VIRAL LOAD MATTERS
The amount of virus you get at the start affects how sick you get.
WASHABLE N94 MASKS?
Supposedly 94% filtering after 20 washes in ethanol. Or is it 80%? Yet to be approved for production, one month after announcement.
ITALIAN VILLAGE DEFEATS VIRUS
(Simply with testing & social isolation. After the first Italian death and a quarantine, infection dropped from nearly 3% to 0.41%)
DENMARK LIMITS GROUPS TO TEN
(For the next 4 months, taking social distancing beyond rhetoric).
INDIA TRIES 12 HOUR CURFEW
From Sunday 22nd March, railways shut down for a week. Despite having only Australia having 177x worse infection (360 cases vs 1,353 which is 0.3 per million
vs 53). UPDATE: Then a
21 day lockdown from midnight Tuesday 24th March.
DOWNPLAYING AIRBORNE TRANSMISSION
The above report claims only medical procedures can generate airborne virus yet a
high tech
video
of coughing shows micro-droplets travelling long distances,
similar to sneezing studied in a peer-reviewed
published paper where the 8 metre spray evaporates, liberating a floating floating payload that can linger for hours. One is left wondering: If a virus can survive for hours on household surfaces, why not in the
air?
February 1st
The above report only mentions "asymptomatic" infections,
not differentiating between presymptomatic (those who go on to develop symtpoms)
and truly asymptomatic (those who never do).
It claims "transmission from asymptomatic cases is likely not a major driver of transmission".
DOWNPLAYING MASKS FOR ALL
Endangering lives of elderly in nursing homes who used WHO advice to actually
forbid masks
from being worn by staff in asymptomatic situations.
DOWNPLAYING THE SARS CONNECTION
Slightly different names for the viruses (having similar genes - like cousins though, not
offspring).
Yet the diseases have very different names (despite having similar
symptoms and
incubation
period).
Vietnam TV reporting
defied WHO on this point. They dared risk panicking their population by calling the virus by its proper name and ended up with
zero deaths
(as of 13th April)
with
minimal costs.
Economics
200504
NEW:
UBI FOR SCOTLAND?
First minister Nicola Sturgeon says the pandemic has strengthened the Universal Basic Income case
"immeasurably".
200504
NEW:
BASIC INCOME FOR USA?
House Democrats propose $2,000 per month as an economic stimulus, progresively tapered off for high
earners.
200421
NEW:
48% CANADA SENATE WANT UBI
(50 of the 105 Upper House members calling for a minimum basic income for the duration of the pandemic).
NEW:
Florida church has virus killing machines
Evangelical Pastor says crowd limits are unnecessary for his megachurch because he has
thirteen CoronaVirus killing machines which make it the safest place in the USA and soon he will have a cure.
Boris Johnston shaking hands
"I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were coronavirus patients and I was shaking hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands." he said in a video. Three weeks later it is announced that
he caught the virus.
Donald Trump shaking hands
("If there was ever a time where you convince people not to shake hands this could be it...[but] you can't be a politician and not shake hands.")
Jair Bolsonaro fist-bumps supporters
Despite 12 of his entourage tesing positive. His denial continues into clashes with the health ministry and state governors who support lockdowns.
Stefan Löfven too slow to act
Click for a timeline of milestones/headstones in this disaster as devastating as the US and UK albeit without the eventual lockdowns of those countries.
Indian kit costs only 15c per test
Indian Mylab develops a test that detects Covid-19 in 2.5hrs and cost ~$15 for 1 test-kit which diagnoses 100 patients
.
200424
NEW:
90% CHEAPER VENTILATOR
Aussie design should be deployed in a month, at 10% of the regular ventilator price.
Engineers donate 3D-printed valves
for Italian hospital ventilators (which manufacturer had run out of) UPDATE:
Manufacturer threatens to
sue because he is missing out on $11k per part... if he had them to supply.