Well If the visit lasted an hour, with surgical mask Indoors and omicron, it is bound to spread. Surgical mask worn by both parties prevent 90 percent of infections within 25 minutes… It s 5 minutes without mask by one person or 1 minute indoors with both without mask that is still considered safe.
But yeah, likely otherwise she would have infected less people… it’s still so important taiwan tells people that infection take place indoors! Cause people here really seem to think there is no difference, or even worse the opposite if temperature checked it’s safe indoors
I think with a virus like COVID, it’s not really a good idea to blame the spread on some individuals.
Sure, maybe if someone would have acted differently at some point, things would have happened differently. But overall, I don’t think it would have really changed things that much. Maybe then the cluster wouldn’t have been at the bank, but at some different place. Or we would still be at 0 COVID this week, but next week someone else would have been infected.
The ones that caught it now in Taiwan are just the few unlucky ones that get all the attention and all the blame. But honestly - it could have been anyone. Just pure chance and bad luck, I think.
God, I hope they’re not really going to pretend to be able to unambiguously blame this on the short amount of time she removed her mask. Given the length of the interaction, there’s absolutely no way that could be known. It’s a surgical mask, not a force field.
I’m wary of piling on, BUT I wouldn’t be sure it was a short time. Those cell phone conversations can go on for a long long while. And it may have been more than one conversation.
EDIT:
Hey, between marijuana possibly making the virus less contagious, and the slowness of Taiwanese banking possibly being implicated in this breakout, there are two major pushes for improved laws here, aren’t there? “Marijuana AND less paperwork in the bank, saving us from COVID!”
Yes, I saw that and yeah taking the mask off may have caused any transmission, but I still don’t buy the masks make all the difference thing, they help and are much better than disinfecting everything and those ridiculous plastic screens.
But where in the world except China and one or two other countries, do the authorities nit pick their way through every single case. A rather paranoid action if you ask me.
I’m not into victim shaming. But I don’t appreciate the idiotic noncompliance (i.e. NO MASK) based on perceived advantage in a personal cell phone call.
With obsessing over minutiae like this for each case, perhaps the CECC should consider whether they’re really not following a zero-COVID strategy as keeps being claimed. I’d hate to see what Taiwan’s version of a zero-COVID strategy looks like.
I guess it’s convenient to have a scapegoat to blame, rather than focusing on things like procedures at the airport that the authorities actually had control over and allowed the virus to initially escape. It’s not reasonable to expect that 100% of the population will display 100% perfect behavior 100% of the time.
Maybe, but remember the main story on masks from the beginning has been that masks limit other people from spreading more than they limit people catching it.
And if (IF!) I’ve got it right, only one or two people in the bank caught it that day. Most later caught it at their party.
And a long call to the central service centre if you are foreign. Every decision about foreigners need to be made from the top because you need to be kept on a tight leash.
Lots of schools closing early in Taoyuan ， prevention ratcheting up a notch. I reckon there is no widespread transmission. If they catch these things before they get in the hundred(s) they are controllable.
Not saying I want them to keep doing that after CNY. At a certain point the cure is worse than the disease.
Correct, all elementary schools in Taoyuan have closed for Winter break a week early (from yesterday ). A few linked to cases were closed a few days ago.
