[OFF TOPIC] Coronavirus Pandemic

[Dolby 754]

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

Well WHO is supposed to be a neutral organization. They were highly criticized for their behavior during the Swine Flu outbreak in 2009. They acted on the side of extreme caution this time, so as not to rock the boat of international politics again.

 

If China is giving information to WHO, they’ve somewhat beholden to that information. They can launch their own investigation, but I don’t think that’d fly in China. 

If they chose extreme caution just to prevent rocking the boat, then they do need a big overhaul. 
 

Also, if we believe China’s numbers, then we shouldn’t worry about second wave. Also, one of the main rules of life is: 
 

Edited April 8, 2020 by Dolby

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Main points from the long article above.

 

Those were the weeks when testing hardly happened, because there were no kits. Those were the weeks when tracing hardly happened, because there was little testing. Those were the weeks when isolation did not happen, because the president and his administration insisted that the virus was under control. Those were the weeks when supplies were not ordered, because nobody in the White House was home to order them. Those lost weeks placed the United States on the path to the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in the developed world: one-fourth of all confirmed cases anywhere on Earth.

 

Those lost weeks also put the United States—and thus the world—on the path to an economic collapse steeper than any in recent memory. Statisticians cannot count fast enough to keep pace with the accelerating economic depression. It’s a good guess that the unemployment rate had reached 13 percent by April 3. It may peak at 20 percent, perhaps even higher, and threatens to stay at Great Depression–like levels at least into 2021, maybe longer.

 

This country—buffered by oceans from the epicenter of the global outbreak, in East Asia; blessed with the most advanced medical technology on Earth; endowed with agencies and personnel devoted to responding to pandemics—could have and should have suffered less than nations nearer to China. Instead, the United States will suffer more than any peer country.

 

It didn’t have to be this way. If somebody else had been president of the United States in December 2019—Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Mike Pence, really almost anybody else—the United States would still have been afflicted by the coronavirus. But it would have been better prepared, and better able to respond.Through the early weeks of the pandemic, when so much death and suffering could still have been prevented or mitigated, Trump joined passivity to fantasy. In those crucial early days, Trump made two big wagers. He bet that the virus could somehow be prevented from entering the United States by travel restrictions. And he bet that, to the extent that the virus had already entered the United States, it would burn off as the weather warmed.

 

At a session with state governors on February 10, Trump predicted that the virus would quickly disappear on its own. “Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do—you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat—as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases—11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” On February 14, Trump repeated his assurance that the virus would disappear by itself. He tweeted again on February 24 that he had the virus “very much under control in the USA.” On February 27, he said that the virus would disappear “like a miracle.”

[Olympian1010 8,230]

5 minutes ago, Dolby said:

If they chose extreme caution just to prevent rocking the boat, then they do need a big overhaul. 
 

Also, if we believe China’s numbers, then we shouldn’t worry about second wave. Also, one of the main rules of life is: 
 

Well in 2009 people said WHO needed to chill the f out. We can’t have it both ways 

 

I agree that WHO should be allowed to rise above politics, but that ain’t happening anytime soon.

[Monzanator 4,768]

It's obvious the coronavirus has overwhelmed everyone. It's proven to be too much for both liberal and conservative politicians so I can only laugh at the ideas that if someone else was in charge here or there, things would have looked different. No, it wouldn't.

 

Malaria claims 1-3 million lives per year but it's viewed as Third World disease so it doesn't impact the global market and all these wealthy countries don't give a damn about it. But 100k coronavirus deaths have broke into the industrial powerhouses in Europe and America and the world freaks out. It's easy to dismiss infants dying in Chad of malaria but COVID has proven rich & powerful people can't buy health either.

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3 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

It's obvious the coronavirus has overwhelmed everyone. It's proven to be too much for both liberal and conservative politicians so I can only laugh at the ideas that if someone else was in charge here or there, things would have looked different. No, it wouldn't.

 

Malaria claims 1-3 million lives per year but it's viewed as Third World disease so it doesn't impact the global market and all these wealthy countries don't give a damn about it. But 100k coronavirus deaths have broke into the industrial powerhouses in Europe and America and the world freaks out. It's easy to dismiss infants dying in Chad of malaria but COVID has proven rich & powerful people can't buy health either.

 

Had to agree with you on this part.

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News about lack of PPE.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-indonesia/indonesia-announces-biggest-daily-rise-in-coronavirus-cases-24-doctors-now-dead-idUSKBN21O0UW

 

Indonesia announces biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases, 24 doctors now dead

 

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia announced its biggest daily increase in novel coronavirus cases on Monday and a medical association said 24 doctors had now died after contracting the virus.

 

Medical workers wearing disposable raincoats as their protective suits to serve patients are pictured amid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at a local health center in Aceh, Indonesia, April 6, 2020 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Picture taken April 6, 2020. Antara Foto/Irwansyah Putra/ via

The rise in the death toll among doctors, which has doubled since last week, followed criticism of a lack of protective equipment in Indonesia.

 

The 218 new coronavirus cases took the number overall in Indonesia to 2,491. The 209 confirmed deaths among people who have contracted the virus is the highest number of fatalities in Asia outside China.

 

“The trend of (doctors dying) is heading for the sky,” said Halik Malik, a spokesman for the Indonesian Doctors Association which confirmed the doctors’ deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

 

“The risk of medical workers getting infected is always there... but the point is medical workers need to be protected in any way,” said Malik.

 

A number of rights groups, including Amnesty International, have expressed concern at the high proportion of deaths among medical workers.

 

“The death of medical workers is not just a number, but an alarm for the country to fix their health system in an emergency situation,” a coalition of the groups said in a statement on Saturday.

 

Health experts have pointed to the high percentage of deaths among the number of confirmed cases as a sign the outbreak is much larger than official data suggests in the world’s fourth most-populous nation.

 

Indonesia’s own intelligence agency last week revealed that it expected coronavirus cases to peak in the next three months, surpassing 100,000 cases by July.

President Joko Widodo told a cabinet meeting on Monday that personal protective equipment (PPE) had been distributed across Indonesia, though he said regional officials must monitor the arrival of the equipment in hospitals.

 

Indonesian healthcare workers have at time faced a lack of protective gear, with some doctors forced to wear raincoats and bring their own masks to protect themselves from the virus.

 

A deficit in hospital beds, medical staff and intensive care facilities has raised concern the coronavirus crisis could push Indonesia’s health system to the brink.

 

At least 10 Indonesian provinces, including the eastern provinces of Maluku and Papua, lack COVID-19 facilities, Doni Monardo, the head of Indonesia’s coronavirus taskforce, told parliament on Monday.

 

In recent weeks, Indonesia has converted a former Vietnam war era refugee camp on an uninhabited island off Sumatra, and a former athletes’ village into coronavirus treatment facilities.

[Olympian1010 8,230]

32 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

It's obvious the coronavirus has overwhelmed everyone. It's proven to be too much for both liberal and conservative politicians so I can only laugh at the ideas that if someone else was in charge here or there, things would have looked different. No, it wouldn't.

 

Malaria claims 1-3 million lives per year but it's viewed as Third World disease so it doesn't impact the global market and all these wealthy countries don't give a damn about it. But 100k coronavirus deaths have broke into the industrial powerhouses in Europe and America and the world freaks out. It's easy to dismiss infants dying in Chad of malaria but COVID has proven rich & powerful people can't buy health either.

It’s a fair point, and one these powerful countries could really solve if they wanted too. I do think leadership matters to a degree. Look at California, and then the rest of the United States. No, we’re not keeping the virus away, but we’re also not drowning in victims like some other parts of the country. We had a leader who took this seriously from day 1. We tried to prevent the spread originally, but we realized we needed to prepare for an outbreak, and now we have a controlled spread. Newsom has done a great job considering the alternative. 

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https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/03/22/covid-19-inadequate-medical-supplies-take-toll-on-lives-of-indonesian-medical-workers.html

 

COVID-19: Inadequate medical supplies take toll on lives of Indonesian medical workers

 

Excerpts from the article above.

 

A hospital crisis looms as reports indicate that the combined capacity of the 132 referral hospitals designated to treat COVID-19 patients is far from adequate. Protective gear for medical workers is in short supply in both referral and regular hospitals across the country.

 

While the system is inadequate, the government still maintains a lack of transparency over releasing information about patients and its preparedness, a policy that it has maintained since the emergence of the pandemic in January. This often leaves medical workers in the dark about whether they are treating a COVID-19 patient and it puts their lives at risk.

 

 

The frustration of medical workers is emerging in many provinces as medical supplies become depleted.

 

Adam Malik Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, has experienced difficulties meeting the needs for medical coveralls, goggles and hand sanitizer by its staff members, according to hospital spokesperson Rosario Dorothy.

 

 

“Frankly, I don’t think we are equipped enough as it is to deal with further escalation. There are only 1,200 lung specialists across the country who are proficient in examining respiratory illnesses caused by the virus. The mitigation should be viewed as a collective endeavor with active participation from the public,” he told the Post.

 

Yani Muchtar, a radiologist at Harapan Kita Hospital, urged the government to devise a system that enables seamless cooperation between hospitals should any of them fail to function because of short supplies of resources at the height of the public health crisis.

 

Disease surveillance and biostatistics researcher Iqbal Ridzi Fahdri Elyazar and his team at the Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit have used the geometric sequence method to determine “how much time it would take for the number of cases to double in Indonesia”.

 

Based on their calculations, Indonesia could be grappling with up to 71,000 COVID-19 cases by the end of April.

[Monzanator 4,768]

3 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

It’s a fair point, and one these powerful countries could really solve if they wanted too. I do think leadership matters to a degree. Look at California, and then the rest of the United States. No, we’re not keeping the virus away, but we’re also not drowning in victims like some other parts of the country. We had a leader who took this seriously from day 1. We tried to prevent the spread originally, but we realized we needed to prepare for an outbreak, and now we have a controlled spread. Newsom has done a great job considering the alternative. 

 

Andrew Cuomo also took this seriously and he's helpless with New York being hit the hardest. Until the pandemic ends there's no place for pyrrhic victories like a controlled spread. The entire country will be hit hard by this and even if California recovers the best since it has the biggest income in USA there will be many others struggling. Funny enough, I bet Trump will take the eventual economy rise as his own success and CNN & New York Times will freak out again

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https://www.livescience.com/new-zealand-coronavirus.html

 

New Zealand is winning the war on coronavirus. Here’s why.

 

Excerpts from the article above.

The  SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. keeps getting worse. China is just starting to reopen its society. South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore are managing their outbreaks with the help of massive contact tracing detetcive work. But New Zealand, which saw its first confirmed case on Feb. 28, is on track to stop its outbreak before it ever had a chance to begin. That's likely thanks to early and decisive nationwide action by its government.

 

 The small country of nearly 4.8 million people was able to quickly contain the virus and appears to have a real chance of wiping it out entirely, The Washington Post reported. As of April 7, according to the New Zealand Ministry of Health, the country has logged 1,160 confirmed and suspected cases in the country and just one death. More people recovered in the last 24 hours (65) than were found to have been infected (54), suggesting that the local outbreak is declining.

 

Moreover, as of April 7, just one person is known to have died of the disease, according to Worldometer, which tracks COVID-19 cases around the globe.

 

The key to success has been a straightforward, two-pronged strategy led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.