NEW AD: @OliviaTroye was @VP's lead staffer on COVID-19. She put her heart & soul into the job.
After a while she couldn't look herself in the mirror because no matter what she did, the President would undermine it and make Americans less safe.
Now she's a GOP voter for Biden. pic.twitter.com/ZIJlRUzArG
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@RVAT2020) September 17, 2020
— Gimme Back My Obama ??? (@GimmeObama) September 15, 2020
"This face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine"
The contrasting messages around Covid-19 by Centers for Disease Control director Robert Redfield and US President Donald Trumphttps://t.co/2O4jgdO4NI pic.twitter.com/fPULoY8sSa
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 17, 2020
The USPS had a plan to send 5 reusable facemarks to every household in early April. Even had a press release ready.
The White House blocked the plan.
“There was concern…that households receiving masks might create concern or panic." https://t.co/pYABjdzTCM pic.twitter.com/v4BLKRMPOc
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) September 17, 2020
HHS & the Office of Budget & Management siphoned $700M from CDC's budget for Operation Warp Speed, Bloomberg reports. $300M of that was for HHS's Don't Worry, Be Happy ad campaign about the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/i6xc7kCU76
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) September 17, 2020
Breaking News: C.D.C. scientists didn’t write the virus testing guidance on its website last month, and it was published against their objections, officials said. https://t.co/I3Y5TOPfSI
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 17, 2020
America's reputation among some of its allies falls to lowest point in nearly two decades, according to global survey https://t.co/PCVodtnWL8
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 15, 2020
no, people do not understand this, because the president does not understand this and intentionally muddies the water about it, and there's an entire ecosystem of conspiracy theorists and conservative media (but i repeat myself) who intentionally muddy it further. https://t.co/hkr1uQfEa6
— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) September 17, 2020
======
Confirmed cases of the coronavirus have topped 30 million worldwide, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. https://t.co/RS3Hc4nj61
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 18, 2020
Infections are still rising in 73 countries.
See where infections are trending ⬆️ or ⬇️ relative to the size of the outbreak in each country https://t.co/LuLhs5tVQf pic.twitter.com/pIS7kW8roz
— Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) September 18, 2020
Follow the latest data, and see how coronavirus continues to spread in countries around the world: https://t.co/XZbxHrNZTx
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 18, 2020
Latest data from the World Health Organization shows more than five million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 228,000 fatalities across Europe since the pandemic began
Cases in several countries have risen sharply in recent weekshttps://t.co/CaIt5USI8S pic.twitter.com/KlnirNIe96
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 18, 2020
Britain’s health minister said that the coronavirus was accelerating across the country, with hospital admissions doubling every eight days, but refused to say whether or not another national lockdown would be imposed next month https://t.co/3AgDNPkOab
— Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) September 18, 2020
The number of fans allowed to attend each day of the French Open has been cut because of surging coronavirus figures in the country.
? https://t.co/1e6uGntcTm pic.twitter.com/W54xFtZDsV
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) September 17, 2020
Mainland China reports 32 new COVID-19 cases, highest since August 10 https://t.co/eVDyUJBDsx pic.twitter.com/S4cH5RgpPC
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 18, 2020
India’s coronavirus cases have jumped by more than 96,000 cases, showing little sign of leveling. The new figures sent India's total past 5.21 million people infected. The health ministry says 1,174 more people have died. https://t.co/u64c5nUGEA
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 18, 2020
Asia Today: India counted another record daily increase of coronavirus infections after Modi’s government faced scathing opposition criticism in Parliament for its handling of the pandemic and a contracting economy that has left millions jobless. https://t.co/6lVEjBQO2q
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 17, 2020
Seoul city seeks $4 million in damages from church over new COVID-19 outbreak https://t.co/OfiXted55C pic.twitter.com/DTfO0mXVvv
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 18, 2020
Covid-19 Singapore: A ‘pandemic of inequality’ exposed https://t.co/wUqZOIfajH
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 17, 2020
China, Japan, South Korea agree to make 'all policy efforts' to fight pandemic https://t.co/Drm5npbbHf pic.twitter.com/DjLYbSuND8
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 18, 2020
Australia looks set to ease border limits and allow more citizens home https://t.co/TAYATYLhbi pic.twitter.com/CZb6Dckz41
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 18, 2020
Covid-19 pushes New Zealand into worst recession in years https://t.co/jOPjA2TbBh
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 17, 2020
Mexico reports 3,182 new coronavirus cases, 201 new deaths https://t.co/5OmLD6bcAp pic.twitter.com/seB6qOyXpR
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 18, 2020
======
Health-care workers make up 1 in 7 #COVID19 cases recorded globally. “Around 14% of COVID cases reported to WHO are among health workers, & in some countries it’s as much as 35 percent,” WHO director general Dr. Tedros said at a Geneva news conference https://t.co/AGxVlXBUFb pic.twitter.com/KPNQeLHxEc
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) September 18, 2020
Pandemic: Nurses are dying by the thousands globally. Internat'l Council of Nurses compiled the data & says the problem is 'catastrophic.' Kious Kelly, an RN Mt Sinai West in NYC died in March. Nurses at his hospital wore trashbags because there was no PPE https://t.co/5uWtz7ifEx pic.twitter.com/oMXpLx0Nq7
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) September 17, 2020
Vaccine companies reveal their study designs, even as Trump sows confusion https://t.co/v94rhKxInD Trump is lying about vaccines. #ONEV1
— Craig L. Ph.D. (@CL2Empower) September 18, 2020
We can learn a lot about superspreader events from this new @NatureMedicine paper https://t.co/ouO7CyGXQE by @DillonCAdam @bencowling88 @gmleunghku @hkumed
The Pareto 80/20 rule applied: 19% of infections were responsible for 80% of transmissions; 69% of cases did not transmit— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) September 17, 2020
Scans for strokes can inadvertently reveal COVID19 infection. The viral disease causes clots that can cause strokes. New research. https://t.co/LpCbhx8MwT via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) September 18, 2020
======
People are yelling about schools not happening and tha bars that are open. Neither should be. It's just that there are more economic incentives to open one of them even when it still is kinda unsafe.
— staying home stan account (@Convolutedname) September 17, 2020
As Texas reopened, the share of positive COVID19 cases was higher than the state reported, new state calculations show https://t.co/Nf5pwE0zyF via @TexasTribune
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) September 17, 2020
Idaho pastor who repudiated using a mask ends up in ICU with COVID-19. https://t.co/T5lMldhBmX
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) September 18, 2020
Poll workers signed up to work the November election in a county near St. Louis were urged in an email to “act surprised” if voters ask why they aren’t wearing masks given the coronavirus threat. https://t.co/pP7zInr5BN
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 17, 2020
Tony Jay
OT – So, what’s going on in the Autonomous Capitalist Oblast of Lesser Brexitania these days? Is it all puppies and rainbows and hot, magic Nannies since installing Clown Prince Flobalob atop a majority Government?
Well of course it is, silly. It’s all fine and dandy. The British Government’s not at all borderline-criminal policy of ending the Spring Lockdown (which it was only forced into anyway by the public’s unanimous response to the spread of Covid) without establishing a proper Test and Trace system has achieved exactly what everyone sentient outside of the Tory Party and its enablers said it would – cases are shooting up and we’re a few weeks of increasingly desperate policy flip-flops away from going into a full blown 2nd Wave. Fantastic! World-Beating!
It turns out that ostentatiously refusing to chastise over-powerful ‘advisors’ (for which read Russian-operated handlers of compromised Prime Ministers) when they break Lockdown in order to attend birthday parties on the family estate, dismantling Lockdown restrictions just as the summer beach-season arrives, insisting it’s entirely safe for millions of children to return to school in order to free up their layabout parents to return to workplaces on packed public transport, shovelling tens of millions of pounds into subsidising family trips to restaurants, pubs and pub-restaurants, and just generally giving the clear impression that the country had “Beat the Virus” and was now in “Save the Economy” mode were all very, very stupid things to do without first doing the work of creating a nationwide system for Testing and Tracing that would use Britain’s already existent NHS infrastructure in co-operation with local government health authorities to keep the Virus at bay and spare the country another bout of quarantine.
Whocuddaknown? Everybody? Nooooo, we mean important people. They couldn’t have known. Therefore they can’t be held responsible. Three cheers for inbreeding and private education.
But it’s alright. The last six months have seen eye-watering sums of public money funnelled directly into the bulging pockets of Tory party donors for providing ‘services’ of one sort or another, so that’s the important part squared away. There’s a little bit of upset around the whole “We put the Test and Trace system into the hands of Serco and Deloitte and installed a good friend of the PM with a proven track record of astounding incompetence as the person overseeing it all” thing, but no fear, that’s being dealt with. Simply make sure that the British Media only ever refers to it quite wrongly as the NHS Test and Trace system and insist that there was no way anyone could possibly have expected demand for tests to skyrocket once the kiddies were back in the hygienic bubble-zones we call schools and their parents were jammed together in workplaces/pubs and shops all over the country. Job done. Move on.
Government by three-word slogan and race-baiting nationalism is – such – a treat. So much better than life would have been under those smelly hippy Lefties with their “proper funding for the NHS”, “tax increases on the super-rich” and general policy of “not being greedy, incompetent bastards who want you all to fuck off and die”. What a lucky escape.
Oh, and the Government have been entirely clear. Everything is fine, what’s not currently fine will be fine in a few weeks, and they are in no way planning a 2nd Lockdown to deal with what may not be currently defined as fine. They – are – planning something with the slogan “Break The Circuit” with all of the characteristics of another Lockdown, but to be entirely clear again, that’s definitely NOT another Lockdown…. because that’s not what they’ll call it.
Clear? Great. I’m off to bulk buy toilet roll, pasta, flour, biscuits and more toilet roll. It’s Christmas in 99 days, and then we get a No Deal Brexit on top of everything else, which is an entirely similar bag of fetid dog-shite that I can’t be bothered with discussing right now. Whoop-de-fucking-do.
Roll on November, eh? At least you guys will get a chance to start fixing things even as we spiral down the plughole.
NotMax
Indications are inarguable that total reported deaths worldwide will reach 1 million before the end of this month.
satby
Well, on topic, my sister in the nursing home seems to have tested positive on Monday for covid and is supposed to be in quarantine. It was a blood test for antigens she told me, so I suspect it’s inaccurate, but she can’t get anyone to schedule a follow-up test to confirm whether or not she has / had covid. She’s bi-polar as one result of her MS, so she’s already broken quarantine once because she’s not feeling ill and doesn’t quite understand what she was told. I’ll be making calls today, but it’s weird to me, if true, that the nursing home wouldn’t be anxious to retest and confirm whether or not she has it. She says it’s because she’s on an independent living floor, which makes no sense. I’m not able to do much because of HIPPA laws, but I can call the family members who are designated as health care guardians.
satby
@Tony Jay: You make it seem like Harry and Meghan running away was the smartest choice, though I would have stayed in Canada if I had been them, because here is no treat either.
eclare
@Tony Jay: Your rants are epic, in a very good way.
eclare
@satby: Oh that has to be nerve wracking!
eclare
@satby: I agree, especially since their new house was evacuated just a couple of years ago due to mudslides.
OzarkHillbilly
Ah yes, St Charles county… They have long been in denial about the covid. #3 in the state for total cases.
It’s actually more like 2 separate counties in one. Most of it is rural but the I-70 and HWY 94 corridors are a suburb of STL, especially along the eastern stretch. Pretty sure that email was written with the rural, and mostly older, poll workers in mind.
Gvg
Several Biden Harris signs in my neighborhood but also I saw one Obama Biden one. I think it may mean the new ones have been slow in coming. Unfortunately, there are also a few Trump signs too, the fools. Still, basically encouraging.
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 0 new domestic asymptomatic case, 32 new imported confirmed cases and 20 imported asymptomatic cases and 1 imported suspect case:
At Ruili in Yunnan Province authorities have collected samples from 284,958 individuals (as of 3 PM on 9/18 local time), and have received results from 225,819 individuals (all negative).
Today, Hong Kong reported 3 new cases, 2 from local transmission, both have sources of transmission identified. Hong Kong’s 3rd wave is subsiding.
Tony Jay
@satby:
While I have very, very little time for the spawn of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and all their works, there’s no way of looking at the treatment of Prince Red Balls and his Exotic Concubine without concluding that the British Media has a huge, systematic, institutional and entirely profit-based obsession with ethnicity and Dusky Ferriners. The way they were treated was disgusting and completely in tune with the ‘moral tone’ of Brexit Britain, so yeah, they’re well out of it.
Tony Jay
@eclare:
Call that a rant? That was a throat-cleaning. I may do an actual rant one of these days, but they just make it soooo hard to cover all of their obscenities without missing out Today’s Outrage and feeling stale.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily CoviD-19 numbers. 95 new cases. The cumulative reported total is 10,147 cases.
91 cases are from local infection. 68 Malaysians. 67 in Sabah, comprising three cases from the Pulau cluster, three cases from the Selamat cluster, two people with severe acute respiratory infection, two people with symptoms, a close contact of another case, and 56 cases from the Benteng Lahad Datu police lockup cluster; one in Negeri Sembilan, from the MV Bunga shipboard cluster. 23 non-Malaysians, comprising 20 cases from the Benteng Lahad Datu police lockup cluster. one case from the Pulau cluster, one woman in Semporna whose case was confirmed post-mortem, and one case with severe acute respiratory infection.
Four imported cases, all non-Malaysians, arriving from Indonesia (three) and China.
14 more patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 9,264 patients recovered. 754 active and contagious cases are currently being isolated/treated in hospital; 11 are in ICU, two of them on respirators.
The Health Ministry reported new CoviD-19 death, ending the run of no deaths since 1st September. The deceased was a 50-year-old Filipina woman in Semporna, Sabah. The total is now 129 deaths — 1.27% of the cumulative reported total, 1.37% of resolved cases.
eclare
@Tony Jay: I noticed you did not include anything about Northern Ireland…
satby
@eclare: Well, figuring out what’s happening based on her perceptions is never easy, but I’m sure it can get sorted. But I’m not empowered to speak (officially) on her behalf. She’s been on lockdown other than doctor’s appointments since March, and her 64th birthday is next week. She was hoping I could take her to lunch (unlikely, even before her test result). But I was going to try to bring her a little cake and a present. It’s kind of desolate for all the people isolated from their families in homes now.
Steeplejack
Hell, most people still can’t get a test!
Amir Khalid
According to The Guardian, music legend and silly old man Van Morrison is an anti-masker.
R-Jud
Here in Birmingham we are technically barred from mixing households. Our kids are back at school and we can all still go to pubs and restaurants, so I only see that restriction helping at the margins if at all. The University of Birmingham, where I’m a grad student, also has yet to send us schedules for this term as they try to sort out which classes can meet in person under which circumstances. (Classes start 9/28, in theory.)
There’s a COVID testing centre at UoB, but half-a-dozen people I know who’ve tried to get tested in the past few weeks say it doesn’t come up as an option on the government website, in spite of them living within walking distance. Three of these friends are teachers, so should be considered “essential staff” who ought to be prioritised.
My daughter’s school is good at distancing inside the building (it’s a special school for ASD kids, so the classes are naturally very small and don’t mix much), but the crush at the gates morning and afternoon pretty much undoes that. I wear my mask, but only about 30% of the other parents and kids do. I’m also seeing lots of people maskless in shops again in spite of there being national laws in place.
I’ve filled my pantry and my cabinets. I expect another lockdown before Halloween. Just glad I was able to move from an apartment to a house over the summer. We’ll be able to hang out in the garden when it isn’t raining.
Steeplejack
In the Idaho pastor story:
Charlie Kirk speaking in person at a superspreader church? You know what I’m thinking. ?
raven
@Amir Khalid: I always heard he was an asshole.
Tony Jay
@eclare:
Oh, that little thing? One of the main reasons Brexit was such a ridiculous disaster in the making was the question of the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The UK signed an international treaty stating clearly that there would be no hard border there, no ifs, no buts… but… leaving the EU raised the question of where the border between the UK and the EU would be (if it couldn’t be on the island of Ireland) should the UK Government and the EU fail to reach a Trade Agreement that included the UK meeting all of the EU’s standards and regulations for goods and services.
That was ‘decided’ when Flobalob capitulated back in 2019 and agreed that there would be a border down the Irish Sea, leaving Northern Ireland within the EU Single Market while the rest of the UK left it. He claimed his deal was ‘oven ready’ and won the General Election on the slogan “Get Brexit Done”, with the deal he’d signed as the proof the matter was settled.
But now, with the hard deadline for a Trade Deal rapidly approaching and the Government’s complete failure to produce any ideas other than “Look, Eurotrash, just give us all of the benefits with none of the responsibilities, okay?” preventing any kind of deal being agreed, the lying little shit we call our Prime Minister has decided that the deal he promoted and signed was only ever supposed to be a trick played on the British electorate and he now wants the EU to capitulate and allow the UK to become a smuggler’s paradise by refusing to meet EU standards while still trading with the EU without border checks. It’s not going to happen, but in the meantime he and his Russian trained handler have put forward an Enabling Act (The Internal Market Bill) which basically says that the UK can break international law by simply passing a domestic law which contradicts it, which it of course can’t, but it can distract the Tory Base from the oncoming 2nd Covid Wave by waving the bloody shirt of Europhobia.
What could be confusing about all that? /s
Kay
@R-Jud:
Our high school kids have been really good with masks at school. I thought they might be – they have quite a few restrictions on what they can and cannot wear and they seemed to approach it like that.
It’s still hard though- my high schooler missed 4 of 5 days this week because he had a persistent cough and that’s one of the symptoms we’re supposed to keep them home for, so I kept him home. He got tested and he’s negative. It took three days to get results. He’s a mess. He hated last spring with no school. He has more than enough credits to graduate early – in December- and he wanted to apply but I wanted him to do a whole senior year and so now he’s pissed off at me. It’s been hard for them. A lot of them are struggling with it. They got rid of everything they enjoy about school in an effort to limit contact and reduce risk so it’s pretty grim for them.
Amir Khalid
@Tony Jay:
Is the Premier League going ahead next month with letting some spectators into stadiums? In Britain’s current pandemic situation, that seems inadvisable
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: How many detainees are at the Benteng Lahad Datu facility, and what percentage have been infected already? Do the authorities know whether the cluster is seeded by one of the detainees, or by one of the guards/staff?
Any idea where did the couple of cases imported from China to Malaysia in the last few days came from? Where they transiting through China (Guangzhou, for example, had been working to establish itself as alternative to Singapore and Hong Kong pre-COVID, no idea if Chinese airports are accepting transit passengers now)? Did they come off cargo ships (at least 1 case exported from China to South Korea a few weeks ago was a sailor on a cargo ship)? Are the cases asymptomatic? Is Malaysia counting Mainland China and Hong Kong separately?
Chinese authorities do not routine publicize their responses to such exported cases, though information released in associate with a couple of such cases indicate that thorough contact tracing, testing and quarantine are carried out. However, while Chinese authorities have immediately implemented targeted lock downs and mass screening as soon as community transmission is detected, they have not done so over any of the exported cases. Of course, if any of the domestic close contacts of the exported cases test positive, that might trigger these responses.
Robert Sneddon
@Amir Khalid: There were a few games that had small numbers of spectators allowed, a few hundred at most as a trial to see if it could be made to work but they were arranged and the tickets distributed before the current uptick in cases in the UK. My local rugby stadium held just such a match, a long-postponed cup game between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
As far as I know there will be no more such low-attendance matches permitted for the moment at least.
The Oracle of Solace
Hmm. I feel like poll workers acting surprised when asked about their lack of masks is like reporters acting surprised when Trump lies to them—at least inasmuch as it’s what their employers appear to be asking of them.
Amir Khalid
@YY_Sima Qian:
The Ministry of Health’s information generally doesn’t go beyond what I report, alas. It doesn’t say where in China those imported cases originated,
There has been no statement from the Royal Malaysian Police saying who the index case was, nor has it given a count of Malaysian inmates, non-Malaysian inmates, and police personnel involved. For what it’s worth, the district police HQ lockup isn’t that big, and in fact many of the infected detainees were detained at Tawau Prison, in another town near Lahad Datu. Per the Health Ministry, the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster has reported 550 cases as of today, out of 7,814 people screened.
I don’t know, I don’t think I’ve seen any imported cases listed as arriving from HK.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — today’s overnight report lists 203 new confirmed cases with a worrying rise in positive tests to 4.4%. A few weeks ago this key number was less than 1%. One new death of someone confirmed to have COVID-19 has been reported. Hospitalisation numbers are also up a little.
The Glasgow area outbreak which triggered a partial area lockdown may be subsiding with only 69 cases reported, well down on the 150 cases a day of earlier weeks.
Tony Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Just a bit. It strikes me as a piece with the whole delusional “We’ve Won – Get Over It” attitude promoted by this Government about everything. Yes, it would be nice to have crowds back and a lot of clubs need the money. No, that’s not more important than stopping the spread of a pandemic virus.
Stick with no crowds. Play the season. Crown Liverpool with our 20th title ASAP, regaining Old Big Ears an optional extra, job done.
YY_Sima Qian
A number of documentaries pertaining to the fight against COVID-19 in China have been released. From China Global Television Network:
The Frontline: China’s fight against COVID-19 | Documentary Series 1 of 2
The Frontline: China’s fight against COVID-19 | Documentary series 2 of 2
CGTN is Chinese state media, so naturally it is curated material for propaganda purposes (in this case presenting the China, people, bureaucracy and regime in a positive light). However, it is still a pretty good summary of events, minus the two weeks in mid-Jan. when the Wuhan and Hubei authorities delayed, concealed and obfuscated. The documentary does not shy away from sensitive subjects such as the massive overburdening of Wuhan’s public health system in the early days (lack beds, PPE shortage, infected medical staff).
From the renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, a documentary of Wuhan under lock down:
Coronation (Trailer)
Coronation (Pay per View on Alamo)
A nuanced review by the Guardian
Ai himself was stuck in Europe during the Pandemic, but he managed to have two dozens of his collaborator gain extraordinary access to a number of sensitive areas (and not all of them surreptitiously), such as the Huoshenshan temporary hospital for critical cases, and the Wuchang Funeral Home when the relatives of the those deceased during the lock down were finally able to collect the ashes of their loved ones. His documentary takes a raw look at the individual level, and how individuals cope with COVID-19 and the government response. Some of the subject touched upon would not be touched by Chinese state media, but none of it is all that surprising to anyone who has spent significantly time in China (outside of the expat bubble). Ai’s style tends toward the provocative (I admit that I don’t really get his art), and he has been a nuisance to the CCP regime for years. In this instance, however, he gives audience the space to draw their own conclusions, including possibly differing from his. I do question the ethics of showing patients’ faces in the film.
From Chinese American director Wu Hao, Esquire’s Chen Weixi, as well as another anonymous collaborator in China, a cinema-vérité look at the medical front lines during the Wuhan lock down:
76 Days (scheduled online showings at Toronto International Film Festival site)
Review by IndieWire
Another review by the Guardian
I have not seen the movie, yet myself, as the showing times are in the middle of the night in China.
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid:
In that case, the imported cases could have come from Hong Kong, where there is still an active (though subsiding) outbreak.
R-Jud
@Kay:
My cousin in TX has a son who “graduated” from high school in the spring. He also had enough credits to leave a semester early but wanted to do the prom and all that. He has really been a champ about managing his sadness about being robbed of his senior year–and about basically doing his freshman year at UT Dallas online, but also on-campus, kinda?
Over here, The Child LOVED not being at school, so this is quite the adjustment for her after six months “off”. She’s coping, though. She’s my mask cop, always checking: “Mom, did you remember your mask? Mom, did you put it in the wash? It’s very important for your health.” :-)
Betty
@Tony Jay: So very depressing to see what people have brought on themselves by believing in Boris and his buddies. Hard to see a positive way forward.
Another Scott
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/09/fact-of-the-day-china-has-conquered-covid-19/
China showed the way, but too many said that it’s impossible to follow their lead because “we’re special and they’re not”.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Sloane Ranger
Yesterday’s coronavirus report from the rest of the UK.
There were 3395 new cases throughout the UK, a bit down from Wednesday when we had almost 4000 but in line with the numbers over the last few weeks. 2788 of these new cases were in England, 149 in Northern Ireland, 168 in Wales and 290 in Scotland, as per Robert Sneddon previous report. The R rate in England is between 1.1 and 1.4, meaning that cases are growing by 2% to 7%.
There were 21 new deaths, 18 in England and 3 in Wales.
236,219 tests to see if someone has the virus were processed yesterday out of a capacity of 242,911. Testing remains a problem nationwide with people having to travel long distances to get one and delays in receiving the results. The government have been talking up a new processing centre due to open in a few weeks but there are doubts this will make more than a marginal difference.
In Healthcare news, there were 988 people in hospital on Tuesday, 15th, 866 in England, 21 in Northern Ireland, 48 in Scotland and 53 in Wales. 124 were on ventilators as of Wednesday, 16th, 107 in England, 2 in Northern Ireland, 6 in Scotland and 9 in Wales.
While I like a good Tony Jay rant as much as anyone, I have to point out that the UK is not unique in experiencing a surge, many other European nations including France and Spain are actually seeing even greater increases in numbers. Yes, BoJo and mates have cocked things up a lot but you open up more, as all nations in Europe have, people mix more and, Bob’s your Uncle, more cases.
Lancashire is the latest county to be hit with tighter restrictions and, as Tony Jay, posted some Ministers are hinting at tighter restrictions nationwide if people don’t pull their socks up and comply with the restrictions we already have. This is unpopular in the South West (Devon and Cornwall), which only has a rate of 286.5 cases per 100,000 of population, by far the lowest in England (for comparison the North West has a rate of 876). People there are already flooding phone in programmes and social media asking why they should have to put up with new restrictions when their rate is so low.
What I think is that the Government could do more to enforce current restrictions. It’s no use mandating face coverings in shops if it’s not enforced for instance!
Tony Jay
@Betty:
Short of marching on Westminster and hanging the bastards from every other lamppost I don’t see one either. People who should have been exposing them for what they were preferred to tell the nation that the Opposition were so much worse, a substantial chunk of the Opposition Party helped them do it and, here we are.
It’s not good, and it’s – definitely – going to get worse, especially when the real consequences of Brexit hit next year and the don’t-call-us-racist pricks who voted for this look around for sympathy and find the other half of the country has no fucks left to give.
YY_Sima Qian
@Another Scott: China’s formula actually pretty simple conceptually, and well founded scientifically, as I hope I have clearly conveyed in these comments:
Of course, given the authoritarian nature of the CCP regime, where government power has few restraints, bureaucratic obtuseness, inflexibility, abuse, and overzealotry are expected during execution. Nevertheless, the concepts are sound.
Alas, western MSM has done a terrible job analyzing and reporting China’s responses and the evolving situation, preferring to myopically focus on the Chinese government’s missteps and overreach, or have ignored it altogether. There are other examples, too, that do not get a lot of press in the States. Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia (Victoria has largely maintained its tough distancing measures despite new case rate plummeting).
I would wager many American looking at China’s current infection rate will simply respond with “China is lying!” Well, failure to learn China’s (and East and Southeast Asia’s, and Oceana’s) lessons, positive and negative, is the rest of the world’s loss. It matters not one bit to those of us living in China (or the other countries that have achieved eradication).
YY_Sima Qian
@Another Scott: BTW, Peter Hessler at the New Yorker has written the “good piece” that Kevin Drum is looking for, or at least has come close. One of the many think tanks in the US should do an in depth study from academic and public health policy perspectives.
Sloane Ranger
@Tony Jay:
Hear, hear!!
And if we ever get back to normal and I go out to the pub or restaurant with any of the people I KNOW voted for this clusterfuck if they start complaining about the increased prices or inconveniences I will have no problem telling them to stop whining, courtesy and going along to get along be damned. They were warned about the consequences and they ignored them. Now enjoy the bitter fruits.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, why are Christians hated when they spread a deadly infectious disease like a pack of filthy plague rats? The hate is so terrible. I am sure these two fine gentlemen’s solution to this issue is screaming “burn in hell” at unbelivers louder.
Tony Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
Damned straight.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Amir Khalid:
Ugh. Very disappointing. Moondance is one of my desert island albums.