Coronavirus

I just listened to the local medical clinic and did what they advised. Before Covid became an issue, I didn't remember buying an N95 mask, I knew I just the typical wood-working dust mask, so that is what I wore for a while. Then the Clinic required clients to wear the masks the clinic provided and they took everyone's temperature and made everyone use hand sanitizer.

Baza, all of the actions and devices you listed most likely helped to slow down the transmission of the Corona virus.


There is no way to prove Possibly, me masking up achieved absolutely nothing. unless you medically tested all of the air you breathed in the past year. Like you also said, wearing a mask didn't hurt you or most people. I consider wearing a mask a necessary preventative measure and only a minor inconvenience.

In my jurisdiction, there has been a surprising side-bar to covid.

And that is that cases of the "usual" seasonal flu dropped off to minuscule levels in 2020.

There's a couple of probable causes ....
There is a jab you can get for the "usual" seasonal flu, and maybe a lot more people got the jab in 2020.
Other thing is that the stringent lockdowns etc that we had to control the spread of covid worked just as well in minimising the spread of the "usual" seasonal flu.

A further side-bar about pumping squillions of dollars into the economy at times of crisis .....

The Global Financial Crisis in 2008 hit when we had a "left" Government in office under the leadership of Kevin Rudd and throwing squillions at it was the response.

The covid crisis in 2020 hit when we had a "right" Government in office under the leadership of Scott Morrison and throwing squillions of dollars at it was the response.

I'd bet good money that had the "right" been in Government during the 2008 GFC they'd have done exactly what the "left" did. - and - had the "left" been in Government in 2020 for the covid issue, they'd have done exactly what the "right" did.

I recall a chorus in the 08-09 timeframe, "We're all Keynesians, now." I respectfully disagreed with the chorus. John Maynard Keynes believed that the government could print money at a rate that gave low inflation which kept money invested instead of stitched into a mattress, but that money printed would eliminate the need for other taxation. The Overton Window has moved so far that, in current economic terms, Keynes and Von Misus are both on the same side.

I have no wish to bad mouth the USA, however from this side of the Pacific it appears that the USA has two parties, one side being the "right" and the other even further "right".

OTOH, Americans might look at Australia and reckon our two major parties are the "left" and the even more "left".

Edited to add -
We - like everywhere else - have the odd zealot who thinks we'd be better being commies, or running by the place as a dictatorship.

I do see much hand-wringing about double standards.
A layer of concern to me is that those who invoke it (not you) seem to do so in defense of a weasel.

I'd like it made more clear that the solution to this double standard isn't letting both sides off the hook. 
Apparently, criticism of "the home team" hurts ratings?
MSNBC and OAN know who their audience is.
Fox, the "far-right network", has even been abandoned by some conservatives when some of the election result fraud allegations were dismissed out of hand.

I'm quite pleased when the liberal blogs I read acknowledge a conservative doing something my side likes. Breaks up the tribalism a bit.

Maybe that happens on right wing media too?

"AOC must have remembered her meds on Thursday because she voted for the balanced budget amendment." or something like that.

This is really typical of Snopes these days.  They report that The Federalist/Globe information was "False" with a big red triangle.

Then, in their own write up they state, "It is true that nearly three-quarters of study participants reported that they had worn a mask or cloth face covering while in public in the two weeks preceding their COVID-19 diagnosis."

This is the state of journalism in the USA.  It is damn difficult to get unspun information from anyone.  From my perspective as a right-leaning centrist (I'm a big fan of leaving people alone) FoxNews is exactly where they were when they were founded, right of center.  CNN, MSNBC and others have drifted much further left.  John F. Kennedy's position aren't recognizable as Democratic (capital D) any longer.  Barry Goldwater's positions are still mainstream conservative.

Ironhamster: "Indeed. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." -JFK

JFK would have felt very comfortable in the Trump administration, vilified by Democrats."

Not true. From Forbes magazine: "An adaptation from White House, Inc: How Donald Trump Turned the Presidency into a Business by Dan Alexander.
Donald Trump never really got out of business. Sure, he handed day-to-day management of his companies to his children, like a lot of tycoons who get preoccupied with other interests late in life. But the president held onto ownership of his assets after taking office, ensuring that he would continue to generate money while serving in the White House. From 2017 to 2019, the president’s businesses raked in an estimated $1.9 billion of revenue." www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/09/11/trumps-businesses-raked-in-19-billion-of-revenue-during-his-first-three-years-in-office/?sh=18fe0a1b1e13

JFK quote: “Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”

No, JFK would not have felt comfortable in an administration supported by the KKK and Nazis.