Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[S.Peelman]

SvennoJ said:

S.Peelman said:

The mayor of Amsterdam is a dumb ****.

I'm glad everyone here, literally everyone from general people to tv-people to politicians to the RIVM, is genuinely pissed off about her. Supporting the Black Lives Matter cause in the US is one thing, but allowing a protest of 5000 people in the center of Amsterdam (which was completely against the rules of the national government I might add) is the dumbest thing one could ever do right now. I don't know what I'm hoping for actually; a new wave of corona infections in two weeks so we can all dumb the bill on Halsema's doorstep, or no sustainable rise in infections at all, so we can conclude all corona measures aren't really necessary all that much anymore.

We'll see.

If there's a rise in cases in the coming weeks, we know who to blame.

These one off large gathering won't have that much of an effect. It was already noted at the very start that closing large events doesn't have all that much impact. It's a numbers game. 5000 people, only a few infected, won't spread all that much out doors. Of course the ones that do get it will then pass it on to family.

In contrast, opening bars etc up, even with max 30 people, will have a national effect.

Still, not smart to do this, especially not in a hot zone which I assume Amsterdam is (or was). It's not so much getting infected at the event, all these people need to travel there and back, more exposure on the way, crowding public transport driving others closer together as well.

Anyway a rise in the coming weeks is to be expected, yet much more so from schools, bars/restaurants, terraces, cinemas, musea/monuments, cultural institutions, all of your phase 2 changes.

If it goes on for days in multiple cities like in the states, an effect is to be expected.


It's the same here anyway, Toronto protests for Regis Kachinski-Paquet
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/protest-toronto-regis-korchinski-paquet-1.5591745
But it looks to have been a one time protest, I don't see any follow up stories.

The government here says it's ok to protest but asks people to wear masks and use signs and other ways to make noise instead of shouting.

Those people come from all over, travel times here are short, so who knows what happens. Some wore masks, some didn’t. In those things that are opening, every one practices social distancing and all kinds of rules and protections to ensure there’s no further spread, things don’t just open blindly, but this didn’t. The real issue is that this is an unprecedented blunder in every way, and undermines everything the rest of the country has worked for.

If nothing happens, people will second guess any future measure (or prolonging of existing ones) the government takes against the coronavirus, and at some point they will just be ignored and questions will be asked about why we did what we did in the first place. If something does happen, we’ll have to lock down again. This is already happening, just one day after the fact. For example there will be no explanation as to why we couldn’t just have the yearly remembrance of the dead (of the Second World War) four weeks ago on the same square, while now all of a sudden this gathering for a cause that, with all due respect, is of no relevance here nor will it have any impact on what happens in the US whatsoever is a-okay according to misses mayor. So why can’t we have sports matches, or outdoor events. Or why can’t we visit our grandparents? It also undermines the point of their own protest, because now nobody gives a sh*t what it was about.

I haven’t even agreed with every action that’s been taken to control this virus, but even I’m royally pissed off, in a way that doesn’t happen often, and with me pretty much everyone else. But yeah, we’ll know soon enough. No worries though, I’m also just venting a bit here.

Last edited by S.Peelman - on 02 June 2020