They came back from overseas months ago before we went into lockdown, the only interactions they have had was with about 5 other family members. - Not sure if they have tested positive yet, might find out in a day or two... But I would assume contact tracing is in full swing.

Delivery items have been a focal point for awhile, mostly because we had a hot-spot appear with airport workers who handled luggage a month ago, so there has been allot of work on that front with disinfecting and so on.

Today I got asked to make sure I have all my vaccines and got given a PPE pack, they are preparing for a "second wave" after lockdown measures have been lifted, us firefighters will be required to man the hospital and the Ambulances as our medical training was deemed "sufficient", whilst maintaining operational readiness for all other response areas like fire, hazmat, road crash and so forth.

They are just preparing for the worst ahead of time, rather than let everything go to shit at the last minute.

Our leader is certainly a far-right conservative, he thumps the biblical message often, was against same-sex marriage and more, but he has an entire political (Liberal) party he needs to "keep happy" and they are made of all sorts of individuals with various political leanings.

Our leader before this one who was the leader of the Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull was allot more moderate with some left-leaning ideologies... And essentially the far-right conservatives in the party booted him out because he wasn't willing to do everything they demanded.

The reason for the proactive action by our far-right conservative leader was also because he desperately needed to fix his image problem, the last national crisis that occurred... Just in December/January he decided to fuck off on a Holiday overseas... And simply sent "thoughts and prayers" to those affected while the entire country burned.

So it was a political necessity for him to take affirmative action and get in front of the COVID issue, his election actually hinges on it.

But yes, he is a far-right conservative in charge of a moderate right-wing party which has a smaller "group" of extreme far-right nationalists.

In saying that, the USA is a little different to the rest of the world, their entire political spectrum is a step over to the right anyway... And often our terminologies don't align to theirs... I.E. What party "liberal" refers to. - Then again, the USA see's fit to use Imperial and not Metric systems... But let's not judge them for everything... :P

She doesn't really enact any control over Australia anyway, basically we are left to our own devices.
I think if the UK started to interfere with our policies and politics that Australia would take a step back.
But I agree, I think once the beloved Queen passes, Australia will cut ties and become more Americanized with a "presidential" system.

So why all the stuff I bolded if they already compensated for all that?

Research by the Health Foundation found that in London, while black and Asian workers made up 34% of the overall working population, they represented 54% of workers in food retail, 48% of health and social care staff, and 44% of people working in transport.

Occupation is a big factor, but also social patterns. It's good to investigate to figure out the best strategies for different areas, living conditions and occupations, however it's not as simple as Italians die more than Chinese and blacks die more than whites.



https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30922-3/fulltext

The role of language played a part in Sweden where the government at first only addressed Somali immigrants in Swedish, as well as other cultural factors.
https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/counterterrorism/when-religion-and-culture-kill-covid-19-in-the-somali-diaspora-communities-in-sweden/

In Sweden there is a small diaspora community of Somali immigrants who fled war and poverty who make up just .69 percent of the total population.[1] Normally, this diaspora group fades into the background, but now, suddenly, a chilling new statistic brings them to the fore, as 40 percent of the reported COVID-19 related deaths occurring in Stockholm involve the Somali diaspora communities. Other Swedish medical experts estimate 18 percent of the COVID-19 deaths country-wide are from the Somali community.[2]

The huge disparity in Sweden proves there is a lot more going on than skin color.

I'm just using reported deaths as a more reliable indicator of possible rates of infection. The amount of tests, duration of tests, reliability of tests, who qualifies for testing all plays too big a part in accurately determining the rate of infection. Deaths are far more reliable as long as the same counting method is used, which usually is the case in the early stages where only hospital deaths with confirmed covid19 are counted.


More signs the virus doesn't actually spread all that fast

https://nypost.com/2020/05/07/athletes-at-world-military-games-may-have-brought-coronavirus-to-europe/

A group of French athletes who competed in Wuhan back in October fear they may have brought the coronavirus back home — meaning that the deadly bug may have been around months earlier than first reported.

The French delegation took part in the seventh edition of the World Military Games in Wuhan from Oct. 18 to 27 last year, just 20 days before the first confirmed case of coronavirus in China, the Sun reported.

A total of 402 French athletes were present, along with 10,000 others from across the globe, according to the report.

A number of the athletes returned home with symptoms including fevers and body aches — one of them saying he originally thought he’d simply contracted a cold — and none of them were tested, according to French news channel BFMTV.

Closer attention is being paid to their concerns since it emerged that Frenchman Amirouche Hammar had the coronavirus back in late December, according to the report.

The fishmonger had not traveled to Wuhan, like the two people who were assumed to be the first confirmed cases in France on Jan. 24.

Community spread as early as late December in France. Canada was there as well with 117 military athletes and now my wife and I are starting to rethink the severe pneumonia she had in late Januari / early Februari. She had strange unexplained blood clots on her medical scans, her lung function was down to 20%, her hands and sometimes whole arms were turning blue from lack of oxygen. Some nights she wasn't sure she would even wake up again the next day... She may have already survived covid19.

She's actually surprised she hasn't had a call back about that. They put her on antibiotics which didn't help much at all and it took a long long time to get better. I remember having a sore throat for a long time back then but don't remember any other possible symptoms. I generally avoid people and my wife was too sick to interact so hopefully if we had it back then, we didn't pass it on :/ We could really use one of those anti body tests....

When I enter my wife's symptoms from back then in the self assessment tool, I get this after only 2 pages

Do not leave your home. Do not go into a hospital or clinic.

you must:

1. Stay at home unless told to leave by a doctor or nurse
2. Tell people you’ve been in contact with
3. Monitor your health

Bit late now...

The survey was done by the Office for National Statistics.

The bit you bolded is a quote from the Rowntree Foundation charity commenting on the ONS's survey.

I agree public facing roles will make a big difference but that would be expected to affect Pakistani/Bangladeshi more than Black people.

The coronavirus subreddit is full with articles about US attempts to cover it up, botched re-openings and businesses profiting off a crisis. Such a fun country.

There's more going on, it all adds up, social behavior plays a big role as seen in the Somali population in Sweden.

In Israel (some) white people are far more likely to die than other white people.
The ultra-orthodox are estimated to make up 12 percent of the population but are now turning up as 60 percent of the COVID-19 deaths
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-07/ultra-orthodox-jews-hit-disproportionately-hard-in-israels-coronavirus-outbreak

Even among our not all that religious population in Canada (55% total, 29% catholic, 18% protestant) Easter still had a noticeable effect on spreading covid19


Even better visible in the week over week comparison

Easter weekend caused a week over week increase in cases country wide. Behavioral patterns at work.


It's all things to consider when fine tuning social distancing and going back to work. Which occupations need more attention, which neighborhoods and communities need more social distancing measures etc. While closing parks in cities might help to encourage people to spread out more elsewhere (walk on the street instead of gathering in the parks), in smaller towns it only encourages people to get closer together in the remaining available spaces.

One size fits all strategies do not work with this pandemic. Local councils have to get involved in the planning and decision process, not just copy the province or country wide recommendations. The WHO already said way back in the beginning that all levels of government will need to work together to get through this.

Fallen out of date with the news.

How is everyone here doing? Any tested positive?

I am lucky enough to be a keyworker so I am not feeling the lockdown, and I have always practiced social distancing in my free time so my life has been largely unchanged, really.

Chinese bots are writing articles on established US publications?

Everything is still very much fine over here. Provided the case numbers don't increase we might be able to fully open up in June, with a few ground rules in place. People are happy and praise the administration that did a great job to contain things. How are things in your country?

So you think the left side of the political spectrum doesn't have enough hate towards the right that they need to fabricate stories supported by the Chinese? Dude, the whole world hates Republicans. You really don't need Chinese influence to hate what happens in the US. You just need a brain.

The problem is that the US political spectrum on the right has become so comically stupid and evil that any pointing out of their flaws sounds like Chinese propaganda. The sad truth is though that these days Chinese propaganda contains more truth than anything that comes out of the White House. And that should be the number one concern. Foreign influence couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of crazy stuff is produced by the local governments all on their own.