Covid-19 pandemic

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The number of official deaths from Covid-19 worldwide, 2.867million+, is now higher than the population of Qatar.

Is that in part because of all the efforts Qatar have been making to reduce their population?

[Patrick Thistle]

There is a time lag in reporting in Wales as they didn't publish deaths on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. Public Health Wales has said to expect a bounce in reporting tomorrow and Wednesday.

Worth remembering that we have reached these low levels after months of lockdown/ home schooling/ businesses being shut. It's not that the virus has gone away; the spread has been curtailed. As things open up we will find out whether vaccination limits spread in a real world context. The next month or so will be interesting.

[San Bernardhinault]

As Ursus implies, the US road traffic situation is identical to the one Paul S describes in London. RTAs overall are down, but fatal ones are up substantially because people could drive faster, and - even worse - kept driving that high speed even when the traffic started to return.

(As an aside, I believe the number of roadside incidents like flat tires and batteries and overeating engines and so on was basically unchanged throughout the pandemic - this is because the kinds of people who drive new cars that don't break down could all work from home, and the people who were forced to continue travelling for work are the kinds of people on low incomes who therefore drive old and unreliable vehicles).

[Balderdasha]

Russia is the 7th country to officially exceed one hundred thousand deaths from Covid-19, but its real death toll is likely three times that figure.

[San Bernardhinault]

Meanwhile, based on a short run of the last three or four days of data which might be skewed by Easter, both the case numbers and - more importantly when combined with case numbers - the positivity rate may have flattened out in Massachusetts. There's no certainty about any of it, but it is possible that the current vaccination rate here (38% have had at least one dose, increasing by just under 1% per day) could be enough to hold the fourth wave in check.

[matt j]

Russia is the 7th country to officially exceed one million deaths from Covid-19, but its real death toll is likely three times that figure.

(Probably mean 7th to cross one-hundred-thousand? Otherwise I'm looking at the complete wrong stats.)

[Balderdasha]

(Probably mean 7th to cross one-hundred-thousand? Otherwise I'm looking at the complete wrong stats.)

Whoops, yes, I mean 100,000 sorry. Will amend it.

[San Bernardhinault]

So, I was thinking about Massachusetts flattening out and looking at the data and I discover that perhaps British vaccine nationalism-smugness might need to come to an end.

It turns out that at this point the UK has administered 54.36 doses per 100 people. 12 States, one district, and three US territories* have administered more than that.

* All 6 New England states, the 2 Dakotas, Alaska, New Jersey, New Mexico and Wisconsin; DC, Guam, Palau and American Samoa.

[ad hoc]

Palau isn't a US territory. It's an independent country that has a free association agreement with the US

(officially anyway)

[Nefertiti2]

Michael Rosen remembers his time in hospital

The letters from the nurses looking after him are very moving.

[ursus arctos]

Palau expects to be the first country to vaccinate its entire population.

It also has had zero positive cases so far.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...on-warp-speed/

[San Bernardhinault]

Palau isn't a US territory. It's an independent country that has a free association agreement with the US

(officially anyway)

Oops. Of course you are correct. I was just working down the ourworldindata list and wasn't even thinking. They also include FSM (who have a very low vaccination rate so far).

[Jimski]

Let's hope this is right...

"Existing vaccines may protect against the Brazilian coronavirus variant"

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-03-18...avirus-variant

[S. aureus]

Not sure where to put this, but I've just been summoned for jury duty, which, as far as I can tell from the letter, might require me to be physically present in a courtroom. I can't say that this prospect fills me with excitement at this point in the pandemic, even if I have been vaccinated.

[ursus arctos]

If Redwood City courtrooms and jury rooms are anything like Manhattan's or San Francisco's, I certainly understand your discomfort

[Amor de Cosmos]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this but the NHL one didn't really cover it.

In the past few days 22 Vancouver Canuck players and coaches have tested positive for covid. They followed league protocols (though clearly they aren't adequate.) So far only two players have announced they're symptomatic, but there could well be others. Nevertheless the NHL still expects the team to fulfill it's schedule. Six games have been postponed so far but there inevitably will be more.

The team’s remaining schedule is tightly packed, with not even a three-day break between games. There are also just two days between the Canucks’ final game on the schedule and May 11, which was the scheduled start date for the playoffs. According to NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the Canucks will be expected to complete their 56-game season, necessitating the rescheduling of the six postpone games, as well as any others that might need to be postponed. Daly called the Canucks’ COVID numbers “concerning from a health and safety standpoint, not necessarily from a scheduling standpoint" according to the Canadian Press.

Just insane.

[ursus arctos]

Daly reminds me of the Japanese politicians who were insisting that the Tokyo Olympics wouldn't be postponed last year (and that Abe wouldn't resign).

There is no way that the Canucks will complete 56 games, nor should they.

A rational league would shut them down for the season to promote a full recovery, but the NHL will likely instead sacrifice their remaining games against clubs that won't make the playoffs (and maybe the Leafs, given that they have a lock on the 1 seed)

[Nurse Duckett]

Not sure where to put this, but I've just been summoned for jury duty, which, as far as I can tell from the letter, might require me to be physically present in a courtroom. I can't say that this prospect fills me with excitement at this point in the pandemic, even if I have been vaccinated.

Different country, but I was called for UK jury service for my first time in December. It was quite well controlled: counsels spread out, distanced jurors' desks in the courtroom, perspex shields separating chairs in the jury deliberation room, masks to be worn when moving around the building. The whole experience - gruesome evidence at times - made a welcome distraction from home working during the pandemic.

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1379330473705504769?s=19

[Lang Spoon]

A month or two back we were hearing India could teach the rest of the world as it cases collapsed.

[San Bernardhinault]

I don't think I ever read "what India could teach the rest of the world". I just read "Nobody can work out why India has such a low number of cases", and were trying to work out if there was a lesson. It appears, now, that it was just a surprising outlier.

[Satchmo Distel]

IIRC it had extremely rigorous lockdowns that worked but couldn't be sustained indefinitely because it's not a totalitarian country or as deferential to government control as would be necessary to do that.

[Balderdasha]

I think the initial lockdown in India was also unsustainable for various reasons related to poverty e.g. many people couldn't afford not to go to work for long and / or didn't have access to refrigeration so needed to go out food shopping more regularly. This has been a feature in South America as well. I can't find the article now but I read one about lots of outbreak clusters being linked to markets where everyone goes to buy fresh fruit and vegetables every two or three days.

[Balderdasha]

We have enough money and a big enough fridge and freezer that if necessary, we can stock the house for a month and then never leave. That's simply not possible in many countries.

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/markhutchings1/status/1379430104330248195?s=19