The COVID-2019 Thread

[panama hat]

wisconsin anti stay at home protest have resulted in at least 75 new infections from the gathering

Thoughts and prayers helped???

[Bettyboo]

More news from the UK (& France).

The two countries have signed a reciprocal agreement to keep the virus going as long as possible...

What's the point of a partial lockdown if you have open borders??? I suppose it offers somewhere for the Chinese to holiday.

[cyrille]

The tories, like Trump, die a little every day at the thought of losing money.

[Bettyboo]

The second wave is under way...

[Loy Toy]

The second round is inevitable Betty and I have warned my entire family it is also inevitable that we all will become infected with the virus in some shape or form.

My other advise is to eat well, get a lot of restful sleep and wear a mask when out in public.

Our best defence is to become as physically healthy as possible and to suppress the symptoms.

[Seekingasylum]

Quarantining all new arrivals for 14 days in an open, developed, democratic and populous country such as the UK whose economy is based on a services sector that accounts for 80% of GDP is beyond stupidity.

Such a policy will curtail all foreign travel and frustrate business. The travel and tourist industry will be destroyed, totally. Britain will in effect return itself physically to the early 1950s.

Hang on. Hold the phone! Brexit has already turned the clock back in terms of an attitudinal re-adjustment to the time when Johnny Foreigner was put in his place and the English are now free again to be wholly English with lots of Union Jack bunting and old codgers reminding us of the good old days when the Hun got his comeuppance, so, really this new Covid quarantine regulation will simply finish the job!

Britain will be back to the golden days of holidays in Skeggie, rain in Weston-Super-Mare, donkey rides in Blackpool and fights on Brighton beach! What joy!

Bring it on.

I wonder if that braindead Priti Patel thought up the scheme.

[Seekingasylum]

The second round is inevitable Betty and I have warned my entire family it is also inevitable that we all will become infected with the virus in some shape or form.

My other advise is to eat well, get a lot of restful sleep and wear a mask when out in public.

Our best defence is to become as physically healthy as possible and to suppress the symptoms.

You are deluded. Out of, say, 100 infections around 42% may be asymptomatic, 30% will feel unwell but will recover in a week and the remaining will be in fucking torment with maybe 10% dying in hypoxic paroxysms. Sure a percentage will be old or with pre-existing debilitating illnesses but no-one as yet knows just why some float through it all while others struggle. It's genetic but then why are the young pretty much immune?

It's a lottery.

Unless you are a diabetic, geriatric smoker with COPD in which case you are a goner for sure.

[Bettyboo]

The second round is inevitable Betty and I have warned my entire family it is also inevitable that we all will become infected with the virus in some shape or form.

My other advise is to eat well, get a lot of restful sleep and wear a mask when out in public.

Our best defence is to become as physically healthy as possible and to suppress the symptoms.

Pretty good advice, LT.

I've done similar, making sure we have a healthy diet, exercising and also buying in mineral supplements. I've cut my alcohol consumption down by 75% or so too... Being healthy could well make the difference...

[baldrick]

stroking foriegn sausages does not an economy make - if tourism and service is the mainstay of your economic plan - servitude with no safety net - then you should be doomed

countries that think ahead to become leaders in technical advancement in the climate change era will prosper

[panama hat]

Probably sat there both relieved and amused that her dumbarse social media critics are out protesting without masks.

And that adults in third world countries who have never made an impact on anyone else aside from the odd bargirl find her activism 'amusing' and 'questionable'

[harrybarracuda]

Bad news from Blighty, the pubs won't be open before July 4th.

[Dragonfly]

for our self-righteous blowhards who claim to know everything about COVID-19, here is some interesting angle that could question everything we think we know

Didier Raoult - Wikipedia

On 17 March 2020, Raoult announced in an online video that a trial involving 24 patients from the south east of France supported the claim that Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin were effective in treating for COVID-19.[78] On 20 March he published a preliminary report of his study onlne in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.[79] The French Health Minister, Olivier Véran, was reported as announcing that "new tests will now go ahead in order to evaluate the results by Professor Raoult, in an attempt to independently replicate the trials and ensure the findings are scientifically robust enough, before any possible decision might be made to roll any treatment out to the wider public".[80] In direct reference to the study conducted by Raoult and the possible health ramifications, Véran went on to state: "Dr. Raoult’s study involves 24 people. What kind of health minister would I be if, on the basis of a single study conducted on 24 people, I told French people to take a medicine that could lead to cardiac complications in some people?"[81] The French media also reported that the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi had offered French authorities millions of doses of the drug for use against COVID-19.[80] On 3 April the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, which publishes the journal, issued a statement that the report on the non-blind, non-randomized study "does not meet the Society’s expected standard, especially relating to the lack of better explanations of the inclusion criteria and the triage of patients to ensure patient safety."[82]

Raoult, who was one of 11 prominent scientists named on 11 March to a committee to advise on scientific matters pertaining to the epidemic in France, left the committee criticising its members for "not knowing what they were talking about". He defended chloroquine as a drug that has suddenly been declared dangerous after having been safely used for 80 years.

and for the usual idiots claiming to know better:

Awards

2002 : European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Excellence Award (France)
2003 : Jean Valade Prize (Fondation pour la recherche médicale, France)
2005 : Medical grand round (Chicago, USA)
2008 : Sackler International Prize (Tel Aviv University)
2009 : Eloi Collery Prize (Académie Nationale de Médecine)
2010 : Inserm Prize (France)
2015 : Grand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Louis D. (Institut de France)

[OhOh]

Whistleblower Details How Trump’s Bureaucrats Refused to Secure N95 Masks as Pandemic Loomed

"A whistleblower complaint filed earlier this week partially solves the mystery of how the country with the most expensive health care system on earth wound up unable to provide enough face masks to protect its workers. The report from Rick Bright, who was ousted from his job as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a division of Health and Human Services, in April, also provides a new villain in the tragic saga of the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis: Robert Kadlec.

Though officially tasked with quickly mobilizing a national response to public health crises, Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response and formerly Bright’s boss, is described in the report as a petty tyrant who ignored, mocked, and thwarted Bright’s repeated efforts to address the imminent shortage of masks and other personal protective equipment in January and February, as the virus began spreading across the country.

In a lengthy, detailed account that reads like a script from a horror movie and will likely earn Kadlec the lasting enmity of everyone who has lost a front-line worker to the virus, Bright lays out a series of unsuccessful and increasingly desperate attempts to push Kadlec and HHS Secretary Alex Azar to recognize and address the looming shortage of personal protective equipment. The attempts to call attention to the crisis began in mid-January, when Bright, a virologist who has spent decades in government preparing for public health emergencies, called for a senior-level meeting to coordinate the response to the coming pandemic.

But Bright’s bosses were unconvinced of the need for the meeting of the “disaster leadership group.” In a January 18 email, Kadlec responded to Bright’s suggestion that he was “not sure if that is a time sensitive urgency.”

Among the concerns Bright repeatedly raised to Kadlec was the need for N95 face masks, which are used to protect health care workers from infectious diseases. Bright, who had served as head of BARDA since 2016, realized that the masks and other equipment would be in short supply.

On January 21, Mike Bowen, co-owner of Prestige Ameritech, the largest surgical mask producing company in the U.S., contacted Bright to express concern about the shortage of the masks.

In an email sent the following day, Bowen offered a solution. “He explained that Prestige Ameritech had four N95 manufacturing lines that were currently not operational, but could be reactivated ‘in a dire situation and with government help,’” according to the whistleblower report. But Bright couldn’t get sign-off from his boss, Kadlec, to get the emergency production started.

The problem partly stemmed from long-simmering tensions between Bright and Kadlec. According to the complaint, since he was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, Kadlec had repeatedly pushed Bright to award government contracts to politically connected companies, including one tied to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Prior to that, Kadlec had served on the staff of Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who is now best known for dumping his stocks while assuring the public about the coronavirus.

In any case, Kadlec did not take kindly to Bright’s urgent pleas about the pandemic. On January 23, the disaster leadership group finally met. Bright spoke about the fact that BARDA didn’t have funds available to address the emerging epidemic, as well as his concern that he would be forced to redirect funds from existing projects until new funding was made available.

But at that meeting and another held that day, both Kadlec and Azar seemed surprised by Bright’s level of alarm, according to the report. While Bright described the dire need for action and supplies, Kadlec and Azar “asserted that the United States would be able to contain the virus and keep it out of the United States. Secretary Azar further indicated that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] would look at the issue of travel bans to keep the virus contained.”

Rather than getting a response from his superiors, Bright’s urgency got him excluded from the next meeting about the coronavirus. According to the complaint, Bryan Shuy, Kadlec’s chief of staff, told Bright after the meeting that his request for urgent funding set off “quite a shit storm” and had offended HHS leadership.

“Rick, I think we’re in deep shit. The world.”

Meanwhile, Bowen, the co-owner of the mask company, continued to email Bright about the mask shortage, explaining that his company was getting requests from China and that nearly half of the masks in the U.S. are imported from Chinese manufacturers. “If the supply stops, US hospital will run out of masks. No way to prevent it,” Bowen warned in a January 25 email.

That night, Bright emailed Kadlec about the problem. “Hearing face mask supply is also getting very low as China and HK trying to procure,” he wrote to his boss. “I’ve alerted [Critical Infrastructure Protection, a division of HHS over which Kadlec has authority] on this throughout week. May need to consider options here also before things are gone.”

On January 27, after several emails to Bright, Bowen, who had yet to receive authorization to proceed with mask production, sent another email, saying, “Rick, I think we’re in deep shit. The world.” That same day, although the agency hadn’t addressed the severe mask shortage, an HHS spokesperson told Axios that the Strategic National Stockpile, a collection of lifesaving supplies for public health emergencies, which is overseen by BARDA, “holds millions of face masks as well as N95 respirators that could be used if needed in responding to a public health emergency when local supplies are exhausted and aren’t available from commercial suppliers.”

Two days later, still without a contract, Bowen sent yet another desperate email. “This week, we sent 1,000,000 masks to China and Hong Kong,” he wrote to Bright. “I think China will cut off masks to the USA. If so, US hospitals are going to have a very rough time, as up to half of the supply is made in China. A horrible situation will become unbearable.”

On February 7, Bright made the case for ramping up federal production of N95 masks at a meeting of the disaster leadership group but was shot down. While Bright again warned of imminent shortages, two members of Kadlec’s staff, Laura Wolf and Jessica Falcon, told him that there was no need for immediate action.

“Dr. Wolf and Dr. Falcon responded that the plan was to monitor for any supply chain issues and, if needed, ask the CDC to update its guidelines to tell people who ‘don’t need’ masks to not buy them,” as Bright’s complaint explains.

After weeks of being foiled by his superiors, Bright met on Saturday and Sunday, February 8 and 9, with Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who seemed to share his urgency about the need for masks. The two drafted a memo sent to the White House coronavirus task force that called for the U.S. to immediately halt the export of N95 masks and ramp up production.

But Kadlec did not seem to appreciate being subject to a directive that had clearly come from Bright, who was both a longtime adversary and beneath him in the pecking order. Rather than acknowledge that thousands of lives were at stake and immediately swing into action, the assistant secretary of disaster preparedness complained to his colleagues about Bright going above his head, referring in emails to Bright’s “weekend at Peter’s” and calling Navarro “Rick’s friend” in the White House.

On February 25, more than a month after Bowen’s first email, Azar testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee that the Strategic National Stockpile had only 30 million masks. That number is less than one one-hundredth of the 3.5 billion that a specialized group within HHS that focuses on the risk from viral outbreaks has estimated are necessary.

On March 4, as increasing numbers of health care workers were becoming sick and dying from the coronavirus, HHS finally put in a request for 500 million N95 face masks. Meanwhile, Kushner was assembling a team of handpicked corporate volunteers to procure protective equipment. The group, which included recent college graduates who had no experience with disaster response or supply procurement, had little success, according to the Washington Post, which first reported on the team.

That same month, as Bright predicted, BARDA was forced to stop its work addressing other potential public health emergencies in order to have enough money to fund its coronavirus efforts. As The Intercept reported at the time, BARDA suspended projects aimed at preventing anthrax, Sudan Ebola virus, Marburg virus, smallpox, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and antimicrobial resistant threats so that it could redirect its funds to buy supplies to fight the current emergency.

Later that month, BARDA received its first direct funding: $3.5 billion specifically for addressing Covid-19. In the past, its budget had fallen within that of the assistant secretary for disaster preparedness. This time, Bright would be able to use the new money without having to go through Kadlec.

But the freedom was shortlived. On April 17, Kadlec informed Bright that he was being transferred to a position within the National Institutes of Health. Asked on his whistleblower complaint form why he thinks he was retaliated against, Bright wrote that “I pushed for a more aggressive agency response to COVID-19. My supervisor became furious when Congress appropriated billions of dollars directly to my office.”

The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

https://theintercept.com/2020/05/07/...r-hhs-n95-ppe/

[SKkin]

WTAF...

Spot the robot dog patrolling and monitoring for safe distancing in Singapore park. I think this is the robot dog built by Boston Dynamics. BD used to be owned by Google.

[misskit]

Six new COVID-19 cases recorded in Thailand today

Thailand reported six new COVID-19 cases today, including the four previously unofficial cases reported in Phuket yesterday, bringing the cumulative total to 3,015. No new fatalities were reported.


Among the new cases, in the southern resort province of Phuket, is a police officer from Patong police station, who tested positive for the virus on May 2nd after he developed a fever and sore throat. His confirmed infection has led to the quarantining of 24 colleagues in the police station.


The fifth case is a 6-year old boy living in Narathiwat, who was infected when he tended to his sick father in hospital. The sixth infection is a 22-year old Thai man, who is reported to have been in contact with infected people returning from Malaysia.


Cumulative recoveries have increased to 2,796, accounting for 92.74% of all infections, while 163 others are still hospitalized. The country’s death toll remains at 56.


CCSA spokesman Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin said today that the number of provinces which have reported no new infections for the past 28 days has increased from 45 to 46, with the latest being the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom.


Despite the steady slowing of the spread of the deadly virus, Dr. Taweesin reminded the public not to lower their guard or become complacent, citing the recent resurgence of the disease in China and South Korea.


He said that 31 new infections have been reported in the past ten days in Xulan city in Jilin province, shortly after China eased lockdown measures across the country. In South Korea, 69 new cases have been reported in the past few days, prompting health officials to conduct contact tracing of about 1,500 people.


Wuhan, the origin of COVID-19 outbreak in China, reported its first new cluster of infections today, since a lockdown of the city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease.


Dr. Rungruang Kitphadee, spokesman for Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health, has warned that the deadly virus will definitely stage a comeback, in second and third waves of the outbreak, if the public becomes complacent.


In his Facebook post yesterday, he said that he is very worried that an increasing number of people are ignoring stay-at-home advice, as evident in the increasing traffic congestion in Bangkok, and more are people not wearing face masks in public.


He said that the slowing rate of new infections does not mean that the threat has eased, as he urged an escalated Active Case Finding campaign and reminded the public to observe the new normal practices strictly, such as social distancing, the wearing of face masks in public, regular hand washing with sanitizers or soap and avoiding congested places.

Six new COVID-19 cases recorded in Thailand today – Thai PBS World

[misskit]

^^ That is just weird! I’d run from it too.

[misskit]

New Zealand to reopen malls, cafes from Thursday as virus curbs eased

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand businesses including malls, cinemas, cafes and gyms will reopen on Thursday after some of the tightest restrictions in the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus were further loosened on Monday.


The Pacific nation was locked down for more than month under “level 4” restrictions that were eased by a notch in late April. It has continued to enforce strict social measures on many of its citizens and businesses, helping prevent widespread community spread of the virus.


Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the staggered move to “level 2” restrictions will mean retail, restaurants and other public spaces including playgrounds can reopen from Thursday.


Schools can open from next Monday while bars can only reopen from May 21, Ardern said. Gatherings would be limited to 10 people.


“The upshot is that in 10 days’ time we will have reopened most businesses in New Zealand, and sooner than many other countries around the world,” Ardern told a news conference.


“But that fits with our plan – go hard, go early – so we can get our economy moving again sooner, and so we get the economic benefit of getting our health response right.”


Businesses will be required to have physical distancing and strict hygiene measures in place.


Air New Zealand announced it would resume seven more domestic routes when the country enters alert level 2.


International travel, however, would not be possible as borders will remain closed except for returning New Zealanders.


The measures would be reviewed again in two weeks, Ardern said.


The government plans to introduce a new law that would allow authorities to enforce physical distancing and control gatherings of people after questions were raised about the legality of lockdown rules.


Three new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, were confirmed on Monday, the health ministry said in a statement.


The cases – two hospital nurses and one related to overseas travel – bring New Zealand’s total confirmed COVID-19 infections to 1,147, the ministry said, adding that 93% of all confirmed and probable cases have recovered.


The government will unveil its annual budget on Thursday, and has warned the country would run fiscal deficits for years while debt will increase to levels well beyond previous targets due to its economic support measures.


Ardern has been under pressure to ease the lockdown measures with the main opposition National Party saying they were kept on for too long, crippling several small businesses and hurting the economy.


People who could not make it to weddings, funerals or even visit loved ones had also called on the government to ease curbs sooner.

New Zealand to reopen malls, cafes from Thursday as virus curbs eased – Thai PBS World

[cyrille]

I’d run from it too.

Used as the 'aliens' in the recent French version of 'War of the Worlds', which can't have helped its image.

[HermantheGerman]

for our self-righteous blowhards who claim to know everything about COVID-19, here is some interesting angle that could question everything we think we know

Didier Raoult - Wikipedia

On 17 March 2020, Raoult announced in an online video that a trial involving 24 patients from the south east of France supported the claim that Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin were effective in treating for COVID-19.[78] On 20 March he published a preliminary report of his study onlne in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.[79] The French Health Minister, Olivier Véran, was reported as announcing that "new tests will now go ahead in order to evaluate the results by Professor Raoult, in an attempt to independently replicate the trials and ensure the findings are scientifically robust enough, before any possible decision might be made to roll any treatment out to the wider public".[80] In direct reference to the study conducted by Raoult and the possible health ramifications, Véran went on to state: "Dr. Raoult’s study involves 24 people. What kind of health minister would I be if, on the basis of a single study conducted on 24 people, I told French people to take a medicine that could lead to cardiac complications in some people?"[81] The French media also reported that the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi had offered French authorities millions of doses of the drug for use against COVID-19.[80] On 3 April the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, which publishes the journal, issued a statement that the report on the non-blind, non-randomized study "does not meet the Society’s expected standard, especially relating to the lack of better explanations of the inclusion criteria and the triage of patients to ensure patient safety."[82]

Raoult, who was one of 11 prominent scientists named on 11 March to a committee to advise on scientific matters pertaining to the epidemic in France, left the committee criticising its members for "not knowing what they were talking about". He defended chloroquine as a drug that has suddenly been declared dangerous after having been safely used for 80 years.

and for the usual idiots claiming to know better:

Awards

2002 : European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Excellence Award (France)
2003 : Jean Valade Prize (Fondation pour la recherche médicale, France)
2005 : Medical grand round (Chicago, USA)
2008 : Sackler International Prize (Tel Aviv University)
2009 : Eloi Collery Prize (Académie Nationale de Médecine)
2010 : Inserm Prize (France)
2015 : Grand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Louis D. (Institut de France)

There seems to be only one idiot here
......Both withdrew in 2018, after Raoult proved a despotic tyrant who allowed sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying to happen in his institute (read more here). There is also a history of data manipulation, for which Raoult himself was made responsible in 2006. Bik found even more irregularities in his papers, which makes sense: a bullying and totalitarian research environment with a personality cult, where compliance and fear rule, can only produce unreliable or falsified research. .....

Chloroquine witchdoctor Didier Raoult: barking mad and dangerous – For Better Science

Chloroquine genius Didier Raoult to save the world from COVID-19 – For Better Science

https://www.hebdo-ardeche.fr/photos/maxi/9993.jpg

[misskit]

Malaysian PM Extends COVID-19 Lockdown till June 9

[SKkin]

Nice...maybe they can buy some robot dogs to help with this. Or Black Mirror Metalhead.

H.R.6666 - COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act
Introduced in House (05/01/2020)

116th CONGRESS 2d Session

H. R. 6666

To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID–19, and related activities such as contact tracing, through mobile health units and, as necessary, at individuals’ residences, and for other purposes.

Text - H.R.6666 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

[OhOh]

World Health Organisation denies China influence allegations

"The World Health Organization on Sunday denied allegations that the president of China asked it to delay issuing a global warning about the Covid-19 virus amid an intensifying war of words between Beijing and Washington over the handling of the pandemic. Der Speigel on Friday cited sources in Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) saying that Xi Jinping, China's head of state, had asked Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organisation, to withhold information about human-to-human transmission and delay sounding a global alarm.

The WHO said in a statement that the report was "unfounded and untrue."
"Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on 21 January and they have never spoken by telephone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO’s and the world’s efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic," it said in a statement....

Continues ....

World Health Organisation denies China influence allegationsIt appears the allegation have been officialy denied.

[misskit]

Russia's Coronavirus Cases Surge Past 220K in Latest One-Day Record Spike

Russia confirmed 11,656 new coronavirus infections Monday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 221,344 and marking a new one-day record increase.


Russia now has the world's second-fastest rate of new infections behind the United States. It is the third most-affected country in terms of infections.


Ninety-four people died over the past 24 hours, bringing the total toll to 2,009.

MORE Russia's Coronavirus Cases Surge Past 220K in Latest One-Day Record Spike - The Moscow Times

[misskit]

'A breaking point': Anti-lockdown efforts during Spanish flu offer a cautionary tale for coronavirus


Opposition to public health directives forced some cities to roll back orders too quickly.

'''A breaking point''': Anti-lockdown efforts during Spanish flu offer a cautionary tale for coronavirus

[misskit]

Predicted Covid-19 US death toll keeps rising with states reopening and more people moving around

A leading model has increased its US coronavirus death toll projection again as governors continue lifting measures toward a reopening.


The model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington now forecasts more than 137,000 Americans will die by early August.


That rise is largely due to Americans moving around more, IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray said in a news release, adding that in some places the upward trend in movement began before statewide measures were relaxed. Researchers tracked that movement through anonymous cell phone data, according to the release.

MORE Predicted Covid-19 US death toll keeps rising with states reopening and more people moving around - CNN