OzD,
I think you are on a crusade in this thread. Easy to see that you have no interest in and are irritated by posts that do not agree with your facts. You go out of your way to dispute things that could easily be ignored and feel the need to fact check and correct and make holier than thou comments.
Post 658 “Nothing personal Tom, however I do have issues with Anyone that continues to post misleading and potentially dangerous assertions.” and in Post 660 “Fine, feel free to continue your life decisions that suit your point of view. However please be mindful how your actions may affect the more vulnerable people on this forum and society in general”. I am sure TomD is grateful for your advice on how to run his life.
I wont reference them but your devotion to duty in relation to clicking on all TomNT’s links and fact checking them is admirable (ie. “I read the articles and watched all the videos”). A few others have commented on some of the links but you go way beyond that. I think we are all educated adults here and can easily decide if we want to click on Tom’s links and if we do make up ou own minds.
On 28 NOV post 703 you posted “Here we are, over 700 posts on the Third thread of Covid19 and I can't see anyone changing their opinion whatever evidence is produced. Personally I can't see any point in continuing this discussion as all the thread seems to do is increase disharmony on the forum”. Then at post 711 “I will continue to post on the thread and hope that members with 'alternate' views will give more consideration to what they post in future”. Ah yes the pesky alternate views. Well you have you have certainly continued the discussion and have pretty much dominated the thread with your never ending efforts to correct others. Note your comment about disharmony as somewhat ironic when you look at the arguments in this thread in past month.
I found the posts 852 to 861 of interest. Damian, who according to Jazzeum, is an actual Dr expressed some, IMHO, sensible views, possibly based on some personal experience. It was no surprise to see it was you and Jazzeum who respectively said amongst other things “Exaggerations and falsehoods aren't necessary” and “I’m surprised at your attitude, especially you being a doctor. …… Good to know you feel about other people”. Yes, better shut down the actual Dr’s opinion, what would he know. Shut down enough Dr’s and you only get one view at the end as they know not to put their heads up.
Your post 991 “However I have ZERO tolerance for people that try to undermine the fight against Covid19, I'm pretty Black and White on that subject as you may have noticed”. Basically anybody who disagrees with you must be undermining the fight based on how you respond in this thread. You know best after all.
Post 1025 “Covid19 has affected everyone this year, especially those people that are alone and frightened, or had previous existing issues, mental or otherwise. The following links will be helpful in understanding, and assist dealing with, friends and family members that have fallen victim to the variety of Conspiracy Theories” followed by a link to The Conspiracy Theory Handbook. Same type as your post 719 “The following links may be of assistance to members. Confirmation Bias”. Your concern for the “victims” is commendable but also condescending.
Followed by 1043 to Toddy “Really...is it as sad as those people that won't change their minds no matter how many facts are provided to the contrary? In any case, the links weren't for you and a few others here, I posted them for forum members that may be having problems dealing with these issues. Maybe you haven't noticed that very few people now comment on what you and the usual suspects post. They have become so angry they no longer read them or respond”. I am just wondering how you did a fact check on nobody reading Toddy’s comments and don’t see any signs of anybody being angry. I can see somebody who cant let any comment go unanswered and thinks he is right on every issue.
Then I made my post 1045 with comments from AIER. I mentioned interesting Singaporean Covid stats which showed a very low death and hospitalisation rate out of over 150,000 infected people. Plus some comments about Fauci saying would be no lockdowns in USA and getting his numbers wrong. I ended my post with Food for thought.
Your reply did not address any of the issues raised but said “The American Institute For Economic Research is partly financed by the Koch Brothers and is responsible for The Great Barrington Declaration. Obviously have their own bias and their prime aim is to maximise profits and don't care how many people die”.
Ah yes, the old “don’t care how many die” angle. Always a useful debating tool like your “Old lives matter” comment and Jazz’s comment to Damian mentioned above.
For the record from Wiki “Over half of AIER's funding comes from its investments, but it also receives contributions and foundation grants. In 2018 it reportedly received US$68,100 from the Charles Koch Foundation, approximately 3% of AIER's revenue for the year. It has partnered with Emergent Order, a public relations company also funded by the Charles Koch Foundation”. 3% in one year does not seem like much but anyway noting your concern.
I guess the Koch connection makes the information from Singapore Ministry of Health not worth considering. Pity, as normally Singaporeans have quite a good reputation for efficiency etc. Or perhaps Fauci did not actually really get his decimal point in the wrong place when addressing Congress (surely that would be annoying for one who is so concerned about the science and statistics) or Neil Ferguson have a reputation for wrong predictions. I guess this is not that important when you consider that Governments used their comments in early March to decide their responses. But as you say dont blame the scientists.
Look at your posts 1052 and 1061 replying to the same Toddy post. You went back for another go 24 hours later !. Now tell us more about disharmony in the thread.
By now it is entirely predictable that only the facts that fit in with your beliefs matter. Tom posts a lot of links but just leaves them there for others to look at if they want to. I ended my post with Food for thought and my theme was if the statistics are not correct then perhaps the lockdowns are not so justifiable. I doubt Tom and I change anybody’s views. They certainly dont change Government policies. Your approach to the thread is very much like your approach to the scale debates. You have to be the arbiter of right and wrong.
Going back to one of Tom’s links about MN and death certificates. Some excerpts I found interesting :
“I have other examples where COVID isn’t the underlying cause of death, where we have a fall. Another example is we have a freshwater drowning. We have dementia. We have a stroke and multiorgan failure,” Franson said in the video.
Jensen pointed out that he gained attention back in April when he criticized the Minnesota Department of Health for following federal guides on recording coronavirus deaths.
“I sort of got myself in hot water way back in April when I made the comment that I was, as a physician, being encouraged to do death certificates differently with COVID-19 than with other disease entities,” Jensen said.
She added that in one case, a person who was ejected from a car was “counted as a COVID death” because the virus was in his system.
“For 17 years, the CDC document that guides us as physicians to do death certificates has stood, but this year, we were told, through the Department of Health and the CDC, that the rules were changing if COVID-19 was involved.”
“If it’s COVID-19, we’re told now it doesn’t matter if it was actually the diagnosis that caused death. If someone had it, they died of it,” he said.
Note the comments are from a physician. How dare he go against the narrative. Lucky he is not posting here as you would no doubt tell him the CDC death stats are correct.
So I would have to disagree with you, as you are on a crusade. How about you lighten up, show a bit more tolerance, stop preaching, and not feel the need to jump in every time somebody posts something you don’t agree with. Just a thought.
