Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[Pemalite]

JRPGfan said:

This sounds stupid to me.
That bill to help bailout small bussiness was mainly taken by "big corps" that had huge profits and tons of money set aside.
Again screwing over the small guy, it was ment to protect.

Why does america hate the avg joe?
Why does it only bailout the rich & powerfull?

Because of the conservative powerbases that prefer their trickle-down-economics.

Basically the hope is that, by giving money to the Rich they will initiate new business that will employ people and some of that money will then trickle-down into lower socio-economic classes.
The reality is... It just sits in a bank somewhere and does nothing except incur interest.

Even the "left wing" democrats are a few steps over to the right compared to a chunk of the world like Europe and Oceania, it's a no-win situation really.

Trumpstyle said:

"A few European countries have introduced requirements to wear face protection in public places to reduce the spread of the corona virus.

There is no scientific basis whatsoever for it to help, says infection protection expert Johan Giesecke.

TT: But if there is no evidence that it helps, why do countries encourage entire populations to wear face protection?

Every country in Europe is currently taking a lot of measures for which there is no scientific basis whatsoever. No wonder they come up with something else."

"Professor Johan Giesecke, blasted the sort of lockdowns imposed in Britain and Australia and warned a second wave would be inevitable once the measures are eased.

The Swedish government decided early in January that the measures we should take against the pandemic should be evidence based. And when you start looking around at the measures being taken by different countries, you find very few of them have a shred of evidence-base, he said.

Sweden is one of the few countries to do so in this way. The others are wrong. We take into account the scientific evidence. Norway and Denmark have a more political leadership that will show strength and implement measures, says Johan Giesecke."

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nsd.se%2Fnyheter%2Fmasktvang-minskar-inte-risken-for-smitta-nm5332525.aspx

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121180716/swedens-covid19-plan-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-or-a-bold-evidencebased-response

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dagbladet.no%2Fnyheter%2Fsverige-gjor-riktig-alle-andre-gjor-feil%2F72296080

So based on what Johan giesecke is saying, face masks don't work (The public in sweden has not been recommended to use face masks), lockdowns don't work as they will face a second wave when they start easing up restrictions and blasted the political leaders in Denmark and Norway for wanting to show strength. We shall see in a year who is right (he has said we should w8 1 year before comparing results).

I don't disagree that the measures should be evidence-based.

But to ridicule the lockdown measures in Australia is pretty laughable, the evidence is that it's worked... We prefer our situation over the USA's which has resulted in so much death and extended financial pain.

As for the PPE issue... We brought these "rules" into effect at a time when we didn't really have an empirical understanding of how COVID-19 spreads...
My rescue agency for example were required to get naked in public/truck and bag our PBI-Golds for decom/professional cleaning, wear P2 masks, gloves... And sometimes even a gas-tight Hazmat suit depending on the job... Spray Glen20 on everything. - Was all that unnecessary? Probably.

But better safe than sorry.