Ongoing coronavirus happenings

But some stadiums were converted into emergency hospitals. Do you remember that show MASH? They had to build military style hospitals, just like the one of the show, in several capitals. How could you play soccer when there a is a hospital in the middle of the field?

11 Likes

This one worries me a bit. I’ve had no other symptoms, so the doctor thinks it was a reaction to the anti-depressant I started before quarantine.
Still, the itchy, spotty palms and torso were a bit scary.

19 Likes

What Sweden is doing might be working for them (still TBD), but then Sweden is a “boutique” country compared to the US: small population of generally healthier people with universal healthcare and broad social support. Pretty much the opposite here in the US, so I don’t see how the Swedish experience is transferable.

16 Likes

Here’s an example:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/yakima-county-washington-coronavirus-rate

With the harvest season just getting underway, Bravo said the health district is wary that the infection rate will continue to grow, especially in housing for migrant workers that tends to be cramped.

7 Likes

You’d better let the WHO know, since they seem to agree with me:

Of course, encouraging voluntary social distancing measures (as they do in Sweden) is not the same thing as encouraging freedom rallies and statehouse invasions (as our President has done).

“The reopening weekend was a disaster. We had two customers all weekend."

You can reopen all you want, but if only the idiots want to risk their lives to go out, then what’s the point?

25 Likes

12-year-old girl makes fabric masks to exchange for food in Rio.

The girl, who lives in Ladeira dos Tabajaras neighborhood, raised food donations for her neighbors in the community.

Lua de Oliveira, 12 years old, had already opened a library in the community and, facing the new cornavirus pandemic, decided to help the neighbors again.

“So many people have passed through my life and have helped me so much, but so much, that today it is my turn to help people my way,” said the girl, who was exchanging masks for food in fornt of supermarkets balancing on stilts.

Another example of solidarity in times of pandemic was the donation of toys by 435 families to the project ‘Quarentena do Desapego’. The toys were delivered to the Central Única das Favelas, which will distribute them in 250 communities.

21 Likes
4 Likes

I just wanted to copy that. And read it again. Because it’s so on point. :+1:

Yes Republicans, all sorts of mask-less, oblivious idiots are currently milling about in close proximity, sharing water droplets, and they’ll be glad to start spending money again, but they’re not a majority. So what’s next after opening up some states? Forcing people at gun point to get out and go shopping?

19 Likes

This is a matter of confidence in your society. You need to be confident that the shopkeepers have used proper cleaning protocols. You need to be confident that people with symptoms are not going shopping too. You need to be confident that people won’t crowd you, or lick the cooler doors, or scream at someone spraying droplets everywhere. Most of all, you need to be confident in your government, that their decision to open is based on a sound evaluation of the current situation in your area.

The current POTUS, and some of his gubernatorial toadies, have built a political career on undermining confidence in government and society. It is hard to see reopening being a success until we get rid of these guys.

7 Likes

My friend who works in hospital administration (but has also been on the front lines swabbing hundreds of suspected covid-19 patients) is coming around to this way of thinking as well. Those of us who are well insulated from the worst of it, by being able to shelter at home and still make money to pay the bills, have no idea how utterly overwhelmed and exhausted the medical community is, and they see no end in sight because they understand how long it will be before a vaccine and/or prophylactic treatment is ready. Flattening the curve was crucial, but now, keeping it flat means they may have to work under these conditions for the next TWO YEARS, not just a few more months. They’re starting to push for community-wide antibody tests, with a goal of pinpointing who the at-risk are and quarantining only them.

18 Likes

And that is why I, a high-risk individual, do the grocery shopping locally in Chicago and bring it out to the 5 young adults sheltering at my dad’s place in rural Indiana. The few times I’ve ventured out to local stores to see how they’re handling things there, I’ve seen that it’s not safe at all, so the ‘kids’ are instructed to stay on the property and I (and two other parents, who also work and shop in Chicago) will bring supplies to them once a week.

18 Likes

@docosc, have a look at this paper. Pre-print, very quick analysis. Doesn’t replace epidemiology, but informs current debate about children and possible infectiosity.

I urge you to put the link below through gTranslate after reading, because the paper’s findings already were reported in the media with some spin. Drosten, as lead author, is trying to emphasise what the data doesn’t tell us, and addressing some of the shortfalls.

5 Likes

this is driven by a political choice though. if the federal government had been serious, or was now serious, about the response to the virus: medical stressors would be lower and support higher.

by starving hospitals of supplies, not working across borders to move support personnel around, and standing by as corona has spread: the administration has brought this long painful lock down, overworked medical staff, upon us.

so now, people are (understandably so) getting ragged from the lockdown, and wanting try (say) the swedish way…

only there will be no federal support still. and the administration will still be trying to undermine whatever response the states have.

there is no “sweden model” here. not till (and if) biden wins, and maybe not even then.

i don’t have any answers. just cautioning that there isn’t a viable alternative to what we’re doing right now. even while acknowledging that what we’re doing isn’t sustainable forever.

14 Likes

Elderly Trump voters = Fox viewers.

5 Likes
24 Likes

My wife and I are at home normally, and for now my job is still paying me. My parents are old and my mother is on immunosuppressants for arthritis. We decided to shop for them, and we try to go less frequently than once a week to ship for everyone. We deliver to their carport and maybe chat for a few minutes at 10’ with masks on, and then everything is washed it wiped down. I’ll do this for as long as I need to to protect them, but they are basically the people Sweden killed off quickly in order to get to where they are now.

We do take out a couple of times a week to support a few local restaurants, and my wife helps a woman with her small urban farmstand once a week, since her husband died recently, and also runs a vegetable exchange, but all with people who are trained in safe produce handling. My wife went to a farmer’s market last week, but it became quickly clear that we need a way to figure out which farmers are Trumpie YouTube Shit-Bats, and which are decent people we can safely do business with.

16 Likes
14 Likes
9 Likes

Since aircraft travel affects weather, I wonder also if our models can cope with its absence.

6 Likes