Government Response to Coronavirus 3: Locked Down

[elliha]

Death rates have gone up a lot today in Sweden to 62 people. The number of cases are going up slightly but not crazy fast. It will be interesting if they present any analysis why so many died right now and how these cases are linked to intensive care, if there is a connection between them etc. It might just be the new level of about 20 a day now but I would still like to know.The majority of all deaths are in Stockholm but the north of Sweden got its first death when the neighboring region had one today. Ours still have zero, three people in intensive care last time I checked and a couple more in the hospital. Known cases are 33 so far so it is a bit of a contrast to Stockholm that has almost half the cases of the whole country. 

There has been a realization that a lot of the Stockholm cases are linked to areas with high immigrant population, a poorer general population, more intergenerational living, more people in crowded apartments etc. and I think you all understand that this makes things a bit more serious. They have now started big campaigns in these areas to make sure that people are not spreading coronavirus due to not knowing what to do. I am glad this is taken seriously. I saw posters in my area too in Arabic, Somali and some other language I do not know perhaps Kurdish or Pashtun. It is good, information doesn't hurt. I have not noticed that people here behave recklessly so maybe information has gone through here better but we will know in the future. 

I had a bad day today with anxiety due to lots of reasons but how the world is now was one of them. It's soon going to bed and a new day tomorrow, that is my comfort. Asthma is getter much better so that is positive at least.

[Emma]

Trump is on now.

 

[Audrey2]

I would like to think that this is evidence strong enough to even a trump supporter might think that the Coronavirus is a problem, but I'm not holding out too much hope. I am also not snarking on Waffle House, who has notoriously been there for some of the worst storms and events in recent memory. 

https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/03/how-bad-is-it-always-open-waffle-house-has-closed-400-restaurants.html

How bad is it? ‘Always open’ Waffle House has closed 400+ restaurants

Spoiler

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- You know things are bad when Waffle House is closed.

The 24/7 diner is so notorious for staying open even amid natural disasters and times of crisis, FEMA adopted the “Waffle House Index” in 2009 to identify the areas hardest hit, according to Newsweek.

“If you get there and the Waffle House is closed?” former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate once said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.”

Red on the index meant the Waffle House was completely closed, yellow indicated the location was serving a limited menu, while green signified the restaurant was open.

 

There is more to the article, but I am on a phone and tweets in articles don't play nicely with my phone.

7 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

He's too busy tweeting.

 

Sorry Donnie, these two tweets don't exactly sound like a denial. They sound like a petulant school child who is being forced to sit in and do their work instead of going out to play.

[GreyhoundFan]

31 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

He's too busy tweeting.

 

So, if he doesn't have time for stupidity, he doesn't have time for himself?

[fraurosena]

3 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

So, if he doesn't have time for stupidity, he doesn't have time for himself?

Or he thinks having to hold daily press conferences to inform the people about the pandemic ravaging the country is stupid. 

[Dandruff]

38 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I don't agree. It's not only in China that animals are kept in appalling and unhygienic circumstances. Nor is China the first place where zoonoses directly caused by man ever took place. Remember mad cow disease in the eighties? The origins for that horrific illness was a disease in sheep called scrapie. However, man, in his ultimate wisdom, decided that it would be a good idea to mix ground sheep remains into cow feed. And so man facilitated the disease in jumping from sheep to cows, where it mutated to bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- mad cow disease. When people then ate those cows, the disease crossed over to people, where it manifested itself as a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. And this first happened in Britain.

Did COVID-19 originate in China? Yes. But putting a blanket blame China for causing zoonoses is incorrect.  

I'm not blanket blaming China for zoonoses.  I'm blaming them for allowing filthy practices to continue, which directly contributed to this pandemic.  I see it as a gamble that they lost and that the world is now paying for.  While they're not the only country where animals are kept and slaughtered in unsafe ways, they're a very large country, with substantial interactions with other very large populations; therefore, I believe they should bear a corresponding weight of responsibility (not that smaller countries shouldn't also be exercising due caution for themselves and their neighbors).

Mad Cow was dreadful and no accident, as you indicated.  I remember when it was happening but, fortunately, its mode of transmission became known and was then avoidable - unlike COVID-19 at present. 

[clueliss]

The daily presser is ALWAYS late.

 

lied?  Someone who works at a call center in Lawrence Kansas went to work and lied about the positive 

 

[WiseGirl]

[Ozlsn]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Or he thinks having to hold daily press conferences to inform the people about the pandemic ravaging the country is stupid. 

I agree with him - he should definitely not do that. Get someone competent and well informed to do it, and tell Donnie Vlad or Kim are on the phone. 

[JMarie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/rachel-maddow-blasts-mississippi-governor-for-banning-cities-from-coronavirus-business-closures/

Quote

On Wednesday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow shone a light on how Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) is using his authority to block local officials from protecting the public health as the coronavirus pandemic gets worse.

“Last night we talked about the governor of Mississippi, announcing that there would not be a statewide stay-at-home order in his state either because he said ‘Mississippi is not China,” said Maddow. “But today … the governor of Mississippi today did something brand new. He issued his own executive order that overrides and overturns any actions that have been taken by cities and towns in his state, even as he is refusing to act statewide.”

“So take, for example, the beautiful city of Tupelo, Mississippi,” said Maddow. “Birthplace of Elvis Presley, right? World famous. On Saturday, the mayor of Tupelo, Mississippi, ordered a stay-at-home order for that city. He banned gatherings of more than ten people. He ordered nonessential businesses to shut in Tupelo … yesterday, the city council in Tupelo met and in a unanimous bipartisan vote, they voted to affirm and ratify those rules that the mayor put in place in Tupelo. But today, the governor of Mississippi superseded that. Today, the governor of Mississippi said Tupelo and any other city or town in the state can’t do anything like that. Only his rules apply.”

“I will just say this to the people of Mississippi,” said Maddow. “You should know that your government is breaking new ground when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. The governor of your state today has pioneered a whole new kind of response to the coronavirus pandemic, in which he is legally blocking towns and cities in your state from doing a better job than he is at keeping you alive. He is undoing public health measures and insisting that the state will not have them.”

 

[Vivi_music]

Just the sheer fact that some politicans in the US are even discussing the idea to sacrifice part of the population to save FUCKING wall street (sorry fr cursing, like some others, I can't hold it in)... it just... I mean.... I. CAN'T. EVEN. It is mindblowing to watch from my side of the border. It literally is social darwinism. NO we do not put a money sign on life for fuck's sakes.

At this point, I hope none of them call themselves pro-life EVER AGAIN.

[Smee]

4 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Did COVID-19 originate in China? Yes. But putting a blanket blame China for causing zoonoses is incorrect.  

Agreed. I had an argument with someone on Facebook about this the other day. She was saying that China should be held financially responsible for the effects of the virus around the world, because it started there. I said that if you apply “it originated there, so they should be responsible for the worldwide spread and impacts” to other problems, you get illogical homophobic statements like “the earliest reported victims of AIDS were mostly gay men so the LGBTQ community should be made to pay for the AIDS crisis worldwide”. Or the ACT government should demand payment from NSW for bushfires that started in NSW and crossed the border, even though the severity of this season’s fires is due to global climate factors. Or farmers in Kenya can hold Yemen responsible for the locust plagues eating their crops. 

What we CAN (& should) hold the Chinese government responsible for is the way they treated the whistleblower doctor in December and the time taken to acknowledge the severity of the virus, as well as what seems like... unlikely... overall data. I don’t believe the numbers on deaths in China are even close to accurate, for instance. Too many reports of at-home deaths not being counted and too long a history of covering up that sort of thing. 

[elliha]

3 hours ago, Smee said:

What we CAN (& should) hold the Chinese government responsible for is the way they treated the whistleblower doctor in December and the time taken to acknowledge the severity of the virus, as well as what seems like... unlikely... overall data. I don’t believe the numbers on deaths in China are even close to accurate, for instance. Too many reports of at-home deaths not being counted and too long a history of covering up that sort of thing. 

This is important and China should not get to change the history about this as they actively try to do. There is also some people who believe that the reports from China now of only import cases is inaccurate, not in the sense that they are hiding a new disaster but that they probably do not report any Chinese cases or report them as import cases to give a better picture of the country now. That does not mean that China is supposed to forever be held accountable for everything, they made mistakes, they underestimated the problem etc. but so did the rest of the world too. We have stepped away from naming diseases from where they first originated and that is perfectly fine. 

[fraurosena]

9 hours ago, Dandruff said:

I'm not blanket blaming China for zoonoses.  I'm blaming them for allowing filthy practices to continue, which directly contributed to this pandemic.  I see it as a gamble that they lost and that the world is now paying for.  While they're not the only country where animals are kept and slaughtered in unsafe ways, they're a very large country, with substantial interactions with other very large populations; therefore, I believe they should bear a corresponding weight of responsibility (not that smaller countries shouldn't also be exercising due caution for themselves and their neighbors).

Mad Cow was dreadful and no accident, as you indicated.  I remember when it was happening but, fortunately, its mode of transmission became known and was then avoidable - unlike COVID-19 at present. 

I've re-read our posts on this matter, and think you and I are both arguing different points. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you are saying that as COVID-19 originated in China due to their unhygienic practices, they should be held accountable. What I am arguing however, is that although this virus originated in China, the real reason there are these types of zoonoses is the way people treat animals all over the world. It hasn't been in the news much, but there is an outbreak of avian flu in Northern Europe right now, an H5-variant that can also infect humans. Should we point the finger Northern Europe for this outbreak? Or should we actually be looking at the root cause of zoonoses that can be dangerous to man?

If we ever want to diminish the risk of pandemics caused by preventable zoonoses, it's not enough to hold only the country or region accountable where the current virus originated. We need to look at all possible places all over the world, where the human treatment of animals facilitates zoonoses. Otherwise we're just reacting after the fact, instead of preventing it from happening in the first place.

If we don't change what humans are doing to cause this all over the world, it's only a matter of time before the next pandemic happens.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Can anyone please name a government that at first didn't try to minimize the severity of the virus? Honestly I find the way UK and US did it, AFTER thousands of Italians and Chinese people died clearly demonstrating the severity of the problem, a lot more criminal. If bungling can be not excused, but maybe understood, in front of an unknown danger, it can't be tolerated when the virus is so well known.

It would also have consequences for the whole world if most countries will have it under control through a gigantic effort at the expense of the economy and a country, could be the US or anyone else, because of stupid politics could act as a reservoir for the virus to restart the pandemic.

Should we also hold Mexico and the US accountable for the swine flu that started in Mexican and American American pig farms? I guess you are lucky that it didn't do as much damages as COVID19.

Should we hold Arab countries accountable for MERS? Sudan for ebola?

Wet markets are dangerous and should be closed, but in no way they are the only ones responsible for all the zoonoses. Every time we come into close contact with animals, especially wild animals, but it's not like it can't happen with farmed animals especially if they are kept in unsanitary conditions (see for example the appalling conditions of the US poultry farming industry), we are potentially risking a zoonosis.

Most of all China isn't responsible for the US's (or Italy's, or UK's or whoever's) unpreparedness to cope with a pandemic. It's not like we didn't fucking know that it can happen.

[fraurosena]

Update from Europe and around the world:

• the Netherlands expect a dramatic downturn of the Dutch economy, a recession between 1.2 and 7.7 percent in 2020
• the number of current confirmed cases here is 6412; 356 people have died from the virus; rightwing politicians are calling for a total lockdown
• A one-year-old baby has been hospitalised with the virus; she has been intubated. Her parents and sister are also infected. It's unclear how she got infected; the family stayed mostly inside and haven't been to any high-risk places. Her grandmother is now calling for all parents and carers to keep their children inside or to keep them away from other children as much as possible and not play together.
• Iran fears a second wave of infections, after people ignored the stay at home measures and celebrated their March 20 New Year festivities en masse. Stricter measures are now in place. Travel by Intercity trains has been banned, school closure has been extended and gatherings are forbidden. Over 27.000 cases have been confirmed and more than 2000 people have died.
• The French Sports minister has said she is doing everything she can to let the Tour de France proceed this year despite the virus; she is looking into the possibility of a Tour without spectators.
• Russia has banned all passenger flights; nobody is working next week and starting today, more than two million people older than 65 have to stay at home.
• North Korea is looking to other countries for testing materials. Their healthcare system is weak and a large part of the population is ill or underfed.
• The European Parliament will be voting on three bills to counter the corona crisis. Most parliamentarians will be voting via e-mail on legislation surrounding flight regulations, freeing up the 37 billion investment initiative (to aid healthcare systems, job markets and small and medium businesses) from the European Commission from unused EU-funds.
• The All England Lawn Tennis Club will make a decision next week on whether to cancel or postpone the Wimbledon Tournament this year.
• Dyson is awaiting approval for their ventilation designs after which they will be producing 5000 ventilators, 1000 for the UK and 4000 for other countries
• Belgian scientists have developed a corona test that can give results within 15 minutes. The test is 70% accurate and can be used as a first triage; people who test positive can then be tested with a traditional laboratory test. A number of hospitals in Brussels will be using this test as of next week.
• The WTO expects a corona-recession that will be greater than the economic downturn of 2008. They expect an extremely sharp downturn of world trade and that unemployment levels will exceed those of 2008, when 22 million people became unemployed worldwide.
• The Bundestag in Germany has agreed to a debt hike in order to aid the economy. This is highly unusual for a country which has legislated the limit on the country's debt. Both large and small companies will receive financial aid. 
• The Italian government has announced further emergency measures, which put an additional number of counties on complete lockdown; nobody is allowed in or out.
  People who want to go out need to carry a form with which they can show their necessity for their travel. 
• The House of Lords in Britain has agreed to new governmental measures, ensuring new legislation can come into effect  that enlarges the abilities to maintain corona measures. These measures run from greater authority for police and immigration officials to place people under arrest in the interest of public health to the possibility of workers to temporarily do volunteer work in healthcare.
• There are more deaths in Spain than there have been reported from China. The total amount of corona-related deaths in Spain has risen to 3434. Italy has the highest death rate with 7503 deaths. 

[fraurosena]

 I love, love, love how this ad (and others like it) are getting under his skin. 

 

[fraurosena]

Soon he'll be issuing a cease and desist demand for this ad too.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "The nation comes together — without Trump"

Spoiler

As the virus continues to ravage the nation, Donald Trump continues to be Donald Trump.

But here’s the good news: The nation’s leaders are coming together without him.

On Wednesday alone, Trump used his tweets and retweets to heap disdain and ridicule on Joe Biden, Adam B. Schiff, Robert S. Mueller III, Michael Avenatti, Mitt Romney, the “LameStream media,” “CORRUPT & FAKE NEWS,” “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and liberal “snowflakes” — and to celebrate his own magnificence and the “Trumpbux” he gets to spend in the economic rescue package.

Juxtapose that with the bipartisan scene on Capitol Hill, where, after days of strife, senators neared a vote on a massive stimulus bill that spends more than Congress typically designates for domestic programs in a year.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said that the “Washington drama” acted out in the chamber in recent days “does not matter anymore. The Senate is going to stand together, act together and pass this historic relief package today.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), too, looked beyond the “bumps in the road.” Said the Democratic whip: “There are a lot of critics of the United States Congress, for good reason, but I think what we’ve demonstrated … is that there is a capacity for common sense, bipartisan work and timeliness that is essential.”

Meanwhile, as Trump pits states against each other and announces a reckless plan to reopen American workplaces by Easter with the virus still raging, Democratic and Republican governors, filling the leadership vacuum, have united in rejecting his ludicrous plan.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican and head of the National Governors Association, dismissed “this imaginary clock,” while Republican governors in Texas, Arizona, Ohio and South Dakota joined Democratic governors coast to coast in insisting that public health come first.

A better president could unify us in common purpose. But while Trump declares himself a “wartime president,” he seems most skilled at civil warfare. He contributes false assurances, disinformation and attacks on Democratic governors.

It’s a blessing, then, that, as The Post’s Philip Rucker reports, Trump has been playing “a back-seat role” in key areas that “belies his omnipresence in the national media.” The president largely left the stimulus bill to lawmakers and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

This suggests a welcome, if tacit, recognition that Trump doesn’t have what it takes to lead in crisis. His greatest service would be to get out of the way. While our head of state plays talking head, our headless state would carry on better without him.

On Wednesday, Trump governed by Twitter. In addition to messages about the virus, he tweeted or retweeted: a video purporting to show Biden coughing and “confused” (“The Democrat’s (sic) Best & Finest!” Trump wrote); a message calling Schiff a “moron” and a hypocrite”; one stating “There’s a lot of mud on Robert Muellers face” and mocking the “feeble” former special counsel’s “stammering”; a mock expression of relief that the “terrible” “RINO” Romney doesn’t have coronavirus; a boast about his poll numbers; and more.

This came after Trump’s false claim Tuesday on Fox News that New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) “had a chance to buy, in 2015, 16,000 ventilators at a very low price and he turned it down,” and instead “established death panels and lotteries.”

While Trump used the power of the presidency for self-aggrandizement and petty grievances, the governors governed. Cuomo, in his daily news conference, thanked Trump for his “cooperation” and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner for being “extraordinarily helpful” in their “common challenge.”

He proposed a nationwide plan to share scarce medical supplies, invoking the words of his late father, Mario Cuomo, on “what a proper government should be: the idea of family, mutuality, the sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all.”

Other governors have likewise been the voices of responsibility in lieu of the president’s. As Trump moved recklessly toward reopening workplaces as the virus spreads, Ohio’s Mike DeWine, a Republican, said, “The fact is we save our economy by first saving lives, and we have to do it in that order.”

And while Trump salivates over the “Trumpbux” he’ll get to spend in the emergency legislation, lawmakers blocked him from spending the funds on his own business. While Trump lobs political grenades, senators are speaking like statesmen.

“Here in these mostly now empty corridors, we’ve shaped a bipartisan agreement on the largest rescue package in American history,” said Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate minority leader.

And Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), out of quarantine, said that “we as a country will rise together. We will do it united. We will do it because we in this country know how to overcome great challenges.”

Trump has not led. Probably, he can’t. It offers some reassurance to see that, in our national moment of need, others can.

 

[47of74]

Haha. 
 

 Fuck you Rand. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Because he doesn't donate anything:

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

35 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Because he doesn't donate anything:

 

He might have, emphasis on might, if he thought he could milk the recovery money for far more than disinfection would cost when it was over.  But I bet the only tragedy he sees in this is his inability to profit from it.

I would love someone to call him out absolving him of having to donate because the Trump org can't afford it.

[Vivi_music]

Hmmm isn't that funny?

 

[fraurosena]

I fervently hope that any difficult questions that he attempts to shut down are repeated over and over by all the reporters taking a united front for once. I hope he gets called out on his lies as he spouts them. I hope Fauci intervenes when he makes up stuff that is puts peoples lives in danger. 

I hope... 

... but who am I kidding?

 

[clueliss]

Reminder that the 5pm eastern conference is usually late.  It varies on how late.  Recently it pushed back to 6:15 or so Eastern and bled through all of the 6:30pm evening network news.