Violet Affleck and mask mandates

I don't see any mask wearers. Violet Affleck, who this thread is about, has only suggested mask mandates in hospitals. You are trying to use the existence of hearing impairment as an excuse to oppose masks in healthcare. I am saying if this actually ever happened it would be no problem for healthcare workers to put on a clear mask if it was necessary while communicating with a hearing impaired person. They could also temporarily remove the mask if needed but using a clear mask should be fine.

And of the mask wearers you see, how many have the clear ones?

I am sure Violet got into Yale on her own merits.

However, for some very wealthy USA alpha parents getting their kids to a prestigious Ivy or high status (for them culturally) university (thinking of some with very high ‘social staus’ Unis in south but not necessarily top academically) admission has been a goal since birth. Think wanting admission to a top sorority for their daughters so advantageous connections/ultimately marriage prospects are there. Some USA Uni degrees are generally lighter on high stakes terminal exams compared to UK too. Credits for taking a class etc.

For ‘sorority is all’ type ££ high status mom a progressive Ivy league destination NOT a key goal, private Unis in the south definitely are.

Some parents game the system from birth but play by the rules as they value education/status etc so highly. Some do this with a next level ruthlessness & determination, the same traits that led to them being in the top 1-5 per cent of wealth in first place I guess. ACT/SAT in Covid years could be swerved which benefitted some. The kid has to be in approx top 20 percent academically & fairly compliant but they then pick softer subjects for them, the kids themselves don’t have too much agency at first but careful seeds have been planted since birth, develop a USP skill of some type if sport with best coaches etc & many go to a University & do well. I don’t think generally culturally in UK we’re quite so determined & ‘happiness’ a goal.

@OwlBeThere some posters have been hinting that Violet must have got into Yale because of who her parents are.
All I said was that she still would need a certain level of intelligence to go there.
Maybe I am wrong. No idea 🤔

I never said they did, but you also can’t tell me that the super rich have always historically had an unfair advantage when it came to top universities, the fact they’ve changed the system and weighted it, as a response to that,

@DinaGoth @OwlBeThere Maybe I am wrong but I really don't think Yale would give a place to someone that - for example - has extreme learning difficulties and can barely read or write just because they come from a rich "legacy" family.

Masks don't work like sieves for small particles, rather it's an electrostatic attraction that draws the small particles towards the fibres to they can't keep flying through.

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/comment/tess-finch-lees-forever-covid-hurts-young-peoples-health-and-their-futures/a58161326.html

https://archive.ph/9r4hI (not pay walled)

It's nearly six years since the start of the pandemic. I wish we could move on from some of the views formed by that traumatic experience and just look at what's in front of us right now with fresh eyes. Do we or do we not want children in particular to get this disease often? If we don't, what can we do about it with the funds available? What do we want the government to have as a long-term goal for children's health and covid?

Yeah, I do think everyone should be wearing masks in enclosed public spaces at most times. I know this isn't going to happen, so I don't go on about it. I wear a mask if I have to be in a packed room, and I'm careful about how it fits because I will usually (not always) be the only mask-wearer. I'm not a great fan of other people's infectious body fluids - and make a serious effort not to share mine if I have a cold or something.

Happy to tell you I'm getting jabbed next week. Wish they were still offering it three times a year! Yes, we really are out here 😷

Yet people still have colds there. Which shows, surprise, surprise, that masks don’t stop colds and other illnesses from being spread. The virus particles are much smaller than the gaps in the weave of a regular face mask.

And?

How does that 12 year old data from an 8 year old study relating to income of Yale students negate what I said about Harvard and MIT expanding their free tuition thresholds this year and having a contextual admissions process which accounts for opportunity in response to a poster who was suggesting only those from rich private schools could get into them?

OK, so earlier when you insisted that Yale admissions were based on "intelligence" not money, that was just...guesswork? Vibes?

They're not, btw. Parental gifts are a big thing in US private universities (along with legacies, extracurriculars, sporting achievements etc). A child of the ultra-rich attending Yale definitely does not require extreme academic ability.

Are you on crack? Money talks, it’s a tale as old as time.

I would prefer it if people didn't spread their germs when they know they're sick. I try to keep my germs to myself, but that's usually easy, since I'm able to wfh and don't generally have a pressing need to go out when I'm ill. If I did have to go out, I probably wouldn't wear a mask, though, because it's hard enough to breathe with a mask on when I'm not already ill.

More to the point, I don't see how any government can mandate that people wear masks when they're sick, unless the law is that you have to wear a mask anytime you're in public (and that's just insane). How would anyone know for certain that someone was not 'masking up' while ill? Would you report them somehow? Who would enforce it? It's just not feasible, even if you accept that it's the government's business (which is isn't).

This!

This!

Yes it’s just a common courtesy there that I’d like to see extended in Uk & all countries.
I don’t think violets campaign is extreme at all. Just a thoughtful caring young woman who sees the common sense in sick people wearing a mask if they feel unwell instead of selfishly breathing their germs over everyone else - some who are vulnerable, some who get unlucky

They're not that expensive and they would save a lot of money in reduced sickness days and reduced use of the NHS.

I’m intrigued to see how our vaccine only approach is going to play out with no vaccines this year.

The most basic ventilation system is a window! Air purifiers are not very expensive either.

And as a pp said, if you take into account the costs of repeated illness, then the equation looks different.

The problem is partly that it's in no government's interest to do anything other than to downplay covid, because if they don't downplay it then we might start making demands for more to be done. The last thing we should we be doing is taking that at face value, though, however much we hated 2020 and 2021. There are things we could be doing as individuals and at a local community level that no one will try to do so long as the official line (which only protects government and business from their obligations) is that there's no need to.

Hardly. You gave one low detail and transport specific reply, which was entirely unconvincing, I asked further questions and you said you didn't care. Which means you have yet to demonstrate that this is anything other than pissing in the wind because, once again, having mask mandates does not make people go along with them.

Fwiw, I adhered to mask laws for the entire time that they were in force. It's not me you need to worry about. And you're going to need to address the issue of exemptions and how you'd stop the bullying of the exempt before you can credibly refer to anyone as selfish.

Finland noted the high ROI of doing this.

The current situation is also unaffordable.

I mean it’s a bit wild to me, but at least she’s not a female Brooklyn Beckham.

Pretty sure this was costed up and it didn’t cost a fortune. I’d would put money on it costing less in the long term than the economic and welfare costs of having higher levels of covid circulating for most of the year.

Shhh!

I imagine she does have severe anxiety issues and deserves sympathy rather than judgement.