Australia

A classic fallacious argument: “If masks don’t work, then why do surgeons wear them?”

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A classic fallacious argument: “If masks don’t work, then why do surgeons wear them?”

 
Jim Meehan MD
meehanmd.com
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 05:49 UTC
 
 
face mask

A response to people who use the classic fallacious argument, “Well, if masks don’t work, then why do surgeons wear them?”

I’m a surgeon that has performed over 10,000 surgical procedures wearing a surgical mask. However, that fact alone doesn’t really qualify me as an expert on the matter. More importantly, I am a former editor of a medical journal. I know how to read the medical literature, distinguish good science from bad, and fact from fiction. Believe me, the medical literature is filled with bad fiction masquerading as medical science. It is very easy to be deceived by bad science.

Since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve read hundreds of studies on the science of medical masks. Based on extensive review and analysis, there is no question in my mind that healthy people should not be wearing surgical or cloth masks. Nor should we be recommending universal masking of all members of the population. That recommendation is not supported by the highest level of scientific evidence.

First, let’s be clear. The premise that surgeons wearing masks serves as evidence that “masks must work to prevent viral transmission” is a logical fallacy that I would classify as an argument of false equivalence, or comparing “apples to oranges.”

Although surgeons do wear masks to prevent their respiratory droplets from contaminating the surgical field and the exposed internal tissues of our surgical patients, that is about as far as the analogy extends. Obviously, surgeons cannot “socially distance” from their surgical patients (unless we use robotic surgical devices, in which case, I would definitely not wear a mask).

The CoVID-19 pandemic is about viral transmission. Surgical and cloth masks do nothing to prevent viral transmission. We should all realize by now that face masks have never been shown to prevent or protect against viral transmission. Which is exactly why they have never been recommended for use during the seasonal flu outbreak, epidemics, or previous pandemics.

The failure of the scientific literature to support medical masks for influenza and all other viruses, is also why Fauci, the US Surgeon General, the CDC, WHO, and pretty much every infectious disease expert stated that wearing masks won’t prevent transmission of SARS CoV-2. Although the public health “authorities” flipped, flopped, and later changed their recommendations, the science did not change, nor did new science appear that supported the wearing of masks in public. In fact, the most recent systemic analysis once again confirms that masks are ineffective in preventing the transmission of viruses like CoVID-19: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article

If a surgeon were sick, especially with a viral infection, they would not perform surgery as they know the virus would NOT be stopped by their surgical mask.

Read the rest of the article here

Koala Up The Lighthouse

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From the ABC:

Koala returned to the bush after scaling Smoky Cape lighthouse

A koala near the top of a lighthouseIt’s not the first time former lighthouse keeper Mark Sheriff has seen something try to scale the walls of a lighthouse — but it is perhaps the cutest.

Key points:

  • Lighthouse keeper Mark Sheriff said he spotted the koala climbing the lighthouse one night after coming back from a swim
  • The koala climbed to the top and made its way inside where Mr Sheriff was able to capture it
  • Mr Sheriff returned the koala to nearby bushland

On his way back from a night-time swim during a recent stint doing maintenance on Smoky Cape lighthouse on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, he spotted a koala making its way up the lightning conductor.

“I thought, ‘OK, that’s really interesting, that’s sort of something different’,” he said.

Mr Sheriff, who was a keeper at this lighthouse 30 years ago, said humans had tried before but the conductors were not normally strong enough to hold the weight.

A visit to the lantern room

He decided to act as spotter for the furry animal as it scaled the building, but soon realised it was going to get inside.

A koala climbs a cable that runs along the side of a white building.
The koala climbed the lighthouse’s lightning conductor.(Supplied: Mark Sheriff)

“I looked up and he’s gone all the way up the top,” Mr Sheriff said.

“I had the lantern room door open because I’d been working up there and I could hear a bit of a ruckus so I went up there and he was trying to climb the walls of the lantern room.

“I just stood in the lantern room, which is quite a beautiful place, it’s very quiet … we hung out there for a couple of revolutions, and then I walked back out down the spiral stairway.”

‘He had a lovely smell’

He soon returned the koala, which he named Pat after his mother, to the nearby bushland.

“When I grabbed him he was a bit sort of like ‘Woah, what are you doing buddy?'” Mr Sheriff said.

“He let me take him all the way up to the forest.

Mr Sheriff said one thing he remembers about the koala is its smell.

“He had a really lovely smell,” he said.

“You know how horses have their scent, well koalas have got their scent, it was cool.”

Amazing! Australian Bush Optimised For Fire

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This morning I woke to the astounding news that biologists have discovered that the populations of frogs in areas “devastated” by last summer’s bushfires have rebounded, including some “threatened” species.

This follows earlier reports that koalas, snakes and other animals are doing OK despite “literally billions” of deaths last year. Also platypuses in the Peel River aren’t doing too badly now that the drought is over.

Amazingly, glow worms in the Blue Mountains that were thought to have been wiped out are doing well, having sheltered in a disused railway tunnel – ironic that, given that in modern times the greenies would not allow that tunnel to be built because it would be a threat to the environment, and probably the exact same glow worm population.

My favourite example is the giant pink slug which lives in the Mount Kaputar National Park, near Narrabri. It was only discovered 20 years ago, but the usual climate worriers panicked that the slug had been destroyed by fires. Surprisingly, the slug which has weathered droughts, bushfires, torrential rain, earthquakes, plagues of locusts and other natural disasters despite our total ignorance of its existence, managed to survive this event.

So this morning, after my usual outburst of “What is wrong with these people?”, I worked it out.

The pseudo-scientific discipline called ecology is founded on two fundamental doctrines:

  1. The natural ecosystem is very complex, with many interacting species, and so it is potentially fragile as the disappearance of one species may cause the system to collapse.
  2. People are always bad for the environment.

In actual fact, natural ecosystems are very resilient because they are complex. They can self-correct as different parts of the system adapt to change.

That is why bush environments regenerate after fires and droughts. They have been doing it for thousands of years without the assistance of humans.

The other factor that is generally ignored is that everything was created by an infinitely wise creator. He designed Australia with a warm, dry climate and the slugs, frogs, koalas to suit that climate.

Strangely, God is better at being God than people are.

Wow! Now you can get arrested if you might commit a crime

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This is Australia- well its socialist enclave of Victoria- in 2020. The pandemic is the excuse our petty dictators needed to just ignore the rule of law altogether.

From caldronpool:

Pre-Crime: Victorian Government Pushes for Powers to Preemptively Arrest Anyone, Even If They Haven’t Broken the Law

Mainstream media are finally reporting on the Victorian government’s new bill to hand authorities the power to arrest anyone, even if they have not committed an offence.

10 News Melbourne reports: “[The] new law would give police the power to preemptively detain anyone with COVID or their close contacts even if they haven’t broken the law. All that’s required is that the officer thinks they might breach restrictions in the future.”

The report notes that the Health Department could also empower non-police, such as Public Safety Officers or Work Safe Inspectors, to preemptively detain citizens.Advertisement

The new legislation places “no limit on detention time, no legislative oversight and no clear avenue for appeal.” Those detained could be placed in quarantine facilities to be monitored by authorities.

The law could see the arrest, not only of anyone the state deems a “conspiracy theorist” and therefore likely to neglect current restrictions, but also their family members and close contacts even if a crime has not been committed.

WAP

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There is a song that has been at the top of the billboard charts for several weeks now. The song is called WAP, sung by a couple of black women. I won’t tell you what the title stands for, as I would have to deep clean my computer afterwards.

The whole song is obscene in its lyrics, although feminists describe it as a brave and liberating statement of female sexuality.

I watched the video of the song yesterday, even though I had heard of the song’s tone.

I felt spiritually violated.

The video is probably not particularly explicit, nor more sexualised than other music videos.

But there is a spiritual malevolence in the video and in the song that will make you feel ashamed of being human, desolate, like you have taken part in a satanic worship ritual.

I believe that this song has been launched as a spiritual missile at the hearts of our young people. It is demonic in its nature.

I am not given to believing that all music since the 1950’s is of the devil. I love all forms of music. But this song is straight from the deepest pit of hell.

Parents of teenagers and pre-teens, you need to talk to your kids. You need to have a conversation about the things we allow to enter our hearts and shape our thoughts. You need to encourage them to delete the song from their phone, playlist, whatever.

Now I need to grab the holy water and garlic. Just writing this makes me feel polluted!

Queensland Hypocrisy

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I think what rankles many people about the Queensland border issue, apart from the horrible consequences it is bringing, is the breath-taking hypocrisy of the women leading it- the Premier and her Chief Medical Officer.

Yesterday they stated that to open the border with NSW would require 28 days of no new cases in NSW.

They have not even achieved that in Queensland. By this standard, there should be a hard border with Brisbane- nobody in or out of the State capital.

And don’t forget that most of NSW- ie the bits outside of Sydney- achieved this months ago but they still say that the whole of NSW is a “hot spot.” In fact some LGA’s, such as Narrabri Shire, have never had a single case of corona virus.

Meanwhile businesses near the border (on both sides) are closing because they rely on customers across the border. People are missing out on vital health treatments because Queensland Health Department officials will not allow them to enter “their” hospitals. For some farmers, the first harvest they have had in 3 years may be jeopardised if they cannot get workers, contractors or repairers across the border.

But at least they got the AFL Grand Final in Brisbane.