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

Welcome to a very prestigious club, man.

 

Continue to peak. We very well might reach 300k dead by December’s end

 

That's barely 9 weeks away. This is such sad news. So many more people are about to get very sick and recover. So many people will be directly effected by the death of a loved one. This is going to change the fabric of our society for the rest of our lives. It could be worse. It could also be much better.

 

Do we know how many people have died due to Covid but not because they had Covid? Or any estimates on that?

 

My wife returned from her second visit to Austria since the start of the pandemic. The last time she went, Austria seemed to have all but cleared the pandemic. Now it's back up to 2,500 cases a day there. The first time she landed back in Chicago, CDC employees were all over the place. This time, she was asked to fill out a form on the plane, the United States Travelers Health Declaration - with instructions that read: "Providing the following information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is required under Title 42 Code of Federal Regulations Section 71.20, and is being collected as part of the public health response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic."

No one collected this form or expressed any interest whatsoever in her covid status on her way out the door at O'Hare, nor did she see anyone collect the form from anyone she flew with. Arguably the pandemic is so out of control in the U.S. that trying to manage it at the borders is a waste of time and money, but do we really want to give the impression to international travelers that the federal government has lost interest in the pandemic?

 

I heard some numbers on increased death rate since march compared to the previous five years and projects for 2020 made before COVID. In the US, I think there were something like 20 thousand additional deaths this year total from COVID. I don't remember the exact number.

 

It seems the only places that have done well are island nations. And Vietnam. Last I heard they were doing well

 

This. This is so scary. I don't think the federal govt is doing anything to slow the spread of the virus. We are full on, herd immunity. I'm back to waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back to sleep because I am so worried. This can't even be addressed until Jan 20th 2021 (and that's IF we get a new administration). I don't even want to type out the number of US citizens that are going to needlessly pass away during that time.

 

Finally made it down to NC last night. Doing well, but my phone is completely dead. Alas. I have no idea what's happening in the world yet.

Anyway...I think as soon as we got into middle VA and south...we stopped seeing masks pretty much altogether. Some still have them on. But mostly...it's random people, and obvious travelers from the north. We stopped at a 7-11 rest stop and not a single person had them on.

In fact, the ratio of not wearing masks to Trump signs is pretty spot on.

 

My mom who lives in the Richmond area told me about this short and sweet piece in the Richmond Times dispatch about a week ago:

https://richmond.com/opinion/letter...cle_63f2aa96-4007-57ba-8c19-b4b2eec07c37.html

The part about Daniel Gade makes me sick. I am not the type of voter to do much research, I just voted blue down the ballot, but to think he doesn't even support mask wearing and he's running these ads on radio up here about being a family man.

This isn't a political issue, this is a health and safety issue. Why does it feel like this post belongs in the politics thread?

 

It's about 200,000 excess deaths when last I checked, up though about September 20th.

Measures of 'well' vary, but I'd add Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand to that. And I think South Korea and Uruguay also come to mind as also doing well.

 

More than 3,000 daily cases in Austria now. It's really infiltrated my wife's home province for the first time, also in part because neighboring Slovenia, land of Melania, had more cases in a single day, yesterday, than it had cumulatively through something like the end of August. Carinthia has had 14 total confirmed Covid deaths out of 950 total deaths in Austria.

 

Cases are going up in virtually every state. Strangely enough, I was at Target last night, and there was still an abundance of toilet paper in the store. In fact, more than I've ever seen since the pandemic started.

 

It's not strange, even with very few cases in my area back in March or even late Feb when toilet paper started becoming scarce there was a real threat stores might close. We might actually need a certain amount of toilet paper on hand. Now it is obvious we are doing nothing to battle the virus. We will be able to buy whatever we want, not even just essentials whenever we want. So why stock up?

Also some people I imagine have closets if not basements full of toilet paper already.

 

I've been doing maintenance buying in the toilet paper and kitchen towel department to keep the stock up just in case.

 

Same experience I had going out to Colorado. Once I crossed by Illinois almost no masks

 

The original toilet paper shortage, IIRC, happened because of news stories about Australia having a shortage at the start of the pandemic - because they import almost all of it from China, which was shut down. People not using their critical thinking panicked and spread ridiculous information, causing a self-fulfilling prophecy of a shortage because people were panic buying.

 

We saw a 5-10% uplift in purchases over 2 weeks as a result of people being stupid and the supply chain struggled, after then it was playing catch up even when buying returned to normal.


Lord helps us when Brexit bites next year and we actually do have shortages

 

Same.

 

We got double the number of people here, triple the number of cases.

 

Hold our beer.

Mind you it’s only available in takeaway bottles for proper at home consumption in accordance with current guidelines.

 

Holy ****, I see it, you're right. Roughly the same population as Austria, three to five times the number of cases. Urgh...

 

I guess ultimately we're all going to get the full northern Italy experience, or worse.

 

That’s the perennial fruit of a lack of preventative measures, it seems.

 

It's about time. After centuries of being invaded by the Chinese, French, Japanese and Americans, those folks deserve a break.