“You sure? No mistake?” he asks. “No mistake,” I say.
My colleague and I disinfect our seats with a wad of wipes the minute we get on the five-hour high-speed train.
I worry coming to Wuhan will change my “green” health code – a contagion risk profile, which determines the difference between going out to dinner or government quarantine.
When I get there, traffic is sparse, though busier than I expected. I chat with people in a park, out for their first strolls after nearly three months indoors.
I walk by Huanan seafood market (pictured below), where experts think the virus emerged, and find it sealed with sheets of corrugated metal, wrapped in police tape, and patrolled by officers.
At the end of the day, I check my health code again: Still green. Whew.
Tuesday
Exiting my room, I bid good morning to a hotel cleaner in a hazmat suit and head out.
Cai Yao, 34, tells me his mother’s symptoms appearing in late January worsened quickly; she only returned home two weeks ago.
“For a whole week, she couldn’t eat. She coughed up blood, and her nose would bleed,” he said. “It really looked like she was on her deathbed.”
Hospitals were full, so they drove daily across town for outpatient treatment, waiting 10 hours in line with many others. Mr Cai doesn’t know what shots were administered, but is grateful she recovered.
Many families weren’t so fortunate. At the peak, there were 5,000 bodies waiting to be scorched into ash at one of Wuhan’s eight crematoriums, a worker tells me – a far cry from two dozen per day before the pandemic. His shifts began at 5:30am and ended after dark.
Virus deaths are so sensitive that at a cemetery – which grieving families haven’t been allowed to visit – a phalanx of uniformed officers and plainclothes minders surround me and my colleague. When I try to leave, they grab my bag, drag me backward, and snatch my phone.
“What if you report about this incident?” one sneers, when I ask for it back.
They accuse us of sneaking in and staying hours to take photos. Actually, we’d walked in the front gate, registered our details after a temperature check – as per usual in coronavirus China – and roamed for half an hour.
After threatening (“can’t leave until the ‘investigation’ is over”) and berating us (“stupid imbeciles”) for about an hour, they let us go upon taking photos of our ID documents. Our driver says the police also harassed him and recorded his details.
Residents have told me they don’t think they’ll ever learn the truth of what happened. All this leads me to ponder what the authorities are trying to hide – even as China crows success.
Transport links start coming back online, and major roads are unsealed. Cars started lining up at city limits before midnight.
But quotas have been imposed – for instance, only 1,000 a day are allowed to enter Beijing from Wuhan. Even then, people need to be approved after showing a clean bill of health.
Some housing compounds continue barring residents from going out, or limiting them to two hours a day. Barriers made of corrugated metal sheets have yet to all come down. Same with cement road blocks. I spy a man in a hazmat clamber over and sneak away!
Disinfecting tents continue to dot the city. Getting in and out of my hotel still requires being sprayed with medical-grade alcohol:
Traffic is much noisier today, though nobody seems fussed by a sign that life is resuming.
Thursday
Requirements to depart Wuhan apply to me, so I head to the city’s No. 7 hospital to get my throat swabbed for a nucleic acid test to determine whether I’ve been infected with the coronavirus.
I don’t feel ill, though asymptomatic cases are now being discovered. Hopefully, I’m not one of them…
At the hospital entrance, a thermal facial recognition camera takes my temperature. Amazingly, this works with a face mask. I don goggles and feel even more claustrophobic.
Medical staff have protective suits, shoe covers, face shields; one spritzes sanitiser over his latex gloves.
It's haunting to be inside. So many people died here, staff say.
Doors are sealed in the fever clinic, dozens of oxygen tanks sit outside, and an extra CT machine is in a trailer out front.
Next step: Registering via a mobile app to be approved for return and quarantine confirmation by Beijing authorities. There's a long queue – at least 11,000 have already applied, and there’s a daily departure limit.
I feel glad to pass an open wine shop. I stock up; might be here a while.
Friday
Tons of virus origin rumours floating around. Scientists are working on this, too, and have found genetically similar coronaviruses in bats and pangolins.
A seafood vendor tells me she heard patient zero was a man in his seventies selling wild ducks at the now-closed Huanan market.
Others deny any Huanan link, and tell me unspecified foreigners brought it during the World Military Games last October, held in Wuhan.
Wu Jianming, 29, a glassworker says: “Bats are impossible – when I was a child, we often played with them.”
By far the most prevalent theory is that the Americans brought the virus. One man says the severity of infections is evidence the virus emerged in the US.
“It’s so bad there,” he said. “Do you think this is still the Wuhan flu?”
The idea was seeded by a Chinese official, who suggested the US military brought the virus.
Beijing has been busy reframing the narrative to divert public anger from government missteps over the outbreak, stoking nationalism by portraying China as the world leader in virus response and buying the world time.
Some, including officials and politicians in the US and UK, see it differently – that a botched initial response exacerbated global spread.
Saturday
We bundle into a van with other foreign media for a government-arranged trip to Leishenshan Hospital, a temporary field hospital.
Hospital officials say thousands have recovered, and only 15 patients remain. We’re shown an empty virus ward with sealed rooms waiting to be disinfected. Many medical staff have transferred out.
“All data are reliable; please rest assured,” they say, when asked whether China’s reported figures accurately represent the outbreak.
Doubts persist over the numbers. Hospitals were immediately overwhelmed; there were multiple revisions to confirming cases; and those not tested – despite having what doctors strongly hinted was the virus – weren’t included in the death toll.
With so many curbs still in place, it’s clear authorities remain concerned. Even as Wuhan has begun reporting zero deaths, the hospital won’t be dismantled until next year.
I get my virus results back. Relieved to be negative!
Thank you so much for this post. Chilling read. My heart goes out to the people of Wuhan. There is an article in the DM that our govt paid 3.7? million to the Wuhan lab. I will try to link the article. It suggests it was the past admin that did this. Very interesting. Who knows what to believe.
Thank you so much for this post. Chilling read. My heart goes out to the people of Wuhan. There is an article in the DM that our govt paid 3.7? million to the Wuhan lab. I will try to link the article. It suggests it was the past admin that did this. Very interesting. Who knows what to believe.
Thank you for this post. Having lived in the USA my whole life, I cannot imagine life in China. I feel sad for the people, their government is so corrupt. One day we will be on the other side of this and I hope we depend far less on anything China is producing than we do now. #takebackthesupplychain
Well, I'll certainly be glad if/when this dies down. Son called this evening to see if we would take care of our 3-year-old grandson for a few days. I was hesitant because of Swampman's ace inhibitor blood pressure pills and heart valve and his cardiologist had him on no contact with any of the public @5 weeks ago. Then I heard a lot of noise in the background. "Where are you?" "Oh, we're here at a park for the big Easter egg hunt with all the cousins and aunts and uncles and some friends. It's okay because there aren't any positives in town here." *sigh* Nope.
Another two Leftist media outlets that I would add to the list are Truthdig and The Real News Network (i.e. the above chart is not a comprehensive collection of media outlets). The latter is interesting in that there used to be lots of in-depth interviews.
Thanks @Sandie for those two outlets you mentioned. I'm going look into them. Yes, that chart isn't comprehensive and I don't think it's feasible to include every outlet. It's a good baseline though. Another outlet I keep an eye on is ProPublica.
@Anon-Unknown Glad I could contribute something worthwhile :) Yes, living in the hot zone is getting to me. Basic groceries are getting so hard to come by. I hope you and your loved ones are safe, happy, and healthy.
@SwampWoman Keep Calm and Keto On :) I plan on fasting regularly and making them longer as I go. I just hope my hair doesn't fall out.
As much as I would like the idea of the vaccine (and I get a flu vax, believe in vax, support getting them), what worries me is the idea of how do I know this one would be safe?
I remember when people got GBS with swine flu and I remember hearing about thalidomide/birth defects. So when I hear of wanting a vaccine and it will be out soon, I worry about are we pushing it through because we all want to feel safer but there could be something which might not be obvious lurking ... like those.
@abbyh Same! I believe in vaccines. The thing is even if we get a vaccine, we are essentially guinea pigs for its first few iterations. Current vaccines have been studied extensively for years/decades, hence their safety. For a long time, strict hygiene standards are going to be our strongest least risky defense.
I've been concerned about seeing my cat's eyes being watery & then while looking to see if it was "cat flu", I was reminded again that watery eyes is common in certain breeds including my cats' breed, Himalayan: https://www.catster.com/cat-health-care/watery-eyes-in-cats-what-causes-watery-cat-eyes-do-you-need-a-vet
I hope everyone is doing well & not going crazy.
Whenever I think stupid things like "I don't care if I get Coronavirus", I always remind myself who will take care of my cats if I die?
Our pets are so important right now, they keep us happy and entertained. 💜💜
Russia is ready to start trials on a vaccine in June ... but say it will still be a long process. At a guess, I would say they will have a vaccine ready for use by beginning of next year.
@Anon-Unknown My family has it's groceries and cleaning supplies under control. We stockpiled and when we shop it's for fresh foods: eggs, milk, and vegetables. Those things we can get if we know when the store is getting stocked and arriving before it opens. It's impossible to get cleaning supplies at this point and if you find them, you get a limit of 1 purchase. Masks and keeping 6 feet apart has been everyone's routine for weeks. All public transportation my family and I have seen is empty.
The problems we've been facing is shopping for our elderly neighbors. Three of them are in their 80s and don't understand the need to minimize going outside. They stay home but are in the habit of shopping daily. So, they basically ask for items ever 2-3 days that take 3-4 store visits to find. We've been hyper vigilant with our hygiene but it's exhausting and our skin is parched from all the hand-washing, showers, cleaning, and laundry.
The report from Wuhan bears out what we've been suspecting for a while. Putting the blame on those returning to China may be a handy way of fudging the data.
Keep well everyone.
For those in UK looking for a Tesco delivery slot - keep trying but it's may be better to start as early in the day as you can. I don't know when they release the slots but my afternoon, evening and late night attempts failed miserably.
I hit the right time at about 9am yesterday, Easter Sunday - suddenly it was easy! Delivery due in the next hour!
@Wild Boar: amazing! Only my dad's managed to get groceries slots since lockdown.
I posted this earlier at the other nutty blog & thought I'd repost this in case anyone else can do the same if they're stumped:
"I gave up on the groceries stores with time slots!! 😂😂
I just do the mom&pops shops that list their stores on Indonesian equivalent to Amazon & pray for the best~ ✨☄🙏🏼🤣"
I don't know if you have small shops/businesses like that on Amazon/eBay in your countries but that's what I've relied on to get ingredients.
Usually when they're overbooked they simply temporarily close their accounts (like go on "vacation mode" but as long as I've managed to put in an order, I'm set). 👍🏼👍🏼
I hope everybody's aware of their own mental/emotional states.
After bawling my eyes out over luvvies behaving inappropriately during the pandemic (!!) OF ALL THINGS 😐, I've decided to limit my social media intake.
I've set my Twitter/Instagram accounts private (except for my cooking journal account & my spirituality account) & as of now (18:19 Jakarta time) I haven't refreshed any new tweets from 07:00GMT. only posted my cooking & that's it.
Just hoping I don't subconsciously open a Twitter list out of habit/subconsciously & see something upsetting.
After crying all day on Easter 🐰🐰🐣🐣🍃🌸, I stayed up to make piña colada puddings until about 02:00 in the bloody morning! 😂😂🍹🍍🥥
Which I then proceeded to have for brunch on Monday morning 🤣🍮☕
PMS or no PMS, it's been a weird Sunday (I'm pretty sure I'm not actually that upset about Netflix lmao). Almost cried again but didn't this morning.
I feel better already & have less anxiety. Just by not looking at Twitter. (And enjoying my baby cats. 🤷🏻♀️🐈)
Nothing has really infuriated me today. I haven't seen a single tweet from a toxic person politicise this.
I've also been thinking a lot about what kind of life i want after this is all over.
Please look after yourselves.
This situation is doing funny strange things to our brains, I swear idk. Maybe we're gaining perspective, and learning better ways , IDK but just don't lose your minds.
I'm worried about people because I'm an introvert, was never outdoorsy, and has a mostly freelance wfh career most of my adult life. And I'm starting to feel sad.
I can't imagine what this must be like for: - an extrovert - an outdoorsy person - someone who was doing very well financially/career-wise before this
I only people I don't feel sorry for are narcissists who couldn't help themselves before COVID-19 even hit peak (like Slebs making uncrucial announcements) & "suffering" from not being the centre of attention.
Please take care of yourselves because weird times. 💜💜
iOS and Android operating systems have come up with an app that would track all the phones with which you’ve been in close proximity and if you test positive for COVID-19 it would alert them. Although at first this will be an app you have to download, eventually it will just be an opt-in as part of your operating system.
Can’t get behind all this government tracking and mandating of things. We have individual freedoms in the US, and I would really like to still have some when this is all over.
They keep adjusting this site. For Florida peak deaths they went from 242 to 149 to now 112 deaths per day when the virus is peaking. The stats on the whole USA are dropping as well. If you screenshot your state or country’s data over time it becomes easier to track.
Tracking via smartphones - whether China thought of it first or not, it's certainly open to abuse
A similar idea was employed for a BBC simulation (can't recall if it was `Pandemic' or `Contagion'
As long as they don't force us to have it/always take a smart phone with you we should be oK.
I haven't got a smartphone - we can't get any sort of signal where we live, although we're in a town, barely half a mile from the telephone exchange (all to do with the hills).
The South Africa government applied for and did get permission from the court to track contacts through cellphones once a person tested positive for the coronavirus and tracking the person where necessary (a few, after testing positive, instead of self-isolating as told to, they took off travelling across the country!). This tracking is limited: I think they have to apply to the court for each person they want to track, so it is not a blanket permission.
What folk here have been describing sounds like something very different:
iOS and Android operating systems have come up with an app that would track all the phones with which you’ve been in close proximity and if you test positive for COVID-19 it would alert them. Although at first this will be an app you have to download, eventually it will just be an opt-in as part of your operating system.
That sounds to me like a gross violation of individual rights and I do not trust any government to not abuse such a system. We need to find a way to object to this and stop it from happening (just my beliefs with regard to tracking via cellphones and human rights to privacy).
Meanwhile, more than 200 schools have been broken into, looted and vandalised (the police do not seem to notice this destruction of schools so every day more schools are trashed) and an increasing number of liquor outlets (more than 2 dozen and counting) have been broken into and looted (the police seem to go to great lengths to find and arrest those perpetrators, but there was one lot who hijqcked a huge truck carrying alcohol ... the police found the truck, empty and no one in sight!).
Priorities! Our National Minister of Police is a deranged gangster so I am not surprised that the police are behaving in this way.
The official opposition in South Africa have come up with a smart plan for lockdown (the government will reject it because it has been devised by the opposition).
First, we have something called loadshedding in South Africa. The government controls all production and delivery of electricity. We do not have reliable electricity in South Africa and demand exceeds available supply so we have planned outages (up to 4 a day, for 2 hours each). Of course, with lockdown, businesses are not functioning so we have plenty of electricity!
Anyway, this plan for lockdown is similar to the loadshedding schedules in that there are different stages, with each being more restrictive. The economy is divided into main areas. Some areas will not be shut down at all (e.g. policing, health care providers ...) but the extent that other areas are shutdown depends on the spread of the virus. It sounds complex but because South Africans are used to dealing with complex loadshedding schedules (9 stages; 12 time slots in a day; hundreds of municipal areas) we would have no problem in dealing with this 'wheel' that they have devised. The following article describes the 'wheel':
Agree with your concerns regarding government tracking.
Also, wow, South Africa sounds organized. We need to come up with a system here in the US, also. I think the elderly and those with medical conditions need to keep isolating, but the rest of us need to get back to work while still trying to maintain social distancing, hand washing, and wearing masks in the workplace.
One suggestion is that stores with delivery or curbside services could note on their website to please do not schedule these deliveries unless you are elderly or have some medical comorbidity. That is one reason we have continued to go and get our groceries as we always have. It would be nice to have more slots for the at-risk populations so they don’t have to risk going into the store and encountering more people.
This can’t go on indefinitely and I can’t get behind all the Chicken Littles running around squawking that the sky is falling when the number of predicted cases keeps dropping. Even when originally we were told that the high numbers would happen even if we social distanced and hand washed and wore masks. At some point those numbers are just not bearing true.
I read a variety of news sites and also watch the White House virus briefing. My favorite sites are https://covid19.healthdata.org/ which gives the estimates of hospital beds and ventilators needed along with death tolls and projections. The site has information on individual countries as well as states and counties in the US.
I then compare it the the coronavirus tracker on Bing.com to see the accuracy and get trends.
Washington state has been pretty aggressive and successful in dealing with the virus.
What's scary is in this state and across the nation the toll the virus has taken on nursing home residents , mostly due to poor infection control. Yikes!!
The nursing home industry needs to be investigated and new standards developed for patient safety.
The health data site is the site I referenced when I said that I’ve been following the state of Florida as well as the US cases overall and since last Tuesday (less than a week ago), they’ve adjusted Florida’s peak daily deaths from 242 daily at peak to 112. Less than half, in not even a week.
Overall US deaths I started taking a screenshot on Wednesday of last week are down from a daily predicted peak of 2212 to 1983.
Keep in mind that Florida was one of the later states to issue a shelter in place order. As a rule I think we need to course-correct and keep doing safe behaviors, especially for high risk individuals), but there is now time for some adjustments.
Keep in mind Oregon, at its peak is predicting 5 daily deaths. FIVE deaths, at peak. And that justifies crippling the economy including hospitals that can hardly make payroll because they can’t do elective procedures. They can slowly roll this stuff back in, it does not have to open all at once.
Keeping it all clamped down for the majority of states is neither justified or reasonable.
Heavily populated states like NY/NJ may have to make their own adaptations and they have the right, but the whole country according to their rules, makes no sense.
MiamiVice, I have run across several other people making mathematical models to check the model that predicts the spread of the virus. They have also had to adjust their models downward as people changed their behavior, spread less virus due to masking and distancing, and (IMO) fewer people were ending up in the hospital already in life-threatening condition due to a lighter viral load. There may be many things that can affect the models from behaviors to experimenting with off label meds.
We could also be seeing less people ending up in the hospital in life-threatening condition because their PCP is quietly writing out scripts for a Z-pak, Plaquenil, and a multivitamin with zinc when they test positive.
I think I told y'all about going to Tractor Supply to pick up some ivermectin for the livestock and the dogs last week, and there was *nothing* with ivermectin. Not even paste wormer! (People, that stuff is nasty and inaccurate, do *not* use paste wormer unless you feel you have no alternative. I'd hork it up and be out the money for the paste wormer plus having to clean up that mess while sick.) I *think* most people are quietly taking lots of vitamins C, D, and maybe eating yogurt with live cultures to bolster their immune systems, some may be dosing themselves with ivermectin after a trip into public or upon developing symptoms and some may well be using the veterinary chloroquine medications used to treat fish. (I wonder how many veterinarians will become ill.)
The downward revision of the model may cause the people that were not in badly affected areas to get *very* angry about shutting the country down and ruining the economy for no reason. For unknown-anon, the northeast looks like the apocalypse and the very thought of opening up businesses is an invitation to mass death because she has seen it. There are people in many areas of the country without mass transportation or big cities wondering what the hell because they haven't seen a single case.
We (Florida) have a ton of cases but comparatively few deaths. Our cases were brought in through the ports, the airlines, and tourists (before anybody gets their knickers in a twist, I mean OUR Florida natives and students returning from cruises, overseas studies, etc.) As of our 11 a.m. update, we have 20,035 Florida residents positive, 566 non-Florida residents positive, and 470 deaths. Most of the cases and the deaths are in south Florida. The deaths in our area have mostly, but not all, been in nursing homes/assisted living facilities where the residents were too frail to live on their own. Many of the people that contracted it through travel have died as well.
MiamiVice, knowing that Oregon is expecting 5 deaths at peak makes me think that the CDC and FDA REALLY need to check out the efficacy of marijuana in battling coronavirus.
We've been in lockdown for 3 weeks now so it's possible/probable that current deaths still reflect rates of infection before we were cooped up - there can be such a long lead time from infection to the Final Act.
It'll be illuminating to see if there's a correlation between infection rates and predicted hot-spots where compliance has been patchy. eg Manchester where the police shut down over 600 parties last weekend. That'll perhaps show up as a peak in 2-3 weeks.
Or a correlation between infection rates and the behaviour of whole communities.
Britain has a high population density overall, even when the depopulated Highlands are included in the area. It's hardly surprising that we may end up doing worse than France or Germany.
Yes I do think some of the numbers are effected by what we are doing and keep doing it, people. Eat healthy, social distance, wash your hands, wear a mask in public if you like, stay isolated if you’re an at-risk population. But we are not all N.Y. and NJ (for those of you not in the US, NJ has LONG been known as one of the most corrupt and poorly run states in our country) and we should NOT all have to live under their mandates.
This is why I stopped reading the posts of Chicken Little (aka Unknown or Anon-Unknown, why that person posts under two names I will never know).
Isolate these high risk areas and focus on helping them, but do not allow them to force their corrupt and over-bearing rules on all of us who are not seeing the same numbers.
This is what I have been saying all along. It isn’t just money, it’s hospitals that are laying people off because they don’t have enough patients (elective operations are not happening and Covid19 cases are very low in MANY areas), it’s the at-risk school children that are falling behind, etc. There are SO many facets to this.
We have taken a stringent first phase approach and that is well and good, but now for MANY areas of our country, we need to phase back in normal life.
Per the above article even occasional marijuana use increases your risk of COVID 19 complications so I would not think it’s that. One thing I would think is that Oregonians probably eat healthier than a lot of us and many are more active than in some areas of the US. I would credit that before pot use.
Once more, non residents means they are not residents of Florida. You probably would understand if non residents visited NJ . Why do you care where they come from? Not sure why you seem to have an issue with Floridians. I guess if I lived where you do...., I might have a burr in my butt as you do. Bless your heart.
Did your country provide you the masks we discussed and if so through whom and do you know of where those of us in the states could secure some?
Speaking of mental health, many of us are struggling. Even SO who is a total optimist spoke of depression yesterday. I find myself meditating more and listening to chill classical music. It is still hard. I try to remain optimistic bc we have it so much better than others do at the moment. I just can't imagine how the Jews must have felt and others more recently who have experienced loss through endless wars and terrorism.
I share the belief we need to start putting a few back to work tentatively. Especially in low risk states. I also know how frustrated I get with people traveling to my state from hotspots- north, south, West, etc. I had a family member from SC get on a plane for their Honeymoon to St. Lucia from Charlotte airport recently and the flight was turned around half way and sent back. St. Lucia had closed their borders! Good for them!! Who wants to risk taking in people from Charlotte airport? Why is the airport still allowing this??? 😠😡 it makes me so mad.
You asked if non-residents were snowbirds! I simply tried to explain non-residents. You seem to have a little comprehension issue. If possible, I recommend a nice, brisk walk... to clear a bit of unnecessary aggression.
Also, I don't want any "non residents" coming into my state at the moment. Not even my immediate family from SC. I strongly believe we should shut our borders and only allow frontline people in and out. This should carry on for the forseeable future until we have definitive tests for all and masks aplenty.
Florida has tested most extensively in the southeast Florida counties where 60% of the cases and hospitalizations are. The state government has also been *very* aggressive in closing nursing homes/assisted care facilities to visitors and there are rapid strike task forces that go in and test everybody, residents and workers, at facilities. The state ordered stay at home for those 65 and older or those with medical conditions early. The elderly account for 30% of hospitalizations and 60% of the deaths. Florida's first focus was on those most vulnerable to the virus, the elderly.
Florida is actually being used as a model for setting up testing as well as the task forces and rapid deployment of physicians and infection control experts to control outbreaks among the assisted living facilities/nursing homes.
While the "model" says we are some days from peak deaths and hospitalizations, the hospitalizations are stable to falling.
I will say how extremely unhappy I am with the CDC. They are/were more focused on social justice warrioring than on their job, protecting us from disease.
I'm not sure when the northeast is going to be able to be opened for business; maybe not until fall. Everybody along the I-95 corridor has been affected.
There are so many variables and the Governors of each section of our vast country will have to work in tandem to get us all through this. I have seen the comments back and forth. I have family and dear friends in both areas so I pray fervently for all of us.
Thank you so much for inquiring about my family. So far everyone is virus free. I hope your family is well, too. There have been no specifics other than they are required back at work even if they may have been exposed until they are symptomatic. Then they are tested and quarantined for 14 days. What I find worrisome are the people becoming reinfected. There is a study coming from South Korea that discusses this. It is hard to know what news outlet to trust or believe. Our leaders here congratulated us today for our self isolating and believe that is why our nunbers are so good. But how long can we continue? People are desperate to get back to work.
REVEALED: U.S. government gave $3.7million grant to Wuhan lab at center of coronavirus leak scrutiny that was performing experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated
@Portcitygirl: no, the masks we discussed yesterday were not procured/provided by the Indonesian government.
So far, all the government' told us regarding masks has been:
- to wear them - use non-medical fabric/seen masks & avoid buying/selling surgical masks to civilians (non-essential workers) so the hospitals can have them - urges small businesses to start making them & sell them online to keep their businesses afloat (the small businesses department's Instagram even has a tutorial on how to make homemade hand-sanitisers & how to keep them sterile) - telling citizens to buy from said small businesses
And yes, DO MEDITATE & LISTEN TO CHILL MUSIC. 💆🏻♀️🐈
Take care & look after yourselves & be healthy all!!~ 🍹💜💜
Also, I understand westerners want "wet markets" closed (although they remind me of farmer markets that opened on weekends in the west). But they also need to offer solutions for the low-level sellers who sell there. Nobody ever wanted to be a "wet market vendor" when they grow up.
It doesn't matter whether you're economically left or right, people can't just tell someone to close shop without giving them an alternative/solution.
Whether you're Patrick Bateman (full-blown capitalist) or socialist, you know they don't make much profit (I've bought full-meal street food for as low as IDR 10,000 [less than one £/€/$] which is why I always buy more than one portion and sometimes if I do, I'll too 100% because). If they made massive profits, they'd have enough capital saved to start their own "dry" Whole Foods/Ranch Market/Sainsbury/Albert Heijn (Or whatever you have in your country). They are earnest, down-on-their-luck hard-working people.
They are not like drug dealers (who sell drugs knowing how it destroys people's lives).
I'm sure many of them are horrified & devasstated that they may have been a contributing factor to the spread of a worldwide pandemic.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be closed, I just wish Westerners (those from developed countries) would have a bit compassion about them.
All you see is less-than-hygienic markets in your TV/laptop/mobile screens, you don't get to see the actual men or women selling at the wet markets. They have elderly parents to look after too, they have children to educate too:
- Just like white-collar workers in the UK & Europe - Just like blue-collar workers in the US - Just like creative workers in Australia
They're just like you. They're bloody HUMANS TOO.
I agree wet markets should be closed (Or at the very least revamped/renovated to facilitate better hygiene practices) but at least the Chinese government should give them a grant to start a new cleaner business.
Rather than demonise these people (who, again, I'm sure they're horrified to be involved in spread of the virus) why not *help* them stop?
Shame & then concept of "losing face" is a huge element in Asian culture, I wouldn't be surprised if a wet market vendor has committed suicide by now.
******As a side-note: I can't stand the vegan "animal rights" organisations riding on COVID-19 to demonise everyone for eating meat. I saw one saying there were people eating dogs & amphibians/reptiles in Indonesia. Even if they DO exist in Indonesia, which is news to me!!, there can't be that many of them as the majority population in Indonesia are Muslim & it's haram to even touch a dog, let alone EAT one! ( & only allowed to keep them for guards.) The same goes with amphibians (if I'm not mistaken, under Islamic law it's forbidden to eat any animal that can live in both water/land). Already was #SaltBae's account the other day & some a-hole vegan was pestering him & his followers blaming us non-vegans for the Coronavirus.
*I'll tip them 100% because they don't earn much to begin with.
Sorry autocorrect is being stupid
FTR:
IDR 10,000 is about
£0.50 €0.58 ¥68.59 US$0.63
You could argue living costs in Asia are lower, but hell I could never live on that kind of budget! It's inhumane.
So please have compassion rather than just demonise.
They're humans too, they can't just disappear because they need to close shop for the greater good. They have families & should have an alternative way to make a living.
Definition: Non-Florida Residents Tested in Florida: The total number of people with positive COVID-19 test results who were tested, exposed, and/or infectious while in Florida, but are legal residents of another state.
Scandi, I have no opinion on the wet markets. Not my country, not my business but people have to eat. (They probably shouldn't eat bats.) I think the virus originated in the Wuhan Biowarfare lab.
I agree with you @Scandi about the Chinese Wet Markets. I don't think they have to shut down but China has to stop their CTM (Chinese Traditional Medicine) from undermining rigorous Science. Compare China to other third-world countries. SE Asia has wet markets but they practice basic hygiene.
I don't think there is any going around the need to stop the sale of exotic meats. They are bad on several levels.
You are right about the Islamic community considering dogs, lizards, and amphibians forbidden to eat. Jews and Muslims have very similar rules about diet that are basically early food hygiene practices. A basic rule of thumb: if the animal is either a carnivore or an omnivore, they cannot eat it. That's why pigs/boars and shellfish are off the menu. They also cannot eat animals that are "working" animals like horses, donkeys, etc...
I once knew a microbiologist who had no religious diet restrictions but wouldn't touch pork because of how risky he considered it.
@SwampWoman @Portcitygirl: OMG don't get me STARTED on the bioweapon theory. I think North Korea had something to do with it.
If it were from the bioweapons lab in Wuhan, it's even more cruel to blame it on the poor vendors at the wet markets. 😭😭😭😭😭😭💔
@Charade: that is fascinating. I didn't know much about Jewish diet/what it means to be "kosher" (not that many Jews in Indonesia).
Also really fascinated by your microbiologist friend. My understanding is that back in the day during the early developments of Islam, humans practiced poor hygiene at the farms so pigs had tapeworms (this is how pork got to be haram in Islam). I've been told that by today's standards pigs would not be considered haram under Islamic law (Just Netflix is labelled "haram" by the ulama council these days 😂😂).
TAKE CARE! Hope your local shops & your pantries are well-stocked.
💜💜
PS: Twitter fast not going too well. I forgot the Twitter app sends notifications and it just sent out a notification of Laurence Fox 🥦 tweeting about his dream man or something silly. I'm also still seeing IG stories but I think I'll stop looking at them tomorrow. God I hope the notifications stop, we need to protect our sanity during these times.
Charade, I'm not sure that CTM is the problem but that some privileged comrades get much better treatment than others. If your only option was CTM, you would probably embrace it.
@SwampWoman: so true there are "privileged comrades" (although that's an oxymoron, if they're a purist). Just look at Kim Jong-un's sister and her Dior purses! 👜🛍
Sleep well & hope you have wonderful dreams that come true! ☁️🌙💕
The Department of Health in South Africa has just released a detailed presentation on strategy for the virus (including criteria for easing or lifting of the lockdown).
They have divided the pandemic into 8 stages (we are at stage 4 at present):
Stage 1: Preparation, which was educating the public and creating lab capacity. Stage 2: Encouraging social distancing and instituting a shutdown. Stage 3: Intensifying the curtailment of human interaction. Stage 4: Door-to-door testing.
Stage 5: Identify hotspots and intervention strategies. Stage 6: Medical care, like expanding hospital bed numbers and field hospitals. Stage 7: Expanding the burial capacity and regulating funerals, and managing psychological and social impact. Stage 8: Ongoing vigilance of the virus.
It seems to me that a lot of countries are at stages 6 and 7 right now, but that perhaps not enough resources were used for stages 4 and 5.
I dread the day when South Africa gets to stages 6 and 7. We have not avoided it by dealing better with earlier stages ... just delayed it because one of our many weaknesses is that because of bureaucracy and the consequences of decades of entrenched corruption we just cannot build a hospital in such a short time as we have seen in the UK or China, nor cope with mass burials as we have seen in other countries.
What's worrying is I haven't heard anything about Jakarta's government extending emergency state after it's supposed to end April 19.
Just realised Ramadan is starting soon & but all I've heard so far is "no dinners/breaking fast in groups" (it's a tradition in Indonesia, i don't fast but I used to get invited to these fast-breaking dinners all the time because you also invite non-Muslim friends).
My concern is, if they start relaxing rules after 19 April, it'll be hard to get citizens to stay put during Eid exodus when traditionally people travel to see their families in their home towns.
I hope they extend. I'm worried about cooking school resuming too (it's very hands-on).
We haven't even reached peak. It would be unwise for the government to start easing into normality now.
South Africa has reached a plateau at a much lower level of infections/hospitalisations/deaths and much quicker than any other country. Since the lockdown has been extended we are about halfway through what is a ridiculously strict regime. The Department of Health (and all the scientific organisations advising it and assisting it) knows that they need to use this time to find the answers to three questions:
1. Are we missing cases due to low or declining testing coverage? 2. Are there missing cases in poor communities due to skewed higher private lab testing? 3. Is the reduction genuine and due to South Africa's COVID-19 response?
I assume that accuracy of tests has been calculated in for all strategies and responses to data. (Other than the high-quality tests used in labs, that take time, in the field, South Africa seems to be using a testing machine made in the USA to test for TB that has been re-purposed. Don't want to appear biased and xenophobic here, and please call me out for it if warranted, but thank god the machines are made in the USA and not China!)
On second thought, maybe stage 5 (but we skipped stage 4).
We're lacking resources in terms of testing (which is why never or tested despite my insane coughing, the test kits should go to the vulnerable: elderly, critical, healthcare staff. I didn't want to waste a test kit only to then test negative for what seems to be a common flue)
Uk here - still plenty of a-holes heading for Brighton Beach this weekend.
More field hospitals being built, they're functioning in London & Birmingham so far. There's one (c200 beds) scheduled for the County Showground in Exeter. It'll be interesting if they tell us where the patients come from, given rates are lowest down here, so far at least.
I think I've said we have a high population density in UK, even higher in England alone - hence high death rate expected.
PS It's not just tapeworm with pork, nasty as that is. There is trichinosis as well, also one of my pet aversions, that big roundworm Ascaris. In short, high risk of infection from a variety of worms. Good food inspection and thorough cooking are required. Why chefs like it `pink' beats me - are they stupid?
In one Saturday-morning zoology practical we had to deal with live Ascaris - I looked at them undulating gently in the warm saline, straight from the slaughterhouse, and prayed it wouldn't be spaghetti bolognese for lunch.
I don't have a problem with bats although I wouldn't eat one. About 60 years ago my husband had `flying fox and chips' when he was in Java. He's still healthy.
The main `problem' with bats in the UK is that they are protected and must not be disturbed - a real nuisance of they take up residence in one's loft(roof space).
@Anon-Unknown You may find this funny - or horrifying - in my family, we vacationed on a NH lake each summer and went fishing with my Dad in the evenings sometimes. We all had navy blue hoodies, which we called “ bat jackets” as we would wear them and put the hoods up when dusk fell. Learned the hard way...
Bats actually eat a lot of insects, bugs, mosquitoes (6000 to 8000 per night). There is something to be said about having fewer of those as bettering the world in my opinion.
Flying fox is a species of large tropical bat with big eyes. According to Himself, they taste like chicken.
I was going to say `chips are chip' but then realise that for many Nutties `Chips' are what in the UK are called `potato crisps' crunchy morsels sold in sealed packets.
`Chips' are what are prepared in the `chippy' - the fish and chip shop, those larger `fingers' of fried potatoes with soft insides, not frites/American fries/the things that come with a Big Mac..
Another option for UK-ers finding it hard to get online shopping slots are the Morrison's food boxes.
https://www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/
You don't get to pick and choose what goes into it, but it's something to tide you over while you're trying to get a regular shopping slot. My elderly parents were able to get one while they were waiting to be added to the "vulnerable" list for delivery slots and they said they were quite impressed with what they got in theirs. Both are in the shielding category (mum has COPD, stepdad has advanced diabetes with complications) and they were starting to panic at not being able to get any food deliveries so the box was a bit of a lifeline for them. Unfortunately, as they live 100+ miles from me, I can't offer to do their shopping for them and drop it off :O(
@Wild Boar: I live on Java island. Just Googled "flying fox", but they're not orange? 🦊🦊 they look like your average bat? 🦇🦇 but maybe bigger? IDK, it's hard to tell through pictures online.
Hi Scandi - they are large bats with blackish wings and gingery-brown fur. I've seen them at Paignton zoo, hanging upside down in the gloom of their `cave', looking like Dracula - They have large eyes, unlike the sonar-guided ones we have in the UK.
Well, husband says the restaurant where they were on the menu was on Java (he was a ship's engineer at the time and was often around Indonesia). I suppose they could have been imported - I've no idea if they occur naturally on Java.
They must have been thoroughly cooked, so far my bloke has had no discernible ill effects, although I have heard of a link with a kuru-like condition.
Good morning. Interesting information this morning suggesting that one reason Taiwan was so far ahead of the Covid Crisis was that the deputy director of its CDC found information on the Taiwanese version of Reddit in late December. Some of that information came from doctors within Wuhan, information that was quickly repressed by the Chinese Communist party. Fascinating that even the people in charge need to turn to alternate media to source information these days. Let's continue the conversation.
Some European countries have already begun to re-open, and it looks like some US states will partially re-open soon as well. Let's continue the conversation!
Comments
Thank you so much for this post. Chilling read. My heart goes out to the people of Wuhan. There is an article in the DM that our govt paid 3.7? million to the Wuhan lab. I will try to link the article. It suggests it was the past admin that did this. Very interesting. Who knows what to believe.
Thank you so much for this post. Chilling read. My heart goes out to the people of Wuhan. There is an article in the DM that our govt paid 3.7? million to the Wuhan lab. I will try to link the article. It suggests it was the past admin that did this. Very interesting. Who knows what to believe.
Thank you for this post. Having lived in the USA my whole life, I cannot imagine life in China. I feel sad for the people, their government is so corrupt. One day we will be on the other side of this and I hope we depend far less on anything China is producing than we do now. #takebackthesupplychain
Here is the link. I could not find the one from DM.
@Anon-Unknown I'd like to hear what @Nutty thinks of this chart that I came across when I started to re-evaluate my media diet.
https://www.adfontesmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Media-Bias-Chart-5.1_Dec_2019_Ed_-Licensed-scaled.jpg?v=402f03a963ba
Keto diets for everybody!
Thank you for sharing the artikel. 💜💜🍹
@Anon-Unknown I'd like to hear what @Nutty thinks of this chart that I came across when I started to re-evaluate my media diet.
https://www.adfontesmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Media-Bias-Chart-5.1_Dec_2019_Ed_-Licensed-scaled.jpg?v=402f03a963ba
Another two Leftist media outlets that I would add to the list are Truthdig and The Real News Network (i.e. the above chart is not a comprehensive collection of media outlets). The latter is interesting in that there used to be lots of in-depth interviews.
@Anon-Unknown Glad I could contribute something worthwhile :) Yes, living in the hot zone is getting to me. Basic groceries are getting so hard to come by. I hope you and your loved ones are safe, happy, and healthy.
@SwampWoman Keep Calm and Keto On :) I plan on fasting regularly and making them longer as I go. I just hope my hair doesn't fall out.
As much as I would like the idea of the vaccine (and I get a flu vax, believe in vax, support getting them), what worries me is the idea of how do I know this one would be safe?
I remember when people got GBS with swine flu and I remember hearing about thalidomide/birth defects. So when I hear of wanting a vaccine and it will be out soon, I worry about are we pushing it through because we all want to feel safer but there could be something which might not be obvious lurking ... like those.
I've been concerned about seeing my cat's eyes being watery & then while looking to see if it was "cat flu", I was reminded again that watery eyes is common in certain breeds including my cats' breed, Himalayan: https://www.catster.com/cat-health-care/watery-eyes-in-cats-what-causes-watery-cat-eyes-do-you-need-a-vet
I hope everyone is doing well & not going crazy.
Whenever I think stupid things like "I don't care if I get Coronavirus", I always remind myself who will take care of my cats if I die?
Our pets are so important right now, they keep us happy and entertained. 💜💜
https://www.rt.com/russia/485578-russia-coronavirus-vaccine-human-testing/
I think the pandemic is racing through Russia so they are very motivated to get a vaccine tested and approved.
The problems we've been facing is shopping for our elderly neighbors. Three of them are in their 80s and don't understand the need to minimize going outside. They stay home but are in the habit of shopping daily. So, they basically ask for items ever 2-3 days that take 3-4 store visits to find. We've been hyper vigilant with our hygiene but it's exhausting and our skin is parched from all the hand-washing, showers, cleaning, and laundry.
Keep well everyone.
For those in UK looking for a Tesco delivery slot - keep trying but it's may be better to start as early in the day as you can. I don't know when they release the slots but my afternoon, evening and late night attempts failed miserably.
I hit the right time at about 9am yesterday, Easter Sunday - suddenly it was easy! Delivery due in the next hour!
I posted this earlier at the other nutty blog & thought I'd repost this in case anyone else can do the same if they're stumped:
"I gave up on the groceries stores with time slots!! 😂😂
I just do the mom&pops shops that list their stores on Indonesian equivalent to Amazon & pray for the best~ ✨☄🙏🏼🤣"
I don't know if you have small shops/businesses like that on Amazon/eBay in your countries but that's what I've relied on to get ingredients.
Usually when they're overbooked they simply temporarily close their accounts (like go on "vacation mode" but as long as I've managed to put in an order, I'm set). 👍🏼👍🏼
After bawling my eyes out over luvvies behaving inappropriately during the pandemic (!!) OF ALL THINGS 😐, I've decided to limit my social media intake.
I've set my Twitter/Instagram accounts private (except for my cooking journal account & my spirituality account) & as of now (18:19 Jakarta time) I haven't refreshed any new tweets from 07:00GMT. only posted my cooking & that's it.
Just hoping I don't subconsciously open a Twitter list out of habit/subconsciously & see something upsetting.
After crying all day on Easter 🐰🐰🐣🐣🍃🌸, I stayed up to make piña colada puddings until about 02:00 in the bloody morning! 😂😂🍹🍍🥥
Which I then proceeded to have for brunch on Monday morning 🤣🍮☕
PMS or no PMS, it's been a weird Sunday (I'm pretty sure I'm not actually that upset about Netflix lmao). Almost cried again but didn't this morning.
I feel better already & have less anxiety.
Just by not looking at Twitter.
(And enjoying my baby cats. 🤷🏻♀️🐈)
Nothing has really infuriated me today.
I haven't seen a single tweet from a toxic person politicise this.
I've also been thinking a lot about what kind of life i want after this is all over.
Please look after yourselves.
This situation is doing funny strange things to our brains, I swear idk. Maybe we're gaining perspective, and learning better ways , IDK but just don't lose your minds.
I'm worried about people because I'm an introvert, was never outdoorsy, and has a mostly freelance wfh career most of my adult life. And I'm starting to feel sad.
I can't imagine what this must be like for:
- an extrovert
- an outdoorsy person
- someone who was doing very well financially/career-wise before this
I only people I don't feel sorry for are narcissists who couldn't help themselves before COVID-19 even hit peak (like Slebs making uncrucial announcements) & "suffering" from not being the centre of attention.
Please take care of yourselves because weird times. 💜💜
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/4/10/21216484/google-apple-coronavirus-contract-tracing-bluetooth-location-tracking-data-app
iOS and Android operating systems have come up with an app that would track all the phones with which you’ve been in close proximity and if you test positive for COVID-19 it would alert them. Although at first this will be an app you have to download, eventually it will just be an opt-in as part of your operating system.
Can’t get behind all this government tracking and mandating of things. We have individual freedoms in the US, and I would really like to still have some when this is all over.
They keep adjusting this site. For Florida peak deaths they went from 242 to 149 to now 112 deaths per day when the virus is peaking. The stats on the whole USA are dropping as well. If you screenshot your state or country’s data over time it becomes easier to track.
A similar idea was employed for a BBC simulation (can't recall if it was `Pandemic' or `Contagion'
As long as they don't force us to have it/always take a smart phone with you we should be oK.
I haven't got a smartphone - we can't get any sort of signal where we live, although we're in a town, barely half a mile from the telephone exchange (all to do with the hills).
What folk here have been describing sounds like something very different:
iOS and Android operating systems have come up with an app that would track all the phones with which you’ve been in close proximity and if you test positive for COVID-19 it would alert them. Although at first this will be an app you have to download, eventually it will just be an opt-in as part of your operating system.
That sounds to me like a gross violation of individual rights and I do not trust any government to not abuse such a system. We need to find a way to object to this and stop it from happening (just my beliefs with regard to tracking via cellphones and human rights to privacy).
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-04-13-caught-on-camera-dog-walker-tries-to-walk-away-from-cops-in-ct-suburb/
Meanwhile, more than 200 schools have been broken into, looted and vandalised (the police do not seem to notice this destruction of schools so every day more schools are trashed) and an increasing number of liquor outlets (more than 2 dozen and counting) have been broken into and looted (the police seem to go to great lengths to find and arrest those perpetrators, but there was one lot who hijqcked a huge truck carrying alcohol ... the police found the truck, empty and no one in sight!).
Priorities! Our National Minister of Police is a deranged gangster so I am not surprised that the police are behaving in this way.
First, we have something called loadshedding in South Africa. The government controls all production and delivery of electricity. We do not have reliable electricity in South Africa and demand exceeds available supply so we have planned outages (up to 4 a day, for 2 hours each). Of course, with lockdown, businesses are not functioning so we have plenty of electricity!
Anyway, this plan for lockdown is similar to the loadshedding schedules in that there are different stages, with each being more restrictive. The economy is divided into main areas. Some areas will not be shut down at all (e.g. policing, health care providers ...) but the extent that other areas are shutdown depends on the spread of the virus. It sounds complex but because South Africans are used to dealing with complex loadshedding schedules (9 stages; 12 time slots in a day; hundreds of municipal areas) we would have no problem in dealing with this 'wheel' that they have devised. The following article describes the 'wheel':
https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2020-04-13-load-shedding-type-lockdown-phases-and-rapid-aid-for-small-businesses-da-suggests/
Agree with your concerns regarding government tracking.
Also, wow, South Africa sounds organized. We need to come up with a system here in the US, also. I think the elderly and those with medical conditions need to keep isolating, but the rest of us need to get back to work while still trying to maintain social distancing, hand washing, and wearing masks in the workplace.
One suggestion is that stores with delivery or curbside services could note on their website to please do not schedule these deliveries unless you are elderly or have some medical comorbidity. That is one reason we have continued to go and get our groceries as we always have. It would be nice to have more slots for the at-risk populations so they don’t have to risk going into the store and encountering more people.
This can’t go on indefinitely and I can’t get behind all the Chicken Littles running around squawking that the sky is falling when the number of predicted cases keeps dropping. Even when originally we were told that the high numbers would happen even if we social distanced and hand washed and wore masks. At some point those numbers are just not bearing true.
I then compare it the the coronavirus tracker on Bing.com to see the accuracy and get trends.
Washington state has been pretty aggressive and successful in dealing with the virus.
What's scary is in this state and across the nation the toll the virus has taken on nursing home residents , mostly due to poor infection control. Yikes!!
The nursing home industry needs to be investigated and new standards developed for patient safety.
The health data site is the site I referenced when I said that I’ve been following the state of Florida as well as the US cases overall and since last Tuesday (less than a week ago), they’ve adjusted Florida’s peak daily deaths from 242 daily at peak to 112. Less than half, in not even a week.
Overall US deaths I started taking a screenshot on Wednesday of last week are down from a daily predicted peak of 2212 to 1983.
Keep in mind that Florida was one of the later states to issue a shelter in place order. As a rule I think we need to course-correct and keep doing safe behaviors, especially for high risk individuals), but there is now time for some adjustments.
Keeping it all clamped down for the majority of states is neither justified or reasonable.
Heavily populated states like NY/NJ may have to make their own adaptations and they have the right, but the whole country according to their rules, makes no sense.
We could also be seeing less people ending up in the hospital in life-threatening condition because their PCP is quietly writing out scripts for a Z-pak, Plaquenil, and a multivitamin with zinc when they test positive.
I think I told y'all about going to Tractor Supply to pick up some ivermectin for the livestock and the dogs last week, and there was *nothing* with ivermectin. Not even paste wormer! (People, that stuff is nasty and inaccurate, do *not* use paste wormer unless you feel you have no alternative. I'd hork it up and be out the money for the paste wormer plus having to clean up that mess while sick.) I *think* most people are quietly taking lots of vitamins C, D, and maybe eating yogurt with live cultures to bolster their immune systems, some may be dosing themselves with ivermectin after a trip into public or upon developing symptoms and some may well be using the veterinary chloroquine medications used to treat fish. (I wonder how many veterinarians will become ill.)
The downward revision of the model may cause the people that were not in badly affected areas to get *very* angry about shutting the country down and ruining the economy for no reason. For unknown-anon, the northeast looks like the apocalypse and the very thought of opening up businesses is an invitation to mass death because she has seen it. There are people in many areas of the country without mass transportation or big cities wondering what the hell because they haven't seen a single case.
We (Florida) have a ton of cases but comparatively few deaths. Our cases were brought in through the ports, the airlines, and tourists (before anybody gets their knickers in a twist, I mean OUR Florida natives and students returning from cruises, overseas studies, etc.) As of our 11 a.m. update, we have 20,035 Florida residents positive, 566 non-Florida residents positive, and 470 deaths. Most of the cases and the deaths are in south Florida. The deaths in our area have mostly, but not all, been in nursing homes/assisted living facilities where the residents were too frail to live on their own. Many of the people that contracted it through travel have died as well.
It'll be illuminating to see if there's a correlation between infection rates and predicted hot-spots where compliance has been patchy. eg Manchester where the police shut down over 600 parties last weekend. That'll perhaps show up as a peak in 2-3 weeks.
Or a correlation between infection rates and the behaviour of whole communities.
Britain has a high population density overall, even when the depopulated Highlands are included in the area. It's hardly surprising that we may end up doing worse than France or Germany.
Yes I do think some of the numbers are effected by what we are doing and keep doing it, people. Eat healthy, social distance, wash your hands, wear a mask in public if you like, stay isolated if you’re an at-risk population. But we are not all N.Y. and NJ (for those of you not in the US, NJ has LONG been known as one of the most corrupt and poorly run states in our country) and we should NOT all have to live under their mandates.
This is why I stopped reading the posts of Chicken Little (aka Unknown or Anon-Unknown, why that person posts under two names I will never know).
Isolate these high risk areas and focus on helping them, but do not allow them to force their corrupt and over-bearing rules on all of us who are not seeing the same numbers.
This is what I have been saying all along. It isn’t just money, it’s hospitals that are laying people off because they don’t have enough patients (elective operations are not happening and Covid19 cases are very low in MANY areas), it’s the at-risk school children that are falling behind, etc. There are SO many facets to this.
We have taken a stringent first phase approach and that is well and good, but now for MANY areas of our country, we need to phase back in normal life.
The sky is not falling.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/health/smoking-weed-coronavirus-wellness/index.html
Per the above article even occasional marijuana use increases your risk of COVID 19 complications so I would not think it’s that. One thing I would think is that Oregonians probably eat healthier than a lot of us and many are more active than in some areas of the US. I would credit that before pot use.
NJ, Ny, Ma, Mi, Ok, Germany, Italy, Timbuktu, etc!
Not sure why you seem to have an issue with Floridians.
I guess if I lived where you do...., I might have a burr in my butt as you do. Bless your heart.
Thank you. This poster has gone completely off the rails since the beginning. We get it, you live in a hotspot. Don’t take it out on the rest of us.
Bless her heart indeed.
Did your country provide you the masks we discussed and if so through whom and do you know of where those of us in the states could secure some?
Speaking of mental health, many of us are struggling. Even SO who is a total optimist spoke of depression yesterday. I find myself meditating more and listening to chill classical music.
It is still hard. I try to remain optimistic bc we have it so much better than others do at the moment. I just can't imagine how the Jews must have felt and others more recently who have experienced loss through endless wars and terrorism.
I share the belief we need to start putting a few back to work tentatively. Especially in low risk states. I also know how frustrated I get with people traveling to my state from hotspots- north, south, West, etc. I had a family member from SC get on a plane for their Honeymoon to St. Lucia from Charlotte airport recently and the flight was turned around half way and sent back. St. Lucia had closed their borders! Good for them!! Who wants to risk taking in people from Charlotte airport? Why is the airport still allowing this??? 😠😡 it makes me so mad.
I simply tried to explain non-residents. You seem to have a little comprehension issue.
If possible, I recommend a nice, brisk walk... to clear a bit of unnecessary aggression.
Florida is actually being used as a model for setting up testing as well as the task forces and rapid deployment of physicians and infection control experts to control outbreaks among the assisted living facilities/nursing homes.
While the "model" says we are some days from peak deaths and hospitalizations, the hospitalizations are stable to falling.
I will say how extremely unhappy I am with the CDC. They are/were more focused on social justice warrioring than on their job, protecting us from disease.
There are so many variables and the Governors of each section of our vast country will have to work in tandem to get us all through this. I have seen the comments back and forth. I have family and dear friends in both areas so I pray fervently for all of us.
Thank you so much for inquiring about my family. So far everyone is virus free. I hope your family is well, too. There have been no specifics other than they are required back at work even if they may have been exposed until they are symptomatic. Then they are tested and quarantined for 14 days. What I find worrisome are the people becoming reinfected. There is a study coming from South Korea that discusses this. It is hard to know what news outlet to trust or believe. Our leaders here congratulated us today for our self isolating and believe that is why our nunbers are so good. But how long can we continue? People are desperate to get back to work.
For Brits still having prob;ems with online delivery slots.
It does not mean aggressiveness.
As in the then-common British expression `Use your gumption!'
REVEALED: U.S. government gave $3.7million grant to Wuhan lab at center of coronavirus leak scrutiny that was performing experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211291/U-S-government-gave-3-7million-grant-Wuhan-lab-experimented-coronavirus-source-bats.html#comments
So far, all the government' told us regarding masks has been:
- to wear them
- use non-medical fabric/seen masks & avoid buying/selling surgical masks to civilians (non-essential workers) so the hospitals can have them
- urges small businesses to start making them & sell them online to keep their businesses afloat (the small businesses department's Instagram even has a tutorial on how to make homemade hand-sanitisers & how to keep them sterile)
- telling citizens to buy from said small businesses
And yes, DO MEDITATE & LISTEN TO CHILL MUSIC. 💆🏻♀️🐈
Take care & look after yourselves & be healthy all!!~ 🍹💜💜
It doesn't matter whether you're economically left or right, people can't just tell someone to close shop without giving them an alternative/solution.
Whether you're Patrick Bateman (full-blown capitalist) or socialist, you know they don't make much profit (I've bought full-meal street food for as low as IDR 10,000 [less than one £/€/$] which is why I always buy more than one portion and sometimes if I do, I'll too 100% because). If they made massive profits, they'd have enough capital saved to start their own "dry" Whole Foods/Ranch Market/Sainsbury/Albert Heijn (Or whatever you have in your country). They are earnest, down-on-their-luck hard-working people.
They are not like drug dealers (who sell drugs knowing how it destroys people's lives).
I'm sure many of them are horrified & devasstated that they may have been a contributing factor to the spread of a worldwide pandemic.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be closed, I just wish Westerners (those from developed countries) would have a bit compassion about them.
All you see is less-than-hygienic markets in your TV/laptop/mobile screens, you don't get to see the actual men or women selling at the wet markets. They have elderly parents to look after too, they have children to educate too:
- Just like white-collar workers in the UK & Europe
- Just like blue-collar workers in the US
- Just like creative workers in Australia
They're just like you. They're bloody HUMANS TOO.
I agree wet markets should be closed (Or at the very least revamped/renovated to facilitate better hygiene practices) but at least the Chinese government should give them a grant to start a new cleaner business.
Rather than demonise these people (who, again, I'm sure they're horrified to be involved in spread of the virus) why not *help* them stop?
Shame & then concept of "losing face" is a huge element in Asian culture, I wouldn't be surprised if a wet market vendor has committed suicide by now.
******As a side-note: I can't stand the vegan "animal rights" organisations riding on COVID-19 to demonise everyone for eating meat. I saw one saying there were people eating dogs & amphibians/reptiles in Indonesia. Even if they DO exist in Indonesia, which is news to me!!, there can't be that many of them as the majority population in Indonesia are Muslim & it's haram to even touch a dog, let alone EAT one! ( & only allowed to keep them for guards.) The same goes with amphibians (if I'm not mistaken, under Islamic law it's forbidden to eat any animal that can live in both water/land). Already was #SaltBae's account the other day & some a-hole vegan was pestering him & his followers blaming us non-vegans for the Coronavirus.
Sorry autocorrect is being stupid
FTR:
IDR 10,000 is about
£0.50
€0.58
¥68.59
US$0.63
You could argue living costs in Asia are lower, but hell I could never live on that kind of budget! It's inhumane.
So please have compassion rather than just demonise.
They're humans too, they can't just disappear because they need to close shop for the greater good. They have families & should have an alternative way to make a living.
I don't think there is any going around the need to stop the sale of exotic meats. They are bad on several levels.
You are right about the Islamic community considering dogs, lizards, and amphibians forbidden to eat. Jews and Muslims have very similar rules about diet that are basically early food hygiene practices. A basic rule of thumb: if the animal is either a carnivore or an omnivore, they cannot eat it. That's why pigs/boars and shellfish are off the menu. They also cannot eat animals that are "working" animals like horses, donkeys, etc...
I once knew a microbiologist who had no religious diet restrictions but wouldn't touch pork because of how risky he considered it.
I agree with you about the virus. I can't provide the link but one of the Wuhan docs said patients got the virus and had never been to the market.
If it were from the bioweapons lab in Wuhan, it's even more cruel to blame it on the poor vendors at the wet markets. 😭😭😭😭😭😭💔
@Charade: that is fascinating. I didn't know much about Jewish diet/what it means to be "kosher" (not that many Jews in Indonesia).
Also really fascinated by your microbiologist friend. My understanding is that back in the day during the early developments of Islam, humans practiced poor hygiene at the farms so pigs had tapeworms (this is how pork got to be haram in Islam). I've been told that by today's standards pigs would not be considered haram under Islamic law (Just Netflix is labelled "haram" by the ulama council these days 😂😂).
TAKE CARE! Hope your local shops & your pantries are well-stocked.
💜💜
PS: Twitter fast not going too well. I forgot the Twitter app sends notifications and it just sent out a notification of Laurence Fox 🥦 tweeting about his dream man or something silly. I'm also still seeing IG stories but I think I'll stop looking at them tomorrow. God I hope the notifications stop, we need to protect our sanity during these times.
I, too, am out for the night.
Sleep well & hope you have wonderful dreams that come true! ☁️🌙💕
They have divided the pandemic into 8 stages (we are at stage 4 at present):
Stage 1: Preparation, which was educating the public and creating lab capacity.
Stage 2: Encouraging social distancing and instituting a shutdown.
Stage 3: Intensifying the curtailment of human interaction.
Stage 4: Door-to-door testing.
Stage 5: Identify hotspots and intervention strategies.
Stage 6: Medical care, like expanding hospital bed numbers and field hospitals.
Stage 7: Expanding the burial capacity and regulating funerals, and managing psychological and social impact.
Stage 8: Ongoing vigilance of the virus.
It seems to me that a lot of countries are at stages 6 and 7 right now, but that perhaps not enough resources were used for stages 4 and 5.
I dread the day when South Africa gets to stages 6 and 7. We have not avoided it by dealing better with earlier stages ... just delayed it because one of our many weaknesses is that because of bureaucracy and the consequences of decades of entrenched corruption we just cannot build a hospital in such a short time as we have seen in the UK or China, nor cope with mass burials as we have seen in other countries.
What's worrying is I haven't heard anything about Jakarta's government extending emergency state after it's supposed to end April 19.
Just realised Ramadan is starting soon & but all I've heard so far is "no dinners/breaking fast in groups" (it's a tradition in Indonesia, i don't fast but I used to get invited to these fast-breaking dinners all the time because you also invite non-Muslim friends).
My concern is, if they start relaxing rules after 19 April, it'll be hard to get citizens to stay put during Eid exodus when traditionally people travel to see their families in their home towns.
I hope they extend. I'm worried about cooking school resuming too (it's very hands-on).
We haven't even reached peak. It would be unwise for the government to start easing into normality now.
1. Are we missing cases due to low or declining testing coverage?
2. Are there missing cases in poor communities due to skewed higher private lab testing?
3. Is the reduction genuine and due to South Africa's COVID-19 response?
I assume that accuracy of tests has been calculated in for all strategies and responses to data. (Other than the high-quality tests used in labs, that take time, in the field, South Africa seems to be using a testing machine made in the USA to test for TB that has been re-purposed. Don't want to appear biased and xenophobic here, and please call me out for it if warranted, but thank god the machines are made in the USA and not China!)
We're lacking resources in terms of testing (which is why never or tested despite my insane coughing, the test kits should go to the vulnerable: elderly, critical, healthcare staff. I didn't want to waste a test kit only to then test negative for what seems to be a common flue)
More field hospitals being built, they're functioning in London & Birmingham so far. There's one (c200 beds) scheduled for the County Showground in Exeter. It'll be interesting if they tell us where the patients come from, given rates are lowest down here, so far at least.
I think I've said we have a high population density in UK, even higher in England alone - hence high death rate expected.
PS It's not just tapeworm with pork, nasty as that is. There is trichinosis as well, also one of my pet aversions, that big roundworm Ascaris. In short, high risk of infection from a variety of worms. Good food inspection and thorough cooking are required. Why chefs like it `pink' beats me - are they stupid?
In one Saturday-morning zoology practical we had to deal with live Ascaris - I looked at them undulating gently in the warm saline, straight from the slaughterhouse, and prayed it wouldn't be spaghetti bolognese for lunch.
It was.
The main `problem' with bats in the UK is that they are protected and must not be disturbed - a real nuisance of they take up residence in one's loft(roof space).
Bats actually eat a lot of insects, bugs, mosquitoes (6000 to 8000 per night). There is something to be said about having fewer of those as bettering the world in my opinion.
I was going to say `chips are chip' but then realise that for many Nutties `Chips' are what in the UK are called `potato crisps' crunchy morsels sold in sealed packets.
`Chips' are what are prepared in the `chippy' - the fish and chip shop, those larger `fingers' of fried potatoes with soft insides, not frites/American fries/the things that come with a Big Mac..
Two nations divided by a common language...
https://www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/
You don't get to pick and choose what goes into it, but it's something to tide you over while you're trying to get a regular shopping slot. My elderly parents were able to get one while they were waiting to be added to the "vulnerable" list for delivery slots and they said they were quite impressed with what they got in theirs. Both are in the shielding category (mum has COPD, stepdad has advanced diabetes with complications) and they were starting to panic at not being able to get any food deliveries so the box was a bit of a lifeline for them. Unfortunately, as they live 100+ miles from me, I can't offer to do their shopping for them and drop it off :O(
I wonder how Batman's coping with all this. Must be a terribly awkward moment in history for him... 🦇🦇
Well, husband says the restaurant where they were on the menu was on Java (he was a ship's engineer at the time and was often around Indonesia). I suppose they could have been imported - I've no idea if they occur naturally on Java.
They must have been thoroughly cooked, so far my bloke has had no discernible ill effects, although I have heard of a link with a kuru-like condition.
@Wild Boar: that is a fascinating story & your hubby sounds like he had an exciting life!! ✨