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Bloody hell just reading about what’s going on in Czech Republic, which was looking so good back in the spring.
Today police shooting water canon at anti lockdown protestors in the middle of Prague and look at this. Worst rate in Europe right now by far. Terrifying.
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Yes my parents live there (both over 70 with health probs), and their GP got in touch with them last week and told them to shield in a much stricter way than they were told to in March, and they said now there are cases in the small town they live in, which there hasn't been before.
 
i'm sorry crossthebreeze that must be really worrying for you and them. I was in Czech early last month, to see my parents (they don't live there were just visiting) and from one day to the next the government brought mandatory mask wearing back in (for all indoor places) but there was no sense of the impending disaster that's going on now. Would really like to understand how this happened, how come they were doing so well the first time round and then find themselves with the worst rate in europe.
From my short time there it looked like people were taking it more seriously than they are here - noticed for instance teenagers sat alone on near-empty trains wearing their masks properly, things like that.
 
Human challenge trials, starting in January, to determine minimum infectious dose of the virus and infection dynamics.

You know the shit has hit the fan when this kind of study is done. The ethics bar to allow it is much lower than normal.

Respect to the trial participants :thumbs:
 
€88 tests to be offered to travellers flying from Heathrow to Italy (and Hong Kong)...
...though if you skip that you can get a rapid test on arrival in Italy for €30.

Its an interesting development and seems to be the way countries are going. If you want to avoid a 2 week quarantine you're going to need a very recent clear test. Interesting that the test is a saliva test and appears to be slightly less accurate than the nose and throat swab. Given the questions I have with the accuracy of the traditional test this does not inspire confidence.

Still, this is likely to be a template of getting things back to a level of normality. Its not perfect but it'll be good enough which is probably how the first few vaccines will be seen.
 
Interesting article here covering the second wave's spread across Europe, including a list of different restrictions that various countries have introduced.

For months, scientists and global health experts warned that European governments must build up coronavirus testing and tracing capacity, put in place strict quarantine and isolation measures, ready hospitals for Covid-19 patients, protect the elderly and vulnerable, and, especially, get people to wear masks. Taking these steps, said Anthony Costello, a professor of global health at University College London, avoids “the bluntest weapon to control the epidemic”: the lockdown.

Yet, with few exceptions, leaders did not adequately prepare. Instead, there was complacency and denial. When social distancing measures slowed coronavirus spread over the summer, politicians lifted restrictions quickly in an effort to restart economies. They then failed to heed the warnings of scientists and doctors again — that small upticks in infections would eventually culminate in an exponential growth in cases, followed by increases in hospitalizations and deaths. (A grim, similar pattern developed in the US.)

 
Sky News has been running a report on how bad things are in Belgium, 3 minute video in link below.

An intensive care specialist in Belgium's worst-hit COVID-19 region has told Sky News he fears the moment when the hospital is full and he has to choose who will live and who will die.

Dr Laurent Jadot says the situation has become so bad that many people are now calling it "the new Lombardy", in reference to the part of Italy which suffered the most during the first wave of the pandemic crisis.

He works at CHC Montlegia, which has one of the largest intensive care units in the city of Liege at the heart of the southern region of Wallonia - where hospitals are struggling to cope with the number of coronavirus patients.

 
Infections spreading in new Irish communities, leading to (of course) a backlash against them :mad:

With high rental prices pushing foreign students from Latin America, Asia and Europe into overcrowded housing, where they often share with up to a dozen other people, it’s not surprising the virus has spread among Brazilians. The Brazilian Left Front campaign group warned earlier this year that Brazilian students in Irish cities were “in a more vulnerable health position” as many have survived during the pandemic by working informally through food delivery.

It is understood that large numbers of Nigerians work as home carers, leaving them at greater risk of contracting the virus, while many Moldovans work in meat plants where a number of coronavirus clusters have occurred.

While the number of Filipinos who have tested positive for the virus appears quite low down on the HPSC list, the Filipino Consul has warned that its community is being “disproportionately affected” by the virus given the large numbers working in hospitals and as carers. About 16,000 Filipinos live in Ireland with the majority working in healthcare and hospitality.

Teresa Buczkowska, from the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said migrants were continuing to provide many essential services in this country and “pay the price of being at the front line”.

“Migrants are producing our food and are delivering it to our doorsteps. They are caring for our elders, keeping our hospitals clean and are providing essential medical care”. Migrants are also more likely to live in overcrowded conditions where they cannot practise social distancing or self-isolation, said Ms Buczkowska. She criticised the “backlash against migrant communities” during the coronavirus crisis, saying Irish lives would have been “much more affected by the pandemic if not for the migrants who stepped up”.



Nearly 400 Brazilians have tested positive for Covid-19 in Ireland, data shows
 
My mum has told me that Eastern Slovakia where she is doesn't have many cases, other than one big cluster in one place - a Roma village (that's basically more like a shantytown) a few km away. Very worrying to think how badly COVID will impact on Roma communities there and in other parts of Eastern Eurpope - overcrowded, multigenerational households; people who will have low-paid manual type jobs they have to go out and do; and massive amounts of racism that mean many of those in power won't care about Roma deaths or wellbeing. :(
 
So, considering whether to take the family to Tenerife for Xmas, if the 'non-essential travel' advice is lifted and normal travel insurance is therefore available. Can anyone who has spent more time looking at this comment on their much lower cases per million people? Less testing, more testing? Is the relevant metric actually active cases as a % of the population?
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Thanks in advance for any help!
 
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