn't and the virus doesn't care about our psychotic or neurotic bouts. We know that if we do nothing it gets worse real fast.

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by ShrigmaMale on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @03:26PM (#29557092)
Of course there's a political advantage. It's something that forces everybody to visibly declare an affiliation with a side at all times in public. That will always be used for political advantage.
Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by deadbunny on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @04:01PM (#29557674)
What nonsense the only ones that have made masks political is the right-wingers of the world for whatever convoluted "freedom" reasons they have come up with.

I don't wear a mask because of my political beliefs. I wear a mask due to the abundance of evidence that it helps prevent transmission. If you assume my political affiliation from that not only would you be wrong but you know what they say about assuming.

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by johnchristopher on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @04:26PM (#29558069)
> It's something that forces everybody to visibly declare an affiliation with a side at all times in public.

No. Forcing people to wear a police badge or a yellow star or a hijab or a a beard in some places would fit that outlook but the first reason to wear a mask is a medical/prophylactic one. The fact some people (right or left) decided to associate that with political beliefs is another matter that has nothing to do with the inherent advantages that wearing a mask provides in some occasions.

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by the_why_of_y on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @05:36PM (#29559083)
If I put on a seat belt while driving in a car, what political affiliation does that signal?
Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by clairity on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @01:25PM (#29569701)
you are building a counter stance to drive a point that aims to maximize the covid problem.

you can fight reality with fearmongering and projection, but facts don’t care. hospitals are only irregularly overwhelmed because of greed, not covid. the people dying are overwhelmingly likely to have a comorbidity, and the virus doesn’t care about our hysteria over masks and political misguidance when it kills them. we know that if we do exactly the wrong things, the pandemic and the panic is prolonged for maximal mediopolitical benefit.

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by johnchristopher on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:35PM (#29572929)
> you are building a counter stance to drive a point that aims to maximize the covid problem.

You are trying a weird (and childish may I add) apparent mirror strategy but subtly adding twist of your own making that weren't there to drive your point that Covid is not a problem:

> we know that if we do exactly the wrong things, the pandemic and the panic is prolonged for maximal mediopolitical benefit.

Fixed:

> we know that if we do exactly the wrong things, the pandemic and the panic is prolonged.

No need to get all conspiracy on that one.

> you can fight reality with fearmongering and projection, but facts don’t care. hospitals are only irregularly overwhelmed because of greed, not covid.

They are overwhelmed and they shouldn't and they weren't 2 years ago. It'd be very weird that all around the world the hospital infrastructure just happened to show their limits at the same time and that it'd have nothing to do with the current pandemic but only with greed (I suppose you refer to the impoverishment of public hospitals). Occam's razor and all that.

Would you please wear a mask and get a vaccine or keep your distance a bit if you don't want/can't ? Thank you.

> the people dying are overwhelmingly likely to have a comorbidity, and the virus doesn’t care about our hysteria over masks and political misguidance when it kills them.

So what if they have a comorbidity ? It's still happening. There's a strong underlying current in anti-* that suggest to let people die and let selection plays its game. Are you advocating for that ?

Unfortunately for your weak ass arguments the virus does care about masking in the sense that it hinders its efforts to infect us. Vaccination is also shown to work.

> we know that if we do exactly the wrong things, the pandemic and the panic is prolonged for maximal mediopolitical benefit.

Ah yes, the media and the politics are manufacturing a crisis. Media do it to make money (or something) and politicians to their benefit (whatever that is).

You rather believe in a pharma-political conspiracy to manufacture a global pandemic than face the fact life is unfair and unpredictable ? You rather believe that behind the shadows there's someone that is pulling the strings over all this for their own political or financial gains because then it would make the world less scary, less unjust ? I am sorry, this is not how the world works. Things are fucked up and it's not fair and it's not (y)our fault but it is what it is.

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by aftbit on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @02:54PM (#29556628)
I was with you for the first paragraph, but the second makes a number of concrete statements about the virus that are contrary to what I've heard elsewhere, so I'd second the ask for sources.
Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by pfisch on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @02:46PM (#29556488)
"the only dichotomy that matters in political economies is that between the wealthy and powerful and everyone else"

I always think of this as putting on different pairs of glasses to see the world through different lenses. That is one lens. left-right is another lens.

There is no "the only lens that matters". There are many lenses which have different degrees of predictive power depending on what you are observing. You don't use a microscope to look at the stars.

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by clairity on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @02:51PM (#29556579)
left-right is the worst of political dichotomies. it provides no purpose other than to arbitrarily divide the world into good vs. bad from the perspective of the viewer. that’s meant to solely benefit politicians, not provide any clarity, because it collapses the acceptable political narratives down into a palatably small set from which the politician can form a base. in short, it’s pure bullshit.
Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by lb0 on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @02:48PM (#29556521)
Very confusing statements, any sources?

To start with one, https://twitter.com/maxplanckpress/status/146668793563865497...