Coronavirus / COVID-19

[ReluctantSamurai]

Also found this published work concerning the future of the WHO:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4567849/

I propose that the assembly create a special chief operating officer to ensure fundamental reform of the organization’s funding and governance. It is clear that the D-G is too politically influenced by member states to make the bold decisions needed to finally bring the WHO into the 21st century and ensure its future. Without this kind of push from the outside, the WHO’s future as a global health leader could be anemic at best.

Concerning the Theodore Rooseveldt:

There are challenges associated with securing individualized lodging for our crew. This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do. We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to pr0perly take care of our most trusted asset our Sailors.

Trump has shown complete disconnect with what's happening to the people of his country. Can't wait for his response to what's happening to the personnel of a nuclear CVN

Asked Tuesday what should be done about the Roosevelt, President Trump said he would “let the military make that decision.”

For one ship, perhaps, but what if there are others?

[Shaka_Khan]

Like this guy said, I too became aware of the dangers since January. It makes me wonder how so many of the governments were unaware.

[Greyblades]

I think a certain amount of complacency has developed what with the amount of epidemics that didnt really go anywhere like swine flu, bird flu, SARS, even ebola which while itdid turn into a pandemic that is still going fairly strong, was a localized one.

I expect most of them had become accustomed to waiting for the WHO to weigh in on it before taking action, making it's compromised status all the more damaging.

[Pannonian]

Like this guy said, I too became aware of the dangers since January. It makes me wonder how so many of the governments were unaware.

In the UK, we've got used to the idea of explaining away reality with politics. See all the expert opinions I cited on Brexit, and all the Brexit supporters waving them away as irrelevant because the will of the people mattered above all else, and the recent landslide victory of a PM who promised Brexit but offered no evidence of competence or accountability. The current government is used to the idea that actions, reasoning for actions and consequences of actions don't matter. The only thing that matters is how actions affect political ratings, and as long as that works out, their actions and plans for future actions work out.

[Furunculus]

In the UK, we've got used to the idea of explaining away reality with politics. See all the expert opinions I cited on Brexit, and all the Brexit supporters waving them away as irrelevant...

I'm afraid I can't give this notion any credence at all:

The EU is a hybrid that crosses policy and implementation. What was sold as a very technocratic body designed to do quite apolitical things – such as facilitate the convergence of technical standards – has now morphed into an arbiter of public policy. Indeed, key areas of political policy making such as a justice, social, and economic policy.Should prisoners vote? What is the maximum number of hours that can be worked? Should we discourage high-frequency trading?

These areas of policy could not be questioned, because, well, that is the nature of the aquis! As an EU competence they could not be amended or scrapped by national lawmaking. This sits rather poorly with the notion of a Sovereign Parliament, able to lawfully enact anything that a simple majority of its lawmakers agree to. Sorry, out of bounds. This sits equally poorly with a public culture that accepts a majoritarian electoral system, and expects the same lack of impediments to direct plebiscites. Hold on there, that’s not for you to decide. So what is to be done? Simples; pretend the EU isn’t making political choices upon which success or failure can be pronounced. No, it is all simply technocratic implementation of common standards. It is not subject to preference, the appropriate committee has deemed this outcome to be optimal.

This is the context into which Gove dropped his bombshell on experts. He called time on the conspiracy that hid political governance behind a façade of dry technocratic implementation.

And a lot of people seemed to revel in the new found opportunity criticise what was exposed as nothing more or less than a political institution to be weighed, judged, and pronounced upon. For politics is not subject to factual interpretation alone, it is explicitly a value based activity subject to personal preference and collective priority.

Why does it infuriate some people so? Because it forced those for whom the EU is an identity as well as an institution to confront the fact that very few people feel the same way. Their preferences were rational, the experts agreed.

Oops, well that has changed.

[Greyblades]

Its like the emperor's new clothes if the emperor and the rest of the feudal system's power was reliant on keeping his nakedness unacknowledged.

[Furunculus]

You'll have to explain that one to me...

[Greyblades]

Tiredness mostly but when I thought of the scenario of the grand lie that kept the power structure of the EU from being crititicized through a collective unspoken agreement to not acknowledge a naked truth my mind went to a fairy tale of an emperor walking buck ass naked down a street of plebs going "check out my swank threads that only smart people can see" and a combination of shock confusion, deference to the position and a desire to be one of the smart people keeping the crowd from descending into laughter until some kid shouts "nice dick" and the emperor is laughed back into his castle in shame.

Might be misremembering some of that but the general gist is I think accurate.

[Montmorency]

The new Fallout looks etc.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1245003287868440581

[Montmorency]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1245003287868440581

Actually resembling more Invisible War in many ways, come to think of it.


Someone talk about widespread false negatives in American COVID testing.

The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt is to be relieved for doing the honorable thing vis-a-vis his crew.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...umsfeld-moment
(with video) https://www.stripes.com/news/us/capt...heers-1.624732

Viking, can you explain what Sweden is doing right now, and why their leaders think social distancing is in their genes?

San Francisco's (relatively) early quarantine is helpful:
https://www.businessinsider.com/san-...working-2020-3

On the UK's response.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...egy-unravelled

Interesting flashback: An article from December on how the Chinese government was responding to a mysterious viral pneumonia outbreak.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/poli...0-hospitalised


You hate to see it when someone is so smart (check the date).
https://twitter.com/AtomicAnalyst/st...96175575068672


What happens when you run a modern republic as the fiefdom of an imbecile aristocratic lineage. I've mentioned this before.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...esponse-160553
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020...ronavirus.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/o...ronavirus.html
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020...avirus-miracle

Jared Kushner, who’s often been in competition with Trump’s chiefs of staff, continues to be the central West Wing player, leading a shadow coronavirus task force that is more powerful than the official group led by Vice President Mike Pence. In conversations Kushner has blamed HHS Secretary Alex Azar for the criticism Trump has received, according to a person in frequent touch with the West Wing. “This was a total mess,” Kushner told people when he got involved last month. “I know how to make this government run now,” he said, according to a source.

The White House downplayed tensions between Kushner and the task force. “The vice president and Jared work so well together because they both view their roles through the lens of what’s best for the American people and how do we best serve the president,” deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said. “The task force has orchestrated a massive historic partnership between the public and private sector, coordinated the federal government’s urgent response, and has unleashed a whole-of-America approach that will save lives.”

In recent days Kushner has advocated for his usual, iconoclastic public-private approach, drawing on business contacts. Last week he called Wall Street executives and asked for advice on how to help New York, people briefed on the conversation said. Kushner encouraged Trump to push back against New York governor Andrew Cuomo after Cuomo gave an emotional press conference during which he said New York was short 30,000 ventilators. In a White House meeting around this time, Kushner told people that Cuomo was being an alarmist. “I have all this data about ICU capacity. I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators,” Kushner said, according to a person present. During an interview on Hannity on March 26, Trump said: “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators.”

Kushner declined to comment. But the White House press shop sent a statement from Fauci: “The interactions between Jared Kushner and Vice President Pence have added real value to the discussions at the coronavirus task force. They complement each other very well by providing information and opinions derived from shared and sometimes different perspectives. The bottom line and goal of both of them is to always get the facts straight and to act on and make decisions based on the best available evidence.”

Meanwhile, Trump is also consulting his longtime confidante Hope Hicks, whom Trump hired back in February (Hicks had been serving as chief communications officer for Fox Corp., the parent company of Fox News). Officially, Hicks reports to Kushner, but according to sources, Hicks is constantly with Trump. “Hope is in charge of Trump’s calendar, which means Jared is in charge of Trump’s schedule,” a Republican who deals with the White House said. Sources said Hicks prepares Trump for his daily task force briefings and advises him to act presidential. “She’s been trying to play to his better angles,” a former West Wing official said. (Given Trump’s recent blowups at reporters Yamiche Alcindor and Jim Acosta, Hicks’s influence has its limits.)

Hicks declined to comment. But Gidley, who is often in meetings with her and Trump, said: “No one has to give President Trump advice about being presidential—he is just a natural-born leader—and in this time of crisis, the country clearly sees the president is focused on the safety and security of the American people and always has their backs.”

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1245835666698768390
https://twitter.com/Johngcole/status...64422939062273

...the notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile, it's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use...

Also, Trump allowed the contract for maintaining the ventilator reserve to lapse, leaving many of them to be delivered out of order from storage now in the time of need. It never stops coming.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/u...ntilators.html

His priorities: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1245489206769696770

Q: Mr. President, Seattle police have reported a surge in calls about domestic violence. A number of groups have raised concerns-

Trump: Mexican violence?

Q: Domestic violence.

Trump: Oh.

Figures.

The EU is a hybrid that crosses policy and implementation.

What do you mean here? Policy has to be implemented to be real, so perhaps a different word should substitute.

What was sold as a very technocratic body designed to do quite apolitical things – such as facilitate the convergence of technical standards – has now morphed into an arbiter of public policy. Indeed, key areas of political policy making such as a justice, social, and economic policy.Should prisoners vote? What is the maximum number of hours that can be worked? Should we discourage high-frequency trading?

One of the fundamental conceits of neoliberalism is that governance can be depoliticized through the elevation of technocratic management (some early 20th century socialists also theorized such a model). However, every demand on or effect of government is inherently political.

These areas of policy could not be questioned, because, well, that is the nature of the aquis! As an EU competence they could not be amended or scrapped by national lawmaking. This sits rather poorly with the notion of a Sovereign Parliament, able to lawfully enact anything that a simple majority of its lawmakers agree to.

EU policies and laws are substantively the products of member-state governments, not an edict from nowhere. The UK was perhaps the single most sovereign force in the Union over the others. In leaving you relinquish far more of this sovereignty to other countries than you had ever lost to regain.

You made it clear many times that your concerns were predicated on potential encroachment on future sovereignty. In a pandemic-stricken world where major governments order companies not to export medical products, the component jurisdictions of China and the United States have begun turning on their fellows out of paranoia and resource-hoarding, Russia, Hungary, and Turkey are full-blown dictatorships, and India and some other large countries are on their way, your thirst for nominal British sovereignty could be quenched with molten gold.

Nicola Sturgeon had a comment that I find characteristic of the mindset, and Scotland has a much more valid appeal to sovereignty to make in the context of the framework to which it is subject.

The case for full self-government ultimately transcends the issues of Brexit, of oil, of national wealth and balance sheets and of passing political fads and trends

But that's outright barmy. So much less the case then for fixation on the EU.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Bus driver gets mad over coughing on March 21st.


He developed symptoms 4 days later and is now dead.

I wonder why people would be so careless about such a dangerous disease.


Death cult for profit.

[Viking]

Viking, can you explain what Sweden is doing right now, and why their leaders think social distancing is in their genes?

Have you read these?

• In the Coronavirus Fight in Scandinavia, Sweden Stands Apart
• Lockdown, what lockdown? Sweden's unusual response to coronavirus

My take-away is that why and how the response is unusual can be broken down into three factors:

1. The government defers to the public health agency
2. There is a reluctance to involve the law; the population is often urged to do this or that instead of making it illegal not to
3. The legal measures that actually have been put in place are weaker than in many or most countries in a similar situation; such as the cap on how many people can legally gather

This is what the daily increase in confirmed cases for Sweden looks like, from the Johns Hopkin resource:



Doesn't look very promising.

Sweden has about twice the population of Norway. Norway today has 59 deaths in total, while Sweden today added another 51 deaths for the day and has 333 deaths in total, more than five times as many.

There could be many explanations for these differences; one at the front of my mind is that the situation in Sweden currently is (or was) about to go off the rails.

[Montmorency]

For a more kumbaya vibe:

[ReluctantSamurai]

I wonder why people would be so careless about such a dangerous disease.

Because the Republican Party follows the advice of their moronic leader (not that the Dems are all that much better). Hey---It'll be like a miracle and just disappear

I wonder why this took so long to figure out:

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/3/2120731...s-andrew-cuomo

If any had even bothered to read the joint China-WHO report back in February, one of the major reasons for bringing SARS-CoV-2 under control besides the lockdown, was that China flew 50,000 medical personnel from less endangered areas of the country to Wuhan.

And strong words from the former captain of BB-61 (USS Iowa) on the dismissal of Capt. Crozier of CVN-71 (USS Theodore Rooseveldt):

https://twitter.com/votevets/status/1246190191670448134

"It's important that we not allow a rogue WH to reach through the chain of command and allow a president to make things look good for himself and his political appointees. That's wrong. We need better political leadership. Thank you."

-Captain Larry Seaquist

[ReluctantSamurai]

Interesting follow-up on the relationship between China and the World Health Organization:

https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en...h-organization

There are other reasons for the proclivity of many international organizations to China: its sheer geopolitical weight and above all its capacity to say no, and in some cases to garner voting coalitions; in the UN system, the importance of its mandatory budget contribution (soon going to 10 % of this class), and the control that China now exercises through its higher profile in budget committees (so-called 5th Committee). And there is the never extinct hope that Beijing will contribute more in the future, and will be more flexible. In short, while the United States talks loudly but carries a small stick, China now speaks softly but carries a big stick throughout the UN system.

The question therefore becomes: how reliable WHO really is when major epidemics originate in China? WHO behaves in this case as a true and tried intergovernmental organization, not questioning its official sources, and therefore fails in this regard with its mission of information. What is worse in the present emergency: a number of governments and organizations either believed naively those claims, and the resulting reluctance to declare an epidemic and later a pandemic, or they chose to rely on this false comfort in order to delay difficult measures. We are not privy to the deliberations of the WHO’s Emergency Committee that met for the first time on January 23 – three days after China’s turnaround on the epidemic. But it seems impossible that its members, coming from the scientific community, would not have reflected on the declaratory gap that remained, even if it was not diplomatically useful to challenge China. In the same vein, WHO advised at that time against general travel and trade restrictions. There never was a word about the delay between December 31st and January 23, including the catastrophic failure to stop all Chinese New Year travel at home and abroad.

[Pannonian]

Interesting follow-up on the relationship between China and the World Health Organization:

https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en...h-organization

There are ways forward that involve mistrust of China even whilst working with the WHO and other organisations. Even as the Chinese government was spouting its BS, its neighbours, including Hong Kong (officially part of China), assumed it was BS and undertook anti-epidemic measures anyway. Destroying the WHO is worse than reforming it. It's still worthwhile. But we don't need to accept the best case scenarios it is trumpeting where there is suspicion that things are otherwise.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Destroying the WHO is worse than reforming it. It's still worthwhile.

Agreed. And I don't think the author of the article was trying to make a case for disbanding the WHO, either.

The last paragraph points to a direction forward, though no precise method was given on how to implement changes to the WHO:

The mutualization of efforts that WHO allows – even if it cannot achieve this by itself – and the dissemination of information, best practices and guidelines, remain irreplaceable. How to lessen the impact of a relentless authoritarian regime remains an issue. Perhaps, avoiding preemptive submission, and questioning official truths instead of pretending to heed them, would be a start.

[Pannonian]

Agreed. And I don't think the author of the article was trying to make a case for disbanding the WHO, either.

The last paragraph points to a direction forward, though no precise method was given on how to implement changes to the WHO:

That's what Hong Kong did, and Hong Kong's supposed to be part of China.

[Montmorency]

Japan street interview, on the Olympics postponement. To see what looks like a majority of pedestrians unmasked in Japan isn't a reassuring portent, is it?

(The one white interviewee looks like Pete Buttigieg)


At times like these, the itch for systemic reform is inflamed.

The frontline in the battle against coronavirus has shifted a couple of hundred yards down the main road through the Kansas city of Wellington.

Two weeks ago, as the virus crept closer and people in other parts of the state started dying, the owners of the city’s only hospital thought it a good time to close down with just a few hours’ notice on the grounds the facility was losing money.

“We lost our hospital abruptly and without warning,” said Dr Lacie Gregory, a family practitioner in Wellington. “Even as the healthcare providers here in town, we did not hear that it was closing until it was a done deal. We received a text message from the director of nursing saying as of now there’s no hospital. So really, really unfortunate timing.”

This is the manifestation of that movie trope where a group is being chased by a monster, and those at the front breach a room or building only to lock it behind them, leaving the rest to scream and scrabble at the barrier as the threat closes in.

But beyond the small towns...


1. Trump wants one of his lawyers oversee the disbursement of hundreds of billions in business loans.
2. New York State is paying a massive markup to buy equipment off the private market.

With the coronavirus outbreak creating an unprecedented demand for medical supplies and equipment, New York state has paid 20 cents for gloves that normally cost less than a nickel and as much as $7.50 each for masks, about 15 times the usual price. It’s paid up to $2,795 for infusion pumps, more than twice the regular rate. And $248,841 for a portable X-ray machine that typically sells for $30,000 to $80,000.

This payment data, provided by state officials, shows just how much the shortage of key medical equipment is driving up prices. Forced to venture outside their usual vendors and contracts, states and cities are paying exorbitant sums on a spot market ruled by supply and demand. Although New York’s attorney general has denounced excessive prices, and ordered merchants to stop overcharging people for hand sanitizers and disinfectant sprays, state laws against price gouging generally don’t apply to government purchases.

With little guidance from the Trump administration, competition among states, cities, hospitals and federal agencies is contributing to the staggering bill for fighting the pandemic, which New York has estimated will cost it $15 billion in spending and lost revenue. The bidding wars are also raising concerns that facilities with shallow pockets, like rural health clinics, won’t be able to obtain vital supplies.
[...]
In his daily press conferences, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has often complained about having to compete with states and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for personal protective equipment, and ventilators for patients in respiratory failure. “It’s like being on eBay with 50 other states bidding on a ventilator,” Cuomo told reporters on Tuesday. “And then, FEMA gets involved and FEMA starts bidding! And now FEMA is bidding on top of the 50! So FEMA is driving up the price. What sense does this make?”

3. New York State has to turn to the private market because the federal government is not releasing adequate supplies from its stockpiles and reserves.
4. The federal government in the first place is donating many of the supplies it has purchased (from the private market) to private companies for resale at a profit.

The US has established an airbridge of flights from abroad to bring in supplies of masks, gowns, all the supplies we’re hearing are in short supply. But in answer to a question from Weijia Jiang of CBS News, the Admiral in charge of this effort explained that those supplies mainly are not going to FEMA or the states. They’re going to private sector distributors.
[...]
But this doesn’t sound like it’s just distribution. The Admiral seems pretty clear that this is being distributed as private sector transactions. As then Admiral put it: “That’s normally how things work, right? I’m not here to disrupt a [commercial] supply chain.”
[...]
Supplying these private sector distributors seems quite problematic for at least a couple reasons, to put it mildly. First is that there’s no clear mechanism to allocate these supplies on the basis of need based on a coherent national plan or framework. Secondly, it opens the door to massive profiteering. Even if companies aren’t technically gouging, that’s what bidding is. And you really can’t call this a legitimate private sector market if every state is having to bid with private companies to secure medical supplies during a historic national health emergency. The private sector rationale is also undermined if the US military has taken over a significant part of the fulfillment process.

5. So far, to the extent the Trump admin has not been outright withholding supplies according to some Soviet-style democidal logic, it has been distributing them according to per-capita quotas (i.e. fixed quantity) rather than need, which smacks of Soviet-style bureaucratic rigidity.

If New York State wants to indulge in a little mild expropriation of federal property, I wouldn't approve - but I would understand.* Banana republicanism has consequences.

It really is a choice between good government and a demolition derby.


*See:

Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday that he will sign an executive order directing the National Guard to take ventilators and personal protective equipment from New York facilities where the need isn’t urgent and redistribute them to places with higher need. “I apologize to those institutions,” Cuomo said. But, he added, “there could be several hundred excess ventilators in hospitals that don’t need them right now.” Of the possibility of lawsuits over the order, he said, “If they want to sue me for borrowing their excess ventilators to save lives, let them sue me.”

Interesting: When average distance traveled fell below 2 miles (by county)

Interesting follow-up on the relationship between China and the World Health Organization:

https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en...h-organization

In short, while the United States talks loudly but carries a small stick, China now speaks softly but carries a big stick throughout the UN system.

Loudly and vehemently attacking and defunding transnational institutions isn't a great way to maintain influence over them.

There are ways forward that involve mistrust of China even whilst working with the WHO and other organisations. Even as the Chinese government was spouting its BS, its neighbours, including Hong Kong (officially part of China), assumed it was BS and undertook anti-epidemic measures anyway. Destroying the WHO is worse than reforming it. It's still worthwhile. But we don't need to accept the best case scenarios it is trumpeting where there is suspicion that things are otherwise.

A parallel perspective: rich countries with well-developed health infrastructure - and therefore independent expert cohorts - had the opportunity to seek out at least second opinions near at hand.

That's what Hong Kong did, and Hong Kong's supposed to be part of China.

On the other other hand, Hong Kong has good geopolitical and historical reasons to be more finely attuned than other countries to parsing mainland bullshit.

[Montmorency]

On New York:

Revealing the burden that the coronavirus has wrought on New York hospitals, on Thursday the state-designated coordinating authority for emergency medical technicians informed them that cardiac arrest patients should not be brought to the emergency room. According to NBC News, that order will only apply to older patients.

I too received the following yesterday:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The state has been putting out requests for volunteers daily for at least a week, and you can get all sorts of notices and tips by signing up to a city SMS feed. I think yesterday was the first time they used the Amber Alert system though.

[ReluctantSamurai]

On rural America:

Rick Whitson, emergency management director and fire chief of a county to the east of Wellington, drew scorn for a Facebook post denouncing what he called “panicked hysteria” around coronavirus which he said has “been around since the 60s”. “This is not the bubonic plague, and we are not digging mass graves and burning the bodies,” he wrote. “Unless there is a dramatic shift for the worst, (and I doubt it) when this is past we will reflect on it and shake our heads, realizing that it was a ridiculously disproportionate overall response to the threat.”

Besides spouting the same drivel as the Trump Administration, I would not be surprised if this individual never got passing grades in reading classes back in grade school. "Mr. Whitson, you need to drag your ass out of the local pub, go home, and do at least an hour of research on your computer. Pay particular attention to the number of infections and deaths around the world, pause..........and then realize this has all come to pass in just over two months." [My own personal quote]

And then, of course, there's this gem:

Riley County Commission Chairman Marvin Rodriguez is downplaying the coronavirus problem in the Manhattan area, saying that it’s not as big a problem here as elsewhere because there aren’t many Chinese people.

[That's Manhattan, Kansas]

Rural America is in for a rude awakening, I'm afraid...

Neither federal nor state law accounts for a situation in which government agencies at all levels are vying with each other for the same goods. “The government has in normal times a lot of things to protect it, including lengthy contracts and oversight,” said Justin Oberman, a former Transportation Security Administration official who now consults with businesses trying to navigate the federal procurement process. “In this case, raised voices may end up carrying the day.”

And being buddy-buddy with Trump is also a big plus. Just ask Governor DeSantis of Florida:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...ff-wants-know/

An interesting take on what might occur in the "Red" Southern States of the US:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...people/609241/

[Greyblades]

With the complete lockdown by the CCP it is rare that we get even a glimpse of the inside of china's epidemic, one such glimpse has slipped through and it is a harrowing one:

https://old.reddit.com/r/MorbidReali...anned_post_on/

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

April 4 is Qingming in China, a traditional holiday when Chinese people mourn the deceased. This year, we particularly mourn the people who suffered and died from Covid-19.

I translated a Weibo post that went viral on Chinese social media and unsurprisingly got banned quickly. This is one of the sites that salvaged the original text.

All of the morbid incidents mentioned in the post are true stories of human suffering in China. There are too many people hating on China right now and saying "China fucked us" and "Chinese deserve to die". But we are all victims; all those people who died and suffered shall never be forgotten.

I hope we will have compassion toward each other. I hope such calamity shall never repeat.

The woman who sat on the balcony knocking on the gong and screaming sick.

The girl who chased the hearse late at night shouting "Mama".

The boy who read The Origin of Political Order in the quarantine camp where a thousand people shared one bathroom.

The man who drove the truck on the highway with no home to return.

The person who sat died with his head held by his family waiting for the hearse.

The person who was starved to death in isolation.

The pregnant woman who spent 200,000 RMB and was eventually given up for treatment because she could not afford it.

The father who dug himself a grave and hung himself in secret, afraid of spreading the virus to his family.

The father who jumped off a bridge as he had nowhere to seek treatment and was in fear of infecting his wife and child.

The 90-year-old mother who queued in the hospital for five days and five nights waiting for a bed for her 60-year-old son.

The person who shared on a Weibo forum: "My family has just passed away and I have a vacant bed in the hospital. I hope I can help you."

The man who first scolded others howling for help as it soured his mood, and shortly howled for help in the same way.

The senior citizen who learned to use Weibo in order to ask for help and posted “hello”.

The woman who covered her mouth with a scarf when being checked by the police, and cried in shame because she was unable to buy a mask.

The old man who used an orange peel as a mask.

The person whose father, mother, and grandparents all died, and had to report himself to the civil affairs bureau alone.

The worker who donated all his masks which were paid as his wages.

The person who wrote "calmly face death" and "It's time to sacrifice myself".

The whistleblower doctor who wrote "Can, Understand" and printed his fingerprints with red ink on the letter of admonition from the Wuhan police. Then he died, twice.

The construction worker who built the Huoshenshan Hospital without much sleep or rest for weeks, but was treated like the plague by his fellow villagers upon his return to the village.

The leukemia patient who could not get out of the city to travel to Beijing for a bone marrow transplant and wanted euthanasia to stop the insufferable pain.

The man dressed himself in a shroud who collapsed to the ground as he failed to get a bed in the hospital.

The patient who could not do hemodialysis due to quarantine, begged to be let out at the gate of his condo community, and was refused. He then jumped off his condo. His body was only pulled away six hours after the suicide.

The man who was forced to write "must wear a mask" for 100 times in the police station as a punishment.

The man who was slapped to the point of bleeding because he was not wearing a mask.

The man who screamed “hungry”, “I am going to starve to death”, “my wife and children were starving at home”, and “presumably your stomach is full”.

The beekeeper who was unable to transfer his bees due to the epidemic and eventually committed suicide.

The coal miner who traveled on the road for 13 days in order to return to work, walked more than 700 kilometers, and slept under the bridge and on the grass.

The man who had no place to seek treatment, feared to infect his wife and child, wrote his suicide note, and wanted to donate his body for scientific research. He wrote, “I hope people in the world would no longer suffer from illness”. He then left his key and cellphone and ran away from home, and eventually died on the way back to his childhood hometown.

The man who wrote, "My body will be donated to the nation. But how about my wife?"

The son who carried his mother on his back and walked for three hours seeking help because of the ban on cars.

The mother who entrusted her newborn to the hospital and wrote, "I spent my only savings on giving birth to this child and I have nowhere to go."

The homemaker who climbed down from the 10th floor in order to buy groceries.

The child who lived with his grandpa's corpse for five days and covered his grandpa with a quilt.

The recovered patient who returned home after being cured, found that his entire family had died, and hanged himself on the roof.

The man in his 60s who bought supplies, cooked, washed dishes, and cleaned the kitchen all by himself for more than 60 policemen at the police station. He sobbed in the corridor at the brink of total exhaustion.

The man who had been wandering on the streets of Wuhan for more than 20 days and half of his hairs turned grey.

The student who didn't have the money to buy a mobile phone to take online classes and chugged his mother's medication for mental illness.

The 25-year-old journalist who resigned from CCTV (China’s state media) and live-streamed the dire situation in Wuhan at the most dangerous time. He recited this famous poem while waiting by his apartment door before the police was going to break in and take him away, “The nation is strong when the youngsters are strong; the nation is weak when the youngsters are weak”.

The woman who shouted "all are fake" from her condo during the visit by the party leaders.

The firefighter who wept when he salvaged the bodies of three children from the collapsed Quanzhou Hotel.

The author who wrote 60 diary entries about life during the city lockdown, whose social media account was banned several times, and who was scolded and abused by trolls.

The 8 year old innocent kid who followed the queue to collect the ashes of his parents.

The person who calmly reasoned with the government official, stated that the virus should be contained but people also need to eat, and sighed softly.

The doctor who was appreciated by patients, was reprimanded by the hospital administrators for wearing a mask, and died after being infected with the virus.

The person who said, "If I knew we would end up like this, I would have told everyone everywhere, no matter the consequences".

[a completely inoffensive name]

This past week in my county there was another run on all the stores as conservatives started panic buying after Trump shifted his tone and posted the 100k-250k death toll.
Now they are taking pictures of the empty shelves they created and saying that under the current capitalistic (and Republican) local government the empty shelves offer a prediction of socialism under the Democrats.

I swear California conservatives are just becoming children in their rhetoric. My life before COVID-19:
"Why do the cities always approve chain restaurants and the mom and pops struggle?"
"Why do we need 6 McDonalds for one town?"
"Why did we approve for a giant outdoor mall in 2007 when there are cheaper malls directly to the east and high end malls directly to the west?"
"Why are we building more housing, there should be penalties for more development."

Hi, let's build more housing so we can build the demand for the mom and pop shops, cause right now we have a lot of empty commercial development that never recovered from the Great Recession. We can increase sales tax by 1 cent to cover wear and tear on the roads and use mixed zoning to allow for commercial/residential blends that cut down on amount of empty spots, and reduces transport for the elderly which make up a significant % of the population here. We should invest more in ourselves to attract wealthier residents that are willing to spend more on local food than chain stores.

"SOCIALIST! I DON'T LIKE THAT, WHY DOES THE CITY HAVE TO CHANGE TO FIX MY PROBLEMS? JUST FIX IT!"

[a completely inoffensive name]

Forgot why I came here. Here is some good advice I picked up from the vlogbrothers on maintaining your mental health during this time:

These tips, from Dr. Bepi Raviola, are taken from Partners in Health’s website.

1. Social distancing does not mean emotional distancing; use technology to connect.

2. Keep clear routines and schedule, seven days a week, but don’t go overboard.
3. Exercise and physical activity, daily if possible.
4. Learning and intellectual engagement—books, reading, limited internet.
5. Positive family time—working to counter negativity.
6. Alone time. Outside if possible, but inside is okay, too.
7. Focused meditation and relaxation.
8. Bathe daily, if possible.
9. Remember the things that you really enjoy doing, that you can do in this situation, and find a way to do them.
10. Limit exposure to TV and internet news; choose small windows and then find ways to cleanse yourself of it.

The question I ask myself when I am feeling isolated, overwhelmed, or scared: What on this list can I do right now?
Another thing I tell myself: Helping others--whether that’s getting the kids through e-school or reaching out to friends to minimize their isolation--gives me a sense of meaning and purpose that helps me through the day.
The other thing I tell myself: Doing things on this list IS BEING PRODUCTIVE. Taking care of myself and others is the productivity that matters most right now.

[ReluctantSamurai]

While Mr Putin has made national addresses and posed for photos, he has left many of the tough announcements about lockdowns and other restrictions to others. This is a deliberate strategy to "shift responsibility", according to Mathieu Boulegue. "[Putin can say] that if your region gets a massive outbreak, it's not the fault of my government, it's the fault of your region. So blame your [regional] government," he said.

Now where have we heard this rhetoric before...

Gotta love this scuttlebutt tho':

"It's OK, we drink vodka. We already have the medication."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-...-rate/12118056

[a completely inoffensive name]

I enjoyed the Queen's speech today. A brief but needed reminder that we have to do what we need to do, to support those on the front lines, and remember that better days are ahead.
Wish I could hear something similar from an American leader.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I enjoyed the Queen's speech today.

I just hope that when I'm 94 yrs old (if I'm lucky enough), I can speak in such an articulate manner. Love the accent, and the message.

Wish I could hear something similar from an American leader.

If you're referring to the Big Cheese, that ain't gonna happen. He's more worried about his image and the Stock Market, than the American people. Governor Cuomo of NY is going to be about as close as we here are going to get, although "the woman in Michigan" (Gov. Gretchen Whitmer), gives daily updates at her presser, and does her best to keep up the hopes of Michiganders that she is on top of things, and that we'll get through. (sidenote: she also has a great sense of humor in that someone gave her a t-shirt with "That Woman in Michigan" printed on the front, which she promptly wore at her next televised presser)

[ReluctantSamurai]

You just knew this was coming:

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...ntl/index.html

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/a...20-4?r=US&IR=T

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-...break/12121512

[Montmorency]

Perceptive take on ongoing sporadic toilet paper shortages even after "panic buying" ought to have subsided: baseline consumer demand has increased. That is, people who spend more time at home see a corresponding increase in TP usage at home, which translates to a higher demand.

I wouldn't have figured this out on my own, since I don't use much toilet paper in general.


Holy rollers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...3bc_story.html
https://twitter.com/ErickFernandez/s...94240904044544
[Let's not forget the origin of South Korea's epidemic]

An American fairy tale.
https://twitter.com/rmayemsinger/sta...31751775580161


Historical note on the plague of 1813 in British-administered Malta, which killed 5% of the population and diminished Malta's position in Mediterranean shipping.

The Mediterranean also employed an old, familiar solution to defend against disease: quarantine. A port needed the proper implementation of quarantine rules, and the administration of a lazaretto — a series of buildings designed to house possibly infected goods, people, and ships until deemed safe. Malta was fortunate enough to have a good record when it came to its quarantine practices. Its capital, Valletta, had facilities that for decades held an institutional reputation for quality and safety within the Mediterranean. This helped allow trade to continue despite years of war and economic hardship.

To continue that reputation, the British administration created a position: the superintendent of the quarantine. The first person appointed to the job, and subsequently the first to fail in leadership, was William Eton. It was not that Eton was incompetent at his job — by most accounts he was a capable quarantine administrator. The problem was he spent as much time conspiring against his superior, and trying to take his job, as he did executing his official duties. When he failed to get a promotion, Eton left the islands in 1802, claiming ill health, but promised to return.

Eton never returned to Malta. This in and of itself is not noteworthy but for one crucial factor: he never lost his job. Inexplicably, Eton retained his position as an absentee superintendent of the quarantine, despite attempts by Malta’s civil administration to have him removed. It was not until nine years following his departure when Eton was finally replaced by William Pym in late 1811. Unfortunately, Pym only spent a few months on Malta before asking for a leave of absence due to poor health. As a result, for more than a decade the most important position when it came to the health of Malta remained vacant. This was a critical gap in leadership and a major failure by those responsible for assigning the position.
[...]
Ultimately, what stopped the plague in Malta was the adoption of measures similar to, and in some cases more extreme than, what modern governments are trying for COVID-19. People were not allowed to move between towns or districts in a city without explicit written permission, some towns were isolated by military force, and offenses like hiding your own illness or concealing others’ illness became punishable by death. When the disease finally disappeared from Malta a year later, the death toll was around 4,500, approximately five percent of the total population.

Governor Cuomo of NY is going to be about as close as we here are going to get, although "the woman in Michigan" (Gov. Gretchen Whitmer), gives daily updates at her presser, and does her best to keep up the hopes of Michiganders that she is on top of things, and that we'll get through. (sidenote: she also has a great sense of humor in that someone gave her a t-shirt with "That Woman in Michigan" printed on the front, which she promptly wore at her next televised presser)

If you want to apportion credit where it's due, let's all remember that Inslee is quite possibly the only governor in the Union whose handling of the crisis could be called outright competent.

[Montmorency]

More on the federal government interdicting shipments of supplies purchased by the states, and even France and Germany (which a German official has called an act of piracy). Why and whither? Hopefully there is a good explanation for this. The bar for "good" being, doesn't rationalize anda jaleo.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...-and-hospitals
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...uropean-Allies


Retired Lt. Gen Russell Honore on federal procurement and emergency response practices.
https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/sta...06088911949826