Coronavirus thread

[T. D.]

America first.....

Foolish... because soon the tables might be turned: the most promising vaccine projects are European.

Another possibility is that Kushner and other Orange Swindler intimates have loaded up on Gilead shares and the POTUS is trying to kite the stock price. 

[Karl Henning]

America first.....

Foolish... because soon the tables might be turned: the most promising vaccine projects are European.

Q

Indeed, wickedly foolish.

[Karl Henning]

California and Pennsylvania to impose new restrictions amid spike in coronavirus cases

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Sad to see it Karl.  I know a woman who was just finishing chemo in Arizona; hasn't been out to shop in ages...too scared to do so and things are getting worse there too.   :

PD(

[drogulus]

Covid-19 cases exploding in the Golden State: 

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/505350-california-breaks-daily-record-with-more-than-8000-new-covid-19-cases

So in this solidly Dem blue state are you blaming Newsom Trump for the outbreak? 

    Of course he should be blamed for the decisions he's made, and I apply that to all governors and other local officials. The distinction to be made is whether the mistakes are driven by ideology, or by generic incompetence.

[Karl Henning]

Wonder how may lives would have been saved if he had had the sense to do so sooner....

Texas governor issues mandatory mask policy for counties with 20 or more coronavirus cases
Texas governor issues statewide mask requirement, limitations on gatherings

[drogulus]

     

[T. D.]

People in Alabama are throwing COVID-19 parties with a payout when one gets infected: official

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/people-in-alabama-are-throwing-covid-19-parties-with-a-payout-when-one-gets-infected-official-1.5007903

[JBS]

People in Alabama are throwing COVID-19 parties with a payout when one gets infected: official

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/people-in-alabama-are-throwing-covid-19-parties-with-a-payout-when-one-gets-infected-official-1.5007903

That seems to be one of those stories that gets publicity but is not actually true.
When you dig through the stories, it's officials saying they have been told such parties happen but no case in which it actually happened.

There probably were parties with at least one person attending despite being infected, but no known case of anyone voluntarily getting infected.

I would bet the origin of this is some very dark humor by a bored college kid.

[Daverz]

We've had 22 community outbreaks in the last 7 days here in San Diego County.  Hospitals seem to be holding up so far.

https://sdcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/30b5e0fa2a5f4404b1219d8cd16b2583

[Karl Henning]

We've had 22 community outbreaks in the last 7 days here in San Diego County.  Hospitals seem to be holding up so far.

https://sdcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/30b5e0fa2a5f4404b1219d8cd16b2583

Good luck!

[Daverz]

Good luck!

Well, I've been self-isolating since early March, so I'm fine, if a little stir-crazy.  But I feel for anyone who has to choose between paying rent and getting sick.

[Mirror Image]

Well, I've been self-isolating since early March, so I'm fine, if a little stir-crazy.  But I feel for anyone who has to choose between paying rent and getting sick.

Yes, I do, too. I've been in self-quarantine since late March and it's quite disheartening to know that some people have to continue to work because they have no other choice. People who work in the hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores and restaurants my hat goes off to you. These are the people who we should thanking everyday.

[Que]

Yes, I do, too. I've been in self-quarantine since late March and it's quite disheartening to know that some people have to continue to work because they have no other choice. People who work in the hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores and restaurants my hat goes off to you. These are the people who we should thanking everyday.

Governement support to continue paying everybody to stay home in order to get the epidemic under control, has proven to be the more succesfull strategy. And it limits the economic damage (to a certain extent) as well.

Q

[T. D.]

I live in a rural area where there have been very few cases. The only concrete local case I heard of was a 70+ year old gentleman who was diagnosed in early May. He was a dedicated anti-masker. He'd been cooking part-time at 2 restaurants while not masked up; both had to close for 2 weeks after his diagnosis and other employees had to self-quarantine (though I'm not certain all complied). Heard that he passed away about a week ago.

[Mandryka]

In the Uk there's a system of home testing, if you have symptoms you can request a test online to be delivered to your house, you send it back and get the results. If positive, they are supposed to ask for contacts and ask them to isolate.

On Wednesday I got an email asking me to volunteer to do the test. I said yes and the test arrived this morning, 36 hours after requesting it. I don't have symptoms.

The process of requesting it online is easy, they ask for your NI and NHS number but you can just say you don't know. They check your identity in some way, but they reassure you that it's not a credit check. It takes a few minutes and is no harder than filling in a return form for amazon, for example. They send you a couple of confirmation emails telling you to expect a package, with help line numbers and a brief summary of what you should do when you get it.

The test pack was waiting for me on my doorstep when I got up this morning, with the milk.

There is an instruction booklet. It is in pretty plain English. Only English, and I don't recall being asked about languages when I applied. There are a lot of instructions to follow. It is a bit on the same level as making some flatpack furniture. What I mean is, it's perfectly possible to bodge it, you may think the shelves are fine, but they haven't been made as they should and there are some bits you haven't used, worryingly. With bookshelves it doesn't matter, with this  . . . it matters a bit more maybe.

Performing the test itself was uncomfortable for me, but not a major problem. If you panic when the dentist wants to put something in your mouth, you'll find it a very challenging hurdle. But for me, that side of it was fine.

When you've done the test, you still have a lot to do. The swab has to be labelled correctly -- so you have to find the label. It has to go into a container, that container then goes into another container, the second container goes into a third, the whole sealed.  and then you have to construct by origami a fourth container to put the other three into -- which in turn to be sealed in the correct way. Worryingly, the origami  box didn't really fit the sample in all those containers, I had to bang and sit on it to make it close  -- I wonder what I did wrong.

You then have to post it at a designated priority post box, which you find through a Royal Mail website. When you log in, it asks to use your present location, but in my case didn't function correctly (it basically just seemed to construct a postcode at random) so the post boxes it came up with were hopeless. No probs. I have a helpline number -- 131.

131 answered the phone very quickly and a cheerful lady told me some nearby priority post boxes (all very convenient) and then I was just saying goodbye when she said  . . .  and this is the killer "have you registered your test yet?"

Now, I have many degrees including a doctorate, I have done some mildly responsible jobs without failing, my kids are pretty happy adults, so I kind of see myself as an at least averagely capable person. But if she hadn't asked me I would have forgotten to register and so I would not have received my test results and probably, if positive, my contacts would not have been traced.

But it's all OK because she'll do it for me (normally you're supposed to do it online.) What a palava!  She had to type a long code which was my order code (big panic finding the email with it on), a long code which was my test sample code, and a long code which was the postage code. All very long, all potential typo traps.

That process of registration seems to me a major weakness in the system so far. Why it couldn't have all been done automatically I do not know.

Anyway she said 72 hours maximum to get the test results. Boris is promising to turn these things round in 24.

[André]

Seems like your DIY test was as easy as mounting an Ikea piece of furniture  .

I got tested in May at a local health service centre and in June at a mobile unit close to my home. Negative both times. The second time around was very uncomfortable, close to being downright painful. I suppose it depends on the state of one's mucous membranes at the moment of the test.

[arpeggio]

Trump has solved the immigration problem with Mexico.

Have the country infected by a virus and Mexico is then forced to close the border with the United States.

[SimonNZ]

A rather poorly argued and occasionally insulting article from Politico, who usually do much better:

What Sweden can teach us about coronavirus

[T. D.]

A rather poorly argued and occasionally insulting article from Politico, who usually do much better:

What Sweden can teach us about coronavirus

I didn't find the article that bad, but it's really far from new. I've already read more than one analysis of the Swedish approach.
As an American it's completely irrelevant, because all that could never happen here.