The Murdoch pretend journalist Adam Creighton has tweeted the following
“‘My mask protects you, your mask protects me’. The most embarrassing, unscientific slogan of the pandemic?”1
There were numerous replies from normal people who know that masks do protect people by inhibiting the transmission of the SARS-Cov2 virus, the cause of Covid-19. One of them was from GrumpyNonnaK who said:
“Adam Creighton ‘The most embarrassing, unscientific bogan of the pandemic’ Fixed it for you.”1 Given Creighton’s constant idiocy, that is being insulting to bogans.
There was a considerable amount of evidence that the virus was transmissible by aerosol rather than by droplets not long after the pandemic hit Australia, and I wrote about it at the time2. Almost three months later the evidence was clear that aerosol transmission was the dominant mode of transmission of the virus3. There were, of course, some idiots in the medical profession who ignored this evidence, one of them being the person who is now often referred to online as Fabio Codswallop, one Nick Coatsworth4.
There are several types of masks in common use: Cloth and utility masks are not medical grade masks and provide the wearer with the least protection from viruses carried in respiratory droplets and aerosols. However, they still help prevent infectious people from spreading the SARS-Cov2 virus. Surgical masks are medical grade masks and are graded as level 1, 2 and 3 based on the degree of protection, or fluid resistance, they provide the wearer. Surgical masks also help prevent infectious people from spreading the virus and provide greater protection from infection for the wearer. P2/N95 respirator masks that are designed for medical use are required when there is a high risk of exposure to body fluids, respiratory droplets and aerosols in higher-risk workplace settings such as health care, aged care and disability sectors, quarantine, police and security5. So, not only does my mask protect you and your mask protect me, but my mask protects me and your mask protects you.
While it has been shown that Face masks or respirators (N95/KN95s) effectively filter virus-sized particles in laboratory settings, their real-world effectiveness has not been widely studied. A study based on data from February to December in 2021 in California demonstrated that always using a face mask or respirator (N95/KN95) in indoor public settings was associated with lower adjusted odds of a positive test result compared with never wearing a face mask or respirator in these settings. Among 534 participants who specified the type of face covering they typically used, wearing N95/KN95 respirators (aOR* = 0.17; 95% CI** = 0.05–0.64) or surgical masks (aOR = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.13–0.90) was associated with significantly lower adjusted odds of a positive test result compared with not wearing any face mask or respirator6.
Creighton could only get away with posting this drivel on Twitter because it has been taken over by the man-child Elon (‘Elmo’) Musk, which now allows misinformation such as this. If Murdoch ever has the desire to rehabilitate the image of his media, which I know is extremely unlikely, this idiot must be one of the first to pay the price for that rehabilitation.
*aOR: Adjusted Odds Ratio. An odds ratio (OR) is a statistic that quantifies the strength of the association between two events, A and B. The odds ratio is defined as the ratio of the odds of A (e.g. positive PCR test) in the presence of B (e.g. wearing a mask) and the odds of A in the absence of B, or equivalently (due to symmetry), the ratio of the odds of B in the presence of A and the odds of B in the absence of A. Two events are independent if and only if the OR equals 1, i.e., the odds of one event are the same in either the presence or absence of the other event. If the OR is greater than 1, then A and B are associated (correlated) in the sense that, compared to the absence of B, the presence of B raises the odds of A, and symmetrically the presence of A raises the odds of B. Conversely, if the OR is less than 1 (as it is above), then A and B are negatively correlated, and the presence of one event reduces the odds of the other event7. Adjusted ORs are used to control for confounding bias. The AOR measures the association between a confounding variable and the outcome, and controls for that value8.
**95% CI: 95% Confidence Interval. In statistics, a confidence interval (CI) is a range of estimates for an unknown parameter. A confidence interval is computed at a designated confidence level; the 95% confidence level is most common, but other levels, such as 90% or 99%, are sometimes used9.
Sources
- https://twitter.com/Adam_Creighton/status/1604312973257875456
- https://blotreport.com/2020/04/05/face-masks/
- https://blotreport.com/2020/06/28/latest-on-coronavirus-transmission/
- https://blotreport.com/2021/12/31/the-silly-coatsworth/
- https://covid19.swa.gov.au/comparison-mask-types-covid-19
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8830622/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odds_ratio
- https://www.statisticshowto.com/adjusted-odds-ratio/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_interval
Willful ignorance, the inability to acknowledge well-founded expertise and science, and selfish attitudes and behaviour are rarely far apart these days, especially among neo-cons, political ideologues, (my)freedom(rules) junkies, “sovereign citizens” (lol), and credulous and dangerous conspiracy theory fanboys.
Creighton regularly fanning the last flickering coals of that mob of egoistic recalcitrants is irresponsible and anti-social. It’s barely more than a week since three of their kind executed two young police officers and a neighbour in this country. A pox on Creighton and all media arseholes like him.
Jon,
Yep. If I really said what I wanted to say about Creighton, I’d be had up for incitement to violence. Last night, I started Van Badham’s ‘QAnon and on’. The first 30 or so pages are a very easy read, and I am looking forward to the remainder. I can imagine it will set me off sticking the boot into even more cookers.
Jon, Killing of police in Queensland was not execution, was murder. I do not agree with execution but unfortunately in some lands is legal. Execution is killing of person legally condemed. Other killing is extra judicial. Is like Killing of Osama binLaden, not “brought him to justice” as USA president said. Was probably required, but was not justice. Justice is in court. We should call killing of Queensland police murder.
That’s a rather narrow meaning of execution imo Magda. I meant it in the vein of a planned, cold-blooded killing of innocents as happened in many wars eg Japanese soldiers executed Australian nurses in WWII. Some recent examples: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/3/executed-in-cold-blood-palestinians-react-to-public-killing; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCnWMkA1aLQ (30 sec mark). There are many more. Murdered and/or killed and/or assassinated don’t express the act adequately in this case, or in a plethora of others.
This Al Zajeera report https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/2/israeli-police-shoot-dead-palestinian-in-occupied-west-bank says Israeli police killed Palestinian “during a scuffle”. Scuffle is not circumstances of execution. Execution happens in controlled circumstances.
In your Youtube link, caption says “investigators called this a cold-blooded execution”. They CALLED it execution but it was not. If it was execution, it would be legal. But here they have investigators and “suspects”. Nobody is “suspect” if it is execution because state makes it legal. Nobody is charged with crime.
Title of Youtube link says ” … 3 sought in connection with ‘cold-blooded execution’ “. See inverted commas, quotation marks. See this definition https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/in-inverted-commas – inverted commas can mean “indicating that it is inaccurate or unacceptable in some way”.
If three people in Queensland who murdered police did not die, they go to court and charged with murder, not execution. There is no criminal offence called execution because if it takes place in a country, is legal.
Real danger of calling murder “execution” is legitimization, normalization of criminal who murders.
Interesting thing about language, particularly the English language, Magda – it has, and apparently has always had, a life of its own and is not restricted by what dictionaries, teachers, academics, or the law for that matter, say at any point. Usage and context determines what words mean, as does locality (not an issue in this case). The law of course has strict definitions of many (for obvious reasons) but even that can be argued away, quite easily in some cases. Here’s just another couple of examples of modern use of the word execution in a sense other than the one you suggest: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61015190 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2192634 . A quick search will find plenty more. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree (what a strange term that is) on this one.
Btw, if you want a potted and entertaining history of “English” I can recommend Bill Bryson’s “Mother Tongue”.
Jon here is one reader’s evaluation of Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1LVA0DFE4E2ZY. He is not impressed.
Bryson certainly makes errors in his books Dick (his ‘Down Under’ tome had a couple of very obvious ones which grated) but I highly doubt that bloke’s credentials to comment about Mother Tongue. His “Eskimo Snow Hoax” reference is well-explained here: https://readable.com/blog/do-inuits-really-have-50-words-for-snow/ After reading his criticism I get the impression that Culver doesn’t understand that Bryson – out of necessity – generalises and summarises quite a bit.
Like his award winning “Short History of Nearly Everything” Bryson’s (non-travel) books are based on extensive references to academic publications and discussions with experts in the field, and are usually “fact” checked by those people. ASs mentioned, these books are generalisations/summaries and NOT meant to be academic references but entertaining journeys which often set the record straight (‘Nearly Everything’ did that emphatically in regard to inventions and recognition/attribution).
As we know, the history of language – indeed virtually any history – is not fact, but reasoned opinion based on accumulated information and knowledge. There are often many different views and interpretations of “history”, and I get the impression that language history and etymology are open to far more conjecture than some other histories.
Bryson can defend himself but ooi I had a quick look last night and Culver’s claims are, let’s say, erroneous in regards to two more of his criticisms and petty in two others (Zamenhof has one ‘f’ not two as Bryson wrote, and Esperanto has no INdefinite articles).
This “interpretation” in particular is either pure invention or a lack of comprehension by Culver: “he asserts that the Saxon invaders eliminated entirely the former Celtic inhabitants,”. Bryson did nothing of the kind, in fact he was at great pains to say that knowledge of the saxon invasion period is AT BEST sketchy, with considerable supposition involved because they were not literate, hence left no recorded history of their own (my paraphrasing). Iirc Bryson wrote something about the Dark Ages and suggested that the “best” account was written by a monk?? some 300 years after events.
Culver also claims: “Bryson goes on to say that Russian has no words for “efficiency”, “engagement ring”, or “have fun”,….” when in fact what he wrote was they had no NATIVE words for ….
Moral of the story – if you intend criticising best to make sure you have your facts correct in the first place.
Well that’s put me back in my box :-).
I’ll share this with you I hadn’t actually heard of esperanto had to look it up. It’s apparently the international language but which country do they speak it in? And if they don’t have an indefinite article (correct me if I’m worng that’s like “a” in English, how do they say “I live in a house” or “I have a dog”?
Dick,
Russian has neither definite (‘the’) or indefinite (‘a’) articles (I speak a very little bit of it), and they seem to manage. Esperanto is a synthetic language constructed in the 1870s-1880s in what is now Poland. There are only a few thousand ‘native’ speakers worldwide.
Woops. Sorry Dick, I wasn’t having a go at you, my comment about valid criticism was aimed at Culver who clearly had some sort of an agenda. Maybe he’d had a bad day or was “tired and emotional” as they say in politics.
At the risk of getting shot down, a language without words for “the” and “a” sounds like it lacks something important. They are very frequently used words in English. So if they are that important in English, why are they not needed in espranto and russian? And if they are not needed in epseranto and russian why do we need them in English?
Dick,
The languages have a different proximal origin. The Russians probably look at English and wonder why we bother with definite and indefinite articles.
Jon, you miss my point. I repeat: “Real danger of calling murder “execution” is legitimization, normalization of criminal who murders.”
It is not question of who determines meaning of word – and any number of reference to journalists or others using word proves nothing. Point is suggestion that if we use word “execution” (as journalists use it) we legitimize and normalize criminal behavior. Is not question of what word means. Is suggestion that we SHOULD not use word in context, instead use word “murder”.
Impossible to “agree to disagree” if you misunderstand my point.
Apology for late reply. This web blog is very unreliable, gives message almost always “unavailable/unaccessible”. No other website does this. Is very annoying.
I understand your point Magda. I disagree, as I said before. Murder can have many degrees/nuances and it is so commonplace that the gravity is sometimes lost. Execution on the other hand suggests an extremely cold blooded act, with zero mitigation, and that’s generally how it’s used in its other form.
Yes the website regularly gives me the same message despite “Down For Everyone” (https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/) saying the website is up. Lately I’ve found constantly hitting the reload button eventually gets a result.
Creighton and his pals must really be butt hurt as Australians keep rejecting his ilk “post” pandemic. Hard lockdown/border control states such as WA, Vic and Qld have returned incumbent Labor governments with enormous, huge, and solid majorities respectively. In SA Labor smacked the incumbent Liberals with a 7.2% to -2.3% swing. “Dictator Dan”, the target for Murdoch hacks and other mindless extremists now has more than double the seats of the combined LNP. In WA McGowan triumphed in what pundits called a wipeout/bloodbath/landslide. The 53-6 seat result was a huge vote in favour of McGowan’s strict border control policies. Federally, voters not only rejected Morrison’s arrogance and incompetence they also punished him for his covid vaccine mismanagement. Turns out vaccination WAS a race – against short and long term sickness, overloaded health systems, economic meltdown, and of course – DEATH.
Dan Andrews said in the washup to his spectacular return: “hope always defeats hate”, and I have no doubt knowledge will also triumph over the lies, ignorance and ideology of cretins like Creighton.
Jon,
I think the tide is turning, and it is women and the young who are turning that tide fastest. The latest drivel from cookers is that lots of people died with Covid-19, not from it. I had one muppet have a go at me today on that topic. I told him that he should contact the doctors and nurses who deal with covid-19 patients and let them know. That sort of technique tends to make them go away fairly quickly. The stupid are everywhere.
“Lots”? Roflmao. That red herring still doing the rounds among the extreme rw fringe patsies? Classic case of lazy and gullible people not knowing what they don’t know AND failing to inform themselves of even basic concepts (like ‘correlation isn’t causation’ for example, something Creighton and quite a few Twitter commenters have yet to stumble upon).
Obviously the statistics can never be exact – especially when health systems are overloaded, recording systems are unreliable and imprecise (for many reasons), and self-serving “governments” attempt to downplay numbers (North Korea etc) – but that ignoramus should know that is why statisticians rely on excess mortality numbers and work back from there. There will be many papers which discuss the ‘died from’/’died with’ point (which is almost irrelevant in the washup) bit one thing we already know is that the lives of tens of thousands of people with underlying issues were cut short by covid-19. Quite amazingly some of these extremists seem to think that’s okay. Just another step along the sociopathy path.
Jon,
Yep, it is sociopathy. The absolute disdain for their fellow man disgusts me. I wonder if losing any of their relatives to covid has any effect on them. I suspect not.