Covid-19 pandemic

[Hot Pepsi]

The test is important if you're still attempting contact tracing and trying to contain the virus. If you give up and accept that virtually everyone's going to get it, it becomes less relevant.

I was thinking we were at that point.

[Satchmo Distel]

FGCU, as per all Florida state universities:

The Florida Board of Governors has directed every State University System institution, including FGCU, to shift instruction to remote (distance) classes for a two-week period. We will implement this directive effective Sunday, March 15 (thus the period will end on Sunday, March 29).

BUT our local community college (Fort Myers & Naples):

https://www.fsw.edu/alert

FSW returning from spring break to normal operations Monday, March 16th.
This evening, FSW administrators spoke with state leaders about guidance for reopening next week. At this point and time, FSW is scheduled to return from spring break to normal operations Monday, March 16th. We will utilize all FSW alert channels (text message, phone calls, email, FSW website, FSW APP, and social media to update you if our status changes.

[Incandenza]

Trump suspending all travel and trade from Europe. UK not affected

[hobbes]

Schools will shut down, I'm pretty sure.

Given that GCSE and A-Level years are gearing up for June exams, that could be disastrous for a lot of young people.

[matt j]

First closures in my immediate area. School district temporarily shutting down one high school and one elementary school for cleaning and waiting for test results on a few students.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Trump suspending all travel and trade from Europe. UK not affected

Is that 'cos they speak English?

[anton pulisov]

Trump is using Corona to whip up election fever

[Incandenza]

Trump is using Corona to whip up election fever

The “foreign virus”

[anton pulisov]

Tom Hanks has it

[anton pulisov]

Corona virus can survive in the air for three hours and on surfaces for three days

[Amor de Cosmos]

The “foreign virus”

Yup. So if Americans are going to Europe, or are already in Europe, will they be allowed to come back?

[anton pulisov]

Trump claiming that Europe, unlike the USA, was too slow to shut down flights from China.

I have this thing called Google which tells me that Air China from Beijing landed in Los Angeles four hours ago.

[San Bernardhinault]

Trump suspending all travel and trade from Europe. UK not affected

This seems utterly nuts.

But also this, and the Italian shut-down, do seem a bit like fascist fever dreams. The kinds of things that authoritarian governments dream about being able to implement.

[ursus arctos]

The answer to Amor's question is unclear because all we have is the speech and not the implementing order.

There may be real issues as to the availability of flights

It also appears to be the case that if one can get to the UK, one can travel, which makes zero sense.

[Satchmo Distel]

It also appears to be the case that if one can get to the UK, one can travel, which makes zero sense.

Unless Johnson announces tomorrow a ban on travel from Europe to the UK...

It would also make sense for Europe to retaliate by banning Americans going over to Europe on the grounds that the US has no proper CV-19 testing. Even if Americans can travel to Europe, how do they return?

Markets are going to be fucked.

[ursus arctos]

Countries that still have state airlines will find it hard to retaliate in that way, given the profitability of those routes.

I wonder what they are doing with cargo and private flights.l, not to mention ships. No one seems to have seen the operative language

[San Bernardhinault]

It's probably something Trump invented in his head minutes before broadcasting, because he wanted to be seen to be doing something. There probably isn't language yet and his team of incompetents is trying to write something right now.

[ursus arctos]

So, what does Fox Nation think now?

[Incandenza]

Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz, who days ago joked about the virus by touching every reporter's microphone and audio recorders, has tested positive. The NBA has suspended games going forward.

[Amor de Cosmos]

When will he ever, ever get called out on this bullshit? It's beyond belief that anyone barely sentient would give it even a second thought. So presumably a person traveling from Europe to Canada will be prevented from crossing the border into the US? And is anyone from Europe on, say, a week's stopover in Tokyo, going to get turned back at Seatac — for example.

[ursus arctos]

The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security says the ban does not apply to US Nationals, which makes zero sense

[ursus arctos]

Amor, I sincerely doubt that have thought through any of those scenarios

This is very reminiscent of Muslim Ban 1.0, which had no rules

[Amor de Cosmos]

Amor, I sincerely doubt that have thought through any of those scenarios

Of course not. That's why it's so fucking infantile.

[Incandenza]

When will he ever, ever get called out on this bullshit? It's beyond belief that anyone barely sentient would give it even a second thought. So presumably a person traveling from Europe to Canada will be prevented from crossing the border into the US? And is anyone from Europe on, say, a week's stopover in Tokyo, going to get turned back at Seatac — for example.

Even on PBS they were just talking about it like everyone is acting rationally, and what will Congress think about the payroll tax break, etc. I switched to CNN and Chris Cuomo was saying how panicked Trump seemed and that seemed like a far more honest discussion of what we just saw than some staid PBS analysis.

[ursus arctos]

The White House just said that he mispoke when he referred to goods and cargo