Covid-19 pandemic

[sw2borshch]

She smirks when she talks. Or when her face rests. It's a bad look in the current climate.

[ursus arctos]

Perhaps she has been delegated to strike Kushneresque "deals" for PPE and ventilators with shadowy middlemen

[Muukalainen]

828 new deaths in England, 5 in NI and 70 in Scotland, gives 936 as the UK total.

Are the UK daily figures the gross total or from hospitals only?

[Ray de Galles]

What on earth has happened to Priti Patel in all this btw? Is she ill? Because she certainly hasn't had the prominence I'd expect from a bleeding *home secretary* during all this crisis period.

This, from the typically excellent Marina Hyde piece that was posted upthread, may be significant ;

I wonder, incidentally, if I am alone in having felt the absence of any women in the government’s “war cabinet” of five top ministers, and whether we’d be hearing quite so much about wars and battles if there were more? I understand, of course, that this is where the cards fell – there are a whole six women in the cabinet, and ministers can only do the jobs that were put in front of them months before this crisis exploded. Even so, I feel the imbalance.

[sw2borshch]

Carrying out an independent medical policy.

I am just taking comfort in the smirk idea as it's the least sinister explanation?

[Jimski]

She smirks when she talks. Or when her face rests. It's a bad look in the current climate.

Good point!

[sw2borshch]

Re the cats thing, and apologies to anyone distressed by the whole thing, but I can't stop thinking about a team of Putin's canine cyber-disinformers being behind it and doing Muttley laughs. The spy-dogs, not me.

[That Night In Barcelona]

An overwhelming 52% of respondents to a Politico/Morning Consult poll think Obama would be handling the pandemic better than Trump, my faith in humanity is restored. They don't think the same about Biden, but it's best not to expect perfection in life.

Given Biden's response to the crisis was to disappear for a week and then come out with folksy interviews about figs and peanut butter sandwiches, perhaps the US public are being quite perceptive. He could be using his resources to put out videos about where to find support (e.g. food banks) and how communities can get organised to help each other, but instead he's shockingly encouraging people to get out to vote and pretending to be on the phone to Trump.

I know a Biden government would be so much more competent than Trump's, but if Biden was personally directing the response effort I'm not sure we'd see a significantly lower rate of infection.

[Ginger Yellow]

It does seem pertinent that Obama's 2008 victory was in no small part down to McCain's messing up of his campaigning response to the financial crisis.

[Bruno]

We'd see a lower rate of attention whoring, exploitation, power-grabbing, and stealing, I would hope.

[Ray de Galles]

The Welsh government has confirmed what we all know, which is that that the lockdown will extend beyond Monday and that is likely to be the case for the entire UK.

[Ginger Yellow]

Um, did anyone think it was going to end on Monday? There's no way it can be lifted until we're clearly on the downslope (and realistically bottoming out at near zero new cases).

[Ray de Galles]

Hence, "what we all know", nevertheless the lockdown was for an initial three week period and it's extension is/was yet to be confirmed.

Although, there has been some bizarre talk of reopening schools after the current Easter holidays which seems counter-intuitive.

[Jimski]

Yeah, I've seen such reports. It does seem bizarre, and hopefully unlikely. I imagine a lot of parents won't send their children in to school if they do take the weird step of reopening them so soon. (September would be my guess though.)

[ad hoc]

Here in Romania schools are definitely closed to pretty much all classes until next academic year in September. The two exceptions are 8th and 12th grade, who are supposed to be taking big exams at the end of the year to determine which high school/focus they will have next year (for the 8th graders) or is crucial for university entrance/school leaving (12th). At the moment the hope is that these two groups can go back to school in June, study for a month and then do their exams a month late in July. I have my doubts. (I am very familiar with this discussion as my younger daughter is in the 8th grade)

[Ray de Galles]

Yeah, I've seen such reports. It does seem bizarre, and hopefully unlikely. I imagine a lot of parents won't send their children in to school if they do take the weird step of reopening them so soon. (September would be my guess though.)

Also, there would be a justified sentiment of "If you're reopening schools in April why on earth did you cancel the exams?!"

[ad hoc]

Meanwhile, amid reports of Israeli soldiers spitting on Palestinians or on their ID cards, demolishing clinics, and refusing to allow face masks into Gaza, and amid deep shortages of face masks in many US states, came reports of the US shipping 1 million face masks for IDF use. These reports are quickly being deleted, but it's still a bit mysterious https://electronicintifada.net/blogs...s-israeli-army

[ursus arctos]

The right of passage exam question is causing headaches for every country that relies heavily/exclusively on them.

[ursus arctos]

For anyone interested in more granular detail on New York City, this tracker is very good.

https://projects.thecity.nyc/2020_03_covid-19-tracker/

The overwhelming message of the data is the degree to which this is tracking income inequality.

[Diable Rouge]

Of course, the weather today would arguably be more summery than the actual months of that season, so Gardaí are being deployed to beaches and holiday homes.

[Fussbudget]

Are the UK daily figures the gross total or from hospitals only?

The latter.

[Satchmo Distel]

For anyone interested in more granular detail on New York City, this tracker is very good.

https://projects.thecity.nyc/2020_03_covid-19-tracker/

The overwhelming message of the data is the degree to which this is tracking income inequality.

What explanations have been given for this? I can envisage that poor people often cannot practice social distancing due to large households and crammed accommodation, and cannot turn down jobs with employers who do not protect them. I can also imagine that there is no access to medical advice, and that they are treated less sympathetically if they manage to make it to a hospital. Other factors?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

They're building a temporary morgue facility on the BAe site at Warton to prepare to house 1,000 corpses. This is just to be prepared for deaths in Lancashire, Blackpool and Blackburn councils, not Greater Manchester which has a population almost double those combined. I know it’s precautionary but even so, that’s scary.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I was kind of assuming that the relative invisibility of Priti Patel was down to some kind of collective Cabinet judgement on presentational factors - i.e. she's not the right person to communicate the Government messages in these challenging and distressing times because her stupid and vicious sociopathic personality shines through her every word and gesture. Truly, she is a worst amongst equals even in the context of that Cabinet.

[ursus arctos]

There are lots, and it is difficult to parse between them

An important one is that "essential workers" (as interpreted here) are primarily the working class and working poor. For example, 30 employees of the public transit system have died so far (bus drivers being the single category most effected). See also home health aides, grocery store workers, etc. There is also a vicious feedback loop with the municipal hospitals serving those communities being completely overwhelmed, which leads to people avoiding hospitals, which leads to more deaths at home.