COVID-19 Coronavirus: global situation

And I challenge you to stop acting like you know what is possible and what isn't in my life. You don't know my family life, my work schedule, my financial situation or even if I am sitting in a wheelchair. But you certainly did show your level with that challenge. I suppose I should thank you for that.
Here's another challenge. Try not taking what was clearly a lighthearted, not serious suggestion seriously.
Further I never suggested to go party like its 1999. What I said was shutting everything down is a bad idea.
I wasn't even discussing the shutdown measures with you.

Nice meme. "Prestigious doctors" tend not to be experts in economics. And most could not grow you a decent crop of potatoes if the economy goes plop. (S)he might be able to tell you what vitamins you lack as you get sick though...(s)he might even be able to write you a prescription for you to take to a closed and bankrupt pharmacy for laughs. But neither doctors nor economists are leaders. We use leaders to mediate between the two and decide what to do, not delegate authority to one or the other in a crisis.

But here. I will quote a prestigious doctor for you. Don't listen to me. Listen to him.
I was taking issue with your continued characterization of the virus as not worse than the flu, as it's not worth worrying about because it's mostly old people that are affected etc., and not understanding the growth ie that it's not so bad except in the few places where it's bad.

What should or shouldn't be shutdown wasn't what we were discussing.

In any case that quote is over a month old and very generic. Even in places where things are shutdown some economic activity continues.

More recently he's said things like
"Data from many countries clearly show that people under 50 make up a significant part of patients requiring hospitalisation...Even if you don't get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be life or death for someone else." which directly contradicts the bs you've been saying.
And
all countries must "strike a fine balance between protecting health, preventing economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights."
 
Try not taking what was clearly a lighthearted, not serious suggestion seriously.

Here is a suggestion: lEaRn SaRcAsM fOnT. Or use the color green.

Also I suggest looking up the word "clearly". You seem to be using it wrong. (<--note no sarcasm font or green color.)
 
Here is a suggestion: lEaRn SaRcAsM fOnT. Or use the color green.

Also I suggest looking up the word "clearly". You seem to be using it wrong. (<--note no sarcasm font or green color.)
Touché. I admit it may not have been obvious. But I don't go out of my way to add smileys or other clues. If people don't get it then oh well. You overreacted in any case. Now if we could only get you to err towards overreacting and take this worldwide contagion seriously.
 
If people don't get it then oh well.

And yet you expect others to be serious. That right there can solve problems and you won't even break a sweat. But no you say. Let them stew in confusion.

You overreacted in any case.

You have been picking at me for a while. Trolling in fact.

take this worldwide contagion seriously.

Case in point of your trolling. I was the first to open a thread on this forum about the corona virus. I have posted as many links to information as anyone. I have posted a bunch of established facts and figures about it. I have suggested alternative ways of dealing with it. I have put it all into perspective. Now you are using the word "seriously" wrong. Of course I take it seriously! You falsely accuse me yet again!

I don't think you can be this mad that I don't agree with your ideas on what should be done, especially since there is not one thing I can do to change what governments decide to do. And that leaves me with you intentionally making me angry, which is trolling.

You didnt even answer my direct question which I repeat: what articles are you accusing me of not disputing?
 
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You have been picking at me for a while. Trolling in fact.
Lol is all I can say to that.

Of course I take it seriously! You falsely accuse me yet again!
Debatable. (But I'm not going to debate it.)

I don't think you can be this mad that I don't agree with your ideas on what should be done, especially since there is not one thing I can do to change what governments decide to do. And that leaves me with you intentionally making me angry, which is trolling.
I'm not mad. My pulse nor blood pressure noticeably changed anytime I was writing in the thread. If you're angry based on anything I've said then you've got serious problems.
You didnt even answer my direct question which I repeat: what articles are you accusing me of not disputing?
I was referring to every single article that was explaining why this is different than the flu. Pick one. The fact that the flu so far kills a lot more people on an annual basis is completely not relevant to what we are experiencing. I'm not going to go back and quote your specific words or the specific articles. Not worth my time.
 
I was referring to every single article that was explaining why this is different than the flu. Pick one.

No. You pick one. I don't want to pick one and then have you claim that was not what you meant. I don't want to hunt down YOUR contention esp. when I remember no such article. You back up your own contention based on your own memory or its BS. You did not even hint at one possible article title, one possible publication or anything that would really help me figure out what you are talking about. Just a general "all those articles that say X" is not remotely enough.

I'm not going to go back and quote your specific words or the specific articles. Not worth my time.

Then don't make such accusations in the first place. You were just dead wrong and instead of making excuses of laziness and not knowing how debate works you should just confess to being wrong. I won't even ask you to apologize. Just admit you screwed up. Own it or drop it.

And I never asked you to quote me either. I am asking you for just one article you accuse me of ignoring and that's it. Own it or drop it.


I'm not mad.

I never accused you of being mad. I said you CAN'T be mad. Is English even your first language? What the hell are you talking about? You are all over the place here.
 
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I was taking issue with your continued characterization of the virus as not worse than the flu

I never, ever said that or characterized it that way. You simply have no grasp of nuance whatsover.

Further, every flu is different, some worse than others.

This cold virus causes severe pneumonia. As such its equivalent to a flu. I have NOT said or characterized it any differently than that.

as it's not worth worrying about because it's mostly old people that are affected etc.,


How can you possibly think my call that old and infirm people isolate themselves equates to "its not worth worrying about."?

You are very, very long on wild accusation and you need to just STOP.
 
Did you all here Toyota Japan is closing its 5 plants. Not permanently though. That's going to be some mass unemployment in them areas and lots of workers are not born in Japan. Different cultures maybe clashing . I know they like to sit outside , drink beer and play loud music.
 
All Banks, offices and necessary markets of Tehran province will be opened from tomorrow with regards to hygiene cautions and orders (after the new year holiday for offices- 5 days), but the unnecessary business places and shops will be closed until the end of the new year holiday (educational centers holiday- 15 days).

The central office of the International Doctors ( doctors free of border) in Bordeaux of French sent two aid air cargo to Iran.
From the first day that the virus found its way to Iran up to now, about 8860 patients were treated but sadly about 1812 persons died.

Some units of Iran army are building a temporary recovering place with 2000 beds ( for those patients who are treated) in the countryside of Tehran. The deadline for establishing the hospital is about 48 hours.


These days one of the problems in Iran is traveling people in the new year holiday (The first fifteen days of spring). The government and hygiene organizations have warned people not to travel to other cities in these days and stay at home, but sadly some citizens are inattentive to the warns and travel everywhere in the country.

The prime minister of England warned, in the next weeks the condition of England will become similar to Italy and it is likely the treatment system of this country is collapsed!

Emirate announced, from Wednesday this country will cancel all its inbound and outbound flights.

Based on the Time magazine report, the cost of treatment for the corona patients in America who have not health insurance is about 37000 dollar. According to the formal statistics, about 27 millions of Americans are not included health insurance, while Berni Sanders opines, the real number of Americans without health insurance is 80 million.

In the epidemic of corona virus the jailers of one of the Colombia prisons rioted. In the turmoil 27 prisoners were killed and 80 injured. They were going to flee (apparently) because of fear of corona virus!

It is not obvious what is going in Afghanistan despite the deficiency of doctors and medical facilities. The number of corona patients is not clear in this country. It is told the number is 40 infected persons. The diplomatic officials announced about the infection of some employees of the foreign embassies in Afghanistan.
 
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A mother of a student is Filipino. My boss said that she said people have already starved to death because of the lock down there. I assume these were people who were already living on the edge, but I cannot confirm any of this with any links.
 
I really hate wasting time on this but since you asked, here's a variety of quotes I grabbed scanning back just a week or two.

That's not a fair characterization. I said it causes pneumonia so its not "just a cold virus". But I do stand by my condemnation of the hysteria, yes. Its unwarranted and in my view, still very much a likely factor or even main cause of the deaths.

It remains almost only those already close to death, whether by age or illness, that are dying. Was everyone planning on them living forever? People may see them as dying prematurely. I see them as dying late, just not as late as previously projected.
You bring up the various actions that government is taking as "hysteria" without any evidence to show that it's hysteria, even blaming the deaths on it?!
You ignore the mortality and hospitalization rates of the young simply because it's primarily the old and less healthy who are dying.
As far as I know, its still old people that are chiefly affected. That being the case, old people and those with serious medical issues should isolate themselves rather than cancel the Olympics and shut down countries and destroy economies. Doing things that is going to make it difficult, impossible or expensive to ensure those same old and sick people get fresh food is going to deny them the nutrition they will need to stay healthy you know? There are other things that can kill them besides corona.

People eating out of cans for two weeks....what hell do you think that is going to play? You cannot get fresh lettuce out of a can.
You say the solution is to isolate the older and infirm despite all the medical authorities in the world pointing out that that won't work because there are many asymptomatic carriers AND because it affects younger and healthy people too. And then you say that the food supply will be severely affected even though there doesn't appear to be any evidence that this is so. I haven't heard of any food shortages in Italy, the hardest hit place.

Once again, influenza has killed more people this cold/flu season and the danger is primarily to the old and already sick, just as it is and always has been with the flu. If we canceled the Olympics because of flu there never would have been an Olympics ever.

Even assuming Covid 19 has a death rate one or two percent higher than some typical flu is not sufficient reason for these drastic measures. The economic and social gamble to save the lives of those already close to death anyway, people who would have died long ago in the conditions of just 80 years ago, is foolish at best.

Isolating the old and sick makes sense. Isolating the young and healthy does not.
Here you are again minimizing it as being no worse than the flu completely ignoring all the reasons why it's a serious pandemic (mainly the fact that it's novel and is more infectious than the flu and there seems to be more light symptoms/asymptomatic carriers).

I guess I should say this again because its happening just like I said: This virus cannot be stopped. We have a virus for which 80 percent of people who even get it will show no or very mild symptoms, and it cannot be stopped. Therefore, I see only detriment and danger in shutting down economies.
You're missing the point which is, basically, the whole flattening of the curve thing. The reason for the unprecedented actions taken to shut down "non-essential" business is that governments are trying to prevent their health systems from getting overwhelmed. From an economic perspective, would it be better not to shut down economies at all? It's difficult to say. Many people seem to believe that not taking these actions would result in worse economic impacts. From a health and human safety perspective the answer should be clear by now.
I will also say again that its mostly old people who are in danger. So the simple answer is for old people to isolate themselves as the virus runs its course, which it will, like it or not. Unplugging economies will have health effects. Them failing to restart when plugged back in will have even more. If the gas stops, the food stops. If the food stops, health will suffer. If the money stops, the utilities stop. If the utilities stop, health will suffer.
Again you're parroting the fallacy about old people. Yes it's "mostly" old people but so what? There are many young people affected too. Young people are getting deathly ill too. And if ICU beds and respirators are in short supply then many young people will die too. There's a good chance this priest would have survived had he used a ventilator.
And then you talk about stoppages of food, gas and utilities. No country is shutting down essential industries and services and they are not likely to do so. There is no logical cause and effect here.

Okay. But is the flu different?
Another instance where you minimize it as compared to the flu. This respiratory therapist feels otherwise.

I cannot confirm this but it was mentioned on another site that doctors are looking into the possibility that ibuprofen use is a reason why so many died in Italy. Not saying its a fact, its just what I heard. I still don't have a clear reason for all the deaths in Italy except the "they hug and kiss a lot" theory from an article I posted earlier. It still just doesn't look right and same with South Korea. If the virus itself was so deadly we would see this repeated in many other places by now would we not?
Here you're again ignoring what's happening. Or not understanding the math. Or something. I don't know your logic.
Again, the whole point of all these government actions is to avoid following Italy's path. As far is it getting repeated, that seems to be happening, as expected. Iran was already slammed when you wrote this. Take a look at the news from Madrid today.


COVID-19: Approximately 9,115 deaths reported worldwide; 150 deaths in the U.S., as of Mar. 19, 2020.*


Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year."
Again minimizing Covid-19 because the flu kills more people. I'm paraphrasing but you are essentially saying that it's no worse than the flu. It's still beside the point.
The annual flu doesn't overwhelm our health systems.

The only thing that is going stop, or truly slow it down, is going to be spring. Basically there is no such thing as a proper quarantine for this and the experience of other countries is showing that well.
Here you are repeating the wishful thinking that warmer weather will have a significant effect even though the virus is doing just fine in warm countries such as Australia and South Africa. Not to mention California and Florida. And you're ignoring the countries that seem to be doing well namely Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. And even mainland China.

Once again 80 percent of infected people will suffer only mild symptoms or even none. The overwhelming majority of deaths are the elderly and those with previous conditions. Calm down. The only people that need to isolate themselves are the elderly and those already weak and ill. What is idiocy is locking down the world.
Here is the basic crux of your whole "argument" if you can call it that. Most people won't get sick. Most of the sick and dying are elderly. Somehow isolating only those people will solve the problem even though that's not even possible. (Old/infirm people still need to shop for food or interact with caregivers.) And that these lockdowns are idiocy. So you're alternative is to do nothing beyond isolating old/infirm people and assume it won't be that bad when it's all said and done?

Its the old and infirm that need to shut their lives down and isolate...not the rest of us.
Do you actually have an expert to quote who is saying this??

As far as selecting article you've been ignoring, I'll choose this video even though it's a week old now. This kind of analysis is clearly why we see all this "hysteria" and government lockdowns. Do you agree with his basic analysis vis a vis the flu and everything else? If so, is your proposed solution still isolating the old/sick and business as usual on main street?
 
Theoretically this thread is about Covid-19 news around the world although probably less than half the posts are about that.

In trying to get back to topic, here's news from NY. To paraphrase, they are saying they are in some deep doo doo.

India is putting the entire population on lockdown.

Meanwhile, Japan enjoys hanami seemingly believing the worst is over.

Latest from nytimes The Coronavirus Outbreak
It appears Japan has things under control. Also Denmark. But do they? If so other countries should try to replicate their tactics.
Japan's counts include the cruise ship numbers. It would be nice to be able to get some numbers for hospitalizations.
Then the severity would be much more apparent. Even deaths aren't necessarily accurate if they are not testing for the cause of lethal pneumonia.
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In return to the requisition of the head of the judiciary of Iran, Mr. Reissy ; the leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei issued a permission that about 80,000 prisoners are furloughed (go out from prisons temporary) because of the pandemic corona disease.


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Based on the recognition of the judiciary head and prisons managers, some of the prisoners ( with good morality and behaviors) will be released from the jails forever.

In addition to the usual prisoners, about %50 of the prisoners with security guilt (against the Islamic republic of Iran) are furloughed, as well.

This permission and furlough (or forgiveness for freedom) is not included the little number of the major criminals or those prisoners who were forgiven one time before and went back to the jails again because of a guilt.
 
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m4.webp





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Maybe, in these days that Corona virus has darken the world with its deadly shadow we pay attention to God more and do pray. Our life, health and death is in the hand of God. He can command the virus to ignore us.
 
without any evidence to show that it's hysteria

What evidence is standard for a hysteria? Of course I have shown evidence for hysteria as I see hysteria. Take any hysteria and there will be people who will say it wasn't and there will be no hard evidence for it. Even the Salem witch trials are not hysteria in some people's minds as they actually believe in witches.


Do you actually have an expert to quote who is saying this??

I do not need an "expert" to validate my opinion. I have sourced plenty of facts to arrive at my opinion. Don't act like I don't provide links and sources. I do. I have a million times.

But the basic idea is simply common sense.


"Schaffner and Osterholm said data from China shows that elderly people and those with underlying health issues are most at risk of becoming seriously ill and of dying from the novel coronavirus. Younger and healthier people often get only mild to moderate symptoms, or sometimes no symptoms at all. "



You ignore the mortality and hospitalization rates of the young


I am so sick of this and so sick of you. I have not ignored anything. You did not even provide numbers on that! But I am going to ignore you now. I simply asked you for articles you accused me of ignoring and instead you just make a fresh list of obviously false and patently absurd accusations.

I have been slammed by other moderators for things like using expletives and being "disrespectful". But none of that amounts to a hill of beans compared to what you are doing now which is complete rude, disrespectful, unproductive, trolling BS. How can people be so blind to what you are doing? You have zero concept of how to have a discussion. You have zero business being a moderator. Seriously.

You and everyone that liked your last post are simply being (expletives) and you all know it. (expletive) all of you.
 
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My school is renting their space in a building with other businesses. There is an employee entrance. The guards are now measuring our temperature as we enter. Yesterday, they measured my temp as 35.7 degrees and my boss even lower.

Also the management are trying to get all employees to download and install an app that will give all employee locations "in the event of an emergency". Right. That's going to allow whoever has access to track everyone and know their daily schedules, particularly of someone they decide to stalk. I pointed out that I have never and will never turn my GPS system on, therefore, the app will not work on my phone. My boss and female office staff realized they could be tracked any day all day. So we all refused.

Just madness all around.
 

Of course, viruses do not disappear between seasons. They have to survive to be a nuisance the next season. But it is known that in places with winter, that cold and flu are greatly slowed by the middle of spring.

Its different for tropical places....where they (cough) do not really have "spring".

However where people are crowded and not getting sunlight (hospitals, cruise ships and old folk's homes) the positive effect of spring is going to be minimized.

Australia for example has had 8 deaths so far, 3 were at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge, an old folk's home, 2 were from cruise ships, and 1 got the virus in a hospital being close to a known infected person. All 8 were over 70.

I will also point out that in hot "first world" countries people tend to stay indoors with the air conditioning blasting.




"Seasonal patterns

The CDC monitor flu activity closely. Influenza can occur at any time of year, but most cases follow a relatively predictable seasonal pattern.

The first signs of influenza activity usually start around October, according to the CDC, and often peak at the height of winter. But some years, flu outbreaks can stick around and last until May.

The peak month for flu activity in the seasons spanning 1982–1983 to 2015–2016 was February, followed by December, March, and January.

Other temperate locations across the globe see similar patterns, with cold temperatures and low humidity cited as the prime factors, a 2013 analysis showed. The same can't be said for tropical areas, however.

There, you might see outbreaks during rainy, humid months, or relatively consistent levels of flu cases all year round.

If this seems counterintuitive to you, you are not alone. While influenza data do support such a link, scientists don't fully understand how viruses are able to exert their maximum damage at both low and high temperature and humidity extremes.

There are several theories, however, ranging from the cold affecting how viruses behave and how well our immune system copes with infections, to more time spent in crowded places and less exposure to sunlight."

 
We are not the only ones with vastly different opinions on what should be done about this. Be secure in that knowledge at least.

Ioannidis told CBC News he worries about the consequences of those measures.

"Put a stall to the entire economy. Tell people to stay at their homes, get depressed, commit suicide, domestic violence. Who knows? Child abuse, children losing their education, companies crashing … unemployment, the stock market already dropping 20 per cent.

 
That is quite old. I wonder what he says now. I couldn't find a very recent article from him but this one is a lot newer:

He argues against quarantines saying We should instead be targeting significant resources toward the protection of those at highest risk (the elderly, those with underlying chronic diseases and those with immune-compromising conditions) and maintaining a healthy, robust, responsive health-care system that can handle a potential surge. The economic and social costs of pursuing quarantine are staggering and actually counter-productive.

Which sounds great but maintaining a healthy, responsive health care system that can handle a surge is something that would need to be put into place ahead of time. I don't know about Canada but we certainly don't have one here in the U.S. He also doesn't say how to go about protecting those at high risk. His main argument seems to be that the economic and societal consequences are too high which is odd coming from a doctor. He also glosses over the fact that everybody is at risk.
 
Theoretically this thread is about Covid-19 news around the world although probably less than half the posts are about that.

In trying to get back to topic, here's news from NY. To paraphrase, they are saying they are in some deep doo doo.

India is putting the entire population on lockdown.

Meanwhile, Japan enjoys hanami seemingly believing the worst is over.

Latest from nytimes The Coronavirus Outbreak
It appears Japan has things under control. Also Denmark. But do they? If so other countries should try to replicate their tactics.
Japan's counts include the cruise ship numbers. It would be nice to be able to get some numbers for hospitalizations.
Then the severity would be much more apparent. Even deaths aren't necessarily accurate if they are not testing for the cause of lethal pneumonia.
View attachment 31264

I'm not so sure Japan really has it under control. I haven't heard of anyone getting tested unless they went in by ambulance.
 
My school is renting their space in a building with other businesses. There is an employee entrance. The guards are now measuring our temperature as we enter. Yesterday, they measured my temp as 35.7 degrees and my boss even lower.

Also the management are trying to get all employees to download and install an app that will give all employee locations "in the event of an emergency". Right. That's going to allow whoever has access to track everyone and know their daily schedules, particularly of someone they decide to stalk. I pointed out that I have never and will never turn my GPS system on, therefore, the app will not work on my phone. My boss and female office staff realized they could be tracked any day all day. So we all refused.

Just madness all around.


was at the doc yesterday, temp was 36.5 said it was fine
 
I'm not so sure Japan really has it under control.

I suppose it all depends on what you mean by "under control". Some people on Japan Today said that the government could be hiding cause of death...a bit far fetched but lets roll with it. Other people have pointed out that they could, but they could not hide a pile of bodies. So yeah, I think if people were dying at rates like in cities in Italy we would know.

But again, what does "under control" really mean? I would never say control of something like this means 100 percent stopped. But if new infections are at a trickle and/or the usual death rate is not seeing an obvious uptick then I would say its "under control".

That said I want to be absolutely clear that I don't believe the government has anything under control. I think without the stricter government measures there would be little to no change in numbers......that brings us to things like whether the Diamond Princess should have been quarantined or quarantine should have been done on shore by hospitals. I go with the latter and without government intervention its what hospitals would have done.
 
... Some people on Japan Today said ...a bit far fetched but lets roll with it. Other people have pointed out that ...

That's the perfect example of "I read it on the internet, so..."

Or are you quoting trump--"some people say (tell me)..." is one of his favorite lines when introducing total BS.

Yeah, my wife's sister's cousin has a friend who went to school with someone who married someone who later became a nurse who says that...
 
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