Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[Edge-]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/polit...rus/index.html

Welp, at least in the US we can now blame every one of the soon to be 200,000+ deaths on the POTUS knowing that this was a deadly virus back in February and then intentionally downplaying it publicly while taking no action to prepare for it.

Literally every one of those deaths is on Trump's head. So is the economic fallout. So are the longterm impacts including people who will suffer from covid-related health conditions for life, peoples businesses going under etc. etc. etc.

Now this isn't to imply that had a competent person been president it would all be sunshine and roses and there wouldn't be people dying and economic hardship. There absolutely would be. But I imagine any other president would have TRIED to prepare for and respond to a pandemic, and at least trying and not fucking lying publicly would be infinitely better than what's happened.

Stay safe. Ignore Trump and what his administration says. Ask your doctors. Look to medical experts and professionals for guidance.

[Gaidax]

Meanwhile we have politicians wasting time trying to cut deals between themselves... all good, getting to another lockdown full speed.

[Edge-]

Meanwhile we have politicians wasting time trying to cut deals between themselves... all good, getting to another lockdown full speed.

The inability of the Trump administration and Senate Republicans to come up with any meaningful stimulus/aide proposal is a fucking joke. People are suffering without the additional unemployment, people are struggling with the "extremely generous" one-time $1,200 stimulus check that was overwhelmingly spent on things like rent and food which helps the economy.

But hey, a bunch of big corporations got bailed out so that's cool! And then went on to announce massive layoffs despite the bailout, which is cool as well. Just fuck trying to do anything for working people, the unemployed, and the millions of people on the verge of losing their housing plus the massive gut-punches to city/state budgets due to reduced spending and things like property tax moratoriums.

They ain't perfect, but I'll give Democrats credit for at least having big ideas. This is a pandemic, a national emergency, now is absolutely the time that the nation should be printing money and going into debt to see the nation through this with as little negative impact as possible. But we had 3 years of the economy being ratfucked by terrible budgets and a disasterous tax cut that did nothing, so we're left with fewer tools to combat the economic impacts and more Tools in Congress who don't mind watching Americans suffer.

[PhaelixWW]

Meanwhile we have politicians wasting time trying to cut deals between themselves... all good, getting to another lockdown full speed.

The inability of the Trump administration and Senate Republicans to come up with any meaningful stimulus/aide proposal is a fucking joke.

I think @Gaidax was talking about Israel, which is doing much worse when it comes to COVID than before.

[Edge-]

I think @Gaidax was talking about Israel, which is doing much worse when it comes to COVID than before.

Jesus, hadn't kept track but those numbers do not look good at all. What the hell happened in May that cases disappeared before surging again? >.>

[bmjclark]

Jesus, hadn't kept track but those numbers do not look good at all. What the hell happened in May that cases disappeared before surging again? >.>

I think the problem is when cases get low people just decide "fuck it, im not taking precautions over 50-100 daily cases" and they go about their lives. It explodes quick. The same is happening in Ontario right now. We were at around 60-90 daily cases for a few weeks and now we've surged back up to an average of 160. The numbers then seem small until they're not small anymore and at that point it's incredibly hard to contain. I think we'll start seeing a lot of places have this kind of thing happen.

[Granyala]

Yep no clue what's going on there.
Kinda makes the first wave look like a warm-up.

[Edge-]

I think the problem is when cases get low people just decide "fuck it, im not taking precautions over 50-100 daily cases" and they go about their lives. It explodes quick. The same is happening in Ontario right now. We were at around 60-90 daily cases for a few weeks and now we've surged back up to an average of 160. The numbers then seem small until they're not small anymore and at that point it's incredibly hard to contain. I think we'll start seeing a lot of places have this kind of thing happen.

Yeah, I get feeling "safer" with lower numbers and "emergency fatigue" is absolutely a thing but like... There's gotta be more going on there because that doesn't make sense that the second spike would be so much more severe and sustained than the first one.

[PhaelixWW]

Yeah, I get feeling "safer" with lower numbers and "emergency fatigue" is absolutely a thing but like... There's gotta be more going on there because that doesn't make sense that the second spike would be so much more severe and sustained than the first one.

To at least some degree it's probably due to an increase in testing between the two waves. But otherwise, there was a large pushback on the idea of reinstituting lockdown measures.

From wikipedia:

On 17 July, additional restrictions were announced. These included:

• Closure of all studios and gyms, except for those used by professional athletes
• No sitting in bars or restaurants (delivery service and take-away allowed)
• Weekend lockdown of non-essential businesses from 5:00pm Friday until 5:00am Sunday (supermarkets and pharmacies not included)
• Closure of beaches during weekend lockdown, starting 24 July 2020
• Gatherings limited to 20 people outdoors, and 10 people indoors

Due to pressure from business owners, the government backtracked on the opening of restaurants, pools, and beaches. Weekend closures of malls and markets were also cancelled, following claims that the closures had not slowed infection rates.

[Forogil]

I think the problem is when cases get low people just decide "fuck it, im not taking precautions over 50-100 daily cases" and they go about their lives. It explodes quick.

People are not only doing it on their own, many governments also have a similar attitude and lift the restrictions when the number of cases are that low; as was the case in Israel.

Some of the increase is likely due to increased testing, but the daily death numbers have also increased indicating that actual cases are also increasing.

[Granyala]

Considering the normal death rate of a country of 8.8M people, 15 Corona-dead per day (assuming they even died due to covid, if they fake statistics like us like us, every positively tested dead is counted as COVID-19 even if the virus has nothing to do with the cause of death at all) is still completely negligible.

Israel had a crude death rate of 5/1000 in 2018 (wow, so low, Germany is at 11.4 :O), that would put them at around 44K/yr or 120 people per day.
So I can understand people not being too worried about the current Corona death toll. That might change if health care is overtaxed but as long as that is not the case, and the current numbers are sustainable for them, there is nothing to panic about. Even if the graphs look scary.

PS: before s/o here goes off on an emotional tangent: obviously every death is sad on a personal level but you cannot implement drastic lockdowns and take severe economical hits, thus ruining the lives of many people if there isn't a threat that warrants it.

So far, the infection numbers have been relatively stable for a month now, indicating that they can handle it.
It remains to be seen if the last week was an outlier or turns out to be a trend.

[Coolthulhu]

Yeah, I get feeling "safer" with lower numbers and "emergency fatigue" is absolutely a thing but like... There's gotta be more going on there because that doesn't make sense that the second spike would be so much more severe and sustained than the first one.

On the contrary, it makes plenty of sense. There are more than one egregious precedents.

[Zan15]

Hard to say, but it is why they have clinical trials. A good reason why we shouldn't rush human trials.The adverse affects can sometimes be just as bad, and could even worse.

- - - Updated - - -

In other Covid-19 Karma News. Not that I would actually wish a deadly disease on anyone, and not that I'd lose any sleep over such a homophobic religious leader receiving such Karma.

Church Leader Who Blamed Coronavirus on Gay Marriage Contracts COVID-19

Based on many past examples, he probably caught it while doing something very gay.
A lot of these people are so far closeted reminds me a lot of Sen Graham.

[Edge-]

https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-the...172713942.html

The U.S. government on Monday will stop conducting enhanced screening of passengers on inbound international flights for COVID-19, Yahoo News has learned.

The screening operations have been held at select airports since January, when the first cases of the disease began to emerge from Wuhan, China. Since March, incoming international flights from select high-risk countries, including much of Europe, China and Iran, among other regions, have been funneled through 15 designated airports in the United States.

Pandemic? What pandemic?!

[Poopymonster]

Based on many past examples, he probably caught it while doing something very gay.
A lot of these people are so far closeted reminds me a lot of Sen Graham.

What? I thought he was married. We'll have to ask Breccia once he's out of the shower.
/s

Really though, he's so far in the closet that Graham's address is in Narnia.

[Shadowferal]

Really though, he's so far in the closet that Graham's address is in Narnia.

Now wait a minute...that particular closet (better to say "wardrobe"), is just too good for his ilk.

[Masark]

You know what we need to solve this coronavirus problem?

Ad campaigns for tourism!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-d...-push-tourism/

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's administration announced Tuesday that it is using federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for a $5 million tourism ad campaign aimed at drawing people to the state. The move comes even as the state emerges as one of the nation's top hot spots for COVID-19 infections.

The 30-second spot, which premiered on Fox News alongside Noem's speech at the Republican National Convention last month, features the governor saying that "with our breathtaking landscapes and wide-open spaces, we're a place to safely explore." But the state currently ranks second in the country for new cases per capita over the last two weeks, with 439 new cases per 100,000 people.

[Haladrian]

Yeah. I can explain the European spike, they were all caught with their pants down when it started. I can explain Persian Gulf spike, they all have tons of foreign workers living in subpar conditions. But why does entire Latin America have high numbers now, what do they all have in common? Argentina doesn't really have cities at high elevation.

Don't know about the rest of Latin America but the problem in Argentina is that the pandemic and all the misinformation about it is being used as a political instrument, if you check social media of all the politicians who lost in past elections you will find that most of them share this point of view that covid is just a flu and promote the idea that quarantine is the same as a dictatorship lockdown making this rebel unhealthy pose an instrument of political opposition.

[Forogil]

https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-the...172713942.html
"The U.S. government on Monday will stop conducting enhanced screening of passengers on inbound international flights for COVID-19, Yahoo News has learned.
The screening operations have been held at select airports since January, when the first cases of the disease began to emerge from Wuhan, China. Since March, incoming international flights from select high-risk countries, including much of Europe, China and Iran, among other regions, have been funneled through 15 designated airports in the United States."
Pandemic? What pandemic?!

I would say that is actually a good idea, especially as it is a pandemic.

There might still be some import cases to the US, but most of the spread is likely local. Trying to stop it at the border was always futile, as such measures usually are, - and more a show designed to project strength than anything real. Now it's hard to even argue that it's attempting to project strength.

The temperature checks often don't detect anything, and WHO have never recommended them.
The health questionnaires were useful early on, as people were told about potential symptoms and who to contact - but I would hope that has spread in the general population by now.
Having contact information for travellers is useful, if contact tracing is carried out - I'm a bit uncertain about that in general in the US, and it would make sense to do that for all flights - domestic as well.

(Still don't know who think it is a good idea to travel currently.)

[Coolthulhu]

What? I thought he was married.

Closeted gay people are often married.