Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Caliga]

I still think y'all are wasting time reading his Tweets and trying to figure out what they mean.  To me it's the same as listening to a squirrel chatter and trying to figure out what it's thinking.
The man is not well. 

[Syt]

I still think y'all are wasting time reading his Tweets and trying to figure out what they mean.  To me it's the same as listening to a squirrel chatter and trying to figure out what it's thinking.
The man is not well. 

Which I would agree with if he didn't have a position of tremendous power and held a lot of influence over his sycophantic base of followers.

[Zanza]

Germany has 401 districts (called "Kreis" in German, maybe similar to counties in the US?) and 400 of those have reported cases.

And the lucky Kreis is?

[Actually, I am genuinely curious here - is it one of the most rural ones, or a Baltic coastal one where no-one goes on holiday in the winter?]

No, it is a town in south-western Germany near the French border:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirmasens

[Syt]

According to Zeit, they have 7 cases now: https://www.zeit.de/wissen/gesundheit/2020-03/coronavirus-deutschland-infektionen-faelle-verbreitung-epidemie-karte#karte

[Razgovory]

The President responds to Mitt Romney testing negative:

This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak. He may have been a terrible presidential candidate and an even worse U.S. Senator, but he is a RINO, and I like him a lot!

He's just an awful person on every single level

He doesn't appear to have much in the way of redeeming qualities, does he?

[DGuller]

Government is saying we're already flattening the curve, number of comfirmed cases is dropping. Given we have the least restrictive measures in all of Europe and aren't testing on any serious scale, I'm somewhat skeptical.

I think it's conceivable that all that is necessary to flatten the curve is for people to be aware of what we're dealing with here, and be smart about it.  It's just that everything is going to be reacting with at least a two-week delay, which is an eternity.

[Maladict]

Government is saying we're already flattening the curve, number of comfirmed cases is dropping. Given we have the least restrictive measures in all of Europe and aren't testing on any serious scale, I'm somewhat skeptical.

I think it's conceivable that all that is necessary to flatten the curve is for people to be aware of what we're dealing with here, and be smart about it.  It's just that everything is going to be reacting with at least a two-week delay, which is an eternity.

Exactly. The first call to keep your distance was only 9 days ago. Which also feel like an eternity btw.

[Sheilbh]

Exactly. The first call to keep your distance was only 9 days ago. Which also feel like an eternity btw.

God, same - I had to double check.

It's insane how a few days ago feels like years.

[Tamas]

The President responds to Mitt Romney testing negative:

This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak. He may have been a terrible presidential candidate and an even worse U.S. Senator, but he is a RINO, and I like him a lot!

He's just an awful person on every single level

It is damning with faint praise but I do prefer Johnson 

I also prefer Johnson over Trump, but I also would prefer a piece of rock over Trump.

[mongers]

Exactly. The first call to keep your distance was only 9 days ago. Which also feel like an eternity btw.

God, same - I had to double check.

It's insane how a few days ago feels like years.

At this point I'm considering your implied advice and giving up on the news.

Instead I shall resort to maniacal laughing, if I practice enough I think I could perfect it within a couple of weeks, by which time it would in fact be an entirely sensible response to our situation.   

[Zanza]

I was in London until the 10th, went to the office one last time on the 11th and have been working from home since the 12th. More shopping early on, now it is only groceries. It is amazing and frightening how fast the world changes within two weeks...

[mongers]

I was in London until the 10th, went to the office one last time on the 11th and have been working from home since the 12th. More shopping early on, now it is only groceries. It is amazing and frightening how fast the world changes within two weeks...

Yes during the extended Brexit political event it felt like a Real crisis, now that just looks like a storm in a teacup in comparison.

[Sheilbh]

The President responds to Mitt Romney testing negative:

This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak. He may have been a terrible presidential candidate and an even worse U.S. Senator, but he is a RINO, and I like him a lot!

He's just an awful person on every single level

It is damning with faint praise but I do prefer Johnson 

I also prefer Johnson over Trump, but I also would prefer a piece of rock over Trump.

Fair. This does really highlight the differences between them and that the similarities are fairly superficial.

Parliament's about to close early for Easter and, in theory return in late April. So interesting to see what New Zealand are doing. Parliament has basically suspended the legislative program and almost all business. But they've set up a sort-of super select committtee on covid19 which is chaired by the leader of the opposition and has a majority of members from opposition parties, it is going to meet every morning (possibly remotely) to scrutinise government response. Again this isn't really workable until Labour have a new leader but could be a sensible alternative to a national government or a wider COBRA.

Also in potentially positive news:

Professor Sharon Peacock, Director of the National Infection Service, Public Health England, says antibody test could be ready for general public to be tested in Boots or at home within days "not weeks or months". Simple finger prick test....
Prof Peacock said the tests themselves are being tested in Oxford this week. If they do work people will be able to order them via Amazon to test themselves.

So we should all be able to do this and hopefully everyone's had it and it's been super-mild/asymptomatic. Even if that's not the case it'll hopefully give researchers a far more accurate picture of this disease.

[Sheilbh]

I was in London until the 10th, went to the office one last time on the 11th and have been working from home since the 12th. More shopping early on, now it is only groceries. It is amazing and frightening how fast the world changes within two weeks...

Even days - my behaviour hasn't changed much from pre-lockdown to now, because I was following the advice. But psychologically it just feels like a different world, which is in, what, two or three days.

[mongers]

The main issue with the people who are super happy that they had it and are now immune, is they can still physically spread the infection via their own hands and clothing to new places and to people who are vulnerable. I fear many of these newly liberated will largely drop all preventative measures.