Manic of a panic is geopolitical

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by kriesel

It takes people showing up for work, to produce food and the inputs for farming, transport the food to distribution points, produce electricity so the gadgets in the clinics and hospitals work, make and deliver the PPE so the medical staff don't get sick or die, make and deliver test kits, make and deliver medicines, staff the pharmacies, keep municipal water wells working, deal with underground pipe breaks, etc.

Those people are still on the job. The bankers are talking about movie makers, ball players, nail salons, buying new cars that they are being sold, clothes that are fashionable, eat expensive meals, tear up their houses and buy new floors, etc., etc.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Of course I'm generally skeptical about what Chinese officialdom says, but so far I've seen no indication that they've done an about-face and are now studiously ignoring new cases of COVID-19. I suppose one way to do that would be, just make and distribute a whole lot of dummy test kits. That would be one way to make sure a lot of patients tested negative!

It seems I was actually on to something here. But the defective test kits, along with defective masks, were for export only!

[LaurV]

3B1B, which I faithfully follow since their Linear Algebra series, has a very nice new video everybody should watch.

(I initially posted this in the parallel thread, but then I decided to edit that and post it separate here so more people see it)

Embeded youtube tab too: (same link as above)

[kriesel]

How to tell when the tide turns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54XL...ature=youtu.be

[xilman]

UK, the Netherlands and France now following the Italian trajectory very closely, with Spain still running on a very similar growth curve but with a higher number of fatalities.

US still in exponential growth with a 33% increment each day.

Hard to tell whether Belgium's early lock down has had any significant effect.

Reminder: the source of this data is here

[Xyzzy]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/india...ncing-intl-hnk

[kriesel]

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...tive-later-say

[kladner]

https://www.thelostogle.com/2020/03/...mulus-payment/
This site was slow to load, but the dose of outrage it provides is worth it. Note that the culprits' web address is included. Let them know how you feel about their claims of "hardship." (It seems that they filter their Contact Us form. Not sure if my blast got through.)

One of the few positive things about the Coronavirus pandemic is that it shows us just how greedy, heartless and merciless some corporations can truly be.

For example, we have learned via the Ogle Mole Network that ImageNet Consulting – an Oklahoma City-based “Information Technology Solutions” firm that sells high-dollar copiers, scanners, and IT services to companies all across the country – wanted their remaining employees to forfeit a portion of their April paycheck that is equal to the amount they will receive from their government-issued Coronavirus stimulus payment.

Basically, ImageNet Consulting came up with a plan to pocket their employees’ stimulus checks!

In all fairness to ImageNet, they could use the extra money. According to this blog post by company CEO Pat Russell, the privately held company – which is worth at least nine-figures – only has annual revenues that exceed $100-million, and margins that run about 40%, so they also obviously need their employees stimulus checks to remain so profitable!
In fact, they need their employees kids stimulus payments, too!

The agreement would put workers under a “temporary compensation reduction that is in line with the assistance that it receives from the federal government related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” By signing the agreement, the company’s employees would have their paychecks between April 6 and April 20 cut by 100% of any money received under the stimulus bill.
The company would also take half of the $500 stipend allotted for dependents under the bill.

I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty badass in a shitty, corporate-asshole type of way! I’m sure the people at Hobby Lobby are kicking themselves for not thinking of it first!

[xilman]

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-ec...mployment-rate

Hmm, a > 30% unemployment rate seems rather on the high side to me. 10%, perhaps.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by CRGreathouse

The study that this is based on is flawed and should be withdrawn. There are very few mutations in COVID-19, its repair mechanism (similar to the one in MERS and SARS-CoV-1) is so good that it's acting much more like a DNA virus than an RNA virus, IMO. You can track the phylogeny trees by individual point mutations and there aren't many (~10).

Echoing the above:

How coronavirus mutated and eight strains raced around the world after initial outbreak in China as global cases top 660,000 and deaths hit 30,847 | Daily Mail -- One typo in their exec-summary 'DNA' should be 'RNA':

o Scientists around the world have been sequencing virus DNA to track the spread
o There are eight strains identified, but all are very similar with tiny variations
o Experts say that no strain appears to be more lethal than any of the others
o It's also highly unlikely that the virus could mutate into a more lethal strain
o Coronavirus appears to mutate very slowly, giving hope for long-lasting vaccine

On the reports of alleged reinfections:

If you are hearing about #covid19 “reinfections” in Asia, I can offer you my take as a virologist. The best explanation for what we’re seeing is likely due to three things…

— Peter Kolchinsky (@PeterKolchinsky) March 28, 2020

In short: The tests are sensitive not just to the viral RNA but to snips of DNA and RNA in the environment, some of which is from patients having smashed the virus to bits successfully. This ties in with the above slow mutation rate - with e.g. flu, once our immune system vanquishes one strain, it remains immune to said strain, as any incipient re-infection by same is quickly mopped up by rapid ramping-up of the memory antibodies resulting from the initial infection, and further, we tend to have partial immunity to similar strains. Only when ever-ongoing recombination and mutation produces a sufficiently-different (and pathogenic) strain are we at risk. (Or if our immune system memory somehow becomes compromised, as is the case with e.g. AIDS patients and certain other infections, notably measles.)

[Dr Sardonicus]

Dr. David Price is a critical care pulmonologist caring for COVID-19 patients all day in NYC at Weill Cornell Hospital. He made This video on how to protect yourself.