Japan reports 18,654 new coronavirus cases

I have seen many more people ditch the masks on trains, in bars and restaurants.

Yet cases are coming down.

Hmmmm.

Yes! The ski slopes are crowded again and the apres is back in Hakuba again! For those concerned, I've had no stinkeye going maskless on many JR shinkansen train trips the last three weeks. Enjoy what's left of winter!

I've been driving all by myself for the whole week with all windows rolled up while masked up.

I feel like a dork but there is nothing I can do (cold sore)

No more masks from March 8.

I've been driving all by myself for the whole week with all windows rolled up while masked up.

I haven't done that the entire pandemic, when im in a crowd, go into a building with other people wear one.

otherwise I go maskless.

Its really simple really, if you think youre going to be within 2m of people or in an enclosed area, then wear a mask otherwise theres no need.

If someone else is wearing a mask in their car or wherever, its their decision, don't let it hurt your feelings after all its only a piece of cloth.

No more masks from March 8.

Thats my goal as soon I'm relieved from this herpes.

Only 1 in 30 or 40 drivers I see wear any kind of mask, but thing is completely different in the streets.

No point wearing those in 2023, unless you're in one of those super crowded morning trains you can't lift your own phone in front of you.

But in the streets? Maybe half the population suffers with kafunsho season but I'm really curious if these people will insist on wearing these masks during the scorching summer.

No more masks from March 8.

but why wait ? The "virus" will disappear on that day or the masks cease to be effective after that ? Where has people's common sense gone ?

@Burning Bush - the numbers don’t lie. Wave after wave show the ineffectiveness of masks in stopping the spread of the most infectious disease out there. This is the age of super Omicron, not Wuhan strain. Besides, the ‘gold standard’ Cochrane scientific report emphasises the uselessness of masks. Can you rebut their findings?

Wearing masks is just showing good manner and to reduce the infection risk for others if infected oneself or vice versa reducing own risk a bit if the surrounding people are infected. But of course it doesn’t reduce anything in sum. Either oneself accumulates more viruses inside the body as they replicate but aren’t breathed out when wearing a mask, or they are breathed out and then breathed in by others, if no one wears a mask. And of course with masks the usual chaotic distribution is another, the viruses are now more locally concentrated in the masks, garbage cans, bags and those facilities where they finally all land. As always, merits and demerits combined…

@Sven - Good manners are important in any society. But you can’t compare ubiquitous, fanatical, psychologically damaging masking to good manners any more. We’re way beyond that now. Even the government recognises we are in harmful territory regarding this issue. I think they’re genuinely concerned that they’ve created a permanent problem that will damage the long term interests of the country.

@Burning Bush

Unfortunately the WHO has become highly politicised and not trustworthy.

Back at the start of 2020 I could search the WHO database for info on masking and all the studies they listed showed masks either did not work or had negative efficacy. 

WHO isn't searchable in that manner anymore and no way to know if they still have those studies on file. But news reports at the time were saying that the WHO ddid not support mask wearing:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-masks-recommendation-trnd/index.html

“There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said at a media briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday.

(March 31 2020)

 Besides, the ‘gold standard’ Cochrane scientific report emphasises the uselessness of masks. Can you rebut their findings?

Why don't you post the findings?

@ian

There have been no studies of merit showing masking works.

Cochrane review study here:

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full

And an interview with the lead author about it here:

https://maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/exclusive-lead-author-of-new-cochrane

@ian

There have been no studies of merit showing masking works.

Cochrane review study here:

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full

Why dont you post the findings you're so proud of? =)

@ian

Well, you could have clicked on the links.

The authors found 78 relevant studies and conclude with low to moderate confidence that masking does not work. Moderate confidence if a lab study.

The reason for this confidence level is the poor quality of the studies they were examining. ie, no studies of merit have been conducted, so it is hard to have confidence in them.

If a government or any institution wants to push masking, then they need to conduct a study that shows it has benefit, and then to conduct a risk - benefit analysis before mandating anything.

Isn’t the Cochrane article the one where the authors admit that most mask studies (including theirs) suffer from artifacts such as “improper masking” in which the mask is worn so that the nose is not covered as well as deficiencies due to “self-reporting” which is the over-estimation of proper masking an individual would assign to themselves?

@ian

Well, you could have clicked on the links.

So results were inconclusive.

There's no emphasis on the uselessness of masks as someone claims above

Thanks.

Isn’t the Cochrane article the one where the authors admit that most mask studies (including theirs) suffer from artifacts such as “improper masking” in which the mask is worn so that the nose is not covered as well as deficiencies due to “self-reporting” which is the over-estimation of proper masking an individual would assign to themselves?

Well not really "admit".

It's part of the analysis and declared limitations of the studies.

That's why there's only low to moderate confidence on the results.

So yeah not the earthshaking results/study some people are claiming

Lord DartmouthToday  07:42 pm JST

The Covid fanatics can carry on hyping up the effectiveness of masks as much as they like; from 13 March I'm ripping mine off forever and I encourage everyone to do the same.

Hahaha why wait?

@iraira

You might have read the accompanying interview with the lead author I linked to.

As he says, if masks are to be mandated, then someone should have done a proper study and not the nonsense that has been churned out.

Not a single study has shown masks work. Perhaps if a proper study were to be carried out, then maybe some benefit would be demonstrated? Somewhat strange that it never crossed the minds of governments and their scientific advisors to do so...

Tony….my point was that the experimental design in the article people are using to support their point of view was poorly executed. If the article came to the conclusion that masks were critically important, but suffered from defective methods, that should be called out also.

iraira...the point the authors make (in their study of mask studies) is that all the mask studies have been poorly executed. And the lead author goes on to say in the interview (and I paraphrase), that masks could not be mandated when there was no evidence for their efficacy.