Coronavirus Outbreak...

[Whateverman]

BTW, here's the posters the NZ government was using throughout the quarantine (the NZ version of the UK's Keep Calm and Carry On, I guess):

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Seeing them always made me think of the... slightly different... tone that Trump was setting in the US. Maybe he could do with a few thousand sent to him now to help him out?

Send someone capable of running a government instead.

[Starlight]

Send someone capable of running a government instead.

Reminds me of a recent Australian comedy sketch I saw that commented the current function of New Zealand on the international stage is to make the world sad that our leader isn't their leader and our government isn't their government.

In a similar vein, a comment from an opinion piece I saw recently:

[Watermelon]

Reminds me of a recent Australian comedy sketch I saw that commented the current function of New Zealand on the international stage is to make the world sad that our leader isn't their leader and our government isn't their government.

In a similar vein, a comment from an opinion piece I saw recently:

[Starlight]

Obviously a number one ranked rugby team is what every nation prioritizes. Probably what killed covid.

[oxmixmudd]

The US continues its 'mostly flat' COVID-19 daily case counts. If we don't see an uptick in the next week, then it may well be that the outdoor nature of the protests and the mask wearing helped prevent a lot of spread during them. And that would be a good thing to know. If we keep such mechanisms in place, large outdoor events may be able to be rendered 'safe'. To be sure we'd need to test protest participants and look at spread in that population vs the general population. Even though the number of protesters is large, percentage wise it may not be enough to produce a clear spike that could be clearly tied to the protests without tracking that group explicitly. This curve, again, is not fine grained enough to tell the whole story. There are a large number of 'reopened' states with significant rises in case counts. These are offset by continued falling case counts in closed or partially reopened states - specifically New Jersey and New York which currently still dominate the US case count.



US daily 7 day average 060112020.PNG


ETA: The California, Texas, and Florida daily cases counts are sufficiently high at this point they will eventually surpass the New Jersey case count. California may reach that number of cases by the end of next week or early the following week.

[firstfloor]

Widely available and inexpensive, Dexamethasone significantly improves outcomes in critical cases, reducing deaths by about 1/3 I hear on BBC news.

[JimL]

If we look at the results from my daughter's lab, Trump is winning bigly Testing has not decreased at all, but positives are few and far between.

And if only we would test less, we would have less cases.

[Bill the Cat]

And if only we would test less, we would have less cases.

Way to miss the point, moron. Again. You never let me down on being a shining example of just how clueless a human can be, Jimmy.

[Starlight]

Way to miss the point, moron. Again. You never let me down on being a shining example of just how clueless a human can be, Jimmy.

With that level of projection you could play a movie on the face of the moon from your backyard.

[Bill the Cat]

With that level of projection you could play a movie on the face of the moon from your backyard.

Says the Bourdain of media tourists...

[Cow Poke]

Says the Bourdain of media tourists...

Mmmmmm..... now I'm hungry for some good Cajun Boudain.

[shunyadragon]

And if only we would test less, we would have less cases.

Id this sarcasm?

[Mountain Man]

Good to hear. Rachel must be exaggerating.

Rachel is on record saying that nothing she says on her show should be regarded as a factual statement.

[Cow Poke]

Rachel is on record saying that nothing she says on her show should be regarded as a factual statement.

Kinda like the Cretan who said all Cretans are liars? Should we take Rachel's statement on that as a factual statement?

[oxmixmudd]

As an aside from the inane, the current 7 day average for the US is decidedly up, above the average for may 9 when this plot begins. The stark uptick corresponds very closely with the start of the Floyd protests. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but it would be hard to say they are not related.

US daily 7 day average 060172020.PNG

The following states are the top 5 in terms of growth in daily cases, in order.

TX, CA, FL, AZ, NC

The following states are the top 5 in terms of new daily deaths

CA, IL, FL, NJ, TX

In terms of states with high numbers of new daily cases, all have lax face mask laws, those that have requirements limit them to health care workers. This is where the pandemic is growing, though I have not done a complete analysis of all 50 states to see if the correlation is perfect.

Research however shows that face masks are the best ticket to a restored economy, controlling the pandemic, and avoiding another shutdown. However, Fools are leading and Fools are giving out misinformation about the overall status of the pandemic in the US, and Fools in Red states are making it nearly impossible to enforce face mask laws in their communities, forcing local governments to choose between protecting the public from the pandemic or protecting business employees from fools with guns, and so many are living in the fantasy world it's ok not to wear them, which means another lock down (or worse) is very likely on its way.

I'm sure someone may be inclined to say I left out the 'fools' protesting. The protesters are not 'fool's. And while it is a fact that those protesting are in fact increasing the spread of the disease, the circumstances and the nationwide anger about the racial disparities in this country is not the product of foolishness but rather desperation and gross injustice. And the best way to reign in the pandemic danger created by the protests is swift reform that will give those oppressed by those disparities real hope for change. The fault then for the spread of the disease during the protests lies with those that continuously, day after day, have created an environment where that desperation and gross injustice has been perpetuated for decades.

We do - in fact - face two serious dangers to our way of life. The pandemic, and the oppression of those minorities that live in this country. And the sad fact is they have both reached dangerous proportions at the same time, and they interact in a way that is more destructive than just the sum of the two of them in isolation because that anger and desperation enhances the spread of the pandemic. And the societal racial oppression enhances the devastation that disease brings to that oppressed population in terms of unemployment and sickness.

We are in fact in grave danger as a society.

I'll continue to provide updates on the 7 day average, up or down.