A new month - and so much has changed within the past month!
Today's news is rough, with New York and London overwhelmed, and Sweden - which took a "relaxed" approach to the disease, keeping schools and gyms and restaurants open - suddenly overwhelmed with cases in Stockholm.
There's also the terrible case of students from the University of Texas at Austin who took a flight to Mexico on spring break just ten days ago. Seventy students travelled and 28 now have the virus - not counting all the Mexicans they came in contact with and might have infected. Some even flew back separately on commercial flights. What arrogance.
(Ironic that the image in the link shows the UT Tower, which is the site of the very first school mass shootings in 1966.)
Let's continue the conversation.
Today's news is rough, with New York and London overwhelmed, and Sweden - which took a "relaxed" approach to the disease, keeping schools and gyms and restaurants open - suddenly overwhelmed with cases in Stockholm.
There's also the terrible case of students from the University of Texas at Austin who took a flight to Mexico on spring break just ten days ago. Seventy students travelled and 28 now have the virus - not counting all the Mexicans they came in contact with and might have infected. Some even flew back separately on commercial flights. What arrogance.
(Ironic that the image in the link shows the UT Tower, which is the site of the very first school mass shootings in 1966.)
Let's continue the conversation.
Comments
Any news coming out of Mexico, last I heard it was business as usual, carry on regardless?
My daughter recently came back from Malawi, thank God.
At present no reported cases, at all.
Not sure I believe this.
UT students: yeah, a lot of kids really think spring break is an entitlement combined with going to Mexico is cheap. That was a steep learning curve for them (and a horrid thing to have happen to the hotel workers who never make much in hospitality).
https://skippyv20.tumblr.com/post/614200053896298496/frederic-traube#notes
It makes no sense to me at all:
* Have healthcare facilities stopped treating patients who do not have coronavirus?
* Why do health care workers not realise that urgency is key in saving lives for people who are suffering with symptoms of coronavirus? (Just assume they have the virus and treat them with appropriate self protection ... !)
* How the heck are you going to stop the spread if you do not test and check up on contacts?
Philosophically speaking, this virus is revealing our priorities and values, testing our strengths and weaknesses and is an opportunity to reset humanity.
My personal news: Under normal circumstances I do not go out much at all. Now, under lockdown, I am feeling hemmed in and restricted. If I had petrol in the tank of the car and money to spend, I would be finding excuses to go into town every day! (There are no cases in the area where I live, but there are so many ways it could spread to us despite the lockdown that realistically one cannot be complacent.)
You are surely joking???
I did attempt to clean the petrol pump handle before I filled up.
Didn’t think about car handles.
What is wrong with people?
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-04-01-funeral-parlours-under-pressure-as-bodies-cannot-be-taken-to-neighbouring-countries/
By the way, Nigeria is very far from being a neighbouring country, and there are more Zimbabweans living in South Africa than in Zimbabwe and have been for decades, but it is the African tradition to bury the body at home with the ancestors.
Not kidding. Saw all on video. Not sure if the guy licking his money was purposely spreading germs or just an idiot, but the other two were definitely done on purpose. We have been leaving our nonperishables in the garage and bringing one in at a time as needed.
Found out this am my family member is sleeping in their mancave away from house but not completely self isolating. Sigh.
So far our hospital still has "regular" patients. I think it is only a matter of time until we become a COVID hospital.
I will be praying for you and your family. Thank you for your service.
Probably just as well, there were folks from the northeastern United States wandering around throughout counties which they wouldn't have normally been in while trying to evade the checkpoints on the freeways. (They are fleeing the lockdown in their home states and think "I know! Let's go to Florida!) Now they'll be havin' a lil' chat with local and county law enforcement on what the hell they're doing there, and LE protecting friends and family will likely be far less politically correct than the Florida Highway Patrol.
There are certain demographics that insist on having the huge 1,000-person plus block parties in a pandemic, too. Really? You really think you should wave your hand in the air and scream "Pick me. Pick MEEEEE!" and volunteer for Darwin to slap you into the next dimension? (Should we really be stopping them from volunteering for a Darwin award? I'm torn, I really am. Sadly, they may be the cause of death for a medical person trying to save them, so reluctantly I have to conclude that perhaps we have to save them from their own dumbassery for the good of society. I could be wrong. I have faith that if they don't get the Darwin award this round, it is coming for them.)
Your reference to Darwin was on point. When I sometimes hear of people doing something incredibly stupid which causes their death I have been known (as a Biologist) to make a crack "that's evolution at work" (get rid of dumb DNA).
There are certain demographics that insist on having the huge 1,000-person plus block parties in a pandemic, too. Really? You really think you should wave your hand in the air and scream "Pick me. Pick MEEEEE!" and volunteer for Darwin to slap you into the next dimension? (Should we really be stopping them from volunteering for a Darwin award? I'm torn, I really am. Sadly, they may be the cause of death for a medical person trying to save them, so reluctantly I have to conclude that perhaps we have to save them from their own dumbassery for the good of society. I could be wrong. I have faith that if they don't get the Darwin award this round, it is coming for them.)
They are all over the world. It is not as if they are leading a popular revolution that will change society (I come from a country that has that kind of history) ... they are just being very loud and visible in displaying how stupid they are.
I am also in an area that has no COVID-19 cases (well, I assume that the 8 reported cases in the region are not in this area) but nonetheless everything is shut down (although the guy two cottages from me is still going to work because he works in a dairy factory and people still have to eat).
I am a smoker and have been for a long time. I have found a very cheap supply of cigarettes in town and cut down my consumption by more than half but had no intentions of nor prepared to give up. (When you don't have food to eat, one cigarette will dull the hunger for hours.) I am out of cigarettes and in lockdown (sale of alcohol and tobacco products banned). Today, my province lifted the ban on the sale of cigarettes during lockdown. This is a sign that I must walk that very long distance to town and back tomorrow (no one gives a lift at the best of times) and use the last of my money to buy a few packets of cigarettes and see what the heck is going on out there.
MagathaMistie
The above is link for the guy licking door handles.
Swampwoman
Have you heard anything about the new cruise ship trying to dock there? I hope they don't for your sake and all of Florida's.
Idiots getting on cruise ships. Carnival needs to be sued pronto.
Also, WTF is up with people testing positive in another state for COVID-19 and saying to themselves "Hey, I have a GREAT idea! I'll travel to a county in Florida that has no positive cases and go to my vacation house!" while simultaneously telling others to stay home?
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/490598-florida-sheriff-rips-georgia-state-lawmaker-for-traveling-to-county"
Im sorry for your medical personnel. How will they ever keep up?
The number of confirmed deaths in the state due to the virus were at 101, adding 14 more to what was reported in the afternoon. A total of 990 people in the state have been hospitalized.
An interesting article ...
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says as many as one in four coronavirus patients in the US are asymptomatic.
Dr Robert Redfield told NPR this probably explains how cases continue to spread across the country even as strict social distancing measures are enacted.
In the US, there are more than 189,000 confirmed cases of the virus - but federal health officials believe the numbers are much higher. ...
Swampwoman
You may have already seen this.
Sadly, a lot of south Florida is run by incompetent Democrat mayors (who couldn't read a plan if it were drawn in crayon) in cities that function as little Chicago, Newark, or a corrupt central American country.
The governor didn't tell us to shut down our beaches. He didn't have to. It isn't his job. The city and county governments did when they could see that it had become an attractive nuisance and that tourists that shouldn't be here were coming in endangering our people because they had no concept of personal space (and even worse, had no taste in swimming suits and wore socks with sandals at the beach).
Jacksonville ordered all rentals to tourists to cease. Many counties, cities, and townships had already done that or followed suit due to being pissed off at dumbass outsiders who were recklessly endangering citizens. The governor made the order state-wide because some were reluctant to do so. The governor ordered the state to shelter in place starting Friday due to widespread bitching and moaning by Democrats but, again, many townships and counties had already preemptively done so due to community spread. The ones that didn't do so may not have community spread of COVID-19, no cases at all and no reason to do so, or were taking bribes to stay open.
It doesn't really affect us in any way since we were, for all intents and purposes as a state, shut down since mid March. The hotels were closed to tourists (thanks to mayors and the governor), the restaurants were closed and take out only, the bars closed, the gyms closed, the town parks closed, the beaches closed, the state parks closed. All people aged 65 and up or those with medical conditions were ordered to shelter in place. Businesses had been ordered to allow everybody that could to work from home. Everything was already effectively shut down despite the governor not coming out and directly saying so because each county was different with different needs. What does it change? Absolutely nothing. It was all already closed.
The governor does not sit up on a throne with scepter in hand making pronouncements as he sees fit. These emergency plans are worked on constantly, practiced frequently, and revised as needed at the town, city, county, and state level. I'm sure several sections will be revised after this but how often do we get to practice a pandemic? (How does this planning and practice thing even work? Is it some kind of sorcery? They don't have a clue up north, do they?)
We now have nearly 8,000 COVID-19 positive patients and 101 deaths. We, too, have no PPE at the hospitals (although volunteers are sewing it as fast as they can), and we're not whining about how everything is the federal government's fault because, guess what, we accept emergencies as our responsibility.
All we ask of New Jersey is that you keep your infected selves at home and refrain from spreading Chinese virus around airports and hotels to other passengers and workers and if none of you come down here to retire, well, it would just break our hearts. Snort.
If your people trust you to keep them safe, why would they run away like their butt was on fire? If your state is so great, why can't the retirees afford to live there? I've seen your infrastructure. It is antiquated and pitiful. Our electrical grids are new. Our roads are in good repair. Our bridges are repaired and replaced on a regular schedule.
You know what Gov. DeSantis is doing while many people are doing the stay at home and shelter in place thing? Working on infrastructure and accelerating road pavement projects so that they can be done more quickly before the hurricane season while few people are on the roads. More people working, win/win! The folks trimming branches away from powerlines for the electrical companies, the people clearing county ditches in advance of the rainy season, all full speed ahead preparing for our next emergency because hurricane season begins in two months. How about that! Lower taxes, better infrastructure, and constant planning ahead.
There are several counties with one, two, or zero cases. Should they have been "locked down" because of people in other areas that are too juvenile and/or stupid to do what they are supposed to do without somebody in authority forcing them? If it keeps yankees out, those counties are probably all for it, besides it doesn't change anything.
Your post is the first time I've heard the legal term "attractive nuisance" used in conjunction with COVID and public spaces. I know that the law applies to private property and businesses, with special emphasis on children, but wonder if a state, county or city/town falls under attractive nuisance law? Attractive nuisance law is made at the state level,so I'm not sure how it would apply in this instance.
I ask, because this could be the impetus for a class action lawsuit against states, governors, mayors, city councilpersons, etc., which have not closed public gathering places, such as beaches. Thoughts?
I recently worked to have a large rockery installation removed from a hotel lawn, which was seriously too close to a cement sidewalk. It was deemed the legal distance from the sidewalk according to city and state law, but I would cringe while watching children climb up on these huge, tall rocks and jump from one rock to another. Only one tumble could send them crashing into the sidewalk, potentially causing serious or fatal injury. After my discussions with the hotel and the city concerning the rockery as an attractive nuisance to children, the hotel removed the rockery and planted boxwood hedges.
No, I am not a lawyer, but my parents were.
Our church is meeting virtually, although some of the older members (wait, would that be me?) aren't technologically advanced enough.
Sheltering in place is an empty pronouncement. Governor DeSantis ordered sheltering in place, but we all know that it doesn't matter. People will comply only if they feel that it is a reasonable thing for them to do, won't if don't they feel that it is reasonable, and there isn't a thing that the state can do about it if the majority says nope. The teens and young adults are all meeting up in empty parking lots and vacant lots at night to socialize regardless of politicians and parents. People that are at risk from this virus-spreading behavior are going to have to take steps to make sure that they are protected including not receiving visitors, wearing PPE and being extremely careful in public, or not going into public at all.
Shutting or not shutting down a state is really the governor's call. He is much more in tune with the state's needs than somebody 2,000 miles away. I don't like the idea of federal government taking over the state's functions.
If the party-goers were underage (high school and college spring breaks), they would be attracted to the beach, even though going there presented a serious medical threat to themselves and others. Prior knowledge or being forced is the opposite of the basis of attractive nuisance law.
The crux of attractive nuisance law is that people, especially children, are sometimes attracted to things that are dangerous for them. All of us can give examples of that for both adults and children.
For instance, Little Jimmy, who wanders onto Farmer Jones land and finds a water well that's uncovered. Because kids are innately curious and blithely unaware of danger, Little Jimmy just has to climb up and see what's at the bottom of the well. He falls in and dies. That's an attractive nuisance, as described to me by my father when I was a child. Ha! That brings back memories! Little Jimmy may or may not have been warned by his parents that the well was unsafe and dangerous and to not go near it, but Farmer Jones, by not covering the well, is liable for damages under attractive nuisance law.
I completely understand that it wasn't used in a legal sense in your post, but I'm just running through the legal possibilities.
From the other side of the pond, it makes the gripes about our government's handling of the crisis look very small beer.
Do any countries have enough PPE or aids to respiration?
Do have a look at this site:
https://www.redmolotov.com/the-best-t-shirts-the-internet-has-to-offer.-political-t-shirts
At the moment, my thinking is along the lines of their slogan `Every disaster movie starts with someone ignoring a scientist'.
Think `Dante's Peak', where IIRC Pierce Brosnan flashes a brand-new North Face jacket, but sensibly changes it for an old one (no labels!) before he gets covered in ash.(Or was it someone else in a different film?)
There are some other apposite slogans, from a British point of view.
Red Molotov has something to say about religious folk...
I have quotation on my wall from Brother Guy, Vatican Astronomer, no less, that one shouldn't compromise one's intellectual integrity for the sake of one's religious belief. (He said it to an astronomer acquaintance of mine who asked him what he'd say to Creationists).
Hear! Hear!
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Consolmagno)
PS. Husband heard on radio this morning (BBC World Service) that it's now thought the virus CAN be spread metres/yards in aerosol from sneezing/coughing.
Now we've got morons attacking nurses and care workers in the street - several yobs kicking and spitting lone women, for example, accusing them of being infective, `carrying death'.
As someone has already said, what's wrong with these people.
What I am saying and have said is that you have to take responsibility for yourself and your family. Government can't do it for you. They can issue guidelines, but who is going to enforce them? The police with no PPE?
This is security theater as long as anybody, whoever they are and whatever they do, is/are in public with others without taking any precautions and wearing a mask to avoid droplet spread. Wearing a mask on its own without rigorous decontamination is still not going to offer complete protection even if it rated to stop 100% of the virus. Having your groceries delivered isn't going to protect you if they are not decontaminated. Getting your mail, picking up your Amazon delivery (Amazon, grocery stores, and delivery people have tested positive as well) are activities that can place you at risk if you do not take precautions.
That being said, anything that you can do to reduce viral load can be the difference between a light and a severe case per some that study viral loads. I make no guarantees.
Not only is every country different, but so are regions within countries, as are governments and people (e.g. China will lie to hide the truth and maintain some kind of image).
The virus itself is something we are learning about every day and there are so many people doing studies and it is so quick that there is no time for verification so everyone is bombarded with information, much of it probably irrelevant or incorrect and always changing.
Flexibility, quick action, co-operation, acting rationally, changing values ... we can do this as these are human strengths.
News from South Africa is that the Minister of Health is still taking the high road:
* telling us the truth that although everything seems under control, and the numbers dead, in ICU and infected are low, the worst is yet to come (I don't think anyone believes him because there is no panic!)
* putting a plan into action to do mass testing in poor overcrowded areas first and then removing infected people from the community (if they cannot self-isolate) and putting them in quarantine (the cynic in me says, yes, until they run out of space for quarantine - already hotels are whinging about offering their empty buildings
* putting a plan into action to have a dedicated health facility for virus victims in every settlement, big or small (really ... I must check where my local covid health care facility is!)
The thing is South Africa is doing all the right stuff to deal with coronavirus but that might all change tomorrow despite everyone doing the best they can.
Stay safe and help someone in need.
My neighbour just passed ( we don't know how old he was but his rank in the military was Major-General, so he couldn't have been young).
The neighbours are SUPER HUSH-HUSH about how our neighbour was "COVID POSITIVE." They speak of being "uncomfortable" about being the one to break the news. What the helll??????
You'd think were in the 80's in the midst of the AIDS epidemic!
Just when I was feeling better about my own coughing since Boris posted that video.
I really should get checked but I'm only coughing so getting tested is not a priority.
Plus, if it's just a normal cough, i don't want to be in/around hospitals, they're Virus Central!
But I will get checked before April 19 (end date of Jakarta lockdown). I can't attend cooking class if I'm still coughing.
I don't know how long it will take to get new factories up and running but I know that we need them RIGHT NOW, and we don't have them now and we have no prospects of having them IMMEDIATELY. This is why I look at administrators that are refusing to let hospital and other healthcare workers use their own PPEs because they may not adequately protect the employee as borderline mentally handicapped. Well, sport, wearing nothing and hoping nobody gets sick is damn sure not adequately protective, and we're going to be needing every doctor, nurse, respiratory therapist, hospital lab worker, pharmacist., etc. on deck for the next four months at minimum and, the last time I checked, we're not going to be able to clone medical people and have them ready for action in a week if we use up/kill all of our old ones.
*sigh* Some of the countries that are behind us on the pandemic curve may benefit from some of the efforts being made now. Personally, I think that the University of Florida hospitals (where they are manufacturing their own PPE and accepting PPEs made to their standards by the public) are probably going to be better off than some of the hospitals with no PPE for their employees. We just had a University of Florida Health administrator on a local talk radio program talking about the difficulties about trying to get PPE for their employees since so much of a very small supply has been diverted to New York and Los Angeles, and he talked about how very grateful they are for the people out there selflessly sewing for them.
Disney has contributed rain coverings for reuseable PPE from their Disney stores to California, New York, and Florida hospitals, as long as the docs aren't too mortified about PPE with a big smiling Mickey Mouse, and I don't think that they will be.
If we want PPE here and don't already have it, we will have to fashion our own. We'll have to read up on the things that we need for it, and do the best that we can. (That's why I stopped SwampMan from tossing away *disposable* N95 masks. Instead, I have been putting them in dated paper bags, placing them on a shelf, and letting them sit. 10 days is *supposed* to be adequate, I prefer longer.) Do not think that if I had no masks that I purchased in advance of the pandemic that I would be running around barefaced. I would make masks with the best materials that I had on hand, even if I to hand sew or hot glue together tea towels with a pocket for a HEPA filter from a virus-filtering air conditioner or HEPA vacuum bag that filters virus.
That being said, there are a lot of people that seem to think that protecting themselves is a sign of weakness.
SwampMan said that people stare at him for wearing a mask in public. (Since I have no cares about what the public thinks, that sort of thing does not bother me.) Fine. I've ordered bandanas so he can wear them over the mask and look like he's robbing the place instead of wearing lung protection. Maybe that will make him feel better.
SwampMan said that people stare at him for wearing a mask in public. (Since I have no cares about what the public thinks, that sort of thing does not bother me.) Fine. I've ordered bandanas so he can wear them over the mask and look like he's robbing the place instead of wearing lung protection. Maybe that will make him feel better.
I am also very self conscious about wearing mask but I am not going to die in acute agony struggling to breathe ... since my sister has done nothing to ensure safety (even though there is no virus in this area, that could change tomorrow), I have to have a plan ready. I have lots of headscarves and bandannas (a lovely set of 4 of those). I often go out wearing them on my head so people are used to seeing me with them. I have to go to town but just could not bring myself to make that LONG walk today. Maybe tomorrow ... with my bandannas.
I also have woollen gloves and one set made with felt and I think some plastic ones left from when I used to dye my hair (went grey in my early 20s). A bit hot for gloves ... but same procedure with washing machine?
Would it not sanitise cloth masks or bandannas to put them in the washing machine and run a 20-minute cycle with very hot water?
I am not that impressed with Oprah's generosity. She is very wealthy, lives in a wealthy country with a population of more than 327 million people, and the coronavirus is raging through the country.
The four richest people in South Africa, EACH donated the equivalent of more than 5 times that amount, about:
53,942,732.24 US Dollar
Wealth of the world's richest black people in 20165 was estimated as:
5. Oprah Winfrey of the US with a fortune worth $3bn (R34.92bn).
7. Patrice Motsepe ($2.3bn; R26.77bn), South Africa's first black billionaire and founder of diversified mining company African Rainbow Minerals. Motsepe, who also has interests in soccer, joined The Giving Pledge in 2013, committing to giving away a substantial part of his wealth to charity.
Motsepe is one of the South Africans who made the donation ... the other three are not black but they do not have greater wealth than Motsepe.