Covid-19 News & Updates

[handdrummer]

I heard on 'Surf Radio' this morning that 19 Chinese illegals were arrested in Chiang Mai. All of them now in quarantine.
It's stated that they arrived here using natural border crossings! These borders must leak like a sieve.

Half of them didn't even have passports.

Are escaping or infiltrating?

[HHTel]

Good point.

[buksida]

Tour groups had already been banned by China and Thailand was already screening arrivals (and finding cases). Screening was started from Jan 3rd.

Thailand got a handle on this long before other countries, probably because of the closeness and interaction with China.

Incorrect, China banned its own people from traveling and locked down cities with physical force. The measures were nothing to do with Thailand which left the doors open until the end of March when it was the second-highest country in the world for infections at the time. I know because that's when I flew in from Nepal and there was virtually nothing in the way of checks or screening at the airport.

[ahandpatsy]

Yes i arrived mid feb and was not screened. Everything normal apart from everybody wearing masks

[HHTel]

I did say earlier:

Travel from Wuhan/Hubei was curtailed on Jan 23rd due to complete lockdowns of cities infected. Nothing in or out.

also:

The Ministry of Public Health Thailand implemented measures for screening travelers from Wuhan city on 3 January 2020 at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Don Mueang, Phuket and Chiang Mai airports, and activated enhanced surveillance at public and private hospitals.

Only repeating what was reported.

[buksida]

Yep, I think we all know how to use the copy/paste function.

[nil]

Agreed, Centermid.

Science didn’t change

Exactly! It's science that has the evidence and it's science that most of us are quoting.
I would say that you, Nil, are one of the ones quoting politics.

Recent interview with Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University.
Mask mandates are not supported by the scientific data. Masks have become a political issue.

[HHTel]

Firstly the interviewer presented a flawed question:

"A senator who wore a mask but still contracted covid"

A mask does not protect the wearer but protects others from the wearer. Therefore the interviewer didn't know what she was talking about!

Jay Bhattacharya went on to say:

Masks are of use when used properly as in hospital settings and where you can't avoid coming into close contact with people (social distancing).

He was answering a question on whether they should be mandated or not. He never made an argument supporting the non-wearing of masks.

He actually supported the use of masks in line with most experts in that: Wear a mask in situations where you can't social distance yourself.

Thanks, Nil, you've just given evidence for wearing them!

[sateeb]

Nil credibility then

[nil]

Firstly the interviewer presented a flawed question:

"A senator who wore a mask but still contracted covid"

A mask does not protect the wearer but protects others from the wearer. Therefore the interviewer didn't know what she was talking about!

Jay Bhattacharya went on to say:

Masks are of use when used properly as in hospital settings and where you can't avoid coming into close contact with people (social distancing).

He was answering a question on whether they should be mandated or not. He never made an argument supporting the non-wearing of masks.

He actually supported the use of masks in line with most experts in that: Wear a mask in situations where you can't social distance yourself.

Thanks, Nil, you've just given evidence for wearing them!

Thats not the point he was making but of course you are twisting his words.

[HHTel]

Watch it again. He actually said "I'm not against masks".
"Masks have a use in certain settings where people use them properly. So for instance in hospital settings or in places where you can't avoid being close to people who are vulnerable"

That is pretty much verbatim. Not twisted at all.

[nil]

This is what he said.

"masks should not be mandated. Masks have a use in certain settings where people use them properly, for instance hosptial settings and places where you cannot avoid being in contact with people that are vulnerable. They might have some use" ( I agree, no harm using them in hospitals and care homes)

"masks mandates..are not supported by the scientific data...there is no randomised evidence that mask mandates would work to slow the spread of the disease. For influenza the randomised study's suggest that they don't work to slow the spread of the disease. We should take seriously what the scientific evidence is saying and not adopt policy's that are far beyond what the scientific evidence has said"

He gave an overall balanced and intelligent answer.

[HHTel]

You're still talking about mandates. Mandates are not necessary if people follow the guidelines. He doesn't disagree with the guidelines.
He never mentioned care homes. He said masks have some use when you can't avoid being close to someone who is vulnerable.
Unless you have online access to the medical documents of everyone on this planet supported by some face recognition software, you have no idea who is vulnerable and who is not. They don't have a sign around their neck 'I am vulnerable to Covid, please don't put me in danger'.
Therefore you have to assume that everyone is vulnerable.

I'm not going to argue the case for mask mandates. As far as I'm concerned, it shouldn't need to be mandated regardless of any science. Act sensibly.

Regarding 'flu:

Following widespread adoption of community mitigation measures to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the percentage of U.S. respiratory specimens submitted for influenza testing that tested positive decreased from >20% to 2.3% and has remained at historically low interseasonal levels (0.2% versus 1–2%). Data from Southern Hemisphere countries also indicate little influenza activity.

Covid-19 Measures Have All but Wiped Out the Flu in the Southern Hemisphere
From Chile to South Africa to New Zealand, countries report far lower numbers of influenza cases, which could be good news for the U.S. and Europe

[nil]

After all these many months of mandatory masks do you think if there was a single bit of conclusive evidence that masks had reduced the spread of covid that it would be broadcast all over the world?

[HHTel]

But the strongest evidence in favor of masks come from studies of real-world scenarios. “The most important thing are the epidemiologic data,” said Rutherford. Because it would be unethical to assign people to not wear a mask during a pandemic, the epidemiological evidence has come from so-called “experiments of nature.”

A recent study published in Health Affairs, for example, compared the COVID-19 growth rate before and after mask mandates in 15 states and the District of Columbia. It found that mask mandates led to a slowdown in daily COVID-19 growth rate, which became more apparent over time. The first five days after a mandate, the daily growth rate slowed by 0.9 percentage-points compared to the five days prior to the mandate; at three weeks, the daily growth rate had slowed by 2 percentage-points.

Another study looked at coronavirus deaths across 198 countries and found that those with cultural norms or government policies favoring mask-wearing had lower death rates.

Two compelling case reports also suggest that masks can prevent transmission in high-risk scenarios, said Chin-Hong and Rutherford. In one case, a man flew from China to Toronto and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. He had a dry cough and wore a mask on the flight, and all 25 people closest to him on the flight tested negative for COVID-19. In another case, in late May, two hair stylists in Missouri had close contact with 140 clients while sick with COVID-19. Everyone wore a mask and none of the clients tested positive.

The above is not science but real life scenarios.

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/41790 ... ks-prevent