Coronavirus - International stories and thoughts

will I still be getting my unsolicited technical support calls offering to fix my computer or will my computer also have to live with viruses until they get back to work?

 

Yeah, we won't ever really know until the # active cases = 0. Then we can go back and revise. We won't know the true rate until months after the pandemic is declared over. The only thing you can use the currently used death rate, deaths/cases, is the trajectory. Because we know we are testing a lot now, if the death rate is climbing, then it's getting bad because people are dying faster than the rate of # active new cases. NY roughly 2 weeks ago had a .3% death rate but today it's over 2%. You can use that % to determine the peak. They aren't close to the peak. The peak will be between 5% and 15%. Because this virus is SARS 2.0 and SARS had a nearly 10% death rate, I think they should have known this virus would be closer to it's brother.

 

We do need to remember that a big chunk of those passengers are US citizens. Test them and quarantine them at Doral and Mar a Lago.

 

That wasn't a joke if I implied it. We already know that this virus should have a female name because she's going after men more than women. Men so far are dominating women in number of cases, number of hospitalizations and number of deaths. It's not even close. In Italy alone, men account for 80% of all deaths. In China it was 64%. In Spain, it's close to 80% too. But it's not surprising because this behavior has occurred with all coronaviruses like SARS and MERS. The fact is women have a better immune system than men.

Let me stop here and ask, of all these high-profile celebrities dying from covid-19, have you seen any women among them?

Celebrities who have died from the coronavirus and COVID-19 complications

No women on that list. We even lost a few high-profile male surgeons in this country due to COVID 19. I'm not saying women don't have anything to worry about but I am saying men should be very concerned.

 

currently...

 

DEEP STATE!!!

(see how stupid that sounds?)

 

New data this am...

US 651/mill +1/mill
Germany 948/mill +17/mill
Italy 1829/mill Unc
Spain 2358/mill +138/mill
Swiss 2111/mill


Yes Germany seems to be testing faster than the US, however a friend from HS post he got his result back from 2.5 weeks ago and was Positive.... He is totally fine at this point so when we see a big jump in confirmed cases hold the freak out there are tons of delayed results right now.

 

I'm not sure I understand. Certainly I don't believe everything coming from our own government. But we are vastly different than authoritarian China where press is controlled by the communist party and social media and the internet are heavily censured. Western democracies, although imperfect, are magnitudes ahead of authoritarian regimes when it comes to disclosure and accurate reporting. And I would say the vast majority of folks working in non-political positions within the U.S. government are honest and highly competent professionals.

 

On a more serious note, Malaysian women are now allowed to nag their husbands and stop wearing makeup during the lockdown without interference from their government:

Malaysian government apologizes after advising wives to avoid 'nagging' during coronavirus lockdown - CNN

 

Did France just start counting nursing home deaths? Saw that today's count shot up to a whopping 1355.

 

yes according to latest update at bottom of page
France Coronavirus: 59,105 Cases and 5,387 Deaths - Worldometer

 

0 - 125K: 14 weeks
125K - 250K: 9 days
250K - 500K: 7 days
500k - 1MM: 6 days

 

Here are some of the reasons that I think other countries, specifically Taiwan, have dealt better with Coronavirus than we have.

1) Taiwan has extensive prior experience with pandemics, from SARS to H1N1, and bird flu variants coming over from China. They know the drill. The U.S. has theoretical knowledge of pandemics within the medical fields, but not much in the general population. Taiwan was a little more prepared this time around because the V.P. of the country is a Ph.D. epidemiologist. They almost certainly had extra stockpiles of medical PPE, for example, to ride out the first few weeks of an epidemic. The U.S. got rid of its government experts on pandemic response in 2018. I would be surprised if Taiwan did not have an emergency supply (for several weeks) of PPE for their doctors and nurses to use in just this kind of pandemic. I would be equally surprised if the U.S. had any kind of supply of PPE for pandemics. The U.S. prepares for disasters by denying that they will happen, and then acting surprised when they do happen.

2) Taiwan has less arrogance in government agencies. They accepted help from a German scientist to start using a test that turned out to be an accurate test back in the first half of January. The CDC insisted on developing their own test, and refused to use the German test, even to compare results to their own test, which initially turned out to be highly inaccurate. How embarrassing is that?

3) The Taiwanese have a greater sense of community and far less sense of individuality than Americans have. They have lived under continual threat of Chinese invasion since WWII, so their survival depends on it. They also have a much greater sense of reverence for their elders. The current joke among America's youth is that Coronavirus should be called "Boomer Remover". If you said that in Taiwan, you would be ostracized, if not beaten to a pulp by your own parents. When the government tells people to take something seriously, they do. Between a sense of entitlement, being "special", and a need to be "unique", America's youth embody the general attitude "You can't tell me what to do!" better than anyone else in the world. They need police to threaten them and spray a significant percentage of them in the eyes with pepper spray before they are convinced that this is serious. Shut down the pool halls? We'll buy a pool table and bring the neighborhood over!

4) Taiwan (along with Germany and South Korea) has a much better class of idiots than the U.S. does. Pandemics are mainly spread by children and dimwits, and people who are exposed to these people. The U.S. got the kids out of school, but could not keep a lid on spring breakers or people in general wanting to party and otherwise live their life normally. There is even a category of U.S. imbecile known for licking toilet seats and posting a photo of it on social media. To date, there have been no Taiwanese cases of toilet licking. I know someone who has a group of young women just out of college living in a rental house across the street who have had at least three parties in the last month. Their occupation? Nurses!

 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte orders police and military to kill citizens who defy coronavirus lockdown - CBS News

 

Now THAT's draconian.

 

Thanks for the analysis. I am generally familiar with cultural differences in the East v. West, but not specifics as to any particular country. Multiple Asian countries have fared much better than us, partly due to preparedness and partly due to cultural issues. (I don't include China here -- their authoritarian regime has almost certainly played a role in helping them, but I do not trust their reported numbers the way I would those from countries like Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.)

If anyone is interested in learning more about our lack of preparedness, I suggest this book by Michael Osterholm:



I read this one and a book on the Spanish Flu once this all got started so I could learn more. Osterholm's book is just stunning in its accuracy regarding our lack of preparedness and how this has all played out. He also describes additional worries we need to start addressing in the U.S. and worldwide, in particular his biggest concern which is the ongoing and accelerating emergency of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.

Osterholm also was a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast in early March if anyone wants to go listen. It is a long episode, an hour plus, so a lot of good info for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to read his book.

 

Sure makes catching the virus look better.

 

It just means more will die at home because they are too scared to go out to the hospital.

 

so if they're suspected of having the virus and are shot and killed, does that count as a corono death?

 

Another way of looking at it:
0-125K.......new case every 68 seconds
125-250K....new case every 6.2 seconds
250-500K....new case every 2.4 seconds
500k-1M.....new case every 1 second