The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days

[ray245]

Boris Johnson is now in Hospital.

I was honestly trying to feel sorry for him, and then I remembered "heard immunity", and I just couldn't.

Hopefully this will make the British government more cautious given that herd immunity strategy doesn't not prevent themselves from being hospitalized.

[Zaune]

I was honestly trying to feel sorry for him, and then I remembered "heard immunity", and I just couldn't.

Compassion is a finite resource. Save yours for people who would, at minimum, do you the same courtesy if your positions were reversed.

[ray245]

I was honestly trying to feel sorry for him, and then I remembered "heard immunity", and I just couldn't.

Compassion is a finite resource. Save yours for people who would, at minimum, do you the same courtesy if your positions were reversed.

Well you can see it as the UK having a power vacuum is only to result in more people being hurt if there is no leadership of any kind.

[bilateralrope]

New Zealand's number of new cases per day is trending downwards, with less new cases on either of the previous two days than any other day in the past 2 weeks.

[ray245]

New Zealand's number of new cases per day is trending downwards, with less new cases on either of the previous two days than any other day in the past 2 weeks.

Let's wait for a week to see if the trend is stabilising.

[bilateralrope]

New Zealand's number of new cases per day is trending downwards, with less new cases on either of the previous two days than any other day in the past 2 weeks.

Let's wait for a week to see if the trend is stabilising.

The lockdown is going to stay at level 4 until at least the 23rd no matter how good the numbers are. After then, we are probably going to see most of the country go down to level 3, maybe with some regions kept at 4.

[Ziggy Stardust]

In good news, both Spain and Italy seem to be trending downwards in new cases and deaths, indicating the worse is behind them. However, this decline is slow, slower than the rise to the peak. To put another way, the distribution of daily cases/deaths for this pandemic appears to be skewed, reaching its peak relatively quickly and then idling downwards veeeery slowly. It's possible there will be a sudden and dramatic downtick for those countries in the next couple of weeks that smooth things out into something more closely resembling a bell curve (like we see in China). But Iran is a good demonstration of how persistent this pandemic can be given the opportunity. They've been hovering right around their maximum daily deaths mark for close to a month now, with signs that it is only just now starting to slow down. (That said, the chart of Iran's daily case load follows a pretty unusual pattern compared to what we have seen anywhere else, which may be a combination of inaccurate reporting and unique social/geographic facets of Iran itself shaping the trajectory of the pandemic in ways we just won't see elsewhere).

[ray245]

In good news, both Spain and Italy seem to be trending downwards in new cases and deaths, indicating the worse is behind them. However, this decline is slow, slower than the rise to the peak. To put another way, the distribution of daily cases/deaths for this pandemic appears to be skewed, reaching its peak relatively quickly and then idling downwards veeeery slowly. It's possible there will be a sudden and dramatic downtick for those countries in the next couple of weeks that smooth things out into something more closely resembling a bell curve (like we see in China). But Iran is a good demonstration of how persistent this pandemic can be given the opportunity. They've been hovering right around their maximum daily deaths mark for close to a month now, with signs that it is only just now starting to slow down. (That said, the chart of Iran's daily case load follows a pretty unusual pattern compared to what we have seen anywhere else, which may be a combination of inaccurate reporting and unique social/geographic facets of Iran itself shaping the trajectory of the pandemic in ways we just won't see elsewhere).

I think even in the China case, there's some quick rise for a few days before declining for good.

[Formless]

Another study on Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin as a treatment for coronavirus has come in, and it should surprise none of you to hear that it doesn't work.

And the kicker is that the new study is also French. Full disclosure: its in pre-publication right now, but then again, so was the previous study when it first got noticed by the public.

Also noteworthy is that Swedish hospitals are starting to discontinue using hydroxychloroquine on Covid-19 patients because of severe side effects like impaired vision and seizures combined with a lack of evidence that it does anything positive. Its almost like doctors know what's best for their patients, businessmen elected to public office do not. Even if it were harmless, there is a reason we don't prescribe medicines without scientific evidence that they work: it diverts precious resources away from where they should be going, including the drug itself which is useful in other health areas, and just as importantly the time and attention of public health officials who shouldn't have to kiss the president's ass. Any president, if I'm being honest. But especially one as stupid as Trump.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I was honestly trying to feel sorry for him, and then I remembered "heard immunity", and I just couldn't.

Compassion is a finite resource. Save yours for people who would, at minimum, do you the same courtesy if your positions were reversed.

Well you can see it as the UK having a power vacuum is only to result in more people being hurt if there is no leadership of any kind.

Apparently his condition is "improving" after being admitted to intensive care. I can't muster much sympathy for the man either- people seem all too willing to forget all shit that he's pulled. While he's out of action, Dominic Raab will stand in for him.

The temporary hospital in the (huge) ExCeL building is now accepting patients, the NEC in Birmingham will do so in a couple of days.

[ray245]

Apparently his condition is "improving" after being admitted to intensive care. I can't muster much sympathy for the man either- people seem all too willing to forget all shit that he's pulled. While he's out of action, Dominic Raab will stand in for him.

The temporary hospital in the (huge) ExCeL building is now accepting patients, the NEC in Birmingham will do so in a couple of days.

I'm not exactly a fan of Dominic "I don't know Britain is an island" Raab being the one in charge for too long.

[Tribble]

Compassion is a finite resource. Save yours for people who would, at minimum, do you the same courtesy if your positions were reversed.

Well you can see it as the UK having a power vacuum is only to result in more people being hurt if there is no leadership of any kind.

Apparently his condition is "improving" after being admitted to intensive care. I can't muster much sympathy for the man either- people seem all too willing to forget all shit that he's pulled. While he's out of action, Dominic Raab will stand in for him.

The temporary hospital in the (huge) ExCeL building is now accepting patients, the NEC in Birmingham will do so in a couple of days.

Problem is that Johnson is not likely learn anything from this, presuming he recovers. This won't be a lesson for empathy/humility/realising how much of an idiot he was for deliberately allowing the virus to spread. I doubt he'll really change his behaviour and mindset, apart from perhaps trying to maintain good PR. He's much more likely conclude that he beat the virus due to his class / genes, and those who die from it simply aren't good enough and/or not worth saving anyways.

[mr friendly guy]

US Navy captain fired for complaining about coronavirus himself tests positive.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6782991/coro ... -positive/

Capt. Brett Crozier, the U.S. navy commander fired for publicly demanding help with a coronavirus outbreak among his crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to two close friends.

Crozier started showing symptoms of the disease last week, around the time that his fiery memo to superiors appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, two of his Naval Academy classmates told the New York Times. The U.S. Navy has not confirmed the diagnosis.

Crozier was fired last Thursday for showing “extremely poor judgment” in allowing the memo to become public, according to Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly.

------------------------------------------------------
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... rchers-say

Most NYC Covid-19 Cases Came From Europe, Genome Researchers Say
By Robert Langreth
9 April 2020, 02:56 GMT+8 Updated on 9 April 2020, 03:40 GMT+8
NYU scientists analyzed samples from 75 coronavirus patients
Genome sequencers can track how a virus spreads around world

The explosion of Covid-19 cases in the New York City area resulted largely from infected patients who flew in from Europe, genome scientists say.

Researchers at NYU Langone Health said they’ve analyzed 75 samples from patients who were diagnosed with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at New York-area hospitals last month.

About two-thirds of the samples appear to have European origins, said Adriana Heguy, director of the Genome Technology Center at the medical center. The virus appears to have been imported to New York from the U.K. and several European countries, including France, Austria and the Netherlands, she said.

----------------------------------------------------------------
And in China, they have lifted the restrictions on Wuhan.

[loomer]

Calls to establish arks for elders vulnerable to the coronavirus continue to mount.

[mr friendly guy]

More covid 19, more racism, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald

https://apac.news/covid-19-racism-race- ... -the-lead/

COVID-19 Racism Race: Sydney Morning Herald takes the lead

South Australia’s AMA President slams media reports of Chinese-Australians ‘hoarding’ medical supplies and sending them to China

27 March 2020 | Marcus Reubenstein

Dr. Chris Moy, President of the South Australian branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has slammed media reports “politicising” the current COVID-19 crisis and apportioning blame on Australia’s Chinese community for a lack of medical personal protection equipment.

The Guardian yesterday quoted Dr. Moy in a story about Chinese companies sending medical supplies to Wuhan. The lead paragraph of the piece, written by Anne Davies, claims, “AMA’s call follows report Sydney staff were instructed to source bulk medical items to send to China as virus took hold in Wuhan.”

The Guardian lifted that report off the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, as did the Daily Mail (which added its embellishments) and News.com.au with further unsubstantiated claims of these supplies being shipped off in the midst of an Australian shortage.

Says, Dr. Moy, “I was providing general information regarding access to PPE for medical staff in Australia and made it clear that these were completely separate to reporting about personal protection equipment to Wuhan of which I was not aware.

“My comments [to The Guardian] were directly related to the sourcing of PPE and its use in Australian hospitals. It is entirely wrong to suggest that I was speaking out against reports that companies had sent medical supplies to China in February.”

Dr. Chris Moy, AMA (South Australia) President
That story originated in the Sydney Morning Herald on 26 February, when award winning journalist Kate McClymont reported that Chinese property group Greenland had coordinated a shipment of vital Australian medical supplies that were secretly shipped to China.

The glaring cadet-journalist error was that McClymont sourced part of her “exclusive” on ‘secret Chinese shipments’ from the company’s WeChat account. This is a social media platform with more than 500,000 users in Australia and 1 billion worldwide.


Seven Network’s Gemma Acton had SMH “exclusive” more than a month ago
It’s hardly cloak and dagger manoeuvres on the part of a Chinese government related company when it broadcasts its shipment to a social media platform shared by one out of every seven people on the face of the planet.

These reports carry the tone of a Chinese government backed espionage ring in the Australian property development sector. That is not how spies operate.

The editors at the Sydney Morning Herald, and their Melbourne cousins at The Age, know better than any other media outlet in Australia exactly how spy agencies operate.

In a detailed report, APAC News completely debunked the SMH story suggesting gross impropriety on behalf of Australia’s Chinese community.

The SMH doubles down
Today, the Herald carries another front page “exclusive” about a second property developer secretly sending medical supplies to Wuhan in February.

This story is complete garbage.

Once again, McClymont cites a “whistleblower” but an image showing the developer in question, standing in front of the aircraft sending humanitarian aid to Wuhan, was ripped off a LinkedIn page, the Herald even admits this.

In an unbelievable oversight from Australia’s (once) top investigative journalist, she claims her report of this secret flight to Wuhan on February 23, was an exclusive.

A simple Google search reveals that virtually every major media outlet was at Sydney Airport for the departure of that flight. Among them television cameras from four television networks!

The Herald claims the aircraft was a paid charter flight – it was not chartered it was donated by China Southern Airlines.

APAC News Sydney media conference 23 Feb 2020 for aid shipment to Wuhan China
Hardly a secret, a packed media conference at Sydney Airport for the Wuhan flight
The understanding of APAC News, which checks its facts, is the humanitarian effort was made up entirely of donations from companies and a large number of individuals.

Among those donations was Australia’s A2 Milk Company which donated 12 pallets of powdered milk – in addition the company has donated $1.5 million in cash for the fight against COVID-19, including substantial payments to the University of Queensland and Melbourne’s Doherty Institute which are both working to find a vaccine for this deadly virus.

Medical supplies were needed in China
Both today’s and yesterday’s Herald stories falsely suggest that the humanitarian aid to Wuhan was sent in the midst of shortages of medical supplies and face masks in Australia.

McClymont cites a January report in her own publication to say there was a mask shortage – however that story clearly indicates any shortages had nothing to do with Chinese-Australians but with the sale of masks due to smoke haze from the Spring-Summer bushfires.

At the time of this humanitarian aid being sent to Wuhan, the Prime Minister, Health Minister and Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer made numerous statements that Australia was not facing an imminent COVID-19 crisis.

Says, AMA South Australia President, Dr. Chris Moy:

“At that stage it was absolutely appropriate that medical aid and supplies were being sent from Australia to China.

Dr. Chris Moy, AMA (South Australia) President
“Constant attempts to politicise the issue and demonise early efforts to support China are unhelpful and unfair.”

Now that Australia is facing its own COVID-19 crisis, Dr Moy says, “We’ve worked closely with and had great cooperation with Chinese companies and officials who are now helping us source personal protection equipment.”

He added, “In South Australia Chinese officials approached us with these offers we didn’t have to ask them for help.”

1 Journalist to English translation
Journalist language - whistle blowing. English translation - it was on their social media page.
Journalist language - exclusive. English translation - several media outlets were invited.

2 . Some of these sensationalist stories are easy to counter. Just create a timeline of the events, a skill we learnt in primary school. But I suspect a lot of adults can't. The first time I saw the news.com.au spin on this story about Chinese companies exporting Australian medical supplies to China, the first question that sprang to my mind is, when did they do this, and when was the first case of COVID 19 in Australia?

[bilateralrope]

Update on New Zealand:
- 29 new cases in the past 24 hours. Down from 50 new cases yesterday.
- As of midnight tonight, anyone entering the country will go into a 14 day quarantine*. The only reason we didn't do this sooner is that more kiwis were returning than there was capacity to quarantine them. This will be in place for a while, I'm guessing until a vaccine is ready.
- The NZ government is looking at getting hold of the app Singapore is using to track people for contact tracing.
- We are probably only going to get 2 days notice before finding out if the lockdown will be extended or reduced to level 3.

*The border remains closed to tourists.

[aerius]

It's times like these that I wonder if there's any truth to the anecdote I keep hearing that there's 10 administrators & other pencil pushers for every frontline doctor & nurse.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/us/detro ... index.html

Detroit hospital nurses refuse to work without more help, ordered to leave

By Paul P. Murphy, Ryan Young and Jake Carpenter, CNN
Updated 9:33 AM ET, Wed April 8, 2020

(CNN)Emergency room nursing staff at a Detroit hospital were told to leave Sunday night after they refused to work and demanded more nurses be brought into their overrun emergency room, health care workers there told CNN.
The night shift ER nurses at Sinai-Grace Hospital refused to leave the break room until hospital administrators brought in more nurses to help out, a physician at the hospital told CNN.
Hospital administrators decided, after four hours of deliberation, they would not be bringing in any more nurses to help and that the nurses could get to work or leave the hospital, the doctor said.
Some did then leave, said the physician, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity out of concern for their job.

The details provided by the physician were corroborated by ER nurse Sal Hadwan, who discussed what happened in a video livestreamed on Facebook.

"We are disappointed that last night a very small number of nurses at Sinai-Grace Hospital staged a work stoppage in the hospital refusing to care for patients," Detroit Medical Center Communications Manager Jason Barczy told CNN. "Despite this, our patients continued to receive the care they needed as other dedicated nurses stepped in to provide care."
Sinai-Grace is part of the Detroit Medical Center system.
"We know this is a very challenging time for caregivers," Barczy said. "Our doctors and nurses continue to demonstrate their commitment and dedication to our patients."
In the video, Hadwan said he and the other ER nurses shown were told leave the hospital.
"Tonight, it was the breaking point for us," Hadwan said in the video, streamed on Sunday night right before midnight.

"Because we cannot safely take care of your loved ones out here with just six, seven nurses and multiple (ventilators) and multiple people on drips. It's not right. We had two nurses the other day who had 26 patients with 10 (ventilators)."
The nurses need extra help, because for three straight weeks they've had more than 110 patients in the ER, Hadwan said in the video.
"Nurses around the state are desperately doing everything we can to keep our patients and ourselves safe," Michigan Nurses Association President Jamie Brown told CNN.
"Eventually, a tipping point is reached where the best thing any RN can do for their patients, their families, and their coworkers is to speak out rather than remain silent."

"Until hospitals start taking the concerns of nurses seriously, it's only a matter of time before more actions like these occur. It is absolutely essential that hospitals start working with nurses and stop silencing our voices," Brown said.

After the nightside nurses were told to leave, the dayside nurses were told they needed to continue working -- meaning they would work a 24-hour shift, according to Hadwan.
Hadwan said Monday night that the hospital was bringing in four agency nurses to help the nightside crew.

Going by what whackadoodle said a few pages back, that is way over the safe limit for patients per caregiver.

Also.
China: Shit, we got an epidemic underway. Builds dozens of field hospitals in 10 days and rushes in 10,000+ doctors & medics to the affected areas.

US: Oh shit, we got an epidemic. Uh...here's 4 nurses and you'll have to buy your own PPE. And if you don't like it you're fired.

Best medical system in the world, am I right?

[mr friendly guy]

The US is stocking up on hydroxychloroquine. The results of the studies are somewhat mixed. Formless has done a great job on going through the French studies, and I understand there is a Chinese study which was not double blind, but did show some promise. All this means is more needs to be done, although I wouldn't put my hopes in this drug currently.

But if the US wants to invade another country with malaria which is not hydroxychloroquine resistant, they're covered.

[ray245]

It's times like these that I wonder if there's any truth to the anecdote I keep hearing that there's 10 administrators & other pencil pushers for every frontline doctor & nurse.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/us/detro ... index.html

Detroit hospital nurses refuse to work without more help, ordered to leave

By Paul P. Murphy, Ryan Young and Jake Carpenter, CNN
Updated 9:33 AM ET, Wed April 8, 2020

(CNN)Emergency room nursing staff at a Detroit hospital were told to leave Sunday night after they refused to work and demanded more nurses be brought into their overrun emergency room, health care workers there told CNN.
The night shift ER nurses at Sinai-Grace Hospital refused to leave the break room until hospital administrators brought in more nurses to help out, a physician at the hospital told CNN.
Hospital administrators decided, after four hours of deliberation, they would not be bringing in any more nurses to help and that the nurses could get to work or leave the hospital, the doctor said.
Some did then leave, said the physician, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity out of concern for their job.

The details provided by the physician were corroborated by ER nurse Sal Hadwan, who discussed what happened in a video livestreamed on Facebook.

"We are disappointed that last night a very small number of nurses at Sinai-Grace Hospital staged a work stoppage in the hospital refusing to care for patients," Detroit Medical Center Communications Manager Jason Barczy told CNN. "Despite this, our patients continued to receive the care they needed as other dedicated nurses stepped in to provide care."
Sinai-Grace is part of the Detroit Medical Center system.
"We know this is a very challenging time for caregivers," Barczy said. "Our doctors and nurses continue to demonstrate their commitment and dedication to our patients."
In the video, Hadwan said he and the other ER nurses shown were told leave the hospital.
"Tonight, it was the breaking point for us," Hadwan said in the video, streamed on Sunday night right before midnight.

"Because we cannot safely take care of your loved ones out here with just six, seven nurses and multiple (ventilators) and multiple people on drips. It's not right. We had two nurses the other day who had 26 patients with 10 (ventilators)."
The nurses need extra help, because for three straight weeks they've had more than 110 patients in the ER, Hadwan said in the video.
"Nurses around the state are desperately doing everything we can to keep our patients and ourselves safe," Michigan Nurses Association President Jamie Brown told CNN.
"Eventually, a tipping point is reached where the best thing any RN can do for their patients, their families, and their coworkers is to speak out rather than remain silent."

"Until hospitals start taking the concerns of nurses seriously, it's only a matter of time before more actions like these occur. It is absolutely essential that hospitals start working with nurses and stop silencing our voices," Brown said.

After the nightside nurses were told to leave, the dayside nurses were told they needed to continue working -- meaning they would work a 24-hour shift, according to Hadwan.
Hadwan said Monday night that the hospital was bringing in four agency nurses to help the nightside crew.

Going by what whackadoodle said a few pages back, that is way over the safe limit for patients per caregiver.

Also.
China: Shit, we got an epidemic underway. Builds dozens of field hospitals in 10 days and rushes in 10,000+ doctors & medics to the affected areas.

US: Oh shit, we got an epidemic. Uh...here's 4 nurses and you'll have to buy your own PPE. And if you don't like it you're fired.

Best medical system in the world, am I right?

It's almost like the US system rewards short term thinking and penalise long-term strategic thinking!

Seriously, it really shows the big issue with US society as a whole, in the sense that there is very little mechanism that rewards long-term strategic thinking across multiple levels of US society.

[bilateralrope]

US: Oh shit, we got an epidemic. Uh...here's 4 nurses and you'll have to buy your own PPE. And if you don't like it you're fired.

Don't forget about states with religious exceptions to stay at home orders.

Meanwhile the countries that got it under control started with "lock down everything" to limit the number of patients who need hospitalizing.

[Bedlam]

Also.
China: Shit, we got an epidemic underway. Builds dozens of field hospitals in 10 days and rushes in 10,000+ doctors & medics to the affected areas.

US: Oh shit, we got an epidemic. Uh...here's 4 nurses and you'll have to buy your own PPE. And if you don't like it you're fired.

Best medical system in the world, am I right?

And do you think the US has thousands of medics in unaffected parts of the country to rush to the effected area?

China had the advantage that most of the infections were in a single area which they could cordon off and pump more resources into, the US has had infections scattered all over the country more or less from outset so that's less of an option for them.

Not arguing that their health system couldn't be better but the same solution isn't possible for all cases.

[Broomstick]

Anyone who thinks those new border policies are temporary is delusional. They will never be lifted, or not until Trump is removed from power.

Trump is definitely using the pandemic to get as much of what he wants as he can without needing to deal with annoyances like the US Congress, the courts, the law, or human decency.

[loomer]

Interesting little opinion piece on how anthropocentric legal orders are making us more vulnerable to pandemic outbreaks.

[Broomstick]

Bold of you to assume the Trumpenfurer and his drooling primate supporters won't fuck it all up on purpose because murrika.

Well it is possible, but when those supporters are unemployed and have no other alternative to turn to, they might chance their tune. Bear in mind that many of Trump's supporters are not necessary those that are unemployed, but more so of those who have a job, but feel their income and social status are being threatened by globalism and migrants.

If the Trumpists don't stop gathering in large, dense groups every Sunday they might become a self-limiting problem. Or maybe it will just cut down on the more irrational, ignorant, hyper-religious types.

[Broomstick]

Boris Johnson is now in Hospital.

I was honestly trying to feel sorry for him, and then I remembered "heard immunity", and I just couldn't.

Hopefully this will make the British government more cautious given that herd immunity strategy doesn't not prevent themselves from being hospitalized.

Those who propose such strategies, with the notion that some portion of the population is expendable, never seem to consider that they themselves could be among the expended.