The drone footage embedded above is not from the start of the pandemic two years ago - it's from this month. Americans who bitch about wearing a mask might do well to ponder what it's like to live in a country under the type of authoritarian rule that some right-wingers admire.
And that shutdown in China is going to affect American pocketbooks; the resulting inflation will be blamed on Biden.
Widespread covid outbreaks in China have bought entire cities to a standstill and hobbled manufacturing and shipping hubs throughout the country. An estimated 373 million people — or about one-quarter of China’s population — have been in covid-related lockdowns in recent weeks because of what is known as the country’s zero covid policy, according to economists at Nomura Holdings. There are also fears that new lockdowns could soon take hold in the capital city, Beijing, escalating the threat to the global economic recovery.Anxiety over new disruptions has already caused the Chinese stock market to fall sharply, weighing on U.S. stock indexes as well.And there are signs things could only get worse. Continuing lockdowns in Shanghai — a major hub for America’s semiconductor and electronics supply chains — has set up automakers, electronics companies and consumer goods firms for months of delays and higher costs.
Addendum: see this brief video of extreme lockdown measures being undertaken, seemingly locking people into hotel rooms or apartments.
That's some rhetorical gymnastics. Protesting at masks is why we never had to deal with even worse measures. Just goes to show that "zero COVID" mentality was ultimately a psychosis
ReplyDeleteIn no city in the US did mask protests do anything other than demonstrate that Americans are anti-science and quite confused about who is really taking their liberty (corporations). These protests never affected public policy in major cities, especially well managed major cities. In fact, out of deference to right wing suspension of disbelief (that which drives this sort of protest), it seems Trump may have killed a lot of people. The idea that mask protests led to some benefit vs the aggregate cost of backward thinking on social distancing, masks and vaccines is not an easily supportable position: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/birx-says-covid-death-toll-us-would-have-been-mitigated-with-earlier-action-2021-03-28/
DeleteIn no city did masks do anything to mitigate COVID. Lockdowns were equally ineffective, and in the future will be regarded as one of the most disastrous public policy decisions in history. What we're seeing in Shanghai is the same mindset unfettered by a freedom-loving public.
DeleteWe seem to live in a time when science is regarded as a threat to freedom. (Equally true with climate science.) As such, this approach begins with flatly rejecting empirically established positions. Once that happens, all else is up for grabs: https://www.ucdavis.edu/coronavirus/news/your-mask-cuts-own-risk-65-percent
DeleteAnd, taking this in a slightly different direction: Let's forget mandates and just look at leadership by example. We know masks cut transmission rates. We know the most visible man in the world refused to wear a mask (and contracted Covid). We have to conclude that by not wearing a mask, people who admired this man would also not wear masks. Since Covid kills people, isn't there blood on the hands of Mr. Trump? That is, I can imagine there's a way to roughly calculate the unmasked-Trump-effect and guess the number of fatalities and the cost in hospitalizations, etc. Again, this has nothing to do with mandates, per se, but does address this question of anti-scientific culture and political pandering and its obvious cost.
DeletePeople have a right to make their own medical decisions. Given the very marginal benefits that masks have, I think it's intellectually dishonest to lay these kind of hypothetical deaths at anyone's feet.
DeleteIt's like blaming Trump for not advocating wearing football helmets 24/7 because someone died from falling down and bumping their head.
So, if I spread AIDS through reckless behavior is that supported by a "right?" Is that a medical decision? As to the helmet comparison, the less said the better.
DeleteNot wearing a mask isn't reckless
DeleteThe first definition of reckless is "marked by lack of caution." Unless we deny that masks cut transmission rates, refusal to make use of a mask is the definition of reckless. Here again, suppose I'm 15 years old and I simply insist that condoms don't cut STD transmission, or pregnancy, and I act accordingly. So, am I being any less reckless because I deny the facts? Seems to me I'm being reckless in two ways: I'm recklessly discarding useful information and then I'm acting in a way that may do harm to myself and/or others. I'm sure there are 15 year olds doing exactly what I describe. Is there anything unfair about labeling them as reckless?
DeleteHow much did masks cut transmissions rates between states with mask mandates and those without mandates?
DeleteSince I have a poor memory, I punched this into Google: "states with mask mandates vs not" and I found a bunch of articles, such as that cited by scouter573 (below). Does this seem like a reasonable approach? How do you get your information? I'm asking this sincerely. If you have study that shows mask mandates have made no difference, I'd like to read it. (If I Google "mask mandates make no difference" I get stuff like this, which is not a study, but a cherry-picking opinion piece which takes some debunking to see how it's constructed. This sort of article is uncritically referenced by folks like Sean Hannity and then, well, that's both disingenuous and confusing: https://texasscorecard.com/federal/cdc-mask-mandates-made-no-statistical-difference/ )
Delete"I can imagine there's a way to roughly calculate the unmasked-Trump-effect and guess the number of fatalities and the cost in hospitalizations, etc."
ReplyDeleteScience is not rough calculations and guessing numbers.
I have to disagree. A lot of science is estimating and hypothesizing. If I implied I think there's some scientific way to arrive at exact figures quantifying the death and destruction caused by Trump's no-mask theatrics, I apologize. A good scientist makes estimates, while fully disclosing the limitations of any process leading to any guess. That said, I did a back of the envelope calculation and conclude that Trump's mask nonsense caused between 5 and 50,000 deaths. Or, in all seriousness, let's do a Goggle search and see what we find. Okay: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/10/possible-fallout-from-trumps-dismissal-of-face-masks/
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ReplyDeleteOpinions are fine for selecting paint colors and music, but failure to wear a mask is medically reckless for individuals in the times of COVID.
ReplyDelete"States with the lowest levels of mask adherence were most likely to have high COVID-19 rates in the subsequent month, independent of mask policy or demographic factors. Mean COVID-19 rates for states with at least 75% mask adherence in the preceding month was 109.26 per 100,000 compared to 249.99 per 100,000 for those with less adherence. Our analysis suggests high adherence to mask wearing could be a key factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19."
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249891
"This week, new research provides a stark reminder that COVID-19 and the gym don't mix particularly well. Indoor group fitness classes are actually a pretty effective way to transmit the coronavirus, according to two new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
ReplyDeleteBoth of the studies looked at COVID-19 outbreaks that took place at fitness facilities in Honolulu and Chicago during summer 2020—including one cycling class where every participant ended up sick. That outbreak was detected in a Hawaii Department of Health investigation. For the investigation, contact tracers and case investigators linked 21 cases of COVID-19 to two fitness instructors who taught several classes in June and July 2020. They taught while they were infectious but before they had noticeable symptoms.
One of those instructors taught a 60-minute high-intensity indoor cycling class just four hours before his symptoms started later that evening. The instructor and students were all stationed at least six feet apart, but none wore masks while working out, per the facility's protocol, and the windows and doors were closed. The instructor was facing the class, “shouting instructions and encouragement,” the report says, and, presumably, spreading infectious respiratory droplets containing the virus. Over the next week, all 10 people who attended the class tested positive for COVID-19. "
https://www.self.com/story/indoor-fitness-classes-covid-19-outbreaks
"Health and safety rules typically have been upheld as constitutional based on the precedent established in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 Supreme Court decision. In a 7-to-2 vote, the court ruled against a Massachusetts minister who was fined $5 for refusing to comply with mandatory smallpox vaccination.
ReplyDelete“In every well ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand,” the majority wrote."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/25/seat-belts-masks-fights-coronavirus/
Minnesotan, This is not about this thread. I have no other tool to send suggestion or address you. I have followed TYWKIWDBI for many years. One of my go to every day for some of the most interesting, stimulating information on the whole of the internet. I thank you and give you a hat tip for your excellent blog. I am trying to get some antiwar traction this May Day by send this on MAYDAY. Please forgive if I have over reached.
ReplyDeleteMAYDAY!! MAYDAY!! STOP WAR
50th Anniversary, May 1, 1970
Well, not a boasting post, just fact. 50 years ago I was arrested in Washington DC during "MAYDAY!" the universal radio call for vessels and others in distress.
"Mayday! Mayday! the USA military industrial complex complicit with the US government is in an endless senseless war in Vietnam." Repeat,, repeat, repeat.
I was a part of the Armadillo Tribe from Austin. The coalition's mantra was "If the government will not stop the war, the people will stop the government" At the time the largest arrests in US history, some 12,000. You can look it up on internet search for more details.
I drove my van full of other participants to DC. I was voluntarily arrested May 5, 1970 after 4 days of protests on the Capitol steps listening to Bella Abguz and Dellum (sp) giving speech's. So many arrested the jails were full, they put in a football field.
I'm not so proud of the event, but in the long term I do believe it was a bale of straw that helped break the war machine's back. I am still very anti war. I just lost the protest end of it. I am so, so, disappointed in younger generation for not stepping up over Afganistan the 20year war, longest in history.
My Dad was very disappointed in me. He indicated it was the wrong way to effect change, that I should be educated a lawer and make change in such manner. Some years? later Dad was in on a "tractorcade" to DC where farmers were protesting. Go figure.
Happy May Day and may the world learn to stop warring and start loving each other as different as others may be. It is complex I know. However WW III just may be in the near future. Hate appears to be growing.
End
Well, not a boasting post, just fact. 50 years ago I was arrested in Washington DC during "MAYDAY!" the universal radio call for vessels and others in distress.
"Mayday! Mayday! the USA military industrial complex complicit with the US government is in an endless senseless war in Vietnam." Repeat,, repeat, repeat.
I was a part of the Armadillo Tribe from Austin. The coalition's mantra was "If the government will not stop the war, the people will stop the government" At the time the largest arrests in US history, some 12,000. You can look it up on internet search for more details.
I drove my van full of other participants to DC. I was voluntarily arrested May 5, 1970 after 4 days of protests on the Capitol steps listeninng to Bella Abguz and Dellum (sp) giving speachs. So many arrested the jails were full, they put in a football field.
I'm not so proud of the event, but in the long term I do believe it was a bale of straw that helped break the war machine's back. I am still very anti war. I just lost the protest end of it. I am so, so, disappointed in younger generation for not stepping up over Afganistan the 20year war, longest in history.
My Dad was very disappointed in me. He indicated it was the wrong way to effect change, that I should be educated a lawer and make change in such manner. Some years? later Dad was in on a "tractor cade" to DC where farmers were protesting. Go figure.
Happy May Day and may the world learn to stop warring and start loving each other as different as others may be. It is complex I know. However WW III just may be in the near future. Hate appears to be growing.
End
Greetings, doomed. I have very strong memories of that era. Readers unfamiliar with the Mayday movement might want to browse this -
Deletehttps://libcom.org/article/ending-war-inventing-movement-mayday-1971
Antiwar protests in the United States were effectively blunted when the U.S. government eliminated the draft and compulsory military service, effectively shifting the risks of war to largely impoverished minority youth.
There are immense $$$ profits being made from every war, including the current one. The broad public pays those costs, and the profits go to giant corporations. The "proxy war" currently going on between the West and Russia is effectively the same as the proxy war conducted in Vietnam. When elephants fight, the grass suffers, and the people and society and institutions of Ukraine will suffer incalculable losses.
The people who have power over war - politicians, legislators, military commanders etc - almost never suffer directly. Many of them become wealthy by knowing how/when to deploy their investments. They will suffer if/when future war morphs into cyberwar, with remote destruction of infrastructure, electrical systems, banking systems etc. That's what I would view as the risk of WWIII (not nuclear bombs) and that's what I would anticipate if the U.S. ever goes into aggressive conflict with China.
Everything said here is true and well said. I'd only add one thing: We all profit from imperial wars and dominance. A John Woolman quote I often recycle: “May we look upon our treasure, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try to discover whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions. ”
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