The New Normal

[JTG]

Speaking of Australian lockdowns.....

One of the top guys on Biden’s COVID task force recently advocated a national 4-6 week COVID lockdown, which could be completed just as a vaccine becomes widely available, which would save the economy and squash COVID, like the Aussies did. He said there is a “big pot of money” to pay workers wages during such a lockdown.

So, a national lockdown may become our new normal once Biden is sworn in.....

 

[Q*bert Jones IV]

It's never too late to the right thing.

(Unless you're one of the 225,000 dead people, I suppose.)

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Taiwan had the best response. They did early screening and travel bans, lots of testing and aggressive contact tracing, and strict quarantines for infected people. About 1% were quarantined, and they were checked on 3 times a day, but there was never any general lockdown and most people went on more or less normally. They have had 7 deaths in a population 25 million.

mm

 

[MarzNC]

, like the Aussies did.

The continent of Australia and the Australian culture is very, very different from N. America and how Americans operate. Even with early success, it still required a 4-month lock down in the state of Victoria to gain the level of control that was thought to be necessary. Other states didn't do the same even though there were a few cases of community spread popping up.

One thing that Australians and Americans have in common is that a face mask is considered unacceptable for assorted reasons for "cultural" reasons. Also true in Europe. Very different from many Asian counties where face masks have been commonly worn during flu season ever since SARS in 2003. Japan has the type of culture that has made face mask standard practice to the point that even subways are operating pretty normally. Japan has used very few restrictions, and those were mainly in the large cities for a short period of time.

 

[XTski]

Asian countries certainly have reasons to wear masks before this current virus started there, it’s unfortunate their practices have to effect the rest of the world

 

[ScottySkis]

Taiwan had the best response. They did early screening and travel bans, lots of testing and aggressive contact tracing, and strict quarantines for infected people. About 1% were quarantined, and they were checked on 3 times a day, but there was never any general lockdown and most people went on more or less normally. They have had 7 deaths in a population 25 million.

mm

Plus they did not make it political in my opinion

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Plus they did not make it political in my opinion

The Asian culture places great value on the common good, and Asians mostly trust their leaders. The English speaking world is mostly the opposite, so everything is politicized. Simply announcing a plan automatically generates opposition in response. That's no way to secure public health, but that's where we are.

mm

 

[MarzNC]

The Asian culture places great value on the common good, and Asians mostly trust their leaders. The English speaking world is mostly the opposite,

Not just English speaking, a lot of European countries are a mess right now. They didn't keep mask mandates or even try to encourage mask usage after getting control in the late spring or early summer.

Turns out the Swiss had reasons to make face masks illegal in the 1990s in a few regions so there is a strong negative bias against the idea of wearing a face covering. Also have been anti-mask laws in other European countries in the last 30 years.

In NC, the anti-mask law had to be "suspended indefinitely" before the state-wide mandate started. It was a carry over decades ago because of the KKK.

 

[XTski]

With it being known that the prettiest women in the world it’s a good thing America and Europe didn’t keep them masked up for no reason , ?

 

[Campgottagopee]

I think we need to do away with mandatory mask wearing. Speaking for myself, I'd rather know who the idiots are right up front.