DualSportBiker

Why did I quote you? It would be because you said "I'm convinced they're right" about politicians falsely stating Covid-19 is just a flu.

Let's start with some basics. Genetic cross-over from animals to humans is a given; it happens. Given enough time and opportunity (accumulated time exposed to animals), moves closer to a certainty. That it happened in China does not make China responsible. The authorities in China delayed the flow of information for sure; they screwed up. However, the chances that they could have curtailed its spread and kept the outbreak in China is small, very small. Blaming China for the disease is ridiculous, blaming their system for failure to address the issue is appropriate, but a global outbreak was inevitable as it took weeks to discover carriers could be asymptomatic. Blaming China for the lack of fun having a massage with a masseuse in a mask is pathetic on two counts. China can't really be blamed and genuine massages are not impacted by the wearing of a mask. Now for the conspiracy theories. Covid-19 is not the flu. No doctor, virologist, infectious disease expert, or immunologist has said so. Politicians and armchair 'researchers' aren't qualified to comment. The great sadness of the internet is the false belief that having the capacity to state an opinion means the opinion has some validity. Most don't. It will take months before the true transmission characteristics of Covid-19 are understood. Those will only be understood after the collaborative work of hundreds of learned medical professionals - not a bunch of self-proclaimed genius armchair researchers griping that their liberties are being stolen by some global conspiracy to rebrand a common flu as a dangerous pandemic. If doing nothing for months and allowing 130,000 to die in the US is not a clear sign that such thoughts are patently wrong, perhaps you'd be better off looking for aliens, Elvis and Hitler partying on the moon in broad daylight. I know another genius who has the coordinates if you're interested... During a two hour massage I spend over an hour face down or on my side. Why do I need to see the masseuse's face? When some muppet talks too much, either to the masseuse or on the phone, most decent shops will ask them to shut up so all the other customers can relax. If you want more from your massage, fine. That is your choice. Don't conflate a sub-standard massage and a happy-ending with a real massage.