WELL, BARACK, WE HAVE A PROBLEM...

I'll begin with a paradox, thusly stated:

As Dr. Shira Doron, an epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, puts it, “It is simultaneously true that masks work and mask mandates do not work.” 

Further:

To start with the first half of the paradox: Masks reduce the spread of the Covid virus by preventing virus particles from traveling from one person’s nose or mouth into the air and infecting another person. Laboratory studies have repeatedly demonstrated the effect.

Given this, you would think that communities where mask-wearing has been more common would have had many fewer Covid infections. But that hasn’t been the case.

In U.S. cities where mask use has been more common, Covid has spread at a similar rate as in mask-resistant cities. Mask mandates in schools also seem to have done little to reduce the spread. Hong Kong, despite almost universal mask-wearing, recently endured one of the world’s worst Covid outbreaks.

More:

The main explanation seems to be that the exceptions often end up mattering more than the rule. The Covid virus is so contagious that it can spread during brief times when people take off their masks, even when a mandate is in place.  Research by the University of Minnesota suggests that between 25 percent and 30 percent of Americans consistently wear their masks below their nose.

Fortunately, the scientific evidence points to a reasonable compromise. Because masks work and mandates often don’t, people can make their own decisions. Anybody who wants to wear a snug, high-quality mask can do so and will be less likely to contract Covid.

Plus:

In the current stage of the pandemic, there are less divisive measures that are more effective than mask mandates. Booster shots are widely available. A drug that can further protect the immunocompromised, known as Evusheld, is increasingly available. So are post-infection treatments, like Paxlovid, that make Covid less severe.

In short, the conclusion is this: 

• If you are worried about catching or transmitting COVID-19...WEAR A MASK...even at home.  This means you cannot go to a bar or restaurant, period, for quickly opening your mask to eat and drink just does not work.  So how do you eat at home?  Good luck.
• GET VACCINATED AND BOOSTED...TWICE.
• Apparently, the current thinking is that it's just a matter of time for you to become a victim, as at some point in the future you will want to return to a new normalcy.  However, this virus is now so contagious that the odds are very high you will get infected.  The very big deal is that, if fully vaccinated and boosted, you will not die.
• The current rate is that 10% of all who get this disease will become a long hauler.  Nothing you can do to decrease your odds...being vaccinated or in good health, whatever.
• While cases are continuing to rise in the U.S., the hospitalization and death rates are remaining low.

On Tuesdays I usually reach back into the past and select a monumental posting worthy of retrieval.  Today, my very first Huffington Post article, published on 29May2008:

WELL, BARACK, WE HAVE A PROBLEM...

...and you have the power to provide the solution. Why you? The United States is the most powerful nation, ever. Today, and for the next generation, no other country will be anywhere close to our military and economic dominance. You will have a once in a millennium opportunity to accomplish something monumentally extraordinary, while ameliorating the global economic mega-depression that some say will soon loom from the combined hammer of Peak Oil and Global Warming.

You worry that you have a more important task at hand, which is to become POTUS (President of the U.S.)? Yes, continue that effort, but you will become the 44th POTUS.

Now to the more important challenge, creating your legacy for the benefit of Planet Earth and Humanity. As an aside, let me say that during the past year I published two books: SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://simplesolutionsbook1.com/) and SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity (http://simplesolutionsbook2.com/). I mention this because those publications provide both the spur and solution for you, our Nation and the World.

Our society seems to have a fatal flaw: we can’t expeditiously act to prevent potential cataclysms like Peak Oil and Global Warming (let’s call this PO/GW). Yes, of course, we will eventually prevail, but, by my reckoning, only after decades of agony and turmoil. There has to be a better way.

Miracle of miracles. It turns out, ironically, that PO/GW is just the catalyst you need to empower you to take extraordinary steps. There are innumerable great things you can attempt to accomplish to create your legacy. What about something so monumental as ending wars..forever?

Fortunately, you will be the next POTUS because McCain, a Republican, is too closely linked to the military-industrial complex and Clinton is too entrenched in conventional politics for either one of them to even consider this extraordinary pathway to be described. You symbolize change and will not be fettered by convention nor commitments.

Let us speculate that early in your presidency your close advisors tell you, Mr. President, we have a problem. We have reached Peak Oil, and the $100+/barrel oil we have will zoom to over $200/barrel. Worse, we can’t shift to coal or other fossil fuels because, yikes, Global Warming is indeed real. It’s kind of too late, and you can ascribe culpability to Bush or Congress or oil executives, but the masses—you and me and others—are to blame. Public will is totally lacking.

Understanding that, you and you alone can immediately orchestrate a global Manhattan/Apollo effort to minimize the coming pain. We need to spend a trillion dollars over the next few years to stimulate industry to help us remediate the almost certain crisis. This is only a fraction of what we will squander on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.* The numbers, therefore, are tolerable to take on this gallant mission.

So where do you find this kind of money? Ah, the Defense budget. You go to your very first G8 Nations Summit, by your declared emergency to be held at United Nations headquarters in New York City, and pronounce a Gorbachev-like bombshell: our country will reduce military spending by 10% this year, and will continue to do so for the next eight years. This scenario is described on page 65 of Book 2. You say, we want every country to do the same, for this 10% solution can be our response to Peak Oil and Global Warming.

China’s knee-jerk reaction might well be, what, cut defense spending? We haven’t had a chance yet to attain your level of capability. But, on afterthought, they will realize that they will only need to decrease their spending by $6 billion in Year One while the U.S. takes a $60 billion hit. Ten percent of the worldwide $1.2 trillion/year for war means that at least $120 billion/year will suddenly become available in the first year to overcome PO/GW. This sum will drop to just under $100 billion in Year Two…and down to a little more than $50 billion by Year Eight. But, by Year 12, the world defense budget will have been reduced to $34 billion, and almost a trillion dollars would have been allocated to overcome PO/GW.

This grand sum will go to the United Nations to administrate and dispense. Yes, I’ve worked with the UN, and it is about the worst organization to do anything, but there is no choice, it is the only international entity of any credibility available.

The so-called military-industrial complex will shift their effort to mass-producing more efficient wind energy conversion systems, developing the hydrogen jetliner, in time converting the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to methanol and otherwise insuring for the development of the sustainable infrastructure and necessary clean energy. Military personnel can initially be maintained to take on environmental tasks and the like.

There is every reason to believe that your 10% solution can continue forever to the point where there will be close to no military expenditures and no chance for a major war. Countries like Costa Rica, Iceland, Mauritius and Panama already have no defense budget. Are they threatened? Nope! Japan, and, even, China, have had a chance to expand their economy because of a limited war account. The U.S spends almost $2000/person for defense while that of China is $45/citizen.

Triumphing over PO/GW will mean applying our tax dollars in a constructive manner. Much of this will be for better jobs, greater support towards education and truly boosting our economy.

So, future President Obama, you will have a problem, but could the above scenario be an effective solution? You are the exact right person to save Planet Earth and Humanity. Simply go to my blog at http://planetearthandhumanity.blogspot.com/, where some details are presented.

Ah, what a great country. Where else can a former public McKinley High School student provide advice to a Punahou graduate?

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* In his new book, the Three Trillion Dollar War, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, with colleague Linda Bilmes, provides a true picture of the Iraq War cost. The obvious sense, then, is, if so much money only created a stalemate in the Middle East (and that is being kind), how can only one trillion dollar save the world from Peak Oil and Global Warming. Well, Mr. POTUS #44, this sum will only be the worldwide federal government contribution. Industrial cost matching should push the the actual expenditure to several times this contribution.

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Comments added to this posting, but must have been deleted.

How much do we spend on war?  More than the next 11 countries, combined:

The actual article can be found in the Huffington Post.  Written 14 years ago.  That year, 2008, this site was ranked #1 as the most powerful blog site in the world by The Observor, and in 2009 was named by TIME as #2 of 25 Best Blogs of 2009.  Some history:

• 
  Arianna Huffington and colleagues launched this site in 2005 as a liberal counterpart to the Drudge Report.
• In 2011 AOL bought it for $315 million, making Arianna editor-in-chief.

• 
  Also that year, Jonathan Tasini (right), on behalf of the thousands of uncompensated Huffington Post reporters, filed a lawsuit to get paid.  
• Interesting that other unpaid reporters included people like Barack Obama, Robert Reich and Deepak Chopra.
• Publication became messy, so I opted out and my final posting was on SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth and Humanity later that year.
• That was my 100th and last article.
• In 2012 The Huffington Post won a Pulitzer Prize.
• 
  In 2015 Verizon acquired AOL for $4.4 billion, which included this news aggregator.
• Huffington Post was abbreviated to HuffPo in 2017.
• In 2021 BuzzFeed bought HuffPo, with Danielle Belton as editor-in-chief.
• One great advantage of HuffPo is that it is FREE.

I'll end with something from Italia's Got Talent.

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Hurricane Agatha made landfall at 105 MPH just west of Puerto Angel, Mexico and rapidly weakened, but the remnant low-pressure system could yet enter the Gulf of Mexico and became Tropical Storm Alex.

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