Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[garbon]

Seems very odd to reveal you have money to give to help people and refuse to give it.

[Sheilbh]

Very much a false economy; if the poorer sections have to work in order to survive then the entire point of the lockdown is compromised.

Yes. The other point I saw is that the centre of infections at the minute are the great cities - which are full of young people because of universities but also because people move there for work. If they're not getting paid in a way that makes living in those cities possible - and you shut everything that makes them worth living in down - you're going to end up just incentivising people to move back home spreading the virus all over the country.

I think Stephen Bush was right to note today that the UK is more or less unique in trying to curb infections through lockdowns and curb government debt by spending less - it's tough to see how you do both and most countries are choosing one or the other.

And the issue around business viability made by Duncan Weldon is spot on. There's definitely a broader transition in the economy, which is being accelerated by covid (more home working, fewer branches of Pret). But it's not clear to me that people in, say, Bury will drink less in a year's time when all this is (hopefully) over. So I don't see why a suburban pub that runs a profit at the minute won't be able to run a profit next year. I don't see any reason why that business won't be viable unless we choose to make those business non-viable in certain parts of the country.

But it definitely feels like the Treasury is very much re-asserting itself after the brief dominance of the Department of Health.

[HVC]

Seems very odd to reveal you have money to give to help people and refuse to give it.

How else are they supposed to know you're punishing them?

The british government has not looked good the last few years... then again i guess you could sy that for most western governments lol

[Syt]

Former Austrian swim star Markus Rogan was hired by the Israeli national football team as "mentality coach" which I assume is a glorified motivational speaker position. The head coach of the team is Austrian, so I guess that's how he got in.

Anyways, he tested positive for Covid-19 in Israel and was ordered to quarantine for 2 weeks. Instead, he took an older, negative test result and used it at the airport to fly to his home in Los Angeles.

He argued that the quarantine order didn't make sense to him, and that he didn't want to stay in Israel for two weeks, because "it's not my country." And he wore masks on the flight, after all!

Legal consequences are unclear so far, but it seems likely that at least the Israeli football association will try and sue him. And I assume he shouldn't travel to the country anytime soon.

[The Brain]

Well he's certainly mental.

[garbon]

Seems very odd to reveal you have money to give to help people and refuse to give it.

How else are they supposed to know you're punishing them?

The british government has not looked good the last few years... then again i guess you could sy that for most western governments lol

Apparently the British government has done an about face and will now still offer the £60 million to Greater Manchester in aid - as opposed to the £22 mil stated yesterday.

Andy Burnham's final request was apparently £65 million.

So the government burnt its ability to work with local government/helped ignite yet another North vs. South divide, then spent a day looking petty before ultimately still giving most of what the local leaders wanted.

[Tamas]

 

And these same guys will be managing a no deal brexit from January. 2021 will be rough.

[Sheilbh]

Apparently the British government has done an about face and will now still offer the £60 million to Greater Manchester in aid - as opposed to the £22 mil stated yesterday.

Andy Burnham's final request was apparently £65 million.

So the government burnt its ability to work with local government/helped ignite yet another North vs. South divide, then spent a day looking petty before ultimately still giving most of what the local leaders wanted.

And for the sake of £5million. In the context of public finances we're talking about a rounding error.

I'd also point out that Burnham's initial request was £90million which was they amount they thought they'd need to make this work for 6 months (£15million a month). It would be far cheaper to manage the policy through local authorities - if it's around that sort of level of cost that is far lower than the costs of the initial lockdown if applied nationally. You feel like it's something that the Treasury should be looking into.

It was also such a flashback to the generation of politicians who came up in New Labour hearing Burnham talk about this "fully costed" plan

Edit: Also it's worth pointing out the fury of Sir Richard Leese in all this - yesterday he noted that people will notice that the government couldn't find this money but have found the money for their failed track and trace system. The context to this is that he's been the leader of Manchester City Council since the IRA bombs in the mid-90s, he's credited with the regeneration of the city after the bombs and is one of the most respected municipal politicians in the country. It's incredible that the government have managed to piss off him and Burnham because they're probably two of the most reasonable, pragmatic, centrist local government leaders in England.

[garbon]

Yesterday, I went into my office by car to pickup my personal items. On the trip, I saw all the sights of London that I hadn't seen in months + all the very empty places like Trafalgar Squre, Leceister Square and Soho. At first, I felt sad about how long it had been since I'd seen all of that (well not Leicester Square ).

Then I realized I was actually very angry. Angry at how the British government had squandered all the time it had been given by the populace making personal sacrifices. And it wasn't because they weren't willing to spend the money, as we saw the Conservatives open up the public purse.

We're now 7 months on and still hoping for a viable test and trace system, hoping for a vaccine.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Graham Brady wasn't that supportive of the government either...and he is the chair of the 1922 committee 

He is also MP for one of the posh parts of Greater Manchester of course.

[Syt]

New negative record of new infections in Austria: 1958. 125 people have died since start of October (925 total).

[Barrister]

Yay! Canada's been placed on the EU's no-travel list due to rising Covid infections.  Travel is now only allowed from Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Uruguay.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/eu-travel-canada-1.5770782

[celedhring]

Two weeks ago 14-day infections in the Barcelona area sat at 150 per 100k, after a slow fall from the first re-peak in August. I reached a deal with my friends: once it falls below 100/100k, we meet to play boardgames.

Today it reached 400 per 100k 

Dunno why it got so crazy all of a sudden.

[Maladict]

Dunno why it got so crazy all of a sudden.

Apparently the city of Liege is looking at Bergamo levels of hospital admissions if the current trend continues.
This second wave is taking a nasty turn.

[Admiral Yi]

Could be a long winter.