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People were always gonna die. That much was inevitable. Nobody managed to keep the virus out of their country. If you can think of any exceptions, please feel free to sharen' them. Russia and Mongolia did rather hardcore border and travel shutdowns with China. They got it anyways. So at this point, success or failure is down to success at flattening the curve, keeping up with the onslaught and nobody dying for lack of treatment.
The oddball thing is that when I attempt to lay the blame for the mounting fatalities where it actually belongs -- China -- then I tend to hear a song and a dance and a sermon about, "That's in the past and it won't help us now." So why is anything that's already happened relevant at all? It won't help us now, am I right? No, I completely reject that notion. China deserves a reckoning for their incredibly irresponsible handling of the initial outbreak, just as Trump is on the hook for the US response up to this point.
Trump did better than pretty much all of Europe in his early response. He closed travel from China in the face of accusations of xenophobia, bigotry and racism from all sides. That was the right move. The test kits we started with were garbage, and that's a huge strike against him. Did they come from China or were they 100% made in the USA? I'm a little fuzzy on that. Absolutely everyone was downplaying it and minimizing it for most of February and Trump was one of them. So was Cuomo, pretty much ever governor, all the Dems and all of the mainstream media. Surprisingly, Tucker Carlson was the only MSM voice that I'm aware of that got it right early on. So that's another strike against him for listening to the overwhelming consensus opinion. He was wrong along with everyone else, but it must be admitted that it was the same things everyone else was saying at the time. Would it have actually mattered? Every affluent industrialized nation on the planet has failed to keep COVID-19 out. All of them got it. Even Russia is starting to see a rapid uptick of cases now, despite their rather draconian travel restrictions.
Honestly, I'm a lot more interested to see how Trump does from this point going forward. We are still in the same ballpark as Germany for deaths per million citizens. Hopefully we can keep it there and don't go the way of Italy, Spain and Iran. The difference seems to be whether or not you manage to keep up. If there are sufficient medical supplies, you save lives. If there aren't then you have to make the terrifying decisions like Italy telling everyone over 60, "No you can't have a ventilator. Sorry, if you need one, we'll just let you die." Can Trump keep that kind of nightmare scenario at bay? History will judge him largely on his success or failure there.
I don't depend on a Chinese leader to take the lead in a situation that an American so called leader is supposed get a handle on when he was in fact forewarned on many levels.
There is a town called Ferrera Erbognone in the heavily affected Lombardy region in Italy. The odd thing is that it doesn't have a single case of covid-19, despite a very high median age. People in that town don't even stay indoors.
Scientists are trying to find out now why that is, for instance if people there have antibodies in their blood.
So is there anything to the story that 21 million Chinese cell phone users stopped using their phones the past 3 months? Meaning what happened to these people? Or they just stopped using their phones?
Chinese operators lose 21 million subscribers during pandemic
No, I already explained it (direct link to post) and isn't being "soft." We just simply are individualists not collectivists. People complain if they can't do things their way. There are a number of decent friends who post first World complaints about this. I know we have to sacrifice, I'm having to, but I don't think it is a thing of "being soft."
Lots of things have been taken away from us. Not really a sacrifice because the implies we had a choice in the matter. In areas where we do have choice we are not stopping. At least not enough of us. I think its semantics as to calling it soft or something else. The South Koreans knew what they had to do and looked the the big picture and it worked. We don't have that in us. Call it what you want.
Okay fair enough. So what information do we have at this moment about which strain of the virus is active in which country right now? I have absolutely no idea and I don't see any reporting on it. It strains credibility to assume that any virus would remain unchanged all the way through February and March. It had indeed developed two distinct strains between December and late January. Two months. February and March is also two months, so the same amount of time there. All I've found is mostly generalities that the S strain is widely believed to the one that got out to the wider world. I've not heard a peep about anyone specifically identifying any changes since then. I'm sure that somebody must have, but I honestly don't know where to look. When I see massively different numbers depending on which corner of the world you happen to live in, I can't help but suspect that the virus mutated. Perhaps it got worse in one place and less deadly elsewhere. I'd certainly like to know the facts, but I don't know if anyone actually has them right now.
SAN FRANCISCO — At least eight strains of the coronavirus are making their way around the globe, creating a trail of death and disease that scientists are tracking by their genetic footprints.
While much is unknown, hidden in the virus's unique microscopic fragments are clues to the origins of its original strain, how it behaves as it mutates and which strains are turning into conflagrations while others are dying out thanks to quarantine measures.
This video shows tracking of cell phones (anonymized) of beach goers on a single Florida beach during Florida's big spring break debauchery fest, and where they later dispersed to in the country. When you realize that this kind of movement actually happened for millions of revelers, you understand the kind of damage this may have done during a pandemic.
This video shows tracking of cell phones (anonymized) of beach goers on a single Florida beach during Florida's big spring break debauchery fest, and where they later dispersed to in the country. When you realize that this kind of movement actually happened for millions of revelers, you understand the kind of damage this may have done during a pandemic.
And folks wonder why in India people are getting beaten with sticks if they disregard the quarantine and social distancing. The USA is filled with morons, corruption and sociopaths.
Just a reminder: coronavirus testing at national retailers promised by the Trump administration is still not happening
Over promised and under delivered. The administration has since downgraded the plan to only test a limited subset of people. And even so, only four test sites are currently operating in the entire country.
At a Rose Garden press conference on March 13, the day he declared Covid-19 to be a national emergency, President Donald Trump appeared with leaders from CVS, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart and said those chains would provide space in their parking lots for drive-through testing to take place.
But “an array of logistical challenges, ranging from a shortage of testing supplies to funding” has stymied the promised public-private partnership with some of America’s largest retailers, write the Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin, Abha Bhattarai, Juliet Eilperin, and Ashley Parker.
They report that a nationwide lack of testing kits led the White House to downgrade its plans, limiting tests at the retail sites to first responders and health workers. Testing is only available for those who meet specific criteria, so although the US just reached the grim milestone of having the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, that number is almost certainly an undercount.
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Just a reminder: coronavirus testing at national retailers promised by the Trump administration is still not happening
