Coronavirus - International stories and thoughts

Brexit Part II

 

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

 

This is a little out of date, they are up to 426 cases and 6 deaths a month after this article was published. Early mobilization makes a difference. If we had gotten moving the way they got moving, our numbers would be much lower.

Fear of China Made Taiwan a Coronavirus Success Story

 

Masks reused and bodies mount as Peru strains under coronavirus

 

China has been working hard to spread misinformation in the U.S. It seems they are trying to create panic from the coronavirus situation.

Chinese Agents Spread Messages That Sowed Virus Panic in U.S., Officials Say

(Speaking of attempts to induce panic, I have received two texts and two robo-calls from an organization claiming that the National Weather Service indicates that there is a tornado in the area, and indicating I should seek shelter now and click on a dubious-looking link for more information, and reply "Yes" to the texts. The weather websites I use don't indicate any tornadoes in the area--you would think they would stay on top of tornadoes.)

 

Fun Fact: You cannot fly a scheduled airline between Taiwan and Mainland China. Must connect through Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, or another city outside Mainland China.

 

If it’s true this bug is seasonal and spreads further during winter, the southern hemisphere is about to enter winter. Could get ugly down there.

 

Bolsonaro is ex military. He is also a mini Trump.

 

Plenty of information to disregard what China and Russia claim.

 

Well, Ecuador is the next tragic story it appears. When reading these numbers, keep in mind their populaton is 5 percent of ours.

 

It's like looking in a mirror.

Turmoil in Brazil: Bolsonaro Fires Police Chief and Justice Minister Quits

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s justice minister, Sergio Moro, a former federal judge who became the face of a powerful anti-corruption crackdown that swept Latin America, resigned Friday after accusing President Jair Bolsonaro of seeking to assert improper control of the federal police for political gain.

 

Sweden just had back-to-back record new cases. They better be careful, because all the trust in their government which they've developed over decades may be lost in one deadly spring. Like the other European healthcare systems, they've been great because they've done well at preventive care. They're not equipped to handle something they could not/would not prevent.

They also just withdrew their prediction that ~1/3 of Sweden would've been infected by May 1st (and thus well on their way to achieving herd immunity). It cited some unspecified error as the cause of withdrawal. It was always a questionable report, which suggested that there are up to ~1000x infected than confirmed cases. At the time of the report there were ~15k confirmed cases in Sweden, so that would mean that up to 15 million were already infected. Sweden's population is 11 million.

Given that the first study on the accuracy of antibody tests was just completed a few days ago, I suspect that they had just noticed that perhaps they were not using a particularly accurate test.

Article on Sweden's withdrawal of the high prevalence report:
Sweden Health Agency Withdraws Controversial Coronavirus Report

Article on the new study on the accuracy of antibody tests:
Coronavirus Antibody Tests: Can You Trust the Results?

 

‘The Data Is In — Stop The Panic And End The Total Isolation’: Fmr. Stanford Chief Of Neuroradiology Discusses Viral Column

‘The Data Is In — Stop The Panic And End The Total Isolation’: Fmr. Stanford Chief Of Neuroradiology Discusses Viral Column
Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.

Fact 2: Protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding.

Fact 3: Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem.

Fact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.

Fact 5: We have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures.


“I think we are in a different position now than we were a month ago,” Atlas said. “That position is we have a lot of evidence. We don’t need to just simply emphasize hypothetical projections. We can combine that empirical data instead of ignoring it. We can combine that with our knowledge of fundamental biology, decades we’ve known a lot about viruses, a lot about infections, and for decades, even about this family of viruses. And then we can thoughtfully combine that evidence with the way to restore the country in a safe way.”

Atlas defended his contention that people have a low risk of dying from the virus as being “shown all over the world” as dire death projections continue to decline as larger infection rates are discovered. Most of the infected were asymptomatic or “have zero symptoms,” he said, and the vast majority “certainly” do not require hospitalization.

“So when you look at the newer data that has come out, the estimates are that the fatality rate is very low,” he said. “Maybe 0.1%, I mean it’s not set, it’s not known exactly but these are estimates. We also know that when you take the people who are going to die, two-thirds of people are over 70. 95% of people are over 50. If you’re young and healthy you have essentially zero, near zero chance of dying.” (RELATED: ‘This Is Insanity’: Tucker Carlson

The former Stanford doctor pointed out that 99.2% of those who died had “some underlying condition,” a fact that should be “critical information” for policy makers.

He then argued that “protecting the at risk population” does not “mean total isolation” for everyone else.

 

World leaders launch plan to speed COVID-19 drugs, vaccine; U.S. stays away

 

I just learned something I didn't know before, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a Ph.D in Quantum Chemistry.

Here she is explaining RO value or spread rate.

 

The issue with his proposal is that obesity alone has a prevalence of over 40% in the US. You then add in the non-obese patients who have hypertension, diabetes, COPD, age over 50 and whatnot, and we have easily over half of the entire population belonging to the at risk group. How do you realistically protect so many Americans without affecting the lives of the minority who are not at risk?