I want to open a store in Hong Kong.

It's really truly a scary thing when people who are presumably educated believe in this conspiracy nonsense. Here is a good read on that subject:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/opinion/sunday/global-cabal-conspiracy-theories.html

It is also my understanding that masks will not filter out the smaller droplets that viruses travel through the air on. These smaller droplets linger in the air longer and can be inhaled through most masks.

Another purpose is to filter the larger droplets that infected people exhale, sneeze or cough out and to limit the distance that droplets initially travel.

So masks have definite value, IMHO, and should be worn properly (i.e. hands off) but should not be considered strong protection against the virus.

I’m not a medical professional. This is what I’ve learned from TV, so take it for what it’s worth.

I really didn’t want to chime in but everyone must deal in fact. The virus is everywhere and spreads through micro- droplets where masks can help to an extent to reduce viral load within 6 feet before it falls to the ground BUT the virus is also likely to be aerosol air borne for up to 6 meters which is much more dangerous and masks don’t really help there particularly the kind being worn.
A mask helps if it’s an N95 and worn properly tight cupped fit but most people gain a false sense of security when wearing a bandana or scarf that is vented out the sides and then they don’t also properly distance themselves especially from the susceptible at/risk and wash their hands regularly.
I certainly wear one, an N95 when I’m out and about. Exercise regularly, keep your immune system in check, take vitamin D3, 5-10k IU a day along with vitamin K2 mk7 and magnesium. This is NOT political.

Masks are worse than useless. Reminder guys, I work in health care. The masks we are all being told to wear are procedure masks. They are intended only to stop spittle and droplets from talking infecting patients and medical equipment. They say right on the box they do not filter viruses or other contaminants. The vast majority of the air you breathe in or out goes right around the sides. They do not filter anything AT ALL!  

The next step up from a procedure mask is N95. These are intended to filter but in order to do this they must be carefully fitted. They come around with a test hood and if you can smell the odor its not filtering and you cannot wear N95. This happened to a couple of us here. Its pretty common.  

Even if you do get a tight seal every breath exhales moisture that clogs it and so the N95 is good for only a few hours.  

N95 by the way does not filter virus either. The situation really is like I said, trying to stop a mosquito with a chain link fence. That a mask works at all is based on the idea the virus is never just out there by itself, but is hitching a ride on a droplet. The problem with that being droplets go down to vapor, goes down to molecules.  

Anyone who has worked in a shop as I have, worn respirators as I have, will know perfectly well how your nose and throat gets plenty of dust. This is with filters many orders of magnitude better than the masks we are being forced to wear.  

It would be one thing if they worked. It would be another if we were told the truth and allowed to choose for ourselves. Instead we are all being forced to do something proven to have no medical efficacy whatsoever.  

This is not a health crisis. This is a political crisis.

I would get to know the lay of the land(Import logistics etc). Pick your market niche. You have competitors. A local to Asia or x patriot can be very helpful.
If you are going to sell American HiFi the key is knowing where to get it and who is holding.
Good Luck and bring plenty of green backs. 

Here in UK deaths by any cause within 28 days of a positive Covid test is a “Covid death”. So, smoke for 70 years, drink like a fish, eat pies, get a positive Covid test, and then crash your hang-glider into a cliff and that is a Covid death.  Even then, in October, Covid was only number 13 in causes of death. Flu was number 7.  Take out serious co-morbidities (the underlying causes of death) and the total number of Britons under the age of 45 who have died so far of Covid is 41.  Sadly, suicide (which was already at number 1 for cause of death for under 45s) has only increased.  I’m not going conspiracy theory, but there is an Abeline Paradox happening here. 

This started out with a doubtful business venture post and MC goes all out on masks.  I suggest you no longer refer to  yourself as “in healthcare”.  You who admit to giving yourself pneumonia with your CPAP.  I don’t recall anyone saying the masks are total barriers against the virus especially when airborne.  Political.  Right. I suppose the surge in hospitalizations is all political too.  A hoax. How hard is it to wear a damn mask?  If it saves only a few thousand lives before the vaccine comes to the rescue, isn’t that well worth it?  Yea. You are “in healthcare”.  If I were your employer and I saw that post, I would fire you.

Somehow I prefer to believe CBC Canada over the Tekton lover.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-masks-test-1.5795481

Masks are worse than useless. Reminder guys, I work in health care.

That ranks right up there with "Fuses, cables, isolation devices and other tweaks don’t make a difference. Remember guys, I’m an E.E."

Now we learned that having trouble breathing and being positive for SARS-CoV2 means a person does not have symptoms. It is just made-up BS. Even when you feel you are breathing under water. Wow, just wow.

The long-term effects of COVID-19 on cognition are apparently way underappreciated.

Which brings up another question. How does one acquire hydrochloroquine "just in case"? Isn't it prescription medication? Is it sold on street corners by shady people who supply shady buyers?

"Masks are worse than useless."

Wise words from the one who had it to those who have not had it yet.

Almighty they are not, useless they are not, either.

@cd318 +5 Amen

Glupson - as long as you know a mask does not protect the wearer at all. It might help protect others from your coughs and sneezes. It is REALLY important that you understand the difference. 

Some people trust the bureau of propaganda and public enlightenment that has become the news media, and obviously some do not trust them at all now. History has proven that a propaganda trap is often found after it's too late, only after the entrapment is the reality revealed.

If nuclear bomb is code for every possible virus outbreak from Asia (a high percentage of the global population) - heck yeah, all the world is in and out of HK every day. It's not just the biggest Buddha statue in the world on Lantau Is. The airport is seriously no joke!

I loved both times I was in Hong Kong, and it was true what I had been told. Almost any direction you look there's someone walking towards you, and another walking away. Just so many in such a small area, even more crowded it seemed than New York and London (yes, I have been).

There are entire buildings full of stores, Hifi bulidings, laptop buildings, furniture and the list goes on. It kind of reminded me of the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart, Germany. One takes the elevator to the top and work your way down, and as I'm a complete and utter geek, this was so much fun. Buyer beware, possibly the dodgiest place on Earth for cunning rip off mechants I have been. It's not like Africans selling designer hand bags in Paris, this is super clever, and slippery.

Property there is VERY very expensive, to purchase similar sized apartment to an average American home will cost a small fortune. Did I mention expensive property values? I seem to recall the most billionaires are in HK than any other city, now overtaken by NYC I think. From what I saw, that's no surprise. The wealthy Chinese do prefer quality from overseas.
Muscling in on a well established market, you do know it's not been under British management for quite some years, PRC rule now.

Take a long vacation there first, do your homework, it may be perfect for you. Be cautious, would be my suggestion.

Maybe the mask you wear does not protect you.

bluemoodriver25 posts11-22-2020 5:35pmGlupson - as long as you know a mask does not protect the wearer at all. It might help protect others from your coughs and sneezes. It is REALLY important that you understand the difference.

In areas where Malaria is common or travelling to areas with Malaris is, it is over the counter.  Just don't take the fish tank stuff ....

How does one acquire hydrochloroquine "just in case"? Isn't it prescription medication? Is it sold on street corners by shady people who supply shady buyers?

I would offer you a lesson in statistics, but statistically I think that is a low value proposition.

Fortunately I learned how to wear a respirator so I find my N95 shop respirators leave my nose and throat dust free.  If I am working with anything nastier, the N100 painting respirator comes out. It's essentially  a gas mask with particulate filter.

N95 by the way does not filter virus either. The situation really is like I said, trying to stop a mosquito with a chain link fence. That a mask works at all is based on the idea the virus is never just out there by itself, but is hitching a ride on a droplet. The problem with that being droplets go down to vapor, goes down to molecules.  

Anyone who has worked in a shop as I have, worn respirators as I have, will know perfectly well how your nose and throat gets plenty of dust. This is with filters many orders of magnitude better than the masks we are being forced to wear.  

This is a political crisis because of people like miller carbon plain and simple. Otherwise it would just be a health crisis.

I was thinking of suburbs of Seattle. Not that I am familiar with malaria situation there.

Bringing this back to audio, is there a correlation between conspiracy theorist / anti-maskers and boutique fuse usage? National Inquiring minds want to know.

bluemoodriver,

"Glupson - as long as you know a mask does not protect the wearer at all."

I would not go that far to say "at all". At least, my experience tells me there may be some benefit to wearing a mask. True, I do not have my own CPAP machine to get infected so take my experience with a grain of common sense.

"Bringing this back to audio, is there a correlation between conspiracy theorist / anti-maskers and boutique fuse usage?"

Only among those who wear Louis Vuitton masks.

Thanks jond, next time someone accuses me of having a big head I will remind them it was me transformed the global economy and political landscape with nothing more than thought and word. They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Behold my mighty sword!

"They say the pen is mightier than the sword."

Aren't we lucky that nobody uses a pen anymore? On Audiogon, at least.

Rixthetrik nailed it with his description of Hong Kong. I lived four years in the PRC with just a 25 minute ferry ride to HK.  Loved visiting the city almost every weekend.
The handover from the Brits occurred while I was there and some HK merchants I knew were freaking about it.  I can’t imagine a more competitive or costly place to start a business, but it sure would be exciting.

"I can’t imagine a more competitive or costly place to start a business, but it sure would be exciting."

If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere...

OMG, just when you think you have a handle on how dumb someone is you are reminded there is no lower bound on human intelligence. 

Then again this particular someone is in a class of his own. Well technically not class, there is none, more like study hall. And not the cool Say Anything study hall either more like Fast Times at Ridgemont.  

HCQ can be ordered from insulinhub.com in the UK where it is sold over the counter. This is where I got mine back in March. Kind of glad I do have it since if I do get it (which I did not, one fake test result to the contrary) I know from experience how hard it is to get your own doctor to give you the proper treatment. The price is higher than it should be but cheap insurance and the customer service second to none. When mine got held up in US Customs the guy apologized even though it wasn't his fault- and shipped me another one! The second shipment arrived before the first, I wound up with a two-fer.

It's up to you....

For all those anti-maskers in the crowd, YES YOU!  Listen, and listen good. I am going to give you a little lesson in melt-blown plastics, statistics, and viral transfer.

Let's starts with melt-blown plastics. One of the advantages of melt-blown plastics is that they have electrostatic properties. Even breath moist, they still have electrostatic properties. That means they are able to attract particles to them.

Let's go on to filtering.  When a mask says it can filter 95% of all particles at 0.3um, that does not mean that every particle smaller than 0.3um passes through. In fact, even at 0.15um, a significant number of particles are stopped (see above). In fact, N95 respirators have been shown to very effectively filter down even as low as 10nm due to electrostatic charge. That works not as well  up in the 40-80nm range, mechanical means takes over and it gets better again.


Miller is correct though, you need a good fit. I find for most people, the KN95 and N95 cone filters fit their face better than the 3M filters. If you are a guy, SHAVE!  Just do it and stop complaining. You beard, moustache, etc. is not more important than your health or someone else's.  Even without a perfect fit, most of your breath will still pass through the mask, unless you have a really poor fit.


Viral transfer.  Yes, it is true that a single viral particle can infect, you, but odds are, most single viral particles will not. Your immune system even without specific defences still has general defences for intruders and the virus does not infect all cell types, but certain cell types and it has to land on and infect one.  A larger droplet, which masks will filter most, contains orders of magnitude more viral particles, as well as a carrier (water) that offers protection and longevity increasing viral transfer potential.

Now for that statistics lesson. Let's say the odds of a single viral particle causing an infection are 1/100. Now, if you are exposed 100 virus particles, that does not mean you get infected. It means the odds of being infected are about 63%.  Now if someone else wears a mask, especially a half decent one, that number drops to say 25 particles (and maybe less).  Now your odds of being infected are only 22%.  If you have a good mask, you can reduce that by a further 75%, so now there is only 6 particles that get into your body.  Your odds of being infected is now 5.85%.

You have to be really really bad at math to want your odds of infection to be 63% instead of 5.85%.

bluemoodriver,

Here in UK deaths by any cause within 28 days of a positive Covid test is a “Covid death”.

I believe you misunderstood the process to some extent.

Check pages 5, 6, and 14 (and onwards).

guidance-for-doctors-completing-medical-certificates-of-cause-of-death-covid-19.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Not at all. There are two figures used and the ‘deaths by any cause with a positive test within 28 days’ is the one used in the daily updates and in all the analysis of lockdown measures, etc. (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk)

There is another figure with a lag of at least a week for ‘deaths where there is any mention of COVID on the death certificate’.  This is a bigger number (about 60,000 rather than about 50,000). 
Average age of death in either method is about the same at 84 years. This is 2 years older than the average age of death without the involvement of Covid.

Audio2design,

What are the odds on viral particles that are transferred from the air onto your eyes or from your hands into your eyes, nose or mouth?

‘deaths by any cause with a positive test within 28 days’ is the one used in the daily updates and in all the analysis of lockdown measures, etc. 

"Deaths by any cause" counted as deaths by covid. Do they think you're stupid? 
https://youtu.be/oQxaGm7eK4U?t=40

Strange thing, when you are wearing a mask, there is a natural barrier that prevents your hands from touching your nose or your mouth.  You will have to use some self control not to touch your eyes.

There is a pathway through the eyes, but, as your eyes don't breath, the amount of air they are exposed to is a very very small fraction of that your air passages are exposed to.

tomcy61,854 posts11-22-2020 9:39pmAudio2design,

What are the odds on viral particles that are transferred from the air onto your eyes or from your hands into your eyes, nose or mouth?

bluemoodriver,

I may get to those statistics a little later, but the truth is that due to the nature of infection and response to it, most of the deaths with positive Coronavirus test will, in fact, be triggered by infection.

In the meantime, it is informative to read how deaths are actually certified. You might be surprised that it is not what some would want you to believe. There is some thinking involved.

@cd318  It seems you didn't notice I was using my sarcasm font.

bluemoodriver,

Those numbers "deaths within 28 days of positive test" are not "COVID deaths". They are deaths within 28 days of positive test. Detailed explanation (found on the same page) does not imply that those deaths have anything to do with COVID.

You might have associated it as "COVID deaths" because it is close to "COVID on death certificate" statistics on that same page.

However, both of those numbers can provide for nice statistical exercise and challenging detective work.

Practically all the people who had lessened immune systems due to, whatever, would still be alive if it weren't for having Covid added to the mix. Any doctor who'd not list Covid as the proximate cause of death should have their medical license revoked.

To complain about that is insane. That's like getting a murderer off for shooting someone who had diabetes, or who were obese, or had asthma, saying they were going to die anyway, maybe, at some distant point in time. How asinine can someone be to make such an argument?

These are the same people who accuse or infer that climate scientists are in it for the money, as are medical professionals and coroners who list Covid as the cause of death. Some people need to get a life.

All the best,
Nonoise

OK audio2design, thanks.  I wouldn't downplay transmission from the hands to our eyes, nose and mouth though.  Dr. Fauci said he would ban shaking hands, even after the pandemic wanes, if he had his way.

The entire proposal is hilarious!! Good imagination rw!!
You had several takers too!!

I am not biting though I do own some wonderful land in Florida
you might be interested in!

Do you go around shaking hands with people at Walmart?  Does a mask get in the way of touching your hands to your mouth and nose? (Yes).  Are the eyes very small compared to the surface area and air movement of our airways (yes).  This is a statistics thing. We don't need to prevent every infection, we just need to prevent enough that the cases go down, not up.  Have you heard of any super-spreader events where masks were worn? I have not.

My grandmother gave me instructions about how not to get sick.

Despite being more concise and having her thoughts wisely promoted decades later, she never became a national hero.

I am a videophile/audiophile living in Hong Kong.  I run a translation company and can help you as far as Chinese-to-English or English-to-Chinese translation is needed.  My website is www.intLingogroup.com 

Due to COVID-19, right now you will be required to have 2-week quarantine at a hotel and, within 1-2 weeks, the Government will require another week of home quarantine on top of that.

Let me know if you think I can be of further help!

Wallace Lam

Not one single response from the OP. Troll?

He is on his way to Hong Kong. Will chime in after he lands.

“Does ANYONE think to compare "normal" non accident death rates, maybe by age or other risk group factors, to "current" death rates?

Until very recently I worked as a medical facility professional, and not ignore COVID, but most of the patients I observed with COVID had MULTIPLE health issues to contend with that were likely significant factors. On a personal level, being over 60, my confirmed "infection" resulted in minimal symptoms. My mid 80s father also had limited impact.

My sympathies to anyone who has lost a loved one during this but there is ZERO doubt in my mind that ALL sides have turned this into as much, or more, of a political issue than a medical issue. And we are NOT being provided with any reliable, statistically validated information regarding the DIFFERENTIAL impact(s).”

Data on excess deaths has in fact been widely available from the beginning of the crisis.  Simply googling “excess deaths from COVID” will provide you with many, many sources broken down in multiple ways including from the CDC in the US.

Stay home be smart.

I was not going to put in my 2 cents but why not.  I find it very sad that Americans are attacking Americans or people attacking people.   We have freedom and I don't believe anyone has the right to step on it.  You people are constantly attacking each other and politics/media has driven you there. If you think the virus is going to threaten or kill you then stay home. Unfortunately we don't all have the funds to stay home.  I've watched this country and all its actions towards its own people and I can say without a doubt it is discussing and you all should be ashamed of yourselves.   We thanked people for continuing to provide us with goods and services,  then attack the truck drivers who continue to provide our goods.  Blocking roads and acting like animals.  I watched it on tv as people blocked the road and jumped on top of a moving truck.  Then the media turns it on the driver like its his fault, well if I seen an angry mob trying to stop me I personally would feel threatened and run them over.  I'm not down playing the virus, I am just wondering if our eyes are completely closed about what is happening in this country and across the world.  20 plus yrs in the military and I am seeing the same tactics which I learned,  being used on us to control people.  PS.  You are entitled to your own opinion as I am.  

millercarbon-
"Safe and Sound audio experience? N95, 6 feet, and wash."

millercarbon-
"Masks are worse than useless."

You waffle more on this subject than Eggo.