Main Coronavirus / Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[Bozza]

'Merica - Arizona sheriff who refused to enforce lockdown because too few people died tests positive for coronavirus

**** >>> https://www.indy100.com/article/arizona-sheriff-refused-lockdown-positive-coronavirus-9575786

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

https://twitter.com/euronews/status/1270294720183484416?s=21

That has pretty much been disproven and was in the news a couple of weeks back.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53005768

 

[vegster]

The utter stupidity of Republican politicians, encouraged by their mate Trump, in ending much of lockdown at the beginning of May.

A fortnight later on 14 May, Florida Governor boasted “We were reasonable. We trusted the people to act appropriately and we've had better results than some of the states that you've seen.' Florida had 35,000 confirmed cases when he acted, now its 90,000 and growing fast. Inadvertently, he proved that lockdowns work.

View attachment 125099

A similar story in Texas which lifted much of lockdown on 1 May.

View attachment 125100

Sadly, this upturn was predicted. New cases daily have rarely dropped below 20k but the momentum is rising upwards again quite fast. This is the result of the huge pressure to get the US economy moving again at all costs with little thought to the risks.

Lots of angry unemployed men with guns tends to exert quite some influence.

 

[The Wizard]

Implies a lot more mild symptom cases are being found, it’s actually strikingly similar to the the U.K. pattern from early May when our cases plateaued and even went up a little as testing increased massively, but deaths continued to come down.

 

[oldboyroy]

As you say it seems many thousands of mild cases being found and it convinces me that UK is similar. Would not surprise me if half the UK have actually had it over last 6 months most not showing symptoms or so mild that a slight cough/muscle ache/very mild flu like symptoms and although it's in general circulation millions have become immune for a while.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Implies a lot more mild symptom cases are being found, it’s actually strikingly similar to the the U.K. pattern from early May when our cases plateaued and even went up a little as testing increased massively, but deaths continued to come down.

As you say it seems many thousands of mild cases being found and it convinces me that UK is similar. Would not surprise me if half the UK have actually had it over last 6 months most not showing symptoms or so mild that a slight cough/muscle ache/very mild flu like symptoms and although it's in general circulation millions have become immune for a while.

It equally implies we will beat Arsenal today, because I desperately want it to be so.

If you have a look at the data you will see that there are still a lot of ICU beds in use.
http://covid19.healthdata.org/united-kingdom

What you are seeing is better outcomes in hospital, resulting in less deaths.

We even had a good news story this week on a massive improvement in patients on ventilators, being treated with a cheap, widely tested and available drug. A very welcome British success story!

Maybe there is also an impact from the dry warm weather. This is not the same as a virus that is weakening, please stop kidding yourselves.

 

[The Wizard]

It equally implies we will beat Arsenal today, because I desperately want it to be so.

If you have a look at the data you will see that there are still a lot of ICU beds in use.
http://covid19.healthdata.org/united-kingdom

What you are seeing is better outcomes in hospital, resulting in less deaths.

We even had a good news story this week on a massive improvement in patients on ventilators, being treated with a cheap, widely tested and available drug. A very welcome British success story!

Maybe there is also an impact from the dry warm weather. This is not the same as a virus that is weakening, please stop kidding yourselves.

I didn’t imply the virus was weakening CR, my point is that although this virus is deadly to vulnerable people, it gives minor or no symptoms to most and as testing widens you catch more of these cases. In the US the testing numbers have tripled in the last month, so even though there is a similar amount of cases to their first peak, in actuality the case numbers are probably nowhere near as high, and nowhere near as severe.

The first week of April the U.K. had our peak of infections with 10x less testing than we had when we had a similar number in early May, so testing numbers themselves are not a clear indicator of where a country is, deaths and ICU occupation are more significant, both of which are coming down in the US overall despite cases increasing again.

Even scientists don’t know for sure what is happening with this virus, it’s novel so we don’t know enough about it, what we do know is most viruses become less virulent over time because killing your host is not a good way to multiply and thrive, whether that’s happening now nobody knows, your or anyone else.

 

[CheeseRolls]

I didn’t imply the virus was weakening CR, my point is that although this virus is deadly to vulnerable people, it gives minor or no symptoms to most and as testing widens you catch more of these cases. In the US the testing numbers have tripled in the last month, so even though there is a similar amount of cases to their first peak, in actuality the case numbers are probably nowhere near as high, and nowhere near as severe.

The first week of April the U.K. had our peak of infections with 10x less testing than we had when we had a similar number in early May, so testing numbers themselves are not a clear indicator of where a country is, deaths and ICU occupation are more significant, both of which are coming down in the US overall despite cases increasing again.

Even scientists don’t know for sure what is happening with this virus, it’s novel so we don’t know enough about it, what we do know is most viruses become less virulent over time because killing your host is not a good way to multiply and thrive, whether that’s happening now nobody knows, your or anyone else.

You just throw away the data you don't like.

Is there anything that suggests to you that hospital treatment may have improved in the last 6 months?
Is there a POSSIBILITY that mild infection may not provide long term immunity?

I agree with you there is still much that is not known. Including the link between the virus load you are exposed to and the severity of the illness. Managing the infection rate to near zero and keeping it low is a near certain route back towards normality. The US are heading in two different directions, when you drill down into the data. We need to be in single figures per day for new infections before the cold damp weather arrives, or I think we could be back to square one.

 

[vegster]

View attachment 125104View attachment 125105

Implies a lot more mild symptom cases are being found, it’s actually strikingly similar to the the U.K. pattern from early May when our cases plateaued and even went up a little as testing increased massively, but deaths continued to come down.

Not sure if this is so, the death rate tends to lag some way behind the infection rate. We need to look at the daily deaths in the US in 10 - 14 days time to judge this.

 

[The Wizard]

You just throw away the data you don't like.

Is there anything that suggests to you that hospital treatment may have improved in the last 6 months?
Is there a POSSIBILITY that mild infection may not provide long term immunity?

I agree with you there is still much that is not known. Including the link between the virus load you are exposed to and the severity of the illness. Managing the infection rate to near zero and keeping it low is a near certain route back towards normality. The US are heading in two different directions, when you drill down into the data. We need to be in single figures per day for new infections before the cold damp weather arrives, or I think we could be back to square one.

What data have a I thrown away that I don’t like? There’s been no known treatments for COVID, until the discovery of dexamethasone, that’s first treatment that has been clinically proven to improve actual survival, Remdesivir shortens recovery but doesn’t reduce mortality, so there isn’t any evidence, until this week, that suggests treatments have got any better, as far as I’m aware.

With regards to mild illness and immunity, I’ve seen several studies one done by a French research team recently that confirmed mildly symptomatic people do still gain antibodies, immunity is a massively complex thing and the research in this area says that immunity isn’t as simple as antibodies, previous Coronavirus exposure, T Cells and antibodies are ways in which your body can fight the virus, 2 of those very little is known about at the moment.

I think it’s frivolous to suggest that it’s deluding yourself to think the virus could be weakening, nobody knows. I prefer to look at things from a glass half full perspective, time will tell who is correct.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

So it Looks like if you're told to isolate for any reason companies are entitled to just pay statutory sick pay. Me thinks a lot of people simply won't mention they should be isolating.

Seems another flaw?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

That has pretty much been disproven and was in the news a couple of weeks back.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53005768

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news...n-italy-in-december-scientists-claim-12010558

I’m not sure what to believe

If it was in Italy as early as this (and France) there’s a high possibility those dates in China match

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news...n-italy-in-december-scientists-claim-12010558

I’m not sure what to believe

If it was in Italy as early as this (and France) there’s a high possibility those dates in China match

Yeah, you're right. The recent news from its presence in Europe last year does seem to back up the Harvard conclusion.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

USA and Brazil continuing to benefit from strong leadership.

 

[Raphael Meade]

Really getting shocking over here - a lot of the republican led states that have refused to implement mask mandates and are fully open are in a very bad way and starting to try and reverse course, despite Trump still totally ignoring it and pretending it's over, he's even announced plans to end federal funding for COVID testing. Totally nuts with no sign of improvement in sight...

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53069772

More good news

 

[Machiavelli]

USA and Brazil continuing to benefit from strong leadership.

View attachment 125147

I think you mean Brazil and USA, respectively.
Note also that things are not looking good in Mexico: 947 deaths yesterday

 

[sydney]

has anyone asked themselves why china have managed to stamp out the second wave ....?? could it be because they do what they're ****in told.....??but really 300k republicans , does it matter...??

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I think you mean Brazil and USA, respectively.
Note also that things are not looking good in Mexico: 947 deaths yesterday

US terrible. Rates going up in 23 states (red neck) despite Covid being over in places like NY. Clear second peak nationwide, but it is actually just a continuation and growth of the first peak in red neck states.




Some might call it natural selection.

 

[Notters]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53069772

More good news

Yep. We do still seem to have a number of services which were long since cut down there (e.g. free garden waste collection and child services). Wonder how long they will last.