outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

yeah, see stet's post above (outbreak! (ebola, sars, etc)) - italy went from about 100 to about 10K in the span of 2 weeks, and it looks like several other countries are on the same exponential trajectory

I've read a few pieces that suggest the numbers seem to basically double every six days, which means they start to significantly ramp up after a few weeks

No idea on the validity of those claims (although early numbers seemed to back them up) and assume steps like those taken in Italy and other countries would slow the spread down

xp Matt DC:

Wuhan's in recovery.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EStsOMyXkAAU35b.jpg
US News: China Shuts All Temporary Coronavirus Hospitals in City of Wuhan
France 24: China's Xi visits Wuhan as number of new coronavirus cases drops

Social distancing measures work, including provincewide lockdown. But their effect is only visible in stats about 20 days after initiated, and they may have remain in place for 2 months.

Cornell University to move to virtual instruction: https://t.co/aMGF6GqhU6.

"After spring break all instruction — for the rest of the semester — will be online."

— David Gura (@davidgura) March 10, 2020

my partner's university (in chicago) also talking about doing the same (breaking with the reading period and then teaching online afterward), although it's not official yet

One of our D&D gang who started at Mt. Holyoke last fall just posted "well, I'll probably see you guys a couple of months early." No announcement yet but it's expected.

I’m sure this is going like hubris in a week or less but seems so much better than the bungling and mixed messages coming out about testing in Australia.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200310/p2g/00m/0fe/022000c

So apparently the British Health Minister has tested positive.

a British Health Minister, they have redundancy for just this sort of thing.

Nadine Dorries. The most astonishing aspect being that she was given the job - any job - in the first place.

A trained nurse!

I had to go to the GP today for something simple and unrelated to viruses and sitting there while they made anyone who came in "feeling fluey" put a mask on, and asked everyone "are you sick" and had sanitiser all over the place, I felt like Mr Burns when he looks at his tissue and it shouts FREEMASONS RUN THE COUNTRY! at him.

the staggering gap between the sheer force of the moral imperative of things one is told to do -- don't take public transportation! don't go to work! otherwise you are selfish and are murdering people! -- and the infeasibility of doing any of these things without the risk of directly or indirectly torpedoing one's life is what is paralyzing me

acquaintances are posting photos from Disneyworld with their newborn and a pair of grandparents who look to be pushing 80.

base rate cut. ccycb released

The stupid fuckers didn’t scratch the Grand Prix in Melbourne this weekend and now participants are coming down with fevers and having to be isolated. It’s a major annoyance at the best of times but the arrogance of the organisers in saying they would not cancel, postpone or even hold the fucking thing behind closed doors is absolutely galling.

(You may have noticed that I am not in favour or a noisy car race taking place is a central Melbourne park a few kms from my front door)

More serious noises about postponing the Olympics.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200311/p2g/00m/0sp/068000c

Just in case anyone (ahem) itt is still convinced that Xi-style authoritarianism is single-handedly responsible for containing the outbreak in China, let us not forget that so much more could have and should have been done from the outset:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/coronavirus-wuhan-doctor-ai-fen-speaks-out-against-authorities

Been off work for two days with a dry cough and a fever, three more people went off yesterday 👍

It is sickening to see all this praise of the Chinese government when my family there are still locked in their homes 24/7 in mid-March and public surveillance has gone into overdrive.

The global response to the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic was the fastest ever. Between 150-575,000 people died worldwide. It's day 71 of #coronavirus BTW.
via @beautiful__news pic.twitter.com/bP0afRWR2M

— Information is Beautiful (@infobeautiful) March 11, 2020

I don't know how the response to COVID 19 compares, but probably not as rapid I'd guess - I don't think there were test kits being distributed after 17 days from first infection.

Is Nadine Dorries going to kill the queen

badass tbf

One can hope xp

They cancelled the St. Patrick's Day parade here, so I guess some people do know what they're doing.

I posted earlier on this thread about how I liked Naomi Campbells' airplane sanitizing routine + the video (gloves, personal blanket, wiping everything down, facemask). I just saw something where she is now wearing goggles and a disposable hooded coverall. I like it.

Basically when this epidemic peaks only Naomi Campbell, industrial workers and really hardcore warehouse rave dudes will be equipped to survive.

Before I leave the house, I just give myself a quick head-to-toe Scotchgard spritz, making sure to thoroughly saturate all of those hard-to-reach mucous membranes. Two coats will usually do, although I'm doing a third and occasionally even a fourth these days just to be on the safe side.

Anybody know where they sell those full-body spandex suits you see freaks wearing at NHL games?

Your local fetish site, I’d imagine.

Went to a Sainsbury’s just now. Pasta and rice cleared out, some toilet paper there, people picking up a lot of tinned tuna and biscuits as well.

Basically when this epidemic peaks only Naomi Campbell, industrial workers and really hardcore warehouse rave dudes will be equipped to survive.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 11 March 2020 13:37 (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://philthorntoncasuals.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/casuals-cover.jpg

yesterday I crawled into bed for a brief read/nap still wearing my work clothes, and it occurred to me that that was bad, and then I thought of how one should probably install a special antechamber to one's mansion in which one would remove contaminated outside clothes every time one came in and shove them into bags for thorough decontamination by robots, get hosed down with some kind of cleansing spray, and select a fresh new set of clothes from an endlessly renewed wardrobe

in the real world in a small open-plan flat with a limited set of clothes, nowhere to put extra dirty laundry, and no desire to be constantly doing laundry (at clothes-shrinking temperatures, just to be sure?), welp, may as well just come home and snuggle a few more germs under the duvet and into my pillowcase

welp

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-10/coronavirus-conference-gets-canceled-because-of-coronavirus

xp I’m sure detergent would work in the same way as soap to dissolve the outside of the virus? Anyway, isn’t there dispute about how long it lives on surfaces?

xpost I have houseclothes that I only wear in the house and change into as soon as I get home (Pants off Dance off etc). I am also one of those people that cannot go to sleep without taking a shower, which was problematic when I was younger and did not drink responsibly and would have adventures in the shower at night (although I have never fallen!). I still strongly endorse this routine.

https://twitter.com/i/events/1237627716196683777

The University of Dayton in Ohio announced on Tuesday that it is suspending all classes and closing all on-campus housing amid coronavirus fears. Online courses will commence after spring break. Within hours of the announcement, hundreds of students had gathered on Lowes Street on the campus and police were called. Officers in riot gear attended the scene and shot pepper balls at students, according to student-run publication Flyer News.

lol college?

jesus

krakkemikkige otm

Dutch TV news refers self-evidently to the “krakkemikkige Amerikaanse zorgstelsel”—the “ramshackle American health system”—as a #COVID19 risk.

— Matt BREAKING NEWS Steinglass (@mattsteinglass) March 10, 2020

huh. a few places (Harvard, Trinity Dublin) have suspended in-person classes but evicting students from their housing at short notice is... I can see how that might be unpopular

(xps) yeah, as far as I know detergent at just normal wash temperatures is fine, which would make sense re the whole lipid coating thing as you point out, sorry!

and there is def a happy medium to aim for without going full Naomi Campbell Joins Altern-8, but sometimes it feels kind of futile, like washing my hands thoroughly before lunch and then picking a paper towel off the uncovered stack of paper towels that everyone else has handled and touching 3 different door handles to get back to my office which is only literally just the other side of a wall from the sinks (finally a good point to being so short that my sleeves are always too long, I've been using them as handy door-handle gloves)

but, still better to try than not to try, and hopefully it isn't really hanging around on surfaces for long

Imagine sharing a border with the krakkemikkige Amerikaanse zorgstelsel.

I can't even imagine saying it.

I’ve reported on plenty of outbreaks incl. Ebola in Liberia and the experience has always affected me on some level. How could it not? But with #covid19 I’m experiencing a kind of mental anguish I’ve not really felt like this before and I think same goes for many of my sources.

— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape) March 11, 2020

It’s the feeling of seeing something play out that will cause huge human suffering, is in large parts predictable and to a certain extent avoidable and yet key people are not listening. We’re all shouting into a hurricane of public and political complacency.

— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape) March 11, 2020

This is amazing:

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/coronavirus-norwegian-cruise-line-leaked-emails-show-booking-strategy-11590056

Other script lines simply reassure customers not to be afraid.

"The only thing you need to worry about for your cruise is do you have enough sunscreen?" one of the suggested talking points reads.

my supervisor just checked himself into the hospital with flu-like symptoms

Rumours that someone in my work has tested positive. I could well believe it tbh.

Another case just a couple of miles from my house, which potentially exposed an entire school.

BREAKING: An Israeli rabbi who visited Fuchs Mizrachi School in Beachwood in late February has tested positive for COVID-19. https://t.co/MbsyluAeC9

— Cleveland Jewish News (@CleveJN) March 11, 2020

Imagine sharing a border with the krakkemikkige Amerikaanse zorgstelsel.

― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Wednesday, March 11, 2020 3:47 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I can't even imagine saying it.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, March 11, 2020 3:49 PM (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://voca.ro/8WLuFQPmwdg

attn Britishes!

Dr Jenny Harries, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, came into Downing Street to answer some of the most commonly asked questions on coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/jByRhFFfat

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 11, 2020

first cases in new mex

I'm lucky enough to work from home normally, but my partner (who is immunocompromised) has been angrily texting me all the insanely misinformed & racist coronavirus chitchat shes overhearing in her office all week, including "just get a flu shot and you'll be fine", "only 100 people have it, whats the big deal", and "it only affects asian people"(!!!)

If she winds up on a ventilator because one of these clowns I swear... I'm gonna write a strongly-worded letter to someone.