The COVID-2019 Thread

[Warwick]

I think we are near the time when the world will simply have to accept the new reality that life expectancy in developed countries has been significantly shortened for hundreds of millions globally and there it is.

Partly true. But I think the lesson for the UK (and if what my Swedish friends tell me is true, there also) is avoid being confined in a care home at all costs.

Statistics and emotional headlines are being thrown about with abandon, but the UK mortality figures show that for those of the population under 50 this is really not a threat worth wreaking the economy for.

[cyrille]

Ah yes! We must put the economy ahead of human lives.

Well, other human's lives, anyway.

And I fail to see what is wrong with my suggestion that furloughed workers could pick fruit just as well as unemployed ones.

The truth is that if this government had been competent in February and March then yes, people could be heading back to work in some numbers with acceptable risk.

It was not, so they cannot.

[Dragonfly]

And I fail to see what is wrong with my suggestion that furloughed workers could pick fruit just as well as unemployed ones.

[Warwick]

Ah yes! We must put the economy ahead of human lives.

Well, other human's lives, anyway.

And I fail to see what is wrong with my suggestion that furloughed workers could pick fruit just as well as unemployed ones.

The truth is that if this government had been competent in February and March then yes, people could be heading back to work in some numbers with acceptable risk.

When anyone leads a sentence with 'The truth is' you can be certain the writer is talking out of his/her opinionated arse.

But do tell us what action would you have had the UK gov make in Feb and Mar that would allowed some people to go back to work now.

Unfortunately Cyrille, in the real world difficult decisions sometimes have to be made.

I've lost two friends by the way, one directly from CV-19 in a care home and another from suicide when his business was destroyed - putting lives before the economy didn't help him much.

[cyrille]

But do tell us what action would you have had the UK gov make in Feb and Mar that would allowed some people to go back to work now.

*sigh*

Do you really still not know?

Do you read the newspapers?

Unbelievable. You still don't know what even the charges are against this government, never mind whether they are valid or not?

OK.

Here goes...

1) The should have banned all opportunities for 'super spreading' at major events, particularly sports events like the Cheltenham gold cup which had a quarter of a million attendees. Also the Liverpool vs Athletico Madrid football match.

2) They should not have moved 'recovered' Covid patients into care homes s quickly as they did.

3) They should have secured adequate supplies of PPE. The UK government was invited to do this in tandem with an EU purchase, which they declined.

4) They should have been more organised on testing and tracking. Just yesterday Bojo was saying that on June the First the UK would have the 'best testing and tracking in the world'. Less than 24 hours later it has been conceded this will not happen. Yet more of his 'bullshit first, be informed second' approach.

5) They should not have presided over a decade of running down the health service.

It really beggars belief that you're unaware of these charges. You actually thought you'd show me up by asking, didn't you. There are more. I suggest you appraise yourself and stop giving away how utterly clueless you are.

[bowie]

From the not so fast files…

Redacted to reduce size

U.S. scientist warns coronavirus vaccine not guaranteed as worldwide cases hit 5 million - AOL News

U.S. scientist warns coronavirus vaccine not guaranteed as worldwide cases hit 5 million

NBC NEWS: LINDA GIVETASH AND REUTERS May 21st 2020 9:43AM

A top U.S. scientist behind groundbreaking research in cancer and HIV/AIDS is warning that a vaccine for the coronavirus may never be found, as the number of global COVID-19 infections surged past 5 million on Thursday.

William Haseltine, who has also worked on human genome projects, said that while a COVID-19 vaccine could be developed, “I wouldn’t count on it.” Instead, he told Reuters, countries beginning to reverse lockdown measures need to lean on careful tracing of infections and strict isolation measures to control the spread.

Such an approach has proved successful in some countries that have minimized the spread, but worldwide, the numbers continue to climb. More than 328,000 people have died due to the virus while 5,001,494 have been infected, according to Johns Hopkins University as of Thursday morning.

The United States accounts for 94,083 of those fatalities and more than 1.5 million cases, according to NBC News' tracking — the highest reported totals for any one country.

A race to develop a vaccine is underway at labs across the globe. Britain's Oxford University has trials underway that if successful could see a vaccine available by September, while in the U.S., Massachusetts-based firm Moderna announced this week its first round of testing of a vaccine were strong enough to move ahead to a larger second trial.

These developments are crucial. The World Health Organization announced Wednesday that the world saw its highest increase in reported cases in a 24-hour period with 106,000 new infections.

However, Haseltine cautioned vaccines developed for other types of coronavirus in the past failed to protect mucous membranes in the nose where the virus typically enters the body. And while tests on animals of some experimental COVID-19 vaccines had been able to reduce the viral load in organs like lungs, the infections remained.

[harrybarracuda]

I wonder if they stuck their tongues out and went "Ner Ner Nee Ner Ner" as well.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) declined a shipment of medical supplies sent by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) via Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport, Palestinian news agency Maan reported Thursday.

The PA rejected the shipment, which included 14 tonnes of medical aid for coping with coronavirus, just as it arrived on Tuesday, according to the report as cited by the Andalou Agency.

“The UAE authorities did not coordinate with the State of Palestine before sending the aid,” government sources told Maan. “Palestinians refuse to be a bridge [for Arab countries] seeking to have normalized ties with Israel.”

An Israeli official said the flight, which belongs to the UAE's flag-carrier Etihad Airways, would be delivering humanitarian aid provided by the UAE to the Palestinians through the World Food Program, and that the cargo flight was coordinated with the Israeli government. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

This marked the first known direct commercial flight between the UAE and Israel, which have no official diplomatic relations.

However, it is an initial open moment of cooperation between the countries after years of rumored back-channel discussions between them over the mutual enmity of Iran.

According to a statement from the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the UN-coordinated a 14-tonne shipment of "urgent medical supplies" from the UAE to help curb the spread of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories.

"The aid includes personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment. Most notably, it includes 10 ventilators that are acutely needed," the statement read.

It was not immediately clear whether the 14 tonnes of aid were transported on the Tuesday Etihad cargo flight. Etihad was not mentioned in the UNSCO statement.

This marks the first known direct commercial flight between the nations, which have no official diplomatic relations.

However, it is an initial open moment of cooperation between the countries after years of rumored back-channel discussions between them over the mutual enmity of Iran.

Etihad, a state-owned, long-haul carrier, confirmed it had a flight Tuesday to Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport.

“Etihad Airways operated a dedicated humanitarian cargo flight from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv on 19 May to provide medical supplies to the Palestinians,” the airline said. “The flight had no passengers on board.”

The extent of Gulf Arab ties with Israel is still mostly kept private, though. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have allegedly used Israeli spyware to go after government critics.

Oman, which has ties with Iran, hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a surprise visit in 2018 that served to remind Washington of its unique ability to be a conduit for talks.

First published: 17:02 , 05.21.20

PA rejects UAE'''s coronavirus aid sent via Israel

[harrybarracuda]

U.S. gives AstraZeneca $1.2 billion to fund Oxford University coronavirus vaccine — America would get 300 million doses beginning in October

U.S. gives AstraZeneca $1.2 billion to fund Oxford University coronavirus vaccine — America would get 300 million doses beginning in October - MarketWatch

[Chittychangchang]

Astra Zeneca shares and employees are doing very well.

[David48atTD]

The five most popular coronavirus fact checks

The International Fact-Checking Network’s database of coronavirus fact checks, created to combat misinformation about the virus and to track the efforts of the network’s signatories, has hit a milestone 5,000 fact checks.

Leading the five most popular fact checks was an investigation by Maldita.es into a WhatsApp message claiming that Pope Francis had instructed believers to put a white cloth on their doorsteps to protect them from the plague. They found no evidence of any such advice in the Pope’s public appearances and statements.

The Spanish outlet also debunked several of the coronavirus-related claims made by disgraced virologist Judy Mikovits in the viral video "Plandemic", which we looked at last week.

[jabir]

Ah yes! We must put the economy ahead of human lives.

Well, other human's lives, anyway.

And I fail to see what is wrong with my suggestion that furloughed workers could pick fruit just as well as unemployed ones.

The truth is that if this government had been competent in February and March then yes, people could be heading back to work in some numbers with acceptable risk.

It was not, so they cannot.

At some point govs have to consider the economy; if that goes a lot more human lives will go with it. Fex, ebola is alive and well and killing people several decades after it kicked off; no vaccine, and we've learned to coexist, which is easier with something that's killing wogs that we don't need to hear about. Maybe in the end covid-19 will take a similar course, leave the advanced countries and pillage lives in Africa or somewhere with not so much resistance.

I don't care to guess what's right or wrong, since you established earlier on that there is a right strategy to meet all conditions which only you know about, but if you need to talk about truth then the truth is the Brits were slow to act and complacent, incompetent and squandered weeks during which the virus was allowed to take a firm grip. But that's what we have, and no gov can implement what has to be a fluid strategy on the basis of what the situation would have been had they acted differently. They screwed up plain and simple, and now have to deal with the facts on the ground.

I suspect the epilogue and collective hand wringing will run longer than the virus.

[nidhogg]

Fex, ebola is alive and well and killing people several decades after it kicked off; no vaccine, and we've learned to coexist, .

Actually, there is a commercially available, FDA approved vaccine for Ebola that has been highly sucessful.

[David48atTD]

Former White House butler Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, who served 11 US presidents over 55 years, dies from coronavirus

Key points:

• Wilson Jerman began his White House career in 1957 when Dwight Eisenhower was president
• Jackie Kennedy had him promoted from cleaner to butler in the early 1960s
• Michelle Obama said Mr Jerman showed "kindness and care"

Mr Jerman's career began in 1957 with the Dwight Eisenhower administration and ended under Barack Obama in 2012.


RIP Mr Jerman

Former White House butler Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, who served 11 US presidents over 55 years, dies from coronavirus - ABC News

[jabir]

Actually, there is a commercially available, FDA approved vaccine for Ebola that has been highly sucessful.

Yes, and I should have used HIV as the example, 32m dead and counting, rather than ebola which has very few incidents scattered around mainly Africa.

[Cujo]

Yes, and I should have used HIV as the example, 32m dead and counting,

And mostly the gays. And COVID is killing blacks at a disproportionate rate. Hmmm.... What's going on here??

[cyrille]

And mostly the gays. And COVID is killing blacks at a disproportionate rate. Hmmm.... What's going on here??

Infantile prejudice?

[Loy Toy]

The great global disaster will be when vaccines will be available for every virus and disease and most will live into their late eighties and nineties.

In my opinion those in power will withhold most vaccines as this world cannot sustain such global population growth.

[Cujo]

Haven't heard from Fauci in a while.

[baldrick]

was he black and gay ?

[bowie]

Well, judging from the tread shown in the graph below, we have a very good grip on Covid...

[Dragonfly]

the US is doing fine at the moment, should reach 150,000 deaths to make it comparable to European countries stats

[Dragonfly]

Haven't heard from Fauci in a while.

thank god, it's not like he is helping anyhow

[nidhogg]

[AntRobertson]

[sabang]

Something for you to look forward to elsewhere- life is returning to normality here in Adelaide, or some semblance thereof. Pubs & restaurants now allowed to open and sell food & drink. Limit of 10 people inside, ten outside though, and social distancing rules apply. We've had no confirmed cases of Covid for a fortnight, and the last hospitalised person was let go yesterday- looking very frail!

Soon enough we will be dealing with the aftermath, which will lake years.