He’s the kind of teacher who, were this the US, would have his face plastered all over every news station in the country for possession of child porn. At the start of this school year, he mysteriously wasn’t here for a few weeks (I got so hopeful he would never return…) a new teacher took over his homeroom, and he was always wearing a mask. Apparently he had done at least one of three things that you aren’t allowed to do in public schools: 1) spread religion 2) inappropriately touch students or 3) physically abuse students, and was “disciplined” for it.
So his punishment is to wear a mask, not shower/ brush his teeth or wash his clothes, and frantically clomp shuffle around the office as if he’s crazy busy all the time. Oh, and now try to freak out the foreign teacher who has given him the death glare every time she’s had to look at his face because she has video evidence of him with a male student on his lap in the office and the authorities she has spoken to have warned her that reporting that will get her in way more trouble than he would be in.
I wonder if I could report him for spreading false rumors about the pandemic…
That should be really effective, with a nice bundle of jail and fine as punishment:
As the outbreak is seen as special, spreading rumors about the disease will be punishable under the penal code by a maximum fine of NT$3 million or a maximum prison sentence of three years.
Jesus there’s some nonsense going on in Kaohsiung. 80 person disinfection team being sent into action. Does anyone think street disinfection is useful in this situation? I think it just looks good on tv.
Nine locals presented with “suspicious symptoms” all tested negative.
Korean fish still talking up lockdown as a possibility.
Seems like opinions are mixed. May help, will also probably hurt?
If that’s the case, why are so many countries spraying public outdoor spaces?
“In this case, it’s as much to do with wanting to appear to be doing something as it is actually achieving any objective,” Sly said. “It’s really gallons and gallons of disinfectant going down the drain.… The cost-effectiveness is really not there.”
He notes that in many countries that do this, people like to see large-scale action by the government. And they may already have dealt with other diseases in a similar fashion.
“Some of it is culture, tradition, what we like to see happening,” he added. “A little bit is science.”
That said, scientific research hasn’t really been done on the effectiveness of disinfecting public spaces, said Marc Lipsitch, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
So, what about outdoors? According to a variety of local news reports from cities including Shanghai and Gwangju, South Korea, the disinfectant most commonly used outdoors is a diluted solution of sodium hypochlorite, or household bleach. But it’s unclear whether bleach destroys coronaviruses outside, and if it does kill them on surfaces it’s unclear whether it would kill viruses in the air. Bleach itself breaks down under ultraviolet (UV) light. Then again, Leon says, UV light seems to destroy coronaviruses as well. And coronavirus exposure from outdoor surfaces may be limited already: “Nobody goes around licking sidewalks or trees,” Leon says.
There may even be downsides to widespread overzealous disinfection with bleach, notes Julia Silva Sobolik, a graduate student in Leon’s lab. “Bleach is highly irritating to mucous membranes,” Sobolik says. That means people exposed to sprayed disinfectants—especially the workers who spray them—are at risk of respiratory troubles, among other ailments.
Papi Freddy Lin is grilling the MND guy like a shrimp on a barbie…
Trying to establish if someone came off/on ship on 2/28 holiday in Kaohsiung -Freddy says maybe someone got on board already sick- or someone on in Palau. MND clear as chocolate.
People can’t go to a public space being sprayed, and nobody wants to go to a public space that’s recently been sprayed. So, spraying increases social distancing.
TBH they also may have dengue problems so if they can spray against mosquitoes that would be awesome.
EDIT
MND says they did not raise any flags related to the people with fever because they thought they were simply common cold, as they were treated and turned Ok, no big deal. They say they cannot stop operations every time someone gets a cold, then they cannot defend the country. MND boss now in quarantine says he suggested X ray to be sure but the kids were already Ok so the doctors deemed not necessary.
