Talked to someone today who doesn't believe in asymptomatic transmission of Covid.

[milestogo]

Coworker.

Believes if someone has it, they have symptoms.

Thinks that covid has been really hyped by the left as a political weapon, and it will all go away after the election.

Thinks that kids doing school from home is unnecessary.

Can't understand why people like Fauci have changed their minds so many times (about what? masks) and why they didn't tell us the whole truth in the beginning

Won't get the vaccine for himself or his kids, because covid is less harmful than the flu. Vaccine is more potentially damaging than the illness.

This is a really smart, well educated, rational person. I tried to explain that they didn't know the whole truth about Covid in the beginning, and they still don't - but I got nowhere.

He feels his freedoms are being violated.

[SharonClark]

1. May be "well educated" but certainly doesn't sound smart or rational.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Beat Me To It!

The opinion prompting the OP sure doesn't scream "really smart".
It screams "This person got a degree?"
Educated? I guess. Smart? A hard no!

[milestogo]

8. Well I've never had this kind of conversation with him before.

And I haven't changed my opinion that he's very intelligent. When a family member had cancer he did a huge amount of research to understand the disease and treatment options.

But political views can color everything.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. I Strongly Question His Thought Processes

His "research" into that cancer treatment suggests an ability to do homework.
It does not suggest, either way, a particularly acute ability to process & internalize information, deal with abstraction and draw meaningful inference from less than concrete information, or logically connect disparate pieces of data.
The former suggests one could get a degree.
The political views do not color the latter for me.
They are the basis for a conclusion that he lacks the latter. The latter is a sign of intelligence.
I see no particular gift of intelligence who deals with the unknown so preposterously.

[Phoenix61]

2. Talk to him on December when it's still here

and see what he had to say.

[Maraya1969]

3. Tell her about Typhoid Mary

Abstract

Mary Mallon was born in 1869 in Ireland and emigrated to the US in 1884. She had worked in a variety of domestic positions for wealthy families prior to settling into her career as a cook. As a healthy carrier of Salmonella typhi her nickname of “Typhoid Mary” had become synonymous with the spread of disease, as many were infected due to her denial of being ill. She was forced into quarantine on two separate occasions on North Brother Island for a total of 26 years and died alone without friends, having evidently found consolation in her religion to which she gave her faith and loyalty.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3959940/

[boston bean]

4. Some of the smartest people are the dumbest mother fers

to walk the face of the earth.

[maxsolomon]

5. Point by point:

1. repeatedly disproven.
2. I am not aware of any "hyping" for political advantage. conservatives ascribe motives (and coordinated actions) to "the left" that never even occur to us.
3. Fauci said AT THE VERY START that masks weren't needed so there wouldn't be a run on them and medical staff would have an adequate supply. that was a mistake, because there was a run anyway. the RW has waved this like a bloody flag every fucking day since.
4a. speculation. there is no vaccine so there's no way to measure how damaging it will be. if it in face was damaging, it wouldn't be approved by the FDA.
4b. people die of the flu, too.
5. educated in what? virology? or does he have an MBA and never took a science class?
6. too fucking bad. be a good citizen and pitch in.

[tanyev]

7. Might want to keep a very safe distance from him going forward.

[Klaralven]

9. A relative's child got tested before heading back to school. She tested positive with no symptoms

The relative subsequently tested positive and developed symptoms.

[cannabis_flower]

10. Well educated is not always what it seems

I had a woman tell me she had 3 degrees. One was art one in criminal justice. That wouldn't make them educated in Covid-19. One was in Nursing but she went to a really podunk college in Louisiana that had an 85% acceptance rate, so basically, they admit anyone.

[cojoel]

12. I guess his continuing medical education has lapsed

Many states require ongoing accrual of such education credits in order to maintain physicians license.

Oh, he's not a doctor?
...