Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[celedhring]

510 dead. Another good number for Spain (was 605 yesterday), and lowest tally in nearly 3 weeks. Although we're right now on Easter weekend so put an asterisk on it.

[Duque de Bragança]

More on the care home situation in Britain:

Deaths soar at Britain's care homes as COVID-19 stalks elderly

Thousands of care homes across Britain were locked down last month to stop COVID-19 from spreading among their frail and elderly residents. For Jamshad Ali, 87, it came anyway.

Article here:
http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/worldNews/~3/YpTGlxXQZ1w/deaths-soar-at-britains-care-homes-as-covid-19-stalks-elderly-idUSKCN21S1XA

In France, one third of  COVID-19 deaths come from care homes (EHPAD). As of today, more than 13,000 deaths, of which 4,5999 in care homes.
50 cases reported in the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier as well.

[Monoriu]

The number of active cell phone contracts has never seen a month-to-month decline in mainland China. Strangely, in the last quarter, they've declined by ~21 million or so.

If people don't have work, they can't afford a mobile contract.  Also, companies cut advertising.  A lot of mobile accounts are there to do online reviews.  If people don't go to restaurants, restaurants don't need to pay people to give them good online reviews. 

[Sheilbh]

Brits, English especially, are generally unhealthier than mediterranean counterparts.

This is a really good point. We are far more likely to be obese or have high blood pressure or diabetes.

But it is really striking that the UK also has a far lower hospitalisation rate and ICU usage than Spain, Italy and France too - but again a very high number of fatalities.

One weakness/issue I think we have is that the NHS isn't just a public service to deliver healthcare - it's a more totemic thing, a sort of symbol of UK unity, national identity and patriotism (see Danny Boyles' Olympic opening ceremony). And there's not much else that unites England, Wales and Scotland (NI has something similar but different), even if it's devolved. It is not necessarily the best thing in a health crisis even if it is rallying - and I think it's fairly unique.

[Tamas]

But it is really striking that the UK also has a far lower hospitalisation rate and ICU usage than Spain, Italy and France too - but again a very high number of fatalities.

Could that be a correlation? If you die you stop blocking an ICU bed.

[Sheilbh]

But it is really striking that the UK also has a far lower hospitalisation rate and ICU usage than Spain, Italy and France too - but again a very high number of fatalities.

Could that be a correlation? If you die you stop blocking an ICU bed.

I don't think so - that may be bad phrasing on my part - but I think the hospitalisation and ICU figures are admissions not usage.

[garbon]

https://www.indy100.com/article/police-coronavirus-uk-lockdown-racism-stop-and-search-9459246

White people are discovering what police harassment feels like for the first time

Last week, the UK's police forces were issued a stark warning against "overreaching" in the use of new lockdown enforcement powers.

"This is what a police state is like," remarked former supreme court judge Lord Sumpton after reports of officers curtailing (perfectly legal) exercise and quibbling over the definition of an "essential" item. "It is a state in which a government can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority and the police will enforce ministers' wishes."

In particular, Sumpton singled out Derbyshire Police, who filmed hikers in the Peak District and uploaded the footage to Twitter.  Their actions had "shamed our policing traditions" Sumpton said.

Except what Derbyshire Police did was actually very in keeping with certain traditions – they just happen to be ones that almost 86 per cent of the UK don't tend to experience on a regular basis.

Overpolicing, unfairly targeted harassment, arbitrary searches; these are all far more common experiences at the hands of those charged with keeping the peace if you're a member of an ethnic minority, particularly if you are a young, black man.

But under coronavirus regulations, white people are finally getting a taste en masse of what it feels like to be automatically seen as a suspect. And it's a sour medicine.

This week, Cambridgeshire Police were met by outcry after they tweeted about patrolling a local Tesco.

"Good to see everyone was abiding by social distancing measures and the non essential aisles were empty," they wrote.

The backlash was swift and furious, with thousands outraged at the thought of officers sifting through their baskets to arrest them on suspicion of buying Hob Knobs.

"There is no law which prevents retailers selling 'non essential' items," wrote human rights barrister Adam Wagner. "There is a list of retailers which can stay open and they can sell what they sell. And even if there were, who defines 'non-essential'?"

Who indeed? Quite the infringement on our basic individual liberties. And people are right to oppose it.

But this sort of overzealous policing is familiar knowledge in the UK to Bame communities, with black people bearing the brunt of it (who can forget Bristol Police tasing their own race relations adviser?).

You're nearly 10 times more likely to be subject to an intrusive police stop and search in England and Wales if you're black. And if a Section 60 order – which allows officers in an area to conduct "suspicionless" searches for a limited period – is in place, that rises to a shocking 40 times more likely. Figures from London also show that black individuals are 12 times more likely to suffer through more intrusive searches, which meant they were forced to remove more than just a coat or jacket.

Despite this overrepresentation, outcome rates are similar whatever someone's ethnicity: 25 per cent of searches result in action being taken. And although the use of Section 60 orders was expanded in order to specifically tackle knife crime, a recent investigation by The Times discovered that increased stop and search showed no consistent correlation with reduction in knife crime.

Moreover, the yawning racial chasm regarding who stop and search targets has not improved in recent years – it's actually got worse. Not to mention the racial disparity in those on the receiving end of police violence; from 2017 to 2018, black people experienced 12 per cent of police force incidents, despite only accounting for 3.33 per cent of the population. It's massively disproportionate.

As many are discovering for the first time under lockdown, being treated with constant suspicion by the police is a harrowing and psychologically stressful ordeal.

A report by StopWatch, a UK organisation campaigning for fairer policing, collected the experiences of black and Asian individuals who'd been subjected to stop and search. Participants spoke of feeling fear, anger and helplessness during and after the experience.

"The impact it had on me was huge, huge; and it was negative," said Paul Mortimer, a former footballer and anti-racism campaigner who has been stopped more than 20 times.

"I felt that I needed a shower after. I felt really inadequate, I felt dirty. You're looked at a certain way, you are treated a certain way, as if you are actually guilty".

Others in the report remarked on the lingering distrust they felt towards the police as a body.

"If you're an eight-year-old child and you go to play football, and [a] police officer stops and searches you, if you experience that from the age of eight, all the way through your secondary school career, then you're not going to have a positive view of the police. You will not invest faith in the police if something happens to you," said Kwabena Oduro-Ayim. "For my entire childhood I would never have turned to the police for any assistance."

It's a point we're seeing reflected now in current lockdown discourse. "Genuinely bemused some police officers straying so clearly beyond their powers," tweeted Gavin Phillipson, professor of Law at Bristol University, referring to the Cambridgeshire Police shopping debacle.

"First don't they have enough on their plates just enforcing the actual, legal restrictions? Second, don't they realise this kind of thing undermines public trust and thus hampers policing by consent?

Well clearly not, because they've been doing it to minority communities for years. It's only now that police officers are starting to be held to account by a large swathe of the general public, and not just dedicated action groups, that they're having to backtrack so publicly to avoid swinging a wrecking ball through their relations with the UK population at a time when they're requesting more cooperation than ever.

Clearly, it should not have taken a pandemic to wake a nation up to the reality of targeted and often unlawful harassment at the hands of the police.

A problem as persistent as this one should be top of the agenda, whether it affects white people or not. But now that so many understand what it's like to carry the terrible, crushing weight of being viewed as a suspect for simply going about their (perfectly lawful) daily business, it must spark action.

Because empathy isn't enough when human rights are being erased.

[Admiral Yi]

Every crisis is an opportunity. 

[merithyn]

Like I said, I hope the outrage continues for minorities when this is over. It won't, but one can hope.

[Sheilbh]

Like I said, I hope the outrage continues for minorities when this is over. It won't, but one can hope.

Yeah I'd add that the only two arrests I'm aware of under these powers have been of black people - and I think both were released and got apologies from the police, because they didn't have arrest powers/the people weren't breaking the law.

Separately I'd add the deaths especially with health workers are disproportionately BAME. One swallow doesn't make a spring but I have seen some shift from the usual suspects in talking about immigration because, as anyone who has any interaction with the NHS knows, it is hugely staffed by immigrants and minorities who are literally dying in fighting this virus. Hopefully that will be part of the conversation long after this is over.

[Legbiter]

14 confirmed cases, 1 death here. Fifth day in a row where we find fewer new cases. Still testing at the same tempo but in the next couple of weeks we'll start screening for antibodies. If we can avoid new clusters in retirement homes, in a couple of weeks, we should be in a good shape.

[mongers]

14 confirmed cases, 1 death here. Fifth day in a row where we find fewer new cases. Still testing at the same tempo but in the next couple of weeks we'll start screening for antibodies. If we can avoid new clusters in retirement homes, in a couple of weeks, we should be in a good shape.

Yeah and that ruddy great mote of yours helps and have you patrols of converted trawlers yet? 

[Josquius]

Brits, English especially, are generally unhealthier than mediterranean counterparts.

Not sure on English especially there.
Scotland is the land of the deep fried Mars bar.

https://www.indy100.com/article/police-coronavirus-uk-lockdown-racism-stop-and-search-9459246

White people are discovering what police harassment feels like for the first time

Last

How true is this in the UK?
I'd thought young black guys getting hastled was a particularly American phenomena. Over here it far more tends to be Asians getting hastled.
It really does read like an article from the US.

[Duque de Bragança]

https://www.indy100.com/article/police-coronavirus-uk-lockdown-racism-stop-and-search-9459246

White people are discovering what police harassment feels like for the first time

Last

How true is this in the UK?
I'd thought young black guys getting hastled was a particularly American phenomena. Over here it far more tends to be Asians getting hastled.
It really does read like an article from the US.

Ah, to see everything through Identity Politics lenses...
I got my ID asked, that's being hassled for the Identity Politics luminaires around here, if If my profile is deemed close by a zealous police officer e.g Yellow Vests demonstrations (leather jacket and backpack), blouson noir black leather jacket antisocial individual (leather jacket again).
OTOH, track suits often closely match the "problematic" populations.

So track suit and no derogation for being out during the lockdown could mean trouble. If the lockdown were strictly enforced that is.

[Legbiter]

Yeah and that ruddy great mote of yours helps and have you patrols of converted trawlers yet? 

I wonder how many cases the Orkneys and Shetlands have and if there's fewer than on the mainland?