Are people no longer bothered by Covid….?

[Iwannabelikeyouohh]

Is anyone actually bothered about Covid?
From places I’ve been recently, everyone is just “normal”

I took my son to a toddler class this morning.

I walked in wearing my mask. Room full of 19 other adults and their toddlers.

Not one single adult had a mask on (expect me)
There was no distancing in the class.
It was as normal as normal can be.

I joined a new slimming class tonight.

Again I walked in wearing a mask. No one else had one on.
All chairs pushed up together, people sat close.

I don’t get it.

How can we go from distancing, mask wearing, avoiding people on walks (which is exactly what it was like) to nothing….

amicissima ONS sampling in June 2020 estimated 17 % of Londoners had antibodies, that is actually slightly more than 1.5m. If you lived in London you could well believe it as so many neighbours and friends were affected in March, especially if they had or had come into contact with people skiing at half term. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-22/UK-tests-reveal-17-of-Londoners-have-COVID-19-antibodies-QGoxm5G2Ig/share_amp.html

Exactly. South Korea have no GDPR laws, and data can be commandeered for government purposes. Their track and trace system had access to bank card, mobile data and CCTV footage to trace people. They were also able to post geo locations of these who tested positive

What no GDPR laws at all? What is all this about them? www.dataguidance.com/notes/south-korea-data-protection-overview

Or this The European Commission “concludes that the Republic of Korea ensures an essentially equivalent level of protection to the one guaranteed under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_2964

There is pandemic specific /limited legislation passed after failing to contain the MERS epidemic resulted in 17000 cases and 38 deaths and lasting damage to their economy, especially tourism. It was tried during the first wave but only ever in support / validation of personal contacts and interviews and in the event there were numerous scandals as officials exceeded their brief and issued data that was too identifiable. Further legislation has been bought in as a further protection against personal data becoming identifiable in the public realm including now that all data will be deleted after 14 days and not just when the pandemic is declared over.

But just to balance out the negative if you do isolate in Korea you are visited twice a day to ensure you have all you need and arrange for your needs to be met, including with home cooked food from your neighbours (almost certainly from women constrained by patriarchal structures but that is another much more pervasive issue in Korean society.

How much more difference would our public health officials have made if they had been able to deliver support as well as finding out which cases and contacts they needed to knock on the door of without delays in the Dido track and trace systems.

What no GDPR laws at all? What is all this about them?

Or okay, different gdpr laws than Europe.

The point is they were able to use data sources to track people in a way that would have been illegal in Europe.

@Emilyontmoor if you read it the EC requested additional safeguards - to enable it to become adequate for us to pass over our data. Both highlight different data protection rules

We do have some of the strictest rules in GDPR which can definitely be a pain

Keating It was another example of you making a sweeping statement to back up a stereotype when the reality is actually a lot more complicated. It is simply not true that they do not have data protection laws or indeed many of the other freedoms such as an independent judiciary of living in a democracy.

It is also the perfect example of where a unique cultural background has created specific issues during Covid. First it had had a particularly bad experience with MERS hence passing reserved powers to use personal data if another pandemic hit. Secondly a history of folk religion and geomancy taking important roles in society alongside Confucianism has made Korea fertile ground for evangelical millennial churches (pretty much uniquely in Asia) . Their mass gatherings acted as superspreader events for Covid and of course they claimed God’s mandate for them and for general subversion above anything the government could do. It is some credit to the Korean government that they did manage to control the pandemic effectively in the face of that issue . One that we faced here (at least in our local evangelical conservative churches) and our Police didn’t hesitate to break up their meetings either.

However Korea is a democracy, and its citizen’s do enjoy data protection in normal times. And when such surveillance strayed into the obvious territory that GDPR laws are there to address they have changed the legislation.

There are lots of issues with Korean society, not least the issues of women’s and LGQT rights and the impact of the informal functioning of traditional elite networks to sew up power on democratic processes but to imply there are no GDPR laws and government has total control over personal data is simply not true.

It was another example of you making a sweeping statement to back up a stereotype when the reality is actually a lot more complicated. It is simply not true that they do not have data protection laws

They have very different data protection laws. Yes?

I'm not bothered by covid. Life is for living.

I doubt this will make much difference, but it have just managed to catch covid. Despite being careful as a family, it's pretty tricky to avoid contact, given that three children are at school and we both teach. I imagine this will make people who still wear masks etc continue in their belief this is a good thing to do, and those who have stopped feel it's irrelevant.

It's not particularly nice. Double jabbed but still feel rough. Grateful not to feel worse. I will continue to mask up where I can after this. I may well have infected a couple fewer people by doing it.

Hope you feel better soon @IDontGetOutMuch.

I'm with you on taking sensible precautions. I know someone in the same boat as you and she said its not an experience she wants to repeat in a hurry. Really knocked her for six.

Thanks @KisstheTeapot14 . It's really not nice. Still waiting on PCR results but symptoms have gone from cold (sneezing, sore throat, headache) to more classic covid (fever and complete loss of taste and smell-very odd...brain knows I'm eating chocolate but no flavour whatsoever) as the last couple of days have progressed. Ten minutes tidying activity had me heading to bed and can't process info at all.

So...unless it's just a no for any reason, do wear masks, do hand sanitizer, stay clear of people. This is much more hassle. Although I more than likely caught through contact with children, everyone catches it somewhere and why not reduce the likelihood?