Sunday, May 03, 2020

Coronavirus News (76)

She Predicted the Coronavirus. What Does She Foresee Next? Laurie Garrett, the prophet of this pandemic, expects years of death and “collective rage.” ....... She saw it coming. So a big part of what I wanted to ask her about was what she sees coming next. Steady yourself. Her crystal ball is dark. ....... Despite the stock market’s swoon for it, remdesivir probably isn’t our ticket out, she told me. “It’s not curative,” she said, pointing out that the strongest claims so far are that it merely shortens the recovery of Covid-19 patients. “We need either a cure or a vaccine.” .......... “I’ve been telling everybody that

my event horizon is about 36 months

, and that’s my best-case scenario” ........ this is going to go in waves,” she added. “It won’t be a tsunami that comes across America all at once and then retreats all at once. ............ “Did we go ‘back to normal’ after 9/11? No. We created a whole new normal. ......... we could have massive political disruption .......... “Just as we come out of our holes and see what 25 percent unemployment looks like,” she said, “we may also see what collective rage looks like.” ........ Her Pulitzer, in 1996, was for coverage of Ebola in Zaire. She has been a fellow at Harvard’s School of Public Health, was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and consulted on the 2011 movie “Contagion.” ........ Each morning when she opens her email, “there’s the Argentina request, Hong Kong request, Taiwan request, South Africa request, Morocco, Turkey,” she told me. “Not to mention all of the American requests.” ......... she wasn’t surprised ..

the response in many places was sloppy and sluggish.

....... there is one part of the story she couldn’t have predicted: that the paragon of sloppiness and sluggishness would be the United States. ........ President Trump’s initial acceptance of the assurances by President Xi Jinping of China that all would be well, his scandalous complacency from late January through early March, his cheerleading for unproven treatments, his musings about cockamamie ones, his abdication of muscular federal guidance for the states and his failure, even now, to sketch out a detailed long-range strategy for containing the coronavirus. .........

she called Trump “the most incompetent, foolhardy buffoon imaginable.”

........ she’s shocked that America isn’t in a position to lead the global response to this crisis, in part because science and scientists have been so degraded under Trump. .......... “I’ve heard from every C.D.C. in the world — the European C.D.C., the African C.D.C., China C.D.C. — and they say, ‘Normally our first call is to Atlanta, but we ain’t hearing back.’ There’s nothing going on down there.

They’ve gutted that place. They’ve gagged that place.

I can’t get calls returned anymore. Nobody down there is feeling like it’s safe to talk. Have you even seen anything important and vital coming out of the C.D.C.?” .......... America has never been sufficiently invested in public health. The riches and renown go mostly to physicians who find new and better ways to treat heart disease, cancer and the like. The big political conversation is about individuals’ access to health care. .............. recounted her time at Harvard. “The medical school is all marble, with these grand columns,” she said. “The school of public health is this funky building, the ugliest possible architecture, with the ceilings falling in.” ......... America needs a federal government that assertively promotes and helps to coordinate that,

not one in which experts like Tony Fauci and Deborah Birx tiptoe around a president’s tender ego

. ............. “I feel like I’m just coming out of maybe three weeks of being in a funk because of the profound disappointment that there’s not a whisper of it.” ........ Instead of that whisper she hears wailing: the sirens of ambulances carrying coronavirus patients to hospitals near her apartment in Brooklyn Heights, where she has been home alone, in lockdown, since early March. “If I don’t get hugged soon, I’m going to go bananas,” she told me. “I’m desperate to be hugged.”



Economic growth is an unnecessary evil, Jacinda Ardern is right to deprioritise it Ardern has put out a national budget where spending is dictated by what best encourages the “well-being” of citizens, rather than focussing on traditional bottom-line measures like productivity and economic growth. ........ Long revered as a stalwart of a capitalist society the need to grow has come to overshadow everything else. We prioritise it over our personal health, we prioritise it over the health of the planet and we prioritise it over our happiness........... Economist Kenneth Boulding once said that we eat in order to achieve the state of being well-fed, and moving our jaws is simply the ‘cost’ of getting there. We would therefore be mistaken to focus our attention on the act of chewing as the desired end-state when it is simply the price we pay to become fed. ....... But as long as growth is the target of our economic systems people will continue to focus on chewing, which is neither a sustainable nor desirable trait of an economy. ....... The government will put an emphasis on goals like community and cultural connection and equity in well-being across generations in what has been described as a “game-changing event” ..........

Ardern has set aside more than $200 million to bolster services for victims of domestic and sexual violence and included a promise to provide housing for the homeless population.

......... all new spending must advance one of five government priorities: improving mental health, reducing child poverty, addressing the inequalities faced by indigenous Maori and Pacific islands people, thriving in a digital age, and transitioning to a low-emission, sustainable economy. ......... Rising inequality, a mental health crisis and climate change are all significant threats, but as long as other major economies prioritise economic growth over wellbeing New Zealand may become a lone wolf trapped in an increasingly hungry bear pit.



‘Covid 19 is exposing, not causing, problems in care homes’ Millions of adults in the UK are currently experiencing, week by week, day by day, hour by slow hour, social isolation, in a way that they never have before. ....... “Sometimes in here, we don’t know what day of the week it is, but when you come, we know we are not forgotten.” ...... Millions of adults in the UK are currently experiencing, week by week, day by day, hour by slow hour, social isolation, in a way that they never have before.

It’s one thing to hear or read about loneliness and social isolation for other people – it’s another thing to live it yourself.

Write down what this isolation feels like, so that we have a permanent reminder. Because when lockdown ends for us, too many people will still be indoors, watching from the window, waving from the door.





The US just reported its deadliest day for coronavirus patients as states reopen, according to WHO

The U.S. saw 2,909 people die of Covid-19 in 24 hours

....... Public health officials and epidemiologists have warned that as the public grows fatigued by restrictions and businesses reopen, the virus could spread rapidly throughout communities that have yet to experience a major epidemic. ....... New York state, which has reported more than 27% of all confirmed cases in the U.S. ....... The state has reported at least 24,039 of the country’s 65,173 Covid-19 deaths ...... Funeral homes, caught in the middle of the bottleneck, have had to store corpses in refrigerated trucks, or in some cases whatever storage unit they can find. ........

The CDC warns that all data right now is “provisional” and the agency might not have a more accurate count until December of next year.





Cleaning and hygiene tips to help keep the COVID-19 virus out of your home From doing laundry to preparing meals — every day measures to help protect your family. ....... we know the virus is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets of an infected person (through coughing and sneezing), and touching surfaces contaminated with the virus. The virus may survive on surfaces for a few hours up to several days. The good news? Simple disinfectants can kill it. ............. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. ........

Yes, you’re hearing it everywhere, because it’s the best line of defence. Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20-30 seconds.

....... Make sure to wash hands after you blow your nose, sneeze into a tissue, use the restroom, when you leave and return to your home, before preparing or eating food, applying make-up, handling contact lenses etc. ......

Cold water and warm water are equally effective at killing germs and viruses — as long as you use soap and wash your hands the right way!

....... Cleaning and disinfecting high-touch surfaces in your home regularly is an important precaution to lower the risk of infection. ........ Every home is different, but common high-touch surfaces include: Door handles, tables, chairs, handrails, kitchen and bathroom surfaces, taps, toilets, light switches, mobile phones, computers, tablets, keyboards, remote controls, game controllers and favourite toys. ........

Many disinfectant products, such as wipes and sprays, need to stay wet on a surface for several minutes in order to be effective.

........ Good practices to consider include removing your shoes when you enter your home and changing into clean clothes when you return home after being in crowded places, and washing your hands with soap and water immediately afterwards. ......... Wash or disinfect your laundry bag and hamper as well. Consider storing laundry in disposable bags............. disinfect the surfaces of all machines you use and don’t touch your face. ....... Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before eating and make sure your children do the same.

Why an American mother rushed her daughters back to Shanghai during the Covid-19 outbreak As the coronavirus raged in mainland China, a Shanghai-based American packed her two daughters off to her native United States. But after witnessing the two countries’ markedly different approaches, she found herself rushing them back ............

The sharp contrast between the way China has sought to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and the way the US has handled the pandemic has been alarming.

........ I was on the ground in the US for less than 36 hours, but saw enough to be alarmed. If I hadn’t forcefully volunteered that I had just come from living in China, I don’t think anyone would have checked me for fever before entering the US. ......... While on the ground, I did not leave my house except to ride with my husband to pick up some takeaway;

I was stunned at how full my hometown restaurants were

. ...... We opted for the home quarantine – which would be allowed only if our neighbourhood committee and building management agreed........

I spent a sleepless night in my chair, worried that after two months of staying virus-free in China, I might have managed to pick it up in the US during my 36 hours on the ground

........ Even now, I feel outrage that the US still does not have enough tests for the symptomatic while China had enough to test asymptomatic foreigners. ........ Finally, after we promised not to leave our flat, our passports were returned to us, and at 4.03am, some 16 hours after landing, we were home. That morning, a young woman in a hazmat suit knocked on our door and took our temperatures at 10am. She returned at 3pm to take our temperatures again. ....... This routine was repeated for 14 days before we would be permitted to circulate in the general Shanghai population. We chatted occasionally with our temperature takers (they were a rotating cast of 20-something women). ........ Nine days after we returned to Shanghai, the Chinese shut down the border to all foreigners in an effort to prevent further reimportation of Covid-19 cases. I am so glad I made that mad dash back to pick up the children when I did......... most of the businesses in our neighbourhood have reopened, markets are bustling and the subway is nearly full. But I find the crowds a little unnerving. We had got maybe a bit too used to keeping our distance. .......

Shanghai is almost back, and so are we.



Time has come to re-open Delhi; people will have to be ready to live with coronavirus: Arvind Kejriwal He cited figures saying in April 2019, the government earned Rs 3,500 crore while in April this year, it only received Rs 300 crore.

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