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New Yorker to mask-wearing Japanese: “You look stupid.”

A Japanese reporter wearing a mask asks a man in New York City what he thinks of wearing masks as protection against the H1N1 flu:

After telling telling the Japanese reporter he looks stupid, the New Yorker goes on to say that masks are not necessary and the media is just trying to create panic.
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The news program in question conceded that masks may not be very effective at protecting people not yet infected with the flu, but they did run some tests and determine if infected people should wear masks:

Since the particles and spit seem to fly farther when one doesn’t wear a mask, they recommend that anyone showing flu symptoms wear a mask. (There was no test on the effectiveness of coughing or sneezing into one’s sleeve.)

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31 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - May 26, 2009 at 6:19 am

Categories: Japanese Food Tags: swine flu

Scott

The CDC did actually say: “Information on the effectiveness of facemasks and respirators for the control of influenza in community settings is extremely limited.”.

The mask might help, but think of how many door knobs you touch in a day and how many people fail to wash their hands. You’d need to wear a full body suit.

Montsan

I’d prefer a giant hamster ball.

phalon

Those are fun. I’m all for that.

pixel_bomber

I agree, I would wear gloves before I would wear a mask.

I know when I first came to Japan and saw people in masks I just assumed they were the sick ones. As opposed to people trying not to get sick. It does make more sense for the sick people to wear a mask to avoid spreading their germs in my opinion. Or at the very least you would know who to avoid.

Jake

How about covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze? Or even better — stay home when you’re sick, instead of wearing a mask that does next to nothing and spreading your disease around the office or school.

jikku

How about covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze?

That’s what what masks are for.

LB

Yeah, amazing what a difficult concept that is for some to grasp…

“Sneeze or cough into your sleeve” – and get the snot all over it? Again, that’s what masks are for. Hardly rocket science.

Buster

Masks are for sneezing into it?
Jake

Jesus. The point is that people here tend not to cover their mouths. Cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze and then wash your hands — seems better than a nasty, snotty mask tied round your face all day (which the people then fidget with, hang around their chins as they smoke a cig, or what have you, totally defeating the purpose).

For swine flu, the WHO only recommends the use of masks for when you are going to come into direct contact with an infected person, after which you need to throw away the mask and wash your hands, or else the mask actually increases the risk of spreading the disease… now how many people in Japan do you think do that?
LB

“The point is that people here tend not to cover their mouths.”
Well they are if they are wearing a mask, now aren;t they?

“Cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze and then wash your hands” Excellent advice, if you are somewhere where you can quickly go and wash your hands. On the trains with a persistent cough? How are you going to wash your hands every 2 minutes? How many people anywhere do that? Most people I have seen in North America and Europe sure don’t – and “covering your mouth” in those places all too often means “ball your hand into a fist, hold it a foot from your mouth and cough at your thumb”. Or “place one hand 6 inches in front of your nose and mouth when you sneeze”. Wow. Effective. Especially since I never saw people immediately wash their hands to clean off the small amount of effluent that they actually got on themselves instead of spreading into the environment – pull out a handkerchief and wipe the snot off, yes, but actual washing? Doesn’t happen.

Sneezing or coughing into a mask on your face may not be your cup of tea, but then again, most Japanese think sneezing/blowing your nose into a handkerchief, then refolding it and putting it back into your pocket is absolutely disgusting (I would tend to agree with that).

“For swine flu… now how many people in Japan do you think do that?”
How many people anywhere do you think do that? Hmmm?

Aside apparently from your all-knowing self, that is…

sdasdasda

Must be so nasty to wear that dirty mask after you have sneezed into it. :S

jikku

Those masks are disposable.

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=10509 Asian

‘stay home when you’re sick, instead of wearing a mask that does next to nothing and spreading your disease around the office or school.’

In today’s communities, staying home would means that u will get fired for the next morning…wearing a mask would be much better than not doing anything at all. At least those who wear mask when they are sick showed some concern toward others.

Yuks

They want to protect themselves as much as they can.
Masks make you stupid or even ugly but is easiest way that avoid virus. …I guess.
Richard

I love the slow-motion camera capturing the sneeze cloud. I imagine Ryu shouting “Hadouken!” when I see it.
http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but on this morning’s Osaka trains there was a few coughers, including one definitely phlegmy one. And although masks wearers were still round about 50%, at least half the hackers were maskless…

Someone in another department in the office is off with a cold too.

Back to the video, I am yet to see any slo-mo footage of the effectiveness after an hour of wearing.

Oh, and last night in another “let’s panic about having made everyone panic” story they said Japan consumes 50% to 70% of the world’s Tamiflu, and the usage patterns are such that the risk of a Tamiflu-resistant strain is significant.
Marco Polo

The news program in question conceded that masks may not be very effective at protecting people not yet infected with the flu, But, but, but… it’s the RULE!!!
(There was no test on the effectiveness of coughing or sneezing into one’s sleeve.) That’s because no-one does it.
A Japanese expert on one of those wide-shows recently shocked everyone by telling them that gargling is next to useless (you’d have to do it every 10 minutes to be effective). When asked why the heck everyone in Japan seems to advocate it, he said, it’s a Japanese superstition.
yogaboy

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Who knows what particulates are in those masks anyway. When you place one over your breathing airways (nose+mouth), heaven knows what you are breathing directly into your lungs from those masks.

Anyone who thinks these masks were manufactured in some vacuum sealed labs with no particulate matter from the material is dreaming. I would wonder also about the quality of masks that come from China and what they use in the material.
Kitty

The dude had a mouthful of cum!
Aekutopia

This arrogant NYC man is more stupid than a Japanese reporter.

me

No, not really.
Alex

I’m sure you meant the New Yorker is far more educated than the reporter.

Anonymous

infected people should wear masks

No, they should probably go to a hospital.
Anonymous

The fact that someone half-way across the world knows more about the real situation than someone in Japan is pretty sad in my opinion…

stereo

The assumption that someone half-way across the world knows more about the real situation than someone in Japan is pretty sad in my opinion…

LB

Agreed.
Kevin

Japanese do NOT know about the real situation.

I am in Japan and they are overreacting to the situation. (Like they always do. It was the same for the avian flu.) They are constantly wearing masks and washing their hands with gel or alcohol sprays. They don’t know that the flu is a virus, not a bacteria. Those sprays are good for washing it off of the hands but it wont kill it.

The Japanese freak out about people dying in Mexico but they don’t think about why they died. I’m sure most Mexicans can’t afford the medicine that is needed to take care of the virus.

And that New Yorker (as much as I hate siding with Americans) was right. That guy did look stupid.

http://www.hormel.com Vonskippy

Wearing a mask or not – what’s the worse that can happen. Oh yeah PANIC!!!!!!!! you might catch THE FLU.
Aruma

Good grief! It’s almost impossible to get away from the ugly American these days. This man couldn’t be any more rude in my opinion! Plus, he doesn’t need a mask to look ‘ugly’!
This is the kind of person that embarrasses all Americans. Let’s hope he doesn’t decide to run in the next presidential campaign!

ChrisinHI

Sometimes the truth hurts…
Alex

Embarrass Americans? You kidding? The meek Japanese reporter and the “research” conducted later were far more embarrassing.

And please don’t talk about presidential campaigns. You know nothing about that, other than saying “YES WE CAN”.

New Yorker to mask-wearing Japanese: “You look stupid.”

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