The Coronavirus Thread

[Brian Peacock]

Boris just cancelled Christmas.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... in-england

[Cunt]

We have it SO good here. Sorry, BP. I wish you your favourite people in as much of a dose as you can stand.

Ran into a pal, who works on machinery outdoors. He has a 300,000 BTU heater, that generates its own power and makes him workspace. He might get pressed into service setting that up for an outdoor event (running event) so that volunteers/returning racers can have a heated area, without being indoors.

It might mean the difference between having an outdoor event, or not. (at -30C, options are limited.

He works with a church, and they have been doing workarounds to do their god-bothering, but this might allow more of the other get-togethers they used to have. It's a bit spendy to run, but renting indoor space is pretty damned spendy, too. Especially since now so much more space is needed for the same size group.

[Tero]

Yeah, Biden can't do that. Governors have to.

[Scot Dutchy]

Australia losing grip again even with all those masks.

The northern beaches area of Sydney entered a four-day lockdown to midnight on Wednesday as authorities try to contain a Covid-19 outbreak ahead of Christmas.
Twenty-three new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the Australian state of New South Wales, 21 of those so far linked to the new northern beaches outbreak. The state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned further restrictions for the rest of Sydney were possible on Sunday if the outbreak appeared more widespread.
The Australian states of Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania imposed new travel rules for people arriving in their states from New South Wales and urged their residents not to travel there.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... 19-cluster

There's no mask mandate in Sydney. Try again.

There is no need for one. The NSW Government just strongly recommends to take extra precautions to protect others in the following situations:

• if it is hard to maintain 1.5 metres of physical distance from others
• when in high-risk indoor areas such as public transport, ride share, taxis, supermarkets, shops, places of worship and entertainment venues
• if symptoms develop while you are out of home
• if you are out of home and notified by NSW Health that you are a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case (including if you have visited a location with a reported case and must self-isolate immediately)
• when caring for or serving vulnerable people
• if working in a cafe, restaurant, pub, club or other high-risk indoor areas
• singing or chanting as part of the audience or congregation
  • indoor settings – NSW Health strongly recommends that audience members and congregants older than 12 years old wear face masks if singing or chanting.
  • outdoor settings – if the event is one where the audience or congregation are likely to participate in the singing, such as carols by candlelight or religious services, audience members and congregants 12 years or older should wear a face mask.

Wearing a mask in NSW is not mandatory in the situations above. However, NSW Health strongly recommends people wear a mask when unable to physically distance, particularly in indoor settings, to keep everyone safe.

You should also wear a mask if you:

• have any symptoms and are seeking medical care
• are going to get tested
• are in the same room as another person when you have symptoms or have been asked to self-isolate.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/face-masks

The NSW government and all other state governments, will undoubtedly make mask wearing mandatory well before the pandemic gets as out of control as it is in the Netherlands. The Australian population is - as Scot Dutchy keeps pointing out - nowhere near as dense as the Dutch.

Once again Ozland crap with an insult thrown in. Here it is not out of control but you get 23 cases and you cant cope that is the difference.

[Seabass]

Spotted in Edinburgh town centre...

It makes more sense once you realize that it's '666' and not 'bbb'...

[Scot Dutchy]

Is that the old infirmary?

[Brian Peacock]

Don't know the old infirmary. It's at Lauriston Place, opposite George Heriot's.

[JimC]

...some say that if you tell them to wear masks, they get a false sense of security, and start licking each other.

Nothing would surprise me about the degenerates in Sydney...

[pErvinalia]

Once again Ozland crap with an insult thrown in. Here it is not out of control but you get 23 cases and you cant cope that is the difference.

We're coping quite well here. No deaths at the moment, unlike the Netherregions.

[Hermit]

Australia losing grip again even with all those masks.

The northern beaches area of Sydney entered a four-day lockdown to midnight on Wednesday as authorities try to contain a Covid-19 outbreak ahead of Christmas.
Twenty-three new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the Australian state of New South Wales, 21 of those so far linked to the new northern beaches outbreak. The state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned further restrictions for the rest of Sydney were possible on Sunday if the outbreak appeared more widespread.
The Australian states of Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania imposed new travel rules for people arriving in their states from New South Wales and urged their residents not to travel there.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... 19-cluster

There's no mask mandate in Sydney. Try again.

There is no need for one. The NSW Government just strongly recommends to take extra precautions to protect others in the following situations:

• if it is hard to maintain 1.5 metres of physical distance from others
• when in high-risk indoor areas such as public transport, ride share, taxis, supermarkets, shops, places of worship and entertainment venues
• if symptoms develop while you are out of home
• if you are out of home and notified by NSW Health that you are a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case (including if you have visited a location with a reported case and must self-isolate immediately)
• when caring for or serving vulnerable people
• if working in a cafe, restaurant, pub, club or other high-risk indoor areas
• singing or chanting as part of the audience or congregation
  • indoor settings – NSW Health strongly recommends that audience members and congregants older than 12 years old wear face masks if singing or chanting.
  • outdoor settings – if the event is one where the audience or congregation are likely to participate in the singing, such as carols by candlelight or religious services, audience members and congregants 12 years or older should wear a face mask.

Wearing a mask in NSW is not mandatory in the situations above. However, NSW Health strongly recommends people wear a mask when unable to physically distance, particularly in indoor settings, to keep everyone safe.

You should also wear a mask if you:

• have any symptoms and are seeking medical care
• are going to get tested
• are in the same room as another person when you have symptoms or have been asked to self-isolate.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/face-masks

The NSW government and all other state governments, will undoubtedly make mask wearing mandatory well before the pandemic gets as out of control as it is in the Netherlands. The Australian population is - as Scot Dutchy keeps pointing out - nowhere near as dense as the Dutch.

Once again Ozland crap with an insult thrown in. Here it is not out of control but you get 23 cases and you cant cope that is the difference.

Um, yeah. Australia (population 25.6 million) had 69 new cases in the past three days. Out of control. Netherlands (population 17.2 million) had 36,927 new cases in the past three days. Admirably under control.

[Seabass]

If COVID-19 Vaccines Bring An End To The Pandemic, America Has Immigrants To Thank


Hungarian-born scientist Katalin Karikó believed in the potential of messenger RNA — the genetic molecule at the heart of two new COVID-19 vaccines — even when almost no one else did.

Karikó began working with RNA as a student in Hungary. When funding for her job there ran out, Kariko immigrated to Philadelphia in 1985. Over the years, she's been rejected for grant after grant, threatened with deportation and demoted from her faculty job by a university that saw her research as a dead end.

Through it all, Karikó just kept working.

If new COVID-19 vaccines help life in the U.S. get back to normal next year, the nation will have many immigrants such as Karikó to thank. Scientists and investors born outside the U.S. played crucial roles in the development of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. It's a remarkable vindication for the argument — often made by the biotech industry — that innovation depends on the free movement of people and ideas.

Now Karikó is a senior vice president at BioNTech, the company that partnered with Pfizer to make the first COVID-19 vaccine to get emergency authorization in the United States. BioNTech is a company based in Germany and led by immigrants from Turkey.

Immigrants are playing key roles in nearly every aspect of the vaccine effort in the United States. Even the chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's vaccine distribution program, is an immigrant — Moncef Slaoui, the former head of GlaxoSmithKline's vaccines department.

President Trump often takes credit for the record-breaking speed of vaccine development — and for "unleashing America's scientific genius," as he puts it.

But people in the biotech industry say that American genius depends on a pool of global talent.

"We are an intellectual magnet for the best of the best from around the world," said Jeremy Levin, CEO of Ovid Therapeutics and chairman of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the U.S. industry trade group.

Levin, who was born in South Africa, said high-skilled immigrants are attracted to the U.S. for its great educational institutions — and for its biotech industry that's willing to take big risks.

"We in America are willing to take a chance," Levin said. "It is the willingness to fail in the endeavor to find a medicine that could make the difference to millions of people around the world. And that characteristic is what's drawn so many from abroad ... who are just going to have a go at it."

Levin said nearly one-third of the biotech workforce here was born outside the United States. If you also count the children of immigrants, he said, it's roughly half. But Levin worries it's gotten harder in recent years for those people to get here.

The Trump administration has placed more restrictions on immigrants who want to study and work in this country. Immigration hardliners accuse pharmaceutical companies and other tech-driven industries of using foreign workers to hold down wages.

The president says he wants to protect American jobs and often talks about immigrants as a threat and a burden. That's how he talks about the coronavirus as well, referring to it as the "China virus."

"It's a very racist comment," said Dr. Victor Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. He's an expert on global health who was born in China.

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/18/94763895 ... ts-to-than

Meanwhile, all the xenophobic nationalist assholes are refusing to wear masks and sending death threats to government officials who order lockdowns...

[rainbow]

What metrics/results would cause you to stop following the news and government mandates?

I ask because I don't even know myself. I used to think survival rate or death rate, but Weinstein straitened me out about that. I also thought that 'R-naught' being below a certain number, but that doesn't seem to be good enough (due to suspected asymptomatic transmission)

Is there something that would make it clear enough to you? Or even better to a regular peon?

In my country we have these people called "Doctors", even though they don't have a proper PhD, they do spend 7 years learning about medicine, so sometimes they know a little more that Kevin on the internet.

When you get these doctors in your country, you might consult with one.

I understand your bravery in accepting all government mandates as they all come with doctors approval.

Which country are you in again?

It is called Noyfb.

Is it the Trump mandates you agree with? Or the Aussie ones?

Oz seems to be doing better than Merca. What do you think?

[Scot Dutchy]

Belgium, Italy and Netherlands ban flights from UK over new Covid strain

Moves come as UK health secretary says the newly identified strain is ‘out of control’

Several European countries including Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands have reacted to the discovery of a fast-spreading strain of Covid-19 in England by announcing bans on flights carrying passengers from the UK, with similar plans reportedly being considered by France and Germany.

The moves came as millions of people in London and the south-east began their first full day of a new lockdown and the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the newly identified strain of the virus was “out of control”.

And the England had such a strict lockdown with all those masks.

[NineBerry]

This mutation originated from Dutch mink farms

[Scot Dutchy]

This mutation originated from Dutch mink farms

Of course! Only the best strains are Dutch strains. Please...