Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread - Got too big

[Male Idiot]

If you want a real, respected spanish dictator look at Primo de Rivera. Franco though? He literally only got to power by being sniveling and cowardly, he sold chunks of spain to the brits and the USA, he tried to support hitler but when the UK told him to cut it he sent volunteers to save face and droped the war. He was a weak willed, corrupt, egocentric, stupid fucking bastard. The right wing loves to pretend franco was good over here but all they give is excuses.

Hell even the civil war, he wasn't even meant to be the leader of the fascist side, they debated that for years, only reason he got there was the british secret service supported him. And he allowed morocco to conquer most spanish african territories without war just to appease the allies. He was a glorified lapdog whose only skill was licking both ally and axis ass hard enough than no one wanted to take him down in fear of whoever replaced him being actually strong and competent enough to take sides for real.

Thank you, I really doubt the locals at the times really had this info though. Remember, this is old slang before the age of the Internet. Indeed I only know that Torrente likes Franco, and who wouldn't trust that funny Torrente fellow?

 

[Burd Turglar]

Fun update, I joined the list of laid off Kiwi's today. After weeks of my employer not taking shit seriously, at least one person from a different branch has tested positive and may currently be hospitalized so suddenly they mandated 14 day quarantines for anyone showing basically any symptoms. Have had some minor symptoms since Friday but considering basically existing is a symptom at this point I was sent home. Thanks to that filthy socialist Bernie Sanders, I should still be getting my health insurance and full pay check via unemployment for this short leave.

Hopefully these minor symptoms are just due to the change in the weather and my degenerate lifestyle, wish me luck fam.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

For non-brits reading, there are some "well known facts" about UK poltitics constantly restated by Labour. One of which is that puplic services are always struggling under years of Tory cuts / austerity. Yet the spending graph always goes up. Note that that image is real terms money, accounting for inflation

Yep. If you look at UK public spending here (archive) all 'austerity' meant was that public spending increases didn't always keep pace with inflation or GDP growth. The actual amount of pounds spent always went up or stayed flat

Here's a chart in constant 2005 £

https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/spending_chart_1990_2020UKk_17c1li111mcn_F0t
https://archive.vn/7emTm

Austerity just meant not increasing spending with inflation from 2010 to 2020. All the signs are Boris doesn't give a shit about keeping public spending under control and there's enormous pressure to increase it and a bona fide national crisis so I predict it will go through the roof in the UK, just like Trump did in the US. Boris, being a British conservative, is probably very sniffy about Trump in theory but in practice I suspect he thinks if Trump can blow off fiscal discipline, so can he.

Labour under Brown had an unsustainable rate of increase of public spending. Cameron and Clegg stopped that and it was called 'austerity'.

Mind we are very biased in favour of a strongman leader, because the only two bloody and bad dictators we had were communist-Trump's Chosen People Bela Kun and Matyas (Matthias) Rakosi. They were both hooknosed commies so we developed a dislike for those traits. So the common wisdom is, they were bad because they were comkikes, not because they were authotarians. Even the last communist dictator, Kadar* was not that bad compared to these two, who were like a Mini-Mao and Mini-Stalin. Plus our non communist crowned dictators tended to look out for us and did not pull Nero or Caligula stunts. Our problem is when the dictator is not a Hungarian.

How do people view Admiral Horthy's regency (archive)?

 

[MrBlueSocks]

Then a funny thing happened. All the funding for research, vaccines etc was pulled as fast as could be despite the scientists involved saying that was crazy because it would emerge again. I remember how weird everyone thought the research shut down was. MERS was a very similar virus - found in the Middle East and the vector was camels with origin in bat (it’s always the bloody bats...) . Again, work shut down as fast as fast could be and the media didn’t really report on it much.

I look back on it now with the knowledge of how China has behaved over the intervening 20 ish years and it makes more sense.

Can you explain this more. Are people in the trade genuinely puzzled why this has happened? Because from the outside it sounds downright conspiritorial. I know money isn't infinite, but huge amounts of research is carried out all over the place on all sorts of stuff, so how and why did obvious topics like this get deliberately ignored.
Because it sounds like the Chinese were trying to keep this in their pocket, and didn't want an open global solution.

Back to my tinfoil hat.

 

[BiggusDickus]

Slight correction:
Finally over 100 cases in Afghanistan confirmed.
I dread to think what numbers places like Africa and India are going to pull that we will never even hear about. Some smart people might be able to tell how large the impact of the Chinese Flu was, once they check the above-standard death rate for this timeframe, but I doubt that such nations will keep registers good enough to actually analyse them this way.

I'm curious what it will do to Zimbabwe with their past galaxy brained descisions to fuck up their food source and currency. Being hungry when Corona Chan enters the vicinity will fuck up their weakened immune systems from a lack of nutrition.

In Zimbabwe, ‘you win coronavirus or you win starvation’ | Raleigh Ne…

archived 30 Mar 2020 18:20:24 UTC

archive.is

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/article241612321.html

 

[Male Idiot]

How do people view Admiral Horthy's regency (archive)?

Like Kadar, it usually depends on the political leanings of the person. Rakosi did one hell of a propaganda against the exiled regent. Empyrical evidence that neither the Allies nor the Israeli agents did anything to him seems to support the right wing's views. Rakosi and him did have a personal feud.

The right worships him as bigger than Jesus, like Matthias, Stephanus or Kossuth and Szechenyi. The last great hero and the last true leader. Many on the left still think he ate (((TRUMP CHOSEN!))) babies for breakfast, literally.

Considering that less ((((They)))) died than in other Axis territory and he was not tried after the war, unlike many other Axis leaders, seems to point in the direction that he was not nearly as bad as others. He lived out his life in exile, ranting about commies and being supported by certain TRUMPCHOSEN ((((Word filter, we love you. Word filter is watching us)))) whose execution orders he managed to delay.

Whenever his late efforts to stop the SIX GORILLION from happening were of genuine mercy or just scheming calculation, we shall never know. He was known to be antisemitic but also big on traditional Christian values, like don't massacre children, so who knows what his motivation was.

I am sure he could have done more to prevent the SIX GORILLION but the fact that he even tried is more than what most can say. I believe he was a competent statesman who acted in the best interest of his people, and history just served him a shit sandwitch which had no good endings.

Beanie man talks about him.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

I know money isn't infinite, but huge amounts of research is carried out all over the place on all sorts of stuff, so how and why did obvious topics like this get deliberately ignored.

Loads of stuff gets ignored by pharma companies because it's not profitable. For example, people have been saying for ages that not enough new antibiotics are being introduced. Antibiotic resistance is getting worse but it's hard to make a financial case for working on a drug that is probably going to be kept in reserve until the shit hits the fan.

Development of new antibiotics will require new incentives, experts say

Currently the private sector is largely unwilling to take on the financial risk of developing new antiotiics, even though they are desperately needed.

www.statnews.com

https://web.archive.org/web/2020030...s-upend-the-incentive-structure-experts-urge/

The financial challenges underline one of the ironies around antibiotics: Although they’re sorely needed, they will only be most effective if they’re used sparingly — for the most critical of cases.

“We want biotechs and pharma to create new products, but we don’t want them to sell any,” said Peter Jackson, executive director of the AMR Center, a U.K.-based accelerator to help develop new antibiotics and diagnostics.

Finding new ways to spark enthusiasm — and investment — in tackling these ever-evolving pathogens is still very nascent. But experts agree that it’ll involve a public-private partnership: Government entities, investors, and the industry will have to work together to find better treatments.

There ought to be a consortium of rich country governments incentivizing the creation of new antibiotics by offering prize money, or longer patent rights, or both, to companies that succeed. Up to COVID19 no one was putting money into treatments for things like SARS or MERS because they were both seen as predicted catastrophes that never actually happened. Well OK, not quite nobody. Remdesvir was developed for Ebola and Marburg virus. It seems like it got through clinical trials which means it's safe-ish but turned out not to be too effective against Ebola. Still, it might work against Corona (archive).

I suspect we're going to be in the shit until it's possible to computationally design drugs to fit a receptor. At that point, once you sequenced the genome of an organism and worked out the shape of its proteins, whether by X-ray crystallography or even computationally, you could then engineer your drug to have the right shape to bind to those proteins and hopefully stop them from working as part of the virus or bacteria's life cycle.

God tier medical technology would be that someone sequences the genome of the organism, other people on the Internet work out which proteins are best to target and then some drug companies burn a whole load of GPU cycles working out which compound will do that and the winner gets patents and government prize money. And then you'd go into a telescoped approval process to make sure the compound doesn't gum up anything else.

 

[moocow]

I'm sure Mr 'You're in Peckham' will comply with the quarantine for three months and in no way start looting shit and raping bitches once he knows the police have more important things to deal with

https://twitter.com/superhoopchris/status/1244325992648359937
https://web.archive.org/web/2020032...com/superhoopchris/status/1244325992648359937

Ah, they just can't ever shut their mouths, can they?

I think the biggest failing of modern society (everywhere, not just in the first world) is our collective lack of will to put people like this in their place. They just keep provoking over and over, then crying "victim" the moment someone pushes back (or even before that, like in this instance where he cried "racism" the moment the police even showed up). Just another Yaniv. And it's all because they've learned they'll never be punished for that kind of behavior.

No one ever stops them. It wouldn't even take much. Just pop 'em in the mouth. If they fight back, pop 'em again until they stop. Then let it go. Repeat if they misbehave again later. Gang up if necessary to overwhelm more musclebound and stubborn specimens. No need for jails, weapons, courtrooms or lawyers. No excessive violence either -- no lynchings, no beating people unconscious (unless they just won't stop acting up no matter what), no weapons, nothing like that. Just a good hard smack across the face to correct minor misbehavior like this.

We lost something important when we (collectively) got soft enough that this kind of correction became "undesirable."

ETA:

Because it sounds like the Chinese were trying to keep this in their pocket, and didn't want an open global solution.

It could be that (I wouldn't put it past them), but it could also just be the simpler explanation that the research was expensive and they simply didn't want to foot the bill. They are notoriously miserly.

 

[Otterly]

Can you explain this more. Are people in the trade genuinely puzzled why this has happened?

Frustrated more than anything. It’s not like men in black came in and took the pipettes from their hands A few groups were making great progress and the money just dried up. Nobody was interested, hard no everywhere, where three years before they’d been throwing money at it. Most science is done on short term 2-5yr ‘soft’ money, so if you’ve got a lab, you’re constantly pitching for grants to pay staff and do work. It’s expensive stuff, and some labs need millions a year to run. It was all urgency then suddenly ‘nah no not interested.’
At the time it was just frustration. People thought that governments and various health bodies were short sighted. It is frustrating when you’re working in medical research because you see close up just how horrific this stuff can be and people do not listen. You end up feeling like a Cassandra. Looking back, I do wonder if there was pressure to not renew grants .
There’s always politics and security in such issues. USAID used to have a program called PREDICT that looked for emerging zoonotic diseases. It got defunded and some areas taken over by various bits of pentagon (threat reduction agency) or the NIH (probably the bits that aren’t bioweaponable, if I’m being cynical.)

And let’s be realistic - some of this stuff can be really, really bad. A few years ago there was a dude who cycled flu through a ferret model and made a kind of turbo flu that was exceptionally dangerous. So dangerous that he was denied publication. I’m usually for openness in science but I do totally see why defence sometimes take an interest. Also, given the level of slackness in many civilian labs, there are some things that I think should only be worked on in military linked BSL4, in certain countries.

Spoiler: (China is not one of them.)

We are now getting to the point where we can properly manipulate DNA. We’ve been able to for a while but the combo of CRISPR and advances in computing has meant things are advancing rapidly. We need to have a think about who can use that technology, what kind of transparency there should be around it etc, because in a few years time anyone with a computer and a few bits of kit will be able to DIY things that could kill millions.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Loads of stuff gets ignored by pharma companies because it's not profitable. For example, people have been saying for ages that not enough new antibiotics are being introduced. Antibiotic resistance is getting worse but it's hard to make a financial case for working on a drug that is probably going to be kept in reserve until the shit hits the fan.

Development of new antibiotics will require new incentives, experts say

Currently the private sector is largely unwilling to take on the financial risk of developing new antiotiics, even though they are desperately needed.

www.statnews.com

https://web.archive.org/web/2020030...s-upend-the-incentive-structure-experts-urge/



There ought to be a consortium of rich country governments incentivizing the creation of new antibiotics by offering prize money, or longer patent rights, or both, to companies that succeed. Up to COVID19 no one was putting money into treatments for things like SARS or MERS because they were both seen as predicted catastrophes that never actually happened. Well OK, not quite nobody. Remdesvir was developed for Ebola and Marburg virus. It seems like it got through clinical trials which means it's safe-ish but turned out not to be too effective against Ebola. Still, it might work against Corona (archive).

I suspect we're going to be in the shit until it's possible to computationally design drugs to fit a receptor. At that point, once you sequenced the genome of an organism and worked out the shape of its proteins, whether by X-ray crystallography or even computationally, you could then engineer your drug to have the right shape to bind to those proteins and hopefully stop them from working as part of the virus or bacteria's life cycle.

God tier medical technology would be that someone sequences the genome of the organism, other people on the Internet work out which proteins are best to target and then some drug companies burn a whole load of GPU cycles working out which compound will do that and the winner gets patents and government prize money. And then you'd go into a telescoped approval process to make sure the compound doesn't gum up anything else.

I could see a doubling up of the exclusivity and patents being a good enough hook rather than an outright bribe from governments. 10 years usually gives enough but when it's smaller scale stuff like we're seeing now? Longer patent and a better chance to make a decent wedge back would be good.

It's like how vaccines for various things are just quietly dropped. Swine Flu was another big one where millions were thrown at it, then when it turned out to be an actual nothingburger all the funding vanished in a puff of smoke.

 

[JosephStalin]

The International Monetary Fund says the coronavirus crisis has caused a global recession.

IMF declares global recession

The IMF has declared a global recession and urged countries in need of financial help to request it sooner rather than later

www.euronews.com

http://archive.li/apvzX

They think? They think? They fucking think? Well, let's see if they have the balls to call out China for starting this stuff in the first place.

In my opinion, Emperor Xi and his sycophants cannot be happy people. They know the number of cases/dead are multiples of what's been admitted. One of the top doctors in Wuhan has publicly criticized Xi. As can be imagined, she has now disappeared. They cannot be happy at all seeing the video clips of the rioting, featuring Chinese police from different jurisdictions fighting each other.

Wonder if they realize what's going on economically, not just in China but world-wide. The ChiCom virus has hurt the economy of just about every country on Earth, except the basket cases. Chinese goods aren't getting out in the usual quantities. Foreign manufacturers have pulled out some factories, and you can bet more will follow suit. Net result-fewer Chinese working. In the same vein, smart customers will also either find second sources for things usually imported from China, redesign their products to use fewer Chinese materials, or both. We're already going to see a major push to bring back most pharmaceutical manufacturing back from China. French already working on plans to do the same.

They are seeing other countries spend tons of money to provide a measure of relief to their people. The Chinese hold about three trillion dollars in US Government securities, of various types. Bet they aren't concerned we might just print enough money to pay that off, or even worse, mint three trillion-dollar coins and hand them to China, redeeming the debt?

They must REALLY be bummed out to see their grand plan to get the world over a barrel re manufacturing and certain supplies come a cropper at almost the last minute. There will be changes to globalization. People FINALLY understand that the longer the supply chain, the more fragile. Companies who have thought they saved money due to relying on Chinese imports, especially those relying on "just-in-time" parts supplies, are now finding they must spend those savings either finding other sources of parts, building warehouses to store more parts than before, and in lost sales due to lack of production.

Looks like the great provision of shitty medical supplies to Europe has backfired. My doctor told me this morning he'd heard on the news about the high failure rate of Chinese-supplied test kits. Told him I'd heard that last week here, suggested his coming here to check out the thread.


Yes, went to a doctor today in a small city about 15 miles from where I live. First time I had been to this city in a while, furthest I'd been from home in some time. His office is co-located with the county hospital. Noticed signs on the outer doors in Spanish and Chinese telling people what they needed to do if they were sick or had been overseas recently. Get in the lobby, see same signs in English. Was asked questions before I could enter the office. Noticed all medical personnel were wearing masks. Visit went well, back in six months.

Traffic was lighter than usual. Stopped by donut shop to get a couple of donuts and a chocolate milk to go. As I got into the car some bum asked me for a dollar to buy another doughnut. Noticed he was drinking from a half-gallon plastic jug of milk. "Sorry". He went away and I scarfed the donuts and milk.

On the way back checked out a (very expensive) supermarket we don't have in our town.

Very good supplies of bottled water. Zero paper towels, no tissues seen, small supply of toilet paper. Meat and poultry supplies good. Egg supply minimal. Milk and dairy products okay. Lots of bread. Plenty of produce, but not cheap. Their regular bananas cost .68/pound. At the commissary, bananas are .44/pound. But there were some empty areas on the shelves. And, once again, nearly all the frozen desserts (ice cream, ice cream bars, popsicles, Outshine bars, etc.) were gone. This seems to be a problem everywhere I go.

Noticed this supermarket offers a shopping service. Saw a number of carts with items in them, and a list and name attached. Some young twat was pushing a cart around, acting if she had never shopped at the store before in her life. I would not use this service unless I had no other choice. Am very picky about what I buy at the commissary. Don't like anyone but me picking out what I am going to eat. Place my purchases in the cart carefully, unload them onto the checkstand belt carefully. Normally use two carts, one for perishables, one for non-perishables. Here, people's food was haphazardly thrown into the carts. At first, thought these carts were full of bad food to be tossed. Fuck that shit. Throw MY food in a cart like trash? YOU eat it, then, bitch!

Observations complete, I went home. Traffic still lighter than usual.

Opinion - the lockdowns cannot go past 30 April. Economy cannot stand it. People need to get back to work. By then. the hot spots should be well-defined and fairly easily closed off. Can work around the hot spots. Anyway, farmers need to get out for spring planting, etc., and will ignore any order to "shelter-in-place" as a matter of course. Regular people will do the same, especially when few or no cases come up in their areas.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

Ah, they just can't ever shut their mouths, can they?

I think the biggest failing of modern society (everywhere, not just in the first world) is our collective lack of will to put people like this in their place. They just keep provoking over and over, then crying "victim" the moment someone pushes back (or even before that, like in this instance where he cried "racism" the moment the police even showed up). Just another Yaniv. And it's all because they've learned they'll never be punished for that kind of behavior.

No one ever stops them. It wouldn't even take much. Just pop 'em in the mouth. If they fight back, pop 'em again until they stop. Then let it go. Repeat if they misbehave again later. Gang up if necessary to overwhelm more musclebound and stubborn specimens. No need for jails, weapons, courtrooms or lawyers. No excessive violence either -- no lynchings, no beating people unconscious (unless they just won't stop acting up no matter what), no weapons, nothing like that. Just a good hard smack across the face to correct minor misbehavior like this.

We lost something important when we (collectively) got soft enough that this kind of correction became "undesirable."

ETA:


It could be that (I wouldn't put it past them), but it could also just be the simpler explanation that the research was expensive and they simply didn't want to foot the bill. They are notoriously miserly.

Just more proof that prosperity eventually dooms a nation. There's enough status still tied up in virtue-signalling, and the powers that be will gladly let a few cops get roughhoused as long as they can cast the "We're Not Racist" spell and get public support. And this will continue as long as there's enough money in the system to keep the bread and circuses flowing. It's going to take a literal starvation-level catastrophe before the British find their nuts again.

 

[Army Burger]

Schools in my province have been closed for an additional month. Exams and end of year trips have been cancelled.

 

[DNA_JACKED]

I could see a doubling up of the exclusivity and patents being a good enough hook rather than an outright bribe from governments. 10 years usually gives enough but when it's smaller scale stuff like we're seeing now? Longer patent and a better chance to make a decent wedge back would be good.

It's like how vaccines for various things are just quietly dropped. Swine Flu was another big one where millions were thrown at it, then when it turned out to be an actual nothingburger all the funding vanished in a puff of smoke.

The difference there is that H1N1 did end up getting a vaccine in late 2009. So the funding went away because we solved the problem.

Not like china, which let the problem brew for years.

 

[No_one]

Today's numbers for Poland 2055 infected (+193), 31 dead (+9). Noteworthy and positive thing, we're getting aid from abroad. The Vietnamese community in Poland and a company that is probably the biggest player in the instant noodle sector here, funded 4100 tests + hazmat suits and disposable gloves which were delivered yesterday and will be distributed among the hospitals. That's nice.

 

[MrBlueSocks]

Frustrated more than anything. It’s not like men in black came in and took the pipettes from their hands A few groups were making great progress and the money just dried up. Nobody was interested, hard no everywhere, where three years before they’d been throwing money at it. Most science is done on short term 2-5yr ‘soft’ money, so if you’ve got a lab, you’re constantly pitching for grants to pay staff and do work. It’s expensive stuff, and some labs need millions a year to run. It was all urgency then suddenly ‘nah no not interested.’
At the time it was just frustration. People thought that governments and various health bodies were short sighted. It is frustrating when you’re working in medical research because you see close up just how horrific this stuff can be and people do not listen. You end up feeling like a Cassandra. Looking back, I do wonder if there was pressure to not renew grants .
There’s always politics and security in such issues. USAID used to have a program called PREDICT that looked for emerging zoonotic diseases. It got defunded and some areas taken over by various bits of pentagon (threat reduction agency) or the NIH (probably the bits that aren’t bioweaponable, if I’m being cynical.)

And let’s be realistic - some of this stuff can be really, really bad. A few years ago there was a dude who cycled flu through a ferret model and made a kind of turbo flu that was exceptionally dangerous. So dangerous that he was denied publication. I’m usually for openness in science but I do totally see why defence sometimes take an interest. Also, given the level of slackness in many civilian labs, there are some things that I think should only be worked on in military linked BSL4, in certain countries.

Spoiler: (China is not one of them.)

We are now getting to the point where we can properly manipulate DNA. We’ve been able to for a while but the combo of CRISPR and advances in computing has meant things are advancing rapidly. We need to have a think about who can use that technology, what kind of transparency there should be around it etc, because in a few years time anyone with a computer and a few bits of kit will be able to DIY things that could kill millions.

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I was thinking of random post docs in uni labs, doing cheaper research into the virus's properties. Hadn't really thought about the profit motive of the big boys. Just the way ALL funding disappeared sounded suspiscious.

At the risk of derailing this thread further and sounding like a nutter, the potential for bio warfare is really worrying. As you say , DNA manipulation is doable, and getting lower level accessible, such that the constraints are laws and regulations, not actual capability.
Ethnic weapons have been theorised for years, and by relevant experts, not just SciFi . You've got the risk of your virus mutating and bouncing back, but would a maniac leader understand or care?
I read I am Pilgrim a while back. Good book in parts, could have been better but he added some pointless Hollywood shit. Main plot was "roughly feasible" about a terrorist knocking up a smallpox virus using gene sequencing machines from the published genome. And then using weaknesses in the global supply chain to target the US .
Perhaps this needs a Deep Thoughts thread.

Random WuFlu lockdown anecdote.
I went to a large M&S foodhall today for my first shopping trip for a week. It was well stocked, and pleasantly empty. Best food shopping experience ever really. It was actually a bit overstocked, in that a lot of fresh stuff was marked down as it hadn't been sold. Prepared meat slices etc. So, in the UK, try M&S.

 

[CeleryStalks]

Michigan, USA

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) signs executive order lessening various healthcare restrictions.

Gov. Whitmer lessens restrictions for healthcare workers during coronavirus outbreak

A new executive order signed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gives medical staff more flexibility during COVID-19 pandemic.

www.mlive.com

(archive)

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) signs new executive order to protect prisoners and guards. Transfer of prisoners from county jails to state prisons is suspended, local authorities are given more discretion to release prisoners early, and various health protocols are to be introduced.

Gov. Whitmer takes action to protect jails, detention centers from coronavirus

“It is challenging for inmates and employees to practice social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19," Whitmer said.

www.mlive.com

(archive)

The Michigan National Guard will be helping staff food banks. Previously, they started working with the Department of Health and Human Services to transport medical supplies.
Also, restaurants will soon be allowed to sell groceries (restaurants are currently limited to providing take-out, under our lockdown).

Michigan National Guard to staff food banks, while restaurants can sell groceries as part of coronavirus response

The Michigan National Guard will be staffing Food Banks in four communities across the state, including Ann Arbor, Comstock Park, Flint, and Pontiac. Approximately 10 Michigan National Guard members will be serving at each site.

www.mlive.com

(archive)

State Representative Isaac Robinson (D, Detroit) has died, aged 44. Coronavirus is suspected but not yet confirmed. He was elected to his first term in 2018, winning his mother's old seat. The article does not mention pre-existing conditions one way or the other, but he appears from his photographs to have been a fairly stout man.

Democratic Detroit lawmaker Isaac Robinson dead at 44; COVID-19 suspected

Democratic Rep. Isaac Robinson died, House Democratic Leader Christine Grieg announced Sunday.

www.detroitnews.com

(archive) (His website - archive - archive - archive - archive - archive - archive) (His page on the Michigan House Democrats' website - archive - archive) (Ballotpedia - archive) (Wikipedia - archive)

Spoiler: Michigan Recap

SHUTDOWNS
Shelter-in-place order and shutdown of everything non-essential (groceries, gas stations, pharmacies, the usual) from Tuesday March 24 to Monday April 13. (archive) (executive order saved on KF). Marijuana shops are open. Tobacco shops are closed (archive).
The Big Three Auto manufacturers (Ford, GM, Chrysler) are closing all factories in the USA, putting well over 150,000 workers out of work, until "at least April." This figure does not include workers at supplier factories, which will also be obliged to close. (archive) (archive) They will be making a small number of parts for emergency vehicles, and GM will be helping Ventec, a company that makes ventilators (archive - ventilators). Ford will be helping 3M and GE Healthcare to make respirators and ventilators (archive).

THE ECONOMY
Unemployment so high that claims must be made on certain days, based on claimant's last name. (archive)
The Great Lakes are at record or near-record highs, flooding our beaches and harming our chances of tourists saving our economy this summer (archive, archive)

FREE STUFF!
Free bus rides in Detroit after drivers' strike (archive- strike) (archive - free fares)
Free access to state parks (archive)
Evictions suspended while the state of emergency lasts (archive)
Water will be turned back on for all households while the crisis lasts (archive)
State prisoners are being provided two free phone calls and two free emails a week, by the 3rd party vendors thereof (archive)

FREEDOM!
Semi-trucks carrying essential supplies can ignore seasonal road weight limits (archive)
Distilleries can make hand sanitizer without a permit (archive)
Pharmacists may prescribe 60 days of emergency medication and may substitute drugs without physicians approval in event of shortages (archive). Various other medical restrictions loosened (archive).
Driver's Ed (the classroom portion) is now available online. (archive)
All localities given more discretion to release prisoners early (archive)
Restaurants can sell food like grocery stores (archive)

BAD SIGNS
Detroit hospitals claimed they were nearing capacity days ago. (archive - March 24) (archive - March 25)
Detroit hospitals prepare triage plans (archive on KF)
Detroit-area nurse makes a video (archive)
Big Brother is watching, and he approves. Massive phone-tracking project reveals Michigan travel down by 45%, compared to 40% nation-wide (archive).

LAW AND ORDER
Lansing (the capitol) police are not physically responding to minor crimes such as larceny, property damage, and break-ins to unoccupied buildings, including garages. Other police are adopting similar policies (archive) (archive).
39 Detroit police officers and at least 1 firefighter tested positive and over 450 officers and 70 staff are quarantined (the Detroit Police Dept. has about 2,200 officers) (archive) Three Michigan officers and police staff dead, all in the Detroit area. (archive)
Despite this, 911 calls are down 15-20% in Detroit, and Mayor Mike Duggan (D) estimates actual crime has dropped even more (archive).
Two Kalamazoo police tested positive (archive).
Breaking the lockdown is a misdemeanor, punishable by $500 fines and 90 days jail time. Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) has stated there will not be a "ramp up" of police enforcement (archive). The attorney general has left it to local law enforcement to close businesses, as her hands are full with price-gougers and con artists (archive). Local law enforcement is floundering and we are essentially working on an honor system (archive - Kalamazoo) (archive - Ann Arbor)

DEATH TOLL
City of Detroit (pop. 670,000):

1801 confirmed / 52 dead
1542 / 35 yesterday

Detroit Metro (3,860,000):*

5288 confirmed / 158 dead
4494 / 110 yesterday

Other Michigan (6,120,000):

1210 confirmed / 26 dead
992 / 22 yesterday

All Michigan (9,990,000):

6498 confirmed / 184 dead
5486 / 132 yesterday

State Government site, daily - today's archive;
State Gov site, total, includes breakdowns by sex and age, - today's archive.
*Defined as the City of Detroit, and Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties. State prisoners are not counted towards any region's cases, but are kept in a category of their own.

Also one Ann Arbor man allegedly killed by his roommate in a Corona-related dispute (archive). The suspect has been released from custody while the investigation continues (archive).

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Tampa megachurch crowded with worshipers, despite social distancing orders

Cheers and applause could be heard on a Tampa megachurch's livestream Sunday from a few hundred people inside The River at Tampa Bay Church. The church is refusing to close its doors despite a "safer at home" order in effect in Hillsborough County.

www.fox13news.com

Tampa megachurch crowded with worshipers, despite social distancing o…

archived 30 Mar 2020 19:30:09 UTC

archive.fo

We still got these fucking loonies ruining it for everyone.

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

I could see a doubling up of the exclusivity and patents being a good enough hook rather than an outright bribe from governments. 10 years usually gives enough but when it's smaller scale stuff like we're seeing now? Longer patent and a better chance to make a decent wedge back would be good.

If you look at Otterly's post she reckons that the drug research needs short term money that can dry up. And because we live in world of stupidity the media will hype up SARS or MERS or COVID19 and the money taps get turned on and then forget about them and the money taps get turned off before the research was completed. There's a case to be made that new antibiotics and antivirals aren't being produced because of market failure.

Then again maybe USAMRIID, Porton Down, etc are developing them but are keeping them under wraps. There hasn't been much sign of that in COVID19 though. In fact, it seems like even fairly basic preparations like stockpiling masks and other personal protective equipment don't seem to have happened.

With a bit of luck, this crisis will convince Western governments to be a bit more proactive in the future. Stockpile masks and PPE, develop new antiviral and antibiotics, have a process to lock down travel to and from countries where there is an outbreak.

 

[Bob's Fuckass Head]

Took a break from the thread for a couple days, and I agree with some of the posters here who pointed out that there's a line beyond which news and discussion stops being useful and starts making us crazy. Everybody's personal line is in a different spot, but I hope everybody pays attention to see if they're approaching it and takes breaks when needed. Excessive stress makes us just that little bit more vulnerable to The Chinese Virus™.

Update on Alabama: the State Department of Public Health, and the ArcGIS dashboard.

847 Confirmed cases (+316 since my last update)

6,531 Tests processed (+2,449)

6 Deaths (+5)

Reminder that these new numbers include approximately 3 days of activity.