Washington residents report threats after naming businesses that could be violating coronavirus rules
Two Facebook pages during the past week posted names, emails and phone numbers of state residents who had complained to the state about businesses allegedly violating Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order. Some of the complainants say the Facebook posts have generated threats of violence and harassment against them.
One group publicizing the names, the Washington Three Percenters, has promoted the stay-at-home protests, and one of its leaders spoke at Saturday’s demonstration.
i love that the comment about “nurse handbags” and “popularity contests” comes from a poster so insecure in their self worth that their avatar is themselves in camo with a gun.
Wait. So most people worship the hell out of firefighters, cops and the military since 9/11, but when it comes to nurses they get no more than three months of gratitude? I noticed that doctors seem to be exempt from all the animosity.
Sweden admits failure to protect elderly in care homes
Sweden, whose softer virus approach has garnered international attention, admits it has failed to adequately protect the elderly, with around half of COVID-19 deaths occurring among nursing home residents.
Finns have had 75 percent less contact with other people on average during the coronavirus situation compared to pre-pandemic times, according to a survey by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL.
According to tabloid Iltalehti, nearly four-fifths of respondents said they met no more than three people a day. Adults who responded to the survey had an average of 2.5 social contacts per day.
In a previous survey conducted under normal conditions, the daily number of people met was about ten.
A meeting was defined as one where the respondent had exchanged at least a few words with another person.
Kari Auranen , Professor of Statistics at the University of Turku said the results of the survey explain why the reproduction rate of the coronavirus or the R0 figure dropped to less than one.
The study also revealed that Uusimaa residents had almost 15 per cent fewer physical contacts than those living elsewhere in the country.
Respondents between the ages of 70 and 79 met only half the number of people compared to working-age people. Among the elderly, skin contact including hugs and kisses declined the most — up to 85 percent compared to normal conditions.
The survey of 1,175 people from across the country was conducted by the market research company Taloustutkimus between 21–25. April.
Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 79 years. The data obtained from the survey were compared with the results of a similar study carried out in 2005 under normal social conditions.
It doesn’t help that their main consumers are in that high risk range of getting seriously sick from the virus. It’s not going to be a great time for mall owners.
Sorry, this is going to be a rather long response for a short question. Please scroll along if you’re not interested in the cultural semantics of German public debate.
The “initiative” calls itself Querdenken, literally: thinking laterally.
It is important to note that a Querdenker is rather perceived a badge of honour. In public discourse, it carries a strong connotation: it is mostly used in context of public debate with people who have rather unpopular or uncommon views, but who nevertheless add valuable perspectives to various discussions. To ‘earn’ the public categorisation as a Querdenker (mostly male, BTW - very rarely the term Querdenkerin!), you usually also have to contribute your opinions to several subjects, or better even: fields. Which has, of course, to do with the ‘lateral’ p
The general meaning of ‘lateral thinker’ for someone who is trying to think ‘out of the box’ and using your subjective perspectives (and biases) as a creative element is also used - but rather rarely, compared to the general perception. (This manifests itself in publications using the term.)
I said above that the term is used mostly for men. Rarely for women. Also, it is, at least in my perception (other German speakers here might correct this notion, if necessary), mostly connected with conservatives (and specifically neocons and our own breed of libertarians) speaking up against a perceived leftist-liberal bias in public debates (classical German liberalism, that is).
It also worth noting that unlikely associations of people of various backgrounds *with (neo-)fascists have been called “Querfront”. The term is pulled from history - Weimar history no less.
Careful, better not use the English Wikipedia article linked from that page as English equivalent, but maybe read it as a primer before throwing the German Wikipedia into Google Translate. The German article has a lot of background, and some nuances, which are not present in the English version.
I do not think this allusion is accidental.
This is purposefully introduced. The organisers play with it. They even play with the “Aluhut” connotations (tin foil hats), some by wearing aluminium foil balls on a sting as an ornament and statement. This wonderfully plays into the propaganda which is in full swing. The Querfront strives on that.
Also, please note that the Querfront term is often used by people critical of the association of neo-fascists with other, more moderate groups, but is also used by the right-wingers themselves, sometimes mockingly.
In current usage (I would say during last decade), the Querfront term has been often used as soon as real cranks turn up at events and were not sidelined. This is especially visible during the last weeks, when so-called Reichsbürger are turning up at so-called Hygienedemos and the like. We could easily dismiss such idiots, but they are present and vocal right now, and they are influencing the wider picture by stylising themselves as victims of police overreach - e.g. they provoke the police to ask for their ID, and then produce a fake document, which in turn leads to usual procedure of identification, which they oppose physically. Right now, it seems to have reached a level which I last observed during the growing ‘unease’ against the Eurorettung (i.e., measures against the European debt crisis, especially the bailout-discussions about Greece) in 2011-2012. The stuff which grew out of this is the neo-fascist Pegida bullshit and the neo-fascist AfD. The latter is currently the largest opposition party in German parliament.
This is really, really unsettling.
I apologise for this long-winded OT explanation of context and cultural semantics.
Back on topic in regard to the developement of the actual pandemic:
I agree, in general. However, there are several things which might help:
overall infection rates are quite low in Germany
the demonstrations were outdoors, and air humidity was low and temperatures high (reducing the time a droplet stays infectious)
the images are just capturing a tiny moment and may have exaggerating perspectives (FTR, telephoto photos ‘compress’ the space and make it seem places are more crowded than they are)
German testing capacities are high and under-used right now (so labs could cope with additional caseload)
we still have many available ICUs, if this goes south
All in all, I assume that we will have more people infected due to this nonsense, but I think we will not see a surge of death in one month. (Which I would say is ‘soon’.)
The longer term is what currently (literally) keeps me awake at night. And writing long posts here, since this helps me to sort and sieve my thoughts, so I can cope with this fucking madness.
I am still waiting for several important facts to be included in this fucking nightmare of a PR disaster the new patient zero in France is.
And this article: just FUD. Do not spread. Please. They don’t even link the publication. Noone even related to science has had a look at this article, because “ScienceDirect” isn’t a publication. And everyone knows that who ever worked in science. Also, right now, it doesn’t even mean it actually is peer-reviewed.
Questions which have not been answered in media reports regarding the early cases in france:
Did they use specific PCR testing, so they can confirm and double-check if it was SARS-CoV-2, and not another human Corona virus?
Did they also do antibody tests for the patients (these might turn out negative even if the person had Covid-19, but if they have specific IG-G antibodies, this would support the hypothesis they had it as early as claimed)
Did they have enough virus in the samples to sequence the genome?
If so, which clade of the virus was found? Can they place it in the tree?
The whole narrative “it was here in November, folks” is not impossible. It is not even completely unlikely. But we NEED more proof, and the bloody media circus around it is creating a lot of uncertainty. Which is exploited by the populists. And Chinese government. And US government.
But I repeat myself.
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