>>Let me start off by saying that the COVID death count (percentage of COVID deaths divided by population size to be comparable...) coupled with the Trump dishonesties on Corona and scientific findings alone IMO are reason enough not to vote for Trump. Surpassing 9/11 death count each week due in part to lousy guidelines and preferences is something I cannot fathom not to be strongest argument.

I'm keeping powder dry on that one. Apart from Pacific Islands with effective moats, the prize for COVID response may well be deserved by Taiwan whose numbers so far have been shunned by WHO and others, apparently for political reasons. Despite being anchored just off the coast of Chine with much higher population and population density than New Zealand behind its moat at the end of the world, Taiwan's incidence and fatality, both numeric and per capita, is much better than New Zealand that gets gushing praise for its response. Taiwan achieved this result without lockdowns and now there is mounting "excess mortality" evidence that the lockdown cure may well be worse than the disease. is anybody interested in this, or is it more important to fix the blame than the problem?

IMHO the West including US advisors should have reviewed Taiwan themselves. Scientists claiming to be apolitical like Tony Fauci definitely should have.

On the subject of masks: latest evidence suggests civilian masks can help prevent you spreading the bug- but they don't protect you much, if at all. Therefore it's unscientific to assert "serves you right for not wearing a mask" if a political enemy gets COVID. Yet that sort of nastiness is celebrated as virtuous science in some quarters. Second, cloth masks may well INCREASE risk depending on study and population. This means the fitted cloth masks exhibited by many (most?) media and politicians, may well be increasing the risk compared to those wearing no mask, who get howled at for their risky behavior. Best protection comes from proper medical filter masks that are expensive and needed to be preserved for healthcare workers in early days.

For the record, Taiwan included masks very early in their response.

If people are really focused on science, forget the blame and incentivize representatives to fund proper study into efficacy of masks in your population wrt droplet-spread pathogens. If cloth masks really do increase risk- wouldn't we want to know, and isn't it dangerous to advise ever again that cloth masks or bandanas are acceptable? Then, armed with actual facts, decide if and how large a mask stockpile is needed for the next pandemic. That's how science behaves, it's not a weapon you get to wield by wearing a cloth mask to blame others.

Above all, I'd assert that science wants you to change your mind if the facts change. And trying to stop the facts changing by blaming and howling down dissent, certainly is not science. I could go on, but hopefully sense will prevail, screamers on both sides will have the mute button pushed, and people will work around tiresome censorship of Taiwan's response to see what can be used.

Just in passing- in the televised debate did you see Biden declaring that nobody lost their health insurance plans under Obamacare? LOL.