The Coronavirus Thread

[JimC]

Virtually everyone here has complied with the compulsory wearing of masks in public (with some specific exemptions). I hope it lets us get on top of Victoria's second wave. Cases were down to 200, but 7 deaths (the time-lag effect)

[Brian Peacock]

Taking Melbourne as its focus, here's an interesting look at how the virus has manifest in the Australian elderly care sector...

Victoria's Covid-19 aged care disaster: 'this virus is like a fire out of control'

The disaster unfolding in Victoria’s aged care homes was “absolutely foreseeable”, one of the country’s foremost experts in aged care says.

Authorities knew some facilities had poorly trained workers and underpaid part-time or casual staff who had to move between homes to make a living. There’d been overwhelming evidence about the vulnerability of aged care residents internationally. In Sydney, there was the outbreak of Covid-19 at Newmarch House. It was all documented.

“We got this wrong from the very start,” says Prof Joseph Ibrahim, the head of the health law and ageing research unit at Monash University. The result, he and other experts say, is what is unfolding in Victoria.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... of-control

[JimC]

Yeah, it's been a big problem. Generally, it seems that the lowest echelon of workers in most societies are both the main victims and the main ways the virus spreads. I suspect that their reality has been invisible to those in authority until the current pandemic has made it a serious problem for all...

[Hermit]

Were on a goddamn ROLL here, folks, and Florduh is Numba Wun!

In terms of deaths per million the US has just been thrown out of the top 10 by Peru and Chile, but I think it'll make it back in shortly when it will get past France.

Within the US Florida is a midfielder with deaths per million well below the national rate. That is over the whole life of the pandemic, though. I don't know how it would compare looking at only the past two to four weeks.

[NineBerry]

Numbers rising slowly but steadily in the fatherland. A lot of it related to people returning from other countries.

[Scot Dutchy]

It is family partying that is raising numbers here. Still not significant.

[Hermit]

It is family partying that is raising numbers here. Still not significant.

How could you possibly tell that rising numbers are not significant if data can't be trusted?

[Tero]

I pick up a book or a record, and in this coronavirus year, I think about the author, how old is he? Is he still alive? British Birder Bill Oddie?
Yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Oddie
You Brits would know him as a Goodie. He wrote scripts for TV comedies as well.

[JimC]

459 new cases in pestilence central, plus 10 deaths. No downturn to the wave yet...

[pErvinalia]

At least it's not going exponential.

[laklak]

13,000 cases today. 124 deaths. Yee fucking Ha. Hurricane a'commin, too. Sean gonna get some rain but it's hittin' down north of Brownsville.

If a storm runs off into the Atlantic it's a "fish storm". It it hits South Texas or the Yucatan it's a Beaner Storm.

[Hermit]

Nine new cases in South Australia in the past three months, but thanks to our Victorians - mainly Melbournians - our national deaths/million rate has rocketed 50%, from 4 to 6.

Damn you, Rona. Do you realise you are responsible for John Mayall's concert cancellation? He was to have played in Adelaide last April. That might have been my last chance to listen to Peter Green in person - and to Mayall too, for that matter.

[JimC]

532 new cases (a record) and 6 deaths here in Victoria, AKA pestilence central...

Not good...

[NineBerry]

Corona doesn't discriminate against vegans. After all these outbreaks at meat plants, there is now a huge outbreak at a vegetable farm in Bavaria.

[Scot Dutchy]

Working conditions.