The Coronavirus Thread

[Tero]

You are going to have a hard time beating Netherlands. Netherlands does the best concentrating!

[Hermit]

Australia's population is not concentrated like Europe.

Uhm, yes it is. 64% of Australians live in five cities with a population of 1.26 to 4.39 million inhabitants. Most of the rest are crammed into the narrow coastal strip east of the Great Dividing Range.

Once again comparing apples and pears. Five cities with 4,39 million?

That's not what I wrote. I did point out that 64% of Australians live in five cities with a population of 1.26 to 4.39 million inhabitants. That is, 13.5 out of its 24 million inhabitants (2018 figures) live in five cities, each of which are larger than one million. Altogether, 86% of Australia's population is urbanised. That is lower than the Netherland's rate (91.5), but higher than that of Finland (85.4), the UK (83.4), Norway (82.2), France (80.4), Spain (80.3), Greece (79.1), Germany (77.3), Czech Republic (73.8), Switzerland (73.8) et cetera. To ignore the fact that around 95% of Australia's land mass is almost totally devoid of humans results in a gross distortion of population density in Australia.

BTW you never answered my question why you are stalking me.

I did a search here and at ratskep, trying to discover where you asked. Found nothing, but I'll answer anyway. I stalk* you for the same reason I stalk everybody else: It's fun to interact with people.


* Where "stalk" is defined as replying to people's posts more than once a week.

[pErvinalia]

You can't honestly tell me it's fun to interact with someone as thick as shit as Dutchy? Doesn't such stupidity offend your sensibilities? It does mine. He's a blight on rationality.

[JimC]

I've mentioned it before, but, although it's true that we are very urbanised, our major cities are long distances apart. Especially with the closure of various state borders, it means that the spread of the virus within our country as a whole will be reduced, compared to countries where urban centres are relatively close.

[laklak]

Italy, Spain, the UK and The Netherlands are seeing a whopping bulge in those numbers - more than can be accounted for by the inclusion of Covid-19 deaths alone.

Ol' Massah is thinnin' the herd.

[Hermit]

I've mentioned it before, but, although it's true that we are very urbanised, our major cities are long distances apart. Especially with the closure of various state borders, it means that the spread of the virus within our country as a whole will be reduced, compared to countries where urban centres are relatively close.

You have, and that is yet another factor of so many that make a difference.

[JimC]

There will be PhD's a plenty in future years sifting through the historical data in epidemiological analyses...

[Hermit]

There will be PhD's a plenty in future years sifting through the historical data in epidemiological analyses...

Discount rates if you pay for a remedial course in correct apostrophe usage simultaneously.

[pErvinalia]

pHds

[JimC]

There will be PhD's a plenty in future years sifting through the historical data in epidemiological analyses...

Discount rates if you pay for a remedial course in correct apostrophe usage simultaneously.

[Scot Dutchy]

I've mentioned it before, but, although it's true that we are very urbanised, our major cities are long distances apart. Especially with the closure of various state borders, it means that the spread of the virus within our country as a whole will be reduced, compared to countries where urban centres are relatively close.

Your urbanisation is totally different to Europe and as you say very spread out and concentrated in communities which is no comparison to Europe. We have constant urbanisation with only a variance of density from moderate to high.

[Scot Dutchy]

I did a search here and at ratskep, trying to discover where you asked. Found nothing, but I'll answer anyway. I stalk* you for the same reason I stalk everybody else: It's fun to interact with people.

Going back to RDF? Weird.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Latest inconclusive study of Trump's miracle drug.

'Anti-malarial treatment hailed by Trump has no benefit for coronavirus patients, French researchers find'

An antimalarial drug touted as a potential treatment for coronavirus might have no benefit to patients at all, according to a new study by French scientists.

Researchers compared more than 180 patients – some receiving hydroxychloroquine treatment and others who were not treated with the drug – and found their outcomes were almost identical.

The research by doctors and scientists from 12 hospitals and public research institutes across France, is the most comprehensive study so far of the performance of the controversial drug in hospitals and involves the most Covid-19 patients.

“These results do not support the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised for documented Sars-CoV-2-positive hypoxic pneumonia,” the authors said in a non-peer reviewed paper released by medRxiv.org on Tuesday.

[Scot Dutchy]

Another government claiming success but civil liberties are being ignored.

New Zealand's Covid-19 strategy looks successful, but we must safeguard democracy

Civil society, the media and the parliamentary system – which normally keep a check on government – are now seriously weakened

The New Zealand government and prime minister deserve the plaudits they are receiving for their handling of the Covid-19 crisis. At this stage, their elimination strategy appears to be working.

But any political system is bigger than those making decisions at the top. In truth, the government’s decision to take the country into lockdown was made after pressure was applied by civil society, the opposition, and the media, which channelled epidemiologists and other experts making the case that the government’s containment strategy wasn’t working, and insisted New Zealand urgently needed to change tack.

The political system worked. But one of the ironies of putting the country into lockdown is we now have a system in which democracy is being debased. Civil liberties have been significantly curtailed, parliament adjourned, and the normal operations of the media are greatly restricted, meaning less public access to information.

[Scot Dutchy]

The tech ‘solutions’ for coronavirus take the surveillance state to the next level

The role of the digital revolutionaries is to disrupt everything but the central institution of modern life: the market

In a matter of weeks, coronavirus has shuttered the global economy and placed capitalism in intensive care. Many thinkers have expressed hope that it will usher in a more humane economic system; others warn that the pandemic heralds a darker future of techno-totalitarian state surveillance.

The dated cliches from the pages of 1984 are no longer a reliable guide to what is to come. And today’s capitalism is stronger – and weirder – than its critics imagine. Not only do its numerous problems present new avenues for profit-making, they also boost its legitimacy – since the only salvation will be dispensed by the likes of Bill Gates and Elon Musk. The worse its crises, the stronger its defences: this is definitely not how capitalism ends.