Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[Easo]

In Estonia we have similar situation: from 0-1 to 8, 8, 2.

Only 2 of them weren't traced. Most of new cases are related to people coming from Russia, many of whom did self quarantine and didn't infect others, few did infect their family members. So not a big deal and it seems to be contained.

Not sure if there is no need to worry... But yes, it is people traveling around.
We just resumed bunch of restrictions starting from today, I am really surprised about our goverment having enough will to do that.

[Omega10]

And in some mixed news, Texas Governor Gregg Abbot is raising the specter of another lockdown if things don't improve - https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07...mpression=true

Upside: If it's needed, maybe Texas can stop it before it gets completely out of control.

Downside: It's bad enough that going back on lockdown is a serious consideration.

Well it seems to be getting quite bad in Texas.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/vi...W1Q?li=BBnb7Kz

Title: Virus surge visible across Texas: 'The tsunami is here'

Brutal Excerpts

The summary:

Urgent calls for field hospitals. Cars lined up for hours at drive-thru testing centers. Bars boarded up and grocery stores enforcing masks.

And the details:

The crush of patients at border hospitals is one alarming new sight in Texas. In rural Starr County, which has one hospital and no intensive care unit, County Judge Eloy Vera said Friday that doctors were down to two ventilators and that the local health director was calling around the country looking for places to send their most severe virus patients. “There aren't any hospitals in Texas that would take them, so he was looking at maybe sending them to New York. It's bad,” Vera said.

He said the county is also seeking a refrigerated trailer to store the dead because the local funeral home already had seven or eight bodies waiting to be processed — more than it could handle at one time.

The escalating crisis led members of Texas' congressional delegation to ask Health and Human Services Secretary Alez Azar for a field hospital in the Rio Grande Valley as soon as possible. Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas also signed the letter, writing there was “no indication that case counts will level out soon.”

“Our healthcare providers remain wholly overwhelmed,” the letter says.

and:

A resurgence of long lines for virus tests in Texas has also been accompanied by delays in getting results. Veronica Seever, co-owner of Leaf Landscaping Supply in Austin, said she and her family received their COVID-19 test results Tuesday after a 14-day wait.

Seever went with her husband and 16-year-old son to get tested at an urgent care clinic east of Austin after two of their employees tested positive. She said all three of them had to miss eight days of work during their 14-day self-isolation period, with no results in sight.

Texas has some tough times ahead.

[Edge-]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/john-...b67a80bc0702f4

“We still don’t know whether children can get it and transmit it to others,” Cornyn, who is up for reelection this year, said in an interview with local TV station NBC 5 when asked about schools reopening this fall.

Children, being people, are capable of catching and transmitting the virus. I'm not sure where the fuck an elected official would get such a batshit crazy notion that children are somehow immune.

Someone should let him know that 11,000 children have tested positive for the virus in Florida - https://www.wtxl.com/news/coronaviru...rus-in-florida

America is not capable of effectively combating a pandemic.

[Gorsameth]

And in some mixed news, Texas Governor Gregg Abbot is raising the specter of another lockdown if things don't improve - https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07...mpression=true

Upside: If it's needed, maybe Texas can stop it before it gets completely out of control.

Downside: It's bad enough that going back on lockdown is a serious consideration.

Hospitals in Texas are already reaching capacity. They should have been in lockdown 2 weeks ago so the curve would start flattening now.

The fact that they are toying with the idea of going into lockdown isn't worthy of praise. this is beyond Italy levels of late.

[bmjclark]

Close to 69k cases today in the US. New record for cases was set in Georgia. Georgia has kind of flown under the radar as far as media attention goes but some Georgian hospitals are near capacity now.

EDIT: It just got updated, 71k today. That 100k prediction from Fauci is coming up sooner than later i think.

[Breccia]

Posted without further comment.

WHO says countries may have to return to "total lockdown," after cases double worldwide in 6 weeks

Country-wide lockdowns may not be a thing of the past, according to the World Health Organization. Global coronavirus cases continue to climb, with over 12 million now reported worldwide – more than double the amount of confirmed cases reported six weeks ago.


Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference Friday that countries may have to go into lockdown again — or for the first time.

"We all want to avoid whole countries going back into total lockdown, that is not a desire that anybody has," he said. "But there may be situations in which that is the only option."

Ryan called whether or not mass lockdowns will again be required the "fundamental question" facing every community, and every society.

"Once lockdowns were ended there was always the risk that the disease could bounce back," he said.

The WHO has advised countries to open slowly, paying close attention to their data to move cautiously between different phases of reopening. Ryan said countries should be "ready to move backwards or forwards" depending on the numbers they are seeing.

"Accept the fact that in our current situation it is very unlikely that we can eradicate or eliminate this virus," he said, noting that this gives the virus an opportunity to reemerge.

Ryan compared coronavirus outbreaks to forest fires. Small fires, he said, are easy to put out but difficult to recognize. He advised every country and community to implement a system where it can detect the "small embers," allowing it to only lock down small areas in order to contain the virus.

"When the virus is present there is a risk of spread," he said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO's emerging diseases unit, echoed Ryan's analogy. "We know how quickly these embers can turn into forest fires," she said, adding that it's something we all need to anticipate.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Color me surprised that many of the countries doing hard lockdowns, now end up with a second wave as they've opened up...

I cannot even overstate just how low my thoughts about vacationers have become... I especially looove the ones going to a country, only to then whine about how "nothing's like it should be" with shuttered establishments and restrictions in the societies...

[Crissi]

Im wondering if it'll even be safe to move in 2 months... >.<

[Gorsameth]

Im wondering if it'll even be safe to move in 2 months... >.<

Based on historical president?
No, 3-4 months if they took actual lockdown measures now but since that still isn't happening its going to take even longer.

[PhaelixWW]

Exactly, which is done on a microscopic level, not hiding in the basement.

Don't be obtuse; when there's a fucking hurricane, self-preservation dictates that you hide in the fucking basement.

Doing anything else is the equivalent of an evolutionary cul-de-sac.

[PhaelixWW]

wtf... i never hide in the basement during a bad storm...

You live in, what, Sweden, too, right? Tell me, when's the last time you've had experience with a hurricane?

And no, a hurricane is not just a "bad storm".

[Grapemask]

Close to 69k cases today in the US. New record for cases was set in Georgia. Georgia has kind of flown under the radar as far as media attention goes but some Georgian hospitals are near capacity now.

EDIT: It just got updated, 71k today. That 100k prediction from Fauci is coming up sooner than later i think.

Yep, our ICUs are basically at full capacity here in Georgia now. There are technically about 25% remaining, but that's across the whole state - extra beds tucked away in rural counties don't do much good for urban patients that are crashing now. The state's converted a convention center into a porta-hospital, but otherwise, Kemp has done nothing at all to address this. Cities are choosing to fend for themselves and hoping Kemp doesn't enforce the fine print of his executive order that local governments could not issue additional orders beyond the statewide order he gave a few months back.

And the private sector isn't helping. No one has voluntarily re-closed despite the numbers. Everything is 100% open and just pretending the virus is gone.

We'll probably see the upward trend in deaths in the next few days due to the ICU situation.

Thanks conservatives.

[PhaelixWW]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Gudrun

Gudrun was a powerful storm which hit Denmark and Sweden on 8 January 2005, Latvia and Estonia on 9 January 2005.

Sustained wind speeds of 126 km/h (78 mph) with wind gusts of 165 km/h (103 mph) were measured in Hanstholm, Denmark – the same strength as a Category 1 hurricane.

didn't hide in the basement...

Cyclone Gudrun:

• 78 MPH sustained
• 103 MPH gusts
• 7 dead
• ~$2 billion USD total damage

...also in 2005...

Hurricane Katrina:

• 175 MPH sustained
• 215 MPH gusts
• ~1500 dead
• ~$125 billion USD total damage

Don't try to pretend that your experience with "a bad storm" is remotely indicative of what others have gone through. Also don't try to pretend that the smart thing to do in those kinds of winds is anything other than "secure yourself in the most wind-resistant place you can access."

[PhaelixWW]

the basement might be most wind-resistant but it's the thing that gets flooded when there's a storm... even just extended rainy days can flood basements... i dont think you would be hiding in a basement that's flooded with water cold enough to be painful...

I'm sorry, do you agree with Strawberry's sentiment? Or are you just being inanely pedantic in regards to an imperfect analogy?

I didn't come up with "hiding in the basement". But in terms of analogies, it works decently well (though not perfectly) for an adequate response to a hurricane.

[Nastard]

Cyclone Gudrun:

• 78 MPH sustained
• 103 MPH gusts
• 7 dead
• ~$2 billion USD total damage

...also in 2005...

Hurricane Katrina:

• 175 MPH sustained
• 215 MPH gusts
• ~1500 dead
• ~$125 billion USD total damage

Don't try to pretend that your experience with "a bad storm" is remotely indicative of what others have gone through. Also don't try to pretend that the smart thing to do in those kinds of winds is anything other than "secure yourself in the most wind-resistant place you can access."

I feel like that's an exact metaphor for people who try to equate covid with the flu.

[bmjclark]

Upside: If it's needed, maybe Texas can stop it before it gets completely out of control.

Honestly, it already is out of control. If they locked down now the state is still in for a nightmare scenario in hospitals. Every day they put it off only makes it worse.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/a...orse-next-week

Something worth noting, the reporting delay on deaths in Houston is actually very long. Like, 2-6 weeks kind of long. Some of the deaths reported today actually happened back in May. It's actually very possible that Abbott already knows how deaths will look next week and is preparing people for this. (Just a note, not trying to say this delay is malicious or anything, it's just how it works)

[Crissi]

If i catch covid and pass on, I'd just like to know its been a pleasure posting with you all.

*knocks on wood*

RIP Texas

[Dacien]

I don't see how we can weather another lockdown. I'm blessed to have an essential job as an electrician, but once unemployment benefits run out, people are going to be hurting. Senate reconvenes July 20, and I can't see any way around extending those federal benefits if we need to go back into lockdown. The upside is that people seem to be aware that masks are essential; I saw a poll from somewhere showing that (this being political somehow after all) 86% of Republicans are wearing them and way into the high 90's percent of Democrats are wearing them.

Just don't know what the future holds, but the financial impact simply cannot be ignored. At the end of the day people still need to feed their kids. They still have small businesses to keep alive, mortgages and rent to pay, and on an on.

[Omega10]

I don't see how we can weather another lockdown. I'm blessed to have an essential job as an electrician, but once unemployment benefits run out, people are going to be hurting. Senate reconvenes July 20, and I can't see any way around extending those federal benefits if we need to go back into lockdown. The upside is that people seem to be aware that masks are essential; I saw a poll from somewhere showing that (this being political somehow after all) 86% of Republicans are wearing them and way into the high 90's percent of Democrats are wearing them.

Just don't know what the future holds, but the financial impact simply cannot be ignored. At the end of the day people still need to feed their kids. They still have small businesses to keep alive, mortgages and rent to pay, and on an on.

We are going to have to. Yes it will be rough. We blew it the first time we had a chance, so the second time through will be substantially worse.

Ultimately we either lock down in a kind of controlled way, which really really sucks as you point out, or we ride it out and deal with something much much worse. And much much worse is 2 months away, not years.

The blame for this goes directly on Trump, the people who refuse to wear masks and intentionally do the opposite of social distancing, and the governors that opened up their states too fast. And the whole country is paying the price.

[Zan15]

I don't see how we can weather another lockdown. I'm blessed to have an essential job as an electrician, but once unemployment benefits run out, people are going to be hurting. Senate reconvenes July 20, and I can't see any way around extending those federal benefits if we need to go back into lockdown. The upside is that people seem to be aware that masks are essential; I saw a poll from somewhere showing that (this being political somehow after all) 86% of Republicans are wearing them and way into the high 90's percent of Democrats are wearing them.

Just don't know what the future holds, but the financial impact simply cannot be ignored. At the end of the day people still need to feed their kids. They still have small businesses to keep alive, mortgages and rent to pay, and on an on.

the republicans will cave and approve up to 100% of your employed salary so they can claim victory over those evil democrats who want to stimulate the economy by giving the poorest of the poor more money...instead of letting it trickle down from the rich!!!

meanwhile it will still cost the govt the same amount of money because at that point they have to pay out additional food stamp money because they will have more people qualifying, more people qualifying for Medicaid and ACA subsidies and more people qualifying for other programs.