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James McDermott's avatar

During WW II, the US Navy issued "Shark Repellent" to its aviators flying in the Pacific theater even though the Navy brass knew that the repellent was actually worthless. It was issued to calm the fears of aviators shot down and floating in the water. To give our current CDC leadership some credit, perhaps they thought that the mask mandates would calm the public's fears and prevent mass hysteria. Of course, this would have had the opposite effect as people realized that the experts who demanded that we "follow the science" were lying to us all along. One wonders what else they are lying to us about "out of an abundance of caution"? Global warming?

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Michael Woudenberg's avatar

That response is understandible, but the issue with masks is that, instead of shark repellent doing nothing, what if it actually baited the sharks in? That's what being comfortable did with masks. Vulnerable people believed it worked, ran errands all over town, and actually increased their risk of death.

https://polymathicbeing.substack.com/p/masks-do-work

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Anthony's avatar

Omg, that anti-shark Bat Spray from Batman was a real military thing??

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Earl M's avatar

YES!

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James McDermott's avatar

Placebo was the word I was looking for.

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AJ Y's avatar

It was good “broken windows” policy as they started the hysteria in the first place.

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