outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

"Ok yeah I know obv grain of salt etc but this is pretty serious and another friend heard similar from someone. I think it would mean people are told to stay indoors and only grocery stores and pharmacies remain open." well they're about a week late.

xpost

the lockdown in Paris hasn't affected public transport much, because it's needed to get people to work at hospitals, food stores, etc. though ridership is way down (as I can watch from up-close trains on one of the elevated lines of the métro from my apartment windows). I'm on a big boulevard and can also see that buses are still frequent but almost all entirely empty or with just a single rider.

in Wuhan - bigger than London - public transport has been shut for over a month iirc.

Ok so I guess public transport and bars etc still open?? Boss did say she heard it would be from Friday so maybe they won’t announce it until tomorrow or then? Maybe they think schools closing is enough to tell the public about right now? Who knows.

an article (in French) of testimonies from victims of the virus that has shaken me: https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2020/03/18/il-y-aura-un-avant-et-un-apres-coronavirus-si-nous-restons-en-vie-des-malades-temoignent_6033492_3224.html

The issue with Coronavirus is that other similar epidemics have you at your most virulent, shedding most after you develop symptoms, whereas you shed at a ridiculously high rate in the early days of this virus

Yeah I started reading that one and stopped after the third testimony. Ignorance is bliss.

xp

I don't get why Italy was hit so hard. 35,713 confirmed cases and 2,978 deaths ffs.

combination of old population and immune systems that don't usually have to deal with grim and frostbitten northern european colds/flus?

it's the whole reason for the #flattenthecurve approach, i think - they just didn't/don't have ICU and equipment capacity to deal with the upspike in caseload

to the extent that the answers are deterministic, i would start with medical infrastructure

honestly hard to believe that last week at this time we still had basketball

as horrible as this whole thing is, am I correct in thinking that this might eventually provide a case study in the effects of reduced emissions and not constantly fucking with nature?

Here's an unexpected side effect of the pandemic - the water's flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the swans returned. pic.twitter.com/2egMGhJs7f

— Kaveri 🇮🇳 (@ikaveri) March 16, 2020

Tesla appears to be defying officials in Alameda County, California—the site of its only North American factory, in Fremont—who have ordered Tesla to stop operations. TechCrunch reports that a Wednesday email from the company's human resources department instructed employees to come to work.

"We still do not have final word from the city, county, state and federal government on the status of our operations," the email said. "We have had conflicting guidance from different levels of government."

In an email published Tuesday by Eletrek, Tesla's head of HR argued that Tesla didn't need to shut down because the company counts as National Critical Infrastructure, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security. The category "includes auto manufacturing and energy infrastructure," according to Tesla.

"People need access to transportation and energy, and we are essential to providing it," the email said.

frogbs I thought that was debunked as not being Venice?

Yep (see thread):

Because I'm a massive verification nerd who hates fun, here's a little thread on geolocating these photos that people are claiming aren't from Venice. https://t.co/qBreekKI7c

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 18, 2020

People by O'Hare here say the skies are clearer than they've been in years.

Or rather: it's complicated.

xp

Guess The City crew in pincer movement

well that's a bummer, but still I think there's a chance we all go outside one summer day and realize with great frustration that the bugs are back

if i survive this, totally going back to the Venetian lagoon, Burano looks dope

0% interest rates, bidets, covering your face, social distancing.... girl we goin to islam???

— laraib (@_laraiib) March 17, 2020

knew it was coming - Sacramento County has now issued a Stay At Home order


https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article241299741.html

some a+ material in the replies to the tweet tracer posted

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/coronavirus-response-climate-crisis

italy's numbers today seem...... bad

Italy’s numbers are interesting. 35,713 positive out of 165k tests isn’t suggesting much randomised testing. Are they just treating identified and suspected cases during lockdown? Depends how widely the infected travelled, and if they haven’t tested that many people then they’re not going to be stemming the new cases as well as they need to be.

does anybody have rough numbers in terms of yesterday's death toll? tyia

289 active cases in IL now, up from 160 yesterday (80% increase)

US cases up to 7,731 now, up from 5,723 yesterday (35% increase)

xp sleeve you mean US, or global? 112 deaths in the US (according to https://covidtracking.com/data/)

worldwide deaths are up about 800 on last night, according to the johns hopkins thingy

thanks, brb gonna yell at some people on FB

xpost You mean 8000? It's actually close to 9000, last I saw.

Just because perspective is useful, however unpleasant, CDC estimates the 1968 flu pandemic (which no one talks about, afaict) killed 1 million worldwide.

I meant a 1-day total, for yesterday ideally, I think mookie is right?

xpost You mean 8000? It's actually close to 9000, last I saw.

mookie was citing the deaths from just yesterday alone

it was just under 8000 last night + 800 today = 8732 right now

good news, tho

This is not the end of the world, according to Christians who study the end of the world

I make it a 12% rise in total reported deaths in the last 24 hours.

Wait, so HALF today’s deaths worldwide were in Italy?

More than 400 in 24 hours. Grim.

the US numbers look discouraging, but Fauci did also say it'd be weeks before we really knew if we were making an impact, especially because now late testing is catching people who should have shown up on reports weeks ago.

but I'm growing less confident every time I see some other asshole say "fuck it, you can't tell me I can't live my life" and they fucking do body shots off of each other at a house party in the midst of a crisis.

(ok I haven't *seen* anybody do this, but ya know, an example)

yeah it's really not clear if new infections are spiking that much or if we're just testing that much more

I mean obviously now it's both

it is amusing to me that the same voters who claimed Obamacare was evil because it would install death panels are the same people who are refusing to self-distance when overcrowding of hospitals will create real life 'death panels' when hospital beds and ventilators have to be rationed

every day is a goddamn death panel when it comes to living in a society amirite

^Sheryl Crow's best

a happy couple enters the bar
dangerously close to one another

The information about asymptomatic carriers is one of the most confusing aspects right now, and the way it is being shared, even by the most intelligent health experts, is not helping at all.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 10:48

Agreed. The official WHO guidance is "The risk of catching COVID-19 from someone with no symptoms at all is very low. However, many people with COVID-19 experience only mild symptoms. This is particularly true at the early stages of the disease. It is therefore possible to catch COVID-19 from someone who has, for example, just a mild cough and does not feel ill."

But yes, there's been research that seems to run counter to that, though perhaps it's just down the the boundary between no symptoms and mild symptoms.

Similarly, the exact manner in which is it spread seems not settled yet. This is a good piece about how much it can be transmitted in the air:

https://www.wired.com/story/they-say-coronavirus-isnt-airborne-but-its-definitely-borne-by-air/

Not effective with severe cases, but looks promising?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/japanese-flu-drug-clearly-effective-in-treating-coronavirus-says-china