Coronavirus Open Thread 2021

As far as I know, I will have to undergo two covid tests before I can come into contact with the general population in Taiwan when I return. Plus 14 days of quarantine.
So there is testing. In the west testing is an excuse to keep things open.
Once a test shows positive, all the transmission events are a done deal.

1 Like

No they don t!
In my company, for example are only 3 employees who follow the rules and protect each other, the other 100 or so do not give a shit.
Even saying it straight into my face and refuse to wear a mask when entering, for example, a car.

1 Like

In most other countries, they’re wearing masks, washing hands, sanitizing surfaces, etc etc. The Brits (belatedly) have started doing these things.

But it doesn’t make any difference.

Do you really not understand the German antipathy towards being ordered around? It seems to me that what’s lacking here is not a knowledge of epidemiology and math, but human behaviour. The politicians utterly failed to understand the nature of the situation. In the UK, they tried to force people into following a whole bunch of completely stupid rules, and everyone understandably said “bugger that for a game of soldiers”.

In situations like this, you need to convince people. You need to sell the policy. You need to get people pulling together for a common goal. And most importantly, you need to have a plan that’s actually likely to do some good, and that people can clearly see is workable.

Treating people like idiots (even if they are idiots) gets people upset. Battering them into submission (especially when they’re being asked to submit to something that’s overtly harmful) makes them rebel. They become resentful and wilfully noncompliant. The politicians only have themselves to blame.

1 Like

No, you are making shit up.

Taiwan’s CDC rejected mass testing, and rejected antiviral cocktail treatment.

Both were rejected for very good reasons, and were clearly explained by the CDC.

2 Likes

They are testing people entering the country now. Hence the number of cases keeps going up.

But they have never done mass testing of the population as they do in some countries like the UK.

Taiwan’s CDC quite early on realized that false positives alone would create an overwhelming burden on the health system, causing it to break down as you see in some European countries and US states.

2 Likes

Interestingly, these same types (at least in the US) are also the ones most determined to undermine any environmental regulations.

Perhaps a fellow forumosan with a nocturnal name could take note.

Guy

What’s your point exactly ?

You want to criticise Taiwan for being the most successful country in preventing covid transmission worldwide?

You think that there is community transmission even though there is absolutely no evidence of that ?

You think the relative lack of testing has amounted to what exactly ?

Your think mask wearing is…Not working…Even though it is working ?

I really can’t get my head around your muddled thinking.
State what you believe !

The virus doesn’t just hide out for a year lol.

Come on Brian. You’re not that dense.

  • In a population with very few cases, scattergun testing will throw up a set of positives which are almost entirely false. You know this. If you test people who have no reason to be considered potential positive cases, you’re going to produce a whole lot of meaningless noise.

  • So far, antiretrovirals do not appear to be useful.

1 Like

Absolute nonsense, you think hospitals are full of false positives in Europe and US ?

The false positives are causing health systems to break down ?

1 Like

Correct you owe me a six pack soon. :grin:

This is all that needs to be said.

I think you severely overestimate the ability of governments to get their act together :slight_smile:

They’ve been doing their headless-chicken routine for a full 12 months now, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.

IIRC we settled on enough vaccines being made available for 50% of the population of Europe, US, and civilized countries in Asia by midyear. I won’t insist on the world’s shitholes getting a vaccination programme sorted anytime this century. Does that sound right to you? I can’t find the original post.

1 Like
1 Like

Something similar in the UK, I believe. Several hundred billion pounds, depending on who’s reporting it and what they’re factoring in.

Of course, it was money well spent for all those lives that have been saved. :+1:

Context: the US spent about US$4-5 trillion (in new money) on WW2.

1 Like

Yeah…All those ‘false positives’.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-55505777

London hospitals say they are under huge pressure, with whole floors being converted to intensive care wards

I keep reading, day after day, these stories of impending doom in the hospitals. But doom never arrives. It just gets shuffled around a little.

So a thousand a day dying in the UK right now from it…What number are you happy with ?

You obviously haven’t read the article. The new variant means that the numbers are going to keep going up under all but the most extreme lockdown measures.

What the hell are you talking about Brian?

Did I criticize the CDC?

Did I suggest there is community transmission?

Did I say anything at all about wearing masks?

You are just making all this stuff up. It’s in your muddled head.

What do I believe?

I believe that Taiwan’s health authorities were very wise in rejecting mass testing with the dodgy tests, and very wise in rejecting the dodgy antiretroviral cocktails being used in other countries.

You said false positives were causing the health systems in the EU and US to be overwhelmed.

That’s simply not true.

I not quoting my opinions, I’m telling what the CDCs reasoning was in limiting testing.
“Minister Chen said that general screening comes with a high cost. Countries that have implemented general screening have seen a large number of hospitalizations causing “medical collapse,” causing infected patients to be sent back into the community.”