I am becoming increasingly worried with the Government here (and elsewheres) ability to communicate.
In these times there has to be clear direction. It is also important malicious rumours are dealt with.
Two examples.
In the country local “vigilantes” are taking to abusing people who drive a short distance to excercise. I do not believe it was the Governments intention to prevent this. Quite simply, you pass more people walking along pavements to get some where, and open space is important to poeple’s mental health. If this really is their intention they should say so, and equally, so should they, if it isnt. We are no where near close to the break down of social rights and liberties and we must not allow any Government to ride rough shod over these rights on the pretext of dubious science.
Which brings me on to the latest story about using mobile providers to track people’s movements. We dont live in China. If the Government is truly considering doing so they must say so, so the matter can be properly debated.
and where is the press in all this – are they forgetting their responsibilites to question and challenge? To be fair there have been some good articles but all too often buried towards the back of the paper.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
Which brings me on to the latest story about using mobile providers to track people’s movements. We dont live in China. If the Government is truly considering doing so they must say so, so the matter can be properly debated.
This has been done on a large scale to figure out if the containement measures work or not. No we don’t live in China, but if’ you’ve noticed, China is slowly going back to normal whereas here the situation is completely out of hand.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
In the country local “vigilantes” are taking to abusing people who drive a short distance to excercise.
That is worrisome indeed but not unexpected. Basically, it is the result if “Stay home” is propagated but not enforced. Soon enough there will be self proclaimed sherrifs who will get violent against anyone not complying. Seeing how things have gone out of control, that is not surprising given the weak response of the governments, it is not for private vigilantes to do this but for the police and armed forces if anyone.
Peter wrote:
The vast majority of people basically never wash their hands and never worry about touching door handles in public places
That is an essential factor. In Berlin I see people carelessly pressing door knobs and holding handles in the tube every day.
Cobalt wrote:
This is most likely the reason why Japan is less affected.
Since in Japan the distance rules are not observed, everyone has probably washed their hands: 
Cobalt wrote:
This is most likely the reason why Japan is less affected. The local standards for cleanliness, the habitual wearing of face masks if you have a cold to protect others etc all contribute to a lower infection rate; but not enough to bring the replication rate to below one (yet)
Japan is very crowded, so I expect they have highest initial reproduction numbers (cruise ship had the biggest so far R0 = 14), but I am really not sure how quickly they achieved an Rt<1 but only explanation is low transmissibility or quick quarantine on slightest symptoms (thus reducing susceptible and exposure %), I am not sure if this can only be explained by highest cleanliness standards? or maybe they did not toilet paper Black Friday for crowds, note that all these heuristic factors did not stop 2009 swin flu from spreading in Japan, so unless things have changed, something is really fishy with Japan numbers
In Japan wearing face masks is almost standard, as is in other Asian countries. So I suppose the the constant European lie that masks don’t protect simply serves to stop people from killing each other over masks. Austria now has mandated them for supermarkets. Once they become available, I guess that is what will happen: Masks are obligatory to wear anwhere outside your own house and that may be the time when they can relax certain restrictions.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
and where is the press in all this – are they forgetting their responsibilites to question and challenge?
I agree with a lot of your points above, I really hope we are able to return our freedoms as soon as we possibly can, I’ve no doubt some in the police will let the new powers go to their heads and step way beyond what is reasonable.
My gut feeling is that the media have been a joke for quite a while now, I think a reasonable amount of it is the huge bias to the left and the fact that they only really hang around amongst themselves so have an echo chamber whereby they don’t question anything other than things which go against their group think. Journalists seem to do very little investigation before racing to put something out. (then later quietly retract / correct / remove)
There is an argument about not reporting certain bits of news which may lead to panic, but I do think it’s dangerous to allow such gatekeeping.
No comment !
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Austria now has mandated them for supermarkets.
I doubt that is of any use. If people don’t simply wash there hands. If your obviously symptomatic to the point your actually coughing, you not going to get far in supermarket these days. You going to given a wide berth, plus is illegal in many places. If your wearing a mask all you need to do is touch your secretions and touch something else like a trolley, and then the poor person on the other end needs just needs to complete the chain.
It was my understanding that asian wearing of masks works in many cases because of the reduction in hand contact between virus and face etc. But you need to have clean hands for all that to function effectively.
Corona is going to make more deaths than 9/11 and it was perfectly foreseeable by politicians, but they are still not doing what is necessary… just because they cannot shoot or send a missile…
btw we can say the same for french and probably uk gouvernant… With reasonable hope, we can think than blond haired ones will get corona, and probably have hypertension arterial.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
In Japan wearing face masks is almost standard, as is in other Asian countries.
As was politely pointed out to me by a colleague when I had my first cold when living and working in Tokyo, it is socially compulsory to wear one if you even have the mildest sniffle or cough.
