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Bleach can not only kill every virus known to science, drinking or injecting it eliminates the risk of getting cancer and instantly stops the aging process, Trump should be encouraged to start using this wonder drug.

Also singlehandedly increases the average IQ of the population.
 
Surely we’ve now reached peak Trump idiocy. He can’t top this can he?

It’s slightly upsetting to think that, even if he doesn’t benefit from presidential immunity from prosecution for whatever corruption / negligence or other criminal behaviour during this presidency which later emerges after he’s left office, he will always have available to him “mental incompetence” as a defence strategy.

After all, what defence lawyer would not be able to draw on a wide selection of clips of Trump talking nonsense and prove beyond doubt that he was obviously nutty as a fruitcake and it was the fault of the rest of us, if we listened to or acted on a single word he said? On that basis, he has the perfect incentive to be as corrupt and mendacious as he likes, with no come back if his misdeeds are later discovered.
 
It’s slightly upsetting to think that, even if he doesn’t benefit from presidential immunity from prosecution for whatever corruption / negligence or other criminal behaviour during this presidency which later emerges after he’s left office, he will always have available to him “mental incompetence” as a defence strategy.

After all, what defence lawyer would not be able to draw on a wide selection of clips of Trump talking nonsense and prove beyond doubt that he was obviously nutty as a fruitcake and it was the fault of the rest of us, if we listened to or acted on a single word he said? On that basis, he has the perfect incentive to be as corrupt and mendacious as he likes, with no come back if his misdeeds are later discovered.

Being incompetent is not the same thing as being inculpable. This is the same guy who ham-fistedly tried to cover up some of his wrongdoings, remember. That's the kind of thing done by bumbling criminals, not the innocently incompetent.

Also, if Trump gets off with that defence, that would basically constitute an official recognition that the US political system is so fucking broken, that it cannot prevent a legally incompetent buffoon from attaining the highest office. I'm not so sure that any US judge would be willing to make that admission, although I admit that I cannot rule out that possibility.
 
Coronavirus Vaccine News

First patients injected in UK vaccine trial
The first human trial in Europe of a coronavirus vaccine has begun in Oxford.

Two volunteers were injected, the first of more than 800 people recruited for the study.
Half will receive the Covid-19 vaccine, and half a control vaccine which protects against meningitis but not coronavirus.
from 23/04/2020 First patients injected in UK Covid vaccine trial

and

The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine – a perilous and uncertain path
The vaccine hunters are trying to outwit an invisible enemy so small that a million viral particles could fit inside a human cell, but whose biological ingenuity has brought everyday life to a standstill.
..
First into clinical trials, just eight weeks after the genetic sequence for Covid-19 was published in January, was the US biotech company Moderna, with its RNA vaccine.
..
Also testing their candidates in human trials are the Chinese vaccine company CanSino Biologics, and a team at Oxford University led by Prof Sarah Gilbert.

Both are using harmless viruses that have been disabled so that they don’t replicate once they get inside cells. These delivery vehicles are known as “non-replicating viral vectors”.
These teams had already tried and tested the approach for other diseases, such as Ebola, and had flasks of their vectors sitting in freezers, ready to go.

A third approach is that of the US biotech company Inovio, a firm that has existed for four decades without developing an approved product, but whose stock soared after it started its trial earlier this month.
from 24/04/2020 The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine – a perilous and uncertain path
 
If a coronavirus vaccine arrives, can the world make enough?
.. researchers are already warning that it might not be physically possible to make enough vaccine for everyone, and that rich countries might hoard supplies.

The production facilities needed will depend on which kind of vaccine turns out to work best. Some researchers say governments and private funders should give vaccine manufacturers money to ramp up their production capacity in advance, even if these facilities are never used.
..
Pick a winner?
One big challenge in creating a lot of vaccine quickly is scaling up manufacturing, because the infrastructure needed will differ depending on the vaccine type.
from 09/04/2020 If a coronavirus vaccine arrives, can the world make enough?
 

Coronavirus detected on particles of air pollution
Exclusive: Scientists examine whether this route enables infections at longer distances

Coronavirus has been detected on particles of air pollution by scientists investigating whether this could enable it to be carried over longer distances and increase the number of people infected.

The work is preliminary and it is not yet known if the virus remains viable on pollution particles and in sufficient quantity to cause disease.

The Italian scientists used standard techniques to collect outdoor air pollution samples at one urban and one industrial site in Bergamo province and identified a gene highly specific to Covid-19 in multiple samples. The detection was confirmed by blind testing at an independent laboratory.
 
First trial for potential Covid-19 drug shows it has no effect
WHO draft put online states remdesivir does not benefit severe coronavirus patients
..
Remdesivir, a drug thought to be one of the best prospects for treating Covid-19, failed to have any effect in the first full trial, it has been revealed.
The drug is in short supply globally because of the excitement it has generated. It is one of the drugs Donald Trump claimed was “promising”.

In a “gold standard” trial of 237 patients, some of whom received remdesivir while others did not, the drug did not work. The trial was also stopped early because of side-effects.
from 23/04/2020 First trial for potential Covid-19 drug shows it has no effect
 
When will we have a drug to treat it?
More than 150 different drugs are being researched around the world. Most are existing drugs that are being trialled against the virus.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the Solidarity trial aimed at assessing the most promising treatments
  • The UK says its Recovery trial is the the world's biggest, with more than 5,000 patients already taking part
  • And multiple research centres around the world are attempting to use survivors' blood as a treatment
from 22/04/2020 What is the most promising coronavirus drug?
 
Jeez, Brazil looks fucked :(

Yep, not looking good. :(

Cases of the new coronavirus are overwhelming hospitals, morgues and cemeteries across Brazil as Latin America’s largest nation veers closer to becoming one of the world’s pandemic hot spots.

Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse, or already too overwhelmed to take any more patients.

And...

Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro has shown no sign of wavering from his insistence that COVID-19 is a relatively minor disease and that broad social-distancing measures are not needed to stop it. He has said only Brazilians at high risk should be isolated.

:facepalm:
 
Immunity passports frowned on by WHO because of no evidence of lasting immunity.

Wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on.
 
Immunity passports frowned on by WHO because of no evidence of lasting immunity.

Wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on.


Nevertheless I can quite imagine a world where’s you have to have some kind of covid vaccine document or be reguster d somewhere in order to buy a ticket to fly, go to a gig, book a table, etc.
 
Nevertheless I can quite imagine a world where’s you have to have some kind of covid vaccine document or be reguster d somewhere in order to buy a ticket to fly, go to a gig, book a table, etc.

I can imagine such a world falling apart very quickly when it turns that no, viruses don't give a shit whether or not you're carrying a particular piece of paper or registered on a list somewhere. Because without acquiring any natural immunity that's all such things would be.
 
I can imagine such a world falling apart very quickly when it turns that no, viruses don't give a shit whether or not you're carrying a particular piece of paper or registered on a list somewhere. Because without acquiring any natural immunity that's all such things would be.
My understanding is that long term immunity after recovery isn't proven, it might be the case, perhaps not for ever, but perhaps for a period, but anyhow that also isn't proven.

Nations are going to want some evidence that incoming travellers are not bringing coronavirus with them into their countries as an unwelcome present. Perhaps if an ultra rapid antigen test were developed travel might be enabled. You don't have an immunity card or a QR code, instead you take a test before you go on the aircraft and it's the result of that test that permits you entry into the aircraft and into the country when the flight lands?

There is going to have to be some solution or the travel industry and airlines are going to close for good.
 
Thread on Singapore where Covid-19 is spiralling out of control, predictably in the low-paid workers domitories, those who keep the economy afloat.

This article is mainly on the sorry state migrant workers find themselves in in Singapore.
I just cropped this bit out.
In the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, Singapore was praised for its response and apparent ability to suppress infections without resorting to extreme measures.
Then, in April, the number of cases exploded. Since March 17, Singapore's total cases grew from 266 to 12,075, according to data from Johns Hopkins University
from 25/04/2020 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/24/asia/singapore-coronavirus-foreign-workers-intl-hnk/index.html

From a government website:
As of 25 April 2020, 12pm, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 618 new cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore.
..
Of the new cases, 81% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

46 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. To date, 1,002 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities.
from 25/04/2020 COVID-19: Cases in Singapore

I don't see a move from testing tracing and isolating as a policy with some local lockdowns.
 
So, it's not just idiots in the US protesting about the lockdown, yesterday German police arrested more than 100 people out of around a 1000 protesting in Berlin, and apparently this was the fourth week of such demonstrations.

Hardly surprising that the protesters included well-known far-right nut-jobs and conspiracy theorists. :facepalm:

 
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