Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

[Aramsolari]

If the below article is correct it's disappointing and looks to be an own-goal for UK infrastructure - I just can't understand why the current incumbent don't think to spend the UK's money growing the UK's assets which it will then have ready to draw on when other crisis or even additional waves of the current crisis occur... The Corona Crisis in particular highlighted the countries best able to deal with this are ones which have a larger publicly owned asset base (cannot find the article now, sadly).

UK government 'using pandemic to transfer NHS duties to private sector'

Critics claim Matt Hancock has accelerated dismantling of state healthcare

www.theguardian.com

If it's an argument of cost I still don't see how that works. Pay for materials and someones hourly wage to do something, and you pay for the task to be done. Pay a third party contractor to do it and you pay for materials, someones hourly wage and the third party companies 30%/40%/50% margin to do the job... And then when something happens you have to pay them again rather than using the pre-existing asset.

Just can't make sense of it?

It's kinda expected from the Tories isn't it? For a moment I thought Boris Johnson would change his views about the NHS since they...well you know saved his life.

I'm a firm believer that health care should be a public affair because health is a public matter. Viruses and other diseases don't care whether you're rich or poor.

 

[August]

 

[Vavrik]

Might be a concerning trend developing in your data in the last week, something that we expect to occur in spades here in the US in the next few weeks.
I wish more countries used easy to read summaries like this though. You can see at a glance what's going on, instead of having to hunt and peck for information.

 

[Radegast74]

Remember that time ( less than 2 months ago!) when COVID-19 wasn't a big deal?

 

[Vavrik]

Remember that time ( less than 2 months ago!) when COVID-19 wasn't a big deal?
View attachment 15748

Yeah, I remember that. Only problem is we're now at 69K deaths and climbing to an estimate of 200K in the current forecast. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. to quote: Think about that!

 

[SoloFlyer]

Remember that time ( less than 2 months ago!) when COVID-19 wasn't a big deal?
View attachment 15748

well the current top level policy seems to be to wait until the shit hits the fan to turn off the fan...but never ever stop flinging the shit

 

[ColdDog]

Remember that time ( less than 2 months ago!) when COVID-19 wasn't a big deal?

I remember China telling us that it was not contagious - human to human. I remember the WHO not acting - Garbage in garbage out (that old saying). I remember Italy and Spain getting clobbered.

Models are driven by data. Bad data and lies skew the data, which is why I am so critical of the Chinese govt and the WHO. I do not blame Trump, he got dealt a crappy hand. I blame the people who could have been the real heros here, China and the WHO... but for whatever reason they dropped the ball and now the world suffers.

Models are only as good as the assumptions.

 

[Montoya]

"India has joined the game"

 

[Aramsolari]

"India has joined the game"

View attachment 15750

I was wondering when it was gonna hit India.

India, Brazil, Bangladesh, etc. Countries with areas of high population density, limited sanitation, and huge slums. Once the virus hits, it's gonna burn like wildfire.

 

[Montoya]

I remember China telling us that it was not contagious - human to human. I remember the WHO not acting

Yeah, China was trying to save face and lied to WHO, which then simply repeated what China had told them. WHO did not think China would be lying about something so potentially serious:

By Jan 20th WHO realized this was BS and tweeted:

Before the 20th it is very likely that Trump was briefed by the CDC that COVID-19 was likely transmittable.

Worst case is that he was informed by the tweet from the WHO, which is unlikely because the CDC does not wait on tweets to formulate their opinions.

After Jan 20th there is no excuse to try pass off COVID-19 as "just the flu".

Trump was not dealt a bad hand, he simply fucked up by failing to take things seriously after all the evidence we needed was right in front of us.

On Jan 20th the US and South Korea both listed their very first case of COVID-19.

One country began plans for complete lock down, the other one had a leader who a full month later (Feb 28th) was still doing political rallies calling COVID-19 a Democrat hoax.

I know that when you really love the President, its difficult to accept that he can do something wrong. Its the default reaction to defend him at all costs, but sometimes a fuck up is really just a fuck up, and this is one of those times.

 

[ColdDog]

After Jan 20th there is no excuse to try pass off COVID-19 as "just the flu".

Agreed, but this virus did not start at the Trump Tower... it started in China. US is no different than India, Ethiopia, or the UK and the US is responsible for itself, just like every other country. So when foreigners are critical of my President (even if he is a little eccentric - he is the responsibly of the US, not the UN, Canada, or China). You can blame Trump for a lot of things, but you can't blame him for this virus.

 

[Aramsolari]

Trump may have been dealt a bad hand but so has everyone else. These simple facts still stand...The US has 1.2 MILLION cases (6 times higher than the next country), and 70k deaths (over double the next). With these numbers, he's looking to reopen the country even as the model his administration uses predicts that deaths will rise to 134k due to premature relaxation of social distancing.

He was dealt a bad hand in JANUARY. That's 5 months ago. He has since stared at his hand, scribbled nonsense on his cards, and then thrown them out.

Look at countries in Asia and Europe that have been hit hard. They've since responded, enacted tough measures (have stuck with them), and are now recovering. The US on the other hand is looking to open up the country EVEN while the numbers are still trending up.

By opening up the country now, all those deaths and economic sacrifices you've already made would have been for nothing.

 

[Radegast74]

I remember China telling us that it was not contagious - human to human. I remember the WHO not acting - Garbage in garbage out (that old saying). I remember Italy and Spain getting clobbered.

Models are driven by data. Bad data and lies skew the data, which is why I am so critical of the Chinese govt and the WHO. I do not blame Trump, he got dealt a crappy hand. I blame the people who could have been the real heros here, China and the WHO... but for whatever reason they dropped the ball and now the world suffers.

Models are only as good as the assumptions.

Well, *my* memory is that China locked down an entire city on Jan 23 (which we all watched in real time), and then on January 31st we had the first reports of asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19, which was when I started wondering when the US govt. was going to get off their ass and start doing something...

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2001468?query=featured_home

COVID-19 time line:

A comprehensive timeline of the coronavirus pandemic at 1 year, from China's first case to the present

It's been a year since the first coronavirus case arose in China. More than 1.7 million people have died. Here's the full timeline.

www.businessinsider.com

Even @Jolly_Green_Giant was concerned enough to start this thread on Feb 26, but what was Trump doing? Still getting all his info from Fox News, which was totally downplaying the pandemic...I originally posted this graph on March 19, the only thing that has changed has been more useless finger-pointing by Trump at everybody but himself:

and before you start whining about this being political, it is about holding leaders accountable.

 

[ColdDog]

China locked down an entire city

Yeah and China did an outstanding job (sarcasm)!!!

430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced (Published 2020)

There were 1,300 direct flights to 17 cities before President Trump’s travel restrictions. Since then, nearly 40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers have made the trip, some this past week and many with spotty screening.

www.nytimes.com

"During the first half of January, when Chinese officials were underplaying the severity of the outbreak, no travelers from China were screened for potential exposure to the virus."

Why do you think everyone went to Italy. Because the US stopped its flights.

 

[ColdDog]

Here's another good article while we wait for my network report.

Coronavirus: Critics ask why China allowed flights out of Hubei during outbreak

China may have allowed the new coronavirus to spread across the world by allowing international flights to and from Hubei province, the epicenter of the

english.alarabiya.net

Could there be another "motive" the Chinese govt had?

"Addressing China’s President Xi Jinping directly, historian Niall Ferguson wrote in an op-ed: “... after it became clear that there was a full-blown epidemic spreading from Wuhan to the rest of Hubei province, why did you cut off travel from Hubei to the rest of China – on January 23 – but not from Hubei to the rest of the world?”

"On February 4, the Civil Aviation Administration of China requested that local airlines keep operating international flights to countries that hadn’t imposed restrictions on inbound travel, according to Reuters."

By the way... China tried to profit off the situation, which is why the world sees China as the problem, not the solution.

“China caused this disaster, but now wants to claim the credit for saving us from it. Liberally exporting testing kits (some of which don’t work) and face masks (most of which probably do, but I still got ours from Taiwan, thank you very much), the Chinese government is intent of snatching victory from the jaws of a defeat it inflicted,” said Ferguson.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

UK has now attained the highest death rate in Europe. Well, I guess we had to be world-beaters at something...

*looks at USA*

Well, I suppose we had to be the second at something...

 

[Aramsolari]

UK has now attained the highest death rate in Europe. Well, I guess we had to be world-beaters at something...

*looks at USA*

Well, I suppose we had to be the second at something...

US and UK! Brothers again!

But seriously though, hope you guys get over this soon!

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

US and UK! Brothers again!

But seriously though, hope you guys get over this soon!

We'll get there in the end, I no longer look at this as a country-by-country thing it's a world thing.

On that note, as of now (7.30pm local time) the UK part of the world has not as yet released any daily numbers for today Tuesday 5th of May.

 

[Montoya]

You can blame Trump for a lot of things, but you can't blame him for this virus.

Nobody is saying that.

There is nothing Trump could have done to prevent the virus from coming here.

But there are things he can do as leader to minimize and improve the situation going forward.

We have to look forward, not backwards.

At the moment the biggest concern I have is that states that re-open too soon get a giant second wave.

I hope its not the case, but we shall see what the numbers from Georgia look like over the next two weeks.

If cases are dropping, then we can celebrate that the worst of it is over.

 

[ColdDog]

But there are things he can do as leader to minimize and improve the situation going forward.

I agree, but hind sight is 20/20... he made the best decision he could with the data he had... at that point all models were failing. I do not understand - everyone hates US but our contributions to the world has been significant (Presidents and politicians come and go). At the same time everyone expects the US to save them as they spit in our eye. President Trump has had enough of everyone spitting in our eye then asking us for more money. This is what I see as "one" American.