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Re:Covid patients breathe out large amounts of virus early on by notabee on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @03:08PM (#37486259)
One of the first proponents for hand washing and hygiene during medical practice wound up dying in a mental asylum.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7240806

What's considered normal socially is not always what's supported by the evidence at hand, and sometimes what that supports is well outside of the acceptable range of discussion or behavior at the time.

Are you truly concerned that this person has made an error in judgment based on evidence or do they just make you uncomfortable for breaking norms? Are you motivated to post about this because you've considered their reasons and think they've made a harmful, critical error in judgment or are you just seeking approval of your normalcy bias? Do you know enough about their health situation or their family's to be sure that their risk calculation is unreasonable?

The best course of action if you're absolutely sure that there's no threat to you is to ignore them and move on with your life.

Re:Covid patients breathe out large amounts of virus early on by Cupertino95014 on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @03:13PM (#37486326)
What you just demonstrated is called Survivor Bias or Survivorship Bias:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

what about all the people who challenged what was "considered normal socially" and actually were proven wrong? One never hears about those.

Re:Covid patients breathe out large amounts of virus early on by notabee on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @03:32PM (#37486704)
I'm not sure what kind of strawman you're building here. Are you thinking that I'm arguing that all or even most norm-breakers are proven correct? I am arguing only that some norm breakers turn out to be prescient and thus overconfidence based on norms alone is treacherous and bound to be proven wrong at times as we learn more, and Normalcy Bias often prevents people from adequately assessing that risk. Here's another wikipedia link!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias

Re:Covid patients breathe out large amounts of virus early on by Cupertino95014 on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @04:05PM (#37487346)
A "strawman" ? you said, "One of the first proponents for hand washing and hygiene during medical practice wound up dying in a mental asylum."

Maybe if you'd added, "of course, lots of people who wound up dying in a mental asylum are forgotten, with good reason" then I would've had nothing to say.

As it was, you cited an example as though that proved anything.

Re:Covid patients breathe out large amounts of virus early on by nix0n on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @03:45PM (#37486932)
> what about all the people who challenged what was "considered normal socially" and actually were proven wrong?

There are not many of those, because of herd mentality. (Edit: I mean Normalcy Bias, thanks "notabee")

If a person is unusual enough, they are dismissed as cranks without any sort of proof required.

Re:Covid patients breathe out large amounts of virus early on by Cupertino95014 on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @04:10PM (#37487438)
This isn't even a response to anything.

notabee held up one example, which is relevant only if the argument was "everyone who challenges the norms is insane." That would be a counterexample, and only one is required.

as for "There are not many of those" I don't even know what to say. Of course those people were forgotten and there are no citations, because they weren't newsworthy. That was the whole point.