to think that there a reason why Trump, Johnson and Bolsanaro get Covid but leaders like Merkel and Ardern haven't?

[chomalungma]

World leaders
Prime Ministers, Chancellors, Presidents.
Busy schedules.
Meeting lots of people.

The chances of a world leader getting Covid-19 is reasonable. Given it's been 6 months now.

But I wonder if Johnson, Trump and Bolsanaro possibly have something in common when it comes to attitudes to Covid-19 that Merkel and Ardern (to randomly pick 2 world leaders) don't have?

AlternativePerspective
You can’t possibly compare New Zealand to any of the European countries.

For one, New Zealand has a population of just 5 million people and is spread out. There isn’t a huge amount of movement to and from, so closing the borders was easy compared to any of the European countries.

Yes, very unfair!

Take Norway, whose population isn't all that much bigger than New Zealand's but in a much smaller area. (Set against that, Norwegians socially distancing almost all the time virus or no virus: the joke from a Norwegian friend goes that when they were told they no longer had to distance to two metres, Norwegians said "oh thank God for that, now we can go back to the normal sixteen metres"...)

New Zealand: population 5,002,100 ; total cases 1,848; deaths 25; number of cases per million 369; deaths per million 5; tests per million of population 194,047.

Norway: population 5,431,948; total cases 14,149; deaths 274; number of cases per million 2,605; deaths per million 50; tests per million of population 196,125.

Norway did fairly well for a European country, but had the disadvantage of a couple of land borders, one of them with a country which has a similar population and other statistics (Finland) but the other with one which has about twice the population and wasn't taking many precautions for a long time apart from telling people there to "be sensible" (oh Sweden...)

Apologies. Trudeau's wife had a positive test and he self isolated with her

I can't help thinking that world leaders with vaginas are probably more likely to wash their hands.

I imagine Putin has test-personnel for everything, like door knobs and coffee cups ...... just in case.

Possibly due to ..ahem...extra curricular activities.

It looks like the WH people are taking it seriously now.

There is a before and after picture.
One is from the White House super spreader event. No masks
And then last night

But... masks do nothing, don't they?
Or is it because they don't have to show off for the boss?

@Lweji

But... masks do nothing, don't they? Or is it because they don't have to show off for the boss?

Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted

That was Kellyanne Conway with Barr, wasn't it.

(Crosses fingers)

There is a before and after picture.
One is from the White House super spreader event. No masks

One of the men circled in red is quite clearly wearing a mask - which rather proves the point that non medical-grade masks don't protect the wearer.

One of the men circled in red is quite clearly wearing a mask - which rather proves the point that non medical-grade masks don't protect the wearer

Why do you think people in the UK are asked to wear masks in public shops etc?

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

That was Kellyanne Conway with Barr, wasn't it.

(Crosses fingers)

Kelly Anne's daughter summed it up

hollywoodlife.com/2020/10/02/kellyanne-conway-tests-positive-coronavirus-daughter-claudia-tiktok/

She wrote in another video that she was “furious” that her mom could have exposed her and to “wear your masks. don’t listen to our idiot f*king president piece of sht. protect yourselves and those around you.” 40 minutes after Claudia broke the news via TikTok, Kellyanne confirmed that it was true it in a tweet

Why do you think people in the UK are asked to wear masks in public shops etc?

We protect each other - I was just pointing out that one of the (infected?) men in the photograph was wearing a mask.

@Clavinova

There is a before and after picture. One is from the White House super spreader event. No masks

One of the men circled in red is quite clearly wearing a mask - which rather proves the point that non medical-grade masks don't protect the wearer.

Just because he's wearing a mask in that photo it doesn't mean he wore a mask throughout the event. There was a lot on socialising before and after the formal nomination. Mike Lee was shown on video hugging several people with a mask in his hand

We protect each other - I was just pointing out that one of the (infected?) men in the photograph was wearing a mask

Which is completely irrelevant to the issue.

There was a whole White House event where there was no social distancing, plenty of contact, no mask wearing - and it appears that many people may have been infected by that.

If only there was some ways they could have reduced the risk of that happening....

chomalungma
Why do you think people in the UK are asked to wear masks in public shops etc?

The answer to that is on a big poster outside my local Tesco: picture of a woman in a mask and the caption

I wear my mask to protect you. Please wear your mask to protect me.

(or something very like that: I haven't been to the shops for a month, I am semi-shielding and only went out to fetch my prescription, so I can't be sure of exact wording, but that was the message.)

My mask won't keep the virus out, but it may well keep it in. That's why I wear it in public even though I don't think I have the disease: I may be asymptomatic, or I may have symptoms tomorrow which mean I was infectious today. I'm not going to risk the health of people near me in the queue at the checkout.

But basically, the way in which the likes of Trump, Johnson and Bolsonaro manage their own personal risk is similar to the attitudes they took for their countries as a whole.

I agree.

I remember seeing Jacinda Ardern making a speech saying you should treat every interaction as if YOU have covid. You have to make should YOU don't spread it to anyone else and protect others.

I think that focus tells us a lot about her, protect others. Rather than frame this as all about protecting yourself and telling us to imagine everybody we meet has covid and we don't want to catch it. She told people to imagine we have covid and we don't want anyone else to catch it from us.

Arden much less likely to catch it as numbers so low

But yes general blustering didn’t help the three men

@Clavinova

One of the men circled in red is quite clearly wearing a mask - which rather proves the point that non medical-grade masks don't protect the wearer.

As I understand it the main point of masks is to protect OTHERS, not to protect ourselves.

I would presume the virus doesn't carry a clipboard around with a list of 'who to infect next'

So would assume the people who get it come into contact with a positive person close enough to catch it off them? Rather than some political reason?

As I understand it the main point of masks is to protect OTHERS, not to protect ourselves.

That was the point I was making.

So would assume the people who get it come into contact with a positive person close enough to catch it off them? Rather than some political reason

Political reasons and behaviour may make it easier to catch the virus?

That was the point I was making

Was it though?

"One of the men circled in red is quite clearly wearing a mask - which rather proves the point that non medical-grade masks don't protect the wearer"

By having a very unique geopolitical situation not applicable to any major nation?

Similar to Iceland, who are also doing well.

That was the point I was making.

No it wasn't. You said -

masks don't protect the wearer.

You were focusing on protecting the WEARER.