[brnt]

I keep repeating this to mask-skeptics (which in my country is nearly everyone): Asia had their Sars-scare early, and they've basically been wearing masks ever since. They're doing pretty OK, not just because some countries (e.g. China) can and will _really_ lock a city down. Masks, hygiene, sickness discipline... they work. But even now nearly nobody objects when a colleague is obviously ill and still bring their snotty nose to work, COVID-free or not. I wish people would regard this like we regard washing our hands. But no, somehow people seem to think we've always washed our hands, and we have never changed our ways, and we shan't right now either because of freedumb. Uggghhh.

[sanedigital]

We have no idea of knowing how China is actually doing, since they haven't reported a single death since April *2020*. And even the numbers they have reported are highly unlikely to be accurate.

[tzs]

> We have no idea of knowing how China is actually doing, since they haven't reported [...]

That assumes that the only way we could get information is by whatever China reports.

In reality there are a large number of people from Western countries who spend a large amount of time in China and regularly interact with the population. There are business people there to deal with Chinese factories that make their good. Many Western companies have offices in China. There are diplomatic offices [1].

That puts a limit on how much China can successfully downplay mass events like a pandemic that affect the population at large because there are too many independent observers interacting with the population with means of communication to outside of China that China cannot block or censure.

[1] The US has an embassy in Beijing as do 172 other countries, and consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Wuhan. Most of the biggest EU countries and Japan and South Korea also have several consulates there.

[humanrebar]

You say that like people doing business in China never self-censor.

[brnt]

I was specifically not talking about China, it seems I wasn't clear enough. Taiwan, Japan, masks are common in either.

[sanedigital]

Sorry, you specifically called them out ("e.g. China") so I thought you were focusing on them.

[nradov]

Nonsense. Have you ever actually been to Asia? The vast majority of people haven't been wearing masks since the last SARS scare.

[brnt]

East Asia seems to be pretty good at wearing them, but youre right: Asia is a big place.

[jonpurdy]

When March 2020 hit, I was really hoping that Asian mask culture would finally hit North America and people would choose to wear a mask when they have a cold or other illness, even post-COVID.

Unfortunately it seems to have completely gone the other way in many parts of the USA and Canada thanks to politicization.

[OneTimePetes]

Can we please give this China hard lockdown success story up?

There are no hard lock-downs in a face-dictatorship. There is a hard lockd-down show. Some doors are welded shut for tv-cameras. Covid Quotas are handed out to doctors and the rest becomes pneumonia.

Similar: Before the iron-curtain fell, sovjet propaganda claimed they were economically the more successful side. This did not hold up - at all.

State propaganda produces the illusion of working measures, while the normal citizen just bribes or work otherwise around the restrictions. What you see publicized by the state media to youtube or face-book is not real or reality.

Its a "strong" government fantasia, produced by the people who run it. There are no "free" opinions by mainland citizens on the web.

[brnt]

I wasn't clear. I meant to exclude China from the discussion for precisely the reason you mention.