Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

"After 80 service members receive the required 180 hours of EMT training, they will be available to be deployed across the state in February.
...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York National Guard soldiers will be trained to become certified Emergency Medical Technicians, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Friday.

The move is the latest by the state in an attempt to combat a winter surge in COVID cases. The plan is to use the new EMTs at health care facilities that are in need and facing staff shortages.

...
To expedite the process, the state's health department and Division of Military and Naval Affairs will hold two pilot classes for EMT training. There will be 40 service members in each of the two classes starting Wednesday."

Hochul: National Guard will help fight against COVID surge | wgrz.com

(Just using it as a source, it tries to autoplay news clips so I apologize for that)

 

So basically they're using the soldiers, regardless of medical experience, to fill in for the experienced staff that got fired. Forget training, experience, etc, let's just plug someone in. After all it's just a patient's life

Edit - we're all trying to figure out how she's doing half this stuff because the state's emergency powers expired long ago while Cuomo was still governor. She really doesn't have the authority unless the senate gives it to her.

 

Yes it did. Also, show me the RCT that does show masks work. Here’s a hint, there isn’t one.

 

Florida is way below the national average in inpatient covid beds and icu covid beds in use. (as of Jan 1, 22). I have quite a few relatives in NY area where whole families are currently infected. So far Omicron is showing mostly mild symptoms. Like i've said many times, everyone eventually will get it. In fact, for those up to date on vacs, you may have already had it and you probably wouldn't even know you were infected.
Regarding the home test kits, their available online. Also the stores are hit and miss. Same situation as NY from what I'm told. I don't think the kits work very well for omicron.

 

So you don't have an RCT showing that cloth masks do zero?

 

Every RCT? Could you present just one that shows that cloth masks do nothing to reduce transmission of covid?

 

While I doubt there is such an RCT at this point I'm skeptical that most cloth masks do much of anything,especially against highly virulent strains. Also these days I see about half of masks hanging below people's noses.

I don't have an issue with mask mandates, except with younger kids but at this point I don't think they help a lot. I could be wrong.

 

A week ago I linked a podcast discussing how symptoms were starting to manifest themselves before people were testing positive. There was nothing wrongs with the tests. The guidance is unchanged and people need to simply take two rapid tests 48-72 hours apart. Even before the Omicron variant appeared that was the recommended instructions on the test packages.

From the provided link:

 

Yes, every single one. Swing and a miss!

 

There has never been an RCT where masks have shown to be a significant reduction against any virus.

 

You've only ever cited one, and it explicitly stated in the study that it didn't mean what you misrepresented it to mean.

Are there other RCT mask studies you haven't shared here yet?

 

Good try. Produce evidence of an RCT showing cloth masks work. Otherwise you are just making up crap as usual. Not surprising. But we both know how this ends.

 

Yes, it ends with you finally posting the same RCT study again, then we quote from the study where it explicitly says that it didn't test for what you claimed it did. I'm not sure why we have to do this dance every month, but here we are again with you claiming RCT studies showing that cloth masks do zero and then not backing up that claim because you know the claim is false. If you bluster more you can at least feel good about yourself, but it would be better if you were more honest.

 

Then don't do it.

 

So you have no data showing an RCT where masks work. Thanks for confirming. You can continue to BS your way out of this but anyone who isn’t partisan can see thru your crap. Just post the study showing masks work. Go ahead. Post that RCT. I’ll wait. Otherwise you are full of crap. Like you were with Oklahoma covid data about 4-5 months ago and then never backed it up. Shocking.

This is quite simple. Show the RCT showing masks work or apologize. Thanks. I’ll wait patiently lol.

 

Here is the rationale on Omicron.
Cloth masks might not stop the omicron variant, doctors say

There is no point in the same circular argument about masks.

 

I was responding to the person who made the claim that every RCT has shown that "cloth masks do Zero". They made a claim that was false. I think it is important that misinformation like that gets called out. If their claim isn't false, it should be easy for them to show the RCT studies they have seen that show cloth masks do zero.

 

Misinformation is killing Americans. I will continue to call it out when I see it.

 

If I'm not mistaken, that person wrote that every RCT showed cloth masks as being completely useless.

What we know about cloth masks is that they are less effective than N95s and KN95s but the devils as they say is in the details. Wearing them properly, thread count, filtering layers, and snugness all play a role in effectiveness. But even really good cloth masks are likely limited in how long they can be effective, maybe at most several hours, compared to N95s, which can be worn all day. All of this was before omicron, however, which seems to be more transmissible and abundant, which likely negatively affects cloth mask performance.

 

Cloth masks are definitely less effective than better masks. Also more effective than zero. If it was the first time they had made this claim, I would debunk it and moved on. But this is at least the fourth time they've tried to bring it up, at this point they know the study they are referring to doesn't back up their claim, but they still say it. Which I find to be contemptible behavior.