Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[celedhring]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/show-me-your-id-tunisia-deploys-robocop-to-enforce-coronavirus-lockdown

Looks more ED-209 to me! "You have 20 seconds to comply"

[The Brain]

Still won't drop below 40%, and Republicans won't break with him.

They broke on Bush and Nixon eventually. Why is Trump special? I guess since they're stuck with him as the Presidential candidate there's an arguement to be made for judges no matter what.

If you are a Republican today your main desire in life is to lick Trump's balls. Anyone who doesn't feel that way is no longer a Republican.

[celedhring]

Daily dead fall over 100 people to 809 (+4%). Most mathematical models predicted that peak daily dead was to happen at the beginning of April, now the question is how fast the epidemic will recess, if it's too slow I'm worried about our ability to keep this lockdown for longer than early May without destroying the nation's economy and ensuing stability. Today's number is encouraging but again, weekend beware.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Apparently the view that 5G networks are causing the virus is gaining some traction. People in Facebook groups encourage each other to take action and destroy equipment


As with most other medieval-sounding shit, their biggest success so far has been in Birmingham where they managed to burn down a 20 metres mobile network antenna.

Mind-boggling stupidity.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52164358

[Eddie Teach]

Still won't drop below 40%, and Republicans won't break with him.

I agree.  When faced between Trump and Sanders, Republicans will go Trump.

Did Joe Biden drop out when I wasn't looking?

[Agelastus]

So...given I've revealed a bit about my mother's circumstances earlier in this thread I thought it might be an idea to do an update...

[Not at all because I'm having trouble deciding whether to laugh or be angry...]

On Saturday last she was shipped down from Sheffield to Kettering at such short notice that my Aunt (whose turn it was to call the Ward and arrange a Skype call that day) was left with the impression that the Ward Staff themselves had been taken by surprise. Which is probably true as they had not finished even the bare basics of the last plan I'd heard for her care.

So, she's in Poplar ward in Kettering. I speak to her on Sunday, my Aunt speaks to her on Monday.

On Tuesday she's told she will have to go into a care & nursing home for a while as there are no home care packages available at the moment (in fact, a lot of people being cared for outside of care homes have had to be placed in them with emergency placements as packages are yanked for lack of carers etc.) She doesn't want to speak to anyone that day.

On Wednesday she is moved from Poplar Ward to Deane C Ward (as is every patient - Poplar was in the maternity building and had been offered by that department to medical who needed extra space; now they needed it back with the coronavirus crisis.) So no contact that day

On Thursday I still don't manage to speak to her, in the afternoon because they are still sorting out stuff from the move, in the evening because she is being moved to Twywell Ward.

On Friday I again don't manage to speak to her as in the morning she is "sleeping" (actually quite unlikely, more likely just her eyes closed), when I call in the afternoon she is being prepared for a transfer to a care home in Corby.

(I called the care home at 6:30pm yesterday to see if she'd arrived safely and to check when to call on Saturday - today - to talk to her; the care home nurse said that they were told my mother had left Kettering hospital before 4pm but she had only just arrived there - so God knows what happened to make a 30 minute trip a 2 hours 30 minutes trip.)

Anyway, I call this morning at 11am as advised yesterday. Get told to call back at 12 noon if I haven't heard back. I'm just about to make this call (literally reaching for the phone) when it rings; it's the Activities Co-ordinator calling me back.

Who has not been passed any of my mother's details, so she hasn't realised that my mother already has a tablet; so she says she will ring back when she's found it. She calls back saying she can't find it; turns out after a couple of minutes conversation that the carers had directed her to the wrong room (so God knows what that resident was thinking when someone searched her room as she presumably does not have a tablet!)

Now I'm waiting for another call telling me whether my mother has her tablet or whether it's gone missing in the three moves she's had in the last three days.

As I said, I don't know whether to laugh or be angry.

[mongers]

So...given I've revealed a bit about my mother's circumstances earlier in this thread I thought it might be an idea to do an update...

[Not at all because I'm having trouble deciding whether to laugh or be angry...]

On Saturday last she was shipped down from Sheffield to Kettering at such short notice that my Aunt (whose turn it was to call the Ward and arrange a Skype call that day) was left with the impression that the Ward Staff themselves had been taken by surprise. Which is probably true as they had not finished even the bare basics of the last plan I'd heard for her care.

....

As I said, I don't know whether to laugh or be angry.

I'm sorry to hear that Ang, it must be very trying for you.  :hugs:

[celedhring]

Spanish police has arrested several people in connection with a network of cocaine home delivery during the quarantine 

[celedhring]

Las Ramblas in a pleasant springtime morning:

[mongers]

Apparently the view that 5G networks are causing the virus is gaining some traction. People in Facebook groups encourage each other to take action and destroy equipment


As with most other medieval-sounding shit, their biggest success so far has been in Birmingham where they managed to burn down a 20 metres mobile network antenna.

Mind-boggling stupidity.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52164358

These are the people who's contrail conspiracy has disappeared in a puff of water vapour, so they quickly needed to find something else to bring meaning into their lives?

[DGuller]

Still won't drop below 40%, and Republicans won't break with him.

They broke on Bush and Nixon eventually. Why is Trump special? I guess since they're stuck with him as the Presidential candidate there's an arguement to be made for judges no matter what.

Bush and Nixon were politicians in a less toxic time, they weren't death cult leaders.  Expecting Trump supporters to break with Trump is like expecting Evangelicals to become atheists.

[mongers]

UK hospitalised death toll up by 708 in the last 24 hours. 

Those who died untested in care centres or their own homes remain to be counted, well at least for a week.


Spain reports another 809 deaths but it is the lowest for a week.

[Sheilbh]

Another record day

708 deaths in the UK (+19%) again the rate isn't increasing/accelerating.

The BBC's head of statistics, Robert Cuffe says:

"The figure of 708 new deaths is a record high, but it is also below scientific expectations.

"Deaths have been growing by just under 25% each day. That means doubling every 3.5 days.

"A continuation of that would have taken us from 684 deaths on Friday to more than 800.

"The first day of a below-trend growth is too soon to call a turn, but there is hope that the slowdown we're seeing in case numbers will eventually feed through into the numbers of new deaths."

Touch wood but it seems like we may be plateauing in London (127 deaths - we've been around 120-60 for most of the week), but it has shot up in the Midland (212 deaths) and I'm not sure why. It may just be different stages of the rapid escalation - so London's had over 1,000 deaths and is now (hopefully) plateauing/peaking, the Midlands has over 600 but a third were in the last 24 hours so it's rapidly increasing - this happened in London earlier in the week when we had about 200 in one day but then came down. Or it may just be a quirk of NHS England's regional breakdown which I think is now definitely reporting date of death, not date of reporting but I'm not sure. From the slides the Midlands is the only other region that really stands out on hospitalisation apart from London, plus there's been earlier reports of a West Midlands hotspot.

Obviously there's also the weekend effect so we may see a lot more on Tuesday - again I don't fully understand it but it seems to be happening across Europe.

Reports of too many people on the seafront in Brighton and in the parks in Bristol - but otherwise not seeing anything, which is good.

[alfred russel]

How many billions are we paying/wasting to have that carrier task force sailing around the Pacific as a deterrent force?

how much money are you getting from American companies selling their products to free markets in the Pacific?

It seems that letting the world know the readiness is significantly lowered is a non trivial problem (if you believe the carrier task force is contributing to anything).

Ok, in all seriousness, let's say you are absolutely right, and no one outside the immediate chain of command and top level White House executive should know the carrier is out of commission due to many sailors being sick.
[list=a]

• Do you think that the ennemies of the United States will learn only 3 months from now that the ship is docked in Guam and not moving?
• Do you think the USS Carrier in question will be able to move out of Guam anytime soon to act as a detterent to bellicose intentions by an ennemy of the US or any kind of destabilizaing force?
• If it's not able to move for a significant amount of time, since, I believe (in my very limited knowledge of US Navy ships), the sailors on board play a crucial role and while the operations could certainly be done by less people you would not have 100% efficiency of operations with only half your crew availabel and entire zones off limits, do you think no one will notice it, again?  Do you think the families of the sailors who stop receiving news from their sons&daughters won't start asking questions aloud about what's going on?  And therefore, do you think the story will break to the public or will that new police state of yours will quickly act to make sure everyone keeps silent about this?
  
• Knowing the story will likely break out one way or another, do you believe seeing sailors, soldiers, aviators, dying or getting extremly ill is worth the price paying for not embarassing the commandant in chief?
• Knowing the story will likely break out one way or another, do you believe seeing sailors, soldiers, aviators, dying or getting extremly ill is worth the price paying for letting your ennemies know a few days in advance that this ship is unable to move out of Guam for the next few months?
• Assuming the ennemies of the US and all destabilizing force in the region know that particular carrier is docked and not moving, do you believe they are in any better shape than the US to wage ware or simply use the opportunity to attack US interests?  Like, say, Iran, are they in a position to invade and annex Iraq?  Can Al-Queida and ISIS regroup and push Saudi Arabia totally out of Yemen?  Can North Korea mount an invasion of South Korea?  Can Russia - ah no, sorry, it's a friend of your people now, so it's certainly not acting against your interests - So, I mean, do you think China is about to annex Taiwan?
• Assuming your previous answer is yes, all of this or some of this will happen, do you believe that your current administration, the people you voted for in the House of Reprensentatives and in the Senate do in any way care enough about that to challenge Trump and push him to intervene?

Viper, in the grand scheme of things, I don't care very much about this. If we cut the number of carrier groups we have by 50%, I think that would be a good start on a carrier group reduction program. I look at the military as a giant money pit that just encourages us to bomb brown people for little reason. The captain of the ship was probably treated unfairly but that hardly distinguishes him from the zillion other people treated unfairly by the administration, and he should have a sweet pension and private sector opportunities to fall back on.

That said, if we are going to have a massive military, I'm not really sure why a carrier can't keep operating with 100 or so identified covid 19 patients.

[celedhring]

Another record day

708 deaths in the UK (+19%) again the rate isn't increasing/accelerating.

The BBC's head of statistics, Robert Cuffe says:

"The figure of 708 new deaths is a record high, but it is also below scientific expectations.

"Deaths have been growing by just under 25% each day. That means doubling every 3.5 days.

"A continuation of that would have taken us from 684 deaths on Friday to more than 800.

"The first day of a below-trend growth is too soon to call a turn, but there is hope that the slowdown we're seeing in case numbers will eventually feed through into the numbers of new deaths."

Touch wood but it seems like we may be plateauing in London (127 deaths - we've been around 120-60 for most of the week), but it has shot up in the Midland (212 deaths) and I'm not sure why. It may just be different stages of the rapid escalation - so London's had over 1,000 deaths and is now (hopefully) plateauing/peaking, the Midlands has over 600 but a third were in the last 24 hours so it's rapidly increasing - this happened in London earlier in the week when we had about 200 in one day but then came down. Or it may just be a quirk of NHS England's regional breakdown which I think is now definitely reporting date of death, not date of reporting but I'm not sure. From the slides the Midlands is the only other region that really stands out on hospitalisation apart from London, plus there's been earlier reports of a West Midlands hotspot.

Obviously there's also the weekend effect so we may see a lot more on Tuesday - again I don't fully understand it but it seems to be happening across Europe.

Reports of too many people on the seafront in Brighton and in the parks in Bristol - but otherwise not seeing anything, which is good.

For the sake of comparison we were at 3,400 total dead when we broke 700 daily dead, which is 20% less than you. Not sure how to read that particular datapoint though, you're slightly ahead of the curve I guess?