Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) (SARS-CoV-2) [2020]

Now we get the same restrictions as Belgium, schools and restaurants and sports clubs etc all closed.

 

Agreed, you'd have to be beyond morally bankrupt to even contemplate having exclusive access to any cure. It's such a disgrace.

 

Why would the US tell the company why it wanted an exclusive contract? It's irrelevant to the value proposition of the transaction, that's not how business is generally done. That's like Saudi Arabia specifically saying it wanted to bomb some Yemen civilians for a weapon order.

Without evidence or at the very least verbatim quotation, the more likely scenario is that the US simply wanted an exclusive contract and that got fake news'd. An exclusive contract avoids having to deal with grey imports, but that doesn't mean you won't export.

 

In the last 10 years of Tory control, the NHS has lost 100,000 doctors and nurses and 17,000 beds (Journal, 10 March). This has not been accidental, but deliberate, and has rendered the NHS incapable of dealing with this virus, whatever the government claims. I’m almost 82 and feeling quite chirpy. If I eventually drop off my perch thanks to the virus and the Tories’ destruction of the NHS, I intend to return and systematically haunt every guilty member of that administration on a daily basis.
Alec Murdoch
Edinburgh

 

You are definitely in the high risk age group so I hope you are safe and that you and your nearest take every conceivable precaution!

 

Went for a 25km walk in the hills today, last time we can do this for prolly at least a month.
Btw the biggest supermarket chain in Spain (prolly the others as well) will only sell a limited range of products from tomorrow, plus limiting the number of ppl allowed in at once.
Btw here Only food,medicine places will be open for the next 2 weeks at least.
So if you’re elsewhere and are thinking of buying something, perhaps do it now. eg I brought a new mobile phone last week. If I waited until next week, i’ld of been waiting a lot longer than a week

 

If this keeps up no one should have a problem meeting emissions targets.

 

Ohio, USA closes all bars and restaurants but allows for takeout and delivery.

 

Meanwhile in the world of Social Influencers ...

 

Why can't you walk in the hills zed? That MA like a perfectly good thing to do.

 

Kids ...

 

Can’t tell with this administration. I can see a country wanting complete control of vaccinations within their borders to ensure it’s readily available to its constituents for free or reasonable costs.

But to control a vaccine on a global scale seems opportunistic and self serving.

 

And considering the German government would not corroborate any of the information related to the alleged exclusive use of the vaccine by the US, I'd say it's likely that bit was a bit of sensationalism by The Guardian playing off of hatred and distrust of Trump. Alternatively the reporter may have misunderstood what they were told. /shrug.

Regards,
SB

 

I found this article refreshing in a time when some people are showing signs of panic. A close friend of mine had a huge anxiety attack just yesterday as they said, "It all feels sort of apocalyptic." as they were shopping to stock up on necessities in case they decided to self quarantine for a couple of weeks. Basically because of the empty shelves and the lack of people in the area (it's a college town where most residents are students that won't be returning after Spring Break).

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/15/exaggerating-coronavirus-doomsday-scenario-ignores/

It isn't saying to be cavalier about Covid-19 or to be irresponsible or that it isn't a deadly virus. But just keep things in context. Humanity has gone through many scary things throughout its history and it's always recovered just fine. Perhaps someday something will happen and end the human race, but this probably isn't it. And even if it is, panic about it certainly wouldn't change anything.

Be responsible, but don't live your life in fear.

All things considered, I'm glad it was Covid-19 that I contracted and not something like say Smallpox. Both potentially deadly (Smallpox was really scary before it was mostly eradicated around the world), but reading about Smallpox and seeing pictures of people that suffered from it weirds me out in a way that Covid-19 doesn't.

Regards,
SB

 

Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially and how to flatten the curve : https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/

 

Just WOW

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opin...marks-another-fail-on-coronavirus/ar-BB11e9Z6

President Donald Trump has been rightly blasted for his combination of lies and incompetence when it comes to the handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Two weeks ago he claimed that the threat posed by Covid-19 was the Democrats' new "hoax." His administration also alarmingly delayed conducting widespread testing of Americans for the virus.

Now, the jaw-dropping images from numerous US airports on Saturday night mark yet another sorry milestone in Trump's failure to address this pandemic.

Words alone can't adequately describe the jarring scenes at airports in Chicago, Dallas, and New York, where people returning to the United States from European countries affected by coronavirus were forced to stand for hours at a time virtually on top of each other. These crowds come amid non-stop calls for social distancing from healthcare experts and even Trump himself.

It resembled something from a horror movie or some dystopian universe. But it was not — it took place right here, in the United States.

What caused this pile-up of people? Simple: A lack of planning by Trump and his administration.

On Saturday night, the Trump administration's new "enhanced entry screenings" program went into effect to screen US citizens and permanent residents returning from Europe for the coronavirus. (Other travelers have mostly been barred from entering the country.)

Passengers must provide medical history and be checked for symptoms, such as a fever. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, former President Barack Obama implemented a similar testing program for people arriving to the US from areas infected with the virus. (Trump in 2014 called Obama's Ebola airport testing program a "joke" despite no reports of people stuck on line for hours).

If there had been proper planning by the Trump administration, protocols could have been put in place to ensure a smooth functioning and health conscious way to effect this new policy. Instead, it was a sea of confusion that potentially resulted in more Americans contracting the virus.

Ann Lewis Schmidt, a passenger returning from Iceland, told CNN that after arriving at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, passengers first waited in a line to have passports checked and then went on a second line to undergo medical screening.

It "seems backwards, as if someone had a fever, they should have been never allowed in these lines for four hours," Schmidt said, adding that passengers were in "very close quarters."

"So if we didn't have the virus before, we have a great chance of getting it now!"

At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, travelers were also forced to stand in long, cramped lines with some waiting up to seven hours to be screened as people around them were "coughing and sneezing."

Over at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, passengers said there was a shortage of government forms, no hand sanitizer and shared pens.

Alarmingly, at least three passengers screened at JFK on Saturday were sent to hospitals because of their symptoms, raising concerns about the virus being possibly spread to others who were trapped waiting on the long lines in tight quarters.

Potentially worse, another passenger, Kimberley Harris, told CNN that she saw passengers at the Dallas airport skipping the long medical testing line and just getting in lines where passengers didn't have to be screened, undermining the protection protocols.

 

Spain has declared everyone must remain at home unless going to buy food/medicine/going to work, anyone found breaking this curfew may/will be fined.

just the umpteenth time trump has criticized obama and then done exactly the same thing or worse, eg him criticized obama's gold playing as president but he himself played golf far more as president (though to be fair on trump he hasnt played for the last week)
Somone should start a twitter account, 'trump on trump' where his own words are used against the things he's done

Is there still no data on the death rate in Italy the ages etc?
The only data I see is the China stuff which I have near to zero faith in

 

On a lighter note, The Netherlands surely has to be one of very few countries that mentions sex clubs among the list of types of establishments along with schools, restaurants etc that are to remain closed during the lockdown ...

And this morning the lockdown seems to be mostly adhered to, as for the first time in who knows how long there are zero traffic jams ...

 

That's exactly what I was imagining for a clear visualisation.

 

How do they manage who can enter? Do hundreds of people turn up and wait in their cars? I feel people ought to be given a time slot while at home.