covid-19

[wiggin]

It's not just that. Some places were unlucky to get hit first. No one was prepared. No one knew how to adequately combat the virus. The places getting hit now had time to get the right equipment, to create more hospitals spaces, and have months of data of how to keep covid patients alive.

I think it's not actually 'luck' that certain places were hit first. It's not surprising that places like New York and the West Coast saw lots of early imports - they get a huge amount of travel from Europe and Asia, respectively. Boston's first big superspreader event was an international gathering of Biogen executives, which is a very Boston thing to be hosting; similarly the early hit to southern Louisiana happened because of Mardi Gras which was also a geography-specific event. Combined with relatively high density populations, these got hit first. Everywhere else just managed to keep things on a low burn because of their various early(ish) lockdowns once the usual suspects were grappling with massive surges. If they had kept listening to their public health experts, we might now be lauding the governors of Texas, Florida, and Arizona for their foresight and thoughtful governance.

[Loki]

I think it's not actually 'luck' that certain places were hit first. It's not surprising that places like New York and the West Coast saw lots of early imports - they get a huge amount of travel from Europe and Asia, respectively. Boston's first big superspreader event was an international gathering of Biogen executives, which is a very Boston thing to be hosting; similarly the early hit to southern Louisiana happened because of Mardi Gras which was also a geography-specific event. Combined with relatively high density populations, these got hit first. Everywhere else just managed to keep things on a low burn because of their various early(ish) lockdowns once the usual suspects were grappling with massive surges. If they had kept listening to their public health experts, we might now be lauding the governors of Texas, Florida, and Arizona for their foresight and thoughtful governance.

By luck, I mean factors outside of the control of the authorities and health sector.

[wiggin]

By luck, I mean factors outside of the control of the authorities and health sector.

Ah, yes. Well.

[GGT]

NC's first superspreader events were linked to bio-medical conventions hosted in their "Research Triangle". (Everyone stays at a hotel, and eats/drinks at bars or restaurants.) Philly suburbs were hit hard because that's part of the bio-med-tech "Corridor", which includes suburban NJ.

There's something weird about the US ignoring its inter-connectedness...especially when it pertains to science. "If they had kept listening to their public health experts" falls on deaf ears in a society with anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. Foresight and thoughtful governance? pffft that's a joke, right?

[wiggin]

Foresight and thoughtful governance? pffft that's a joke, right?

Worked in some places.

[GGT]

That's a pretty low expectation for the rest of the country.

edit: did you even read the Garrett article I posted?

[wiggin]

Yes but I'm not sure what that has to do with my posts...

[GGT]

Yes but I'm not sure what that has to do with my posts...

You can't give credence to states' "foresight and thoughtful governance" without recognizing the *lack* of National leadership/coordination. Garrett was writing about global pandemic threats in the 90's, so it's disingenuous to portray covid-19 as something that caught us off guard. Or that since "some places" managed to deal with it better than others means we've done a good job, as a nation.

I agree with you: none of this boils down to "luck". I'm going one step further, and condemning states like Texas, Florida, and Arizona for NOT listening to public health experts. That's the reality.

[RandBlade]

Twitter Link
What can we say?

[wiggin]

Twitter Link
What can we say?

Certainly every time I've had sex with a demon I've gotten pretty ill.

[RandBlade]

You must be hanging out with the wrong class of demons.

[Flixy]

Twitter Link
What can we say?

What the hell..

[LittleFuzzy]

Certainly every time I've had sex with a demon I've gotten pretty ill.

You're either having sex with the wrong demons or you're not doing it right. (pages through notes) What kind of ritual circle were you using?

[wiggin]

You must be hanging out with the wrong class of demons.

She was a very classy demon in bed.

You're either having sex with the wrong demons or you're not doing it right. (pages through notes) What kind of ritual circle were you using?

She didn't tell me it was a ritual circle!

[Aimless]

Thought Twitter was just desperately scraping the bottom of the meme barrel with this demon sex stuff but nope it's just reality again

Meanwhile, conservatives are mad that Twitter is taking steps to foil their plan to spread covid disinfo:

Twitter Link

[RandBlade]

The UK government have signed an agreement for early access to another 60 million doses of COVID vaccine, this time with GSK and Sanofi Pasteur. That brings to 250 million doses of vaccine on order so far, they're certainly not messing around waiting to get the orders in considering our population is nowhere near 250 million . . .

[Aimless]

From 2:30

Twitter Link

[RandBlade]

Just write it off and stop being dumb.

Quite frankly during the pandemic wasting money is not the #1 priority. As I said in my last post, the UK has a population of 67m people, this year's flu vaccine rollout is our largest ever in history and is 30m doses of vaccine going out - and the government has purchased 250m doses of vaccine. They will literally be wasting millions on at least some of those vaccines but the cost of that is negligible to the cost of the pandemic.

If you think a cure works and purchase it and then it doesn't work then c'est la vie just move on.

I normally hate the government wasting taxpayers money but during a once in a century pandemic the normal rules go out of the window.

[Flixy]

From 2:30

Twitter Link

It is still insane that the text in the bottom is not from the onion but true.

[Aimless]

It is still insane that the text in the bottom is not from the onion but true.

We now go to American conservatism for a comment:

Twitter Link

[RandBlade]

We now go to American conservatism for a comment:

Twitter Link

Twitter Link

[GGT]

It is still insane that the text in the bottom is not from the onion but true.

Navarro also thinks Tariffs are good, and Tariff Wars are 'easy to win'. Even when he stays in his lane as an economist, he's wrong. Now he's sitting on a stockpile of hydroxychloroquine and thinks Trump talked about it in a "sophisticated way". Just sayin'

[Ominous Gamer]

I just got activated by emergency operations for covid test site duty, I have to report once the sites open back up after the tropical storm

Fuck.

[GGT]

What are your duties, OG? Are you responsible for data collection and reporting it to the State Health Dept, or something else?

[Ominous Gamer]

I could be, or checkin processing, or bagging and tagging samples after they are taken, or traffic management. The nurses have shown to be pretty shitty at the data management part, that's why they activated more library personnel. Cause if you can't trust the data in the hands of the person making $50-$100 an hour plus hazard pay, give it to the librarian who makes $20, isn't there by choice, and doesn't get hazard pay.

[GGT]

Sounds pretty fucked up, but not surprising that states are figuring out their own strategies on the fly. USA #1!

Hope you've got childcare, that's the least you should expect as a "first responder" state employee. Wait, your wife is is a childcare worker, right?

[GGT]

For context:

"If two large planes crashed every day in the US, killing everyone on board, the nation would be despondent.

If the US suffered a loss of life on the scale of the 9/11 attacks -- 50 times over -- the tragedy would be incomprehensible.

But that's how many lives coronavirus has claimed in the US since this pandemic started just six months ago.

More than 150,000 people have died since the first known US death in February. That means every day, an average of more than 850 Americans have died from Covid-19."

Continue reading at https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/healt...000/index.html

It doesn't have to be this way; we don't have to go through this; but it boils down to personal responsibility! Can the US do that?

CAN WE DO THIS?

[Timbuk2]

Coronavirus: England highest level of excess deaths in Europe



England had the highest levels of excess deaths in Europe between the end of February and the middle of June, official analysis shows.

The Office for National Statistics says England saw the second highest peak rates of death in Europe, after Spain.

But England had the longest period where deaths were above average, and so overall had the highest levels.

Areas in Spain and Italy, like Milan and Madrid, were harder hit than cities in the UK

But the ONS analysis shows the epidemic in the UK was more widespread than in other countries, with Scotland seeing the third highest death rate in Europe.

[gogobongopop]

Pfft, that's only because our data is better than everyone else's. We have the best data. World beating data.

[Ominous Gamer]

Sounds pretty fucked up, but not surprising that states are figuring out their own strategies on the fly. USA #1!

Hope you've got childcare, that's the least you should expect as a "first responder" state employee. Wait, your wife is is a childcare worker, right?

The county is providing zero childcare assistance, despite the activation hours being different and commonly requiring overtime (or even being overnight), and most activations have less than 24 hours notice (I got lucky cause of the TS).
My wife does work in childcare, and her place of work has already had 1 scare. Which everyone now thinks was a false positive.