Corona Horse, Corona Rider - Covid #9

[Fez]

4 minutes ago, Arakan said:

What Trump is doing is robbery. People will not forget. Stupid narcissist. There is a real possibility, for the first time in over 60 years, that NATO as an entity will cease to exist. The mood towards the US, at least in Germany is the most toxic I have ever seen it. Trump, not only totally incompetent, but the perfect symbol of American (unjustified) arrogance. The worst president the country has ever seen. 

I suspect most countries will hold off on acting too harshly, in the hopes that Biden beats Trump in November (also, no throwing stones in glass houses and all that). But if Trump wins re-election, all bets are off.

And, of course, the fact that we elected Trump in the first place proves that we can't be considered a permanently reliable partner anymore anyway; since we could always do something just as stupid in 2024 or some future election. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, Arakan said:

US pirates strike again. Protective masks bought in China and designated for Berlin were seized by US officials in Bangkok. 

They have already been paid for and were „confiscated“. There is no excuse for this especially after the vaccine shenanigans by Trump around the German company CureVac. Politicians are speaking of an act of piracy. They are correct. 
 

Who needs enemies when you have such „allies“. I am angry. 

Excuse me? Those masks were LIBERATED! They need freedumb too!!!

[BigFatCoward]

1 hour ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

The GA situation is understandable because the governor didn't know asymptotic people could be carriers till...24-48 hours ago. These anti-science Republicans are going to take us over the cliff with them.

I saw a clip of that and my first thought was it must have been doctored to make him look bad. 

But no, it actually happened. I lack the language to express my feelings on this. 

[Hereward]

Just now, BigFatCoward said:

But no, it actually happened. I lack the language to express my feelings on this. 

I doubt that. Give it a crack.

[Arakan]

3 minutes ago, Fez said:

I suspect most countries will hold off on acting too harshly, in the hopes that Biden beats Trump in November (also, no throwing stones in glass houses and all that). But if Trump wins re-election, all bets are off.

And, of course, the fact that we elected Trump in the first place proves that we can't be considered a permanently reliable partner anymore anyway; since we could always do something just as stupid in 2024 or some future election. 

I like Cuomo a lot. I think he can build bridges. Biden, I don’t see it. But 4 more years of a Republican dumb lunatic. No. As you said, in this case all bets are off. What Trump is doing are Mafia tactics and what makes it worse: it is his total idiocy and denial that he has to revert to them. There must be consequences. 

[Fragile Bird]

What I don’t understand is how Americans could divert a shipment of masks in Bangkok headed for Germany, diverted to the US. How did that happen?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

8 minutes ago, Hereward said:

I doubt that. Give it a crack.

Isn't this the time when you Brits call people fucking cunts?

5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

What I don’t understand is how Americans could divert a shipment of masks in Bangkok headed for Germany, diverted to the US. How did that happen?

Bigger dick foreign policy?

[Luzifer's right hand]

6 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

What I don’t understand is how Americans could divert a shipment of masks in Bangkok headed for Germany, diverted to the US. How did that happen?

$$$$$$$$$

[Arakan]

5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

What I don’t understand is how Americans could divert a shipment of masks in Bangkok headed for Germany, diverted to the US. How did that happen?

The shipment changed planes and they confiscated it in that moment. It’s like a fecking bad movie plot. 

[DanteGabriel]

Boston local media had a story about how the Feds confiscated a shipment of PPE headed for Boston when it was in New York. No explanations that I have seen for the confiscation. They're doing it to states too, I guess.

[BigFatCoward]

9 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Isn't this the time when you Brits call people fucking cunts?

 

Fucking cunts is a term of endearment compared to the words that arsegoblin should have screamed in his face. How the fuck can you be an actual governor and not know the absolute basic facts. 

[Tears of Lys]

There's plenty of things to get outraged about currently.  How about THIS one?

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/30/-scene-british-reporters-say-chinese-markets-again/

(Limited clicks.)

"China is permitting wild animal markets to resume selling bats, believed to be the source for the deadly coronavirus now killing people across the globe, including over 2,500 Americans to date, British reporters say.

Chinese authorities in January closed down the Wuhan city “wet” market after five of its workers were among the first diagnosed with what would become COVID-19.

A number of scientists say it is likely that bats either infected other market animals or humans directly. Bats carry a variety of coronaviruses and are blamed on for the 2002 SARS coronavirus epidemic that also originated in a Chinese market."

 

 

[Hereward]

It's amazing isn't it, when a major power decides to do something that the rest of the civilised world thinks is bugfuck insane for cultural reasons.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Maithanet said:

There are several states with a ton of cases/fatalities that get the vast majority of press coverage in the states (namely NY, NJ, WA, MI and LA).  I looked a little closer to see where we might be missing the story due to very little testing.  So I checked https://covidtracking.com/data/

Looking at states with relatively few tests/capita and relatively high rates of positive cases/test, gets this list of states with potential problems on the horizon: GA, MS, OK and SC.  Which is pretty concerning because as far as my quick check, GA only closed nonessential businesses yesterday, and the other three have yet to do so.  Not a great sign. 

Yep. I posted a warning about Oklahoma 2 days ago, I think. Oklahoma only appears to be processing about 200-300 tests per day, as far as I can tell. My likeliest guess was that there was a backlog in test processing, which turned out to be accurate.

It's fucking criminal that Stitt didn't close non-essential businesses statewide when he damn well knew that no one was getting tested, and it's even more criminal that he still hasn't done so.

[Maithanet]

9 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Yep. I posted a warning about Oklahoma 2 days ago, I think. Oklahoma only appears to be processing about 200-300 tests per day, as far as I can tell. My likeliest guess was that there was a backlog in test processing, which turned out to be accurate.

It's fucking criminal that Stitt didn't close non-essential businesses statewide when he damn well knew that no one was getting tested, and it's even more criminal that he still hasn't done so.

Yeah, looking closer, MS and GA closed non-essential businesses yesterday.  SC and OK still haven't.  Also, I find these projections a bit confusing: https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

They have estimates of resource useage and deaths into the future, and it paints a pretty grim picture.  It's only updated every few days and the April 1 version estimates 90k American deaths by the end of May.  That's pretty damn bad.  It is however a little confusing where it's getting its assumptions.  Like I don't know why Delaware is projected to have it's "peak" on April 11, DC on April 15, PA on April 18, MD on April 29 and VA all the way on May 20.  Maybe I'm just supposed to use this as a rough guide, and not look too carefully at the state by state estimates.

 

[williamjm]

19 hours ago, Paxter said:

Agreed, but it’s still the best data we have. Daily new cases is even more flawed given testing limitations and inconsistencies.

In many ways it would be better to look at data over a long period of time, such as 5 day intervals, unfortunately the situation is changing so fast that it would make it difficult to tell the current situation.

10 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I saw some research (can't find it), that a significant number of people dying would have died this year anyway, they are just dying in a big group right now. 

I was reading this yesterday which attempts to analyse the 20000 death prediction for the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51979654

It seems to have been suggesting that the majority of people who will die from coronavirus were in such poor health that they would have been likely to die over the next year even without the pandemic (although there would still be many healthier people killed by the virus as well). This is all assuming that they can stop the NHS from being overwhelmed, otherwise a lot more could die.

3 hours ago, Maltaran said:

The BBC has done an article on the countries which don't yet have any cases - mostly either Pacific islands, poor countries that probably have a load of undiagnosed cases, or dictatorships that are probably lying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52120439

I saw a story that Turkmenistan has made using the word 'coronavirus' illegal. There's sadly a lot of competition but that's probably up there with the worst government reactions to it.

[Ran]

Funny, there's a Telegraph story which suggests Sweden's public health authority is working on really nailing down cases of those who died from the virus vs. those who died with coronavirus, with a belief that this will drop the IFR much lower -- putting it on the level of s severe flu season (that, unfortunately, is hitting everywhere at once, which is what is causing most of the problem).

[Fragile Bird]

3 minutes ago, Ran said:

Funny, there's a Telegraph story which suggests Sweden's public health authority is working on really nailing down cases of those who died from the virus vs. those who died with coronavirus, with a belief that this will drop the IFR much lower -- putting it on the level of s severe flu season (that, unfortunately, is hitting everywhere at once, which is what is causing most of the problem).

Too bad they want me to sign up for a trial subscription. How about posting some of the relevant information, like how Sweden is supposed to make the distinction.

[Maithanet]

On 3/28/2020 at 11:15 AM, Maithanet said:

Continuing my series, Here's an update on the number of coronavirus test results by day in the US.

3/23 - 54k

3/26 - 97k

3/30 - 113k

3/31 - 104k

4/1 - 101k

4/2 - 118k

4/3 - 140k

First time we've seen a real jump in tests in the past week, so that's good.  It of course came with a corresponding jump in positive cases, although the positive rate is going down slightly...  Here's the past three days:

4/1 - 26k

4/2 - 29k

4/3 - 33k

[Ran]

Just now, Fragile Bird said:

Too bad they want me to sign up for a trial subscription. How about posting some of the relevant information, like how Sweden is supposed to make the distinction.

The article doesn't get into how that distinction is made, although I know it has been discussed in terms of season flu deaths and how the fact that attributing deaths to flu is more art than science -- so I presume it's the same here.

This is what the Telegraph says:

Quote

The Swedes believe that changing how the figures are reported will cut the number of people dying from coronavirus by as much as four fifths, and slash the death rate to well below 1 per cent, perhaps even lower than seasonal flu.

The transparency of the data coming out of Sweden is also giving a better indication of how the virus is playing out in a European population, rather than relying on modelling and estimates coming out of China.