The Coronavirus Thread

[laklak]

And he didn't speak out in support of the NBA when they were taken to task by the CCP.

The period at the end made it look like "CCR" and I thought why is Creedence Clearwater Revival dissing the NBA?

[Scot Dutchy]

How Outer Hebrides were perfectly primed to tackle coronavirus

Residents of Western Isles, which have yet to record a Covid-19 death, have plenty experience of isolation

I think it has more to do about the people. They are not that social.

Two deaths in Orkney though - but they're quite sociable up there.

Orkadians are originally Vikings. All that fire side feasting. The Outer Hebrideans are lost souls after Charlie left.

[Brian Peacock]

UK ministers were warned last year of risks of coronavirus pandemic

Ministers were warned last year the UK must have a robust plan to deal with a pandemic virus and its potentially catastrophic social and economic consequences in a confidential Cabinet Office briefing leaked to the Guardian.

The detailed document warned that even a mild pandemic could cost tens of thousands of lives, and set out the must-have “capability requirements” to mitigate the risks to the country, as well as the potential damage of not doing so.

It comes as the UK’s hospital death toll from coronavirus heads towards 20,000. Less than a month ago, the medical director at NHS England, Prof Stephen Powis, said the country would “have done very well” to stay below this grim milestone.

Marked “official, sensitive”, the 2019 National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) was signed off by Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, as well as a senior national security adviser to the prime minister whom the Guardian has been asked not to name.

The recommendations within it included the need to stockpile PPE (personal protective equipment), organise advanced purchase agreements for other essential kit, establish procedures for disease surveillance and contact tracing, and draw up plans to manage a surge in excess deaths...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... s-pandemic

[Brian Peacock]

Labour urges UK government to publish findings of 2016 pandemic drill

Labour has called on ministers to publish the suppressed conclusions of a cross-government pandemic drill that took place in 2016, which accurately predicted that the NHS would be plunged into crisis by an infectious and deadly disease.

Codenamed Exercise Cygnus, the wide-ranging exercise took place in October 2016, but its conclusions have never been made public, even though it highlighted shortages of intensive care beds, vital equipment and even mortuary space.

Jon Ashworth, Labour’s health spokesman, accused ministers of not properly preparing the NHS for the coronavirus crisis, despite the exercise three years ago...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... emic-drill

[Brian Peacock]

Cummings is on secret scientific advisory group for Covid-19

The prime minister’s chief political adviser, Dominic Cummings, and a data scientist he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit are on the secret scientific group advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic, according to a list leaked to the Guardian.

It reveals that both Cummings and Ben Warner were among 23 attendees present at a crucial convening of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on 23 March, the day Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown in a televised address.

Multiple attendees of Sage told the Guardian that both Cummings and Warner had been taking part in meetings of the group as far back as February. The inclusion of Downing Street advisers on Sage will raise questions about the independence of its scientific advice.

There has been growing pressure on Downing Street in recent days to disclose more details about the group, which provides scientific advice to the upper echelons of government during emergencies. Both the membership of Sage and its advice to ministers on the Covid-19 outbreak is being kept secret...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... r-covid-19

[laklak]

Bottom line is we've known for yonks there could be a major pandemic, but being stupid ground apes we ignored it and figured everything would be OK. We're not like we were back in 1918, right? We got TVs and shit. We're above all that nonsense, masters of our domain, God's Own Creatures, the old rules don't apply because this is the New Normal.

We're thick as pigshit, basically.

[Seabass]

Bottom line is we've known for yonks there could be a major pandemic, but being stupid ground apes we ignored it and figured everything would be OK. We're not like we were back in 1918, right? We got TVs and shit. We're above all that nonsense, masters of our domain, God's Own Creatures, the old rules don't apply because this is the New Normal.

We're thick as pigshit, basically.

Bullshit. "We" didn't ignore it, Republicans did. Not only did they ignore it, they dismantled what Dems created to deal with this sort of thing.


https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireSto ... d-69594177

Trump disbanded NSC pandemic unit that experts had praised
Public health and national security experts shake their heads when President Donald Trump says the coronavirus "came out of nowhere" and “blindsided the world.”

WASHINGTON -- Public health and national security experts shake their heads when President Donald Trump says the coronavirus "came out of nowhere" and “blindsided the world.”

They've been warning about the next pandemic for years and criticized the Trump administration's decision in 2018 to dismantle a National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for when, not if, another pandemic would hit the nation.

“It would be nice if the office was still there,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health, told Congress this week. “I wouldn't necessarily characterize it as a mistake (to eliminate the unit). I would say we worked very well with that office.”

The NSC directorate for global health and security and bio-defense survived the transition from President Barack Obama to Trump in 2017.

Trump's elimination of the office suggested, along with his proposed budget cuts for the CDC, that he did not see the threat of pandemics in the same way that many experts in the field did.

“One year later I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like COVID-19,” Beth Cameron, the first director of the unit, wrote in an op-ed Friday in The Washington Post.

[laklak]

Sure we did. The whole goddamn world did. The GOP is not in power in China, Russia, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Swaziland, Mexico, Guatemala, Mongolia, Poland, Canada, or anyplace else on the planet. Some of those countries are doing better than we are and some are doing worse.

Every single one of these countries, regardless of their political systems, ignored the lessons of 1918 (and all prior pandemics). IF they hadn't we wouldn't be in a PANdemic, we'd have nailed it down wherever it appeared.

[Seabass]

Sure we did. The whole goddamn world did. The GOP is not in power in China, Russia, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Swaziland, Mexico, Guatemala, Mongolia, Poland, Canada, or anyplace else on the planet. Some of those countries are doing better than we are and some are doing worse.

Every single one of these countries, regardless of their political systems, ignored the lessons of 1918 (and all prior pandemics). IF they hadn't we wouldn't be in a PANdemic, we'd have nailed it down wherever it appeared.

Some countries are doing A LOT better. The ones like South Korea that didn't ignore past pandemics. Last I checked, South Korea is populated by ground apes.

[laklak]

Well, Trump wasn't in South Korea to fuck it up, right? That's why they're doing so well. But what about Europe?

If you look at the 5 largest EU (one former EU) countries - Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK, their combined population is about 322 million, which is roughly equivalent to ours. Their total cases are 884,757, total deaths currently 98,038. In the U.S. it's 942,833 cases with 53,266 deaths

Their death / reported cases is 11%, ours is 5.6%. If everything is the GOP's fault than shouldn't they get credit for this? I imagine you'd disagree, It's almost like there might be factors other than politics in play here.

https://www.worldometers.info/populatio ... opulation/

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

[Seabass]

Sure, there are other factors. Population density, how early the first infections arrived, how isolated a country is from others, and so on. My point is that this isn't an unsolvable problem, and that clearly some approaches work better than others.

[laklak]

No argument there. I just don't (as usual) see the issue in black-and-white, Dems-vs-GOP terms.

[NineBerry]

I think the problem is all the singing on balconies that happens in a lot of the affected countries in Europe. Loud singing, virus droplets in the air, a bit of wind and voilà, your neighbors on the balcony some metres away have it.

[NineBerry]

No argument there. I just don't (as usual) see the issue in black-and-white, Dems-vs-GOP terms.

A problem is where they go from here. Hardly any restrictive measures and now they want to lift them already.

[laklak]

That's state governments, not Trump and the federal GOP. Trumpy tried to say he had ultimate authority, but the states slapped him down. Within the states it's down, in some instances, to county or even municipal governments. For example, various Florida counties are reopening beaches (with restrictions), others are not. Some allow boating, some don't.

I think one thing that is going to come out of this is a serious debate about State's Rights (again). We are, if possible, even more divided than before this started. I would not be surprised to see a viable secession movement. I'm sure the New Yorkers and Californians are as sick of us rednecks as we are of them.