Can anyone explain the weird politics of mask-wearing? – politicalbetting.com
Can anyone explain the weird politics of mask-wearing? – politicalbetting.com
Above is a screenshot of this week’s PMQs and one thing stands out. On the government benches hardly any MP is wearing a mask while amongst opposition party MPs the vast majority are.
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It's the same at my work. On the one hand there are the nutters who ask the senior managements "what are you doing to make sue that I don't catch COVID?" And on the other hand there are the sensible people who say "vaccines work, get on with it." Interestingly, the senior management side with the nutters.
Labour did well when the government wasn't locking down when they should have done. They've struggled to pivot to say that all these precautions are stupid and we need to get on with life.
If I were somehow to find myself on the opposition benches I would not be wearing a mask.
Oppo: Covid still ongoing and don't give Boris any premature credit.
If you accept that the political divide is well understood.
Applying this experience to the House of Commons I do not understand why the Tories are not wearing masks. They are in a public building and not speaking unless they are asking a question. I think they should.
The thing I have a bit of a problem with is that - arguably* - if they followed their official guidance, they would be masking up.
*Guidance[1] states: "We expect and recommend that members of the public continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don’t normally meet. For example, on public transport."
Now, that's aguable. Crowded? Yes, fairly. Enclosed? Yes. People you don't normally meet? Arguable - does the whole of the HoC count as people you normally meet as an MP?
If mask wearing is to be encouraged, the government should set an example. If it is not, then they should make the guidance a bit clearer. If it only really applies to public transport (i.e. very enclosed, mostly complete strangers) then say so.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own
Now, we all understand that the vaccines are far from perfect. But we also know that this is as good as it gets. But for some people, they want to continue fighting the war.
Interestingly, my place is asking people to take LFTs twice a week (I'm not), but they aren't insisting on people being vaccinated. I suspect there will be a few anti-vaxxers at my place.
Maybe it's just that there's more resistance to taking orders from the government the further north or more Tory you are?
But at least it hasn't widely reached the stage of screaming abuse at folk for making a personal choice.
Let's be British and keep it that way, please.
Yes I have been double jabbed. But pox is still running rampant and still making people ill and still giving double-jabbed people like my mum long Covid.
Well fuck that. If me wearing a mask makes some people on the blue side of politics react, I honestly don't care. We will get through this pandemic. We haven't yet.
The majority seem to be rather reluctant to drag themselves back in. While for some this is due to Covid anxiety I think that for the majority they'd just prefer a lie in and save on the train fare.
That implies wearing a mask increases your chances of catching it? Or do I misunderstand?
Needless to say, this unwanted advice has not changed my own view one bit.
The good news is, politics seems to have made little difference to vaccination rates in this country.
If you want a mask that works then invest in FFP3 ones, otherwise it's probably not worth bothering.
The sad reality is that the UK has fallen well behind with vaccinations because people refuse to get it, has an endemic transmission rate significantly ahead of neighbouring countries, and let have the most aggressive "ditch masks and social distancing" views of anyone.
Where people tend to do a lot more talking than on a commuter train.
If anyone still wants to wear a mask they're free to do so. But for everyone else the only message we should have is to be vaccinated.
Trust in the vaccine. Masks are for the past.
You're fighting a war that we've already lost/won depending on your perspective.
COVID is endemic. That's where we are. Deal with it.
I went for my pre-holiday PCR test yesterday. A very nice lady tickled the back of my tongue with the probe and I was done. Obviously I turned out to be negative to my no great surprise. I'm happy with that but my scientific hackles rose. The result is only as good as the sample and we could have missed out the middle man - the test itself.
For the second dose I turned up in an N95.
Once fully jabbed I switched to a scarf when it was still compulsory.
Now, generally nowt.
This will be with us until a new set of customs is established. Nearly everyone wants to be governed by what other people do. Most are uncomfortable when this is unclear.
*I fear I'm very likely a centrist dad, but my children are too young at present to mock me for it
We could have got more people jabbed. Our neighbours managed it. Then again their leadership told people get the jab or else. Here Beaker told people it was over before it was, and so we're stuck with 30-40k new cases a day.
Ironically the one card he had left was
to quote Kermit the Frog at the UNvaccine passports. I'm against these in principle, but they would have been effective in getting younger jab avoiders to get one.Personally if I were susceptible to getting COVID, I'd want it now, not in December months after my Pfizer immunity had waned and the NHS was going through its annual winter crisis.
But, the last few days of news over the Labour leadership rule changes do look a bit chaotic and I see no sign that Starmer has control over the Johnson variant of the Conservative party.
So overall, I'd say give the man a break, he was right
Maskless Angela hugs maskless Keir on stage just now
I am fine with it but sure some will moan
“Manufacturers have faced unprecedented struggles with shortages of raw materials and other supply-chain bottlenecks. Rising infections pose an additional threat, even though government officials are trying to steer clear of another lockdown.
“Supply-chain frictions have become a bigger threat to the economy than Covid,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING. “It currently looks as if these problems could easily last until the end of the year, potentially putting a cap on growth.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-25/german-business-confidence-slips-amid-persistent-supply-squeeze
America
“ As the US economy increasingly reopens, it is seeing shortages of all sorts of items.
If you've tried to buy (or rent) a car or eat some chicken wings, you've probably noticed.
Insider rounded up some of the major supply shortages and why they're lagging”
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-supply-shortages-economy-inventory-chips-lumber-cars-toilet-paper-2021-5
Lots of the experts said as much when they supported the July 19th final restrictions being lifted.
Where we're at is unvaccinated people getting sick with COVID. That's a choice they made. The sooner all of those people are through the funnel the better.
I assume you are trying to suggest "so Britain is no different"? Nope - we are getting those shortages worse, and getting other shortages that other people have avoided. And are paying more for the stuff we can get in.
Will those who say they're going to vote Green next time be tempted back by it?!
Industry experts say drivers will face fuel shortages this summer.
Demand for fuel and interest in travel has risen as vaccination rates have increased. Lower gasoline-production rates have also made the commodity more valuable, as OPEC has been slow to curb production cuts.
Truckers and rideshare drivers
In September, Insider's Rachel Premack reported that pay for truck drivers was on the rise, coming in at "record-smashing levels." But the pay hike — and increased demand — comes after an exodus of drivers in 2019; Premack reported at the time on what some called a "trucking bloodbath," as trucking companies saw profits fall, with some even going bankrupt.
Now demand is surging, according to the Journal, and if everything continues as is, that gap could deepen.
Demand is surging for rideshares, too, but the drivers are not matching it. In March, Uber saw its highest-ever number of bookings. The company even said drivers in some cities were making over $40 an hour. Even so, current and former drivers outlined some of their concerns with returning to Insider's Tyler Sonnemaker. Chief among them were pandemic safety concerns and holding out for better offers.
In fact, Insider's Tom Dotan reported, more than half of Uber and Lyft drivers have stopped, well, driving. Both platforms have offered incentives to lure drivers back, and Uber has said it'll pour $250 million into getting those drivers back out, Sonnemaker reported, "effectively bribing drivers to get back on the platform."
I blame Brexit.
Or Trump
Delaying catching it just means waiting until you've got lower immunity from your vaccines and higher likelihood of getting it symptomatically.
I know it seems really counter-intuitive to want to catch a potentially deadly disease, for a lot of people getting it now is definitely the better option.
Your “all left-wingers are neurotic” patter is cringe worthy.
Almost as bad as “all tories are evil”
However: I wish people wouldn't be so blase about only the unvaccinated becoming sick. As far as I'm aware that isn't true, and we still have lots of people dying daily. We couldn't continue with the restrictions, but neither are we out of the woods yet.
I wonder how it will be seen by future economists. Was the pandemic the turning point?
On balance, I’m more worried than optimistic. But a decent case can be made that we’re on the path to a new, better normal.
Let’s hope so.
I’d love for in a couple of years time, to have full employment, decent wage growth, interest rates at 4% and inflation at 2%.
I might even vote be tempted to vote Tory….
I was parked on Mostyn Street, Llandudno's main shopping street last Saturday and not a mask in sight
Generally many seem to have stopped wearing them even in Asda wherever I visit
Personally I'm sceptical about how much difference masks make. If wearing masks makes people feel that bit safer, then that's absolutely fine. But I suspect they don't make much difference and you won't get me wearing one unless absolutely forced to (in a hospital, for example).
Her speech effectively was
Conference - unions - social workers - sleeze tories - green deal - beer and sandwiches - zero hours contracts - hire and fire
She spoke better than at PMQ's, played to the unions and the public sector, and was ok but not really any vision for the rest of us
I just could not see her PM, while to be fair I could see Starmer
I imagine it is for exactly that reason: one really infectious driver could hospitalize a lot of customers, and if Uber was seen to have skimped on precautions, they could be in really big trouble.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10026335/Chinas-dirtiest-secret-1-000-coal-fired-power-stations-climbing.html
There is no good reason to wear masks in the house of commons. Everyone is (or should be) tested regularly, there is a track and trace system in place; the masks being used are not actually going to do much to prevent transmission with the delta variant. Labour are basically engaging in opportunistic virtue signalling, thats it.
On other countries it’s very hard to compare infection rates as I suspect as symptom testing rates vary so much. I suspect we are doing vastly more random testing than other countries and this makes it look like we have a worse Covid level than we do, at least by comparison.
Masks are divisive. Some hate them. Others can’t understand the fuss. The British public will do something they dislike if made legal, bu5 many stopped as soon as the law changed. Now it is workplaces that have most restrictions, such as my uni. I have to wear a mask in all corridors. The students will need to wear them all the time in lectures etc. For pharmacy students that will be around 30 contact hours a week, the poor bastards.
It is not rigged, but if you want it changed you need to persuade enough people and it will change
With vaccination rates in the US being so far below the UK, there's simply a long tail of the unvaccinated to burn through here.
https://twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1441757021104066571?s=20