Coronavirus

[9in]

So UK death numbers have been reduced by 5k due to England aligning its calculation with most other countries.

But any interesting stat on US vs UK. The US has roughly 5 times the population of the UK. So you could reasonably expect 5 times the cases - but no it’s closer to 16 times the cases! (Just for consistency though, the US deaths are only 4 times the UK).

Outside of major cities though the US is geographically sparse, population density wise, and this tends to limit spread to urban centres and regional outbreaks which don't spread as easily, interregionally, as in the UK, where a UK region would barely be a county in US terms. There are 3 people in the Dakotas and nobody in Idaho talks to each other. I'm actually surprised, given how tightly packed the UK is, that its numbers aren't even higher, given the shit show of a response!

[romeolover]

France and The Netherlands have been added to the quarantine list now! I was due to go to Amsterdam in September, may just cancel.

[ladsnet]

[veeeight]

What about cock cheese?

[ladsnet]

Sterile isn't it ?

[Parsifal]

It looks like we can no longer trust the C.D.C. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA).
U.S. officials (Trump regime) pressured the agency to modify its guidance to exclude testing asymptomatic people, even if they have been exposed to the virus.
This is consistent with Trump's insistence that if we test less then we'll have fewer positive results.

Just connect the dots.

It looks like we can no longer trust the F.D.A. (Food and Drug Administration).
Using fuzzy math and insignificant statistics the commissioner of the F.D.A. claimed that plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients could save 35 out of every 100 people who contract the disease.  The science is severely faulty.
Convalescent plasma is not an unreasonable thing for doctors and scientists to pin their hopes on — it has proved effective for other diseases, and so far it does appear to be safe for Covid-19 patients. But it has not yet shown any real benefit for them.  Trouble is the commissioner is being pressured by Trump to clear drugs and vaccines for use as quickly as possible — even if they may not have been proven safe and may not be effective.

Just connect the dots.

[Kev]

I hope Biden campaign nails him on that.

[ladsnet]

Rate climbing massively again here in the UK now.

Don't understand it.
After a few weeks of the government telling us everything is back to normal and to get back to work and the pubs.

Then the rate spikes again.

Baffling.

[Parsifal]

It's not going away until we have a vaccine.
So wear a mask, social distance and stay away from the pubs.

Yesterday my favorite New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote that he's in Paris and caught Covid-19 and wrote about some of the debilitating effects.  He wrote that he was careful, but thinks that he got it when he went to a bar to watch a soccer/football game.

I've also read that many people who have been infected were very careful, until they made a mistake.
Complacency with how things are getting better together with the boredom and frustration with the restrictions lead one to making a mistake.  Don't make a mistake.

And don't listen to the government.  
Find a reliable independent source that doesn't have a vested interest in the outcome.

[Parsifal]

Speaking to reporters at the White House today, Trump was asked whether he misled the country by publicly downplaying the threat of the virus.



He acknowledged that he misled the American public about the threat of COVID-19 earlier this year in order to “reduce panic”.  Trump said that in February he knew COVID-19 was more deadly than the flu but wanted to "play it down" because "I don't want to create a panic."



More likely he had his re-election linked to the economy in mind.



So far the a virus has killed nearly 200,000 people in the U.S.
The guy has blood on his hands.

(fmf keeps adding blank lines between the paragraphs.  If I delete them they come back again.  Annoying. )

[Parsifal]

Already on Feb. 7, three weeks before the first U.S. death from COVID-19 was announced, Trump told the author Bob Woodward (who brought down Nixon): "This is deadly stuff".

On the same day Trump wrote on Twitter that the coronavirus would disappear as the weather starts to warm.
On March 7 he told reporters: "No, I'm not concerned at all."

[Dominus]

The Daily Fail strikes again:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...kdown.html

NZ have FIVE NEW CASES! I don't see the headline saying that the UK has had 1148 new cases in the past 24 hours.

It really does make you wonder what the UK government are up to though - NZ have enforced a lockdown after a handful of cases, and over here, we're still trying to figure out where we should wear masks.

Those new cases made me very nervous, as I'd only just had some heart surgery...

[ladsnet]

Hearing that despite us now teetering on the edge of the 2nd wave cliff, our government is pressing on with a 'everything back to normal for Christmas' campaign starting next month.

Utter insanity.

[Parsifal]

The Daily Fail strikes again:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...kdown.html

NZ have FIVE NEW CASES! I don't see the headline saying that the UK has had 1148 new cases in the past 24 hours.

It really does make you wonder what the UK government are up to though - NZ have enforced a lockdown after a handful of cases, and over here, we're still trying to figure out where we should wear masks.

Those new cases made me very nervous, as I'd only just had some heart surgery...

Oh!
Take care Dominus.  I recall you telling us that you have pre-existing conditions.

[Dominus]

Those new cases made me very nervous, as I'd only just had some heart surgery...

Oh!
Take care Dominus.  I recall you telling us that you have pre-existing conditions.

Thanks Parsi, malfunctioning lungs and then I developed atrial fibrillation last year. I was in the equivalent of NZ's Level 3 Lockdown after my surgery and so when the rest of Auckland was placed on Level 3, it wasn't much of a change for me.

About the only bonus for me this year is that I haven't caught any colds or 'flu - this may have something to do with the large amount of hand sanitiser I'm going through.

Here's a fun fact about NZ: thanks to our vast production of cheese, NZ is self-sufficient when it comes to the production of food-grade Ethanol. Rather than let the by-products of cheese-making go to waste, Fonterra ferments it to make Ethanol. Earlier in the year, we had problems sourcing bottles to put it in...

[romeolover]

Matt Hancock this morning did not provide much confidence on the Andrew Marr show - He could hardly string a sentance together.

Utter mess!

[Parsifal]

About the only bonus for me this year is that I haven't caught any colds or 'flu - this may have something to do with the large amount of hand sanitiser I'm going through.

When the virus hit here in the U.S. a friend in China sent me a batch of surgical masks (which along with N95 masks were also in short supply).  He wrote to me that whenever I go out, upon returning home to first wash my hands before touching anything.  So whenever I go out, I always wear a mask (yeah, I'm one of those pussies who wears a mask when he goes out) and then wash my hands first thing upon returning home.  So far so good.  I'm still here.

Matt Hancock this morning did not provide much confidence on the Andrew Marr show - He could hardly string a sentance together.

Utter mess!

Fortunately, we here in the U.S. have the benefit of the Orange Idiot who in his great wisdom on Wednesday said that the death toll from the coronavirus would not be as bad "if you take the blue states out".
I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

Well, to be fair, he is (so-called) "president" of the half of the country that voted for him.
(He's that kind of guy.)

[ladsnet]

We appear to be definitely in the 2nd wave now.

The mad rush on bog roll has begun

[Ollie2UK]

My local off licence will be chuffed. He invested in shitloads (fnarr) of bog roll just before the original panic buying run ended,

Been piled up in front of his till for months 'cos he's asking so much for them,

[romeolover]

Let's hope the general public are sensible and realise, supermarkets won't close! Then again!

Where was Boris today? He should've been on today.