Agger

It seems like we now more or less officially have our presidential candidates (well, for the main parties) as Sanders drops out according to CNN.

Looking at the index used for it, it has 34 different indicators. USA is first in 18 of these and top 10 in another 8 (they are by the way ranked 175 in healthcare acces). That's also on prevention, detection, response, norms and risk. I'm not the right one to consider whether the indicators are good or bad or if the US was in fact the potentially best prepared or these, but I can see that some of the strengths are thrown away by Trump and Kushner (or was based on facts that didn't really stand the test). I'm very well aware of the major lacks in the US health care and have seen the numbers of beds and ICU beds plenty of times (one of the few things things I could easily be sceptical about is that it doesn't seem like ICU beds are taken into account (only beds in general are)) Personally I would be careful about making any conclusions about whether it's a good ranking or anything. It is pretty thorough afterall, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't focused on some of the wrong things.

Except for the worst cases it's really way too early to make any conclusions about who is doing well or bad until we've been through the full pandemic. The Swedish way could end up seeming like the right way when other countries are hit by a second wave. Even Italy, Spain and New York could end up looking better in the statistics in a year (though I doubt the times they're going through will be forgotten). Don't get me wrong. I've also been in favour of more isolation, but simulations show that it's at least as much a question of the behaviour of the people (at least if you're not going to the extremes with curfews). As long as the Swedish health system isn't overloaded, it could be the right decision in the long run.

I'm sure that it may be right when it comes to the health care systems. But it's not really stronger than the ones taking the decisions.

I'm in no way saying that it started with Trump, former primaries show that very well, though they've also been tough on several democratic candidates, but he has certainly made things worse. The editorial work is clearly biased (but again, there's less of that than in FOX), but the actual news reporting is much more factual and much better on sources than FOX. There is some bias by omission, but it still has much more neutral work than FOX. Meanwhile it's not really that tough to find less biased media- Sure it's a jungle of more or less biased media but it's utter rubbish that everyone takes a side and sticks to it. There are plenty of journalists who sticks to proper journalism even though they may personally have sided with one or another.

CNN does indeed have some bias, but it's way more neutral (and much less editorial) than FOX. It's not really the media's job to focus on positive/negative stories. It's their job to report the facts and stay critical. Sure there'll be a lean (pretty much all news outlets have some kind of bias), also in countries with better news outlets than the US, but it's not all. Meanwhile it's also pretty tough to stay positive when Trump goes on a rant pretty much every single time there's a slightly critical question (you know, the kind that journalists are supposed to come up with) while OAN (FOX on crazy drugs) gets praise for bootlicking.

A new date has already been found for the local half marathon. It'll be october 11th. I'll give it a bit of time to find out whether I'll go for that one or Copenhagen about a month earlier. There will be some kind of "virtual half marathon" on the actual day which I guess I'll go for.

Well. The former TISC-song "Sæsonen er slut" seems to be a good theme song for this summer (at least in Denmark)

Meanwhile Finland is creating miracles

If things stay well the next week, Kindergartens and the younger classes will start opening starting next wednesday. This should make things easier for people working from home who has small children. All other restrictions stay intact until may 10th. There will be no major events until the autumn and the exams from public schools are cancelled.

But does the distance really matter that much if the idea wih compulsory face masks help? (it's questionable how much homemade masks stop, though, if I'm not mistaken). The distance is afterall mainly a matter of fluids moving through the air from mouth and nose.

My fear (and I see that some experts are slightly worried about the same) is whether we've managed to contain it a bit too well, meaning that the risk of a major spread when we start opening up again could end up making more damage.

There is no way to take politicians out of the equation. But it's really a matter of how much you listen to them. But even so, it's pretty clear that there are major differences between doctors. It's not like it's the politicians making the calls on keeping the society pretty open in Sweden. They're following the ideas of a doctor. Meanwhile it's also necessary with the politicians to consider how the country is to keep moving on (both during a lockdown and when slowly opening up). Meanwhile I must admit that I'm starting to fear if Denmark may be getting through this too easily. Things are working very well and the numbers of people hospitalized has been going down for a few days now while the numbers in ICU has been pretty steady. What I could fear is if too few has had the corona a potential second wave may need the same kinds of policies. Not expecting some kind of herd immunity, but one case more now may be one case less next time and former pandemics has shown that the second wave may very well be worse than the first. But it should be made clear that my knowledge on the subject is pretty limited.

Yes, it's a political battle, which it should absolutely never be! When some states get whatever they ask for (and even more) for being friends with the president or a battleground state, while states with governors that won't come begging on their bleeding knees for mercy from the almighty president gets questioned whether they need what they're asking for. It becomes a bidding war between states with the federal government as an actor pushing up the prices. Meanwhile the EU is using RescEU to do the shopping for EU countries making it more affordable.

Yup. Looking at pace tables, I should be in shape for more or less a 1:50 half marathon But the 2 hour mark is still the target. I've started considering Copenhagen half as my backup race if my planned half is cancelled or postponed to a bad day (I doubt it will happen on the original day). Could be useful to go with the world's fastest half marathon.

You can never be 100 % prepared for the next pandemic, but had the pandemic playbook been followed some reactions would without doubt have been much faster. But that was thrown out the window along with everything else that the Obama administration had done to prepare for the next epidemic/pandemic. It's not like Trump is the first to cut down on what a former administration did on the subject. Both Obama and Bush did as well. That's really not the main thing to blame him for (well, he is to be blamed, but so should the former presidents). What he should be blamed for, is his very slow response when others started recognizing the danger. That's where he's doing bad. While he and his supporters started throwing lies around about Obama's response (and not even the Ebola response that was questionable, but the response on H1N1 that was much quicker) things were going bad quickly. And catching up? Well, in some states, but when Trump is letting his personal pride control his response, it's hurting in some states.

@Wumo got to it before me. Would add another classic for the football team (made for the 1998 World Cup):

That or the bowl cut

Those numbers are really only interesting if you consider the population. If you do so, USA is way behind.

Well. Haven't had a race at 9 before. I did screw up my preparations quite a bit which made me decide that I would go for the 5km instead. According to my phone, my PB on that distance is 22:17. Can't say that I trust that one very much. On endomondo today's 5km was at 23:00. According to my watch it was 23:31. Guess that shows pretty well that there's a difference. Did make a couple of poor decisions when changing my route which meant a couple of tight turns. May have cost me a few seconds. But I'm very satisfied. Now it's all about waiting for the results

So naive... Who won the next contest?

Ha. That's nothing. I'm followed by the International Ludo Federation!

Spend that money on something nice instead As I'm on my own, I would guess something like 54 minutes. It will be a test of the differences of the GPS on my phone and my newly purchased watch.

Tomorrow will be race day for me with just below 500 participants. Well. It's a solo race at 5 or 10km. Think I'll go for the 10 if my body doesn't feel too tired.

Don't we more or less have daily positive tests from sports stars?