I'm starting this thread as a side discussion of all things Corona Virus related. I understand that this is going to be discussed in almost all other topic threads but we could collect news and other items here. 

 

At work, many conferences have been cancelled.

NBA - Suspended.

NHL - About to be suspended. 

NCAA March Madness - Playing - no crowd. 

 

Political Rallies have been cancelled. 

Travel bans. 

 

Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks tested positive. They're in Australia where testing is available. If they were in the US, they wouldn't have been tested. 

 

 

 From CNN's Mia Alberti 
Italy reports record number of coronavirus recoveries

For the first time, Putin has acknowledged Russia is having trouble meeting the demands for enough personal protective equipment for its health-care workers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-brown-scary-coronavirus-1.5548593

 

high school friend of mine living in Italy reports that, starting Monday, they'll be allowed to leave their houses without a government note for the first time in 70 days. And people in Canada think they've got it bad....

1 hour ago, pigseye said:

Potentially stunning new research related to Vitamin D deficiency and mortality from Covid, 

http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/indonesian-study-low-vitamin-d-patients-ten-times-more-likely-to-die-of-coronavirus/

 

I take 3,000 I.U.s of vitamin D daily, along with zinc and vitamin C. I eat lots of fish for protein, omega 3s and B vitamins. I'm healthy and strong and plan on staying that way. I struggle with my weight so I try to get out for a walk daily. Only real problem is I'm 64 years old so I'm in the risk group. I honestly don't know how I'd fare if I caught the covid. I'm thinking I'd kick it's ass but who knows?

Covid has killed young healthy people. 

It's not just immuno-compromised folks that are in danger. There are also links to obesity increasing the risk as well. Hell I've read about senior citizens who have recovered from it (like 80+ years old) 

The bottom line is that most people are going to experience no to minor symptoms, some will get sick enough to feel like crap and it's very few relatively speaking who get to the point of being in dire circumstances... but why take that risk when we don't have to?

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

Soooooooo......... COVID19?

1 hour ago, Mr Dee said:

 

 

No doubt Trump will fire the authors of the report after calling it "fake news". Reality has no place in Trump's head, and he is surrounded by people willing to prostitute their honour to remain associated with power- in this case an insane would-be dictator.

Uh oh... Jason Kenney gonna try and get all of us in Southern Alberta infected.... 

 

Not a fan. I think it's too soon for some of what they're doing. **** is not really under control here yet. 

5 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Uh oh... Jason Kenney gonna try and get all of us in Southern Alberta infected.... 

 

Not a fan. I think it's too soon for some of what they're doing. **** is not really under control here yet. 

I found this data in a piece from the LA TIMES ...

"The study identified very few deaths among people under 40. More than 12,000 people in that age group were infected, but only 26 died. It is unclear if those people had other medical conditions, such as asthma or cancer, that may have made them more vulnerable.

The study found that the chance of dying from COVID-19 clearly increases with age.

There were no reported deaths from COVID-19 in children under 10, and other studies have suggested that children who are infected do not become very sick.

These are the COVID-19 mortality rates by age calculated by the Chinese CDC:

ages 10-19: 0.2%

ages 20-29: 0.2%

ages 30-39: 0.2%

ages 40-49: 0.4%

ages 50-59: 1.3%

ages 60-69: 3.6%

ages 70-79: 8%

80 and over: 14.8%

The overall mortality rate estimated by researchers was 2.3%, but experts caution that it is likely exaggerated due to milder cases that have gone uncounted.

As for the younger deaths, they represent what you would see if you pored over any disease data with a magnifying glass, experts say."

No one is saying old people don't suffer more, but it isn't confined to them, and honestly do not all lives matter? I know you think you can place a  bubble around the vulnerable but you can't. Let6hear your brilliant plan.

56 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

No one is saying old people don't suffer more, but it isn't confined to them, and honestly do not all lives matter? I know you think you can place a  bubble around the vulnerable but you can't. Let's hear your brilliant plan.

No brilliant plans and yes, of course all lives matter. The virus and the damage to the economy both pose a threat to lives. We can't ignore one for the sake of the other, right?

Other than isolating them I don't know how much can be done for the most vulnerable. If you have a weak immune system due to old age or sickness maybe there isn't much more that can be done. I honestly don't know. We did seem to get caught with our pants down when it came to PPE and medical supplies like ventilators.

17 minutes ago, J5V said:

We did seem to get caught with our pants down when it came to PPE and medical supplies like ventilators.

Curious to hear what this means... 

9 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Curious to hear what this means... 

"Medical materials and other goods shortages caused by the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic quickly became a major issue of the pandemic. The matter of pandemic-related shortage has been studied in the past and has been documented in recent events. On the medical side, shortages of personal protective equipment such as medical masks, gloves, face shields, gear,[1] sanitising products, are also joined by potential shortage of more advanced devices such as hospital beds, ICU beds, oxygen therapy, ventilators and ECMO devices. Human resources, especially in terms of medical staff, may be drained by the overwhelming extent of the epidemic and associated workload, together with losses by contamination, isolation, sickness[1] or mortality among health care workers. Territories are differently equipped to face the pandemic. Various emergency measures have been taken to ramp up equipment levels such as purchases, while calls for donations, local 3D makers,[1][2] volunteer staffing, mandatory draft, or seizure of stocks and factory lines have also occurred. Bidding wars between different countries and states over these items are reported to be a major issue,[3][4] with price increases,[3] orders seized by local government, or cancelled by selling company to be redirected to higher bidder.[3][4] In some cases, medical workers have been ordered to not speak about these shortages of resources.[5]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortages_related_to_the_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic

As a followup to Trump's obsession with blaming China for the Coronavirus epidemic and 60,000 US deaths: even though his intelligence community has denied any culpability for China, Trump has gone all in on it. He has said that he has "proof" of China's guilt but he cannot show it to anyone. Except maybe to his invisible friends who have provided him with this damning evidence.

8 hours ago, J5V said:

"Medical materials and other goods shortages caused by the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic quickly became a major issue of the pandemic. The matter of pandemic-related shortage has been studied in the past and has been documented in recent events. On the medical side, shortages of personal protective equipment such as medical masks, gloves, face shields, gear,[1] sanitising products, are also joined by potential shortage of more advanced devices such as hospital beds, ICU beds, oxygen therapy, ventilators and ECMO devices. Human resources, especially in terms of medical staff, may be drained by the overwhelming extent of the epidemic and associated workload, together with losses by contamination, isolation, sickness[1] or mortality among health care workers. Territories are differently equipped to face the pandemic. Various emergency measures have been taken to ramp up equipment levels such as purchases, while calls for donations, local 3D makers,[1][2] volunteer staffing, mandatory draft, or seizure of stocks and factory lines have also occurred. Bidding wars between different countries and states over these items are reported to be a major issue,[3][4] with price increases,[3] orders seized by local government, or cancelled by selling company to be redirected to higher bidder.[3][4] In some cases, medical workers have been ordered to not speak about these shortages of resources.[5]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortages_related_to_the_2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic

This is a pandemic! That means more people are getting sick than usual. You can't run the healthcare system at pandemic levels all the time. This is why we try and flatten the curve! 

Honestly I think you really don't understand what is going on here.

3 minutes ago, Tracker said:

As a followup to Trump's obsession with blaming China for the Coronavirus epidemic and 60,000 US deaths: even though his intelligence community has denied any culpability for China, Trump has gone all in on it. He has said that he has "proof" of China's guilt but he cannot show it to anyone. Except maybe to his invisible friends who have provided him with this damning evidence.

I think his proof is from reading all the goods the US has brought in from Asia.
All he can see is Made in China.

While China is far from blameless, Trump's efforts to pin all blame on them is ridiculous.  Any proper pandemic plan would note that some countries would not be forthcoming with results in the introduction.  Do we honestly think that the U.S. doesn't have a plan for a nuclear reactor meltdown that doesn't differentiate between possible reactions from Canada, Japan and Russia if they were to suffer the catastrophe?

Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking
Obsessed with impeachment and their enemies and worried about the stock market, the president and his son-in-law scapegoated HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and treated the coronavirus as mostly a political problem as it moved through the country:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/donald-trump-jared-kushners-two-months-of-magical-thinking

 

1 hour ago, do or die said:

Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking
Obsessed with impeachment and their enemies and worried about the stock market, the president and his son-in-law scapegoated HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and treated the coronavirus as mostly a political problem as it moved through the country:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/donald-trump-jared-kushners-two-months-of-magical-thinking

 

Excerpt from the above piece:

Another former West Wing official told me: "Trump is like an 11-year-old boy waiting for the fairy godmother to bring him a magic pill."

Edited May 1, 20205 yr by HardCoreBlue

Whew!

A month gone by and let me tell you I sure am glad we live in 🇨🇦 and that we had no April fools storm anything...

Trump can blame China all he wants us to, but China didnt run the US reaction to the pandemic.  At the same time he said it was nothing people in my office were talking about how bad it could be so should billy from accounting be running the US pandemic response?  Cause Billy knew.  How didnt Trump?  He's a liar.

https://www.chrisd.ca/2020/05/01/manitoba-covid-19-cases-cottage-campaign/

 

3 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Excerpt from the above piece:

Another former West Wing official told me: "Trump is like an 11-year-old boy waiting for the fairy godmother to bring him a magic pill."

I think the official probably over-estimated Trump's mental and emotional age by 300%.

Article in today's WFP.  I agree with it - MB. government needs to look at what other jurisdictions are doing with reopening schools

The province's decision not to reopen schools in any capacity is being questioned by a child psychologist who says students are falling way behind and may lose a year's worth of learning.

"We’re now going to be talking six months of children out of school," said Jen Theule, an associate professor in school and clinical psychology at the University of Manitoba. "We’re not talking learning loss, we’ll be re-teaching an entire grade."

In-person interactions with teachers and peers are critical in a child’s development, especially for children younger than 10, Theule said.

A mother and expert in children’s mental health and education, she questions why creative ideas for resuming classes are missing from the province's plan.

"The intensity of the presence of a large number of kids in a school makes social distancing all but impossible," Pallister said Wednesday, before noting the end of the year is fast approaching.

He made the comments moments after introducing Manitoba's reopening plan, which includes allowing non-essential businesses to reopen next week.

As far as Theule is concerned, there are safe options, and governments across the globe have tested some of them.

In mid-April, Denmark reopened schools with drastic changes to the pre-pandemic routine: class sizes were reduced, students are only allowed to play in small groups and they are required to wash their hands hourly. Danish school employees must prioritize outdoor learning, prevent parents from entering schools and ramp up sanitation.

In the U.S., President Donald Trump has urged states to reopen schools. In rural Idaho, administrators are mulling asking siblings to sit together on school buses, spaced out from other students.

Closer to home, Quebec plans to reopen elementary schools in two weeks in areas where there have been few COVID-19 cases. Classes will be capped at 15 students and those who live with people with health conditions will be barred from attending. One Vancouver school has already welcomed back students with "exceptionally high learning needs" to receive face-to-face instruction.

Discussion about any such measures in Manitoba have been secretive, if they have taken place at all.

Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen did not agree to an interview this week. Instead, his office provided a general statement that noted the department is working with stakeholders on the file.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society did not provide comment on the subject either, redirecting a query to a quote from president James Bedford in a prepared release: "The safety of students and of all education staff is of the utmost priority, and teachers are committed to ensuring that our students continue to learn during these uncertain times."

For parents, common concerns include their children's safety and ability to be asymptomatic carriers, as well as the unknown.

"At least if they had more information at this point then they could prepare," said Brenda Brazeau of the Manitoba Association of Parent Councils. A member of a provincial task force on the COVID-19 education response, Brazeau has yet to hear any discussion about what reopening schools could look like.

Meanwhile, Theule said it's important Manitobans start to consider their options.

"We have to acknowledge teachers’ expertise," she said. "The idea that parents could do this is almost amusing. If all parents could do this, we wouldn't have a public school system."

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca