This afternoon.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged Europeans to wear masks INDOORS during family gatherings at Christmas.

Via WHO:

“It may feel awkward to wear masks and practise physical distancing when around friends and family, but doing so contributes significantly to ensuring that everyone remains safe and healthy,”

“Vulnerable people and older friends or relatives may find it very difficult to ask loved ones to stay away physically, regardless of the anxieties or concerns they may have. Consider what others may be feeling and the difficult decisions they will be facing.”

Good times.

Covid-19: Europeans urged to wear masks for family Christmas (BBC)

Pic: AP

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27 thoughts on “Insanty”

    1. SOQ

      They just keep pushing this nonsense as though it was fact. It is just over six months ago since they were saying they were not necessary at all?

      1. Brother Barnabas

        it’s almost as if they’re revising their advice as new information emerges and they learn more about the effect, transmission etc. of the virus

        utter madness

        1. SOQ

          And the political inference came from where exactly?

          The responsible thing to do is to have a rapid antigen test the day before you are to meet someone vulnerable- but sure lets keep the fear cult going instead eh?

          1. Brother Barnabas

            as you know, soq, the european commission has already called for that – and theres funding available for states to use them

            the problem, which you also know, is antigen tests return a high of false negatives. so there are clear risks.

          3. SOQ

            What in God’s name has the European commission got to do with it? They not a health advisory board.

            Antigen tests are regarded as a more accurate test than PCR- otherwise why would the UK NHS be rolling them out?

        2. E'Matty

          oh right, what changed dramatically that caused them to change their stance on masks then? What information emerged that they did not have in March/April?

          1. ReproBertie

            It’s like you’ve never heard of Google.

            “However, in recent months, there’s been increased evidence that many people with the virus do not have symptoms – but can still be contagious – and masks can stop them from passing it on to others. The WHO changed its guidance in June.”

            https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53394525

          2. ReproBertie

            I particularly like the bit that says “What the authors acknowledge is that the study doesn’t show if wearing facemasks protected others from infection by the wearers, if the wearers had coronavirus without realising it. Other studies have shown that facemasks can prevent transmission from mask wearers to others, which is why most countries have moved to policies to encourage mask wearing.”

            I have no doubt this is information that will be ignored in order to continue to spread the misinformation that masks don’t work.

          3. f_lawless

            That quote is from Dr Simon Clarke but here’s a clip of him on Sky speaking before the WHO’s policy reversal on masks in July.
            https://twitter.com/skynews/status/1244939492450021376

            SC:”Covering your face with bits of material is not going to do any good I’m afraid”
            Sky”Given that, why do so many people around the world wear masks?”
            SC”Well you’d have to ask them. Just because they wear them, doesn’t mean they’re right”

            Now, according to the BBC medical correspondent Deborak Cohen’s sources, the WHO reversed their policy on masks due to “political lobbying” . The meta-analysis of observational studies (inferior to RCTs) on which they based their decision has since been exposed as deeply flawed.

            So the reason why countries already in lockdown changed their policies on masks was because they were following the lead of the corrupted WHO and on top of that, it suited them politically – not because of the emergence of some robust new scientific evidence that did away with the established scientific consensus on masks, as Dr. Clarke now asserts. One thing that the Covid era has made clear: don’t assume scientific expertise also guarantees political astuteness!

            I think some of the people in that article attacking the Danish study are likely coming from a position of bias having already taken a strong public stance in favour of masks. eg Prof Trish Greenhalgh wrote an open letter to all US governors urging them to make masks mandatory in public spaces. She’s staked her professional credibility on the power of masks.

            Dr Julian Tang says he thinks the results would have been different if done on an Asian population. Bit of a moot point for non-Asian countries. Plus in the past RCTs have been done in Asia for influenza and not found any clear evidence for their efficacy.

            Prof Ashley Woodcock sounds the most measured to me in the article: ““This is a very valuable community study. The paper is very clear, the analysis correct and the interpretation appropriate…The risk of over-reliance on a potentially ineffective public health intervention such as wearing masks outdoors is that individuals lose focus on effective hygiene measures and physical separation.”

            To summarise, there’s still no high level scientific evidence that “masks work”, as you put it.

            General rule of thumb: the science surrounding Covid-19 has become heavily politicised. Therefore any newly emerging science during the Covid era that contradicts established scientific consensus built up over previous years (eg.masks, asymptomatic spread, lockdown, etc) should be viewed sceptically.

          5. ReproBertie

            Yes, could everybody please ignore everything science has learned since the pandemic began and they spent more time studying pandemic related things? All these studies that show things like masks working and the asymptomatic spread of the virus are ruining it for the conspiracy people.

      2. Richie

        Yeah why can’t they just let us do whatever we want like in Sweden. Their approach has been praised globally… wait…. they what now?…. since when?… how many?…. awwwww sheeeeet!

  4. Micko

    Lads, as the old saying goes. “You do you, and I’ll do me”

    Wear a mask if ya want indoors, don’t if ya don’t want to. No one says anything anyway.

    If you want to wear them at the your table in your house for Christmas – fill your boots.

    Have a good one, it’s your house. You can dress as Batman for all I care

    Be grand.

  6. DaithiG

    There’s a lot of eye rolling comments here about this advice, but the thing is, 6000 people died from the Rona across Europe last Wednesday and the last month Europe has been averaging around 5000 a day. That’s mostly driven by really bad numbers in Germany and Italy. Europe has lost almost half a million people so far and probably going to get to 750k by Feb/March. Fortunately though Ireland is doing really well right now, so keep it vigilant folks.

    I’m not going to wear a mask at Christmas dinner as I’m just having dinner with the people I live with, but if you’re having people or are headed to someone else then please take care.

    1. DaithiG

      Thankfully, the steady hospital admissions is in Ireland, but the rest of Europe it’s a different story. This message is for the whole of Europe.

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