@SpokenTruth and @JRPGfan

Sure. Keep it under control until a vaccine is the absolute right thing to do

I just don't think it's realistic to expect people staying in their homes for one year until we get a vaccine. Soon or later new waves of the virus will appear. Some kind of events like soccer games or concerts might still being closed, but people should be allowed to at least start working in offices again

Besides, the point is impose a severe region-specific lockdown as soon as a new outbreak pop up. In Australia they will close Melbourne for 6 weeks before the virus spread to the rest of country when they still under 1k new cases a day.

And of course interstate travelling should be banned for quite a while

This is what every government should do. It worked really well on China. I'm sure it will work in Australia too

You don't need to stay in your home, but people do need to stop partying and traveling for non essential reasons. Mask use and physical distancing works to keep Rt under 1, however only if the entire population co-operates. It keeps flaring up because people keep flaunting the new 'rules' and 'need' to go on holiday, eat in restaurants, go to bars, clubs and house parties.

All we're seeing now is still without schools thanks to the summer holiday which also keeps people more outside which is 10x more safe than inside. (eating out on a patio instead of inside a restaurant). This was the time to get the active cases (infectious people) down to close to nothing to have a good chance going into fall with school re-openings (in a safe manner, not this full capacity hope for the best re-opening)

Fall is coming, new flu season is coming, people will spend more time indoors, schools are coming back and the number of infected people is increasing again. Europe is back to end of May numbers atm, so yep they had a 2 month lull but unfortunately now heading into back to school in a bad way.

Regional lock downs aren't that effective since they are usually imposed too late and essential travel still has to keep going in and out of the area. It will work in the area but the seeds still spread to create the next regional lock down and so forth, keeping the fire burning perpetually. South Korea seems to be the only one to be managing the 'dance' part of the virus curve, keeping the cases under 50 a day with a few deaths per week. New Zealand stomped it out and is managing to keep the border tightly closed. Australia was doing well but now has already more deaths than from their initial out break :(

Locally I don't know what's going to happen. Numbers here are distorted again because of another 3-day weekend. 3rd day below 100 for Ontario, yep cause a lot of people went traveling, too busy recreating to check for health and go get tested. Plus testing centers also work less on holidays. For my county I now get this "The specified URL cannot be found." hopefully just a temporary glitch. August will be the month that decides how back to school (start September) will go. Many counties do have face mask by-laws implemented, yet phase 3 (non essential stuff) is now in effect province wide since last Friday.

We've had the easy part, the shock getting people to co-operate, the warm summer getting people outside, the schools closed for summer holiday after closing them to stop the spread, lot of work places closed for holiday anyway. Now comes the hard part, reserves are gone, people need money again to pay the bills, kids need to go back to school, virus is still very active.



Ah, the link is working again, no new cases locally but does this make me feel better? ...
Our COVID-19 call centre is experiencing high call volumes and wait times may be long

Facebook and twitter banning Trump.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/facebook-citing-virus-misinformation-deletes-trump-post-1.5052894

Facebook has deleted a post by U.S. President Donald Trump for violating its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The post in question featured a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are "virtually immune" to the virus.Facebook said Wednesday that the "video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation."

A few hours later, Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump campaign from tweeting from its account, until it removed a post with the same video. Trump's account retweeted the video. The company said in a statement late Wednesday that the tweet violated its rules against COVID misinformation. When a tweet breaks its rules, Twitter asks users to remove the tweet in questions and bans them from posting anything else until they do.



A CDC study involving 2,500 children published in April found that about 1 in 5 infected children were hospitalized versus 1 in 3 adults; three children died. The study lacks complete data on all the cases, but it also suggests that many infected children have no symptoms, which could allow them to spread the virus to others.

This is a problem related with (the lack of) strong position of governments. South Korea, New Zealand and Australia were fast answering the virus and flattened the curve pretty fast. Australia is doing it again as their current wave is focused mostly on Melbourne

If Brazil had closed 5 to 7 states in early April the virus wouldn't be as spread as now. The are at least half dozen states that only now are having a truly infection wave. I'm praying for my state to close our borders because pandemic here is finally progressing to a control point in maybe one more month 

Since the lock down lifted, the amount of customers at my parents farm and the local farms has been much higher than anticipated. Not one person has shown up wearing a mask though, and not one has said yes to us wearing a mask while assisting them. Most clearly don't care about social distancing, and these aren't just locals either. Plenty of people from the big cities who are down enjoying the countryside, tasting at the local wineries, and staying at the local camp grounds. To top it off, for a little over a week now, it's supposed to be mandatory in our county to wear a mask at all times when in the presence of non family members, and yet nothing has changed. So much for new rules I guess.
The closest I came to someone who was a little concerned, was an elderly woman and her daughter, who hummed and haw'd, and when I went to reach for my mask, they both adamantly told me not to bother and that they would just keep their distance. An, "are you sure" didn't change their minds. I actually had a really old fella about two weekends ago, who asked me, "what do I look like to ya?", and followed that with, "what are ya, a wuss?". I got a good laugh out of it. While he didn't necessarily look it, he was a tough old boy and wasn't having anything to do with masks or distancing, considering he walked up to me and tapped my shoulder and said, "don't you worry about me, I've beaten worse."

Just the other day, a couple who were interested in purchasing the farm came to have a look, and the woman, who's a nurse, politely argued so she wouldn't have to wear a mask. She stated she get's tested regularly and has always been negative, and was adamant that she social distance's etc, but because one of my parents has a slightly weakened immune system at the moment, she eventually obliged, though apparently she didn't exactly do so happily. My parents found it odd and strange, as other than their initial encounter, the couple were really nice people and easy to get along with. Though my parents tend to be fairly cautious in general, one of them in particular, going way overboard is the norm unfortunately, and covid 19 has just turned that up to 11.
I was kinda surprised to hear this, since she was a nurse, but not all that surprised based on how the public has handled wearing masks when showing up at the farm. Plus, an ex gf of mine who's a paramedic, and a health conscious individual in general, clearly doesn't take covid 19 near as seriously as I'd be led to believe, based on what some my friends have told me when they've spent time with her.

All the other local farmers have basically told us likewise. Very very few people wear a mask unless they have to or grant your offer to wear one for their safety. It's one thing if the general public isn't following the rules for their own good, but when the professionals themselves aren't, what are you supposed to really believe?

It's really easy to know what to believe. You believe the millions of professionals who say you need a mask and not the handful who say you don't. And if that simple rule fails you you just use your common sense that knows that having something in front of your mouth and nose will make things harder to spread that come from your mouth and nose.

Same logic as with climate change. Like 98% of scientist agree, and the last 2% are paid off by big oil companies.
Whoever should I believe?  There is some truth to the matter of fact, that these eggs heads that know better, and are asking the rest of us to act a certain way, should also be following their own advice. Its about leadership, you lead by exsample.

I guess people see visiting farms as an outside recreational activity.

Here in Paris, Ontario for those not familiar with the area :) people wear masks downtown to go shopping (it is mandatory, not allowed inside without a mask). However I've not see a single person using a mask for all the river activities. Boats loaded with people, 12 together, packed into vans to be transported back or tot the staging area. Social distancing, of course not in a raft or van. It's been very busy on the river lately. It usually starts at 10:30 AM then until 4 PM groups of people come by by the dozens of rafts, canoes, kayaks, pedal boards or their own whatever floats solutions.

Glen Morris the same, people do stay a little bit apart and there is a sign, maximum 2 groups of 5 allowed at the staging area if staying apart. You're supposed to wait at the parking lot for space, not that people adhere to that. And yup, the farm stands I cycle by, no masks anywhere.

It's a game of chance. No infected people around no problem. One infected person, distance helps, masks help, beware what you touch and wash your hands helps. More infected persons for longer indoors is not a good idea and masks will become less effective (more micro droplets building up in the air)

Outdoors the chances of getting infected are far less, so for outdoor farm stands it's not all that necessary to use a mask when keeping apart and have some airflow to dissipate any droplets. Masks still help outdoors for those that are infected, the less that comes out the better! I can see why that nurse thinks a mask is no use when she's sure she can't be infected. Of course that's just wishful thinking since anyone can spread the disease 3 days before showing symptoms and before getting test results back (which aren't 100% reliable either)

As a common courtesy to others, stay more than 2 meters apart at all times, wear a mask if you have to get closer or are indoors and places with lower air circulation.


I see now why people at the checkout wear gloves at the supermarket. There are still older people that use cash and dig through tons of coins to make change... Dunno if they clean those gloves before handling the groceries of the next person... Wash hands when getting back in the car before and after taking the mask off, then again after putting the groceries away. (Then close the cupboards lol)

Cases today in Brant County
The requested service is temporarily unavailable. It is either overloaded or under maintenance. Please try later.
Such a confidence boost, down yesterday, then a big warning high call volume, now site overloaded... I wonder what the fall out is going to be from the long weekend and phase 3 re-openings.

Ford is making an announcement today at 1pm so they already announced the numbers for today (88) while the pending cases jumped from 17K pending 2 days, 19K yesterday to 25K pending right now. No, we don't manipulate our numbers LOL.


... https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/americans-are-dying-after-drinking-hand-sanitizer-cdc-says-1.5053409

Meanwhile in the Netherlands no one gives a shit about wearing a mask because the goverment is not doing what it should do.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-infections-among-younger-populations-are-skyrocketing-who-says-1.5055030

The COVID-19 pandemic is moving into younger populations, health experts said Thursday, with cases skyrocketing among children, teens and young adults.

Early in the outbreak, health experts stressed that older adults were most at risk for the virus that has infected more than 4.8 million people in the United States, but new data from the World Health Organization shows that most cases -- by far -- are reported in people ages 25 to 64. The proportion of cases in teens and young adults has gone up six-fold, and in very young children and babies the proportion has increased seven-fold, WHO said.

The increase might be explained by broader testing, greater detection of milder cases and shifting demographics of hotspots, but "a rise in risky behavior after easing of public health and social measures" is also to blame, WHO said.



Waiting for a vaccine....

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he is looking forward to getting the vaccine when it has reached a necessary standard. "When the vaccine becomes available after a 30,000-person-or-more placebo-controlled randomized trial, and it's shown to be safe and effective, I would get it any time within the timeframe of the people who prioritize it according to ethical principles," Fauci told the POLITICO Pulse Check podcast.

He said he is "satisfied" with the first week enrollment in Moderna's Phase 3 clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine, which saw 1,290 people randomly assigned to get either the vaccine or a dummy shot. Moderna plans to enroll 30,000 people in its trial. Fauci told CNN that he expects "to get an answer" about whether the vaccine works in November or December.

President Donald Trump hopes to get an answer much sooner. He said Thursday he is "optimistic" that a vaccine could be ready by election day on November 3.

But former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Thursday that giving specific dates for when a vaccine could be available is "very dangerous." "We can't sacrifice our standards because if we do, it not only hurts people, but it's going to damage people's faith in vaccine efforts," Murthy said.



6 vaccines moved into phase 3 trials so far
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Chances one will work are going up.


Anyway perfect storm brewing to open up the schools for the next school year. Anyone excited for Halloween trick or treating lol. It better be cancelled this year... The tv commercials for halloween candy have already begun.