It's an issue of logistics - because of the amount of time it takes to get stuff to Japan from the UK, that starts to limit what it is you export. This is one of the key problems with not getting a FTA with the EU - it's easy to trade with them because they're next door to us; as your export partners start to increase in distance, the value of those exports starts to decrease as the costs of doing that trade increases.
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Last edited by MartyG; 11-09-2020, 11:13. -
The mask wearing in my local shopping area has plummeted in the last couple of weeks.
It's also made me feel old as I swear I'm the only person under 60 that I see wearing one haha.Comment
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It makes you reflect on how people will put so much above "looking a bit silly".Originally posted by wheelaa View PostComment
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Selfish short-sightedness.
If people want a Darwin Award, good for them, just not at the risk to others.Comment
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.............................or they're looking at the number of deaths and seeing that the statistical evidence, the only evidence there is, that compulsory mask wearing for the last 5 weeks has had no measurable effect on those actually dying. People should still be observing the regulations despite this.
Of course not wearing masks in forced close proximity situations means the likelihood of new infections does increase. No denying that but to what demonstrable consequence? Evidence is that for most people: nothing. Asymptomatic or with only mild symptoms, C-19 has already killed the bulk of people who are most susceptible, for whatever reasons, age, existing health problems or, the most scary wildcard, just genetics.
As more people previously unexposed because of lockdown interact and are exposed to it for the first time what were the authorities thinking was going to happen? That it would just go away. With a potentially deadly, incurable disease as lockdown was eased it was always going to mean more infections and more deaths. Its just now they're in manageable numbers for the facilities available.
This is what I was saying here months ago would happen, particularly in those areas where people stuck to the lockdown rules most rigidly and most easily on both a local and international scale, particularly due to population density.
Even with the testing shambles more testing, surprise, surprise, means new infections are being detected and the consequent spikes sending a lot of even intelligent, rational people mad with fear and the authorities into a new panic of knee jerk legislation.
This is despite the fact the numbers of deaths from C-19 are not rising significantly and currently remain about half those dying of 'flu and pneumonia. That has been true for weeks. It may change; who knows what is to come?Last edited by fallenangle; 11-09-2020, 12:45.Comment
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I saw somewhere that fatalities are still higher in other countries , that the numbers are the same as they were earlier in the year. Maybe more younger people are catching it here, but I'm not sure if the virus is any less risky if you are older and have underlying conditions.Comment
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I'm willing to gloss over a lot of the tosh that gets casually thrown about on here, but what on earth are you talking about here? You think it's killed off the vulnerable, so now it's less problematic to not wear a mask because it won't kill anyone else?Originally posted by fallenangle View PostComment
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OH MY GOD! Are you mad? The vast VAST VAST majority of the population haven't even come into contact with the disease yet. How on earth can it have killed off the bulk of susceptible people? I hope there aren't too many people thinking like you.Originally posted by fallenangle View PostComment
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Responses on Twitter to Wales mandating masks in shops shows that you will be disappointed.Originally posted by Brad View Post
****wittery.Comment
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The UK's R-Number has been upgraded to between 1.0 and 1.3.Comment
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Wear a mask. There is international research into the effectiveness of them.Originally posted by fallenangle View Post
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
University of California San Francisco
Oxford University
PubMed Central
European Centre for Disease Prevention
The Lancet (top scientific journal in the world)
The US Surgeon General
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) part of the University of Washington
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS)
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
The World Health Organisation
The British Medical Association (BMA)
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But it might not make any difference, QC! What if they look slightly foolish for no reason?!?Originally posted by QualityChimp View PostComment
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The effectiveness of masks will have only been hampered by everyone practically abandoning every other preventative measure since they came in. That said, that's when they're used. Nipped to Costa yesterday and of 7 people in line I was the only one with a mask.
Plus, any figures the UK has now are thanks to one thing and one thing only - the lockdown. They'd have been close to zero too if the Tories had a pair of stones and had kept it in place for one more month.
Thanks to the lack of testing in the First Wave, slower response times as it was a new situation and the different statistical models that were used that caught more cases than the current ones do the number of infections back then would have been miles higher than the number we currently have ergo the low death rate. A number of factors will curb it in a Second Wave but as cases rise, deaths will rise too. 14 died yesterday which is low but the highest seen since 03 August plus you have to account for the rubbish modelling used and lag from infections to point of death.
It's way too obvious as to why cases are where they are and what they could have been had it not been taken to the levels it has which still weren't enough. Flu in the US was estimated at killing 24,000 to 62,000 between October and April. COVID has KO'd 196,345 since February and that's through the Summer seasons - purely because Trump's a prat and didn't take it seriously.
It's also putting aside the numbers of people left with long term or permanent illness and lung damage that the figures simply dismiss.
It's the same when talk comes up about people who die because of delayed treatment. Treatment would be delayed if the virus was left to run rampant because the services would be regularly discontinued due to outbreaks and overstretched services as well as waiting patients being killed by the virus as well.
As much as most didn't like the first lockdown it remains the only truly successful measure that has been implemented and its economic and social impact pales next to the long term effects on both those areas if the virus is allowed to shut down businesses, homes, schools etc at a moments notice. That isn't tackled by keeping everything open, that just results in scores of sick and dead adding to uncertainty for consumers, poverty and mental health issues as family members who are depended on are suddenly incapacitated or killed.
Until the Tories get their act together and come up with a better plan a Second Lockdown with proper mitigating planning remains the best weapon against COVID and delaying it or not doing (as they won't do), well, I imagine COVID naysayers will get a sharp dose of reality in January-March as to how much keeping the economy open doesn't keep it safe from collapse.Comment
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No I'm a realist and a cynic which you have to be in difficult situations because of the deluge of propaganda you get from both sides of the fence. I'm actually sitting on the fence hating both sides equally but I bet I've been more compliant and acted like a good little citizen than many others.Originally posted by Brad View Post
However sometimes you have to get off the fence or put your head above the parapet when you smell the BS.
Its the authorities who eased lockdown well aware it would result in more deaths but they've gambled on convincing the gullible that mask wearing is a significant factor in protecting the wearer. Then they quickly changed that lie realising it was more effective to appeal to our natural altruism and that wearing it would protect others.
Job done, people just accept what they're told be 'experts' who've consistently got it wrong throughout, and now people won't even listen to any alternative viewpoints without going off on one. There was even a woman on a TV phone-in yesterday who was suggesting the Army should be sent in to force mask wearing compliance.
This sort of irrational hysteria has snowballed as a direct consequence of the authorities calculated use and application of the fear that underpinned lockdown. Fear of killing granny, fear of going out, fear of other people even your own family and friends. Fear of bloody everything.
This is deeply unhealthy both for society and the individual.Comment
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You have been digging yourself in and looking to validate an incorrect view of things in spite of changing figures, changing situations and changing information. I'm not convinced that makes you a cynic - I would expect more from a cynic during a global pandemic because, with our governments, there is more than enough to be rightfully cynical about. Your nonsense ain't it, chief. You're well down the road to conspiracy theory city which is not somewhere you want to be - it's populated by idiots who like to grasp onto further idiocy in an attempt to make them feel smart or to give them somewhere to direct their feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy and they will put the word experts in quotation marks because people who actually know their stuff risk exposing that idiocy. Don't go there, dude. You can still turn back.Comment
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