Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread - Got too big

[Ponderous Pillock]

Have an amusing story instead.

First batch of Barbour gowns reaches coronavirus-hit North East hospitals

The South Shields outdoor clothing company has started producing PPE items to support NHS trusts in the region that are treating people with Covid-19

www.chroniclelive.co.uk

Posh outdoor clothing maker Barbour have switched production to making PPE for hospitals and supplying them to their locality. It even comes complete with Barbour's distinctive cuffs, and the plastic bag is their standard "By Royal Appointment" printed on them.

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

Watched the Event 201 videos and it's interesting. This was pretty much the WHO/UN playbook for this, laid out months ago.

http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/videos.html

Event 201 videos including discussions and a highlights reel

archived 9 Apr 2020 18:08:14 UTC

archive.li

-they wanted no travel bans, only advisories so people could make "informed decisions." The rationale was that whelp, borders are useless and can't stop people and enforcement of border control would only stop people who were sick from reporting
-they wanted a single international response led by WHO and CDCs
-they wanted the top companies in industry to get subsidized by the govt to continue to work. This includes hotels and tourism.
-in addition they wanted a collective, international organization to run the essential businesses run by govt officials
-they recognized Just In Time supply chains would be borked
-they did in fact, predict a lot of employees would stop showing up due to lack of PPE and general fear
-they also correctly predicted drug shortages of non-pandemic drugs due to inability to move materials around, but stopped short of coming up with the fact that everything was made in China
-they had a fictional news talking head discussion about economics vs health with a blowhard, pompous white guy and a nice, clean cut, Barack-like doctor. You can imagine how that went
-putting money towards small business like in the US wasn't even on the table. They wanted a centralized effort to distribute money, not by individual govts. The priorities were curing the virus, money for health industries and PPE producers, propping up unstable governments, and large businesses "too big to fail"
-they suggest using algorithms to control what is shown on social media to prevent "false information" from being disseminated
-they wanted to see the WHO do the most important daily worldwide briefings, nothing about governments and a centralized world communication control
-LOL the Chinese guy said (not sure if he was just reading a script card) that there would be a lot of cases in China and there would be rumors that the virus was manmade in a lab and that health care worker should be "educated" and not allowed to speak with the media unless properly trained
-they suggest taking advantage of the crisis to prosecute "fake news" producers in court...
-they predicted an uncontrolled but slow spread, taking 6 months to reach every country (took what, 2-3 IRL?) and 65 million dead
-to be fair to them, their modelling showed almost no mitigation or slowing of the curve. It was just "Ok, it's another month, another x million cases, now what" Really zero discussions of lockdowns/quarantines/social distancing/non-essential shutdowns other than to say they were "useless" in a large pandemic, which seems to NOT be the case

FWIW I don't think this was some sort of blueprint for an engineered Coronavirus crises IRL. I think they happened to do a thought exercise like people do all the time, but with a coincidental subject at an unfortunate time. I do think they are incredibly blinkered and overly trusting in globalism. Their solutions were not to shut anything down, but to marshal resources globally.

Their solutions: govt and business plan how to use resources and manufacturing during a pandemic, stockpile PPE and medicine (nothing about ventilators though), travel and trade should be fully maintained during a pandemic

, more money for dem WHO/UN health programs, "supress misinformation"

 

[simulated goat]

So disabled people on SSI are going to get a check too, even though they don't work and therefore haven't been out of work because of Covid-19? Am I missing something or is there a good reason for that?

I'm glad for it personally. Some families and' 'families' have had to take on extra food and supply cost for disabled or older members and the few hundred they get in SSI barely covers their care in good times. IMO, They are acknowledging that there has been extra costs undertaken for their care in this time. In the case of those in homes or institutionalized, I would think the money would go to offset the extra precautions that must be taken, since those folks generally
just get a small allowance of whatever is left after their care is paid for once a month or so. I dunno if that is how it will work out, but that's my take.

At least Lucas Werner can't blow it all in a crappy restaurant right now...

 

[a_lurker]

Yes, because killing untold amounts of people in a nuclear war will surely save the economy. Well, it might stop wuflu when everyone is dead.

A war with a clearly defined end goal generally tends to be good for the economy of the winner.

Multi decade long policing actions as a war on X and endless wild goose chases in the desert isn't so good for the economy.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

UK Daily:

382,650 Tested (+14,982)

93,873 Positive (+5,252)

12,107 Dead (+778 )

Holding around the mid-high 700 mark for the UK now.

Public Health England continuing to insist on centralising laboratory testing now seems to be actively hampering testing efforts, private labs and companies have repeatedly offered their slack space for testing for the Kung Flu and Public Health England are the ones constantly refusing to take them up on the offer.

It may need overruling from Hancock or Raab to clear that. We're supposed to hit 100,000 tests within 2 weeks.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

Mein Furrer! The Chinese are one sub full of SLBMs away from us having nuclear primacy.

If we were to strike first when our subs had a firing solution on Chinese SLBMs we could destroy all of their land-based ICBMs and military airfields and any subs not at sea. Depending on the odds they'd either get off one sub full of SLBMs or none. In the former, we'd expect to take out about half of the incoming missiles with the various ballistic missile defences currently deployed. I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed but we're looking at a couple of cities lost tops. China would be completely obliterated.

We've done psychological studies that show that the Chinese would be less likely to fire their SLBMs if you and a panel of RAND experts were on a conference call with them until their line go silent explaining patiently that America is an honourable nation and would never consider a first strike because it goes against our most cherished traditions and also our strategic doctrine and that nuclear primacy is a dangerous myth that our experts have debunked. We think they'd be sceptical but human nature is biased towards assuming the thing you must fear isn't happening to you and a conference call with them could exploit this.

If John von Neumann were alive with the current strategic balance, he'd tell you to nuke 'em.

Yes, because killing untold amounts of people in a nuclear war will surely save the economy. Well, it might stop wuflu when everyone is dead.

The Chinks would go for it if they thought they could destroy us. These are a people who have won wars by eating the other side.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

The Chinks would go for it if they thought they could destroy us. These are a people who have won wars by eating the other side.

I think they won that one by eating their own side

 

[Marchesa of the Vast]

A nursing home in my county just got infected when I was starting to feel optimistic for chances of improvement. For the sake of economy and morale the governments within the US have to plan for some let ups in the lockdown once May rolls in. They might not have a full opening but if they don't have some improvements expect things to implode.

Sounds like the only people who need to be inconvenienced are old people. Shut down nursing homes in general to the public without strict measures and screening. Hell, make everyone who comes do the pneumonia precautions, act like everyone of them are immunocompromised and everyone who visits them has to be garbed.

Make the boomers stay home.

I think they won that one by eating their own side

Chinese history is a nightmare simulation grafted onto the regular simulation that exists solely to export plagues and atrocities.
Excerpt from that battle:
"Yin Ziqi had besieged the city for a long time. The food in the city had run out. The dwellers traded their children to eat and cooked bodies of the dead. Fears were spread and worse situations were expected. At this time, Zhang Xun took his concubine out and killed her in front of his soldiers in order to feed them. He said, "You have been working hard at protecting this city for the country wholeheartedly. Your loyalty is uncompromised despite the long-lasting hunger. Since I can't cut out my own flesh to feed you, how can I keep this woman and just ignore the dangerous situation?" All the soldiers cried, and they did not want to eat. Zhang Xun ordered them to eat the flesh. Afterwards, they caught the women in the city. After the women were run out, they turned to old and young males. 20,000 to 30,000 people were eaten. People always remained loyal."

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

Welp. Politic news roundup. It's becoming fairly obvious that the PP's gotten scared of Vox and decided not to pact to anything ever with the left to try and carve the ultrarightwing voting block. They hope to blame the government for it, but it's not working and it's obvious, they have started getting called out for it heavily by social media and even journos, so they might have to change plans. We'll see. Either way next ellection they've already lost most of the vote, so I'd say who gives a shit? Only way they could even hope to get a part of their vote back is to make a really good pact, right now, as things are. The left is getting invigorated as not only has this been handled relatively well but they've gotten a taste of what the autonomical rights and opposition have done to sabotage it. So they'll be voting en masse, and as for podemos or PSOE we'll see. Meanwhile the right's fucked. The moderates are screaming for a pact and filled with dread at all the filth they got. The radicals have actually gotten scary and done massive amounts of damage to the general image, and most don't think they have ANY good right wing party option. Which is what happened to the left last time. As I told you, the only reason the right ever won anything in spain was they stayed united while the left was broken and demoralized. Next ellections they'll loose big if things keep going down this path. And that'll be real interesting. We have yet to see any leftie supermajority over here. Well actually, last time we saw it was pre-civil war.

Also, ayuso meanwhile has gone full cuomo and grandstanded while she keeps getting called out for her lies. And rajoi has gone back to public consciousness for a little while for breaking quarantine to go for a walk. *slow clap*, the PP is dying.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

I think they won that one by eating their own side

Cannibalism in China isn't a last-resort rarity for survival of extreme conditions, its a tradition. It's even a part of their TCM.

*edit I got my Chink cannibals mixed up, yes, the Tang ate their own side.

 

[weegrumpy]

Update on Nhs somewhere in Scotland. Still in GOPD, not moved. 4 wards with coif patients but one only has 2 patients, the rest have discharged and recovered. Chief executive is hoping this has been our peak. Even though, still early days

 

[Gog & Magog]

Meanwhile, this is trending:

Bloomberg News Killed Investigation, Fired Reporter, Then Sought To Silence His Wife

The investigation into Chinese political elites would "wipe out everything we've tried to build there," Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg's editor-in-chief at the time, said on audiotape obtained by NPR.

www.npr.org

https://archive.vn/Vb3bL

Mini Mike not only covered for the ChiComs by burying stories, firing a reporter, and using fake legal threats to silence him... they went after the reporter's wife to intimidate him and her into silence.

View attachment 1230316

"It has to be done with a strategic framework and a tactical method that is ... smart enough to allow us to continue and not run afoul of the Nazis who are in front of us and behind us everywhere," Winkler said, according to the audio reviewed by NPR and verified by others.
---
There is merit to much of the criticism that has been aimed at President Trump over the years, however one thing I don't understand is how many (not all) liberals who despise Trump can rationalize things like this:
Trump is a fascist who must be opposed at every opportunity for wanting to round up Muslims.
China is a state who must be worked with at every opportunity in spite of actually rounding up Muslims.

 

[New & Improved Username]

"Yin Ziqi had besieged the city for a long time. The food in the city had run out. The dwellers traded their children to eat and cooked bodies of the dead. Fears were spread and worse situations were expected. At this time, Zhang Xun took his concubine out and killed her in front of his soldiers in order to feed them. He said, "You have been working hard at protecting this city for the country wholeheartedly. Your loyalty is uncompromised despite the long-lasting hunger. Since I can't cut out my own flesh to feed you, how can I keep this woman and just ignore the dangerous situation?" All the soldiers cried, and they did not want to eat. Zhang Xun ordered them to eat the flesh. Afterwards, they caught the women in the city. After the women were run out, they turned to old and young males. 20,000 to 30,000 people were eaten. People always remained loyal."

Is this a source of pride or do they realize how shitty this is? This isn't the "never surrender" humans respect. If you're that down and out, you Kamikaze. You hara kiri. You make the enemy kill you. You don't fucking eat everybody.

 

[GoutCrystals]

I wonder how the medical residents are doing. They must be utterly stressed out more than usual, and they had it rough even before this.
Any kiwis know a resident? Wonder how it's like on the other side of the sterile curtains.

I know about 30 surgical registrars in a non hot zone public hospital. All non urgent elective surgeries have been postponed until after WuFlu.

Anaesthetics, ENT and OMF registrars are cagey about aerosols in the OT infecting them and are demanding negative results/CT chests before proceeding with surgeries.

Plastics registrars are still busy as fuck with cancer excisions and the increase in DIY + kitchen injuries (less cat/dog bites though = good. People finally leaving animals the fuck alone).

Orthopaedics are bored shitless because there's less ortho trauma happening (people aren't having MVAs or fucking themselves up during bike rides) and very little elective things happening like ACL recons and joint replacements.

Vascular and urology are business as usual

Neuro has some cagey moments (because of coronachan and things like transphenoidals) but is also business as usual.

And this correlates to the head consultants/surgeons as well. (Anaes = cagey, ortho = bored etc)

 

[WD-40]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marleycoyne/2020/04/11/crime-rates-across-us-drop-amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic/#f6098ac311e3

Crime Rates Across U.S. Drop Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic

archived 14 Apr 2020 15:52:14 UTC

archive.fo

Crimes such as burglary and murder have dropped all over the country as people stay indoors. Los Angeles has experienced a 30% drop in key crimes while drug arrests in Chicago dropped 42%.

 

[simulated goat]

So, some knucklehead tried to steal my truck today. Broke a door lock and the ignition but failed to make off with it, the loser. As I chatted with our local police, they informed me that car break-ins were way up in this ordinarily very low-crime neighborhood, which confirmed my suspicions.

I've been muttering under my breath since early March that there is no way you can tell 200 million Americans they can't work or have any income and not expect a crime wave. And if you get a crime wave, other elements of society start crumbling.

The news has been suspiciously quiet about the rise in burglaries and break-ins occurring all over the country, but the police know about it.

They had better think this indefinite quarantine thing through, because social order is a fragile thing.

Is it a stick shift? lol

 

[evrae]

UK Daily:

382,650 Tested (+14,982)

93,873 Positive (+5,252)

12,107 Dead (+778 )

Holding around the mid-high 700 mark for the UK now.

Public Health England continuing to insist on centralising laboratory testing now seems to be actively hampering testing efforts, private labs and companies have repeatedly offered their slack space for testing for the Kung Flu and Public Health England are the ones constantly refusing to take them up on the offer.

It may need overruling from Hancock or Raab to clear that. We're supposed to hit 100,000 tests within 2 weeks.

The times I have dealt with PHE have always been awkward. For my work at least they were fairly stingy with samples and wanted someone from the team I'm on to head over there to do research (rather than just sending samples to us, which can be done safely as low-risk delivery, we've done it before in fact!). I wasn't aware that this weird centralization effort is also happening with CoV-2 too, since my lab was apparently working on testing too, but that might be due to us having strong links with the NHS.

It's strange though, surely with all the freed-up labs there'd be a large effort to make use of this space to increase testing capacity? Though it could also be because CoV-2 requires CL3 labs and those aren't anywhere near as common as your typical CL2s and CL2+ labs.

 

[simulated goat]

Just politicians trying to fuck with the people. How else can you explain two governors forbidding people from buying garden seeds and seedlings in stores at the start of the gardening season? The people know the only one in their corner is President Trump. Agree pushback will grow beyond the ability of these oppressive state governments to deal with it before long.

FYI, seeds and seedling are allowed to be purchased with food stamps. Perhaps state meddling in federal food programs to the detriment of recipients needs to be called out, especially in a state notoriously rife with people dependent on those programs...

 

[JosephStalin]

I think they won that one by eating their own side

Cannibalism has happened during Chinese famines, especially the Great Famine of 1958-62. Rather widespread.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

Is this a source of pride or do they realize how shitty this is? This isn't the "never surrender" humans respect. If you're that down and out, you Kamikaze. You hara kiri. You make the enemy kill you. You don't fucking eat everybody.

If only they had learned earlier to just eat the bats, then coof on the attacking army