Coronavirus - worldwide breaking news, discussion, stats, updates and more

[kabbes]

elbows (and others) -- you might be interested in this.

Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

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It's only available until tomorrow, then it will be taken down. It's a talk that Gordon Woo recently gave to the London Market Actuaries Group about modelling the COVID pandemic and its effects. Gordon Woo is a catastrophe modeller, kind of a Big Deal in that world. It's always worth hearing what he's been doing on disaster modelling and this is an hour's detailed talk aimed at people who do detailed modelling for a living, so it's not light touch.

 

[yield]

Mexico president tells gangs to stop handing out coronavirus aid
aljazeera. 21 Apr 2020

President Lopez Obrador called on gangs to stop distributing food and asked them to end violence instead.

 

[NoXion]

I thought the Mexican government was basically under the thumb of the cartels anyway? Sounds like the dude is either risking his neck or blowing hot air, depending on how the cartels respond.

 

[Teaboy]

Filling the void vacated by government whether that be through supplying food, clean water or energy etc is the number 1 recruitment technique for gangs in that part of the world. Its straight out of Pablo's playbook in Medellin.

Instead of asking gangs to play nice they'd be better off ensuring their people have that basic stuff so gangs can't exploit the situation.

 

[yield]

A Planetary Pandemic
NLR 122, Mar Apr 2020 (Editors)

The world after covid-19 seems set to be one of heavily indebted, austerity-prone states, bailed-out corporations, hungry, impoverished working classes and expanded personal-data surveillance.

Yet two things may have changed for the better. First: albeit in authoritarian fashion, governments for the first time in generations have had to put public health above profit-making; if that can happen once, it can happen again.

Second: for many, the crisis has provided a rare experience of thinking globally, beyond the walls of our own cultures.

It has become ordinary to conceive our species as a whole, under external threat; but also to feel for doctors and nurses in Italy or Iran, to have a sense of the distance from Wuhan to Qom, to ask how they do things in Sweden or Korea. Hopefully, some of that will last.

 

[weltweit]

WHO press briefing from 22/04/2020

 

[SheilaNaGig]

This article in a US publication has a few snaps and clips showing the good results of humans being off the streets: the gorgeous sky over LA, a peacock wandering about in Dubai, wild boar in Barcelona... and "Londoners also spotted a wild fox..."

LA's skies are smog-free and peacocks are roaming the streets of Dubai. Photos show how nature has returned to cities shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.

Air pollution dropped in several cities, while mountain goats overran a Welsh town as people stay indoors to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[weltweit]

South Africa

South Africa deploys 70,000 troops to enforce lockdown

Since 27 March only essential service providers, such as health workers, financial services providers, journalists and retail workers, are allowed to continue going to work.

Businesses that provide essential services have been applying for a special permit from the government that allows their members of staff to go outside.

The restrictions include no jogging outside, no sales of alcohol or cigarettes, no dog-walking, no leaving home except for essential trips and prison or heavy fines for law-breaking.
..
He also announced an economic relief package worth $26bn (£21bn) intended to protect companies and three million workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a televised address, he said the assistance amounted to 10% of South Africa's entire GDP.

Mr Ramaphosa said the measures included tax relief, wage support through the unemployment insurance fund and funding to small businesses.

from 22/04/2020 S Africa deploys 70,000 troops to enforce lockdown

and

South Africa flattens its coronavirus curve—and considers how to ease restrictions

the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, declared a national state of emergency banning visitors from high-risk countries, stopping large gatherings, closing more than half of its land borders, and shutting schools. On 27 March the country started a 21-day lockdown, closing all borders and confining everyone except those performing essential services to their homes except to buy groceries and medicine or to collect welfare payments.

..
The country is using that time to prepare by sending tens of thousands of community health care workers into villages and towns to screen people and refer those with symptoms for testing. By catching small community outbreaks and isolating cases, the South African response hopes to stop small flare-ups from turning into large wildfires of infection.

from 15/04/2020 South Africa flattens its coronavirus curve—and considers how to ease restrictions

 

[teqniq]

This is fucking outrageous

Edit read it all here

READ: Statement from leader of federal vaccine agency about his reassignment | CNN Politics

Dr. Rick Bright, the director of the agency responsible for leading the charge on the production and purchase of vaccines in the Trump administration, released a statement Wednesday blaming political motives for his abrupt reassignment.

edition.cnn.com

 

[SheilaNaGig]

The French are exploring whether the use of nicotine patches may protect against the virus.

French researchers to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients

Study – which stresses serious health risks of smoking – suggest substance in tobacco may lower risk of getting coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

 

[smokedout]

The French are exploring whether the use of nicotine patches may protect against the virus.

French researchers to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients

Study – which stresses serious health risks of smoking – suggest substance in tobacco may lower risk of getting coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

And to think I was considering stopping, I think this is the best news I've heard so far. Best put a bit of hash in there though to keep the old SARS at bay (PDF) Cannabis Indica speeds up Recovery from Coronavirus

 

[Yu_Gi_Oh]

The French are exploring whether the use of nicotine patches may protect against the virus.

French researchers to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients

Study – which stresses serious health risks of smoking – suggest substance in tobacco may lower risk of getting coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

I vaped pretty smugly last night while I read this article.

 

[sptme]

I vaped pretty smugly last night while I read this article.

Me too!

 

[smokedout]

Weird to think if I hadn't tentatively accepted that first cigarette when I was 12 years old I might be dead of coronavirus by now.

 

[Supine]

The French are exploring whether the use of nicotine patches may protect against the virus.

French researchers to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients

Study – which stresses serious health risks of smoking – suggest substance in tobacco may lower risk of getting coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

Great news for me!

I wouldn't have thought nicotine patches would be the way too investigate this though. Being a respiratory disease it might be the act of smoking that helps.

 

[weltweit]

Great news for me!

I wouldn't have thought nicotine patches would be the way too investigate this though. Being a respiratory disease it might be the act of smoking that helps.

I am not going to get too excited by this because I recall deaths in China mainly males and the correlation being suggested that more men than women were dying and they wondered whether it was because more men than women smoked. I would have thought if smokers were dodging the bullet in China they might have noticed?

 

[Supine]

I am not going to get too excited by this because I recall deaths in China mainly males and the correlation being suggested that more men than women were dying and they wondered whether it was because more men than women smoked. I would have thought if smokers were dodging the bullet in China they might have noticed?

That was a first conclusion but then it was discovered men are more impacted than women globally, not just in male smoking countries.

 

[JimW]

I am not going to get too excited by this because I recall deaths in China mainly males and the correlation being suggested that more men than women were dying and they wondered whether it was because more men than women smoked. I would have thought if smokers were dodging the bullet in China they might have noticed?

Funnily enough I remember the earliest stats supporting the idea that smokers were lower risk though ex smokers higher mortality, but subsequently didn't have that breakdown or see it mentioned so may have read wrong.

 

[wayward bob]

The French are exploring whether the use of nicotine patches may protect against the virus.

just came to post/ask about this as it seems so strangely unlikely...

<vapes>

 

[sparkybird]

Filling the void vacated by government whether that be through supplying food, clean water or energy etc is the number 1 recruitment technique for gangs in that part of the world. Its straight out of Pablo's playbook in Medellin.

Instead of asking gangs to play nice they'd be better off ensuring their people have that basic stuff so gangs can't exploit the situation.

Not defending AMLO but in some parts of Mexico, gangs ARE effectively the government/police. I guess if you are starving you don't think too hard about where the food comes from. Desperate situation

 

[JuanTwoThree]

I suppose that if a number of gang-tatted gentlemen turned up in a pick-up (lazy stereotyping) with food and drinking water I'd accept it. They might think me ungrateful if I didn't. Which might be counter-productive.

 

[teqniq]

Another outbreak this time in a city in the north of China, Harbin.

Chinese city tightens coronavirus travel curbs in biggest outbreak

A northeastern city of 10 million people, grappling with what is now China's biggest coronavirus outbreak, further restricted inbound traffic on Wednesday to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease.

www.reuters.com

 

[Chilli.s]

Another outbreak this time in a city in the north of China, Harbin.

Chinese city tightens coronavirus travel curbs in biggest outbreak

A northeastern city of 10 million people, grappling with what is now China's biggest coronavirus outbreak, further restricted inbound traffic on Wednesday to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease.

www.reuters.com

Will be interesting to see how this develops with the testing and contact tracing being put into full swing.

 

[teuchter]

We are getting a preview of the air quality possible in our cities once vehicles have moved on from petrol and diesel combustion engines to electric or fuel cells.

No! Moving to electric does not solve the air pollution problem. It improves it but it's not the solution. We need to reduce the number of vehicles, rather than potentially increasing them by a false portrayal of electric vehicles as problem free.

 

[two sheds]

True that, non-exhaust emissions (from brakes and tyres) are almost as high as exhaust emissions and will grow relatively with electric vehicles.

 

[teuchter]

I agree that the U.K. situation is different than the US, for one - the U.K. is tiny compared to the US - eg. the state of Texas alone is about 10 times or so larger than the U.K which in itself requires a different approach no doubt regarding how the US opens back up compared to here in the UK.

That's completely wrong. Texas is not 10 times the size of the UK. Its 2 or 3 times the size in land area, and about half the size in population.

 

[teuchter]

True that, non-exhaust emissions (from brakes and tyres) are almost as high as exhaust emissions and will grow relatively with electric vehicles.

And they don't solve congestion or safety or noise pollution problems either. Or equality of mobility.

 

[prunus]

That's completely wrong. Texas is not 10 times the size of the UK. Its 2 or 3 times the size in land area, and about half the size in population.

As you’re replying to a Marty1 post, the second and third sentences are redundant.

 

[Cid]

Another outbreak this time in a city in the north of China, Harbin.

Chinese city tightens coronavirus travel curbs in biggest outbreak

A northeastern city of 10 million people, grappling with what is now China's biggest coronavirus outbreak, further restricted inbound traffic on Wednesday to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease.

www.reuters.com

Ah shit. Harbin is a major hub in the northeast.

 

[bimble]

The French are exploring whether the use of nicotine patches may protect against the virus.

French researchers to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients

Study – which stresses serious health risks of smoking – suggest substance in tobacco may lower risk of getting coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

What the hell? Am extremely confused now. “Our cross-sectional study strongly suggests that those who smoke every day are much less likely to develop a symptomatic or severe infection with Sars-CoV-2 compared with the general population,” the Pitié-Salpêtrière report authors wrote.'
Do I add this to my 'give up smoking for coronaviris thread?