Coronavirus

[princedpw]

A very good podcast with an interview with Dr. David Fisman, who I think Herman mentioned earlier, about why Ontario isn't handling the crisis very well:

https://thebigstorypodcast.ca/2020/05/27/what-is-ontario-doing-wrong-on-covid-19/

Haha what did I mention now? I have no recollection of this, but thanks for the share!

We're several months past it now, but there was a huge window of opportunity for North America to handle this properly, but due to leadership being what it is here...

A) Asian countries were raising the alarm bells back in October. Most of them knew SARS up close and personal and put measures in place after they recovered to ensure this didn't catch them off guard again; i.e. lots of examples of procedure and messaging and equipment; western nations seemingly scoffed from afar and said, that wouldn't happen here.

B) It did. Italy, Spain, UK, all got thrashed thoroughly for taking it chill, and their subsequent warnings to the rest of the world went mostly unheeded. Those Twitter threads from front-line workers were chilling and heart-breaking.

C) It was WINTER when the virus started to appear more serious here. If our governments took the warnings seriously: manufacturing should have been leveraged immediately towards masks, tests, care facilities, ventilators (a bit late for that); distancing measures should have been spun up when it was cold and snowy anyway instead of... March Break.

Is there significant economic impact to shutting things down so early? Um yes, but you know what else is a significant economic impact? Letting things drag out over 2-3 years with periodic shutdowns because either people are buttholes and selfish, or there are no social infrastructures for supporting/sheltering all citizens in times of need.

What's the state of testing and contact tracing in Ontario/Canada more broadly at the moment?  Every intelligent person I've heard has suggested that the key to sustained reopening is not just saying "we're open" but having massive testing infrastructure to continuously test in risky places (healthcare, elderly care, meat packing, perhaps other essential services, for instance), test at immigration sites, ensure anyone who wants a test can get one at any time, and also to do randomized testing throughout the population.

Has Canada articulated a plan for achieving that state of affairs?  What has to be done to get there?  If we can get to that point, then having hockey (without fans), for example, seems like a reasonable thing to do.  It's another thing that would require a lot of testing but if we can test all of the above then the tests committed to (and paid for by) hockey wouldn't be taking resources away from other essential uses.

 

[Highlander]

In Northern Ireland we posted our first day without a death reocorded yesterday (back up to 2 today) but our last few days have been 1,1,1,8,2,0,2 So that little zero was a nice light at the end of the tunnel

Cheers!! [emoji482]

That daily tot of Whiskey must be working.

 

[Highlander]

Interesting:

https://www.unknowncountry.com/headline-news/major-medical-journal-retracts-policy-changing-hydroxychloroquine-study-paper/

strange how one paper restricted the wide spread clinical testing of this drug. 

 

[Highlander]

an article suggesting that Covid was not produced in a lab:

https://www.unknowncountry.com/headline-news/is-covid-19-caused-by-a-genetically-modified-frankenvirus/

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

That's a hell of a lot of cut and paste, particularly without including a link or any indication of what the source is.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Yeah, we've been through this before. Conspiracy theories from crackpot websites are a no-no.

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

Yeah, we've been through this before. Conspiracy theories from crackpot websites are a no-no.

I mean, the best I could tell it was refuting conspiracy theories, but seriously, they don't need refuting, they're self-refuting.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Yeah, we've been through this before. Conspiracy theories from crackpot websites are a no-no.

I mean, the best I could tell it was refuting conspiracy theories, but seriously, they don't need refuting, they're self-refuting.

Yeah, that's fair. I think I just took particular issue with the line right off the bat characterizing these conspiracy theories as "seemingly credible claim(s)".

Also, it's a UFO/paranormal website so I question how much value their reporting has when it comes to Covid-19 when there's like hundreds of more legitimate news sources one could be looking at, but whatever floats their boat I guess.

 

[Highlander]

Ok, no more posting from Whitleys site. 

However when I read the article I seemed to be reading was debunking the conspiracy theory that this came from a laboratory. To me it seemed to be saying that this was a natural virus transmitted by Bats (even though the title could lead to one misunderstanding), not made by humans.

I don't subscribe or believe in conspiracy theories at all, that is why I posted. 

 

[Bender]

This might be a bit geeky but anyone who likes listening to a roundtable of virologists talk about all kinds of viruses (and obviously skewed heavily towards COVID findings) really ought to tune into this podcast. I can't listen to much filtered through political/news media. I'd much rather leave it to the people who make studying viruses and coming up with treatments their lifes work.

This Week in Virology  http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV626.mp3?dest-id=25528

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1272800277461184512

New Zealand gets cases of COVID-19 to zero. They're good for 3+ weeks. Two people were granted a "compassionate exemption" to travel to Britain to visit a dying grandparent and they both return and test positive.

It's crazy how militant a country has to be even when they "beat" the virus. It sounds like these two people were properly quarantined right when they returned to New Zealand so hopefully this doesn't cause further cases.

 

[Kin]

For what it's worth I think you have the details there a little backwards. The two cases they have are people from the UK who came to New Zealand. As per government policy they were supposed to stay in quarantine in a hotel for two weeks but were granted the compassionate exemption to leave early to visit the relative.

It sounds like this will be fixed just by eliminating the compassionate exemption and requiring all outside visitors to quarantine for 2 weeks and getting two separate negative test results.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

For what it's worth I think you have the details there a little backwards. The two cases they have are people from the UK who came to New Zealand. As per government policy they were supposed to stay in quarantine in a hotel for two weeks but were granted the compassionate exemption to leave early to visit the relative.

It sounds like this will be fixed just by eliminating the compassionate exemption and requiring all outside visitors to quarantine for 2 weeks and getting two separate negative test results.

Ah you're right, I read that completely backwards for whatever reason.

 

[Bullfrog]

This might be a bit geeky but anyone who likes listening to a roundtable of virologists talk about all kinds of viruses (and obviously skewed heavily towards COVID findings) really ought to tune into this podcast. I can't listen to much filtered through political/news media. I'd much rather leave it to the people who make studying viruses and coming up with treatments their lifes work.

This Week in Virology  http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV626.mp3?dest-id=25528

I haven't listened to your link yet, but another one (probably more light-hearted) is the COVID-19 series on "This Podcast Will Kill You." Such a fun podcast to listen (given the topic of deadly diseases)

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

https://twitter.com/Pabably/status/1272704614060744704

 

[Kin]

I'm sort of torn on TV/movie production. On the one hand, obviously it's dangerous and a bad idea and everything but there is this small part of me that thinks that one of the only reasons why things have gone as relatively calmly as they have with the lockdown is because new stuff was still coming out so for a week people could talk about Michael Jordan or Queer Eye or whatever.

What a lockdown might look like when no new stuff is coming out and maybe we still don't have sports is anyone's guess. I don't mean this in a frivolous way either, I really worry about people's mental health if they have no outlets like that.

 

[Highlander]

There's a great resto out in Thornbury  (don't want to say the name), great spot and very good food. Their pizza is at another level.. A good friend was out picking up an order the other night and the owner said that another 30 days of lockdown and she was going out of business.

We have been open in BC for at least a month or more now without significant rises in Covid cases.  I certainly hope at least some of the outlying areas outside of T.O. with low Covid rates are allowed to re-open with proper social distancing of course.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

We have been open in BC for at least a month or more now without significant rises in Covid cases.  I certainly hope at least some of the outlying areas outside of T.O. with low Covid rates are allowed to re-open with proper social distancing of course.

Most on Ontario entered phase/stage 2 of the re-opening on Friday. That includes things like restaurants (should note, patios only), malls, hair salons, ect.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

There was a big story last month about two Missouri hairstylists who worked while having the virus and potentially infected 140 of their clients. There was an update to that last week that said that no new infections were linked to those individuals:

Both stylists worked at the same Great Clips location in Springfield. The clients and the stylists all wore face coverings, and the salon had set up other measures such as social distancing of chairs and staggered appointments, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department said this week.

Moral of the story is as things start opening up always remember to wear a mask when going to stores/businesses, especially indoors.

 

[Highlander]

I think, at least for the time being that masks should be compulsory while inside any inside business space or transportation, they are proving that this one precaution can save transmission rates by huge percentages.
I just spoke to a good friend in Miami and he said they are having such a high spike there they are thinking about closing some things down again. He thinks the real problem is that people there think that a switch was thrown and everyone are back to acting like idiots as usual, shoulder to shoulder with no masks in bars etc.
Here in BC there is an enforced SD in bars/resto's which is keeping people apart and relatively safe.