outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

Death rate per 100,000 people in the UK is 47. In my area it's 120.

A few news stories of note:

https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/natasha-daly-national-geographic.php

Daly has debunked claims about a new and glorious presence of ducks in the fountains in Rome (they are there, but they always were), peacocks in India (again, they live there), dolphins swimming through Venice (the photos in question were actually taken in Sardinia), deer on an Indian highway (it’s Japan, and the photo is years old).

“Conservationists say that, actually, we’ve changed ecosystems on earth to the point where they can’t recover without our assistance and help,” she said. “So to have that sort of mindset that we just need to do nothing, it almost undermines the really real and important work that conservationists do.”

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfw1r9xyXVA9CjeMP2V8xr1ZszLr4ZgCOtHB7kLTzPaGrXd9A/viewform?mc_cid=611c522843

Have you lost someone to coronavirus or do you work with victims' families? Help us remember New Yorkers felled by COVID-19. Share their story with THE CITY.

Violence in Germany by anti-quarantine protestors against the media
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-anger-foments-violence-against-journalists/a-53383927

A crew from the TV broadcaster ZDF had finished filming a so-called Hygiene Demonstration on May 1 for the satirical "Heute Show" ("Today Show") when it was set upon by some 15 hooded people, possibly with malice aforethought. Several members of the crew were injured, some severely. According to media reports, the attackers used metal bars and cudgels.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/health/coronavirus-plague-pandemic-history.html

In Florence, wrote Giovanni Boccaccio, “No more respect was accorded to dead people than would nowadays be accorded to dead goats.” Some hid in their homes. Others refused to accept the threat. Their way of coping, Boccaccio wrote, was to “drink heavily, enjoy life to the full, go round singing and merrymaking, and gratify all of one’s cravings when the opportunity emerged, and shrug the whole thing off as one enormous joke.”

speaking of plagues in italy, anyone who hasn't read the LRB article about 1629 in florence really should:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/lrb-conversations/four-hundred-years-of-quarantine

there is a podcast episode with the author here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/lrb-conversations/four-hundred-years-of-quarantine

How would I explain to the robot dog that I'm standing close to my wife, with whom I also sleep?

very respectfully

oh cool, Black Mirror episode is here

also ED 209 will be patrolling the streets

very good, short article on how this could play out.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/health/coronavirus-pandemic-curve-scenarios.html

lmao @ the idea that “herd immunity” could have ever been mentioned as a strategy. look at the graph. it will take years and years to even get to 55%.

WATCH: Protesters calling for gyms to reopen in Florida are doing squats and push-ups outside the Clearwater courthouse https://t.co/3BVzxHQPEJ #Florida #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/3cjgQ6kaM8

— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) May 11, 2020

Clearwater, home of the sea org

imagine having a customer base that is so dedicated that they gather together in dangerous conditions outside of your place of business to do the thing that they want to pay you to do inside of your building, if it only it were less dangerous

it's like standing outside of a Cold Stone eating homemade ice cream and demanding to be let inside so you can pay them for ice cream

Are these folks dupes or trolls?

Or a smooth combination of both?

They are not incredibly bright

I hadn't missed hardly a day at the gym for three months when this came along, but if it reopens, that's extremely low on my priority list. Twice-a-day walks are filling the void just fine in keeping off the weight I'd lost.

Walk plus ring fit plus no restaurants means somehow I'm not fatter than before,

you should protest in front of nintendo headquarters! end social distancing so you can play ring fit!!

They aren’t there, they’re working from home.

that didn't stop the brave clearwater gym protesters

I thought this was a good overview of what we currently know about where risks of transmission are highest:

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them

TLDR: Transmission through the air in an enclosed space is a high risk. Just breathing the same air can do it if you spend enough time there. Sneezing or coughing increases the risk significantly.

it seems good and people i trust are sharing it but the quillette acknowledgement at the end makes me suspicious

lol

You could skip the article and just read the studies he cites (ie follow the links).

For example, the Korean workplace study:
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/8/20-1274_article

https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/cafe-in-castle-rock-endangering-the-lives-of-community-for-reopening-despite-public-health-order-polis-office-says/73-8a77b8f4-6b5b-48cd-809b-1f86f36a4dc0

On Sunday, one of the restaurant's customers said she and her family waited three hours to get their meals.
"I’m here to support this because I love the fact that we all have choices," Holly Burrell said. "That’s what being an American is about."

idiotic individualism>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>rugged individualism

if only it were only the people being self-aggrandizing idiots that would get sick

maybe we can tell them they can camp in these sealed bubbles to protest for a month and just infect them every day

Fauci's ready to remove his muzzle if necessary:

BREAKING: Dr. Anthony Fauci tells me he will warn the Senate on Tuesday that Americans will face "needless suffering and death" if the country opens up prematurely. https://t.co/3d2D0lu6c2

— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) May 12, 2020

I thought this was probably going to happen anyway in the Senate? Main reason it didn't happen in the House was probably taking away more Dem opportunities to talk shit, rightfully

navajos being hit especially hard

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/coronavirus-in-navajo

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/12/nation/heres-what-fauci-said-about-college-students-returning-campus-fall/

Fauci continued: “If this were a situation where you had a vaccine, that would really be the end of issue in positive way. But as I mentioned in my opening remarks, even at the top speed we’re going, we don’t see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get back to school this term.”

It blows me away that people are being "asked" to go back to work now, but college students & faculty are not even going to go back in the fall. I mean, I agree with the latter! But it's criminal that we're applying one standard to universities and another to, well, everything else.

but Euler, the children are our future

arrrrgh

Interesting metric - and note the actual numbers because the logarithmic scale is misleading

Fascinating discussion on Greek #COVID19 briefing about testing. Apparently, one of the more useful measures is not "tests per million", but "tests per case" - it is a measure that reveals the true aggressiveness of testing. Never mentioned in the UK. I wonder why. Oh. pic.twitter.com/5h40NrASNW

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) May 12, 2020

that's a good point!

my state is at almost exactly 6 tests per case. hooray!

and also a breakdown of the symptomatic vs asymptomatic test positives.

the children are our future

So, children harbor (and presumably transmit) virus at the same levels as older persons. They just only rarely (< 0.1%) go into full ARDS or heart attack/stroke. And much of the adult workforce can't return if there's no school or daycare.

One solution could be month long summer camps, in which all children are expected to be exposed, but they can't return with the virus to their homes or more vulnerable populations before their disease resolves. Like chickenpox parties, but without the adult immunity. But the sales pitch is beyond me. "Yes, ma'am, we expect the risk of your child dying is under 1 in 1000, and for younger camp staff its less than 1 in 500, but they'd face the same risk or worse if this happens in your communities." I can't make that sound like a noble sacrifice...

Or maybe we should just open unsanitized ball pits but only for families willing to sequester (and face the much higher risk for parents) for 2+ weeks.

Colleges, with tight living spaces in dormitories, petri-dish lecture halls, etc are an easier sell, because at least everyone there is (presumably) a consenting adult...

What a fun camp.

Can't wait to pitch that to my 13-yr-olds. :P

truly god tier galaxy brain poster. hats off to dr sanpaku. death camps for kids to fight a disease that kills like 1% of people who get it

he’s not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed

1% of kids will die, but 99% of kids suck, so...I don't know, math is hard.

I agree you do suck

Breaking: Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders will “with all certainty” be extended for the next three months, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday https://t.co/jswRcZ5FkS

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 12, 2020

Wow, good luck trying to get Los Angelenos to stay home all summer.

Getting full compliance might be impossible, but still better than throwing in the towel and telling everyone to go do their own thing.

fuck

Interesting to click through to that article and see that it's already been revised to "through July", fwiw.

You guys are ever eager to label me. But how do you save lives yet open schools? Any place where people (of any age) congregate is a hub for transmission, and every policy should be compared to the muddle through/herd immunity policy we're stumbling towards.

Given the US and UK didn't have the political will/popular compliance for effective containment (as in Taiwan or South Korea), or for measures to expose only those at low risk to aid mitigation, it looks like "muddle-through/herd immunity/1% die" will be the default. And all kids in school will get exposed, and they'll transmit it to their parents and grandparents, and this goes on and on (for as Laurie Garrett estimates 36 months).