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Wear A Mask Or Go To Jail? – Interesting learning points from history

Most thoughts on this article is of my opinion and if in doubt, always refer to "Masking Up, How and When You should Do it by Gov.sg".

We need to ALL wear mask. Everyone on this world, at least until COVID-19 is defeated.

After all, this story below on this lady arrested seems to suggest a strong stance may still not enough!

"Wear a mask or go to jail" ?

The Spanish flu was an unusually deadly influenza (not coronavirus) pandemic. The thumbnail image is supposedly in 1918 during the Spanish flu. Pretty extreme right?

The irony is we NOT HAVE SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY AND MANUFACTURING yet we took so long to get sufficient mask supply.

Source: Twitter COVID-19 Perspective

I have always looked at people who wear mask as protecting themselves. But now I thank them for protecting everyone near them also.

After all, COVID-19 is asymptomatic (no need symptoms) in spread. 

A case study (read here) of a family in Zhejiang province, China, shows how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can spread before symptoms of the disease emerge, and symptoms can vary widely even in a close family cluster.

The study detailed how SARS-CoV-2 spread from a presymptomatic carrier to infect 8 of 9 family members from 3 households after a 58-year-old woman (index 1) and 60-year-old man (index 2) attended a Chinese Spring Festival temple activity on January 19.

Are we willing to be a FULL MASK society?

The global medical community remains divided on how effective face mask are at preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The World Health Organization, for instance, recommends the wearing of protective face masks, though many experts are sceptical, claiming that while they might slightly prevent spread of the virus for people in close contact to one another, they are much less effective in stopping transmission outdoors.

But if opinions are divided, shouldn't we take the safe side?!?

Case study of Czech Republic (Czechia) and Taiwan

The Czech Republic government has insisted that people must still wear face masks at all times in public.

It has even sparked a face-mask sewing frenzy in its local community.

Taiwan is another country with almost everyone on face mask.

It's COVID-19 active numbers are fantastic.

When you put a mask on, it's for your community. Because anyone can be an asymptomatic carrier.

Some other thoughts #1 Anti-viral Medicines Likelier Than Vaccines

Vaccines are NOT going to happen soon. 

Yup... this is the statement from an expert.

“Like most vaccinologists, I don’t think this vaccine will be ready before 18 months,” says Annelies Wilder-Smith, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

In general, vaccines are to build herd immunity.

At this exponential spread, we actually won't need 18 months to cross the entire population.

So don't put too much hope on vaccination.


SARS was also a coronavirus and humanity couldn’t develop a vaccination.

In a nutshell from my understanding, there were significant safety risk in the proposed vaccine.

From this research report,

"Additional safety concerns relate to effectiveness and safety against antigenic variants of SARS-CoV and for safety of vaccinated persons exposed to other coronaviruses, particularly those of the type 2 group.

Influenza is different. There are flu jabs readily available.

But in my opinion, a breakthrough anti-viral medication would be a very welcomed relief already.

Oseltamivir or tamiflu known in Singapore can shorten the recovery time for a patient with influenza.

Hopefully an anti-viral treatment can help us recover quicker when infected with COVID-19 and all allay those death fears.

Some other thoughts #2 Self swab COVID-19 tests

Bill gates mentioned that self-swab tests are as accurate as swabs done by medical professionals on PPE.

If you are keen to hear his comments watch, click here


By the way, COVID-19 swabbing is hard to do.

To improve test accuracy, It has to be stuck DEEP into your nose and it is of course uncomfortable.

But once we understand it and more are ready to DIY swabbing, we can really increase rapid testing!

And that is going to help identify positive cases early.

What about the stock markets and investments?

Above is the spanish flu chart vs DJIA index.

Many believed COVID-19 wouldn't hurt the bull market but ALAS... it did.

More than 30% decline in DJIA and S&P on 23mar2020.


But things have recovered well since.

If you are looking for answers to if stock markets will crash again, I've this video sharing with you

Conclusion

COVID-19 is going to take a long time to be defeated.

Things are developing rapidly in the medical field and also in the investment sentiment.

If you are keen the investment front on what to do during this crisis, this is an article on bear markets.

It has sharing on my experience during global financial crisis.

Last updated on July 22nd, 2020 at 06:56 am

Josh Tan Jian Liang (CHFC) Principal Author

REVIEWS: https://theastuteparent.com/josh-tan Practising financial planner with Promiseland Independent Pte Ltd. TJL100057681 EXPERIENCE: More than 14years. Josh Tan is a young parent, speaker, author and founder of TheAstuteParent.

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