Saturday, April 18, 2020

Human Capital Takes Center Stage Amidst The Pandemic

If the people can not go to work because the virus is out and about, no amount of stimulus money and bailout money will jumpstart the economy. It is like the entire world has gone on strike. And in so doing human beings have proven how indispensable and fundamental they are to every national economy, to the global economy. Every ambitious program ever proposed in every country that has had to with education and health and food security and basic financial security (think UBI) have been less expensive than the stimulus money and bailout money now being implemented with little to no debate. Goblets of money are being splurged at the speed of knee-jerk reaction. Obviously, you have had the money.

For the longest time the running dogma has been that oil might destroy the planet, but it is too important for the global economy. Where is your oil now?

The lesson is, so now start with human capital. Start with the climate, not with oil.

To a country like India feeding people has always been more important than building roads, for example. Now they are doing it.

The Green New Deal now looks cheap.



Coronavirus News (47)
Coronavirus News (46)
Coronavirus News (45)
Coronavirus News (44)
Coronavirus News (43)
What Could Work In India
Coronavirus News (42)
Defunding WHO: A Crime Against Humanity
Coronavirus News (41)
Michelle Obama For VP
Coronavirus News (40)
The Virus Asks For Out Of The Box Thinking
Coronavirus News (31)
Coronavirus News (30)
Germany And South Korea Have Shown What The US Needs To Be Doing
Remote Work And Excellence
TikTok Distant
The Virus And The Politicians
Working Remotely Permanently To Solve Global Warming
The Police: Don't Stand So Close To Me
AOC Is Joshua?
Make Believe
Imagine FDR Delegating World War II To Governors
Glaring Holes In The Two Trillion Bill Coming Out Of Capitol Hill
The City That Never Sleeps Is A Ghost Town
Time For Universal Basic Income Has Arrived
It Was Stupid To Inject 1.5 Trillion Into The Stock Market
Coronavirus News (1)
The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Like The Spanish Flu (1918-1922)
The Most Responsible Head Of State On The Planet

at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Coronavirus News (47)





Can History’s Biggest Stimulus Stave Off a Coronavirus Depression? A Real-Life Experiment in Hyper-Keynesianism ....... The New Deal set the standard for big government intervention. Then came the pandemic of 2020. ........ In the past few weeks, the U.S. Congress and Federal Reserve have moved to inject more than $6 trillion into the U.S. economy. European governments and the European Central Bank are spending and lending trillions more. Norway, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom are directly subsidizing private payrolls. All together, these efforts will amount to at least $10 trillion, or a quarter of annual economic activity in the United States and Europe. Asian states including China, Japan, and South Korea are undertaking similar efforts at equivalent scale. ......... Governments, in other words, are spending as if there will be zero economic output between now and sometime this summer. In the coming months, the bonanza of public spending will blur the lines, never clear to begin with, between the public and private sectors and transfer a large portion of the global economy onto government balance sheets. This level of spending has no precedent in history—not even close. Not in war. Not in peacetime. Not ever. ................. On May 28, 1934, the British economist John Maynard Keynes met with President Roosevelt at the White House. With the New Deal in full bloom and Roosevelt embracing a level of government spending and intervention in the economy that was then unprecedented in peacetime, one might have expected Keynes to commend the U.S. president for putting into practice Keynes’s own recommendations for how to escape a deep depression. Instead, the economist told Roosevelt, genially and respectfully, that he hadn’t done enough. .............. In the aftermath of World War II, the United Kingdom created a national health-care system. Nordic countries followed the United Kingdom’s example, and eventually the rest of Europe did, too. Europe also invested in extensive public education and housing programs, partly to heal the ravages of war and partly to hold the tide of communism at bay. ........ Many conservatives have blamed Europe’s publicly funded safety net for dampening growth, productivity, and innovation. And the stimulus spending in 2008 and 2009 has been equally if not more controversial, with many free-market economists assailing what they saw as excessive and unnecessary government spending as one reason for the slow pace of the eventual recovery. ........... Now the U.S. government has authorized spending that amounts to one-third of annual GDP over a matter of months. Given the current rumblings about a potential $2 trillion infrastructure bill and more funding for direct economic stimulus, the total amount could end up being closer to 50 percent of annual GDP. ............

public funds being deployed with “overwhelming force”: the U.S. government is spending more than anyone thought possible, faster than anyone thought feasible, as it seeks to contain the economic damage caused by the novel coronavirus.

.......... The sheer scale of government expenditures around the world will likely force economists to rethink their “laws” of pricing, markets, and government balance sheets. The coronavirus crisis has collapsed—at least temporarily and perhaps permanently—the line between the public and private sectors.

When all economic activity is halted, there is no free market.

......... What is clear is that without this level of spending, the risk of true economic and societal collapse would be non-negligible. .......... Among the economic “laws” that will be tested and likely found wrong is that high levels of deficit spending (paid for by printing money) will trigger inflation. ....... the entire world is rejecting this orthodoxy at once. .......... With even the thrifty Germans running up large deficits, the idea of a golden ratio between a country’s GDP and its acceptable level of debt is likely to be abandoned as well. .......... If heavy borrowing and spending make countries more like Japan than Zimbabwe, there is reason for optimism. ........ Government spending alone can’t indefinitely take the place of real-world economic activity, though it may be a vital palliative in the near term. ....... In the grip of the pandemic, governments are spending with overwhelming force to stave off economic collapse. Whether this grand experiment will work is unclear. But what is clear is that nothing else will

at No comments:
Labels: ,

Coronavirus News (46)


Recommendations -- in the form of a 5-point manifesto -- from 170 Dutch academics for economic change after the C19...
Posted by Ashutosh Tiwari on Saturday, April 18, 2020





After lockdown is over, all government around the world should prepare a nationwide supply and rescue team for possible...
Posted by Jay Sah on Saturday, April 18, 2020





Many people think because I am Indian by birth, I freely and blatantly expose the American system and rulers that are...
Posted by Partha Banerjee on Saturday, April 18, 2020





* New Symptoms of COVID-19 * As reported by Late. Pawan Malla's Friend who was taking care him. 60% HEARING LOSS & DYSGEUSIA that started 5 days ago before his death.
Posted by Sunil Ray on Friday, April 17, 2020




Coronavirus Could Be The End Of China As A Global Manufacturing Hub The new coronavirus Covid-19 will end up being the final curtain on China’s nearly 30 year role as the world’s leading manufacturer. ....... China’s economy is getting hit much harder by the coronavirus outbreak than markets currently recognize. ..... The most frightening aspect of this crisis is not the short-term economic damage it is causing, but the potential long-lasting disruption to supply chains ............ “The ripple effects of this severe disruption will be felt through the global auto parts, electronics, and pharmaceutical supply chains for months to come” ......... That China is losing its prowess as the only game in town for whatever widget one wants to make was already under way. It was moving at a panda bear’s pace ... as China moves up the ladder in terms of wages and environmental regulations. .......

Enter the mysterious coronavirus, believed to have come from a species of bat in Wuhan, and anyone who wanted to wait out Trump is now forced to reconsider their decade long dependence on China.

......... The coronavirus is China’s swan song. There is no way it can be the low-cost, world manufacturer anymore. Those days are coming to an end. ....... No country has the logistic set up like China has. Few big countries have the tax rates that China has. Brazil surely doesn’t. India does. But it has terrible logistics. ......... Yes. It is Mexico’s turn. ....... Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wants to oversee a blue collar boom in his country. Trump would like to see that too, especially if it means less Central Americans coming into the U.S. and depressing wages for American blue collar workers. ........ Mexico is the best positioned to take advantage of the long term geopolitical rift between the U.S. and China. It is the only low cost border country with a free trade deal with the United States, so there you have it. ......... Shipping a container from Mexico to New York takes five days. It takes 40 days from Shanghai. ......... They manufacture complex items like airplane engines and micro semiconductors. Mexico is the rank the 8th country in terms of engineering degrees. ........ Safety remains a top issue for foreign businesses in Mexico who have to worry about kidnappings, drug cartels, and personal protection rackets. If Mexico was half as safe as China, it would be a boon for the economy. If it was as safe, Mexico would be the best country in Latin America. .........

Mexico replaced China as the U.S. leading trading partner.

China overtook Mexico only for a short while. ....... Forty-one percent of those operating in Mexico are also in China.

Europe Joins U.S. Companies Moving Out Of China Make no mistake about it, the trade war is absolutely remapping global supply chains ... to the detriment of Chinese manufacturing. ..... Most are diversifying throughout southeast Asia and closer to home. ...... gives rise to new markets in countries like Vietnam, now getting the equivalent of a steroid shot to beef up their own economy. ....... Turkey and some African countries recorded growth above 40% in inspection and audit demand. .........

The $10 beach chairs found at surf shops at beach tourist towns in the U.S. are still made in China, but so are the $80 ones. And the $80 ones are not getting made in Pakistan.

....... Turkey has handled the increased production pace better that most.








In Terai/madhesh, there are some known (and some potential) "hotspots" of COVID-19, which must be curbed as soon as possible. Situation is getting worst.
Posted by Shankar Yadav on Saturday, April 18, 2020



рдЧрд░िрдм рд░ рдордЬрджुрд░ рдХрдпौं рджिрдирд╕рдо्рдо рднोрдХो рдкेрдЯ рд╕рдбрдХрдоा рд╣िрдбेрдХो рддрд╕्рд╡ीрд░ рд░ рднिрдбिрдпो рд╣ेрд░्рджा рд╕рд░рдХाрд░ рд░ рдиेрдХрдкाрд▓ाрдИ рдоाрдпा рд▓ाрдЧ्рдпो। рд╕рд░рдХाрд░рд▓े рдЕрдм...
Posted by Bp Sah on Thursday, April 16, 2020



рднोрдХ рд░ рд░ोрдЧрд╕ँрдЧ рд▓рдб्рджै, рд╕рдпौं рдХि.рдоि. рдкैрджрд▓ рд╣िंрдбेрд░ рдШрд░ рдлрд░्рдХी рд░рд╣ेрдХा рдиाрдЧрд░िрдХрдХो рд╕рди्рджрд░्рднрдоा...рд╕ंрдШीрдп рд╕рд░рдХाрд░рд╕ँрдЧ рд╕ेрдиा рдЫ । рдк्рд░рджेрд╢ рд╕рд░рдХाрд░рд╕ँрдЧ...
Posted by Manoj Gajurel on Wednesday, April 15, 2020




Global COVID-19 update with a special focus on India! ~ Surpassed 2.2 million reported cases and 155 thousand...
Posted by Madhav Bhatta on Saturday, April 18, 2020




рдХो рднोрдХै рдЫ рджेрдЦाрдЗрджिрдиुрдкрд░्рдпो ? рд╣ृрджрдпрд╢ рдд्рд░िрдкाрдаी, рд╕ाрдоाрди्рдп рдк्рд░рд╢ाрд╕рди рдорди्рдд्рд░ी

at No comments:
Labels:

Friday, April 17, 2020

Coronavirus News (45)

Trump Calls For Reopening America’s Gyms Day After Call With SoulCycle’s Owner



Cuomo mocks Trump in Friday diatribe Gov. Andrew Cuomo embarked on a 20-minute stemwinder during his press briefing Friday, hitting back on a series of presidential tweets accusing him of overreacting to the coronavirus pandemic. ........ “I don’t know, what am I supposed to send a bouquet of flowers?” Cuomo said. .......... Trump did a “very graceful 180” when he went from saying he had total authority to reopen the nation’s economy to instead saying states would form their own plans, Cuomo said mockingly. ....... “By the way, it was always up to the states, what are you going to grant me what the Constitution gave me before you were born?” he said. “I don’t need the president of the United States to tell me that I’m governor and I don't need the president of the United States to tell me the powers of a state." ........... “All he’s doing is walking in front of the parade, but he has nothing to do with the timing of the parade,” he said. “Governors are going to open when they need to open." ........ $500 billion to stabilize states’ economic losses that would be distributed by need. ......... Cuomo’s administration has predicted as much as $15 billion in lost revenue for the state. ...... the state’s comptroller Tom DiNapoli this week warning he doesn’t know how New York will scrape by without federal assistance. Budget director Robert Mujica confirmed during Friday’s briefing that “there will be reductions” in significant state spending areas without additional federal aid. .......

[Trump] doesn’t want to provide funding to the states and he doesn’t want to help with testing,” Cuomo said.

“I don’t care about his politics, but if we don’t have federal help on testing, that's a real problem.”

Heartland hotspots: A sudden rise in coronavirus cases is hitting rural states without stay-at-home orders Just as cases are starting to plateau in some big cities and along the coasts, the coronavirus is catching fire in rural states across the American heartland, where there has been a small but significant spike this week in cases. Playing out amid these outbreaks is a clash between a frontier culture that values individual freedom and personal responsibility, and the onerous but necessary restrictions to contain a novel biological threat.......

The bump in coronavirus cases is most pronounced in states without stay at home orders.

Oklahoma saw a 53% increase in cases over the past week, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Over same time, cases jumped 60% in Arkansas, 74% in Nebraska, and 82% in Iowa. South Dakota saw a whopping 205% spike. ...........

And all of those numbers may very well undercount the total cases, given a persistent lack of testing across the US...... the notion perpetuated by President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies that the restrictive social-distancing measures aren't necessary in rural America -- and that these states even offer a model for reopening the country.

........ With the real potential for higher prices and even food shortages, insufficient action by Republican governors in the heartland could continue to ripple across the country in ways that would adversely affect the lives of Americans everywhere.

The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions Protesters in Michigan and other states claim to speak for ordinary citizens, but are also supported by street-fighting far-right groups
'I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life' Democrats erupted after receiving vague answers from Vice President Mike Pence about efforts to ramp up coronavirus testing.
Nearly 7,000 people have died of coronavirus in US nursing homes

We Are Probably Only One-Tenth of the Way Through This Pandemic over just the last few days, Americans have grown less worried, and more optimistic, about the coronavirus pandemic. .......... But getting out of the lockdown — and out of your shelter-in-place bunker — is

not the beginning of the end of the pandemic. It is only the end of the beginning

— the very brief beginning of what seems likely to be an epically long saga of disease, fear, and uncertainty. ........ The first is a vaccine. The second is effective treatment for the sick .... The third is through herd immunity ......... those “test and trace” programs — isn’t a path out of the pandemic, only out of lockdown. ......... simply a method of waiting in relative safety and security, allowing us to live somewhat more openly, though still under the ever-present threat of infection, until the arrival of one of the other three end points. ...... The most optimistic projection for vaccines is that they begin to be available this fall; other reputable estimates suggest between one and two years from now. A two-year development cycle would be unprecedented speed for any vaccine .... onto each timeline you’d have to add some amount of time for rollout and administration. .............. the drugs likely to really “cure” the disease are just notions in a lab, at this point. ....... herd immunity. ... requires between 60 to 80 percent of the population to have antibodies. ..........

a generous rough estimate for how many Americans have been exposed is 5 percent.

........ While there are some reasons to hope that the exposure could be significantly higher, 5 percent would be more than ten times higher than the number of known cases ........... we are only one-12th of the way through this crisis. .........

On April 14, in the journal Science, Harvard researchers suggested the epidemic could last through 2022

— not just into the fall, and the election, but all the way into the midterms.



Angela Merkel gave one of the clearest explanations of how coronavirus transmission works
Angela Merkel draws on science background in Covid-19 explainer German chancellor excels in describing epidemiological basis of lockdown exit strategy .................. In her 14 years as Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel’s straight delivery and aversion to rhetorical grandeur has been a frequent bugbear for journalists and party colleagues longing for a more passionate line of communication between the head of government and the public. ...... Yet in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, even her critics have come to appreciate a politician who is on safer ground explaining the importance of decimal places than projecting great visions of the future. ........ all the calm confidence expected of a former research scientist with a doctorate in quantum chemistry who once co-authored a paper on the “influence of spatial correlations on the rate of chemical reactions”. ........ Without measures to slow down the spread of the virus, such as physical distancing, scientists believe Covid-19 to have a reproduction number of two to three. ...... If the reproduction number of one were to go up to 1.1, Merkel explained, the German health system could be overwhelmed by October. If it were to go up to 1.2, hospitals could reach a crisis point in July, and if it went up to 1.3 the crisis point would come in June. ......... Merkel’s calculation, which came at the end of Wednesday night’s press conference, has received more attention abroad than in Germany, where the public is accustomed to the strengths and weaknesses that come with her scientific training. ........

her scientific background made her an outsider in a political arena dominated by men with law degrees, but also enabled her rise.

.......... “She knows the laws of formal logic and is therefore capable of building logical chains with speed and determination.” .......... Asked why she decided to study physics as a young woman, Merkel has said it helped her to keep an independent mind in an overtly ideological system: “Basic mathematical calculations and the laws of nature cannot be suspended, even in the GDR [East Germany]. Two and two makes four, even under [the former East German leader Erich] Honecker.” .........Was there anything politicians could learn from scientists, one German journalist once asked her. “Gravity,” Merkel responded.

“Without mass, no depth.”





Trump’s Plan to Contain the Coronavirus by Unleashing Anarchy Seems Risky President Trump has two basic modes of governing: abnegation and abuse. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has alternately — and, at times, simultaneously — claimed absolute authority and zero responsibility

What Have Epidemiologists Learned About the Coronavirus? what we know about whether people who have been infected are now immune, the hope that warm summer weather will halt the disease’s spread, and why testing remains the only way to prevent further rounds of mass quarantines. ......... We know we’re seeing a particular number of deaths, and that’s a number we can be reasonably confident about. The number of people hospitalized is also something that we can be a bit confident about. ......... all of those measures come out of a pool of infected people that we don’t see, and we don’t know how big that pool is. ............. virological testing to see if you’re infected right now, but serological testing, which tests for antibodies to indicate if you’ve ever been infected ........ it’s clear that there has to be some protection, but the amount of that protection, how long it lasts, how important it is for interrupting transmissions—those are open questions. .......... it’s likely that your immunity would be a little bit stronger if you had symptoms, because a lot of the symptoms you get for diseases like this are driven not by the virus itself but by your immune response. ........ Immunological interactions are complex things. In some cases it can even make second infections worse. We think that’s quite unlikely in this particular disease. ............ the best scenario right now, that essentially there are many more people out there who have been infected now than we think, so that we’ve accumulated these high levels of community immunity, or herd immunity, that will protect us from subsequent waves. ........ it seems unlikely that it would be really, really widespread. ....... We are starting to see some severe cases in young children. ........

asymptomatic people are playing a significant role in overall transmission...... “Asymptomatic” is a squirrely concept, and what we really mean here is “not detected and likely not detectable.” .

.......... to perhaps push the second wave of the epidemic further into the fall. But I think the idea that it’s somehow going to save us and eliminate the disease is a pipe dream. .........

There has been significant transmission in places like Singapore and Thailand, where warmer and more humid conditions exist year-round.

........... There are really only two diseases we’ve eradicated—smallpox and rinderpest, and rinderpest isn’t even a human disease. We’re close on polio. But in all of those cases, we had a vaccine to work with. So I don’t think we should have any thought that this will just go away. ......... if people start going back to business as usual, the population is still at least partially at risk for infection, and we could see a big second wave. ......... the only reasonable strategy that we have, with the tools we have now, is a “test, trace, and isolate” type of strategy ........ Right now we’re essentially doing quarantine isolation in a very unfocussed manner across the entire population, sort of a blunt hammer approach. ........... But if we’re going to start saying things like, “O.K, you’re immune, so we would prioritize you for working on covid-19 wards,” we need to have a really good sense of what actual correlates to protection are. ............ there haven’t really been any cases where a large epidemic has not been overwhelming, where people of a country with a large epidemic have managed to not have their health-care system be overwhelmed. ............ if you don’t take any efforts to combat this disease, you will get overwhelmed..... social distancing, at the level of stay-at-home orders and lockdowns, does work. .... there may be a path focussed around testing.

Coronavirus at Smithfield pork plant: The untold story of America's biggest outbreak

How did the biggest cluster in the US emerge in a corner of South Dakota?

......... "They do have a positive [Covid-19] case and are planning to stay open." ....... the ninth-largest hog-processing facility in the US. ........ processes 19,500 freshly-slaughtered hogs per day, slicing, grinding and smoking them into millions of pounds of bacon, hot dogs and spiral-cut hams. With 3,700 workers, it is also the fourth-largest employer in the city. .......... The reporter confirmed through a company spokeswoman that, indeed, an employee had tested positive, was in a 14-day quarantine, and that his or her work area and other common spaces had been "thoroughly sanitised". But the plant, deemed part of a "critical infrastructure industry" by the Trump administration, would remain fully operational. ............ nearly three anxiety-filled weeks during which her mother and father continued to report to a factory they knew could be contaminated, to jobs they could not afford to lose. ......... They stood side-by-side less than a foot away from their colleagues on production lines, they passed in and out of crowded locker rooms, walkways and cafeterias. ......... By 15 April, when Smithfield finally closed under pressure from the South Dakota governor's office, the plant had become the number one hotspot in the US, with a cluster of 644 confirmed cases .......... 55% of the caseload in the state ........ have surpassed the USS Theodore Roosevelt naval ship and the Cook County Jail in Chicago ........ "He got that virus there. He was very healthy before," his wife, Angelita, told the BBC in Spanish. "My husband will not be the only one to die." ........ While many white-collar workers around the country are sheltering in place and working from home, food industry workers like the employees at Smithfield are deemed "essential" and must remain on the front lines. ........ The workforce at Smithfield is made up largely of immigrants and refugees from places like Myanmar, Ethiopia, Nepal, Congo and El Salvador. There are 80 different languages spoken in the plant. ....... hours are long, the work is gruelling, and standing on a production line often means being less than a foot away from your co-workers on either side. .......

deciding between employment and their health has been an impossible choice.

........... "I have a lot of bills. My baby's coming soon - I have to work," said one 25-year-old employee whose wife is eight months pregnant. "If I get a positive, I'm really worried I can't save my wife." ..... Food processing plants throughout the country are experiencing coronavirus outbreaks which have the potential to disrupt the country's food supply chain. ............ early requests for personal protective equipment were ignored, that sick workers were incentivised to continue working, and that information regarding the spread of the virus was kept from them, even when they were at risk of exposing family and the broader public. ...... "I haven't read anything from the CDC that says a hair net over your face will do much good" .......... If employees like Kaleb were to quit, they would be ineligible for unemployment. Advocates are hearing from visa-holders who fret that even if they were to apply for unemployment, they might be considered "public charges" which could render them ineligible for permanent residency under a new rule enacted by the Trump administration last year. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (Cares) Act excludes anyone living in a mixed-status household with an undocumented family member. .............. "I'm terrified. Terrified. Like I'm at a loss for words. [But] I got four kids to take care of. That income is what provides a roof over my head." .........

First there were the headaches, then aches and chills. Next came the shortness of breath.

...... Two days after her mother's positive coronavirus diagnosis, Julia woke up on the couch with a headache, a cough and a dry throat. For the first time since the pandemic arrived in her life, she had slept through the night but awoke feeling more exhausted than ever. .......... Neela and Ahmed got the call that he was infected, and the couple sealed themselves away from one another in separate bedrooms. They communicate via text. She makes him ginger tea and leaves it for him on the counter. He obsessively disinfects everything he touches.

Less than half of L.A. County residents still have jobs amid coronavirus crisis
Bill Gates becomes top target of bogus coronavirus conspiracy theories right-wing conspiracists and anti-vaccine zealots accused him of using the virus to control the masses ....... Some online cranks are reportedly basing their wild theories about Gates — who was worth $104 billion as of Thursday — on a 2015 speech in which he predicted an infectious virus was more likely than war to kill millions of people.......

a bogus claim that Gates wanted to put microchips in people’s bodies — an idea former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone echoed in a recent radio interview.


Feds charge doctor who cited Trump to push hydroxychloroquine 'miracle cure'
Beaches, parks to reopen in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday
In Trump's 'LIBERATE' tweets, extremists see a call to arms Trump's tweets pushed many online extremist communities to speculate whether the president was advocating for armed conflict, an event they’ve termed “the boogaloo."
Trump appears to back those protesting social distancing measures
USDA announces $19 billion food assistance program
'Full steam ahead': RNC chairwoman says GOP plans to stage August convention despite coronavirus
Trump calls to 'liberate' states where protesters have demanded easing coronavirus lockdowns
Protesters gather at Minnesota governor's mansion over lockdown, chant 'open up'
Stanford study suggests coronavirus is more widespread than realized
Antibody research indicates coronavirus may be far more widespread than known Of 3,300 people in California county up to 4% found to have been infected.
No plan in sight: Test troubles cloud Trump recovery effort
New WH press secretary points to non-existent 'testing system' The new White House press secretary believes Trump's helped create "the most expansive and accurate testing system in the world." I wish that were true.
Trump’s Culture Warriors Are a Literal Death Cult Now



Coronavirus outbreak may have started in September, say British scientists Study narrows origin to a period between September and December, after virus mutated to a form that was harmful to humans ......It is more likely to have come from southern China than Wuhan, but further analysis of bats and other potential host animals is needed, geneticist says
at No comments:
Labels: ,

Coronavirus News (44)



Why does India have so few Covid-19 cases and deaths? India is four times more populous than the US, but has just 2% the number of cases and only 1.5% of the number of Covid-19 deaths. How has the country, whose per capita income is just tenth of the US, avoided being flattened by the pandemic? ......... The epidemic may have struck later than in other countries. ... India’s 21-day lockdown may have successfully suppressed the epidemic. Physical distancing is one of the best ways to slow the epidemic ...... India has not been able to test enough to count all cases and deaths. ..... India may have protective characteristics against Covid-19. ........

the low share of elderly in the population, the high temperatures and humidity in India, widespread BCG vaccination for tuberculosis, or resistance to malaria have helped India escape the brunt of the pandemic.

....... A Covid-19 death typically is confirmed by a Covid RT-PCR test. Those tests are in short supply and cost INR 4500 ($60) in India. Moreover, if an individual with Covid-like symptoms dies, but a test is not performed before his death, it does not make sense to waste scarce resources on the cadaver. Nor do officials report unconfirmed, Covid-like deaths, because there are many reasons that one may die from flu-like symptoms, and officials do not want to create panic. ....... By shutting down travel and factories, it has eliminated transport-linked deaths and deaths triggered by air pollution. Physical distancing measures may also lower deaths from influenza, just as they reduce Covid-19 deaths. So it is theoretically possible that Covid-19 has had a substantial mortality impact, but that total deaths have not risen because the lockdown reduced non-Covid deaths. .......... Its reproductive rate in India is around 1.8, which implies that approximately 65% percent of the population will be infected without a lockdown or vaccine.

Even if India has a death rate as low as Germany’s 0.3%, two million people could die.

........... the mortality rate from Covid-19 infection is much higher among the elderly: it is

14.8% for those above 80, but just 0.2% for individuals below 39.

In India, only 0.8% of the population is above 80 and nearly 75% are below the age of 40. .......... The fatality rate rises by roughly 30% if a person has cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, or hypertension. India has roughly double the rate of heart disease as Italy, and among the highest prevalence of respiratory diseases in the world. In addition, India is home to one in six people with diabetes. ......... hotter temperatures in India may slow the virus. ....... Countries with latitudes between 30-50 degrees above or below the equator, and average temperatures between 5 and 11 degrees celsius have, thus far, borne a higher burden from Covid. ...... India may face higher transmission rates during the monsoon, which is India’s flu season ......... Covid-19 may not go away in warm weather as colds do, because significant parts of the population remain vulnerable to the virus. The weather alone is insufficient to protect India......... universal BCG vaccination in India, or domestic hydroxychloroquine use to combat malaria. ......... India’s relatively light exposure to Covid-19 remains a puzzle. It may have certain characteristics that protect it from the deadliest impact, but they do not suggest that it will escape the pandemic unscathed. Great care and vigilance are still necessary.

President Trump Announces Three-Phase Plan To Reopen Economy
Coronavirus updates: As some in EU find respite, U.K.'s COVID-19 toll soars
Trump snubs Romney by inviting every other GOP senator to council on restarting economy amid coronavirus
Trump faces roadblocks with threat to adjourn Congress
Bill and Melinda Gates stored food in their basement because they knew a pandemic was eventually coming
'We Alerted The World' To Coronavirus On Jan. 5, WHO Says In Response To U.S.
Carbon emissions from fossil fuels could fall by 2.5bn tonnes in 2020 Reduction of 5% would represent biggest drop in demand for industry on record
Google's fast-growing Meet video tool getting Zoom-like layout, Gmail link





As COVID-19 cases mount in nursing homes, exact locations remain a mystery
Cautionary Tale Spurs 'World's First' COVID-19 Psychiatric Ward There was no hand sanitizer on the hospital's psychiatric ward for fear patients would drink it; they slept together on futons in communal rooms and the windows were sealed shut to prevent suicide attempts — all conditions that created the perfect environment for the rapid spread of a potentially deadly virus. ...... it was the reality in the psychiatric ward of South Korea's Daenam Hospital after COVID-19 struck. Eventually health officials put the ward on lockdown, but it wasn't long before all but two of the unit's 103 patients were positive for the virus....... "because how many inpatient general medical units are going to want to take a significantly symptomatic COVID-19 patient who was in the hospital for being acutely suicidal? There are no easy solutions."
Coronavirus in a psychiatric hospital: 'It's the worst of all worlds' Social distancing in a psychiatric facility is easier said than done. So far 34 people at Western State Hospital have tested positive for coronavirus......... It's not unusual to hear patients screaming and crying at Western State Hospital, workers say. But lately, they say it's been worse than normal at the massive psychiatric facility just south of Tacoma, Washington........Since COVID-19 hit the hospital a month ago, its Victorian-era buildings have felt "eerie" and "strange," according to workers......... The art room is empty, group therapy is canceled and patients eat alone in the cafeteria. A skeleton staff cares for more than 700 patients battling illnesses that range from schizophrenia to suicidal depression. Older patients are not so much quarantined as stranded, unwilling or unable to get up from their hard plastic beds without help ..... younger patients are free to roam the halls with no masks. ......

"We have people who are sick, and we have people who are absolutely scared."

........... Western State, one of the oldest and largest state psychiatric hospitals west of the Mississippi, was the first in the U.S. to report a coronavirus case. At least 62 other state facilities have followed to date. An outbreak at a Louisiana facility has infected 99 patients and 34 staff members; in New Jersey, all four state psychiatric hospitals have outbreaks and six patients have died....... "You get one case in these institutions, and you've got 10 in the next few days." ......... "These are almost invariably very high-risk patients. They're elderly, they have chronic medical conditions, they're on medications. It's a mess." ......... "It's sad to think about how many staff members are going to be positive, how that is going to trickle down to their families

Prisoners in New York City jails sound alarm as coronavirus spreads: 'I fear for my life' American jails are "ticking time bombs" for COVID-19, a retired sheriff said............ New York‘s notoriously brutal and unsanitary jail system ...... So far, 167 inmates and 114 Department of Correction staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 ...... Jails may act as COVID-19 incubators, sickening and killing inmates and workers and spreading the disease to the broader public. ........ “County jails will suffer the most because they’re the ones that cycle people in and out the quickest.” ...... There are indications that COVID-19 is beginning to spread in lockups around the country. Jail inmates have tested positive in Illinois, New Jersey, California, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Dakota and Washington, D.C. Inmates or staff members have tested positive at state prisons in California, Louisiana, Michigan, Texas, New York and Georgia.......... “We’re at the epicenter of the epicenter,” Skelly said. “You want to talk about social distancing, but you have housing areas in jails that are 50 inmates to one officer, or almost 100 to one.”



Taleb: The Only Man Who Has A Clue
Wuhan abruptly increased its coronavirus death toll to 50% higher than previously reported
at No comments:
Labels:

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Coronavirus News (43)



Small business rescue loan program hits $349 billion limit and is now out of money
If you didn’t get a stimulus check yet, don’t panic—here’s how to see when it’s coming
New York taps McKinsey to develop a ‘Trump-proof’ economic reopening plan
New Jersey cops find 17 bodies stuffed inside tiny nursing home morgue
Sources believe coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan lab as part of China's efforts to compete with US
Unemployment claims near 17 million in three weeks as coronavirus ravages economy
'It's positively alpine!': Disbelief in big cities as air pollution falls Delhi is one of many capitals enjoying improved air quality since restrictions were introduced due to the coronavirus



The Shutdown Backlash Is Coming Soon—With a Vengeance It’s possible to support the stay-at-home order and still deeply resent it.
Trump claims NYC inflating its coronavirus death toll
COVID-19 Global Roundup: The grim crisis in care homes
Trump questions accuracy of China's coronavirus death toll "Some countries are in big, big trouble and they're not reporting the facts — and that's up to them," the president said.
South Korea's ruling party wins election landslide amid coronavirus outbreak Voters reward Moon Jae-in for response to pandemic with biggest majority since transition to democracy in 1987
Weekly jobless claims hit 5.245 million, raising monthly loss to 22 million due to coronavirus
Netflix eclipses Disney as coronavirus shakes up entertainment industry Netflix topped its streaming rival in market capitalization as Americans shelter in place.
Netflix Worth More Than Disney After Streamer’s Stock Hits All-Time High
Gold’s Gym permanently closing all Alabama locations
Stocks sink on Wall Street as grim economic news pours in
Stephen Colbert calls space station astronaut for social isolation tips "It's a little bit difficult for us to believe that we are truly going back to a different planet," Meir told Colbert in the live, space-to-ground interview, which aired on NASA TV. "And it was very strange to feel that there were three of us up here at the time — now there are six of us again — and we were really the only three humans that were not subjected to [the pandemic] at the current time," she added. "Billions of humans — everybody was dealing with this in somewhere or another and the three of us weren't so it was very strange to see it all unfold." ........ "Well, everybody here back on Earth is dealing with social isolation, and I understand that astronauts are actually trained to deal with isolation," Colbert responded. "Do you have any advice for the rest of us who might be getting cabin fever?" ................ "I think some of the things that help us up here are to continue to get our daily exercise, to keep to a schedule and a routine — those things are important for both our mental and our physical well being," she said. ........... As Colbert's fans probably expected, the talk show host took the opportunity to ask about the space station's treadmill — the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT). The treadmill, which NASA named after Colbert, launched to the station in 2009 and is still up and "running," Meir said. ........... "I was just on the COLBERT treadmill a few hours ago. There's still a picture of you on it," Meir said, adding that the astronauts use it almost daily. "We weight lift every day and we either bike or run on the treadmill every day. It's very important for us to maintain our bone density and our muscle mass, so you are a regular part of our daily routine, Stephen." .......... Personal care is important when living in isolation, but it's equally important "to make sure that we're playing nicely with others" when isolated together with family members or roommates, Meir said. Much like small groups of astronauts who work together in space for months at a time, people living together in quarantine need "to treat each other kindly with respect," she added. ........... When Colbert asked her for tips on "how not to annoy the people you're trapped alone with for months on end," Meir stressed the importance of good teamwork skills and simply being pleasant — two important qualities in astronauts. "We even have a buzzword for that at NASA, it's called 'expeditionary skills,' and this is something that is very important in terms of how we select astronauts and how we train them," she said. .......... For example, an astronaut with strong "expeditionary skills" displays effective communication strategies, good leadership and good "followership," Meir said. "Taking care of yourself and all of your equipment and supplies" also helps to ease stress levels in the household, although "that can be quite a challenge up here when things are floating around and you're using all the surfaces around you," Meir said. .............. "I like to think of it as all the things that parents tell their children how to play nicely with others, or also the kind of people that I would want to go camping with," Meir said. "All of those features are really important." ......... Functionally happily together in isolation may require a bit of effort, but it's also important that we don't lose our funny bones in all the stress. "Keep having a little bit of fun as well," Meir said, adding that it's good for our psychological well being and overall health.



PREGNANT NURSE DIES FROM CORONAVIRUS, BUT EMERGENCY C-SECTION SAVES HER BABY GIRL
NYC medical residents treating coronavirus describe 'living a nightmare' They described their fears and hopes and said they never imagined they would have to bear witness to so much death this early in their careers as doctors.
Sorry, Immunity to Covid-19 Won't Be Like a Superpower It's nice to think that recovery will give you absolute protection, but that's not really how this works. ...... we can’t assume that any prior exposure to the virus will make it so a person can’t get sick again. Even if our bodies learn to fight the illness off, we don’t know how long this protection might endure. “Immunity after any infection can range from lifelong and complete to nearly nonexistent,” explained the epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch ........... The problem starts with just the word, immunity. It tends to conjure something binary: Either you have it or you don’t; either you’re a member of the superpowered legion of recovered, or you’re a vulnerable normie like the rest of us. ........

it’s possible protection from Covid-19 will only be short-lived, or that it only goes to some of those who get infected

...... an immunity continuum. ....... At the other end is no immunity at all, where a history of prior illness doesn’t seem to matter—or, indeed, where it could even make things worse. Having an immune response to one strain of the virus causing dengue fever, for example, can worsen your reaction to the other types. ..............

a state you might think of as “immunishness,” an intermediate level of protection which dwindles over time.

......... We don’t even know which types of antibodies are most crucial for preventing SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells. Without that information, it will be very hard to design blood tests that deliver reasonable estimates of the strength of someone’s immunity, in the sense of how likely they are to become infected or how severe their symptoms might be. ............. Previous studies of older, less dangerous coronaviruses seem to suggest that protection is short-lived: antibody levels fall off significantly within a few months, and continue to decline. ..........Those who recover from severe cases could end up with stronger immunity than those who were asymptomatic. .......... tests might be turning up false negatives and then later picking up signs of the initial infection. ....... In all the talk about issuing certificates or concert wristbands so that people who recover can be sent into our schools and nursing homes and shelters, we tend to overlook the often-squishy meaning of immunity. The truth is, our immune responses to this virus aren’t likely to be permanent or perfect. It’s nice to imagine that once someone’s been infected they become a knight in antibody armor, but that’s not really how it works.

Wired: Coronavirus



Taiwan's coronavirus response is among the best globally On January 25, as the world was still waking up to the potential danger of the novel coronavirus spreading rapidly out of central China, two governments recorded four new infections within their territory. ........... Australia and Taiwan have similar sized populations of about 24 million people, both are islands, allowing strict controls over who crosses their borders, and both have strong trade and transport links with mainland China. Ten weeks on from that date, however, Australia has almost 5,000 confirmed cases, while Taiwan has less than 400. ....... Taiwan has a world-class health care system, with universal coverage. ........ "Taiwan rapidly produced and implemented a list of at least 124 action items in the past five weeks to protect public health" .......... Taiwan was one of the most at-risk areas outside of mainland China -- owing to its close proximity, ties and transport links. ....... Among those early decisive measures was the decision to ban travel from many parts of China, stop cruise ships docking at the island's ports, and introduce strict punishments for anyone found breaching home quarantine orders. .......... Taiwanese officials also moved to ramp up domestic face-mask production to ensure the local supply, rolled out islandwide testing for coronavirus -- including retesting people who had previously unexplained pneumonia -- and announced new punishments for spreading disinformation about the virus. ........ Well-trained and experienced teams of officials were quick to recognize the crisis and activated emergency management structures to address the emerging outbreak. ....... Taiwan's rapid and transparent response -- with medical officials holding daily briefings on the matter -- has been held up as an example of how democracies can still rein in epidemics, even as some were claiming only an autocratic government like China's could effectively control such a rapidly spreading virus. Taiwan also avoided the type of strict lockdowns that characterized the response in China and many other countries. .........

why Western countries did not follow Taiwan's lead in January and February when they still had a chance remains unclear.

at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)