Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/18/this-infrared-thermometer-is-a-must-have-in-any-home-these-days.html
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This crazy hoax has gained so many momentum here that nobody point it to people’ s forehead anymore.
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if any member of your household is under the weather, you’ll want to know as soon as possible exactly what you’re dealing with.
If you’re living with someone, isn’t “waiting until they show a fever” usually well past the “infectious and you already caught it” phase?
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Possibly, but a fever is one of the symptoms that may suggest getting covid tests are warranted, the sooner the better.
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These thermometers are useless for medical use, just a form of security theater. What you need is a temporal artery thermometer like those used in hospitals, that you scan across the forehead and temples. Exergen makes relatively inexpensive $40 ones for home use. Their hospital-grade ones take disposable plastic sensor covers to avoid spreading infection (the forehead scanning requires contact) but are far more expensive at around $200.
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Unfortunately it’s true. I had to go to the dentist during the pandemic and at the entrance to the building, the security guard pointed the thermometer at my wrist. This also happened once when I went to the supermarket. The young lady who was taking customers’ temperature said that she knew it was a conspiracy theory, but she was tired and wasn´t paid to argue and fight with angry customers. As @azalmajid well said it was a
But people used it to stir more confusion in the middle of the pandemic chaos spreading these stupid stories.
I bet this hoax was created by the the very same kind of people cited in this Boingboing´s article. The Snope article says something I remember reading when the pandemic started. It was a post by a local celebrity saying smothing about how the Pineal gland was a kind of spiritual transceptor that linked us to God. The thermometers could destroy the gland and turn us into materialistic atheists.
The newspapers rebutted these crazy claims, but it was of no avail. As the “spiritual” farse didn´t get traction among the normal people, the hoax was changed to a kind of health warning. The thermometers were dangerous because they had lasers that could giver you cancer or burn your retina.
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