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h8kurdt 07.30.2020 03:46 AM

Dr. Fauci says all the ‘valid’ scientific data shows hydroxychloroquine isn’t effective in treating coronavirus

Remember when Bobby lad gleefully posted about (half arsed, poorly done) trials showing how it works and basically validated Trump's assertion that it was good to use?

150,000 dead and rising. Failure of a president.

!@#$%! 07.30.2020 10:16 AM

herman cain just died from coronavirus

i’m guessing the antimalarials and bleach injections didn’t work for him

he famously attended the dotard’s tulsa rally of course, where he most likely caught the virus: https://www.westernjournal.com/herma...-enthusiastic/

and this was his facebook yesterday: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...23520325 9169 (check out the low-information comments below the post. so many stable geniuses.)

these featured “front line doctors” (as they call themselves) are mostly non-practicing ones. one strip-mall pediatrician believes ob-gyn difficulties are caused by “sex with demons.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella...oxychloroquine

The Soup Nazi 08.02.2020 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk
I'll wait to hear knowledgeable criticism of the specific study I cited before tossing in the towel.


Yeah, while you make up your mind, dipshit, let's all fly blind.

https://covid19.who.int/

Scroll down to "Situation by Country, Territory or Area". USA #1, that's not news, but change the drop-down menu from "Total" to "Total per 1 million population". It's what I call "the ranking that really matters", the proportional one - ratio, in one word. The United States has entered this list for the first time. IN FREE FALL, along with Brazil, and my country as well: unlike you idiots, I'm not a nationalistic fuck who'll stand by their billionaire joke of a president right or wrong.

!@#$%! 08.02.2020 03:24 PM

i laugh at how the skunk pretends to be intelligent via overwrought syntax while actually being one of the stupidest bastards you’ll ever meet (in my opinion of course).

!@#$%! 08.02.2020 03:51 PM

Red Sox ace, 27, won’t pitch this season because of heart ailment linked to covid-19

By
Cindy Boren
August 2, 2020 at 10:09 a.m. MDT

Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez described his experience with covid-19 as feeling “like I was 100 years old.” Now, the 27-year-old left-hander will miss the 2020 season while recovering from a heart issue related to the illness.

Rodriguez, who tested positive for the coronavirus July 7, was ready to return July 18, but, five days later, an MRI revealed what turned out to be myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that has been shown to be a complication of a virus that can affect the kidneys and heart as well as the lungs.

“The heart is the most important part of your body, so when you hear that — the first time that I heard it — I was kind of scared,” Rodriguez said (via Mass Live) July 26. “Now that I know what it is, it’s still scary, but now I know exactly what it is. Just talk to my mom, talk to my wife, they know what I have and everything. Now we just gotta take the rest. That’s hard, but you gotta take a rest.''

more here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...nked-covid-19/

Bytor Peltor 08.02.2020 05:09 PM

 

!@#$%! 08.02.2020 09:08 PM

lmao moron on parade

h8kurdt 08.02.2020 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor
 


In about 4½ months. If that isn't alarming then you're beyond help.

_tunic_ 08.03.2020 06:40 AM

total residents in USA in 2019: 328.200.000

cumulative cases of covid-19 in USA per 2/8/2020: 4.771.060


so yeah, one percent might be right, it's actually 1.5% with these figures.
But 4.8 million is nothing to joke about or be proud of
It's the more than the amount of residents in the state of Louisiana, who are ranked 25 in the list of 50 states in descending order of total population.
Or, to be put differently: it's nearly the same as the entire amount of residents in the country of New Zealand!!



But also note:
Cases only include people who were tested and confirmed positive. Testing rules and availability vary by country. Some areas may not have data because they haven’t published their data or haven’t done so recently.
(quoted from here)


So the real numbers are higher, and noone knows how high

!@#$%! 08.03.2020 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _tunic_
total residents in USA in 2019: 328.200.000

cumulative cases of covid-19 in USA per 2/8/2020: 4.771.060


so yeah, one percent might be right, it's actually 1.5% with these figures.
[...]

So the real numbers are higher, and noone knows how high


yes

and those figures plus the 150K deaths here amount to ~3.14% death rate among the proven infected.

but death is not everything. there’s frequent lasting damage to heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, etc, even in many of those who survived mild symptoms.

of course pointless trying to explain math and science and medicine and risk management to faith-based trump cultists.

!@#$%! 08.03.2020 02:30 PM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IhS4EXLOTI8

h8kurdt 08.04.2020 04:57 AM

Brace yourself for this one

3 minutes long for the time precious.

I actually thought it was a parody interview but nope it's Trump at his absolute smartest. Kudos to the interviewer for calling him out on his shit too. Too many have let him waffle with no consequence.

Diesel 08.05.2020 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk
Well. in the first place, your reply is quite the non sequitur to my post, which concerned the potential value of a suggested treatment for the disease, rather than the prevalence of the disease within the populations of certain affected countries. Secondly, I would indicate that the Federal government here in the US has little constitutional authority to regulate public health, authority over which, being not specifically delegated to the Federal government, is reserved to the several States, or to the People, under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. A further amendment to the Constitution might be in order upon this point, yet the better practice might be to respect local knowledge of local conditions in matters of public health (as a disease presenting as a huge public health crisis in New York City might not be a concern on the Navajo reservations in New Mexico).



 

Bytor Peltor 08.12.2020 12:43 AM

NYT Opinion: America Could Control the Pandemic by October......Let’s Get to It!!!
(the tide is turning)

h8kurdt 08.12.2020 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor


Paywall. Guessing as you can't copy and paste the piece you haven't read it either?

Bytor Peltor 08.12.2020 03:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h8kurdt
Paywall. Guessing as you can't copy and paste the piece you haven't read it either?


Six to eight weeks. That’s how long some of the nation’s leading public health experts say it would take to finally get the United States’ coronavirus epidemic under control. If the country were to take the right steps, many thousands of people could be spared from the ravages of Covid-19. The economy could finally begin to repair itself, and Americans could start to enjoy something more like normal life.

Six to eight weeks. For proof, look at Germany. Or Thailand. Or France. Or nearly any other country in the world.

In the United States, after a brief period of multistate curve-flattening, case counts and death tolls are rising in so many places that Dr. Deborah Birx, the Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, described the collective uptick as a sprawling “new phase” of the pandemic. Rural communities are as troubled as urban ones, and even clear victories over the virus, in places like New York and Massachusetts, feel imperiled.

At the same time, Americans are fatigued from spending months under semi-lockdown. Bars and restaurants are reopening in some places, for indoor service — and debates are underway over if and when and how to do the same for schools — even as the virus continues to spread unchecked. Long delays in testing have become an accepted norm: It can still take up to two weeks to get results in some places. As the national death toll climbs above 160,000, mask wearing is still not universal.

It’s no mystery how America got here. The Trump administration’s response has been disjointed and often contradictory, indifferent to science, suffused with politics and eager to hand off responsibility to state leaders. Among the states, the response has also been wildly uneven.

It’s also no surprise where the country is headed. Unless something changes quickly, millions more people will be sickened by the virus, and well over a million may ultimately die from it. The economy will contract further as new surges of viral spread overwhelm hospitals and force further shutdowns and compound suffering, especially in low-income communities and communities of color.

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The path to avoiding those outcomes is as clear as the failures of the past several months.

Scientists have learned a lot about this coronavirus since the first cases were reported in the United States earlier this year. For instance, they know now that airborne transmission is a far greater risk than contaminated surfaces, that the virus spreads through singing and shouting as much as through coughing, and that while any infected person is a potential vector, superspreading events — as in nursing homes, meatpacking plants, churches and bars — are major drivers of the pandemic. By most estimates, just 10 to 20 percent of coronavirus infections account for 80 percent of transmissions.

Experts have also learned a lot about what it takes to get a coronavirus outbreak under control. Most of the necessary steps are the same ones public health experts have been urging for months.

Just because America has largely bungled these steps so far doesn’t mean it can’t turn things around. The nation can do better. It must.

Clear, Consistent Messaging

President Trump and his closest advisers have repeatedly contradicted the scientific evidence, and even themselves, on the severity of the pandemic and the best ways to respond to it. They’ve sown confusion on the importance of mask wearing, the dangers of large gatherings, the potential of untested treatments, the availability of testing and the basic matter of who is in charge of what in the pandemic response.

That confusion seems to have bred a national apathy — and a dangerous partisanship over public health measures — that will be difficult to undo. But leaders at every level can improve the situation by coordinating their messaging: Masks are essential and will be required in all public places. Social distancing is a civic responsibility. The virus is not going away anytime soon, but we can get it under control quickly if we work together.

Such messaging works best when it comes from the very top, but state and local leaders don’t have to wait for federal leaders to step up.

Better Use of Data

As Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has noted: The United States has a glut of data and a dearth of information.

Data on who is getting sick and where is not being used to guide interventions, and crucial figures like test result times and the portion of new cases that were found through contact tracing are not consistently or routinely reported. If scientists had better access to such figures, they could use it to forecast Covid-19 conditions the same way they forecast the weather: warning when a given outbreak is spreading and advising people to adjust their plans accordingly. State and local leaders can make all their data public, and the C.D.C. ought to help them get that data into a usable form.

Smarter Shutdowns

In places like Melbourne, Australia, and Harris County, Texas, health officials have created numerical and color-coded threat assessments that tell officials and citizens exactly what to do, based on how extensively the coronavirus is spreading in their communities. The highest alert levels call for full-on shelter in place, while the lowest call for careful monitoring of high-risk establishments.


It would behoove the C.D.C. to create a similar, evidence-based scale and work with state and local leaders to employ it in individual communities. In places where the virus is still rampant, that would mean much more aggressive shutdowns than have been carried out in the past. (The United States has not had a true national lockdown, shuttering only about half the country, compared with 90 percent in other countries with more successful outbreak control.)

Smarter shutdowns may also mean closing bars and indoor dining in many places so schools there can reopen more safely; closing meat processing plants until better protections are in place; and tightening state borders in a sensible, as-needed fashion.

Testing, Tracing, Isolation and Quarantine

The most consistent mantra of experts trying to get the coronavirus pandemic under control has been that the nation needs much better testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine protocols. Despite examples across the globe for how to achieve all four, the United States has largely failed on these fronts. Testing delays make contact tracing — not to mention isolation and quarantine — impossible to execute.

To resolve the crisis, federal officials need to commandeer the intellectual property of companies that have developed effective rapid diagnostics and utilize the Defense Production Act to make and distribute as many of those tests as possible. As testing is brought up to speed, officials also need to expand contact tracing and quarantine programs so that once outbreaks are brought under control, states are prepared to keep them in check.

The causes of America’s great pandemic failure run deep, exacerbated by innumerable longstanding problems, from a weak public health infrastructure to institutional racism to systemic inequality in health care, housing and employment. If the pandemic forces the nation to meaningfully grapple with any of those issues, then perhaps all this suffering will not have been in vain. But that work can’t really begin until Americans solve the problem that’s right in front of them, with the tools that are already at their disposal.

Bytor Peltor 09.01.2020 08:35 AM

CDC Report Finds Underlying Conditions in 94 Percent of COVID-19 Deaths

“According to the report, just six percent of coronavirus deaths have “COVID-19” as the only cause mentioned, revealing that 94 percent of patients who died from coronavirus also had other “health conditions and contributing causes.”

Bytor Peltor 09.01.2020 09:38 AM

Sooo......a Covid-19 notification has been inserted into your phone?
Apparently with your latest update a COVID-19 tracker was added:

android phone
settings, then look for Google settings and it's there!!!

iPhone
settings
privacy
health, it's there but not yet functional???

The app can notify you if you've been near someone that have reported having COVID-19. I haven’t seen any explanation how this works with HIPPA but its 100% on your phone!

h8kurdt 09.01.2020 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor
Sooo......a Covid-19 notification has been inserted into your phone?
Apparently with your latest update a COVID-19 tracker was added:

android phone
settings, then look for Google settings and it's there!!!

iPhone
settings
privacy
health, it's there but not yet functional???

The app can notify you if you've been near someone that have reported having COVID-19. I haven’t seen any explanation how this works with HIPPA but its 100% on your phone!


If you're not willing to find out how it works then why post this.

tw2113 09.01.2020 12:55 PM

Awareness for others who may want it, but weren't aware of it themselves as a setting.

h8kurdt 09.01.2020 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tw2113
Awareness for others who may want it, but weren't aware of it themselves as a setting.


A fair point.

The Soup Nazi 09.10.2020 09:59 PM

Humans are decimating wildlife, and the pandemic is a sign, report says

h8kurdt 09.11.2020 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk
So, you're simultaneously saying that President Trump was horrible for having tried to prevent panic amongst the general public by means of his public statements, and that the COVID-19 pandemic is a good thing by limiting human encroachment upon wildlife.

Kindly recall that, when the pandemic reached the US, President Trump issued the following:

Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus

while Biden said:

“This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria xenophobia, hysterical xenophobia, and fear-mongering to lead the way instead of science.”

according to this ANTI-TRUMP piece:

Fact-check: Did Biden call Trump ‘xenophobic’ for China travel restrictions?

***

So, while President Trump was dealing with the probem bv soft-soaping his rhetoric
while attempting to save the US by denying entry to the most likely potential carriers of the virus, the Democrats were accusing him of racism on the basis of the actions which he took.

Yet you seem to be saying that COVID-19 deaths are a good thing for wildlife!

Which side are you on, man?


That'd be a first. Admit it he fucked up on a grand scale and no amount of backtracking and buts can change that.

Sorry not sorry !@#$%!

Diesel 09.16.2020 03:49 AM

The new UK government lockdown rules are nonsensical: gatherings of more than six people in households or parks are prohibited but dozens of people in a restaurant or work is fine. Is Boris implying the virus has mutated a new intelligence that knows exactly where you are?

_slavo_ 09.16.2020 07:56 AM

I'll go and get tested tomorrow here in Zürich.

Hope I don't have it.

h8kurdt 09.16.2020 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _slavo_
I'll go and get tested tomorrow here in Zürich.

Hope I don't have it.


You feeling like you might have it?

_slavo_ 09.16.2020 08:53 AM

I have sore throat and headache and feel a tiny bit unwell.


But more like it's that I have been in contact with a colleague from my team who is sick at the moment, so I'm worried.

g. 09.16.2020 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _slavo_
I have sore throat and headache and feel a tiny bit unwell.


But more like it's that I have been in contact with a colleague from my team who is sick at the moment, so I'm worried.


I hope you feel better soon.

Take care and rest up.

The Soup Nazi 09.16.2020 06:08 PM

 

_slavo_ 09.17.2020 05:56 AM

Actually, I feel 100% fit today.
Maybe I was just too tired or some shit yesterday.
The suspicious colleague was proven Covid negative, so I'm relieved.

Thanks for caring, my people

Bytor Peltor 09.17.2020 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _slavo_
Actually, I feel 100% fit today.
Maybe I was just too tired or some shit yesterday.
The suspicious colleague was proven Covid negative, so I'm relieved.

Thanks for caring, my people



This is a wonderful report, such a blessing to hear!

I had four colleagues out with positive test at the end of June. When you have that uneasy queasy feeling, every sniffle and sneeze is magnified in our minds. Fortunately, three of my colleagues remained asymptotic and the fourth colleague never had to be hospitalized.

The Soup Nazi 09.17.2020 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _slavo_
Actually, I feel 100% fit today.
Maybe I was just too tired or some shit yesterday.
The suspicious colleague was proven Covid negative, so I'm relieved.

Thanks for caring, my people


Great news, _slavo_. Rock on!

 

Diesel 09.18.2020 08:01 AM

Cosy covid life affirming story corner.
After not being able to taste food for a brief moment I thought I had contracted the big C (other big C move over innit there's a new big C in town, not to mention the syg big Cuntsss n all...eh? Foken eh? Arnly joking). Thankfully as it turns out I'm just a shit chef.

There's quite a few confirmed cases in the office where I work so it's a good job I'm one of them home working hermit's these days. The area where I live is the worst hit in the country now and a total lockdown may be imminent. It's fine however; Scotch and kentucky bourbon supplies are stocked to amazingly toxic levels with double (lol) punk brewdog 8 odd % alcohol cans in full effect to handle these life-trying tribulations - so life as you were then.

Method + conclusion
Covid is shit, yet without it I wouldn't have been able to spend days in the garden getting drunk whilst getting paid or been able to unceremoniously lap up the countries round of applause every Thursday at 8 from my lounge window.

Hijab wearing nutters, no longer nutters but instead a dignified solidarity between the mind and the Cunting public.

It's nay wonder this place is facing another lockdown when the assistants in morrisons ask you to pull your mask down when buying booze. I wonder if they do this to hijab wearers? Which raises a question; has a Muslim woman wearing a hijab ever bought booze from *any morrisons?

The end?

* cos' conglomerate Corp. so it would be 'any' as opposed to just local

Next week's episode: I fucking love covid me, and it will kill you, by floatingslowly**

** where is he anyway?!

The Soup Nazi 09.18.2020 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel
It's fine however; Scotch and kentucky bourbon supplies are stocked to amazingly toxic levels with double (lol) punk brewdog 8 odd % alcohol cans in full effect to handle these life-trying tribulations - so life as you were then.

 


 


https://www.heavensdoor.com/whiskey

_tunic_ 09.19.2020 06:56 PM

Australian corona flight 'to nowhere' sold out immediately

An Australian 'flight to nowhere' from airline Qantas was sold out in 10 minutes. The trip, which starts and ends in Sydney, is a seven-hour scenic flight for travelers who are disappointed to be grounded by corona.

Normally used only for intercontinental flights, a Dreamliner will depart on October 10 with 150 passengers on board for a trip to Australian attractions such as the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru Rock and Sydney Harbor. According to Qantas, it is an ideal way to find inspiration for a domestic holiday, if the corona restrictions make it possible again.

With no landings anywhere, travelers circumvent the strict corona rules that apply Down Under: borders are closed and domestic travel restrictions apply. However, passengers on board are asked to wear masks. A health statement may be added to this.

Generating income

In addition to the beautiful view, passengers also receive the special Qantas pajamas on board, a chef's lunch and a special certificate. The price of a ticket started at 500 euros, a seat in business class cost 2300 euros.

For Qantas, the scenic flight is an innovative way to generate income now that many planes are forced to ground. The airline has to cut 6,000 jobs to cut costs and is considering relocating its headquarters as it downsizes.

The Soup Nazi 09.21.2020 01:05 PM

Zakaria's latest Washington Post column:

Quote:

American Exceptionalism Is Costing Lives

What sets apart countries that successfully handled the pandemic? Failure.

What explains why some countries have handled the covid-19 pandemic well and others have done poorly? It’s a complicated question, but if we look at the place that has arguably had the greatest success, the answer is failure.

Taiwan gets the gold medal for its coronavirus strategy. It has close ties with mainland China, where the disease originated, receiving almost 3 million visitors from there in a typical year. It is a densely populated land, and Taipei, the capital city, has crowded public transit. And yet, with a population of nearly 24 million, Taiwan has had just seven deaths. New York state, with a smaller population, has had 33,000.

Taiwan’s greatest asset turns out to be its failed response to a pandemic in 2003, SARS, which taught it many important lessons. SARS was a respiratory virus, less contagious than covid-19 but more deadly. SARS also came out of China, where authorities bungled the initial response and withheld information from the outside world. The Taiwanese were caught unprepared and made several mistakes. In the aftermath, they totally overhauled their pandemic preparedness procedures. They ensured they had adequate supplies of equipment on hand. They made plans to act early, smartly and aggressively.

Many Asia-Pacific countries have succeeded against covid-19 — South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia. All were hit by SARS or witnessed its economic damage, and they learned from the experience. The only non-Asian country with a SARS outbreak was Canada, and it, too, changed its procedures after 2003 and took precautions. Even China learned a great deal from its disastrous SARS response, and, despite early stumbles this time, Beijing has managed to crush covid-19 so completely that the disease has virtually disappeared from the country where it began. SARS doesn’t explain the success of every country that has handled covid-19 well, but it reveals an important aspect of the story.

Consider, on the other hand, countries that have handled covid-19 badly. Anthropologist Martha Lincoln, writing in Nature, points out that several of these countries tend to think of themselves as exceptional in some way. She notes that the United States, Britain, Brazil and Chile all have strong national narratives that see themselves as separate, distinct and better than others. The United States is notorious for this attitude, but that is, after all, also the motivation behind Britain’s desire to leave the European Union. Brazil, meanwhile, believes it enjoys good fortune because “God is Brazilian,” and Chile is smug about being the region’s economic superstar.

That sense of being special makes a country unlikely to adopt the standard attitude of any business when confronting a challenge — to look for best practices. Bill Gates recently wrote that he has always approached problem-solving by starting with two fundamental questions: “Who has dealt with this problem well? And what can we learn from them?” He suggests that we apply the same philosophy to the pandemic.

And yet the United States is remarkably uninterested in how other countries approach similar challenges. Dozens of advanced countries have health-care systems that deliver better results at half the cost of America’s. Most have a fraction of our homicide rates. Many much poorer countries have better infrastructure, which they build at far lower cost. They ensure that money does not dominate their elections. Not only do we not learn from them, we barely bother to look.

In an essay in Foreign Affairs, Jeremy Konyndyk argues that “American exceptionalism — the notion that the United States is unique among nations and that the American way is invariably the best — has blinded the country’s leaders (and many of its citizens) to potentially lifesaving lessons from other countries.” He quotes the eminent U.S. historian Eric Foner, who once explained that American exceptionalism translates into “hubris and closed-mindedness, and . . . ignorance about the rest of the world. Since the United States is so exceptional, there is no point in learning about other societies.” Konyndyk concludes: “That mentality is now costing American lives.” I fear he may be right.

The Soup Nazi 09.21.2020 04:02 PM

Interesting stuff...

How South Korea is Navigating Live Music During the Pandemic

_tunic_ 09.22.2020 11:52 AM

Hurray! We are ramping up the precautions again, in preparation for the second wave. Today's reproduction number is 1.33 and also hospitalizations are increasing (slightly but still)
At the same time, a bunch of artists, mostly that have a large fanbase under the young people, started a campaign on social media that they are no longer cooperating with all the social distancing and other regulations. It's all those artists and cunts that call themselves "influencer" but have really no brain cell left.
You might know Mental Theo. Well, him and similar no brainers.

greenlight 09.27.2020 01:31 PM

got tested negative. on of our colleagues got it, so we all had to go for da test. I am working in a small branch, but it seems like we are going to split into 2 groups, which wont get in contact and will be swapping home office/office on weekly basis as a precaution. hmm i wonder how it will work with flue season coming. should be fun.

The Soup Nazi 09.27.2020 03:01 PM

From Business Insider:

Quote:

This video shows a crowd of anti-maskers 'invading' a Target in Fort Lauderdale, yelling 'take your masks off' and 'we're not going to take it anymore'

Marisa Folz, a 28-year-old boutique owner from Florida, was shopping with her mother and aunt at a Target in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday evening when she heard chanting and screaming coming from a few aisles over. She stopped and looked around the store and then a large group of anti-mask protesters rounded the corner.

"Take off your masks," a blonde woman leading the group shouted, pumping the air with the balled-up mask held in her fist. "We aren't going to take it anymore!"

Another man, dressed in a red "Make America Great Again" t-shirt, carried a speaker playing rock music above his head and gestured for another patron to de-mask and join in. "Yeah, we got someone!" he said excitedly.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, mask-wearing has been politicized, mutating from a public health measure to a cultural statement. In Washington, politicians have flip-flopped their stances on masks. In supermarkets, mask-compliance has sparked stand-offs between customers and employees. In July, a French bus driver was beaten to death by passengers that refused to wear masks.

The Fort Lauderdale group, composed of about 11 people according to Folz's video, spanned from young men in "Make America Great Again" hats and t-shirts to young women to a little boy.

The Fort Lauderdale Target has an explicit mask policy, with a sign outside the door that tells customers: "Face coverings are required by order of Broward County; all guests must be wearing a face covering to enter the building."

"I was in shock. This is disgusting," Folz said in an interview with Business Insider. "They weren't angry at all. It seemed like a joke to them."
A nurse looking on at the scene said that she worked in a hospital's COVID-19 ward, and commented, "That's so disrespectful," according to Folz.

As the group passed, a message came over the intercom asking the group to leave, Folz said. At that point, her family decided to distance themselves from the group. Folz's mother said, "Let me get my toothpaste... and let's get the hell out of here," according to Folz.

At checkout, she noticed that a few police cars were parked outside the store, lights flashing. Folz showed a police officer the video she took, but was told that there was nothing the police could do, as law enforcement was too late to the scene, Folz said. The officer encouraged her to post the video online and let social media do its work, she said.

"Target requires guests to wear masks whenever they're shopping in our stores. Our priority remains the health and safety of our team and guests and we communicate our mask requirement through signs in our stores, overhead announcements and reminders from team members at the front of our stores," a Target spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "We're aware of the group of guests who came into the store last night and we asked them to leave after they removed their masks and became disruptive and rude to other shoppers."


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