Coronavirus thread

[Karl Henning]

Who gets a ventilator? New gut-wrenching state guidelines issued on rationing equipment, ICU beds

[Rinaldo]

Spain is much worse than UK. I suppose you firmly condemn and despise the politics Pedro Sanchez represents and fights for, too.

I don't follow Spanish politics, nor your logic on this comparison.

But to be absolutely clear, no one's talking about anybody 'deserving' the virus.

[Daverz]

I have always thought this honor was reserved for gay plague.

Here in the US, there's always some pastor ready to declare that a hangnail is divine punishment for tolerating homosexuality (and maybe feminists and secularism).  I think I've put my angry atheist phase well behind me, but the news cycle tends to cough up stories that make it challenge fairly often.

[drogulus]

     I drove by a church today and gave it a dirty look, and I think it wobbled a little.

[Marc]

     I drove by a church today and gave it a dirty look, and I think it wobbled a little.

Oh... my... gawd.
(Runs to his 1980s cd-player and quickly throws a Bach Passion in.)

[Karl Henning]

     I drove by a church today and gave it a dirty look, and I think it wobbled a little.

You do, do you?

[Ratliff]

Oh... my... gawd.
(Runs to his 1980s cd-player and quickly throws a Bach Passion in.)

Historically informed playback of historically informed performance.

[JBS]

Israel Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who previously claimed that the coronavirus was "divine punishment against homosexuality," has tested positive for the virus.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2020/04/israel-health-minister-who-called-covid-19-divine-punishment-tests-positive-for-virus/

Addendum has been added to that story

An earlier version of this article referenced reports regarding Yaakov Litzman blaming the coronavirus pandemic on homosexuality. The validity of this attribution is in dispute, and out of an abundance of caution that element of the story has been removed

Litzman represents the Orthodox extreme. 
The Talmudic perspective on diseases like this straddles the issue.  Pestilence is a divine punishment, but once it is set loose in the world  the righteous are imperilled by it just as much as anyone else.

[geralmar]

U.S. Feds are seizing coronavirus equipment ordered by hospitals:

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-07/hospitals-washington-seize-coronavirus-supplies

[Florestan]

I don't follow Spanish politics, nor your logic on this comparison.

Let's see. The situation in Spain is much worse than that in UK. Compare:

Spain: 141.942 cases, 14.045 deaths.
UK: 55.242 cases, 6159 deaths

(source: Worldometer)

Now, if you claim that Boris Johnson and his policies are directly responsible for the UK situation you should apply the same reasoning to Spain as well and come to the conclusion that Pedro Sanchez and his policies are directly responsible for the Spanish disaster.

But no, of course you won't do that, because Pedro Sanchez is a Socialist and by definition Socialists cannot do anything wrong. All blame to Johnson is okay, though, because he's a Conservative and by definition Conservatives do everything wrong.

And that's my final post on this issue.

[Mandryka]

Donald Trump blames WHO for dire situation in the US, threatens to pull funding, saying the global body is "China centric" and "biased" towards the rival superpower.


https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2020/apr/08/donald-trump-blames-who-for-dire-situation-in-the-us-threatens-to-pull-funding-video

[Daverz]

Let's see. The situation in Spain is much worse than that in UK. Compare:

You know they cannot compared just by picking current numbers, right?

[vandermolen]

From this side of the 'puddle', I've held a great deal of respect for your queen for many years...my parents did too.  And I watched her speech (youtube) in full and was very impressed by her dignity, composure, calmness and strength and her valiant attempts to calm and inspire her fellow citizens.

PD

Thank you PD! 
Hope you and your family are keeping safe.

I discovered a nice 5 and a half mile country walk from the house which saves having to drive anywhere.

[steve ridgway]

I discovered a nice 5 and a half mile country walk from the house which saves having to drive anywhere.

That's very handy . We're driving 8 miles to a deserted bit of countryside that's also near two quiet shops. The walks from our door would be more crowded even though the council have now barricaded the vehicle entrance to one of the largest areas of open land.

[Herman]

A big factor in Spain's awful corona situation is not socialists or conservatives in power, but the governamental structure of the country.

The regions are firmly separated from each other. They are autonomous. So Catalonia cannot ask Aragon (the region to the west) or the Valencian Community, to the south, if they can spare some ICU beds for Catalonian patients, the way the Netherlands and Germany have done. The region borders are impenetrable.

In this situation that's costing lives.

In a broader sense Spain is a very bureaucratic country, there are endless lengths of red tape and everything needs to be fiatted by a whole range of career bureaucrats (who often sat for their state exams to eventually enter the civil service for many many years  -  a cousin of my ex did these exams every frigging year until she was 37 and gave up) before anything happens.

A totally different factor is Spanish men of the baby boom generation and older are really heavy smokers.

[Papy Oli]

An article analysing thoroughly the response of the UK scientists and government since the start of the events :

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-path-speci/special-report-johnson-listened-to-his-scientists-about-coronavirus-but-they-were-slow-to-sound-the-alarm-idUSKBN21P1VF

[MusicTurner]

A couple of other in-depth articles, including EU's and some of the countries' response time, development and some future aspects

https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-europe-failed-the-test/

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/

Of course, a good deal of the current conclusions might be revised later.

[Rinaldo]

Now, if you claim that Boris Johnson and his policies are directly responsible for the UK situation you should apply the same reasoning to Spain as well and come to the conclusion that Pedro Sanchez and his policies are directly responsible for the Spanish disaster.

My reasoning stems from specific policies and ideologies pushed forward by BoJo and their effect on the pandemic response/NHS capacities, not a simplistic number comparison.

But it's beside the point, as I didn't say zilch about Sanchez's responsibility and he very well might bear the brunt of it – I simply don't know.

[Florestan]

An article analysing thoroughly the response of the UK scientists and government since the start of the events :

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-path-speci/special-report-johnson-listened-to-his-scientists-about-coronavirus-but-they-were-slow-to-sound-the-alarm-idUSKBN21P1VF

Very interesting, thanks for posting it. Mandatory reading for Rinaldo and SimonNz.

[Karl Henning]

Thank you PD! 
Hope you and your family are keeping safe.

I discovered a nice 5 and a half mile country walk from the house which saves having to drive anywhere.

Splendid!