Helsinki freesheet Helsingin Uutiset, reports that the head of Helsinki’s Department of Social Affairs and Health Juha Jolkkonen says that the level of coronavirus infections in the capital’s Somali community has peaked and are falling.
In April, officials said that in proportion to the number of residents in the capital, 1.8 percent of Somali speakers were infected, compared to 0.2 percent for the city as a whole.
At that time, it was pointed out that many Somali-background people work in jobs that can’t be done remotely, such as salespersons, cleaners, bus drivers and nurses. The higher infection rate was also attributed, in part, to poor communication on the part of city authorities.
Jolkkonen told the paper that communication had improved and city officials have worked in cooperation with Somali community organisations. Communication has also been upgraded for other immigrant language groups, he added.
Two weeks ago the city opened a coronavirus testing station at the Stoa cultural centre in the Itäkeskus district, an area with a proportionally large immigrant and immigrant-background population.
I don’t know about the US, but Germany has the same type of cycle, which is thought to be caused by the reports being delayed over the weekend, due to the public health offices collecting the data, but also hospitals and coroners being low on staff over the weekend and only the most urgent work being done.
…which does not justify the premature reopening efforts in the West. China is much further along in the response timeline than the West, and has been treating it with appropriate seriousness from very early on. America hasn’t even properly shut down yet.
Fun fact: The private nursing home market was opened up by the Ontario government of Mike “the slasher” Harris. Today, he is the Chairman of the Board for Chartwell, Ontario’s largest private nursing home company. (I took a quick look to see who owns Chartwell, but nothing yet.)
Heartbreaking story short - nursing homes rely on temp workers for orderlies, temp workers end up working at several nursing homes to make enough money to live, many temp workers are refugees living in crowded apartments and getting sick. Gah.
That is interesting, right? See: nicotine is an ACE2 inhibitor.
However, NB: this doesn’t mean lower chance of dying for smokers who do contract Covid-19.
ETA: also, we need more studies… sighs See above WDKS about this virus.
WDKS needs to be the go-to response to almost all the pre-prints and hypotheses out there right now. Good science takes time, damn it, and bad science makes science look bad, which we really, really cannot afford in the current climate. Just fucking encourages the nuddniks to carry on about how “the eggheads are wrong again! You can’t trust them for anything! Let’s all go drink bleach!”
If China covered up the real situation, then why did the US Consulate General in Wuhan pull out of its staff before others did? If the US side sensed no danger, then what’s the rush in pulling out? A recent report by the US CDC made it clear that limited testing ability contributed to problems like silent transmission, which caused an accelerated spread of the virus in the US in February and March. Is this also China’s fault?
If COVID-19 pandemic is comparable to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attack, then the enemy the US faces this time is the novel coronavirus. The novel coronavirus is the common enemy of all mankind. In the face of this war between human and virus, China and the US should be comrades in arms rather than enemies.
Again, people’s lives come before selfish political interests. We urge the US side to stop scapegoating China and deflecting attention. Instead, it should get its own house in order and give the American people a clear explanation.
Previous strips were not bad, but this one has a harmful message. While real lockdown rules vary between countries, they are neither crazy nor arbitrary and are generally enacted in good faith.
Cable and satellite companies are having a really tough time convincing people to shell out the cash to watch reruns with commercials that talk non stop about a company’s covid response with b roll footage
Some landlords are big consortia or investment groups with deep pockets, but some are small owners who rely on the income. I have neighbors, for example, who own multi-family dwellings like duplexes and use the rent from the units they don’t occupy to help cover their mortgage. Moratoriums on rent in times of furlough and layoff make sense, but why doesn’t it also makes sense to have a moratorium on the property tax for these landlords?
