That whole idea of the public trained to believe the main stream media for years and they THEY decide what the public should/will hear. Producing false information and making it out to be the truth and later caught in the dishonesty.
Now our society is becoming more aware of the deliberate misinformation campaigns you mention and how MSM tries to cover their mess with "science"!
[/QUOTE
When the pandemic first started we had near zero information about the virus. Recommendations were made based on the available information and best knowledge of related viruses.
Over time more was learned about covid-19 and as is only reasonable, the recommendations changed based on this new information. Then we started seeing new variants and learning about them and once again this new information refined when we knew and the recommendations.
Over time we began to get information on what treatments appears to be effective and changes to recommendations were once again made. This is how science works, you make the best judgements based on the available information and when new information becomes available you assess it and adjust your judgements.
For those of us who followed the weekly science updates published by the CDC and others this learning process was 100% clear and 100% transparent. It does require a certain level of education to understand the terminology in the science updates but you do not need to be a PhD to understand them.
For those who say something to the effect of "the vaccine side effects were far worse than the covid when I got it", please stop and understand that if you had not got the vaccine that "mild" covid may well have been severe and put you in the hospital or morgue. In my circle of friends and family ranging from 4yo to 87yo, those who got vax'd either didn't get covid or if they did it was very mild. Almost all who did not get vax'd got covid and ranged from mild to in the hospital near death and there were several at that extreme end one who the docs were not sure would survive.
For those on the "masks don't work" bandwagon, first you have to understand that the early variant was not as infections as the strains circulating now four years later and second we had *NO* known treatments at the beginning.
There are a number of solid studies that show that the volume of virus exposure is linked to the severity of the illness, i.e. if you get a small dose your immune system has more time to learn and start fighting the virus before it is overwhelmed than if you receive a high exposure. There are still more studies that showed that a mask on the source i.e. infected person reduced the expelled virus counts 10%+. Masks on the destination i.e. the non infected person reduced the exposure level another 10%+. So yes, masks did reduce exposure 20% if people used them properly and that reduced exposure could result in reduced severity if you were infected.
The current variants are more infectious and possibly less lethal, so masks are less important today, particularly since we have learned a lot about treatments and have a number of good options we did not have in the beginning. More infectious and less lethal over time are to be expected in virus evolution since it is not in the virus' interest to kill those it infects as they can no longer help to spread the virus.
Probably the most important thing covid has shown is not our lack of preparedness for a pandemic, rather is it the lack of education among the public to understand the science and to not be misled by deliberate misinformation campaigns.
One addition to your comments about masks is that quality matters. Would you conclude if you put the cheapest, poorest fitting hydraulic oil filter on your tractor and then had troubles with the HST that oil filters were unnecessary? And take off the filter and run the tractor without any filter? Early in the pandemic good masks were in short supply, so homemade ones were suggested to at least prevent people from coughing all over their neighbors. Those of us that could, scrounged better ones, paint fume filters, industrial filters to provide some personal protection. Good N95 masks are now readily available, but the good fitting ones are not very comfortable.
Second I don't know about deliberate misinformation, but in today's world what I would call assembly line medicine is being practiced. If you don't have the educational resources to question and decide what is best for you, and advocate for it, you are a sitting duck for problems. You go to a specialist, they tick off a couple boxes on their computer, tell you to go to the main desk where they will order the specified test, (scheduled according not by how medically urgent it might be, but rather by how long it will take to get your insurance to grant approval). You also have to be on top of the fact that the next step in their standardized protocol involves a drug you are allergic to. You might find that they plan to use it from the nurse or scheduler. Just because it is in your chart doesn't mean the doc will read it. Etc. I often go home after one of these visits and think for a while, and say that the cons outlay the pros and cancel the procedure, do some reading, and go get a second opinion. The point is you can't blindly sign up for treatments without a lot of thought. In the end it is a leap of faith. If you are in the ER half conscious, prayer is always good.
