Which is also the "normal state of things" if you look at the last centuries. Only really in the short time window after WW2 science enjoyed a pretty broad basis of trust, which at this point has been slowly erroded again largely for political gains/reasons.

Maybe I was lucky with the period I grew up in. Apart from some white washing and political flavor in history classes (skipping the bad things my country had done and favoring one historical/current party over others) religion, social studies, science, chemistry and biology all co-existed together and allowed to have opposing views. Religion classes teaching the opposite story of evolution and it was up to us to make up our own minds. Religion classes even taught other religions in a fair way as far as I can tell (I went to a catholic school, but not religious myself) while social studies did a good job to compensate for the political flavor in history classes. It all depends on good and bad teachers of course. The high school I went to had great teachers. So good, it was a shock when I went to university and was met with a bunch of disinterested 'teachers' that were only there because of an hours requirement to keep their cozy university seat.

That was in the eighties, still close enough after WW2 I guess. Evolution theory later came under fire in the country I grew up in as well.

Back on topic, updates

Europe and the USA are swapping places regularly, closely following each other.
Europe would be declining much more if Russia wasn't a still growing hot spot, currently responsible for 40% of Europe's daily reported cases, followed by the UK and Spain with 17.5% and 11.2% of the daily reported cases.
The USA is now 10.00 days behind Europe in total reported cases, very slowly outpacing Europe, was 10.25 days a week ago.
Europe is actually climbing back up atm, 4.2% increase (104.2%) week over week while the USA is still declining 13.1% (86.9%) week over week.

I started tracking the continents in a new graph

North America leads with 34.2% of worldwide daily cases.
Europe 28.7%, South America and Asia both 16.9%, Africa 3.3%, Oceania 0%.
Reporting is very spotty in Africa, Asia has some dodgy reporters as well as South America. Reporting enough though to push the world total to record heights. The last peak was May 7th with a 3 day average of 96.2K new cases per day.

Random comparisons

Slight up tick in South Korea while Australia is going down again from their slight up tick. The amounts are too low to determine any trends, both doing great. China dropped off the chart only reporting 1 or 2 new cases a day.
Japan heading down in general, Brazil keeps rising.
Canada and Iran are close together, however reported deaths in Canada are 3x that of Iran (154 vs 57 daily average) I guess different age demographics (median 40.8 years vs 30.8 in Iran) and difference in reporting play a role.

Weekly change graph

Iran rising week over week, Japan decreasing again after a couple days stagnation.
USA and Canada are both on a slight decline week over week.

Canada should see some good decline next week after this bitter cold last week. We were back to -4c at night (I had to keep the pool pump running not to have things freeze up, ice on the bird baths etc), snow the last couple days (up to 10cm in Barrie), and freezing winds. We're set for record low temperatures for May. The snow here didn't stay luckily, but first time I've had the pool 'open' while seeing snow on the solar cover... Who wants to go for a swim lol.

It's going to warm up today to +13, yet overcast with some rain and still a chance for some snow tomorrow morning :/

Another test study (from the UK) that shows Hydroxychloroquine doesnt work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XCP1WzOY6M

Remember this:

" 'What do you have to lose?' "  asks as Trump stockpiles 29-million pills of hydroxychloroquine.

Quebec is ready open up elementary schools again, parents not so much.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/school-in-the-age-of-covid-19-quebec-to-reopen-amid-rigid-distancing-rules-1.4932862

Students [children ages 4 to 13] will be subject to physical distancing, frequent handwashing and carefully co-ordinated school days spent in large part at their desks while school officials keep up with cleaning, disinfection and following public health guidelines.

"We're welcoming them back to a new normal, but we are welcoming them back as just our students. Our personalities haven't gone out the window. We're still going to be welcoming them with a big smile, making sure they feel safe, they feel comfortable."

Some schools have prepared videos to prepare parents and kids for the reality -- teachers donning goggles, masks and gloves; taped arrows on the floor to remind students of the two-metre distancing rule; playground equipment closed off with caution tape. Common areas like libraries, gyms and cafeterias will be closed, and pickup and dropoffs will be closely monitored.

About 80 per cent of students have requested buses, which due to distancing rules can't fit children from more than 12 households per bus. As with teachers and staff, bus drivers will also have to be outfitted with protective gear. [There are normally up to 78 kids on our bus route to school, while in Ontario they said max 6 kids per bus...]

Quebec has not made returning to school mandatory, and Murray said just over one-third of the region's 3,000 English students have registered to return.

While public health officials have set the maximum number of students per class at 15, most Quebec classrooms can't hold more than 10 or 12 while respecting distancing measures, which could pose a problem come September. "It's a trial run. It's a way to prepare for September," Murray said. "But pragmatically, if schools are opened in September under these conditions, we'd need to triple or quadruple the number of school spaces." It may not even be practical now, Murray acknowledged.

Another issue the board is looking to deal with is the elimination of breakfast and lunch programs that Murray said many students depended on for adequate nutrition. He noted that one of the government's original justifications for reopening "was to restore the kind of services, other than teaching, that schools provide for their students."

The Western Quebec School Board will open fully on Tuesday after teachers and staff undergo personal protective equipment training Monday. Alain Guy, the board's chairman, said only about 14 per cent of its 3,875 enrolled elementary students are expected back next week.

Here in Ontario schools stay closed until May 31st until decided otherwise. However the only thing my wife is excited about is that it won't be mandatory to send the kids back, they're staying home, thanks but no thanks.



Good news for marine life

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-could-be-helping-sea-life-1.4932946

Oceanographer David Barclay from Dalhousie University says the decline of sound pollution is roughly down by 50 per cent. “It’s been getting quieter at a faster rate in the last month. We are seeing a decrease in about four dB (decibels), which is about half, 50 per cent reduction,”

Barclay found this decline using sound monitors off the west coast of Vancouver Island and in the Georgia Strait. His findings were first published in The Narwhal and are currently under academic review. Similar research was conducted after the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. Researchers found that the drop in sea traffic resulted in a dramatic decline in stress hormones for the North Atlantic right whales. 

Vergara specializes in Canada's endangered Saint Lawrence Belugas, which are down to only 800 in the wild. She tells CTV News that noise is one of the main factors that prevents these whales from recovering.


https://globalnews.ca/news/6912866/quiet-ocean-coronavirus-endangered-orcas/

One of B.C.’s most threatened species could be facing an unprecedented respite during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The southern resident killer whales who spend their summers in the waters of the Salish Sea are listed as endangered with just 73 members left, and are facing a triple threat from pollution, a lack of food and marine noise caused by humans. That third factor, however, has all but disappeared during the pandemic.

Let's be honest, science denying individuals don't care about evidence or scientific fact, they run with their own narrative.

I don't think it's a failure of the education system, there are individuals who went to the same schools, same classes as I did, yet have completely different attitudes and outlooks...
I prefer to adhere to the scientific method and evidence, where they get excited at the latest and greatest conspiracy theory.

It's a social license. Trust can come and go sadly. And is easier to loose than earn.

What would be really awesome is for someone to build a timeline of how every major country responded with policies and measures with a proper time adjustment from the 1st confirmed case.

Because the USA is leading the world in deaths and cases... And that is one thing you don't want to be the leader in... It's a systemic government failure from top to bottom to recognize and proactively tackle the problem... And the world should take notes on this example of what not to do when handling a pandemic.

Has Trumps approval taken a beating with his appalling response? Or do people just not care?
Our Prime Ministers approval has skyrocketed after his extremely low approval of how he handled the bushfire crisis, proves he learned a lesson and might get my vote next election.

Pemalite :
"Because the USA is leading the world in deaths and cases... And that is one thing you don't want to be the leader in... "

Yes we are the leader in deaths and cases as of today... However tomorrow is different. But at least we don't suppress our cases. Fuck you China.

Fuck you Russia. Fuck you Brazil. Fuck you India. Fuck you Bangladesh. Fuck you Myanmar., etc....

The millions of deaths in the United States cannot be blamed on any other country, the blame lays at the person who is at the very top and the political party they represent.

The source of the issue can be blamed on China. But the United States could have avoided it's significant death toll with proper policy and funding to various agency's.

Brazil, Russia, India and so forth also had a systemic policy failure that resulted in unnecessary deaths and their leaders/political party's deserve criticism for their respective death tolls.

It will be interesting to see how the silly protest across the USA effects the death rate in a few weeks time, if at all.

The first confirmed case keeps moving back though. The problem was, no or so little tests available that countries failed to notice the virus was already circulating. At first the first 2 cases were detected in Italy on Januari 31st from 2 Chinese travelers. Yet now we know that the first community transfer case was already ongoing on December 27th when a Frenchman visited the hospital for coughing up blood, chest pain and difficulty breathing.
https://nypost.com/2020/05/05/europes-first-coronavirus-case-was-in-december-scientists/
He was told it was “not normal flu” when he went to a hospital on Dec. 27 — but at the time the pandemic was completely unknown.

For Europe it's lock down for
Italy: March 9th
Spain: March 14th
France: March 17th
Germany: March 22nd
UK: March 24th
Although 'lock down' doesn't mean the same in each country.

It wasn't all at the same day either

https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-what-are-the-lockdown-measures-across-europe/a-52905137


The first covid19 death in the USA has been pushed back to Februari 6th, also a community transfer case. However the administration was still under the illusion that they were only looking for incoming travelers with covid19 symptoms.

According to (not so reliable) wikepedia the first case in Australia was discovered on Januari 25th, however Australia also didn't respond until March! Australian borders were closed to all non-residents on 20 March.^[3] Social distancing rules were imposed on 21 March.

The first report of a COVID-19 case in the U.S. came on January 20, in a man who returned on January 15 from visiting family in Wuhan, China, to his home in Snohomish County, Washington. He sought medical attention on January 19.^[113] The second report of a COVID-19 case U.S. came on January 24, in a woman who returned to Chicago, Illinois, on January 13 from visiting Wuhan.^[3][4] The woman passed the virus to her husband, and he was confirmed to have the virus on January 30, in the first reported case of local transmission in the United States.^[8]

March 13th National Emergency declared in the USA
March 16th Social distancing guidelines
March 18th the border with Canada was closed, the last one still open and social distancing measures were implemented not long after.
(Here's the very long of it https://www.justsecurity.org/69650/timeline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-u-s-response/)


The date of symptom onset for the first case of COVID-19 reported in Canada became ill on January 15, 2020. Additional cases occurred gradually from January to late February. These early cases were among travelers returning to Canada from countries where outbreaks of COVID-19 were already occurring and their close contacts. The number of cases increased sharply in March as the virus began to spread from one person to another in Canadian communities.
https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/epidemiological-summary-covid-19-cases.html

In Ontario the lights came on on March 17th (declared state of emergency)
http://ofl.ca/covid-19-policy-timeline/
Then a whole bunch of measures following over the next weeks.


So when the first case was is uncertain, the first community transfer more uncertain, and even the first known case (to react to) is already hard to find now dates have been pushed back with retro active testing. Plus the measures are long lists of different policies gradually closing things down further and further.



There isn't all that much difference between a first case discovered at the time between Australia, Europe, North America, and the reactions following in March. Yet in a lot of places it was already spreading since December or even November while everyone was focusing on returning travelers from Januari through Februari.

Okay, let me see if I understand this; the leaders in your country failed to implement measures in a timely manner, so in response you are now hating other countries?

If I remember correctly various health agencies offered the USA testing kits and got declined... As the USA wanted to make it's own. - Consequently the original batch was faulty anyway.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-went-wrong-with-coronavirus-testing-in-the-us

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/05/905484/why-the-cdc-botched-its-coronavirus-testing/

That is a systemic failure on preparation and testing by US health organizations.

This is where we need to use the power of hindsight after all this is finished and get all the appropriate data points to plot where countries went wrong and where they went right in a comprehensive independent analysis that is all time adjusted.

I already outlined Australias timeline and responses prior in this thread, we were already making moves even in January to combat the virus with screenings and building testing kits and stockpiling PPE and so forth, we didn't have full lockdown until March though, but our prior mitigation attempts were proving successful for that time period. -  Wikipedia isn't providing the full comprehensive view on this I am afraid.

Being in the Emergency Services I see more than what the general public does on this front.