COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

[Dennisch]

Thankfully, the 1st Amendment doesn't just guarantee the right to free speech, but also alerts us to who the real idiots are. I hope they all get what they deserve.

They're all career morons. They will find support amongst their viewers. I doubt that anything will happen.

 

[TexRex]

Every last one of these wasters should never work again in the public eye.

Trish "Painted Whore, Put On Some More" Regan may not. But then she may be snatched up by OANN*.

*Hyperlinked to a RationalWiki entry, so language warning.

 

[Biggles]

Every last one of these wasters should never work again in the public eye.

With some luck some may even find themselves on the wrong end of legal action for their idiotic spoutings.

Thankfully, the 1st Amendment doesn't just guarantee the right to free speech, but also alerts us to who the real idiots are. I hope they all get what they deserve.

Nothing will change. This is who they are. They are supported by millions of people who think the same way - Fox is the most popular cable news network in the US. Depressing.

 

[baldgye]

 

[01GTP]

Every last one of these wasters should never work again in the public eye.

With some luck some may even find themselves on the wrong end of legal action for their idiotic spoutings.

Thankfully, the 1st Amendment doesn't just guarantee the right to free speech, but also alerts us to who the real idiots are. I hope they all get what they deserve.

And with @RealDonaldTrump tweeting his every thought we all now what's going on in that head of his. For better or for worse.

I'm not into the school system what so ever but could the USA take the next 2 years to complete 2 school years? It would obviously be a big sacrifice for the students to give up the vacation times. Teachers and others would have to get an increase in pay for this period and maybe our government could cough up another bill for this. We might have to start taxing billionaires to pay for it. Hmm.

 

[DesertPenguin]

We received a phone call, mail notice, and a text message from the local sanitation center that they are no longer taking our recycling for the time being but garbage is still being collected. I wonder why? Someone at the recycling center tested positive?

 

[McLaren]

We received a phone call, mail notice, and a text message from the local sanitation center that they are no longer taking our recycling for the time being but garbage is still being collected. I wonder why? Someone at the recycling center tested positive?

Increased garbage load in the community? I got a notification that our garbage guys beyond the bins, would not be taking away anything extra over 54lbs combined due to increased garbage being collected & that they had already pulled guys from other departments to help.

 

[twitcher]

Google is launching a tool that will publicly track people's movements amid the coronavirus pandemic, allowing health officials to check whether their communities are abiding by social-distancing measures.

The California-based tech giant says it will publish and regularly update the "community mobility reports," which are broken down by location and display the change in visits to public places such as grocery stores and parks. The tool, announced by the company late Thursday, uses "aggregated, anonymized sets of data" that Google has collected on users, including through Google Maps.

Google says the reports "were developed to be helpful while adhering to our stringent privacy protocols and protecting people's privacy."

"No personally identifiable information, such as an individual's location, contacts or movement, will be made available at any point," the company says.

 

[Tornado]

 

[1241Penguin]

In rather stark contrast to the Japanese Deputy PM’s comments where he said the WHO should be renamed the Chinese Health Organization, Canada’s Health Minister says that claims of China’s data being inaccurate is feeding into conspiracy theories.



The Dr Bruce Aylward she mentions is the gentleman who doesn’t want to talk about Taiwan, from a few pages back.

I agree with her that this pandemic is a world problem that no country can isolate from, but for now at least, Canada and Japan seem to have different opinions on China’s (and the WHO’s) handling of the Coronavirus outbreak.

We really need to remember these people the next time we have an election.

 

[twitcher]

I hope these supplies get to the people who need them.

 

[TexRex]

It's like having a Twitter feed without actually having Twitter.

We really need to remember these people the next time we have an election.

But then is that particularly useful? "Health Minister" has a cabinet appointment ring to it.

 

[1241Penguin]

But then is that particularly useful? "Health Minister" has a cabinet appointment ring to it.

Indeed, though I find personal value in marking and remembering those who made questionable decisions or statements that have potential implications to the safety of others. Our health minister is appointed by the Prime Minister, who in turn is elected by the people, so there's that at least.

 

[TexRex]

Indeed, though I find personal value in marking and remembering those who made questionable decisions or statements that have potential implications to the safety of others. Our health minister is appointed by the Prime Minister, who in turn is elected by the people, so there's that at least.

I mean, sure, there's that, but it's still an individual serving by appointment. These people tend to not be permanent fixtures anyway, and for a variety of reasons. Perhaps more telling is whether or not an appointee is replaced subsequent to missteps.

 

[sirjim73]

I hope these supplies get to the people who need them.

Agreed.
I also hope he gets what he deserves for this, especially with the coughing part as well.

In fact, this is an example of why I think the Abe idea of 2 masks per household might actually be a good idea, contrary to a lot of opinion. I don't know the exact percentages, but at the moment let's say for example that 10% or 20% of the population have all the masks that they panic bought or hoarded for Ebay, while the other 80% have none at all.

I don't know how they came to the number of 2 per household, but is it not better to say, we need X million for health staff and other key workers. That leaves us with X million spare which equates to 2 per household. Than have all the masks hoarded by the 10% or 20% of the population? And say **** to the other 80%?

 

[TheGeologist]

As this pandemic continues... I wonder what is going to happen to the U.S. presidential election in November.

 

[Dotini]

As this pandemic continues... I wonder what is going to happen to the U.S. presidential election in November.

The election is required by law to take place. The method of voting will probably be changed to mail-in over a week rather than personal voting on election day. The candidates are scheduled to be finalized at the respective conventions taking place this summer. Trump is the presumptive Republican candidate and Biden for the Democrats. Polls for what they are worth favor Biden, but he is showing signs of mental frailty, and there is some question of his viability.

 

[UKMikey]

As this pandemic continues... I wonder what is going to happen to the U.S. presidential election in November.

They actually discussed this already on the election thread.

If covid spirals out of control, is there a chance the election could be delayed or postponed?
I'm fairly up to date on election protocol for a non-USian but I'm unaware of anything to do with Presidential elections being delayed and the knock-on effects that can have on the term in office under the 25th Amendment.

Legally it can't be postponed by much. The president has to be elected by January 20th or it goes to succession, meaning Pence or Pelosi could get it depending on how it's interpreted.
What will probably happen is that the electoral process will be longer than just one day. While many states already do this, I could see it being implemented nationally. So instead of just one day, you'd have a week or two in order to vote with every registered voter receiving a ballot by mail. Best guess is that it runs the first two weeks of November with us knowing the winner sometime around Thanksgiving.

 

[88GTA]

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

April 3 (GMT)

• Italy: the real number of COVID-19 cases in the country could be 5,000,0000 (compared to the 119,827 confirmed ones) according to a study which polled people with symptoms who have not been tested, and up to 10,000,000 or even 20,0000,000 after taking into account asymptomatic cases, according to Carlo La Vecchia, a Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the Statale di Milano University.
  
  This number would still be insufficient to reach herd immunity, which would require 2/3 of the population (about 40,000,000 people in Italy) having contracted the virus [source].
  
  The number of deaths could also be underestimated by 3/4 (in Italy as well as in other countries) [source], meaning that the real number of deaths in Italy could be around 60,000.
  
  If these estimates were true, the mortality rate from COVID-19 would be much lower (around 25 times less) than the case fatality rate based solely on laboratory-confirmed cases and deaths, since it would be underestimating cases (the denominator) by a factor of about 1/100 and deaths by a factor of 1/4.

• 4585 new cases and 766 new deaths in Italy [source]

 

[UKMikey]

I queued for an hour to get into Boots the chemist yesterday. They were only letting one person in at a time.

When I finally got in the harried looking pharmacist told me she needed another three days to make up my mum's prescription and to go back and queue up again on Tuesday.

I'm glad I don't have to go to the office at the moment or I'd have even less chance to try and score any medical supplies.

In happier news my company's plan to get some of our lower paid staff (me included) to accept a 20% pay cut "for the good of the firm" appears to have completely fallen through for lack of support amongst the workforce.

It's a real shame as I'm sure our CEO was expecting to buy a Lamborghini or two with the money he would've saved on his wage bill.

 

[baldgye]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-52164358?__twitter_impression=true


What has to have gone so wrong in your life that you could even think that 5G and COVID-19 are linked?

 

[HenrySwanson]

Has the UK "painted itself into a corner" with the lockdown?

Britain has “painted itself into a corner” with no clear exit strategy from the coronavirus epidemic and needs to reconsider herd immunity, according to a senior government adviser.

A prolonged lockdown risks causing more suffering than the virus itself, Graham Medley, the government’s chief pandemic modeller, has warned. He said that the country needed to face the trade-off between harming the young versus the old.

Professor Medley, a member of the key scientific body that is guiding the government’s response, told The Times that Britain must consider allowing people to catch the virus in the least deadly way possible rather than letting unemployment, domestic violence and mental ill health mount indefinitely.

His modelling showed that letting people return to work or reopening schools would allow the pandemic to take off again and no way had been found of easing the lockdown while controlling the virus. Only those working outside might be safe to go back to their jobs, he found.

Professor Medley, professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage). He is chairman of SPI-M, the Sage committee overseeing mathematical models.

“This disease is so nasty that we had to suppress it completely,” he said. “Then we’ve kind of painted ourselves into a corner, because then the question will be what do we do now? We will have done three weeks of this lockdown so there’s a big decision coming up on April 13. In broad terms are we going to continue to harm children to protect vulnerable people, or not?”

It is understood that work is under way to quantify health harms caused by lockdown, although this has not yet reached ministers. They have said this trade-off has not featured in government decision-making and Downing Street is giving all its attention to social distancing and building NHS capacity.

 

[FoRiZon]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-52164358?__twitter_impression=true


What has to have gone so wrong in your life that you could even think that 5G and COVID-19 are linked?

You laugh until you realize that quite alot people actually into this conspiracy.

Whats worse is that those people are now mass downvote videos that debunk such and storming the comments with nonsense (and got hundreds of likes in process). It's either a failure of human race.....or there's a troll army business going on. Its very suspicious either way.

 

[baldgye]

Its very suspicious either way.

Its very stupid.

 

[UKMikey]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-52164358?__twitter_impression=true


What has to have gone so wrong in your life that you could even think that 5G and COVID-19 are linked?

I had no idea people thought they were linked until @andrea posted this in the meme thread the other day...

 

[FoRiZon]

Straight from the artist.

 

[baldgye]

UK deaths rise above 700 in 24 hours
The latest UK coronavirus figures have been released by the government.
As of 09:00 BST Saturday, 4 April, a total of 183,190 people have been tested of whom 41,903 tested positive.

 

[killerjimbag]

This went from 2 on the 24th of March in my hometown hospital to 24. This is not good as it's the only hospital for 130000 people.

https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-n...spital-now-confirmed-to-have-covid-19-2223540

 

[01GTP]

Has the UK "painted itself into a corner" with the lockdown?

More on that at
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-should-the-government-spend-to-save-a-life/

"Economists might not be able to say how much an individual person’s existence is worth, but they have figured out a way to calculate how much the average person is willing to pay to reduce the risk of death — which allows them to put a price tag on the collective value of saving one life. That figure, which currently hovers somewhere around $9 or $10 million, is known as the “value of statistical life,” (VSL) and it’s the basis for all kinds of high-stakes decisions that involve trade-offs between public safety and economic cost — from food and automobile regulations to our responses to climate change.

Spencer Banzhaf, is an economist at Georgia State University who has written about the history of the VSL. The VSL, instead of trying to sum up the value of a life, approaches the question from the other direction — how much are we willing to spend to reduce the odds of dying? Economists draw the numbers from multiple sources, including surveys and assumptions about our own choices, like how much additional money people earn for especially dangerous jobs, or how much a premium they’ll pay for a safer car. The estimates do vary, but they fall in the same basic range — the EPA’s valuation falls around $9.4 million, while Viscusi’s latest calculation is $10 million. “Essentially, we’re trying to figure out what our society is willing to pay to reduce the risk of mortality,” said W. Kip Viscusi, an economist at Vanderbilt University and one of the leading experts on these calculations. To put it another way, Viscusi’s estimate means that if a group of 10,000 people is facing a 1-in-10,000 risk of death, they’re willing to pay $1,000 per person to reduce the odds that any given member of the community will die.

So if Trump (we) is trying to save the higher estimate (2.5 mil) of people in the USA that amount would be 2,500,000 people X $10,000,000 or $25 trillion. The least estimate of 100,000 people is $1 trillion. I think we're still under $10 trillion so far in stimulus and bailouts, call them what you want.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

A work colleague of mine had the virus, she was in the shop yesterday and I asked her about it and she said she never felt so ill in her life, she has happily survived it and is back in work next week.