China Coronavirus

[RadioGAAGAA]

What's sorta mad is that that people have convinced themselves that there are no potential downsides to wearing a mask.

They might well be right. But they can't know for sure.

Whats sorta mad is that people have convinced themselves that there is no potential for aliens killing them tonight.

They might well be right. But they can't know for sure.

[Captain Obvious]

Northern Ireland has recorded its first COVID death in 4 weeks. 76 new cases over the last 3 days.

[Kidder81]

Northern Ireland has recorded its first COVID death in 4 weeks. 76 new cases over the last 3 days.

Covid linked death

[sid waddell]

What's sorta mad is that that people have convinced themselves that there are no potential downsides to wearing a mask.

They might well be right. But they can't know for sure.

Whats sorta mad is that people have convinced themselves that there is no potential for aliens killing them tonight.

They might well be right. But they can't know for sure.

A nice skewering of the sort of Spiked Online professional contrarian mentality routinely used by the initially quoted poster

[Maiden1]

It's a case of personal responsibility at this stage but some of the foreign nationals don't get that, particular the Muslims and the ethic travelling community.

This is like bad satire.

Sure why focus on the actual personal responsibility of the owners and management at meat processing plants to ensure safe working conditions when you can just lump it all on low wage workers and ethnic minorities.

The vacuous right-wing mantra of "personal responsibility" is both a dog whistle and a self-consciously fraudulent grift to protect untrammelled corporate power, and lack of corporate responsibility, and incompetence or worse.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/meat-plant-clusters-may-be-down-to-softly-softly-approach-1.4324924?mode=amp

We know now what works to stop the virus: distance, hand hygiene, masks. We know where the risky environments are: crowded indoor spaces, meat plants, shared accommodation.

Minimum wage workers have a "personal responsibility" to ensure they get their own flats rather than live in cramped shared accommodation, no doubt

Minimum wage workers live in cramped shared accommodation because they are on a minimum wage and can't afford to pay the rent and other bills on there own.

Em, yes, that's sort of my point

Hasn't stopped the vacuous "personal responsibility" mob vilifying them however

Haha I was wondering (hoping) you where being sarcastic   

[thewobbler]

Sid in my defence at least I'm aware that I have contrarian tendencies.

You seem blissfully unaware that you suffer the same. Probably a worse case of it truth be told, as you're also convinced that anyone you go out of the way to disagree with is a right wing fascist.

It's an unhappy place you inhabit, that's for sure.

[Rossfan]

Being right about everything all the time must be hard work

[thewobbler]

Anyhow back to face masks.

The Irish government this week closed three counties. That the people of north Kildare have nothing in common in terms of community, heritage, tradition, economy, inter relationships, with the people of South Kildare, doesn't matter. That restaurants a stone's throw apart, one can open, one cannot -   because of a fictional county line, doesn't seem to register.

It's a case of having to be seen to do something. Whether it's the right thing to do, or the logical thing to do, or if it's even possible to do, really doesn't matter. Sturgeon did it in Scotland so we have to do something too. That's all it's about.

So forgive me for not trusting same governments for pushing through facemask legislation. Do they really help? They might well. Does the government actually know what they're doing by making them compulsory? No, they don't.

The government has led the consensus change toward masks. If they hadn't, we wouldn't wear them.

Good luck to all who implicitly trust their overlords.

[RadioGAAGAA]

Do they really help? They might well.

The reason why recommendations on wearing masks was initially against were twofold.

1. The supply of N95 masks for medical staff were very limited and it was feared people would buy them further constricting supplies.
2. Western governments and their advisors have an institutional arrogance toward lessons learned in other continents that is not North America.

It has been shown over a considerable time period that wearing masks helps toward stopping anyone infected from spreading their germs/virus to others. In Asia it is widely accepted, indeed, even a social norm.

[thewobbler]

Radio in general I don't disagree with the face mask concept.

I do have this lagging thought that if I was early-stage, pre-symptom Covid, then recycling it to myself while I walk around town for a couple of hours, probably isn't going to do me much good. Or that sweaty old men slipping a dirty bandana onto their face before shouting at a shopkeeper isn't much better than him ranting unmuffled from a greater distance. And that the very nature of the world is that cheap face masks of poor quality and of negligible benefit, will be the choice of the majority.

But I accept these are trivial objections.

So face masks are okay in my books. But it's notable that the movement has picked up zealots in recent weeks. Like pretty much everything else, the more impassioned the fanboys become, the more sceptical I become.

Nothing is black and white in this world.

[sid waddell]

Sid in my defence at least I'm aware that I have contrarian tendencies.

You seem blissfully unaware that you suffer the same. Probably a worse case of it truth be told, as you're also convinced that anyone you go out of the way to disagree with is a right wing fascist.

It's an unhappy place you inhabit, that's for sure.

You have all the wrong sort of contrarian tendencies

Like all such people, the first thing you reach for is a straw man to confirm your own confirmation bias, which ironically is the thing you always complain about in others when you are in fact one of the worst offenders around

I am not personally unhappy but the world is a very unhappy place indeed at the moment, due in large part to fascism and the associated brain rot it is spreading as a concerted strategy, so yes, I am unhappy about that, I think any reasonable person who makes a genuine effort to be informed about the world around them would be

[thewobbler]

Sid in my defence at least I'm aware that I have contrarian tendencies.

You seem blissfully unaware that you suffer the same. Probably a worse case of it truth be told, as you're also convinced that anyone you go out of the way to disagree with is a right wing fascist.

It's an unhappy place you inhabit, that's for sure.

You have all the wrong sort of contrarian tendencies

Like all such people, the first thing you reach for is a straw man to confirm your own confirmation bias, which ironically is the thing you always complain about in others when you are in fact one of the worst offenders around

I am not personally unhappy but the world is a very unhappy place indeed at the moment, due in large part to fascism and the associated brain rot it is spreading as a concerted strategy, so yes, I am unhappy about that, I think any reasonable person who makes a genuine effort to be informed about the world around them would be

You're summing it up well Sid. You genuinely believe that you're right about everything. I tend to believe there is no right answer to any subject of complexity, which leads me to probe thought trains (especially those of the most blinkered) at their weakest points. Like all zealots and fundamentalists you then revert to attacking the poster. Start with straw man, then decry him as a fascist.

It is genuinely impossible to converse with a fundamentalist.

[sid waddell]

Sid in my defence at least I'm aware that I have contrarian tendencies.

You seem blissfully unaware that you suffer the same. Probably a worse case of it truth be told, as you're also convinced that anyone you go out of the way to disagree with is a right wing fascist.

It's an unhappy place you inhabit, that's for sure.

You have all the wrong sort of contrarian tendencies

Like all such people, the first thing you reach for is a straw man to confirm your own confirmation bias, which ironically is the thing you always complain about in others when you are in fact one of the worst offenders around

I am not personally unhappy but the world is a very unhappy place indeed at the moment, due in large part to fascism and the associated brain rot it is spreading as a concerted strategy, so yes, I am unhappy about that, I think any reasonable person who makes a genuine effort to be informed about the world around them would be

You're summing it up well Sid. You genuinely believe that you're right about everything. I tend to believe there is no right answer to any subject of complexity, which leads me to probe thought trains (especially those of the most blinkered) at their weakest points. Like all zealots and fundamentalists you then revert to attacking the poster. Start with straw man, then decry him as a fascist.

It is genuinely impossible to converse with a fundamentalist.

The projection is hilarious

[GetOverTheBar]

Do they really help? They might well.

The reason why recommendations on wearing masks was initially against were twofold.

1. The supply of N95 masks for medical staff were very limited and it was feared people would buy them further constricting supplies.
2. Western governments and their advisors have an institutional arrogance toward lessons learned in other continents that is not North America.

It has been shown over a considerable time period that wearing masks helps toward stopping anyone infected from spreading their germs/virus to others. In Asia it is widely accepted, indeed, even a social norm.

The masks aren't just Covid related in Asia.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/04/18/air-pollution-contributed-to-more-than-6-million-deaths-in-2016-infographic/#5394e16413b4

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2116342/pollution-claims-18-million-lives-china-latest-research-says

https://www.airclim.org/acidnews/china-670000-smog-related-deaths-year

[imtommygunn]

NZ record first cases in 102 days. It'll be interesting to see where they came from.