Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

A lot of my work is around privacy law and the measures taken in South Korea and Singapore especially would be very difficult in Europe. They are very invasive and I don't know if we'd be willing to accept it. Maybe in preference to lockdown.

I don't know so much about Taiwan.

Yeah, don't see how we could do Korean contact tracing here.  It's basically putting a GPS on everyone and broadcasting it to the world.

Yep - and we can all access the impressive information shown in Singapore:
https://co.vid19.sg/map#

It's impressive and working well but would present challenges from our perspective of privacy, but also of health information sort of being particularly sensitive and subject to higher levels of confidentiality.

[alfred russel]

Singapore and Taiwan did not have to shut down public life, they are just extremely vigilant. South Korea had a freak super spreader (patient 31), but their drastic measures were limited to one area, not the whole country. China was drastic, but even at peak had just half the country in quarantine and they are now moving back to normal outside Hubei.

Singapore and Taiwan are obviously small islands that are not analogous to the world at large, but I know our offices on Singapore shut down. China has been shut down since chinese new year (office is in Shanghai). As of yesterday I talked to our colleagues in Korea who had been working from home for weeks and they indicated no end in sight. Schools are closed in Japan and Korea, which seems quite dramatic to me.

Still, yesterday, there were 84 new cases in Korea and 15 in Japan. Adjusted for population, Korea isn't dramatically off from the US. Japan is doing a lot better, but it is probably just a week or so behind the US adjusted for population.

[Barrister]

Alberta declares health emergency.  Bars and casinos to be closed.  Restaurants can have 50 people max seating.

And now received an email that GOA employees should be prepared to start working from home.  Obviously given that only some trials have been cancelled I'm still going to be going to work somewhat, so we'll see what that looks like.

[mongers]

Well that escalated quickly.

[celedhring]

John McAffee is trapped in Barcelona and he's losing it. 

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee

[Admiral Yi]

John McAffee is trapped in Barcelona and he's losing it. 

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee

A rule that says all tweets have to be in haiku would be a big improvement.

[Syt]

John McAffee is trapped in Barcelona and he's losing it. 

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee

John McAfee
@officialmcafee
Hopefully we will be out of Spain and back in a
Sane country --

One That's entirely ignoring Coronavirus ...
(Sweden plus 161 other countries)

As they should.
As everyone should.

Politicians in countries that implemented lockdown
Should be charged with
Crimes against humanity.
1:33 PM · Mar 17, 2020·Twitter for Android
167
Retweets

[Admiral Yi]

Just learned that someone I know (dickhead karaoke DJ I ran out of the Regal Beagle) is infected.

[Josquius]

John McAffee is trapped in Barcelona and he's losing it. 

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee

This is the anti virus guy?
Seems... Less than sane.

[mongers]

I'd trust the Chinese numbers way more than the Iran numbers. Signapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan all implemented similar strategies and are more transparent normally, so no reason to believe there's some hidden under-reported outbreak in China killing thousands.

Yes, plus they've had an extensive WHO mission on the ground who collected a lot of observations and data. And they're on record as saying they were pleased with the co-operation from the Chinese.

[mongers]

I went to the grocery store last night, to discover it was closing early and substantially empty of essentials. As I have been stocking up on canned beans, rice, peanut butter for a few weeks now, I'm in good shape. Returned today with son of fromtia, store was empty of some items again, but we got more beans, cat food, milk, bread, sugar and so forth. Really drawing down my usual grocery list of delicious fresh fruits and vegeatble to a more utilitarian, cheaper and less perishable list.

Work has been confounding, Iv'e had a few days off and things have moved fast, been texting with my colleagues most days. At this point we would all rather just close and hunker down as best we can, as opposed to be compelled to work for about 10 to 30% of what we usually make in gratuities. Or report for our shift and be sent home. Our managers/owner seem determined to stay open though. De Santis, FL Gov (R) came out with a mandatory shut down for bars and nightclubs for 30 days a few hours ago. Mayor of Jacksonville Lenny Curry (R) has forbidden gatherings larger than 50. It takes about 40 staff to open our place, to put that in perspective. But we have apparently closed the bars and intend to keep serving the full menu, which does seem reckless at this point.

This is going to be devastating for the hospitality and restaurant industry, but I fully support the close down and wish they would just get on with it and stop dithering.

Difficult times, hold in there Fromtia.

[Fate]

Scary thread on /r/medicine.

https://www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/fk78ms/we_have_a_40m_no_pertinent_pmh_intubated_in_our/

Lots of anecdotes from the frontline of very young (20-50 y/os) COVID-19 patients who are in the intubated in the ICU. Just bought a 50 pack of surgical masks and a 100 pack of nitrile gloves... won't come in for a week. 

[Syt]

The chief physician of Vienna's largest hospital is in the news studio. He defends that only people get tested for Corona who show symptoms and have either been in a high risk area or had direct contact with someone who tested positive.

"For example, I won't get tested because I know that I got my virus infection after sports last week." He's standing less than a meter from the news reporter.

[mongers]

Scary thread on /r/medicine.

https://www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/fk78ms/we_have_a_40m_no_pertinent_pmh_intubated_in_our/

Lots of anecdotes from the frontline of very young (20-50 y/os) COVID-19 patients who are in the intubated in the ICU. Just bought a 50 pack of surgical masks and a 100 pack of nitrile gloves... won't come in for a week. 

Yes, a falacy to hang onto the idea that it's only the extremely old who are at risk.

[Razgovory]

Well, on the plus side all this talk about "Social distancing" and "Self-Isolating" means that I've just been ahead of the curve.  By 20 years in fact.