Coronavirus: what your country is doing, how you feel & general discussion

[rainbowbluebells]

update Corona-V Switzerland:
estimated cases: >3000
confirmed cases: 1989
deaths: 13
schools closed.
and everyone's freaking out..
I however,living in my bubble,wouldn't have known if my caregiver didn't tell me all that today.

Gosh. I guess there is one upside to living in a bubble... except when we go on the internet, we see it all!
We had 21 deaths as of today. It doubled from 11 yesterday.
And schools still open, shops, gatherings, work, etc, everything open.

 

[rainbowbluebells]

Just as expected, things start to move really fast here (and with exponentiallity of the event, very fast elsewhere too).

Just found out there is now a thrive-through testing station just 15km from where I life. Just as has been available in most thoroughly tested South Korea. (..now I would need a car )

Also just got a call from my GP's assistant, cancelling my appointment on Monday. Because they couldn't guarantee the security to their patients of getting infected anymore. Replyed, I would have to see my GP anyway, because my boss expects an accessment of my risk for comming to work (have all the diseases which increases the risk of dying from it, in remission though). Where she said, GPs just now have been allowed to prescribe sickness-leaves by phone! Though she doesn't yet know how it works, I should just call on Monday.

Aah that’s so good there’s drive through testing I guess it’s good for healthier people who can drive a lot.. will they do home testing if you’re too ill to go?

And that’s great that the GP can give you sickness leave notes by phone! It sounds like in Austria things are quite coordinated and quick!

 

[Hip]

Guardian article about the UK's nudge theory approach to dealing with coronavirus, which differs from every other country in Europe, as well as countries further afield.

Nudge theory is the idea that you can control outcomes by influencing and coaxing the way people act (rather than forcing situations on people, like school and shop closedowns).

The article concludes:

The approaches in the UK and the rest of Europe are starkly different, and both cannot be right. Mistakes by one country are going to spill over into outcomes for another.

I think only time will tell who has got it right. If in a few weeks the infection figures of the UK shoot up much higher than the rest of Europe, then we will know that nudge theory is the wrong strategy.


EDIT: Oops, I see that this article was posted here earlier.

 

[pamojja]

will they do home testing if you’re too ill to go?

It's not as easy as a regular drive-through. Til now there was a health-information service where one could call, and a team would come to your appartment in protective suits to test you. But only to patients who had been in contact with a confirmed case or in risk areas and symptoms. That's why its been refused to me (I've only been to India).

These basic requirements are still there with the drive-through testing. Only that by now all surounding countries and some localities in Austria itself have already become high risk-areas! (before only China, Italy, Iran and South Korea) The drive-through is mainly making it easier for the testing-teams, who before had to change their protective suits with each testing.

It sounds like in Austria things are quite coordinated and quick!

If you compare the total population, the numbers of cases per 100,000 is already much higher than in larger countries (GP, Germany..). The exponential curve and percentage of infected much more advanced.

 

[rainbowbluebells]

Guardian article about the UK's nudge theory approach to dealing with coronavirus, which differs from every other country in Europe, as well as countries further afield.

Nudge theory is the idea that you can control outcomes by influencing and coaxing the way people act (rather than forcing situations on people, like school and shop closedowns).

The article concludes:


I think only time will tell who has got it right. If in a few weeks the infection figures of the UK shoot up much higher than the rest of Europe, then we will know that nudge theory is the wrong strategy.


EDIT: Oops, I see that this article was posted here earlier.

Yes.. I found that article very illuminating as well. I think now people are demanding to see the exact models and data that the govt has used - opposition parties, teachers etc are asking, as they want to know how exactly they came to the conclusions they did.

Judging by how quickly the numbers have increased over the past few days.. it was at 600 just a few days ago.. now 1100. Deaths doubled overnight. Im very worried.

 

[rainbowbluebells]

for people in the UK, it’s worth watching sky news. The interviews coming out of Italy are heartbreaking. The doctors are horrified over what we are doing here in the UK. They’re saying even with their facilities, how unbearably bad it is - with our facilities, if we know we have less facilities, we must lock down. It’s the only way. They’re aghast.

Also someone interviewed on Italian TV, about what’s happening in the UK - they can’t believe what’s happening.

Also a woman who came here from Italy and says she had no checks whatsoever when she arrived, no advice, didn’t isolate.

 

[brenda]

I heard on a local Facebook group today, that a young boy with CV19 has been sent home from hospital with pneumonia and told to isolate 7 days, and his mother told to take it down from Facebook which shows that the true numbers are being concealed as the UK government wants us all to catch it. No news on whether his school us to be closed. The boy came back from Italy a week ago.

 

[rainbowbluebells]

I heard on a local Facebook group today, that a young boy with CV19 has been sent home from hospital with pneumonia and told to isolate 7 days, and his mother told to take it down from Facebook which shows that the true numbers are being concealed as the UK government wants us all to catch it. No news on whether his school us to be closed. The boy came back from Italy a week ago.

This is what is going to happen more, I fear. An underfunded, over stretched NHS, not enough staff on 111 so you can’t even call 111. You go to hospital, told to go home. Not even allowed a test. People with high fevers should not be at home. A doctor today tweeted to Boris and PHE asking what to do if a child comes in with symptoms, they don’t want to just let them go home; as it could turn into sepsis. No one knows the true figures. I too have seen on social media (from people that don’t really have a tendency to lie), of people being turned away. Or else of people not being given information. It’s always the same advice: self isolate, no testing. Barbaric.

 

[rainbowbluebells]

Doctor working on the NHS:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1238853767635832840

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1238846025143631872

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1238849255424626688

 

[rainbowbluebells]

I just realised our cases have doubled since Thursday. Just 3 days. That’s not counting the cases outside of hospital as they stopped counting that 2 days ago. So might have been tripled. And still no closures.
Meanwhile Europe everywhere is completely locked down, every day new countries locking down. just yesterday we had a festival with mass crowds, up to 60,000 or 70,000 watching horse racing.

must be in a dystopian horror film. I spoke to some of my friends in the UK and they think it’s all hype. Sometimes I feel like I’m the strange one!

 

[Inara]

As soon as friends around them die, they will stop thinking it's hype.

I wanted to add sth re. the flu...Earlier here someone said no one's doing much of a-do about the flu, which kills many people, too. I also think that's not good and irresponsible (maybe a case of "darwinism", too). The flu is not harmless, too, and I am angry every year how it is widely accepted that it makes its rounds year after year...

 

[Pearshaped]

I think it is partly hype.
it would scare me more if the media would downplay the problems.Just bec
I dont trust them.
Its what they usually do with other problems which are difficult to discuss.They just sweep it under the carpet.
But of course,denying the pandemic is as bad as raising(useless)panic.I hope all our politicians will make wise decisions.whatever that will be.

 

[rainbowbluebells]

As soon as friends around them die, they will stop thinking it's hype.

I wanted to add sth re. the flu...Earlier here someone said no one's doing much of a-do about the flu, whoch kills many people, too. I also think that's not good and irresponsible (maybe a case of "darwinism", too). The flu is not harmless, too, and I am angry every year how it is widely accepted that it makes its rounds year after year...

Yes, actually I was also thinking about this. It’s only this covid outbreak that’s made me think of it too. Some years in the UK I think 30,000 people have died. Why?! Why are we not able to take precautions and care about the vulnerable and elderly who are at risk of dying or suffering complications.

Perhaps here in the UK we should ask everyone who is ill to wear surgical masks to reduce droplet contamination. They do it in Asian countries. And the govt could put into place policies so people wouldn’t have to go into work when Ill with the flu. And invest in more hospital beds so patients with flu are treated well and not dying in corridors every winter. Tell people not to socialise. There’s a lot we could do. It’s terrible we are failing people every year.

 

[AnnieT]

I have been saying the same about flu and other viruses.... people should be conscious of spreading these around too!

 

[rainbowbluebells]

I think it is partly hype.
it would scare me more if the media would downplay the problems.Just bec
I dont trust them.
Its what they usually do with other problems which are difficult to discuss.They just sweep it under the carpet.
But of course,denying the pandemic is as bad as raising(useless)panic.I hope all our politicians will make wise decisions.whatever that will be.

I don’t think it’s hype, but that’s because I read this thread a while ago..

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1237142891077697538

 

[rainbowbluebells]

So 200 top scientists wrote an open letter to the govt saying they have to bring in social distancing strategies immediately. And change their plan as it would cause excess deaths and they were very concerned. And pointed out herd immunity doesn’t make sense.

http://maths.qmul.ac.uk/~vnicosia/UK_scientists_statement_on_coronavirus_measures.pdf

In addition 100 behavioural scientists wrote an open letter saying the behavioural fatigue nudge unit stuff didn’t make sense.

then less than an hour later, Robert Peston, Who has a weird new role as someone who breaks all of the govts news before the govt themselves release it officially, and he tweets it - it’s really weird, like he’s testing the water to see how the public reacts.

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-14...ime-style-mobilisation-to-combat-coronavirus/

not good enough imo. Social distancing measures still at least over a week to go. Over a week of uncontrolled spread? Within a week we will have many thousands of cases and many deaths. And even then only closed for a “few weeks”. The UK govt is so stubborn. It’s more important to the UK to always be “right”, to be the “best”, than to do the right thing and admit they were or could be wrong.

I’m not sure but it seems to me they’re continuing with herd immunity but with the elderly people being “cocooned”.

 

[Hip]

One very good thing the UK government is doing is commanding industry to make more ventilators:

Boris Johnson is putting British industry on a war footing to help deliver the equipment that the NHS needs to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

In an unprecedented peacetime call to arms, the Prime Minister is asking manufacturers including Rolls Royce and JCB to transform their current production lines to help produce ventilators as part of a "national effort" to tackle the virus.

Source: here

Normally the death rate of SARS-CoV-2 is around 1%, if intensive care treatment is available, and in particular, ventilators, which are the crucial life-saving piece of equipment. But when there are not enough ventilators, the death rate goes up to 3 or 4%. This is what they found in Italy, where doctors had to decide on who lives and who dies, because they did not have enough ventilators.

Other countries are doing similar:

Italy, the country at the epicentre of the European outbreak, told the country’s only ventilator manufacturer to quadruple monthly production, even deploying members of the armed forces to help meet the new quota.

Germany has ordered an additional 10,000 ventilators from a domestic supplier and France is conducting a study into its own stocks including outside the public health system to determine the adequate level or needs to order further supplies.

Source: here



The strategy we need is delaying the pandemic so that hospitals are not overloaded, and ensuring we have enough ventilators.

 

[Rebeccare]

The strategy we need is delaying the pandemic so that hospitals are not overloaded, and ensuring we have enough ventilators.

I'm hoping also that, by delaying things, scientists might also have the time to investigate whether certain drugs that already exist may treat it more effectively so that fewer people end up with the severe symptoms that require ventilator support. That seems to be the fastest way to make a difference. I know I've seen at least two articles floating around here--one about an asthma medication, and another about plaquenil.

 

[Wally]

In the U.S., but I saw these reports from China that are interesting, if the reports are accurate.. Has the coronavirus infection rate dramatically slowed in China? Does anyone have a reliable contact(s) in China, who may be able to provide an update on what life is currently like in Wuhan and/or other major cities in China?

1) Report as of 3/11/2020 - Are people headed back to work in China? If yes, in what cities/provinces?

2) Report as of 3/11/2020 - Are some large entertainment venues being re-opened in China?

and

3) Report as of 3/10/2020 - Have makeshift hospitals closed in China because the number of people infected with the virus has dropped and/or the number of patients needing hospitalization has dropped?

Here are two reports that raise questions about the truthfulness of the optimistic reports of overflow hospital beds not being needed anymore and businesses including entertainment parks reopening.

1) Report as of 3/12/2020 - Have patients been discharged and hospitals closed too quickly?

2) Report as of 3/9/2020 - Can information from the W.H.O. organization re the current effect of the virus on China be trusted? https://youtu.be/_a7HaWqFh24

 

[Roy S]

Beijing

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1238699707758571520

Chicago, Illinois

Illinois had a reported 32 cases Friday.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1238986272137502720

Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas

Texas had a reported 63 cases Saturday.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1238986444615618561

Washington DC area

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1238937081889636352

The US still doesn't have anywhere near enough testing.