Senate Pandemics in the Age of Globalization: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion: See OP Warning

Getting back to a comment a couple of pages back, on my way to work, my (solitary) lunch walk, and drive home (I'm "essential"), I, too, as well as my co-worker and boss, noticed an increase in traffic. Very noticeable, though still way less than "normal."

 

Saw a report about something similar happening in Germany as well. Interestingly, there seems to be quite a bit of proof that supports this. On the one hand, there is the tracking-data from mobile phones from the largest operator in Germany, it saw a sharp decline in movement, stayed at that level for a while, but now creeps up again. At the same time, there are also polls about the crisis, which indicate that due to the relatively low number of deaths so far in Germany, people get more optimistic about the whole thing and worry less about the virus. The number of people who think the shutdown is too excessive at this point is starting to grow as well. When the timelines for these two things are brought together, they are a pretty good fit.

I guess that's the problem when you have to do something unusual and combine that with a relatively "successful" outcome. Instead of recognizing that the attempts to deal with the issue worked out as well as you could have hoped for, some people start to think all that was completely unnecessary because not a whole lot happened, completely ignoring that the reason why so relatively little happened is that drastic actions were taken.

 

A question... which grocery-delivery websites/apps are still working for people? I’m running low and I do not want to go out again.

 

My sister succeeded in getting a Shipt delivery slot last week. There’s a FAQ about the service on the r/shipt subreddit. Basically, they open new slots every night at midnight Central time, so if you log on then and frantically refresh enough times, an open slot might appear. Or not. You can also check the app and refresh a bunch of times randomly through the day, since shoppers add slots as they become able to work.

So basically so long as you have $$ for a membership, really quick fingers, insomnia, and the kind of obsessive patience that keeps gamblers feeding money into the same slot machine all day, you’ll have success with Shipt.

 

US now going for numero uno position.

Already has greatest number of deaths in a single day of +2,000, closing in on overtaking Italy for most deaths, +500,000 cases. Are you tired of winning now?

There are no words up to dealing with this ****.

 

America first!


Sent from my BLA-L29 using Tapatalk

 

There's no way we're going back to work at the end fo the month

New U.S. government figures show novel coronavirus infections will spike during the summer if stay-at-home orders are lifted after 30 days as planned, the New York Times reported on Friday.

If President Donald Trump lifts shelter-in-place orders after 30 days, the death toll is estimated to reach 200,000, the New York Times reported, citing new projections it obtained from the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services.

 

Not sure how successful Belgium has been (any Belgians are welcome to enlighten me), but otherwise.... yep.



Now, I'm not saying that female political leaders are automatically handling this better, but a lot of female leaders are handling this better than many of their male counterparts.

 

We were checking yesterday and resigned to finally just go ourselves. But then last night we got a delivery placement for ‘anytime between Sat and Wed’ or whenever a driver/shopper is available. Its through instacart and wegmens. So we started loading up our cart and hope something is delivered by mid week.

But yeah...everything was booked or not accepting new orders.

 

Exactly. Have your cart full and check at odd hours and have the $$ available. May have to look at that veg distribution alternative because Wild by Nature's produce is mostly bad (as in rotten) now. For that Instacart inflated price, just not worth it.

I've given Urban Remedy a lot of business these past 3 weeks and we both appreciate it (They've been super quick to offer refunds and great customer service). I have been very appreciative as they've been our source for most produce and juice lately. If I am going to spend that kind of money on food, at least there is an option.

And mental pivot,

Not sure why Taiwan is not getting more press as to how they've largely controlled the virus there.

 

Uh oh...

"South Korea reports recovered coronavirus patients testing positive again".

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea-idUSKCN21S15X?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2kgNg_ATIJryDj-N1Rb5dEMCrp0HzpDHj7G4nldU79ROUUTbOglUsnybo

 

Belgium's national government has botched basically every step of the process and the local governments have had to take the more drastic necessary steps, but because their population is smaller they "only" have about 3k deaths (which puts their proportionate death rate at barely under Italy's!); I have no idea why someone would list them as a high water mark.

 

As a feminist, I find these kinds of posts patronizing and stupid.
Also, lol at the German Margaret Thatcher being there.

 

Grocery update: Amazon fresh had delivery windows open a few minutes ago. If you're a Prime member you may be able to reserve a delivery
for tomorrow evening.

 

I think King wins this one

 

FTR, I don't much like Merkel either; her environmental credentials are particularly questionable; but there's no question that Germany has been impressive in its response to the pandemic.

Also, I'm kind of playing devil's advocate here... I find what may be pure coincidence interesting, if only to stimulate debate. And those countries are handling the pandemic better than most. So please don't assume I'm trying to patronise; and FTR, my attention was drawn to this tweet by a friend who also self-identifies as a feminist.

I don't automatically think women are better at something just because they are women; and that includes leading a country. But I've seen plenty of feminists on social media saying just that. I'm from the UK, and two of our worst leaders ever have been Thatcher and May; speaks for itself. Here in Aus, Julia Gillard was pretty awful too.

 

The only impressive part about Germany is that they have a lot resources, which allows them to do more testing than many other European countries. But Merkel has been criticized for her sluggish response to the pandemic and for blocking supplies to other countries (though to be fair, she denied she gave the order).

Also, my comment on her being like Thatcher was not an isolated one. She is the face of austerity and neoliberalism in the European Union. She pushed for measures that led to the weakening of the social security systems in the indebted countries, all of which are now being put to test in the face of this pandemic.

So yeah, her pic should absolutely not be there.

 

Nay bother, but if you're at all familiar with my other political posts you'll know I have next to no time for Neoliberalism; or the way Germany had plateaued out on carbon emissions when in other European countries they have been falling; such is/or was there love for coal. I don't care for the individual politics of said countries, just how they've been handling this pandemic. I mean, I'd even commended the closing of borders here in Aus between states, even though I wouldn't vote for Morrison if you paid me.

 

I have sometimes wished Sturgeon was in charge of the UK.

 

Yeah it was Amazon I was originally using, And Infilled my cart and I’ve been checking almost every couple hours for the last 2 weeks, even at midnight and times like 2am, and I haven’t seen a window. And my cart keeps having things deleted from it for some reason. It’s just $50 worth of food

 

That would be news to me. Merkel didn't really have a say on the matter, seeing how health is a state matter, not a federal one. Neither she nor anyone from her government has any jurisdiction on this matter. It is for the states to decide how to act, the federal government can only give advise to the states, which they may or may not follow. There hasn't really been a whole lot of criticism aimed against her, if anything the opposite has happened. Her popularity, as well as that of the entire government has exploded recently. Granted, that kind of stuff will often happen during a crisis, but still. It's times like these where a calming influence will have success, and that's right were Merkel's strengths lie.

Not that Merkel likely would have acted quickly if it had been in her jurisdiction, she has always been someone who would sit on her hands until she knows which way the wind is blowing. There's exactly been one situation in which she acted prematurely and that was the 2015 refugee crisis. It seemed like popular opinion was very positive towards taking on plenty of refugees, but that wasn't the case at all, it was more media-hype than anything. She made a unilateral decision without confering with the rest of the EU, and it backfired spectacularly. In the end it led to the rise of the AfD from the modest level it was on before to the rather sizeable party that could challenge for the top spot in some of the (eastern) states.

Also, comparing her to Thatcher is downright ridiculous. They aren't even remotely similar. No one forced austerity onto anyone. It's just that you can't ask to be bailed out and expect to get the money you want no strings attached. Especially when you consider that the most drastic examples of that course only ended up in that place after endlessly throwing money out of the window. When you live way beyond your means, and have an utterly corrupt system in place, you can't just expect someone to just give you more money to sink into that bottomless barrel. Not that some of the changes aren't downright stupid, especially the privatisation that the EU tries to force onto everyone, but places like Greece needed to change drastically, or they would end up in the same spot again a short time later. But hey, how dare the leader of a nation follow the laws of said nation, keep the interest of its people in mind, or adhere to the treaties of the EU. It's always the same few people who try to twist a general opposition to act against the very foundation of the EU among almost all northern European states into Merkel or Schäuble bullying the poor southern European states...

You can pretty much place a lack of reduction when it comes to the use of coal to the decision to shut down nuclear energy. It's yet another case where Merkel merely followed the popular opinion that existed at that time. The CDU had cancelled the move away from nuclear energy that the former SPD+Greens government had decided on. Then the Fukushima-accident happened, and suddenly public opinion was way in favour of getting rid of nuclear power, so that's what the government decided on. With an immediate step away from nuclear power, only coal was left to carry the base production.

Not that decisions that came afterwards helped that matter. The CDU is always big on dragging out decisions until everyone manages to reach a half-baked attempt of a compromise. There is no real desire for innovation. Which can also be seen when looking at Germany's internet and mobil phone networks, they are just ridiculously bad. You can go to the middle of nowhere in any of the neughbouring countries and you still end up with a much better connection than in Germany's biggest cities. That's what happens when you take a lot of money for the licenses from the companies, which in turn raise the prices for the customers to absurd levels. They also have little to no desire to invest into the infrastructure, because the government doesn't really demand it hard enough.


long rant over

 

If you're not in a vulnerable group, just put on a mask and go to the grocery store. It's not the most fun thing in the world, but it's fine. With all that we're hearing about these low-paid delivery people being subjected to abuse, not being given hazard pay, etc., why give these *****y companies your business if you don't have to?

 

I guess the only silver lining (if one could call it that) about the death count in the US is that as a percentage of the population, we're still not at the top (ignoring small population outliers like Andorra). We're still below countries like the UK, France, Spain, Italy... for now.

 

I thought the German painter joke was dark but funny.

Also, regarding countries with female leaders doing better. Who here really doubts that Hillary Clinton would have:

- Disbanded the Pandemic team
- Ignored the warning signs from China
- Not enacted the Defense Protection Act early
- Not taken aggressive steps earlier
- Not accepted the UN’s offer for testing kits.
- Not aggressively expand testing to try and isolate the virus
- Not sent states the items they needed because they were not nice to her

Sure, we might still be on lock down for some parts of the country (NY likely would be in a similar boat but with drastically less cases and deaths), but everything else would likely be different because Hillary knew the danger this could pose. And she just happens to be a woman. I however think anyone else would have handled this better than Trump. Sanders would have had healthcare covered and student loans already cancelled to ease the blow. Jeb! would have pretty much done what Hillary would do and he would have paid attention because his own brother worried about this when he was president. Even Chris Christie would not have fooled around after the lessons he learned from Sandy. Trump is just uniquely that bad.

On the other hand, how do we think Theresa May would have responded as opposed to Boris Johnson ?