Covid-19 pandemic

[Nocturnal Submission]

The outbreak seems particularly severe in Wales - five deaths today, and 22 in all, seems rather high for its population.

Yes, most UK nations/regions have broadly similar paths apart from the big outlier London and, increasingly, Wales:

[DCI Harry Batt]

TonTon, I had the same question. My best guess is that they had the, because some restaurants include them with deliveries.

Do they? How extraordinary. And people use them, rather than real plates?

[ursus arctos]

Some people do

They are often the same people who use their ovens to store shoes or shirts

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/drjgtimmons/status/1242778287883071497?s=19

[WOM]

Merit? Royalty has nothing to do with merit.

[Fussbudget]

James Cook is our local hospital which made that tweet a bit confusing.

[Patrick Thistle]

Public Health Wales releases a daily statement.

Half the Welsh cases are in Gwent.

https://covid19-phwstatement.nhs.wales/

[DCI Harry Batt]

https://twitter.com/leedalyire/status/1242771597708136449

[ursus arctos]

Interesting (and should be unlocked for everyone)

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1242806627645915138

[anton pulisov]

Interesting (and should be unlocked for everyone)

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1242806627645915138

They are being completely reckless. It will be a shit show here when the numbers catch up.

[HORN]

Half the Welsh cases are in Gwent.

Darwin would have struggled not to say something at this point.

[ursus arctos]

AP, I'm afraid that that was my reaction as well.

It isn't as if the country is sealed off from the rest of Europe

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm going out for my daily exercise

[anton pulisov]

AP, I'm afraid that that was my reaction as well.

I can at least say that most people over 30 are being responsible. The swimming pool I regularly go to (and haven't been to for three weeks, for obvious reasons) had only two swimmers in it when I looked in the window of the swimming hall last week. The pubs where the middle-aged and older men hang out were almost completely empty when I drove through town on the weekend. Me and my colleagues have been working at home for over two weeks. But we all use computers for our work, it's not a problem for us. Not everyone has that luxury. The main positive I can give is that your average Swede is socially distant at the best of times...

But, as far as I know, the under 30s are still going to nightclubs on the weekend.

It's all a bit weird, because Sweden has one of the lower ICU capacities per population in Europe. They can't afford the luxury of this experiment. Weekly Swedish ICU usage stats can be found here. The cumulative inpatient numbers have been going up exponentially in the last couple of weeks (near the bottom of that page). And Corona is not something that needs just a couple of days of ICU, people tend to be in there for a couple of weeks before they get better. From my apartment balcony I can see the University Hospital in the distance, and the medical helicopter has been coming and going nonstop today.

It's fucking depressing, the Koreans have shown the world that it is possible to use 21st century technology to keep everything under control until a vaccine comes along. Europe should be repurposing commercial and university labs left, right and centre into testing facilities.

[Levin]

I got the GOV text at half one on my work phone today.

[Hot Pepsi]

Anyway, re not using your kitchen; when I was in the restaurant game, we had a lovely regular (woman with two kids) who used to come in 3 or 4 times a week. She told me once that she'd never once used her kitchen in 10 years. She didn't enjoy cooking, wasn't a good cook, and would rather spend her money out and have a nice visit with her kids instead.

Also, my 'right hand' at the newspaper was a single male who hadn't cooked a single thing in his (rather upscale) townhome in the 15 years or so he'd been there. He literally ate take-out for every single meal. Didn't even make toast or coffee at home.

I know a guy who works for a company that does high-end kitchen equipment in the Bay Area. He says that a lot of their customers never use the stuff they buy. At most, caterers may use it some times, but otherwise, it's just there to keep up the outrageous price of the house when they chose to sell it to the next wealthy sucker.

If this is not already the case, then I suspect many of these $10m+ homes in LA, NYC, London, SF, etc, will be built with purely utilitarian kitchens in the basement to be used by the house staff, like in Downton Abbey or the White House.

[Satchmo Distel]

[URL]https://twitter.com/empiresend/status/1242822896470446080[/URL]

[Hot Pepsi]

https://twitter.com/drjgtimmons/status/1242778287883071497?s=19

In fairness to whomever had to do that in Scotland - I don't need to be fair to the fucking future king of England, it may stand to reason that the threshold for testing is different in Aberdeenshire than in London, for example. In places where it's "in the community" as they say, testing is just using-up a scarce resource for not much benefit. But for somebody like HRFM, it may help track exposure.

And, you know, using up one test on the guy who could become the king at any moment - I mean, nobody is saying it - but that is the case, is it no?. Indeed, that was the case three months ago - may not be the worst idea.

Because if and when that moment comes, there are going to be a lot of people telling him he has to go this place and that and see the PM or go to Westminister Abbey and kiss a rock or do whatever other silly Swords & Sorcery shit that is expected of him, so knowing without a doubt that he's contagious would be very useful information to explain why he cannot do all of those things.

[Incandenza]

https://twitter.com/janinegibson/status/1242069622536441858

Not specifically for this page, but what does it mean to be "recovered" from the virus? No longer displaying symptoms of illness? If so, for how long?

[ursus arctos]

It differs by jurisdiction, but is usually multiple negative tests over a week to ten days.

There has been very little, if any, evidence of people being reinfected.

[Hot Pepsi]

This is so depressing that I almost don't want to address it, but the contrast between NZ's total lockdown and our relatively permissive one shows how bad the political discourse is here. Our version of the "lockdown" is already the compromise position and yet the right can't stand that. They have to take it all. It's the same with our health system in general. Obamacare was originally a right-wing proposal. But now it's considered "socialism."

I don't feel too bad saying that I hope a lot of these fuckers die soon. That's not very Christian of me, but I think them dying of their own terrible policy will actually change some minds and maybe save a lot of lives. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I think Jesus said that. (he didn't, but you know...)

[Hot Pepsi]

Not specifically for this page, but what does it mean to be "recovered" from the virus? No longer displaying symptoms of illness? If so, for how long?

CDC said that, ideally, it's two negative tests 24 hours apart after symptoms have subsided (that last part may be obvious). But there aren't nearly enough tests for that so it will likely be "72 hours with no symptoms."

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I thought that tweet about "Prince Charles working from home on *checks notes* automatically inheriting the property of everyone in Cornwall who dies without a will" was too extraordinary to be true (I mean I'm sure I would have learnt about it and remembered it from the Probate module of my law studies for a start if it had been true), so I checked.

The rather less dramatic truth behind it is that in the very limited circumstances in which the assets of a deceased person pass to the Crown (which happens where the person is not only intestate (i.e. no valid will in place) but also has no surviving relatives, quite widely defined), then in Cornwall instead of to the Crown the assets go to the Duchy.

[Hot Pepsi]

I thought that tweet about "Prince Charles working from home on *checks notes* automatically inheriting the property of everyone in Cornwall who dies without a will" was too extraordinary to be true (I mean I'm sure I would have learnt about it and remembered it from the Probate module of my law studies for a start if it had been true), so I checked.

The rather less dramatic truth behind it is that in the very limited circumstances in which the assets of a deceased person pass to the Crown (which happens where the person is not only intestate (i.e. no valid will in place) but also has no surviving relatives, quite widely defined), then in Cornwall instead of to the Crown the assets go to the Duchy.

I can't imagine that happens very often and if it does, for the reasons you explain, there wouldn't be anybody that would feel especially cheated. Hopefully it that did happen, the Duchy would just use it as a PR opportunity to donate the value of whatever to a charity.

[Eggchaser]

https://twitter.com/leedalyire/status/1242771597708136449

Errr, no. The Duchies of Cornwall, Lancaster and The Crown (no predictable jokes, please) only inherit under an intestate estate if no living relative, however obscure and possibly out to half-blood (yes, very funny at the back), cannot be found.

Whilst this was much more likely in the past, the rise of genealogy firms who can trace people all over the world means you can usually find someone.

It can also get a bit silly with distant cousins getting a 1/120th share or similar.