Serial entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who co-invented the optical computer mouse in 1980, has developed a real hatred for mask-wearing. It isn’t just that he doesn’t want to wear one. He doesn’t want anyone else to, either. When he flies, he offers other passengers money to take theirs off.
And he has a lot of money. He founded an internet search company in the 90s that he sold to Disney, and built several other companies including a anti-spam provider. So he thinks nothing of starting out with an offer of $100, and going up from there.
Naturally a passenger who wants to wear a mask now that it’s no longer required values that choice highly, so he doesn’t seem to get a lot of takers at just $100. Instead of letting it go, he ups the offer. He says he’s gone up to $10,000… and then even $100,000.
I asked the people sitting next to me on the plane if I paid them $10,000 would they remove their mask for the duration of the flight? Both declined the offer.
Maybe I should offer $100,000 next time? This can quantify the amount of brainwashing. pic.twitter.com/VLlymusmcq
— Steve Kirsch (@stkirsch) March 7, 2023
And I started the bidding at $100.
— Steve Kirsch (@stkirsch) March 10, 2023
Maybe he’s full of it, and the $100,000 offer isn’t real. Maybe nobody believes the offer is real. But he complains on social media, thinking it’s absurd that he’d be turned down. To me it’s absurd that he would care if someone wore a mask.
A mask is something you wear voluntarily at this point, and I genuinely don’t know why it offends other people. They’re not being forced to wear one!
At this point a mask should be a choice. We have vaccines and treatments that reduce the risk of Covid-19, plus at a societal level there’s so much background immunity that the virus is not threatening to overwhelm the health care system.
- It makes sense for an individual to choose to wear a well-fitting, high quality mask. That may be the case as protection against things even other than Covid-19.
- It makes little sense from a medical standpoint to wear a cloth mask, but even so as a wardrobe accessory that’s their own business.
Would someone who dislikes masks – and isn’t required to wear one themselves – offer another passenger money to take something else off?
The irony of course is that if you’re paying people to take off their mask, they have to first be wearing a mask in order to be eligible. That means the offers may do more to encourage mask-wearing (for the chance at a payout) than to reduce it.
During the pandemic Kirsch started funding tests of already-approved drugs to see what might work against Covid-19. And some of the work was excellent, such as research on fluvoxamine. But he went off the deep end, refusing to accept the results of the scientific research he had funded, for instance promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.
Then he turned his focus to vaccines, claiming they “kill twice as many people as they save.” He founded anti-vaccine group Vaccine Safety Research Foundation.
(HT: Paul H.)
mr kirsch, (yes, disrespect intended)
After the last time you get to spend with your mother and father is via tablet, then you can talk to me.
Signed,
An actual intelligent and compassionate human being.
@Boraxo:
> Mask wearing is pointless for most of these people but it makes sense to wear N94 if you are vulnerable.
It’s not pointless for anybody, the only question is how much benefit they provide.
@Loretta Jackson
> The mask is mostly a symbol at this point. Wait, the mask is entirely a symbol since we already do know it does nothing – zilch – for protecting against flu and colds and that lab thing.
Except that study doesn’t say what you think it says. The problem is that few studies met the standards they set–and very few of those even involved Covid. What they actually found is that masks (not respirators!) get drowned out in the noise of endemic flu. Not Covid, not any pandemic. Remove the studies that looked at endemic flu and what’s left does show a benefit.
> It’s literally the same as wearing a shopping basket on your mouth. Now I know, I know, Ben likes one, you like one when you’re briefly pausing between boosters, but it’s placebo.
Respirators are much, much better than a shopping basket. A simple, noticeable effect I’ve seen: Aisles with scented candles are no longer a problem for me. If it can filter out scents it can filter out a lot of other things, also.
> If this offends you, you’re the one wearing it as a symbol. Think about that for a bit. And then take it off, lose weight and get some sunlight.
It’s your side that sees them as symbols of things not being normal.
(And I’m not going to lose weight–doc wouldn’t like me to be any skinnier than I am.)
A man who follows his conscience when he discovers facts, even if it costs him money. Not at all bad looking. Pity he is much too young for me but I am sure he already has a nice young lady anyway.