Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.

[Pat]

Was there a global pandemic, or wasn't there? It's a yes or no answer. No need to write a paragraph about whether it was exaggerated by Governments, or power, or any of that shit to answer that question.

Have you stopped beating your wife?

When you ask a loaded question, you don't get to demand a yes/no answer. The nuance matters.

[Ratman_tf]

Yes, I truly believe there was a global pandemic. Let's start right there. Yes there was a global pandemic.

Who here do you think agrees with you on claiming there was no global pandemic? Point them out, or they can sound off on their own.

So you are irredeemably stupid and ignorant of everything that's happened in the last two years. Thanks for the confirmation.

Your denials of what I've experienced firsthand are pathetic.

Or, we don't trust you to accurately report, interpret, and/or evaluate your personal experiences with respect to the actualities of Covid.  I'm not going to ask a prison guard about his opinion on the basic morality of the entire population of the US, either.

Exactly. Hospitals are a bad way to gauge the severity of the virus, because people with severe reactions are the ones who went to hospitals. How many caught the virus and didn't know? How many had mild symptoms and never went to a hospital?
It's the epitome of anecdote.

[Ratman_tf]

You just claimed a massive worldwide conspiracy at the top of your post concerning oil prices (a hilarious one where you claimed most of the worlds governments agreed on a topic - which in itself is an obvious nutcase position because most of the worlds governments cannot agree on even the simplest of things much less that type of topic), only to deny you're posting about conspiracies at the bottom.

You've claimed Covid was a massive worldwide conspiracy as well.

For a supposed lawyer, you really don't appear to understand the definition of common words. If it's done openly, it's not a "conspiracy".

The response to covid, a relatively minor seasonal infection, was most definitely orchestrated to increase government power. If you still truly believe there was a global pandemic, a health emergency that necessitated any of this, then you're even more stupid than you appear.

I'd love to know how you explain the World Health Organisation's push for an international treaty that would give it the power to override the elected governments of every signatory nation in the event of a "pandemic", and secondly what the fuck that has to do with the World Economic Forum, who are very publicly partnering the WHO on the matter?

Yes, I truly believe there was a global pandemic. Let's start right there. Yes there was a global pandemic.

Who here do you think agrees with you on claiming there was no global pandemic? Point them out, or they can sound off on their own.

I think the danger and risks of Covid were severely exaggerated in order to create a situation where governments were granted more power.

https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/354938/adults-estimates-covid-hospitalization-risk.aspx

And I think that was a very "It depends on what the definition of "is" is" lawyerly type respose.

When I ask you if something is blue or not, do you respond yes or no, or do you get into the technicalities of shades of blue?

I fucking asked if you thought there was a global pandemic or not. That's it. Nothing about the dangers, nothing about whether it was exaggerated, nothing about Government power. So answer the damn question that was asked, Mr Clinton. Was there or was there not a global pandemic? Because Kiero flat out thinks there was not - no additional conversation needed by him for him to state outright there was not a global pandemic.

I thought you were capable of simple inference. (An exaggerated thing exists) I see that I have to spell it all out for you.

All this comes with the caveat that I would not be shocked to find the details have been obscured by reporting agencies. But here's the situation as I see it.

A real Coronavirus originated in China. Very likely a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. China, for political reasons, has denied the lab leak hypothesis.

This Coronavirus spread outside of China before it was recognized as a novel virus. It spread rather quickly to the rest of the world.

For a short while, there was little reliable information on the virus' lethality, transmissibility and severity. Most of the western world went into lockdown. Supposedly in order to buy time for hospitals and other responders to get geared up and increase capacity to handle patients.

As the weeks turned into months, we learned more about those details, but governments and their institutions "played it safe", by extending lockdowns, enforcing dubious mandates, and generally making asses out of themselves.

After two fucking years, we're kinda sorta finally coming out of that paranoid hysteria. China especially continues to play the Pandemic card in order to bully and push around it's populace.
But the disinformation and political manuvering remain.

So yes, there was a pandemic. But there was also a narrative being constructed around the pandemic.

Let me know if you need any further explanation of my thoughts on the matter. I'm happy to try and help you out there.

*edited to put a flat Yes in there, to make it super easy for Mistwell to understand.*

[Ratman_tf]

Was there a global pandemic, or wasn't there? It's a yes or no answer. No need to write a paragraph about whether it was exaggerated by Governments, or power, or any of that shit to answer that question.

Have you stopped beating your wife?

When you ask a loaded question, you don't get to demand a yes/no answer. The nuance matters.

It does. There's far more going on with this thing. If Mistwell can't handle that, then that's his problem. I did try to help him out though.

[Pat]

Yes, I truly believe there was a global pandemic. Let's start right there. Yes there was a global pandemic.

Who here do you think agrees with you on claiming there was no global pandemic? Point them out, or they can sound off on their own.

So you are irredeemably stupid and ignorant of everything that's happened in the last two years. Thanks for the confirmation.

Your denials of what I've experienced firsthand are pathetic.

Or, we don't trust you to accurately report, interpret, and/or evaluate your personal experiences with respect to the actualities of Covid.  I'm not going to ask a prison guard about his opinion on the basic morality of the entire population of the US, either.

Exactly. Hospitals are a bad way to gauge the severity of the virus, because people with severe reactions are the ones who went to hospitals. How many caught the virus and didn't know? How many had mild symptoms and never went to a hospital?
It's the epitome of anecdote.

An anecdote is "I know X people who had covid". It's meaningless. HappyDaze works in a hospital serving a specific area. It's not broad nation-wide data, and you're correct the data is biased, but it is data.

[HappyDaze]

Yes, I truly believe there was a global pandemic. Let's start right there. Yes there was a global pandemic.

Who here do you think agrees with you on claiming there was no global pandemic? Point them out, or they can sound off on their own.

So you are irredeemably stupid and ignorant of everything that's happened in the last two years. Thanks for the confirmation.

Your denials of what I've experienced firsthand are pathetic.

Or, we don't trust you to accurately report, interpret, and/or evaluate your personal experiences with respect to the actualities of Covid.  I'm not going to ask a prison guard about his opinion on the basic morality of the entire population of the US, either.

You distrust those best able to accurately report, interpret and/or evaluate because you don't like what they are saying. That doesn't matter though, when I'm speaking the truth.  I have qualified my statements with locations and dates rather than speaking generally, and I am still doubted. So, do you believe anyone? Why?

First, I've seen no indication that you are the best able to do any of the above.   And, far from qualifying, you have generalized your experiences many times, not the least of which is asserting that your experiences are meaningful in discussing the overall pandemic.   I wouldn't trust a judge or cop to have a good idea of the average person's trustworthiness, either.  You're just not self-aware enough to recognize it.

So when I described the average day census and the increasing wait times in central Florida EDs during Covid spikes,  you think that's not relevant? When i discussed severity of symptoms seen amd changes to admission rates, thats not relevant either? Who would you accept that information from?

[HappyDaze]

Yes, I truly believe there was a global pandemic. Let's start right there. Yes there was a global pandemic.

Who here do you think agrees with you on claiming there was no global pandemic? Point them out, or they can sound off on their own.

So you are irredeemably stupid and ignorant of everything that's happened in the last two years. Thanks for the confirmation.

Your denials of what I've experienced firsthand are pathetic.

Or, we don't trust you to accurately report, interpret, and/or evaluate your personal experiences with respect to the actualities of Covid.  I'm not going to ask a prison guard about his opinion on the basic morality of the entire population of the US, either.

Exactly. Hospitals are a bad way to gauge the severity of the virus, because people with severe reactions are the ones who went to hospitals. How many caught the virus and didn't know? How many had mild symptoms and never went to a hospital?
It's the epitome of anecdote.

You think that the considerably higher occurrence of viral respiratory illness in 2020-2021 and the increased hospitalizations are just coincidence? Did all of these sick people happen in previous years and just stay home?

[Mistwell]

Was there a global pandemic, or wasn't there? It's a yes or no answer. No need to write a paragraph about whether it was exaggerated by Governments, or power, or any of that shit to answer that question.

Have you stopped beating your wife?

When you ask a loaded question, you don't get to demand a yes/no answer. The nuance matters.

It's not a question anything like leading, which is the wife beating question. There is nothing hidden in the question. No implication in the question itself. It's not loaded.

Either it was a global pandemic or it was not. Either "global pandemic" is a phrase with a meaning or it isn't. Does it or doesn't it meet the meaning of that phrase?

Don't be such a fucking pussy Pat. You can answer the question. We both know where you stand on the question (your answer is yes it was a global pandemic) so just be a man and say it. It's not a trick. You can in fact think the Governments of the world used a global pandemic to do awful things, while still believing it was in fact a global pandemic. The two concepts are in no way mutually exclusive. Governments frequently do awful things to grab power from very real events. I don't know why you'd be so afraid to admit this was a real event just because Governments did bad things with it.

[Mistwell]

So yes, there was a pandemic.

Thank you. Glad someone has the balls to answer the question.

[DocJones]

Was there a global pandemic or not? Not how dangerous, just was there a global pandemic or not?

Yes!  It was the very definition of pandemic.
Even  if nobody died at all it would have been a pandemic.

[Ratman_tf]

So yes, there was a pandemic.

Thank you. Glad someone has the balls to answer the question.

You're welcome. I don't agree with people who think the virus never existed. But it's hard to determine if they mean the virus never existed, or that the response was disproportional to the danger. (The virus is real, but the pandemic was blown out of proportion)

[SHARK]

Greetings!

I imagine more Covid variants will conveniently be discovered by the government, which will of course endanger more unhealthy, fat Americans.

It's pretty pathetic to review so many fat, unhealthy Americans flopping out and dying, whether from Covid or not, and then see that so many of these people have a fucking *list* of health problems as long as your leg.

So many Americans need to stay away from the goddamned cheeseburgers and chicken strips, and stop eating monstrous portions of food like fucking pigs.

That right there would make people in America much healthier and more resilient to diseases.

But our stupid fucking country has hordes of fat, obese women running around as of recently, pushing a new stupid ideology that "Healthy at any size" and everyone should love being a fat fucking pig. And if you are a man, and don't like fat women, well, you are a misogynist bigot, and full of hate! There's even a movement now to blast doctors that describe you as being fat. Fitness trainers that don't affirm and approve of you being a fucking hog beast are now also to be considered bigots and full of hate. Our country is becoming literally more insane, hedonistic, and juvenile by the fucking month.

Welcome to the Decline.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

[Pat]

Was there a global pandemic, or wasn't there? It's a yes or no answer. No need to write a paragraph about whether it was exaggerated by Governments, or power, or any of that shit to answer that question.

Have you stopped beating your wife?

When you ask a loaded question, you don't get to demand a yes/no answer. The nuance matters.

It's not a question anything like leading, which is the wife beating question. There is nothing hidden in the question. No implication in the question itself. It's not loaded.

Either it was a global pandemic or it was not. Either "global pandemic" is a phrase with a meaning or it isn't. Does it or doesn't it meet the meaning of that phrase?

It's a leading question, because a lot of people have a very mistaken impression of what a global pandemic really is, and the assumptions and conclusions are highly politicized. There was a parrot fever pandemic in 1929 and 1930, that killed maybe 100 people in total, but it's commonly called a pandemic and meets most criteria, including the post 2009 definition used by the WHO. The annual flu also meets that definition. There are also a massive amounts of fear related to covid-19, driven by false information about its lethality. Clarifying your stance on those related issues is a very appropriate response, regardless of how you want to limit the conversation.

Plus, browbeating people isn't a very good way to get people you don't have any control over to follow your rules.

[Pat]

So yes, there was a pandemic.

Thank you. Glad someone has the balls to answer the question.

You're welcome. I don't agree with people who think the virus never existed. But it's hard to determine if they mean the virus never existed, or that the response was disproportional to the danger. (The virus is real, but the pandemic was blown out of proportion)

Yep.

[Mistwell]

So yes, there was a pandemic.

Thank you. Glad someone has the balls to answer the question.

You're welcome. I don't agree with people who think the virus never existed. But it's hard to determine if they mean the virus never existed, or that the response was disproportional to the danger. (The virus is real, but the pandemic was blown out of proportion)

I think everyone here (whether they admit it or not) believes there was a real pandemic, except Kiero. I think he thinks it really was all made up.