How Covid could have been controlled

[cmarshall]

There's an excellent piece in today's NY Times by the estimable Zeynep Tufecki on how the pandemic could have been managed to save millions of the lives that were lost, a number that "The Economist" now places at 20 million.

 

How could nations have gotten around China’s smokescreen? They could have done what Taiwan did.

On Dec. 31, 2019, the same day Taiwan officials sent that email to the W.H.O., they started boarding every plane that flew there directly from Wuhan, screening arriving passengers for symptoms like fever.

“We were not able to get satisfactory answers either from the W.H.O. or from the Chinese C.D.C., and we got nervous and we started doing our preparation,” foreign minister Joseph Wu told Time magazine.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/opinion/covid-health-pandemic.html

 

The most interesting case mentioned is Japan, where the big advantage they had was better scientists.

[internationalism]

all the governments (including trump's) were downplaying risk, because of economic interdependence with china.

The WHO, and all states, were warning against travel to thailand, as to mass tourism from china, but not to china itself.

Puzzling is why the South-East Asian WHO advised against wearing masks, even as in thailand all were already doing it, as they always did.

The worst part of the beginning of pandemic was shutting down aviation by many countries in a very abrupt fashion, within just a few days of being announced. At the same time international postal service was shut down or severely disrupted. While travellers were crossing land borders through the third countries, whether legally, sometimes bending rules or over the green borders.

[LarrySR]

The former head of the White House Covid task force now admits that 30%-40% of the USA Covid deaths were attributed to Trumps negligence and incompetence, ignoring the doctors advice, mocking science, dealing in crackpot conspiracy theories, giving out inaccurate information on a daily basis & focusing solely on his reelection (and keeping his resorts open).

Shamelessly playing the victim, Trump blames everyone but himself and awarded himself a perfect score of 10 inns handling of the pandemic.

The mind boggles. 

[danferguson]

19 hours ago, cmarshall said:

excellent piece in today's NY Times by the estimable Zeynep Tufecki

Who??

Is she a virologist? An immunologist? A scientist?

No

<<<Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina,>>>

I don't understand why anyone would give a single millisecond of their time to read this

 

 

 

[cdemundo]

3 hours ago, danferguson said:

Who??

Is she a virologist? An immunologist? A scientist?

No

<<<Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina,>>>

I don't understand why anyone would give a single millisecond of their time to read this

 

 

 

The NYT article is clearly marked with the heading, in red, "Opinion".

Problem is the media has too many "journalists" and not enough "reporters".

Journalists seem to pass on the unfiltered opinions of "experts".

I prefer reporters who find out "what the facts is".

Not many out there.

Edited March 12, 2022 by cdemundo

[cmarshall]

4 hours ago, danferguson said:

Who??

Is she a virologist? An immunologist? A scientist?

No

<<<Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina,>>>

I don't understand why anyone would give a single millisecond of their time to read this

 

 

 

She's an excellent journalist reporting on and referencing the work of virologists such as Dr. Hitoshi O-shi-tani who proposed the policies that led to the tremendous success that the Japanese government had in controlling the virus.

 

But please feel free to stuff your ears with wax whenever you encounter an opinion that does not support your preconceptions.

Edited March 12, 2022 by cmarshall

[cmarshall]

20 hours ago, LarrySR said:

The former head of the White House Covid task force now admits that 30%-40% of the USA Covid deaths were attributed to Trumps negligence and incompetence, ignoring the doctors advice, mocking science, dealing in crackpot conspiracy theories, giving out inaccurate information on a daily basis & focusing solely on his reelection (and keeping his resorts open).

Shamelessly playing the victim, Trump blames everyone but himself and awarded himself a perfect score of 10 inns handling of the pandemic.

The mind boggles. 

All true.  It is nevertheless surprising that so many people are themselves surprised at Trump's behavior.  He is a textbook psychopath.  It's not just that he doesn't care about anyone but himself, it's that there are no other people in his universe but himself.  These people do have a tendency to rise to the top.

[thaibeachlovers]

23 hours ago, internationalism said:

Puzzling is why the South-East Asian WHO advised against wearing masks, even as in thailand all were already doing it, as they always did.

Please don't post incorrect info. "ALL" were not already wearing masks prior to covid. In Lamphun where I lived some did, but definitely not all, and same in Chiang Mai.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, cmarshall said:

All true.  It is nevertheless surprising that so many people are themselves surprised at Trump's behavior.  He is a textbook psychopath.  It's not just that he doesn't care about anyone but himself, it's that there are no other people in his universe but himself.  These people do have a tendency to rise to the top.

[thaibeachlovers]

23 hours ago, LarrySR said:

The former head of the White House Covid task force now admits that 30%-40% of the USA Covid deaths were attributed to Trumps negligence and incompetence, ignoring the doctors advice, mocking science, dealing in crackpot conspiracy theories, giving out inaccurate information on a daily basis & focusing solely on his reelection (and keeping his resorts open).

Shamelessly playing the victim, Trump blames everyone but himself and awarded himself a perfect score of 10 inns handling of the pandemic.

The mind boggles. 

[BritManToo]

On 3/12/2022 at 6:23 AM, cmarshall said:

How could nations have gotten around China’s smokescreen?

Not having WHO owned by China might have been a good first step.

[internationalism]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Please don't post incorrect info. "ALL" were not already wearing masks prior to covid. In Lamphun where I lived some did, but definitely not all, and same in Chiang Mai.

wearing mask was advised in thailand by the ministry of health, all medical bodies. To the point, that there was shortage of masks, people recycling them, washing, hot ironing, UVC disinfection and sawing their own.

The SEA WHO misjudged order was ignored.

No, not all and everywhere were and are wearing them, a small minority. Some people do wear 2 masks since Delta the last year. 

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, internationalism said:

wearing mask was advised in thailand by the ministry of health, all medical bodies. To the point, that there was shortage of masks, people recycling them, washing, hot ironing, UVC disinfection and sawing their own.

The SEA WHO misjudged order was ignored.

No, not all and everywhere were and are wearing them, a small minority. Some people do wear 2 masks since Delta the last year. 

That's not what I was referring to but when you wrote

On 3/12/2022 at 4:02 PM, internationalism said:

as they always did.

which I took as saying all Thais have always worn masks prior to covid.

[1FinickyOne]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

which I took as saying all Thais have always worn masks prior to covid.

you interpreted 'as they always did' as meaning "All Thais" - - ??? 

[Rimmer]

Some off topic and misleading posts removed also a reply