Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread - Got too big

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Maybe it depends on the location, but I haven't had any problem paying for things with cash.

I've seen signs mentioning a coin shortage and asking people to use plastic if possible, but no one's refusing cash here yet.

Similarly, nobody has been refusing cash what few times I've paid for something using it. The local post office's clerks all wear gloves as well, but hand-washing upon returning home is still probably a good idea even without COVID-19 being a concern.

After Governor Whitmer sent out an emergency alert to Michigan cellphones announcing her new legally-dubious mask-wearing order, Republican legislators are working on a bill to limit the sending of such alerts to "time-sensitive emergencies or natural disasters."

The order took affect at 12;01 AM Monday and my alert came almost 17 hours later, which seemed a bit pointless and late to me. They would have been better to send a reminder Sunday night in advance and not after 2/3 of the order's first day had elapsed. But, we all know government and logical thinking don't always go hand in hand, amirite?

Rex Gomoll, 68, sentenced for wiping his nose on the shirt of a store clerk in Holly [near Detroit] who asked him to wear a mask. Along with a one year probation sentence, Gomoll will also have to attend “life adjustment” counseling and comply with all local and state mask-wearing policies.

I'd rate this informafying (informative + horrifying) if I could. While jail time would seem like overkill for this offense, I feel he needs the point driven home that acting in a way that makes it look like one is trying to pass a disease -- especially one that can be fatal -- to someone else is a serious matter. Let's hope he didn't pass COVID-19 to the clerk.

Feel bad for all those poor saps in Florida.

I'd feel bad for those who took all the prudent precautions and still contracted COVID-19 somehow. Those who got it because they took no precautions and didn't socially distance are more difficult to feel sympathy for, even if one doesn't want them to fall ill.

Oh and this weekend is the hottest so far. Humidity bringing the temps up to 100 degrees.

Even in an air-conditioned office, normal breathing with a mask on can become cumbersome for someone who doesn't even have breathing issues. to those that have to wear them all day while working and do so with minimal difficulty.

Some Reason articles. Check out the Atlas of Surveillance mentioned in the story. Scary.

Expanding on the article, private and parochial schools also have less layers of bureaucracy and middle management. That makes it easier for one- or two-way communication on important matters. In addition, private schools in states where Blaine amendments are in effect (i.e. no state aid for private schools) know how to budget their limited resources so that families get the most educational value out of their tuition dollars. Also, these schools don't have to deal with teachers unions that historically resist any sort of change to the educational learning process. Look at Detroit, for example, DFT (Detroit Federation of Teachers) teachers affiliated with BAMN are trying to halt in-person, optional summer school classes when they were arguing not that long ago that the kids weren't getting an adequate/proper education. How does their blockading buses and filing lawsuits to stop summer school improve the educational needs of the students wanting to take those classes and help the teachers that chose to teach them (over 300 teachers applied for the 180 in-person teaching slots)?

Still, it was telling to read that private schools continued to teach what they could of their yearlong lesson plans whereas many public schools simply stopped teaching new content and instead went on autopilot until the school year ended. This is one reason why students are woefully under-prepared for any sort of higher/vocational education or life in general.

One can learn much more here than through the "mainstream media"

My boss' adult son works in the medical field. When he came into the office to pick up what paperwork needed to be addressed now that my boss can't work, he also offered me a medical-grade mask. When I mentioned that I wouldn't want to take away from those who actually need them, he simply replied, "Dude, don't believe the media."

That probably sums up the biggest fiasco out of all of this. The media has done more to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt over the past 3-4 months than do anything that would be helpful or reassuring.
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Edit to add: I'm not sure if it came up here, or in the protest thread, but the ADA web site has addressed the use of the DOJ seal on internet flyers discussing how the ADA impacts the use of face masks.

TL;DR - The information floating around is neither issued nor endorsed by the DOJ and people should instead visit the official ADA site.

https://www.ada.gov/covid-19_flyer_alert.html

(Archive)

 

[Burd Turglar]

Here's an interesting interview full of word salad from vice president shock the gay away. Someone smarter than me want to archive? https://fox11online.com/news/state/1-on-1-with-vice-president-pence

 

[FuckedUp]

To think the same side that's been pushing for all this garbage to keep going is also the ones saying we can't do anything that could potentially hurt anyone's feelings. Same fucks who screech about trigger warnings and pronouns don't give a single fuck about any mental health effects from lockdowns and boil down all opposition to "haircut-wanting redneck neo-nazis" and "capitalist bootlickers". And to those who don't know, masks biologically increase anxiety, but my professionally-diagnosed anxiety disorder isn't considered a valid medical exemption.

But I guess actual mental health problems aren't as important as those of attention-whoring otherkin faggots who dump their self-diagnoses on their profile pages.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

I admittedly don't hate the guy, and don't understand why he gets so much flak. His latest video isn't about Fairly Odd Parents of Powerpuff Girls, but he spittin fax about Coronavirus. You can even see the salt from delusional Cuomosexuals by looking at the dislike ratio. Warning: it's a looong ass video, so I'd recommend listening to it in the background as you do other assorted things like playing video games or cleaning:

A link to the transcript of what he's rambling about:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Tck_4Lk4gvYV2K3N6JSMwZh3MqqPHvdNHRsft8ibsA/edit

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

We never had and never will have accurate numbers from China, so the MSM have decided to just ignore it entirely. Same with places like Iran. They love putting up accurate numbers from the West and saying, "See! The US is the worst!" but conveniently elide over the literal horror stories from China about how families feared reporting infection or going to the hospitals for fear of their loved ones disappearing from the system. Or how increased testing will increase the number of cases even if the positivity rate remains the same, putting it all on one big non-normalized graph to cause shock and awe among their cattle-like viewers.

Even if the Chinese numbers are politically manipulated (which I don't doubt), they are still better than the USA. Even if they are off by an order of magnitude, they would still be less than the ~3 million cases and ~120 thousand deaths the US has endured, with no sign of it ending.

I think people in this thread are in massive fucking denial about how the US has become a shithole nation, corona-wise, under the God Emperor, having per-capita caseloads similar to Brazil, India and Russia. Meanwhile, the libtarded, cuckolded nations of the EU, Canada and New Zealand have, after a atrocious start (in the case of the EU and Canada), manage to bring their caseloads to levels like in East Asia.

This is not China's Chernobyl, it's Trump's and the Republican Party's Chernobyl, a disaster of national proportions that will have massive political ramifications for decades to come.

Trump Administration wisely strips CDC control of Coronavirus data: information will now be sent to central DC database.

This undoubtedly coming on the heels of the news out of Florida of state labs there cooking the numbers of confirmed cases to a huge degree of discrepancies. Some of them are just straight-up not counting negative test results, leading to 100% positive test numbers.

Slap my ass with rainbows galore, but I really hope some fraud gets blown open. The media needs to be knocked down several pegs with the fearmongery before every damn state is back into a lockdown. The Chicken Little nonsense needs to stop, and fast.

Note that after states complained, the CDC stats are back up -- for now.

Do you know what Chinese statistics are such shit? It's because the statistical agencies are staffed with Party members who have follow Party discipline. So following the ideological line is more important than telling the truth.

The US CDC isn't perfect and has failed several times early during the crisis, but I doubt the Trump Administration is going to be any better. In all likelihood, it will be worse as it has massive incentive to manipulate the data to its liking.

If this had done in aforementioned shithole country like China, Russia, Brazil or India, people here would be skeptical. If a Democratic Administration did something similar, I'm sure that A&N would up in arms about it, complete with a 50 page thread. But since Trump did it, people here seem O.K. with this.

Question for the "corona-skeptics": what sort of evidence would you need to believe that:

1. the corona virus is a dangerous disease that requires a coordinated local, regional, national and international response?
2. that the virus is controllable and that the only way of reviving the economy is through stringent anti-virus measures?
3. that the US federal government has utterly fucked up in its response to the virus and now has the worse reponse in the developed world, having a curve more similar to a third-world country?
4. that mass wearing of masks is a critical component of suppressing the virus?
5. that mandatory centralized quarantine and intra-national travel bans are another critical part of stopping the virus?

 

[KI;HO]

Some interesting graphs:

Total deaths per week in Europe going 4 years back.


Broken down by age groups


Compared to a projected normal, Italy, Spain and UK


Same with the Scandinavian countries. Interestingly Denmark and Norway's lockdown took them under the normal.

Source:

https://archive.li/m4oEb

https://archive.li/YxgbI

 

[Peace and Harmony]

I think people in this thread are in massive fucking denial about how the US has become a shithole nation, corona-wise, under the God Emperor, having per-capita caseloads similar to Brazil, India and Russia. Meanwhile, the libtarded, cuckolded nations of the EU, Canada and New Zealand have, after a atrocious start (in the case of the EU and Canada), manage to bring their caseloads to levels like in East Asia.

Your social credit has been deposited, Huang. I can just head over to CNN if I'm looking for more batshit re,tarded takes like these. Please consider McFucking ending yourself.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

having per-capita caseloads similar to Brazil, India and Russia

Large nation with large population and large landmass similar to other large nations with large populations and large landmasses; unlike small nations with small populations and small landmasses.
Be mad pls.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

It also doesn't help that multiple instances of case fraud have been found in the US. Hospitals not reporting negative results, for example, and hospitals reporting any death as a COVID death.

No.

There's some massive grift going on with testing since the government pays for it but that's about it.

 

[Saint Alphonsus]

I feel like this is a good time to post this again.

"...and frogs to destroy them."

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

My city just passed an ordnance that masks are now required, but tells you not to use an N95 because they need to be reserved for medical people. Instead they recommend using a sewn mask or bandana.

It's almost like this isn't actually about disease prevention anymore.

 

[The golden neckbeard]

Funnily enough, China ended last year with trying to rewrite the bible. On this year, it got a pandemic, locust swarm, swine flu, and now the dam failing. Probably just a really big coincidence with how the dam is really poorly built, but life has a funny way of laughing.
How bad is this to the world at large outside of China though?

Its bad..here is a quick list.


Most of the worlds automotive parts are made in wuhan.

Most of the worlds textiles are made in the area

1/3 of China relies on the dam for power

10 older nuclear Soviet Era nuclear plants will likely fail under feet of water. The plants are all directly on the river


The economic damage would be catatrophic to the supply chain and the radiological damage from any nuke plants would make fukushima look like no big deal.

If this dam fails you are talking about a wall of water 6 feet high all the way to shanghai. It wont be good.

They are beginning to sacrifice areas already as the floodgated are being open. The videos from just that alone are straight up apocalyptic.

As of last night there are no more flood gates to open...its up to nature now and the CCP is sending out propaganda like "The Dam is doing its best"...yeah its gonna collapse

 

[Bob's Fries]

Its bad..here is a quick list.


Most of the worlds automotive parts are made in wuhan.

Most of the worlds textiles are made in the area

1/3 of China relies on the dam for power

10 older nuclear Soviet Era nuclear plants will likely fail under feet of water. The plants are all directly on the river


The economic damage would be catatrophic to the supply chain and the radiological damage from any nuke plants would make fukushima look like no big deal.

If this dam fails you are talking about a wall of water 6 feet high all the way to shanghai. It wont be good.

They are beginning to sacrifice areas already as the floodgated are being open. The videos from just that alone are straight up apocalyptic.

As of last night there are no more flood gates to open...its up to nature now and the CCP is sending out propaganda like "The Dam is doing its best"...yeah its gonna collapse

As far as I remember, maintaining floods is a ruler's tradition in China. Even the Qing's Qianlong had a procession to oversee its management as part of his troupe through South China to help legitimize his rule. Hell, even Deng Xiaoping did it too. If the flood fucking fails, I'd imagine that's a lot of fucking legitimacy swirling down the toilet. But that's even assuming the Chinese now still remember this was a thing.

 

[Saint Alphonsus]

Question for the "corona-skeptics": what sort of evidence would you need to believe that:

1. the corona virus is a dangerous disease that requires a coordinated local, regional, national and international response?
2. that the virus is controllable and that the only way of reviving the economy is through stringent anti-virus measures?
3. that the US federal government has utterly fucked up in its response to the virus and now has the worse reponse in the developed world, having a curve more similar to a third-world country?
4. that mass wearing of masks is a critical component of suppressing the virus?
5. that mandatory centralized quarantine and intra-national travel bans are another critical part of stopping the virus?

Answer for all:

MUCH HIGHER DEATH RATES.

 

[Aib Ld]

As of last night there are no more flood gates to open...its up to nature now and the CCP is sending out propaganda like "The Dam is doing its best"...yeah its gonna collapse

As far as I remember, maintaining floods is a ruler's tradition in China. Even the Qing's Qianlong had a procession to oversee its management as part of his troupe through South China to help legitimize his rule. Hell, even Deng Xiaoping did it too. If the flood fucking fails, I'd imagine that's a lot of fucking legitimacy swirling down the toilet. But that's even assuming the Chinese now still remember this was a thing.

Wow, how did Jiping even fail this bad? Also, I noticed how you guys keep using 'if', so there's a small chance to prevent the dam from failing or its a lost cause?

 

[Bob's Fries]

Wow, how did Jiping even fail this bad? Also, I noticed how you guys keep using 'if', so there's a small chance to prevent the dam from failing or its a lost cause?

Depends on if the raining doesn't stop. If it keeps going, yeah. It's very likely it's gonna collapse due to shitty Chinese construction. And seeing how they keep letting out a bit of water to ease the pressure on the dam and still have tons of collateral damage in the process, it's not gonna end well. This year has been a pretty shit year for the Chinese all things considered.

 

[Standardized Profile]

Answer for all:

MUCH HIGHER DEATH RATES.

The discussion should be framed in excess deaths. The US had about 7% excess deaths last week, concentrated mostly among the elderly and the sick. Our response has been completely inappropriate for this--the completely useless PHS/NG deployments, shutting down schools and businesses of all stripes, enforcing criminal sanctions on people who want to take a walk in the park, etc. A rational society would determine where the risk is greatest and direct its resources toward protecting that population. We should be talking about nursing home standards and infection control, not using the law to enforce marginally-effective countermeasures on people who are already at low risk.

 

[DrearyDoomguy]

The discussion should be framed in excess deaths. The US had about 7% excess deaths last week, concentrated mostly among the elderly and the sick. Our response has been completely inappropriate for this--the completely useless PHS/NG deployments, shutting down schools and businesses of all stripes, enforcing criminal sanctions on people who want to take a walk in the park, etc. A rational society would determine where the risk is greatest and direct its resources toward protecting that population. We should be talking about nursing home standards and infection control, not using the law to enforce marginally-effective countermeasures on people who are already at low risk.

I think the big concern about taking a complete herd immunity approach is the virus mutating - we're still adding new symptoms to the list, and there's no guarantee that a vaccine will do any good if the virus adapts to it. If the rumors about Brazil's native bat population inducing more frequent mutation are true then it's not so much what the virus is capable of, moreso what it could be capable of. I'm no expert on how viruses mutate so I have no idea how likely a nightmare scenario is, but there are arguments to be made(and being made) for continuing a cautious approach for months, if not years.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Lost in yesterday's shuffle, the local news radio station had two anchors conducting a live interview of Governor Whitmer as I was waking up. She took umbrage when one of the anchors brought up her policy about nursing homes and her subsequent refusal to testify about it to the Federal panel, along with her apparent stonewalling a state body requesting more information. While I can't recall her exact response, she accused the anchor of regurgitating Republican talking points and politicizing the matter.

Politics aside, loved ones deserve answers about why elderly COVID-19 patients were mixed in with the uninfected patients at nursing homes and other health care facilities. In many cases, the same elected officials stressing the need to self-quarantine and avoid spreading the infection are the same ones that implemented this policy at the same time.

It's almost like this isn't actually about disease prevention anymore.

Hand in hand with the above, this has become so politicized that much-needed facts on what to do are lacking or get lost in the noise that is political bickering. People might be more conducive to wearing masks in the summer if they were told wearing a mask is needed for reasons x, y, and z and that other precautions are still needed to address the issues mask-wearing simply can't. Instead, we get "Wear a mask, or you get a criminal record and a $500 fine," which sounds more like a parent telling their young child, "You do it because I said so." It may work with children too young to understand what's going on, but it doesn't work on adults.
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I'm not sure if either made @CeleryStalks' prior post, but other recent Michigan happenings:

Governor Whitmer has issued clarity regarding the current mask order and listed eleven exceptions. Businesses also have more latitude in how to handle customers not wearing masks. While businesses are apparently supposed to ask why one isn't wearing a mask, they are allowed to accommodate those not wearing one for medical reasons by offering alternatives such as face shields, having someone do the shopping for them, and curbside service/delivery. The state's Department of Civil Rights has affirmed that a business may deny service to someone not wearing a mask and refusing all attempts at reasonable accommodation. Allowing individuals inside without a mask is also an option.

Whitmer issues new executive order seeking to clarify Michigan's face mask mandate

The new order says businesses should not assume customers not wearing masks have medical reasons for doing so, but can accept representations.

www.freep.com

(Archive #1: Mask Order Clarification)

A separate article further explains the exception for allowing people to vote without wearing masks even though they will still be encouraged. I'm not sure how that will work or that state officials are suddenly concerned about the legality of requiring masks at polling places when citizens are being told to wear masks in order to go to other places. I can easily see enough people being concerned about social distancing and people not wearing masks that they might instead vote absentee next month, and possible again in November depending on the situation then.

Whitmer: Masks encouraged, but will not be required, for in-person voting

Voters should, but do not have to, wear a mask if they decided to vote in person, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer indicated in a new executive order Friday.

www.freep.com

(Archive #2: Masks Encouraged, but not Required, for In-person Voting)
/ Edited for clarity /

 

[Saint Alphonsus]

Here's an open ended question: Why does everyone (or rather, mostly Coronavirans) treat Dr. Fauci like some kind of superstar savior of mankind? Or like he's the Pontifex Maximus of HolyVirus?