What Covid?

[mama2one]

The guy said he won't and never will because covid is not real. It is not true. I just don't get it

I don't get it, either!

a relative said last summer "WHEN the virus was here"
so they thought it was over already

they held a graduation party with at least 50 people
we didn't attend...I didn't feel that was safe

 

[Sophrosyne]

Plainly a hospital setting is much higher risk than the general population, so they need better masks and face shields etc. Most of Australia's COVID deaths were in Victoria, where I live. The early response was pretty ordinary. Since those days, the infection rate dropped dramatically.

Masks are only a part of the answer. If nothing else, they remind people that COVID should be taken seriously. Boris Johnson would agree. Nothing like a dose of the virus to bring people to reality. Death is an even better reminder, but the victim probably would not agree.

Australias Covid issues are not a good parallel for the most part to those in the US as we could not lock down our country anywhere near as good or as long nor again lock down stuff over and over way too much travel and the virus had already been here since I believe Dec of 2019 and testing for it wasn't going on for several months it was I believe all over the place already we were only slowing it down.
As for masks "reminding" people the seriousness of Covid 19, they were at first but the constant barrage of ads by everyone and politicians and such were "agreeing" that masks "keep you safe" and at the start distancing was advocated and followed rather stringently but when the masking and "keep you safe" buzz went on and on day and night for months and months people slowly ignored distancing protocols entirely. The mask to them prevented the need for distancing entirely in their mind, wear the mask and you ARE safe.

Simply put masks may have either made people less safe or cancelled out the benefit that distancing had at preventing infections as people with masks on aren't scared of the virus nor do they avoid closeness to others with or without them.

 

[Aussie Pete]

Australias Covid issues are not a good parallel for the most part to those in the US as we could not lock down our country anywhere near as good or as long nor again lock down stuff over and over way too much travel and the virus had already been here since I believe Dec of 2019 and testing for it wasn't going on for several months it was I believe all over the place already we were only slowing it down.
As for masks "reminding" people the seriousness of Covid 19, they were at first but the constant barrage of ads by everyone and politicians and such were "agreeing" that masks "keep you safe" and at the start distancing was advocated and followed rather stringently but when the masking and "keep you safe" buzz went on and on day and night for months and months people slowly ignored distancing protocols entirely. The mask to them prevented the need for distancing entirely in their mind, wear the mask and you ARE safe.

Simply put masks may have either made people less safe or cancelled out the benefit that distancing had at preventing infections as people with masks on aren't scared of the virus nor do they avoid closeness to others with or without them.

The medical profession disagrees with you. Any mask is better than none. It's just part of of the solution. Sure, Australia is better situated to deal with the outbreak, especially as it's easy to shut out the rest of the world. All the recent cases of COVID have been returning citizens or travellers permitted, for example, the huge tennis tournament entourage. Just one infected person could put us back 12 months. No one wants that.

 

[Sophrosyne]

The medical profession disagrees with you. Any mask is better than none. It's just part of of the solution. Sure, Australia is better situated to deal with the outbreak, especially as it's easy to shut out the rest of the world. All the recent cases of COVID have been returning citizens or travellers permitted, for example, the huge tennis tournament entourage. Just one infected person could put us back 12 months. No one wants that.

How much better is it than none, is it better so much that people that don't distance properly because they feel a mask protects them good enough that they don't have to makes up for the difference of distancing properly, keeping your hands clean by not touching a mask that is out there picking up stuff in the air constantly and plus substantially more that people who normally would opt to just not go into large crowds because of a mask supposed protection decides not to instead?

 

[Sophrosyne]

BTW the medical profession is mostly composed of people wearing top notch masks and have extensive sterilization procedures why out in the wild you got masks not much better than a kleenex with 2 rubber bands on it, people pulling them down uncovering their nose and standing 2 feet from each other while doing so. It wasn't like this when people were not wearing masks they often stood 8-10 feet apart and avoided doing as little as possible with the public.