Liberals aren't triggered by your protests. We're laughing at you.

(Though we are concerned at the innocents' lives you are risking in the process.)

I doubt that. Damn, I can't keep all the snowflakes straight! Wasn't it you, who in other posts,had no problem with Trump supporters dying?

Maybe he’s had a change of heart regarding them.

They are victims after all, in a sense, of propaganda being fed to them by the President himself, certain disinformation outlets, and in the echo-cambers here

But as for me...

My heart’s kind of been leaning the other way.

Personal responsibility! That’s a concept I learned from you conservative fellows. There are no victims of society and circumstance in life, only idiots who failed to use their brains and adapt.

Amiright?

Snark added for emphasis.

Really though, I’ve done my level best here on ImgFlip to raise the alarm about Covid-19 and encourage folks to socially distance, and at a certain point it just wears you out.

But at the end of the day, I really do love every American regardless of political opinion.

Hilarious KF.

The sad irony for you KF, is that preponderance of the deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus have been in NYC compared to anywhere else (with NYC being a liberal stronghold.)

Although, I'm sure you guys are confident that even the Wuhan bat flu can't take down enough snowflakes for NY state to turn red.

Why don't you just admit that the science tells us that unless you're in one of the 'at risk' groups, social distancing, washing your hands regularly, and not touching your face, will be enough to pull you through this crisis, right?

I assume you heard about the Stanford study in Santa Clara county? Sure, there's a debate going on about the accuracy of the number they found to be infected, but even if they have their estimate off by a reasonable factor, it means there are likely far, far more that have been infected with this virus than all the (so far, 100% inaccurate) models have predicted.

Using the wonders of math, that means the death rate is far, far less than the rate the medical experts in the *media* are using to terrorize us into believing they're actually relevant.

We won’t know what the exact death rate of Covid-19 is until we can get widespread testing up and running. But based on our best available information, it’s high enough to justify continued social distancing.

Do you have any source saying death rates for Covid-19 are “far, far” less than about 2-3%? Because that’s the rate I’ve consistently seen.

I feel that’s worthy of a Cetacean Needed.

And back-of-the-envelope calculations show that even death rates of “only” about 2% should be very concerning to us indeed.

As for me, I’m a young man in good health with no pre-existing conditions myself, so I’m not too worried, but my radius of concern extends beyond myself.

Except, I suppose, when it comes to those who don’t care for others and would rather reclaim their God-given freedoms to eat at Applebee’s and to buy Christmas trim or whatever they were planning on doing in the retail shops that are currently closed than to spare a thought for society’s most vulnerable.

Then, I’m inclined to throw up my hands like Will Smith and say: let natural selection do its work.

"We won’t know what the exact death rate of Covid-19 is until we can get widespread testing up and running"

Actually, we will never know the exact death rate regardless of testing. Why? Because there is no requirement to verify via testing that someone actually died from Covid-19. In New York, where there are by far the most deaths, they are not even confirming it.

This is indeed concerning and dovetails with my earlier point: we don’t have mass testing yet.

If so many are dying that we don’t even have the capability to verify who is dying of it:

Well, is that a reason to be less cautious, or more cautious?

It's not that we don't have the capability to run tests to determine cause of death. It's that the CDC is saying it's not necessary.

Further, we don't even definitively determine who dies by flu every year. The CDC uses mathematical models to estimate deaths.

We never know "the exact death rate"

The CDC has flexed certain rules in the middle of this crisis in reflection of the fact that this is a triage situation.

If tests are scarce, then it makes sense to preserve them for the living in cases when the outcome of a test could determine a different treatment path.

Just like when the CDC recently revised their rules to say medical personnel could wear bandanas or other makeshift masks over their face. Not because it’s ideal. Because real surgical masks were not always available.

And because medical personnel *have* to comply with CDC rules, or else they can’t work.

Wow...look at that...nothing in there refutes my point that we will never know the exact death rate

True as far as it goes.

Public health and safety decisions are made with the best available information.

And the best information available says....cloth masks are not proven to help

"Public health and safety decisions are made with the best available information"

Unless the decisions are made by the Trump administration, right ?

Sorry to chime in jp, but that's an excellent counter to what KF is trying to say. Well, KF is often not really trying to say anything so much as trying to confuse us with misdirection.

Since everything they believe is predicated on the basis of nothing more than opposing all things Trump, or more simply, orangemanbad, their arguments fall into logical fallacies like that routinely.

Trump’s been all over the map on the subject of re-opening, particularly in the past couple weeks, so opposing him in everything he says or does would give me too much mental whiplash.

Recall how Trump announced he wanted to open the country by Easter, then backed off. So if you are someone who would have wanted to have re-opened the country by Easter then you officially oppose Trump.

I did praise Trump today for saying this, and I have been consistent throughout this crisis in praising Dr. Fauci, a Trump official.

Orange man is not always bad. But overall, it’s undeniable he’s been sending very mixed signals, not inspiring confidence, and his leadership could use major improvement.

Nice try, but no.

Trump and his officials aren’t as batty as you guys.

Yet, everyday you complain about Trump's decisions around the Coronavirus

I would agree that at this point, continuing the policy of social distancing makes good sense. It's the humane thing to do, since any one of us may have the virus but be asymptomatic, and either directly or indirectly pass it along to someone in a high risk category. I think you said essentially the same thing, so this looks like one of those rare times we agree.

My issue with your comment about Applebee's is that it completely ignores the very real suffering, and even deaths, of those adhering to the shutdown. We hear people justify it by starting their sentences with something like "if it even saves even one life...", but any reasonable person knows that's all crap. If we took that approach seriously, we'd all be driving down the highway at 15 mph, because it would save thousands of lives every year. We're hypocrites to not put this in perspective and admit that we, as a culture and a society, have made many decisions in which we trade human lives for the perceived greater good.

What if, when it's all said and done, the number of lives lost due to the shutdown, exceeds the number of lives that would have been lost had we done nothing more about the virus than isolate those at risk, employ social distancing, engage in regular hand washing, and advocated for common sense things like not touching our own faces?

At some point, we have to consider our country as a whole, and get it up and running. As the great fictional, future, Vulcan philosopher Spock has already said, the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few. And I believe what I'm talking about here is an apples to apples comparison, because the loss of human life is likely already very real due to this shutdown. The loss of human livelihoods is provably real. Livelihood: a means of securing the necessities of life.

My 'far far less' comment was speculative, but based on the belief that the numbers produced by the Stanford - Santa Clara county study were at least representative, although possibly over-stated, but by a relatively insignificant factor. If accurate, this virus would have a death rate lower than the seasonal flu. I live in SC county, and although anecdotal, I know that there were a lot of us who came down with a seriously harsh case of the flu last fall. Sometimes when you read about a study like that, it just clicks. Not scientific on my part, but there it is.

You’re a reasonable conservative fellow. I still haven’t figured out why you’ve chosen to go to bat so hard for Trump and his movement, but it is what it is.

You are correct that this pandemic does present stark calculations about the value of human life vs. a return to normalcy as quickly as possible. Reasonable minds can differ over that.

I was anti-quarantine for a hot second at the outset, since the transition to a cloistered life was unprecedented and jarring. But then I read more into the deadliness of the virus, and on a personal level got more comfortable with “the new normal.” I was also cheered by the sudden and mature response of our normally dithering Congress, the way they quickly put together a series of robust bipartisan economic relief bills.

The death rate has also really started to climb — now about 45,000. We’re now at about 4x the level of swine flu deaths in 2009 (how quickly those memes have disappeared from “politics”!), and we didn’t implement any sort of social distancing at that time. The counter-factual with no social distancing for Covid-19 has been modeled at 2.2 million deaths.

That said, we obviously can’t endure a shutdown indefinitely. The logic seems to be to buy ourselves some time to find a real cure/vaccine, or for the infection rate to subside.

I agree with that logic for now. And I unfortunately just don’t see ourselves being ready to open back up in as little as two weeks as some governors are now saying.

First of all KF, I can't stand that douche bag Colbert. He's a good comic, and I enjoyed the Colbert Report, but as with so many other snowflakes, once Trump was elected, he lost his effing mind.

Second of all, I'm not a conservative. Trump isn't a conservative either, although clearly he's now influenced by them. As with any president I've supported, there are many things about them I don't like, and Trump is no different. At the same time, where I differ from him does nothing to counter idiots like blue bunny, souffle, 34t, FiF, StanCult, etc., which is why you don't hear about that from me.

I can't believe a reasonable person could be cheered by much that this congress has done. The mere fact that Pelosi and her corrupt cronies refused, without gaining funding for their pet programs, to replenish the PPP mere days after they passed it, is nothing short of shameful political hackery. Small business people are losing their businesses, their livelihoods, and that old hag pulls crap like that? Then goes on TV to show us how much gourmet ice cream she's hoarding? Being tone deaf and using poor optics are standard for that pathetic cow.

I have to point out to you KF, that you said the death rate has started to really climb, then didn't reference a rate, but a total. With anyone else I'd ordinarily chalk that up to carelessness, but you consistently use misdirection as a tactic, so I have to conclude that it was intentional.

You should be honest, and admit that the science absolutely does not (yet?) support the notion that sheltering or the other things you and I agree are common sense, has had any mitigating effect on this virus. Perhaps, but the science as of yet does not support that.

Don't kid yourself, a vaccine likely won't come quickly. And now there's another study from USC showing the infection rate in Taxifornia may be far higher than currently believed. If true, the mortality rate is far lower than the hysterical media would have us believe, and may be at or below that of the seasonal flu.

"The actual number of infections from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County may be as high as 55 times the current number of confirmed positive cases, according to preliminary results from antibody tests conducted as part of a joint venture between the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health."

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/results-antibody-test-study-reveal-covid-19-cases/story?id=70249753

Especially for cloth masks, which is what a majority of the public has access to. Even surgical mask only reduce the chance of infection by 10%.

"We do not recommend requiring the general public who do not have symptoms of COVID-19-like illness to routinely wear cloth or surgical masks because:

There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Their use may result in those wearing the masks to relax other distancing efforts because they have a sense of protection
We need to preserve the supply of surgical masks for at-risk healthcare workers"

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data

Now be a good boy and listen to the experts. Also, the world health organization says the same thing, and we know how much you love them

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30134-X/fulltext

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. And wearing a mask is such a ridiculously easy and trivial step to take to protect yourself and others that even a slight, speculative chance of reducing infection seems worth it.

No, it’s not as effective as “other distancing efforts” — as the very source you quoted suggested. Social distancing should still be observed.

And the need to preserve scarce PPE for medical personnel instead of the general public is sound logic. But there’s a solution to that, which is...

Handmade masks!

My mother-in-law made us some handcrafted cloth masks a couple weeks ago that are fun to wear and stylish. Not everyone has an awesome mother-in-law, but I feel like a boss wearing one every time I go grocery shopping.

But if you feel confident enough relying on that absence of evidence, get on wit’ cho bad, maskless self.

Cloth masks are not ineffective. It's science, and you listen to science right?

"These studies demonstrate that cloth or homemade masks will have very low filter efficiency (2% to 38%)."

Science.

What’s the filter efficacy of no mask?

Cetacean needed

This is what I actually said. I hope you would grasp my subtle point, but it appears to have been lost on you.

So, I'll make it more explicit this time:

Regardless of your own feelings on the evidence or lack thereof of the efficacy of homemade face masks: If you're arguing against social distancing right now, then you are the one contradicting science.

Oh look the twat waffle is back and dripping in his syrup.

No, what you actually said was "don't wear a mask, maybe don't make it to Nov 2020"...science says there is no evidence that cloth masks are effective at stopping the transmission of Covid-19

Well, you've called me a twat waffle umpteen times in this thread simply for advocating a trivial safety measure.

Reviewing all the information in the articles you've presented me, I would clarify that social distancing is even more important than wearing face masks.

All that really does is underscores the message in my meme title that the anti-social distancing protests going on right now are worthy of ridicule.

But, you are a twat waffle.

The meme has nothing to do with social distancing. This is evidenced by the fact that the words "social distancing" do not appear anywhere in the meme.

But here you are, in all your twat waffle glory, saying your meme is about something it really isn't about.

"Liberals aren't triggered by your protests. We're laughing at you."

Do you know what protests I'm referencing?
Do you know what they were about?

If you don't, you can always ask.

The protests are referencing being out of work from stay at home orders. You positing a "either or" fallacy that isn't true. You're saying "either stay home or you don't support social distancing".

Thats false. The protests are about people not being able to work. Can we allow people to work and still have social distancing through voluntarism? Yes. So your premise is false, and you don't understand the protests.

Oh and I almost forgot, you're a twat waffle

You need to realize that the crocheted masks your mother in law gave you are not because she cares? The virus will get through such large holes.

How often does this mental twat waffle lecture people about listening to science? But the minute his mother in law sews him a mask his commitment to science goes out the window.

Often, do you remember the Bush Wildfires in Australia? Climate change this and that from kf. Well i see they have a report out about the cause and it's not supportive of CC science either. Yes but crochet will be nil protection.

2019 was Australia’s hottest year ever.

The very source jplowry777 cited said it wasn't "nil protection."

One more time: Low protection isn't nil protection, and given how ridiculously trivial it is to wear a homemade face mask, it's a good idea to do so anyway.

The very source I cited said there is no scientific evidence supporting the public be mandated to wear cloth masks.

Reading is hard, it's especially when you don't want to read something that goes against your predetermined conclusion

Well, I never said the public should be mandated to wear cloth face masks.

The source also said there is no evidence that cloth masks prevent the transmission of Covid-19...sooooo

You missed my mother in law joke, no problem. But I think we can agree that if she gave you Crochet Masks you would have pretty well no additional protection.

Crochet? No, they’re made of stiffer material than that.

OK, still too serious.

[image deleted] Crochet? as in what is Crochet?
And as they stretch over face to secure on ears the holes get bigger creating no protection.

Hey I just making a joke originally. Because of the open stitch nature of Crochet. I would suggest MIL is smarter than she looked to you or following an established design by the folds she has sewn into hers. This would create a greater surface area for any material to land and material looks like Flannelette which is nice feel for all and any purposes.

Yes as to Efficacy expressed as some descriptive (N number), who knows. The thing is, if you had corona infection unknown to you. Then they will surely near 100% limit you spreading it as long as you dont touch the face or mask during wearing. This may sound like a Stupid comment, but make sure to follow procedures for placement, adjustment, wearing and removal.

Lol. Alright man, you’ve convinced me to share.

We have 4 that look like this. Stiffer material yet still comfy, no gaping holes that get stretched when applied to the face.

I will not await the scientific results of efficacy for this particular kind of mask before donning mine.

Plus, that would just be rude to the MIL.

2019 was also Australia’s driest year ever.

Whether or not you’re willing to chalk that up to “climate change,” it’s at the very least... ahem... local weather anomalies.

These two charts form the foundation of the explanations I’ve seen for the Australian wildfires. The whole arsonist thing was bullshit.

What’s the report you’re referencing?

Hi, I will forward it and an even more pertinent chart later today or this evening. Not in at/on pc right now.

Hi a bit slow with these for your reference and link with ongoing royal commision which will have an end point of who knows when. As I read they are allowing for further submissions because of many unable to get their statements in.

In the video link the minister/poli mentions all the things we were telling you and others about, like how the burnoff of overgrown areas needs to occur which hadn't happened.

https://naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au

https://www.news.com.au/national/decades-of-neglect-in-land-management-contributes-to-bushfires/video/ba7a6257e14c2768806f5fff57df4dfb

Anyway, the results of royal commision will take around 6 months to complete.

And in response to the rainfall in Australia it is best described as inconsistent. They have had drought for 3 years and wow suprise you can plot the biggest bushfires in their history against drought periods.

And also I assume you have never spent time in Australia as in a, for years at a time period have you. The Arsonist thing is real, happens every year all over the country. And like it or not they are one of the main causes for fires starting along with other weather creating lightning etc as starter.
You need to grasp that not every fire that starts is deliberate but until defined is suspected as arson. Once defined then of course it is not deliberate or with criminal intent but still man made.
I remember where I was living their the particular region had major fire which began with a man using a grinder which had sparks leave the device and it ignited a shed then surrounding land which then got out of control and burnt dozens of homes. The man was charged with negligence for the fires because of laws against starting fire for any purpose or operating equipment which could cause fire.

Enjoy the numbers.