The Coronavirus Thread

[Tero]

It's a weird system. Nearly 2 million federal employees work for Trump. Congress deals with funding all these departments and jobs.

Other countries have governments which can run, prime minister or president not necessary.

[JimC]

I've noticed very little reporting on the coronavirus situation in Russia...

[Sean Hayden]

The Catholic church up the street still needed someone to direct traffic so they could get out. --lord willing I guess

[JimC]

The Catholic church up the street still needed someone to direct traffic so they could get out. --lord willing I guess

Choirboys too busy, I guess...

[NineBerry]

I've noticed very little reporting on the coronavirus situation in Russia...

Hardly any cases in Russia so far.

What could be the reason?

* Government lying about it / not really testing for it
* Vodka
* Not many people travelling from outside
* The Russians created the Virus in the first place
* Virus afraid of Putin / Putin's dog

[Sean Hayden]

Hey Svartalf, did you guys receive test kits from the WHO? If so, what's your major malfunction in stopping this virus? Did you act soon enough? Did you ban travel as soon as it looked serious in China? How about you Spain, what's your problem?

Iran: mass graves, really?

--//--

Besides the testing fiasco, and what seems to be nonsense to me about its magical abilities, I'm bothered by the notion that you can or should be able to get out ahead of any serious outbreak, and that if you fail somebody is to blame. Why shouldn't we count ourselves as extraordinarily lucky every time one of these things doesn't get out of control, rather than uncannily adept at putting them down? In the US people are trying to blame Trump. Are you guys blaming your leaders over there?

What do you think about that, I mean honestly?

Honestly, how can you NOT put some of the blame on Trump? Have you not been paying attention?

Firstly, he disbanded the White House's pandemic response team. Then he cut funding to the CDC. Thirdly, we've seen this virus coming for months and until just a few days ago, instead of preparing the nation for it, Trump and Fox News have been downplaying it and lying to our faces, putting out all sorts of disinformation, choosing to protect Trump's image and fragile ego instead dealing with the problem: "it's like the flu", "it's like the cold", "the numbers are going down", "everyone who wants a test can get tested", "this will go away like a miracle". That jackass called Hannity's show and suggested that it's perfectly fine for people with symptoms to go to work.

It's not just hyper-partisan Democrats that are criticizing Trump. It's epidemiologists, doctors, scientists, public health officials, ex-Republicans.

A problem with responding to this is it puts me in the position of looking like I'm defending Trump, when I'd rather defend the idea I've put forward which deals more with how unfounded a lot the blame might be at this point.

For example, Trump disbanded the White House's pandemic response team and that sounds damning, why wouldn't it, "a response team" must be the thing to stop a pandemic, right? Well, maybe. But in terms of a response plan, we've had one for yonks, and it is worked on routinely by the CDC and the Department of Health. So even without response team butts, keeping seats warm somewhere, guidance has been available and actions have been taken.

[Sean Hayden]

The Catholic church up the street still needed someone to direct traffic so they could get out. --lord willing I guess

Choirboys too busy, I guess...

Have you no fear of the L-rd sir?

[Brian Peacock]

Is that what you're doing, putting some of the blame on Trump?

--//--

Anyway, if someone who doesn't live in the US but is still being hit hard by the virus would like to share the reasons for your government's failure to contain the spread, go for it.

I won't do that, but any government's response to the pandemic should be open to scrutiny. As the old aphorism goes, at least when it comes to highly mobile contagions, "We're all in it together." At the moment the UK government's advice is that we wash our hand for a chorus of God Save The Queen while they try to put a £30bn package in place to bail out firms who might be hit economically. Sounds reasonable... kinda... if protecting profits is a priority I guess. No measures to protect healthcare staff or meet a possible staffing shortage due to sickness, or how they intend to process the sudden upsurge in applications for sickness benefits, or meet the need for acute and intensive care beds, or how the self-isolating self-employed or those working low-wage or zero-hours contracts or single parents are expected to cope, or what's going to happen if the schools have to close, or if not enough prison officers, fire service personnel, ambulance drivers, police officers etc don't make it into work, who's going to be delivering food to those confined to their homes, what about the homeless, those in temporary housing, rough sleepers, the elderly who depend on care services, those with mental health issues or chronic medical conditions...

In other words - they're giving the impression that everything will be fine if we wash our hands and keep humming the national anthem and the taxpayer will somehow mitigate some of the financial impact on the private sector. It's as if they're not really thinking it through, or if they have they've decided that it's just too big a job.

So no, I don't blame Johnson, or Trump for the outbreak any more than I blame the duck that sneezed on a pig that sneezed on a Chinaman, but what they choose to do (or not do) about it falls squarely on them and their administrations.

My idea is to pay everybody a UBI for the duration of the crisis and nationalise Tesco, Deliveroo and UberEats.

[JimC]

The Catholic church up the street still needed someone to direct traffic so they could get out. --lord willing I guess

Choirboys too busy, I guess...

Have you no fear of the L-rd sir?

Lard is pretty scary stuff, with what it does to one's cholesterol...

[Faithfree]

The Catholic church up the street still needed someone to direct traffic so they could get out. --lord willing I guess

Choirboys too busy, I guess...

Have you no fear of the L-rd sir?

Lard is pretty scary stuff, with what it does to one's cholesterol...

Braise the Lard!

[laklak]

Seriously, the best thing we can do is all go outside and lick each other's faces. Get this thing over with. The sooner we bury the 5 or 10 or 20% the sooner the rest can get on with trying to clean up the fucking mess. Dragging it out is only going to drag it the fuck out. We've weathered worse as a species, and maybe it's time for a little Maud Dib type jihad, shake the fucking cobwebs out and mix up the gene pool. It's all coming to a head anyway - economically, politically, climatically, ecologically - shit's about to hit the fucking fan from every direction. Did you think we were going to get out of this unscathed? Look at pollution in China, it's WAY down, it's an ill damn wind indeed. I've been saying we need a mass culling for some time now, and this looks like as good an opportunity as any I've seen so far.

[Brian Peacock]

So you're basically saying that this could be a good thing?

[laklak]

Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. Fuck I don't know, I'm just tired of all the gloom and doom. Lets just get it ON. Come at me, Bro!

[Brian Peacock]

Dr Peacock prescribes a gulper of rum, one of your 'special' cigarettes, and an early night.

[laklak]

Good advice, did the first two and I'm getting sleepy.....sleeeeeeeepyyyyy.