Pandemics and Epidemiology (COVID-19, monkeypox, etc.)

Transparency, accountability, decisiveness, and accepting the immediate consequences.

You can get two of them in an autocracy, two of them in a democracy that values the market more than human lives.

Great. Older brother number 1 lives in Alameda. Don't know if he's fine since he works in sewage...

CBC broke this story out.

15 new cases in Taiwan, all imported. This brings us up to 267.

Seven came from the USA, while six came from the UK.

Total 267, 40 domestic, 2 deceased, 30 released.

Singapore enacts new social distancing rules. Those who intentionally sit or queue less than 1 metre from another person in public face $10,000 in fines and/or six months of prison. Guessing that legislators don't want a repeat of the last couple of domestic clusters.

PM and ministers are taking a three-month pay cut.

Aid measures in the pipeline include a $19.1 billion wage subsidy, $1,000/month for nine months for the self-employed, $48 million in skill upgrading programs, a $3,000 payout for lower-income workers and $145 million in unemployment aid.

Oh, and my sister found this on the birb site. *sound of hoofbeats and throat singing intensifies*

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Mar 26th 2020 at 11:50:40 AM

Hungary instituted a 2-week curfew edict, effective between the 28th of March and the 11th of April. Leaving home only for work or for necessities, walks only if 1,5 meters of distance is held.

Huh, I'm seeing news that the Philippine military chief of staff tested positive for COVID-19.

In Hong Kong, the virus made the protests passive. Banners and leaflets and posters. Any clashes you see are from rallies commemorating dead protesters which the police then storm.

Everyone's really waiting for the 2020 elections to give the pan-democrat opposition a leg up. They won the district council, they are certainly going to win seats, even if the usual gerrymandering and voter bribery kicks in.

People have by and large completely lost faith in the government and the conservative pro-Beijing coalition that previously ruled unopposed until last year. They can't even pass Article 23 - the state of emergency bill - due to waiting for their masters in Beijing to respond like obedient little puppets.

Beijing is not in the mood to respond, it seems.

My mother muses that the HK police, unable to comprehend why their own people suddenly hate them, identify more strongly with the PRC and the mainland than their own city.

So the BBC recently came under fire from Taiwan's government.

Taiwan News: BBC deletes report accusing Taiwan quarantine of being 'prison-like'

Here's the link to the original BBC report, and it has indeed been removed: Mother fears for daughter in quarantine in Taiwan

It still shows up in Google Search though.

A lot of Taiwanese people including those in government were pretty pissed off by this.

Edited by M84 on Mar 27th 2020 at 5:21:40 PM

Looks a lot comfier than my friend's quarantine room in Ho Chi Minh City.

If he works in sewage, he should indeed be worried. I've read that the virus has been found in sewage water.

Edited by Redmess on Mar 27th 2020 at 11:17:10 AM

I imagine sewage workers wear better protection than the average person. In a perfect world at least.

I think this was already brought up before in this thread but...

Daily Beast: Coronavirus Heroes Are Getting Tossed From Their Homes by Scared Landlords

Nurses are getting evicted by landlords who are afraid said nurses have COVID-19.

This is happening in India too.

CNN: Doctors evicted from their homes in India as fear spreads amid coronavirus lockdown

Not sure if he does work in the sewers. He did a Master's in Engineering though, so I remember (IIRC) that he does structural analysis.

Cross-posting from the British Politics Thread:

Boris John, the Prime Minister of UK, has tested positive for COVID19.

DAMN.

Czech here, about those faulty tests: It was reported that the tests have a "fault rate" of 80%, but that information is useless because "fault rate" can mean many things. If it means 80% of positive results are false, it can still be used preventively to quarantine. The tests are reliable a few days after infection, so they can still be used for patients with somptoms or patients returning from quarantine.

The whole thing appears more like a PR failure. The government is trying very hard to look like it has the situation under control despite a lack of equipment (mostly face masks and respirators to prevent infection spread). These tests were just called "speed-tests" without further elaboration. It's unclear whether China or the Czech Republic is at fault.

then they should get everyone in the government checked right?

If these were the new antibody/serological test kits, then it bears mentioning that they are currently meant to be complements to existing PCR tests, not substitutes, since they only detect whether your blood has the relevant antibodies - which only show up a few days after infection and doesn't really tell you whether or not it's "active".

China's national medical regulator still advises against using them as a diagnosis criterion, so I suspect that the Czech government bought these straight from the private manufacturers in China rather than receiving them as part of an official aid package.

Gonna wait for more news to surface, though - I'm certainly not ruling out the latter scenario.

Trevor Noah interviews Anthony Fauci.

Everyone who has had close contact with Johnson in the last week or two should probably isolate themselves for a few weeks at the very least and be monitored. And tested near the end of said period.

And every building Johnson has been in needs to be disinfected. Both because of COVID-19 contamination and because it's Boris Johnson.

Both because of COVID-19 contamination and because it's Boris Johnson.

-snerks-

Edited by dRoy on Mar 27th 2020 at 8:55:33 PM

Heh, I was hoping someone would make that joke.

@M84

- Said Filipino Chief of Staff in Manila is self-isolating.

https://militaryleak.com/2020/03/27/fifteenth-russian-ilyushin-il-76-delivers-medical-equipment-to-italy/

15th Russian Air Force Il-76 deployed to Italy to deliver humanitarian supplies.

@Czech/Spanish/Filipino donated kits

- Apparently, South China Morning Post mentioned that the kits provided were made by a company (Bioeasy) that is not approved by the National Medical Products Administration.

Edited by Ominae on Mar 27th 2020 at 5:03:58 AM

Ah, gotcha.

Also, found an update on the earlier confiscated mask story in Czechia, though I'm a bit too light-headed to parse through it at the moment.

(Does anyone else want a little Dr Anthony Fauci to take home)

Japan's now cancelling more visas to stem the tide of the virus.

Meanwhile, Yuriko Koike's worried about people not listening to social distance rules because of new cases in Tokyo, which can spark an outbreak that can force her to order a lockdown.

Despite the Olympics postponed, South Sudanese athletes in Japan will keep training.

Some of this may have merit, I could've sworn when they mentioned the lack of human transmission it was because it wasn't proven at the time, but the way that this should be determined is via a post-pandemic inquiry. Not a demagogic petition composed of people with no ability to determine actual guilt or lack thereof.

This is why I don't take it seriously, because "working with China" seems to be the main complaint.

Absolutely not, the World Health Organization should work with whoever necessary to stop the spread, arguing that they "shouldn't work with authoritarians" is putting lesser political concerns ahead of public safety for literally no benefit.

This argument is fatally flawed considering that South Korea's methods are hardly liberal, mass violations of privacy and ubiquitous surveillance is hardly part of the liberal orthodoxy.

I don't think the article is wrong overall, neither democracy nor authoritarianism seems inherently good at stopping this, but this argument doesn't work logically.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Mar 27th 2020 at 6:47:47 AM