Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[mongers]

The job retention scheme - government paying 80% of the wages of furloughed employees - is now estimated to be paying the wage of 6.3 million people. That is more people than are employed in the entire public sector, which is a huge sign of just how big the impact is

These measure and I thinks some other lesser ones are reported to be costing more than one billion pounds per day!

How sustainable is that, or 'we' and especially the well off need to do some belt tightening?

[Duque de Bragança]

I haven't seen a single mask yet. We still don't seem to have any to spare, it's medical personnel only and maybe teachers when schools open next week.

Over here it was like until 3-4 weeks ago. They imported massive amounts from China (which included several defective batches...) and some domestic factores switched to PPE production. This has enabled the government to make masks mandatory in stuff like public transport (of course, when there weren't any masks to go around they just said they weren't necessary outside hospitals...).

Same in France as in Spain, as in badly or incompetently managed.

[Barrister]

I'm going to post this link just for crazy canuck:  "Canada succeeded on coronavirus where America failed. Why?"

https://www.vox.com/2020/5/4/21242750/coronavirus-covid-19-united-states-canada-trump-trudeau

[The Larch]

Possibly not even plateauing.

Jeez, what's going on in Singapore? Or is it just that they're doing a massive number of tests?

[mongers]

Possibly not even plateauing.

Jeez, what's going on in Singapore? Or is it just that they're doing a massive number of tests?

They have a problem with migrant workers concentrated in residential 'barracks', they're being quarantined and tested. But I think it's broadly contained in those hotspots.   

[Sheilbh]

And that's their second wave - the cases are declining and they're lifting restrictions (after second lockdown).

[The Larch]

Our opposition is also embracing the stupid and won't vote for extending the emergency, which would result in all movement restrictions be completely lifted next Monday 

I think that at the end they just will abstain, separatists and the far right will vote against it, and the extension will pass with just the votes of the parties in the minority government. But man, I wish I could slap every single member of our political establishment (the government not excepted, they get an extra-hard slap).

PP will end up abstaining because somebody at PP will manhandle Casado and tell him to stop doing stupid shit for a couple of weeks, he has been manhandled before and he'll be again. It's just that whenever whoever keeps him on a leash relaxes, he just goes back to his nature, saying stupid shit with no thinking whatsoever on the consequences.

[Tonitrus]

Meanwhile, in Russia....

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/04/europe/russia-medical-workers-windows-intl/index.html

Three Russian doctors fall from hospital windows, raising questions amid coronavirus pandemic
By Mary Ilyushina, CNN

Updated 1703 GMT (0103 HKT) May 4, 2020
An ambulance seen on Moscow's Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak on May 4.
An ambulance seen on Moscow's Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak on May 4.
Moscow (CNN)Three frontline healthcare workers have mysteriously fallen out of hospital windows in Russia over the past two weeks, heightening public attention to the working conditions for doctors and medical professionals amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Two of those healthcare workers are dead, and one remains hospitalized.

[Barrister]

Isn't throwing people out of windows a classic move for Russian intelligence services?

[Zoupa]

No need to worry if other people wear masks.  Just wear one yourself.

Masks only works if everybody wears one. The kinda masks people wear en masse are meant to protect other people, not the wearer.

For the wearer to be effectively protected, it would need to be N95, have it fit-tested in a hospital, and change it every 3 hours maximum. In short, impossible.

That's not what the local experts are saying.  Even surgical masks confer some protection to the wearer.  In case of infection, the viral load will be lower and the chance of hospitalisation is lower.  What do Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Macau, and Taiwan have in common?  Most people in these places wear surgical masks, and they don't have the nightmarish scenarios of say the UK, Spain and Italy.

Chinese people, like you, won't wear a mask if you knew it was to protect other people. Hence why "experts" lie to you, and says it protects the wearer. It's the only way to get a billion selfish assholes to do something for public health.

[Habbaku]

Isn't throwing people out of windows a classic move for Russian intelligence services?

Tends to be more a Czech thing.

[Valmy]

Our opposition is also embracing the stupid and won't vote for extending the emergency, which would result in all movement restrictions be completely lifted next Monday 

I think that at the end they just will abstain, separatists and the far right will vote against it, and the extension will pass with just the votes of the parties in the minority government. But man, I wish I could slap every single member of our political establishment (the government not excepted, they get an extra-hard slap).

Why are the separatists acting insane in this situation? What does the pandemic have to do with separatism?

And the far right I guess have to be in favor of stupid ideas no matter what they are.

[Valmy]

he just goes back to his nature, saying stupid shit with no thinking whatsoever on the consequences.

Tell him there is no need to attempt to qualify to be President of the United States as he is constitutionally ineligible.

[celedhring]

Our opposition is also embracing the stupid and won't vote for extending the emergency, which would result in all movement restrictions be completely lifted next Monday 

I think that at the end they just will abstain, separatists and the far right will vote against it, and the extension will pass with just the votes of the parties in the minority government. But man, I wish I could slap every single member of our political establishment (the government not excepted, they get an extra-hard slap).

Why are the separatists acting insane in this situation? What does the pandemic have to do with separatism?

And the far right I guess have to be in favor of stupid ideas no matter what they are.

They play the "oppose everything Madrid says" game, even if it leads to absurd policy positions. They are at the same time criticizing Madrid for not being strict enough with the lockdown while voting down the policy instrument that makes it even possible.

They are also pushing the "we'd been better off independent" talking point. Which is false since they moved as slowly as Madrid did. An hilarious moment was when the Catalan government spokeswoman said that if they'd been independent they would have applied the lockdown 2 weeks earlier and saved thousands of lives... 15 days before Spain entered lockdown they headlined a massive separatist rally in Perpignan - I guess nobody cares about the French.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah - weird about the separatists. Here public health, the NHS and education are all devolved responsibilities so most of the measures governments have taken have been the responsibility of all the governments - and we've not closed borders which I think would be an exclusively UK government responsibility.

There have been minor differences in approach - mainly around comms and transparency - but I've actually been pretty impressed at how much a four nations approach has held. My understanding is that all the devolved administrations attend COBRA so they're all getting the same briefing and I think generally want to take the same action (there's a bit of friction around whether Northern Ireland should more closely mirror the UK or the Republic in terms of timing) at the same time, which they've done. Which is impressive given Scotland is run by the SNP, England the Tories, Wales the Labour Party and Northern Ireland the DUP and Sinn Fein. So I think if you're in Scotland you just watch Nicola Sturgeon's daily press conference (and it's always Sturgeon) and ignore what's happening in London.

Also it has let me discover that the Welsh spelling of coronavirus is coronafeirws