Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Josquius]

I see a lot more stuff against Soros than Gates TBH.
Which I guess is a slight relief? Gates stays out of politics and sticks to vaccination et al whilst Soros' main charitable work is in supporting liberal democracy against fascist bullshit.

[Legbiter]

Here all sporting events have been cancelled for the next 2 weeks at least, restrictions on gatherings have been tightened and we've cocooned all retirement homes again as more cases are being found from that children's football tournament. Close to everyone at that event is being tested right now and so far we've found 13 new infections. We'll know in a few days whether we've managed to contain the bug or if we're back to mid-March general spread. One person has been hospitalized but he's not requiring intensive care.

[Sheilbh]

The UK is still having days were it's reporting over 100 deaths, so I don't think we've got it under any real measure of control.

Guess we'll have to wait and see what impact the weakening social distancing has.

I think that's the slightly dodgy PHE statistics (which cross-check all positive tests at any point against deaths that day - I believe in most European countries they cross-check positive tests in the last four weeks for daily statistics). According to the ONS (who look at actual death certificates) it's about half that at around 50 deaths a day and still falling. At the minute there's a divergence between the government statistics which are plateauing and the ONS which are still declining.

[Tamas]

Here all sporting events have been cancelled for the next 2 weeks at least, restrictions on gatherings have been tightened and we've cocooned all retirement homes again as more cases are being found from that children's football tournament. Close to everyone at that event is being tested right now and so far we've found 13 new infections. We'll know in a few days whether we've managed to contain the bug or if we're back to mid-March general spread. One person has been hospitalized but he's not requiring intensive care.

Considering that your new epicentre is an outdoors kids event, doesn't that affect the level of safety we attributed to the outdoors and kids?

[mongers]

Here all sporting events have been cancelled for the next 2 weeks at least, restrictions on gatherings have been tightened and we've cocooned all retirement homes again as more cases are being found from that children's football tournament. Close to everyone at that event is being tested right now and so far we've found 13 new infections. We'll know in a few days whether we've managed to contain the bug or if we're back to mid-March general spread. One person has been hospitalized but he's not requiring intensive care.

Considering that your new epicentre is an outdoors kids event, doesn't that affect the level of safety we attributed to the outdoors and kids?

Icelanders are famously huggy-kissy type people.

[Legbiter]

Considering that your new epicentre is an outdoors kids event, doesn't that affect the level of safety we attributed to the outdoors and kids?

The infected are all adults who bought refreshments from an ad hoc inside kiosk on the premises.  Droplet and surface contamination by the looks of it.

[Sheilbh]

Here all sporting events have been cancelled for the next 2 weeks at least, restrictions on gatherings have been tightened and we've cocooned all retirement homes again as more cases are being found from that children's football tournament. Close to everyone at that event is being tested right now and so far we've found 13 new infections. We'll know in a few days whether we've managed to contain the bug or if we're back to mid-March general spread. One person has been hospitalized but he's not requiring intensive care.

Considering that your new epicentre is an outdoors kids event, doesn't that affect the level of safety we attributed to the outdoors and kids?

That's an unusual event but I don't think the point has ever been that children or outdoors are zero risk but that they are very, very low risk. And this disease is out there - we can't eliminate the risk of it until there's a vaccine. The vast majority of the spread happens in enclosed environments, where people are for length of time and are, sort-of emitting, by talking or singing - I think it's probably still right to focus on that. The thing that worries me is air con because I think there's evidence that does spread it and that seems risky as big air-conned spaces are opening up like some offices, airports etc. It's also why winter worries me more because given that we will all go indoors for anything social in winter (which we can do outdoors now) I don't see an option apart from complete lockdown (of pubs, restaurants, social gatherings but schools stay open) if there's no vaccine/treatment

It would also be nice to understand more about the "super-emitters". There's the famous stat that basically 80% of transmission comes from 20% of people and in part that's because some of them are super-social or go to high risk events (the guy with covid who went to a choir rehearsal for example), but some of it seems to be that some people actually just emit more and it would be nice to know what causes that.

I saw Chris Whitty floating the idea that there's basically a limit to how much you can re-open and you might need to trade-off - so to re-open schools we might need to close down pubs and restaurants again because it sort of channels the locations with a risk of infection.

[Zanza]

In winter, we just need more patio heaters and mulled wine to allow for comfortable social gathering.

[Tamas]

It would also be nice to understand more about the "super-emitters". There's the famous stat that basically 80% of transmission comes from 20% of people and in part that's because some of them are super-social or go to high risk events (the guy with covid who went to a choir rehearsal for example), but some of it seems to be that some people actually just emit more and it would be nice to know what causes that.

I have been wondering if instead of some mysterious biology, these people are just highly social and gross with personal hygiene. I mean, we have all seen people who are really terrible with the latter, for example I have seen well-adjusted and groomed people who just couldn't be bothered to cough in to their hands. Plus I can count on one hand the occasions when somebody I knew to be a native to this island blew his/her nose into a wipe/handkerchief instead of sniffing plus the optional nose-cleaning with their hands.

You have somebody who is extra careless that way and infect them with something like Covid, wouldn't be hard to end up with a super-spreader, would it.

[Camerus]

Soros is a billionaire who uses his wealth to try and effect his preferred political outcomes. Sure a lot of the stuff attributed to him is retarded and often anti-Semitic, but calling out the undue influence of particular billionaires in politics, particularly where they actually *are* attempting to influence the political process, is hardly inherently ridiculous in all instances.

[Valmy]

Soros is a billionaire who uses his wealth to try and effect his preferred political outcomes. Sure a lot of the stuff attributed to him is retarded and often anti-Semitic, but calling out the undue influence of particular billionaires in politics, particularly where they actually *are* attempting to influence the political process, is hardly inherently ridiculous in all instances.

"If, instead of the crazy shit they were saying, they were saying sane shit they wouldn't be so crazy"

Well, yeah, of course. No fucking shit. Soros is one of many billionaires who have way more political influence than they should. Many people talk about that problem. We are not talking about that though so let's not play that game where we try to make stupid shit sound not stupid by switching it around.

[Camerus]

Nobody's playing any game, you fucking idiot. The discourse around Soros is simply unhinged, including in the "explain away his actual undue influence" crowd.

[Tamas]

The UK government is buying some miracle Covid-19 test that is said to give a result in 90 minutes, although no data has been published on them.

Yet, it is being trumpeted this morning through the media as a major breakthrough to prevent a second wave. I, for one, am still waiting for these antibody tests they are going to make available 3 months ago.

[Admiral Yi]

Nobody's playing any game, you fucking idiot. The discourse around Soros is simply unhinged, including in the "explain away his actual undue influence" crowd.

Can anyone, including billionaires, have undue influence in pursuit of a worthy goal?  Soros funds organizations that lobby for liberal democracy as well as establishing universities.  Did Dale Carnegie exert undue influence when he funded libraries and a university?

[Tamas]

Nobody's playing any game, you fucking idiot. The discourse around Soros is simply unhinged, including in the "explain away his actual undue influence" crowd.

Can anyone, including billionaires, have undue influence in pursuit of a worthy goal?  Soros funds organizations that lobby for liberal democracy as well as establishing universities.  Did Dale Carnegie exert undue influence when he funded libraries and a university?

I don't see what we could or even should do about it. I can financially support an NGO. So rich dudes have tons more money they can spare on supporting NGOs they like.