The situation with the coronavirus is quickly going from bad to worse.
Hundreds of cases breaking out across the world, dozens of new deaths.
And, of course, these are just the official numbers. Many countries have inadequate/non-existent testing procedures, so the true numbers may be quite a bit higher.
As covid-19 continues to rip through the EU, Iran and South Korea, the US has just announced its first case of "communal infection", meaning the virus may now be endemic here, as well.
"Holy smokes! What should I do?" is now the #1 question on the mind of millions of people around the world waking up to this.
We are working on even more educational material you can share with those in your life who are late to the coronavirus preparation process we've all been on for week. But in the meantime, share these comprehensive forum threads that PP reader 'dtrammel' has created from all of our site discussions to-date:
Today I listened to a Slovak radio interview with a female director of a website on health topics and a Slovak journalist abroad (they didn’t say in which country) (for those who understand Slovak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhyFzTycDIg).
I don’t know which medical school in Slovakia the health website director frequented but the summary of the disease caused by this coronavirus was pretty ridiculous: 80% have symptoms milder than a flu and if you don’t make a test you will never know it that you had it (what happens to the remaining 20% is not really specified). So it’s alright to relax at home, no need to call ambulance, make yourself a good tea, sweat it out and that’s it. Don’t come too close to people who cough or sneeze (1 meter distance should be fine), and you are fine. If you run to pharmacy to get yourself a mask, that’s a sign that you panic. No mention of aerosols, symptomless spread, long incubation period, virus surviving on surfaces for days, or ninja tube transfer. Suggesting that it’s dangerous only to people who have already other health problems, like aged people.
Then I almost felt like they adored Chinese for they totalitarian approach that made them home prisoners, saying that unfortunately such measures can’t be imposed on free democracies.
Even praising Chinese for they improvised “hospitals” in sports halls!! I think they have never watched any footages on the real conditions, where there is no quarantine at all, no doctor or medicines or basic hygienic standards. This generation of Slovaks have forgotten it all about communist regime because their lives have been too comfortable. I bet they wouldn’t like to be infected in China now.
Their next question: Should one stock food reserves? Few cans or a pack of nuts can be fine for any case but don’t do it with fear! Anyway, they are already testing a new cure clinically, which will be probably widely used to heal this illness. And this coronavirus is expected to develop into an every-year regular flu which will be vaccinated against.
WOW! That was it! Sweet rosa dreams, Slovakia! I don’t want be you when you wake up!
Today I just back back from Omaha where my company was hosting our annual training at a big conference center for the week. Yesterday morning (weds) the corporate HQ sent out a mass e-mail recalling travelers home immediately, prohibiting international travel, limiting group meetings, and encouraging bosses to allow employees to work from home. The conference organizers begged HQ for one more day of training and so we were released this afternoon (thurs).
I was planning of hitting Sams Club on the way back home for some more preps but down the street was a Costco and I thought, “hey, why not have a card to both?!” The Costco lady at the new-customer counter said their computer system has been super slow since mid-morning and it took 15 mins to process my membership application. I joked, it’s probably all those folks in California waking up, running to their local Costco store and stocking up for the pandemic coming in now that the president is saying everything is under control. She just gave me a confused look…
I’m an American currently living in southern Germany. On Monday, no one was talking about this except me and a couple folks of like mind. Then Italy truly blew up. On Thursday, everyone in my office was talking about it, my local clinic has masks by the door (take only one!) and flyers up all over with information on Covid-19. Our grocery store was putting out a pallet worth of disinfectant wipes. Amazon.de was out of PPE items that were in stock on Monday.
Public awareness turns quickly, don’t get complacent if the reported numbers in your country (or neighboring ones) are low.
Should be fun for us, we get to do a transatlantic move this summer…
I’m going to keep documenting my experiences with possibly covid19 in the other article to keep the spam out of here and keep the news as current as possible. After all i might turn out to be negative. There’s always hope
Link: https://peakprosperity.com/coronavirus-containment-has-failed/
Meanwhile; on the market. Everything is down. Never seen that before. Literally everything; futures, commodities, FX. The only thing that is up are cryptos, but i’ve stated many times those are a market in and of itself. They do their own thing, before the virus i’ve seen no correlation between events and crypto. But hey, good thing they work as designed right?
The only thing that mattered is that crypto took a dive last monday with the rest of the market, while gold, silver and the dollar where up. When the markets where caught off guard and we saw a moment of truth; crypto went down with the speculative assets. Such a shame. Maybe in the future tho eh?
I’m afraid we’re going to have to get through some real carnage before we can have even a meaningful bounce. If it’s not the virus, then it’s the 2nd credit bubble that they blew after the housing market died that just popped. BBB bonds and companies will not survive this, which is another $3,2 trillion down the hole.
Auckland Hospital confirmed the first case of Covid-19 in NZ an hour ago. The traveller from Iran entered NZ on 26 Feb. From the NZ Herald:
“The person arrived in Auckland on 26 February and travelled home in a private car,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said. "Their family became concerned about their condition and called Healthline.
“They were advised to seek medical attention and attended Auckland City Hospital emergency department that same day. All were wearing masks on arrival. As a result of the individual’s symptoms and travel history they were admitted and tested.”
The results of the test were confirmed at 4.15pm today and makes New Zealand the 48th country to have a confirmed case of the virus.
There is one confirmed case of coronavirus in New Zealand.
The person, from Iran, is in Auckland City Hospital
So far, the Government has conducted 130 Coronavirus tests in New Zealand - they had all come back negative.
The Government has announced a raft of new measures to combat the spread of coronavirus, including new travel restrictions from Iran.
The Government will also be bolstering the health presence at international airports and there will be no exemptions for overseas students from China to enter New Zealand, says Health Minister David Clark.
Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Clark said the Government was “stepping up” its response to preventing coronavirus from entering the country.
A pandemic plan is in place, he confirmed.
“The Government’s priority continues to be the health and safety of New Zealanders.”
Clark said, based on the medical and scientific advice the Government has received, ministers have put in place further temporary travel restrictions covering incoming travellers from Iran.
"This means people will not be able to travel from Iran to New Zealand and anyone who has been in Iran in the last 14 days will need to self-isolate.
“This is a sensible precaution. Many airlines have already cancelled flights from Iran.”
New Zealand citizens and permanent residents will still be allowed to return home, he said, but they will be told to self-isolate for 14 days.
These restrictions will come into force immediately and will initially apply until midnight, March 3.
After that, they will be reassessed every 48 hours – the same process the Government has used with the China travel ban.
Starting tomorrow, health staff will scale up to meet all direct international flights landing at New Zealand airports from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
“They will be available to provide advice and check passengers – particularly anyone that is unwell or displaying symptoms of concern,” Clark said.
"These enhanced travel restrictions and an increased border presence add to our existing actions to limit the risk of it entering the country.
“The situation in Iran is obviously concerning. There is ongoing spread of the disease there, and a large degree of uncertainty about the scale of the outbreak and the ability to contain it.”
Meanwhile, the Government has also decided not to allow any exemptions to let overseas students from China into New Zealand.
Universities requested this but the Government’s priority is protecting New Zealanders, Clark said.
“Allowing thousands of students into the country from China, and guaranteeing they were safely in self-isolation, would have been incredibly difficult to implement and was not a risk the Government was prepared to take on New Zealanders’ behalf.”
Here at our place in Mongolia we are limiting our excursions out of the home to grocery store trips, (for my wife) to/from the workplace, and occasional weekend trips to the family’s place in the countryside. The Mongolian gov’t has also announced a ban on having school-age children in public places. We’ve been doing this almost a month now, and here’s are some of the things & activities that have been keeping us and our kids from going bugnuts crazy: 1) Netflix: Yes, we get that even here in Mongolia. It doesn’t have everything you want to watch, but there’s enough there that it’s almost impossible to see all the shows & movies they have (at least the ones that are half-decent). I had Amazon Prime from a free trial (they offer it to me every Xmas season like clockwork) and some of those shows were good while my trial lasted. I’m not a big fan of watching TV, but there’s a place for it and at least Netflix doesn’t have commercials or political ads. The Lost in Space series and Mars series on Netflix were good ones for family watching. 2) Drawing & Painting: Having crayons, markers, the occasional coloring/sticker book, and a good-sized amount of printer paper handy has been great for our kids, especially my daughter. I spend a lot of time myself with this using my drawing tablet to make my webcomic (Nerd By Northwest). 3) Reading: I took a fair amount of paperbacks to Mongolia with me last month, but the real lifesaver here has been Kindle Unlimited. 4) Schoolwork: Schools here are closed but they are showing televised classes each weekday. If schools close in US communities, I expect they’ll do the same with televised or online classes. But have some extra materials too… I use Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills texts for my son and have him finish a handful of pages every day or two. I’m also starting to look into some of the tablet learning apps. 5) Video games: My wife totally doesn’t get video games (she didn’t grow up with them), but is grudgingly accepting that the kids playing an hour or two a day won’t destroy their brains. Personally I think video games are a marginally better option than TV, as there’s at least some interaction and activity with a video game (especially with our old Nintendo Wii!). 6) Legos: My kids are playing with these as we speak. Great indoor toy, period. 7) Board & Tabletop Games: Our go-to’s here are Monopoly and Settlers of Cataan. Occasionally I’ll do a little Dungeons & Dragons for my son and his cousin. 8) Cleaning: Not anyone’s favorite activity (especially with our kids), but it needs to get done and now there’s a little more time for it. 9) Cooking: You’re not eating out much if at all, so if you don’t cook this is a good time to learn. Sure food delivery is still an option, but it’s good to build a skill and save money at the same time. We seldom ate out and I like cooking in the first place, but I have used the opportunity to try more new things. 10) Getting Familiar w/ my new 3D Printer: I brought a new 3D printer back with us last month, and have assembled it and been familiarizing myself with the software and the models. Who knows… at some point I might try creating custom facemasks that can be fitted with filters on the inside (how cool would a Darth Vader facemask be for those handful of times you need to venture out?). 11) Wilderness Activities: We don’t stay in ALL the time. When we get the opportunity, we take the kids sledding. Even with other families sledding (in our areas at least), there’s plenty of space to yourself and never need to get near another person.
There’s other things to be sure, but these are the biggies for us thus far. BTW speaking on TV, one of the local channels aired a Korean pandemic movie called ‘Flu’ yesterday and showed the movie ‘Contagion’ today. I’ll be waiting to see if they have the chutzpah to air ‘The Stand’ for tomorrow…
This is just my personal opinion and is simply a theory of mine.
Where do you think the US gets it’s test strips? Sure, the US may not want to find a community outbreak, and so simply does limited testing. However, the bigger problem is where they are getting the test strips to test the coronavirus. The US is predominantly a service country and gets most of its manufacturing needs fulfilled by other countries (like China). Therefore, if the other countries need the test strips for themselves, they definitely won’t sell them to the US. This means that the slow testing could be a matter of the amount of test strips the US can get their hands on. If this theory is true, the actions of the CDC would make sense.
Thank you for reading.
A good summary of where the CDC feels we are at right now in terms of what we know and don’t know. There’s certainly no reason to say that there is no aerosol transmission, or that the incubation period is certainly less than 15 days. They still feel some of these issues aren’t proven, but at least there seems to be debate. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6908e1.htm
…which means we could blow up like Italy any minute.
Who should be tested? Here are the CDC’s new criteria:
Fever or symptoms of lower respiratory illness, such as cough or shortness of breathANDClose contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient.
Fever or symptoms of lower respiratory illness, such as cough or shortness of breath, requiring hospitalizationANDA history of travel from China, Iran, Italy, Japan or South Korea.
Fever or symptoms of lower respiratory illness, such as cough or shortness of breath, requiring hospitalization, when there’s no alternative explanatory diagnosis, like fluANDNo source of exposure has been identified.
Marcus said that Americans should not panic but there are things that should be done in order to prepare for what health officials believe to be an inevitability.
Things like stocking up on food, medicines and other essential items in the event citizens must shelter in place.
Americans should start thinking of logistical plans for working from home and keeping the kids home from school.
https://whdh.com/news/health-officials-u-s-nearing-coronavirus-pandemic/
According to the Dutch CDC you will have a better chance to win the lottery than to catch the virus. Really? I think this stupid line will haunt them in the next weeks after more and more people “win the lottery”
I updated the https://peakprosperity.com/coronavirus-containment-has-failed/ thread with new measurements.
Long story short to prevent spam; i measured my blood pressure 12 times. There’s a curve upwards and downwards. Same as with the fever.
The fucking symptoms are intermittant - you have to measure for a long period of time or you won’t catch it.
While the whole world sat entranced by the Coronavirus drama that has been playing out in China and across the globe these past few weeks, a precedent setting case has come to a close that could permanently limit freedom of speech in the United States.
And incredibly, that important decision has gone almost unnoticed by mainstream media sources who barely covered the story. So I thought this worthy of a mention today even though it is off todays thread topic since it’s important everyone understand what has just transpired.
There has been a landmark ruling handed down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on February 27th regarding First Amendment rights affecting privately owned online digital and social media sites.
In the case of PragerU versus YouTube (owned by Google) the court has decided that private companies are free to limit speech and content according to their own internal regulations as private companies are not subject to judicial scrutiny where First Amendment rights are concerned. (Amendment rights are a contract between the people and their government but companies are exempted in other words).
Although the case was reported by some outlets as suppression of conservative voices, this ruling has much wider implications in the law that could impact both websites and possibly even individual bloggers of any political stripe. Examples of banning certain outspoken people are already widespread on Twitter and Facebook.
And now the courts have backed the rights of corporate censorship in the US using laws related to private versus public space such that there is no recourse except a Supreme Court challenge or an act of the Federal Government to establish new laws protecting free speech in the digital world of online platforms.
To be very clear here, Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any of the other myriad private hosts are now free to ban and or block any content at their sole discretion that they deem unfit for their sites. And there is nothing you can do about it.
And in case any of you reading this post just had a flashback to Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic phrase “the medium is the message” then congratulations you probably get what just happened since control over free speech has just been delivered gift wrapped with a nice bow to our new media overlords.
So don’t piss off Google. They just became way more powerful than anybody might have ever imagined. And it could get personal. I think the term “corporate governance” just took on a whole new meaning! https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51658341
Censorship is just what newspapers have done for 300 years. Just because you write a letter to the editor, it doesn’t mean it must be published. Social media are in the same space as traditional media in this regard. It’s their site, not yours. So they get to say what goes on it.
