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Covid is the new form of this security theater. Just saw local school announced that parents should buy special mask with holes cut in mouth piece so kids can p

by _red 6y ago

Covid is the new form of this security theater. Just saw local school announced that parents should buy special mask with holes cut in mouth piece so kids can play instruments in band. Wish I was kidding...

ticmasta 6y ago
The province of New Brunswick announced their plans for choir after "some of the hardest planning and preparation of my career" (from the Minister of Education). The master plan: "sing quietly"
- newacct583 6y ago
  In fact there was a paper in just the last few days showing that voice volume correlated strongly with aerosol particles emitted. That sounds like good advice to me, likewise singing inside a mask. Obviously not singing at all is safer still, but this still seems like it would be effective mitigation. Even worse than "security theater" precautions are misunderstandings of the threat model. Pandemic mitigation is not a boolean function. Do what you can and choose strategies to sustain suppression, then stop. Find efficiencies where they lie. In a low-infection-count region, I don't see why you can't sing quietly in a chorus with masks. It's surely safer than eating in a restaurant.
  - clairity 6y ago
    > "misunderstandings of the threat model" > "It's surely safer than eating in a restaurant." by saying "safer", without any qualifiers on magnitude, that's making the same mistake. most things we do on a daily basis are safe. being 0.001% less likely to get infected is technically safer, but not practically so. what's not relatively safe? gathering with random people breathing each other's direct exhaust for long periods. now, you might think a restaurant is an example of that, but it's not. yes, you'll be sharing exhaust with your tablemates, but you shouldn't be eating with people you don't know/trust in any indoor setting, not just in restaurants. and with just a little precaution (i.e., distance), tables are relatively isolated transmission-wise, despite the general misperception of the risks of aerosol transmission (most people aren't infected, but when they are, virus particles land nearby and fall apart relatively quickly). restaurants aren't particularly unsafe. the same can't be said for bars and clubs, which resist such safety mitigations by their very nature. also, if singing softer is the only mitigation, rather than distancing with an awareness of vocal exhaust flow, then it isn't really much safer. avoiding extended exposure to natural exhaust is the key, proper distancing being the easiest (and often least inconvenient) and therefore most effective measure.
    - newacct583 6y ago
      > by saying "safer", without any qualifiers on magnitude, that's making the same mistake. Uh.. no it's not. SafER is a comparison, you can compare two quantities without specifying their values. As far as restaurants: indoor dining is the SINGLE largest transmission vector right now. It's a known risk, there are case studies after case study showing single infections propagating across a whole restaurant. Stay OUT of indoor restaurants anywhere that isn't at a stable and low infection rate. Seriously. Singing? My guess is that quiet singing with masks is safer than restaurants, yeah. I might be wrong, but it's not because of a logic error.
  - matz1 6y ago
    >I don't see why you can't sing quietly in a chorus with masks Its possible but it sucks. Sure it risky, anything has risk. I accept that I can be infected or infecting other people. I never stop eat in a restaurant all these time, fortunately some still open.
sergiotapia 6y ago
Once asshole A or asshole B is elected as president, expect both COVID and BLM protests to vanish into thin air. Save this comment.
- eternalban 6y ago
  "It appears that these videos were truly taken in January 2020 in various locations around China. According to social media reports, these videos first started circulating on apps such as TikTok and were originally posted by random citizens who had witnessed these events. However, that does not mean that the people featured in this video were infected with this virus." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/people-collapsing-coronavirus/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/people-collapsing-coronavi... Keyword here is scope. [Is there a smiley for hint-hint?]

by _red 6y ago

ticmasta 6y ago

The province of New Brunswick announced their plans for choir after "some of the hardest planning and preparation of my career" (from the Minister of Education). The master plan: "sing quietly"

newacct583 6y ago
In fact there was a paper in just the last few days showing that voice volume correlated strongly with aerosol particles emitted. That sounds like good advice to me, likewise singing inside a mask. Obviously not singing at all is safer still, but this still seems like it would be effective mitigation. Even worse than "security theater" precautions are misunderstandings of the threat model. Pandemic mitigation is not a boolean function. Do what you can and choose strategies to sustain suppression, then stop. Find efficiencies where they lie. In a low-infection-count region, I don't see why you can't sing quietly in a chorus with masks. It's surely safer than eating in a restaurant.
- clairity 6y ago
  > "misunderstandings of the threat model" > "It's surely safer than eating in a restaurant." by saying "safer", without any qualifiers on magnitude, that's making the same mistake. most things we do on a daily basis are safe. being 0.001% less likely to get infected is technically safer, but not practically so. what's not relatively safe? gathering with random people breathing each other's direct exhaust for long periods. now, you might think a restaurant is an example of that, but it's not. yes, you'll be sharing exhaust with your tablemates, but you shouldn't be eating with people you don't know/trust in any indoor setting, not just in restaurants. and with just a little precaution (i.e., distance), tables are relatively isolated transmission-wise, despite the general misperception of the risks of aerosol transmission (most people aren't infected, but when they are, virus particles land nearby and fall apart relatively quickly). restaurants aren't particularly unsafe. the same can't be said for bars and clubs, which resist such safety mitigations by their very nature. also, if singing softer is the only mitigation, rather than distancing with an awareness of vocal exhaust flow, then it isn't really much safer. avoiding extended exposure to natural exhaust is the key, proper distancing being the easiest (and often least inconvenient) and therefore most effective measure.
  - newacct583 6y ago
    > by saying "safer", without any qualifiers on magnitude, that's making the same mistake. Uh.. no it's not. SafER is a comparison, you can compare two quantities without specifying their values. As far as restaurants: indoor dining is the SINGLE largest transmission vector right now. It's a known risk, there are case studies after case study showing single infections propagating across a whole restaurant. Stay OUT of indoor restaurants anywhere that isn't at a stable and low infection rate. Seriously. Singing? My guess is that quiet singing with masks is safer than restaurants, yeah. I might be wrong, but it's not because of a logic error.
- matz1 6y ago
  >I don't see why you can't sing quietly in a chorus with masks Its possible but it sucks. Sure it risky, anything has risk. I accept that I can be infected or infecting other people. I never stop eat in a restaurant all these time, fortunately some still open.

sergiotapia 6y ago

Once asshole A or asshole B is elected as president, expect both COVID and BLM protests to vanish into thin air. Save this comment.

eternalban 6y ago
"It appears that these videos were truly taken in January 2020 in various locations around China. According to social media reports, these videos first started circulating on apps such as TikTok and were originally posted by random citizens who had witnessed these events. However, that does not mean that the people featured in this video were infected with this virus." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/people-collapsing-coronavirus/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/people-collapsing-coronavi... Keyword here is scope. [Is there a smiley for hint-hint?]