The COVID-2019 Thread

[Cujo]

Trump wants to open everything up, meanwhile, the workplace you would expect to be the safest in the U.S. is inflected<br><br>

Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary tested positive for the virus Friday, forcing a delay in the departure of Air Force Two while a half-dozen other members of his staff were taken off the plane for further testing. That came only a day after word that one of the president’s own military valets had been infected.<div><br></div><div>All of which raised an obvious question: If it is so hard to maintain a healthy environment at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the most famous office address in the world, where staff members are tested regularly, some as often as every day, then how can businesses across the country without anywhere near as much access to the same resources establish a safe space for their workers?</div><div><br></div><div>“The virus is in the White House, any way you look at it,” said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland security under President Barack Obama. “Whether it’s contained or not, we will know soon enough. But the fact that a place — secured, with access to the best means to mitigate harm — is not able to stop the virus has the potential of undermining confidence in any capacity to defeat it.”</div><div><br></div>The presence of the virus in both the West Wing and the residential floors of the White House brings home the dilemma facing the nation at a pivotal point in the pandemic. With more than 77,000 deaths in the United States so far and cases rising by the day, states and employers are wrestling with when and how to reopen without putting workers, customers and clients at risk.

<br><br>Two White House Coronavirus Cases Raise Question of if Anyone Is Really Safe

[Dragonfly]

awesome move by Trump, lockdowns don't work, so what's the point?

stop the lockdown illusion, virus will keep spreading regardless, it's becoming clear from the stats we get, and should trend higher in the coming weeks for everyone

China has a lot to answer, since they don't seem "affected" from this mess, looking more and more like a weapon

[Cujo]

China has a lot to answer, since they don't seem "affected" from this mess, looking more and more like a weapon

Don't be a twit, You really are drinking the right wing coolade aren't you. they were terribly affected by it. The reason it doesn't seem like it to you is because lockdowns DO work if done right and not on some kind of ad hoc state by state basis with each state having different requirements. They had a co-ordinated response (once things got going) directed from a federal level. The lockdowns were brutal and masks were law.
If any twats had turned up on the steps of the provincial capital like in the states, demanding their right to spread disease they'd have been in a world of hurt.
The National government at the same time had a concerted campaign encouraging national unity and for people to pull together. The population as a whole was aware of the need to knuckle down and considering the social welfare structures here
a lot of people hurt and hurt bad. To suggest China didn't feel the pain is ridiculous.
The timing didn't help either at a time when masses of people were traveling or away from their place of residence.

[Troy]

Even after dragging their feet, they also flip-flopped massively. We were told as recently as last Friday that there would be a considerable loosening of restrictions on Sunday, but it didn't happen.

Decisiveness is yet another Churchillian quality that BoJo lacks.



Bars and restaurants have not closed in Sweden. To suggest that the UK has fewer restrictions is nonsense.

Yes, you're right, I was being a little flippant. Failure to isolate those entering the country was my concern rather than general lockdown. However, I still feel the lockdown restrictions should be more targeted towards areas of suspected outbreaks than just generally applied.

It's a difficult situation, one that is easy to blame those in authority for being too lenient or too strict.

[jabir]

awesome move by Trump, lockdowns don't work, so what's the point?

stop the lockdown illusion, virus will keep spreading regardless, it's becoming clear from the stats we get, and should trend higher in the coming weeks for everyone

China has a lot to answer, since they don't seem "affected" from this mess, looking more and more like a weapon

Agreed, except the CPC will have nothing to answer for; when the time comes they will be prepared for the worst that the ideological enemy could devise without further harming itself, and tooled up to confuse, confound and muddle, take the offensive to accuse and denounce, and as ever with no concept of publicly confessing that the Party in any way failed.

This is the norm which the 'civilised' world is up against, yet many strangely still cannot comprehend that there are others bred with an alien and often bizarre mindset, principles and values.

[cyrille]

It's a difficult situation

Agreed.

one that is easy to blame those in authority for being too lenient or too strict.

Yes, and I suppose erring on the side of caution is understandable.

It's also better to keep the measures fairly uniform, to avoid confusing premier league footballers and the like.

Hopefully the situation in both the UK and Thailand will have further improved in a couple of weeks and can be looked at again.

Not least because my three month holiday starts this Friday.

[misskit]

The foolery has spread to Australia.

Arrests, conspiracy theories at Australia anti-lockdown protest

MELBOURNE - Ten people were arrested and a police officer injured Sunday at an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, where demonstrators claimed coronavirus was a government-engineered conspiracy designed to control the population.


About 150 protesters rallied outside Victoria's state parliament to protest against a shutdown aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19, while also peddling conspiracy theories about the virus.


Most Australian states and territories have begun easing restrictions, but Victoria has delayed relaxing its measures amid an outbreak at a Melbourne slaughterhouse that caused a spike in new cases.

MORE Arrests, conspiracy theories at Australia anti-lockdown protest

[HuangLao]

Nature is having the last laugh.
As we tend to associate most everything with an invented political contortion.

[NamPikToot]

UK's colour coded system

[Bettyboo]

Nice!

[NamPikToot]

and here is the problem, seem R is being used widely.


New infections on rise in Germany
New coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control.


The Robert Koch Institute for disease control said in a daily bulletin the number of people each sick person now infects – known as the reproduction rate, or R – had risen to 1.1.


Chancellor Angela Merkel bowed to pressure from leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states to restart social life and revive the economy, announced on Wednesday measures that included more shop openings and a gradual return to school.


At the same time, she launched an “emergency brake” to allow for the reimposition of restrictions if infections pick up again.


Karl Lauterbach, a Social Democrat lawmaker and professor of epidemiology, warned that the new coronavirus could start spreading again quickly after seeing large crowds out and about on Saturday in his home city of Cologne.


“It has to be expected that the R rate will go over 1 and we will return to exponential growth,” Lauterbach said in a tweet. “The loosening measures were far too poorly prepared.”

[NamPikToot]

Can't see us getting back to any kind of normal until next year imo, this from the Beeb

Scientific advisers to the UK government have reportedly warned that the country could suffer more than 100,000 deaths by the end of the year if lockdown measures are relaxed too quickly.


The Sunday Times reports that the government was warned about the potential death toll early last week, with an unnamed scientific adviser telling he newspaper: “There is very limited room for manoeuvre”.


PM Boris Johnson will make a speech to the nation on Sunday evening and is expected to set out a "roadmap" for easing the restrictions.


While the government is giving little away about what may be announced, here are some of the things to look out for.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52599765

[katie23]

Just when we thought it was over, it ain't. New cluster of infections in South Korea - from nightclubs & bars in Itaewon district, Seoul, after gradual lifting of restrictions.

[NamPikToot]

Its like Whackamole Katie.

[Troy]

^

It's also worth noting the numbers starting to creep up in some countries that have eased restrictions...

Germany wasn't as bad as Spain and Italy from the figures as of yesterday IMO. Germany saw a slight increase but then started to fall again.

That's after only a couple of days so need to monitor closely next week.

A rise in infections is to be expected if the virus is still active and people are able to transfer it. Suppression isn't a cure but only a delay tactic.

[Bettyboo]

We were down to around zero (or very close to) per day then about 63 new cases with most connected to one nightclub - the authorities are tracking over 5,000 people and have about 2000 to go...

[NamPikToot]

^^ exactly Troy, its going to be very difficult to ease restrictions without some for of uptick and so its either a) stay locked down and wait for a vaccine or b) ease measures to a degree but accept a level of deaths and infections until a vaccine comes along.

[Bettyboo]

These statistics are strange, I presume it's an artefact of testing rather than Europeans and North Americans are more likely to die. Or, could it be related to treatment?

[NamPikToot]

^ Betts that's why the stats are so unreliable, testing on one hand is patchy globally and within countries and some declared stats are not even based on tests but subjective assessment on the cause of death.

[HuangLao]

^ Betts that's why the stats are so unreliable, testing on one hand is patchy globally and within countries and some declared stats are not even based on tests but subjective assessment on the cause of death.

Yeah, still in question [the world over] as to death directly associated with COVID.

More curious might be the less promoted percentage of recovery or little/mild illness - these numbers are quite overwhelming.....global 98 percentile.

[Troy]

These statistics are strange, I presume it's an artefact of testing rather than Europeans and North Americans are more likely to die. Or, could it be related to treatment?

Check the ethnicity of those that are dying in these countries. High percentage of Asians and Africans...says more about living conditions...

[Cujo]

awesome move by Trump, lockdowns don't work, so what's the point?

This is the point you unmitigated moron.

Greeks marvel at Britain's Covid chaos as their lockdown lifts after 150 deaths | World news | The Guardian

[harrybarracuda]

These statistics are strange, I presume it's an artefact of testing rather than Europeans and North Americans are more likely to die. Or, could it be related to treatment?

And whether they count people who died outside hospital, people who died of something else but tested positive post mortem, etc. etc.

Or in the case of Russia, put pneumonia as a cause of death rather than Covid.

[Dragonfly]

This is the point you unmitigated moron.

Greeks marvel at Britain's Covid chaos as their lockdown lifts after 150 deaths | World news | The Guardian

god, you really need to stop listening to stupid shit, lockdowns don't work, if it did, there will be 0 cases for the last 3 weeks, yet it never happened

the number will keep increasing until the virus decide, not us or the lockdown

[NamPikToot]