Covid-19 pandemic

[Nocturnal Submission]

I've just seen a middle-aged man wearing a face mask in the Banstead branch of Waitrose. Now I'm really worried.

I'm just about to compose three e-mails. The first one, to my daughter's college course leader, is to inform him that the local veterinary surgery, that was going to let Miss NS do her work experience there, have postponed the arrangement because of COVID-19. The second is to a group of friends that I was planning to meet up with in a fortnight, requesting opinions on whether we go ahead with it or not. The last is to neighbours on a distribution list to suggest that we establish a mutual support group. I just met one of them, a guy in his early-70s perhaps who lives on his own with a dog, has had heart problems in the past and is currently being treated for cancer. Obviously I told him to let me know if he needs any help but it'll be a good idea to bring together as many members of the neighbourhood group as want to be involved.

[Diable Rouge]

Found out that our local libraries will be closing. I can understand why, but bad news for parents looking for something to do with their kids. And, sadly, the libraries have a lot of resources for homeless people that they can't always find someplace else--computers and internet access, reading material, a safe place to sit in out of the elements, and bathrooms.

Yes - refugees and asylum seekers generally make most use of the internet facilities in local libraries here, they also have a local resource centre, but even that has had to scale back its activities, such as cancelling English classes.

[Balderdasha]

In the UK: local elections and mayoral elections have been postponed for a year, the Queen is cancelling appointments, and Charles and Camilla are no longer going to Cyprus. No sign of impending school closures yet though.

[Gangster Octopus]

My appointment on Monday to see the GP to check on the way my celulitis is going is now going to be phone only. Not sure how that will work...

[Lang Spoon]

Rumours Ireland goes to Total Lockdown (meaning what?) Monday morning. Debunked already (hopefully)

[Amor de Cosmos]

We cancelled dental appointments for next week. La Signora's just had a colonoscopy so we might have done so without the added incentive of COVID-19

[Third rate Leszno]

Three people from my office are apparently self-isolating, but as they're not being tested then there's no requirement for anyone else to work from home (although people can, if they're concerned and if their job allows). Adding to the unease is ongoing industrial action by our cleaners which means the landlords will have to try and bring in 'alternative' labour to keep the building habitable.

I've got a series of meetings coming up in London that are currently scheduled to be face to face, but may possibly be do-able by Microsoft Teams - though the more people who do this, the greater the probability that the network will wilt under the strain.

[ursus arctos]

I would presume that Total Lockdown would mean the adoption of Italian travel restrictions (no travel outside the county without certification as to its purpose and one's health status), as well as some degree of public accommodation closures (though perhaps not where Italy now is, with only groceries and pharmacies operating).

[ursus arctos]

New York Public Library closed through the end of the month, which is a rather big deal. Not just the research facilities and the main branch on Fifth and 42nd, but the 100+ neighbourhood branches and specialised libraries as well.

[Diable Rouge]

Rumours Ireland goes to Total Lockdown (meaning what?) Monday morning. Debunked already (hopefully)

That would presumably mean all offices and restaurants closed - they'd have to keep shops open, however, one would think?

[ursus arctos]

See Italy.

Groceries and pharmacies are considered the minimum necessary

[ursus arctos]

Bolsonaro is now denying that he has tested positive, which strikes me as very Trumpian

[scratchmonkey]

RE: The post earlier about US school closures, it varies from state to state whether the controls for this sort of thing are on the state or on the district level. For example, all of the Seattle-area schools have closed and there's a rapid domino effect of the Bay Area school districts announcing closures. So WA will look like schools are open; the majority of students have had their schools closed though.

[ursus arctos]

Spain is expected to declare a State of Emergency tomorrow that will allow the government to impose Italinesque travel restrictions (local restrictions affecting about half a million people are already in place in Catalunya and Murcia)

[Incandenza]

New York Public Library closed through the end of the month, which is a rather big deal. Not just the research facilities and the main branch on Fifth and 42nd, but the 100+ neighbourhood branches and specialised libraries as well.

Working families are really fucked.

[Incandenza]

RE: The post earlier about US school closures, it varies from state to state whether the controls for this sort of thing are on the state or on the district level. For example, all of the Seattle-area schools have closed and there's a rapid domino effect of the Bay Area school districts announcing closures. So WA will look like schools are open; the majority of students have had their schools closed though.

Los Angeles Unified School District is closed starting Monday.

[treibeis]

Why do people accept what the government tells them to do so readily? When there's no virus about, they're out banging dustbin lids because a tree has been chopped down, a parking space abolished, whatever. But when the virus "comes about", they do whatever they're told.

[ursus arctos]

Working families are really fucked.

Very much so

Trump expected to declare a national state of emergency in 90 minutes. This will allow FEMA to get involved and free up funding for state and local governments (though they still seem committed to relying on "the private sector" (aka GOP donors) to ramp up testing and the like).

[Satchmo Distel]

I wonder if Trump has instructed any of his staff and cabinet who test positive to also deny that they have the virus. I'm not sure how easy it would be to keep the lid on that, though.

Bolsonaro's denial must also be easily debunked by the fact that he will not be appearing in public for a while (unless he is totally insane).

[ursus arctos]

I think the more likely tactic is to prohibit staff from getting tested in the first place.

[Balderdasha]

Wales has suspended routine 'elective' surgery and routine outpatient appointments.

[Incandenza]

This is grim stuff from Mike Davis, who unfortunately is usually shown to be right.

We are in the early stages of a medical Katrina. Despite years of warnings about avian flu and other pandemics, inventories of basic emergency equipment such as respirators aren’t sufficient to deal with the expected flood of critical cases. Militant nurses unions in California and other states are making sure that we all understand the grave dangers created by inadequate stockpiles of essential protective supplies like N95 face masks. Even more vulnerable because invisible are the hundreds of thousands of low-wage and overworked homecare workers and nursing home staff.

The nursing home and assisted care industry which warehouses 2.5 million elderly Americans – most of them on Medicare - has long been a national scandal. According to the New York Times, an incredible 380,000 nursing home patients die every year from facilities’ neglect of basic infection control procedures. Many homes – particularly in Southern states - find it cheaper to pay fines for sanitary violations than to hire additional staff and provide them with proper training. Now, as the Seattle example warns, dozens, perhaps hundreds more nursing homes will become coronavirus hotspots and their minimum-wage employees will rationally choose to protect their own families by staying home. In such a case the system could collapse and we shouldn’t expect the National Guard to empty bedpans.
...
As the antibiotic revolution is rolled back, old diseases will reappear alongside novel infections and hospitals will become charnel houses. Even Trump can opportunistically rail against absurd prescription costs, but we need a bolder vision that looks to break up the drug monopolies and provide for the public production of lifeline medicines. (This used to be the case: during World War Two, the Army enlisted Jonas Salk and other researchers to develop the first flu vaccine.) As I wrote fifteen years ago in my book The Monster at Our Door – The Global Threat of Avian Flu:

Access to lifeline medicines, including vaccines, antibiotics, and antivirals, should be a human right, universally available at no cost. If markets can’t provide incentives to cheaply produce such drugs, then governments and non-profits should take responsibility for their manufacture and distribution. The survival of the poor must at all times be accounted a higher priority than the profits of Big Pharma.

The current pandemic expands the argument: capitalist globalization now appears to be biologically unsustainable in the absence of a truly international public health infrastructure. But such an infrastructure will never exist until peoples’ movements break the power of Big Pharma and for-profit healthcare.

[Balderdasha]

Friend of friend of friend (etc) who was in Cobra meeting says UK is preparing to close all schools a week today (Friday 20th).

[Sporting]

Friend of friend of friend (etc) who was in Cobra meeting says UK is preparing to close all schools a week today (Friday 20th).

Why a week today? Why not now (or not at all)?

[Balderdasha]

Why a week today? Why not now (or not at all)?

Don't know. Apparently that is considered 'the right time'.