Coronavirus Discussion

[StormBirdRising]

On 3/22/2020 at 9:30 PM, purpledragonclaw said:

 

I left you a link a few days ago that addresses your first paragraph. Did you read it? The Guardian is a very reputable source. There are other sources out there that corroborate that account as well, that's just the one I chose to use. If you choose not to read it, I accept that, but to state you're not reading links because of all the misinformation happening is very strange. You still use the internet, despite all the misinformation on it, right? I would also like to see sources, please, for your second paragraph. 

 

 

 

CureVac@CureVacAG tweeted on March 16 that the info regarding Donald Trump trying to buy the vaccine and poach scientists was totally false.

 https://twitter.com/CureVacAG?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

On March 16 ABC and the AP reported that it was false. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/german-virus-vaccine-firm-denies-us-made-takeover-69625135

On March 17 Bloomberg press reported that it was false. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/curevac-denies-reports-that-u-s-government-tried-to-buy-it

Also on March 17, CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas denied it. Subsequent to that Friedrich von Bohlen, a member of the CureVac supervisory board, that the company's main investor, Deitmar Hopp, just repeated what he had heard from "honestly, we don't know where." https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-coronavirus-vaccine-germany-curevac/

Also Business Insider printed CureVac's denial https://www.businessinsider.com/curevac-coronavirus-vaccine-trump-germany-denial-2020-3

 

I don't read links. I research things myself. I need the internet to play with my dragons.

[Astreya]

I just got today's numbers for my home town - again we only have one additional Covid-19 case compared with yesterday. The lock down really has an effect. Now we have 38 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 396 people quarantined and 179 persons released from their quarantine in a 211 000 population city.

[Fuzzbucket]

2 hours ago, StormBirdRising said:

CureVac@CureVacAG tweeted on March 16 that the info regarding Donald Trump trying to buy the vaccine and poach scientists was totally false.

 https://twitter.com/CureVacAG?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

On March 16 ABC and the AP reported that it was false. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/german-virus-vaccine-firm-denies-us-made-takeover-69625135

On March 17 Bloomberg press reported that it was false. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/curevac-denies-reports-that-u-s-government-tried-to-buy-it

Also on March 17, CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas denied it. Subsequent to that Friedrich von Bohlen, a member of the CureVac supervisory board, that the company's main investor, Deitmar Hopp, just repeated what he had heard from "honestly, we don't know where." https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-coronavirus-vaccine-germany-curevac/

Also Business Insider printed CureVac's denial https://www.businessinsider.com/curevac-coronavirus-vaccine-trump-germany-denial-2020-3

 

I don't read links. I research things myself. I need the internet to play with my dragons.

 

CureVac would deny it. And I don't think it was the COMPANY - I think it was that one individual, a buddy of Trump's who had just met with him - who left CureVac  VERY suddenly with no explanation after the story broke. I'm sure the company is fine

[Tiira]

Long live the bureaucracy. The decision makers here are spending days and days (and nights, too) just trying to figure out how to give the orders needed within the limits set by our legislation, instead of fully concentrating on developing their strategy and really taking action to "flatten the curve". It seems now that there's no way to close the bars and restaurants. Our government will be suggesting some changes to the law but obviously that's going to slow down the process. The prime minister herself has expressed her concern over the stiffness of our legislation in a situation this alarming.

[olympe]

The very interesting thing sabout the CureVac situation:

- There was a meeting in the White House that was attended by some kind of director from the firm.

- The very same director "removed himself from office" - due to health reasons. Strange coincidence?

- Where does such a rumor come from, especially a rumor that gets confirmed by several government officials? (And don't start with the BILD daily, nobody in their right mind believes anything they print. BILD is the yellowest of the yellow press.)

- The fact that "CureVac didn't receive an offer" can mean many different things - from the (now former) director receiving an offer to there not being a specific number attached to  an offer to the firm yet. (At least in the original German statement, this is an actual way to interprete it. Not the only one, but a possible meaning.)

 

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

[Kayota]

I work for the cruise industry. I haven't worked for 5 days but when I did last it was over an hour between calls. I'm picking up my work from home equipment in a couple hours. I'm not really holding my breath for sales--and frankly, when I DO make a sale for anything closer than a year out I feel bad for it, but I have to if I want to keep my job and make a living wage.

[Fuzzbucket]

Yes indeed. Daniel Menichella - an American citizen, by the way, which I find interesting -  met with Trump; immediately after that meeting, at which point Trump began saying the US would have a vaccine within weeks, the rumours started. He was suddenly replaced by Ingmar Hoerr, the longtime founder and previous CEO of CureVac - who has since stepped down "for a while" for medical reasons.

[smokeytripod]

So I genuinely feel my country is buggered with this bug now, now I work in a major retailer (so I have to work during this btw) and last week one of my team leaders was showing symptoms of it and still came in until a superior sent him home, now another girl came in too despite showing similar symptoms and had to have a superior send her home too despite the fact it should be obvious she shouldn't be at work, then to make matters worse her mother who also works here and lives with her showed up for her shift even though she is meant to be in isolation now because of the daughter, my shift ended not long after the mother showed up so dunno if she was sent home or not. 


Now forgive me if you also live in the UK but are people in this country just stupid or something? like how many times do you need to be told to stay home if you show symptoms.

[Aqub]

I was already afraid of germs before this happened... 😰

 

Schools are closed, colleges have all moved to online classes (but my classes were already online), and the governor of my state has ordered that everyone stay home. I'm happy to stay home and away from people for as long as I need to. I don't want to be the reason my parents, grandparents, or anyone has their life threatened by this virus. The people who are still going out in public recklessly really bother me, because they're not just putting themselves at risk, they're putting others in danger who may actually die from this. My cousin's wife is one of those people, she's been taking her family and kids everywhere out in public, and even wanted to bring the kids to visit grandma and grandpa.... 

[Classycal]

Well said Aqub.

[Lagie]

Fifth case now in the Bahamas, this one on our other major island (the island that was walloped and flooded by Dorian last fall).

Edited March 24, 2020 by Lagie
Punctuation

[purpledragonclaw]

14 hours ago, StormBirdRising said:

CureVac@CureVacAG tweeted on March 16 that the info regarding Donald Trump trying to buy the vaccine and poach scientists was totally false.

 https://twitter.com/CureVacAG?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

On March 16 ABC and the AP reported that it was false. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/german-virus-vaccine-firm-denies-us-made-takeover-69625135

On March 17 Bloomberg press reported that it was false. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/curevac-denies-reports-that-u-s-government-tried-to-buy-it

Also on March 17, CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas denied it. Subsequent to that Friedrich von Bohlen, a member of the CureVac supervisory board, that the company's main investor, Deitmar Hopp, just repeated what he had heard from "honestly, we don't know where." https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-coronavirus-vaccine-germany-curevac/

Also Business Insider printed CureVac's denial https://www.businessinsider.com/curevac-coronavirus-vaccine-trump-germany-denial-2020-3

 

I don't read links. I research things myself. I need the internet to play with my dragons.

 

Thank you for the links. I took the time to read them since you provided them as a rebuttal to my post. Links count as research, even if you didn't personally do the research yourself, and in this case they can increase your understanding of a situation since you get multiple perspectives. As Fuzz and olympe pointed out above, this is not a clear-cut story. Even in your links you provided, the German government and CureVac's top shareholder contradict what the company and the U.S. government said. This is a "he-said-she-said" story, so we can just pick who we choose to believe. I think all of us discussing this have done that already.

 

India is going on a three-week lockdown starting tonight, with citizens not even allowed to leave their homes (I'm not sure if there'll be exceptions for essentials shopping), but this is a lockdown on-par with Italy's. 

 

1 hour ago, Aqub said:

I'm happy to stay home and away from people for as long as I need to. I don't want to be the reason my parents, grandparents, or anyone has their life threatened by this virus. The people who are still going out in public recklessly really bother me, because they're not just putting themselves at risk, they're putting others in danger who may actually die from this.

 

I couldn't state it better myself. It sickens me reading about people who would risk infecting others because they have to have the latest Animal Crossing game, or can't bear to have to change their spring break plans because of this. I wish more people would take this seriously.

[Tiira]

So apparently Trump has said he wants the country to be working again as soon as possible, perhaps before Easter? It was in our news that he thinks that "the cure is being worse than the problem", arguing that the US isn't closed because of the flu either.

 

Anyway, in Finland, some healthcare professionals stated today that the restrictions here should be continued for at least three months, following the current estimations. And I can't believe it that my dance school wants to reopen next week! They have nothing in their heads, at least it seems so. You just can't take a dance class while practicing social distancing, that's an impossibility. I'm pretty sure, though, that my teacher isn't going to give classes in any case. She's a very rational and responsible person (and she happens to be Italian, too). Well I hope they'll have to change their plans if our government gives some new orders this weekend. The classes are very expensive, it's a real struggle for me and my family to be able to pay that, so it would make things a lot easier because in this situation I'd rather not go there.

[trystan]

22 minutes ago, Varislapsi said:

So apparently Trump has said he wants the country to be working again as soon as possible, perhaps before Easter? It was in our news that he thinks that "the cure is being worse than the problem", arguing that the US isn't closed because of the flu either.

this is correct - it was all over my news this evening as well.  Today's Republicans in Congress want their economy back, goshdarnit.

 

unemployment claims throughout the US have skyrocketed, i don't have the current numbers, but i also saw somewhere that trump doesn't want them reporting the unemployment numbers cause it makes him look bad.....

[Classycal]

28 minutes ago, Varislapsi said:

So apparently Trump has said he wants the country to be working again as soon as possible, perhaps before Easter? 

 

Yes, I heard that, too.  I think he will be proved wrong.  The cases are increasing too rapidly.  

[trystan]

Just now, Classycal said:

I think he will be proved wrong.  The cases are increasing too rapidly.  

i'm sure he has been proven wrong... he just needs to listen.

 

i've heard that China should be opening up again, and that Wuhan is still in stay-at-home/lockdown until April 8th.  If Wuhan is opening up on April 8th, there's no way the USA can open up again on April 12....

[Classycal]

1 minute ago, trystan said:

i've heard that China should be opening up again, and that Wuhan is still in stay-at-home/lockdown until April 8th.  If Wuhan is opening up on April 8th, there's no way the USA can open up again on April 12....

 

I think China is being too optimistic - especially by letting tourists in.  

[trystan]

one of the emails i get is a morning newletter from the Hill, it's got links and updates from DC and around the world, and i believe the one from either this morning or yesterday said that there's been no new reported cases for about a week now....if they wait for 2 weeks since the last reported case, that would be next week.  so maybe april 8th is optimistic.  i also heard that Apple re-opened all their stores in China.  i'd like to think it's not too soon, we don't need a second wave of this....

[Astreya]

Someone should explain to Mr.Trump this graph and its meaning.

Here's the full story of the actions taken by Philadelpha and St.Louis and the results: https://microbialmenagerie.com/social-distancing-1918-influenza-coronavirus-covid-19/

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Astreya

[trystan]

they can explain it until they're blue in the face, and he may even say he understands... but he's got a "feeling" that we should be all right by Easter. i don't know if i should laugh at that, or bang my head against the wall....

[Astreya]

Well, it seems that Mr.Trump is directly responsible for a death of a guy who took chloroquine as Trump declared it a "cure".

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/coronavirus-cure-kills-man-after-trump-touts-chloroquine-phosphate

[trystan]

I saw that in the news yesterday. and if he were to offer words that were meant to be sympathetic, he really wouldn't mean them, and then he'd go off on some other tangent about how the Dow closed up today.

 

in other news, Texas' lieutenant governor suggests grandparents are willing to die for US economy, from USA Today. *sigh*

[ValidEmotions]

3 hours ago, purpledragonclaw said:

I couldn't state it better myself. It sickens me reading about people who would risk infecting others because they have to have the latest Animal Crossing game, or can't bear to have to change their spring break plans because of this. I wish more people would take this seriously.

 

I feel like this is being a little unfair/snarkier than deserved? I understand your frustration (my dad is immunocompromised + has COPD), but Doom: Eternal was also released the same day/early the day before and has an equally large fan base that went out for the game. Also, the article you linked points out that even when in line, customers/fans practiced distancing and hygiene awareness. These people made pre-orders months in advance, long before any pandemic was declared (and the US President+other Government Officials' response to call it such was sorely behind par--do you honestly expect 100% of the country to take this seriously when our own president won't?). Still, it was noted by fans/customers that GameStop/Nintendo should have issued out digital codes in place of the physical copies that people ordered originally.  Gamestop went so far as to release Doom a day early to help minimize the number of people. 

I'm an Animal Crossing fan myself. I pre-ordered New Horizons and I paid for it to be shipped to my house on the day of release. That requires contact with a delivery service driver who has/will have contact with who-knows-how-many others. No one can absolutely, 100%, reduce contact with other people. But people are doing the best they can while still living some modicum of their ordinary lives. 

 

Truthfully, I believe COVID-19 is proving how underprepared the world is for crises like this (or of any kind, really). To some extent, I think we are overreacting a little because we are unprepared. There was probably a better way to handle the pandemic without completely shutting everything down and disrupting every single human life on the planet. 

I mean, for one, think about everyone who is a victim of abuse, children and adults alike. As everything is on lockdown, they are trapped with their abusers who, in this time of lost control, are going to get extremely more violent in search of control. 

Think about those who don't have a stable source of food or shelter, children who rely on schools to get their only meal in the day. 

 

We don't have a way to adequately support them because everything is being locked up.

Edited March 25, 2020 by ValidEmotions

[Raikielia]

31 minutes ago, ValidEmotions said:

 

I feel like this is being a little unfair/snarkier than deserved? I understand your frustration (my dad is immunocompromised + has COPD), but Doom: Eternal was also released the same day/early the day before and has an equally large fan base that went out for the game. Also, the article you linked points out that even when in line, customers/fans practiced distancing and hygiene awareness. These people made pre-orders months in advance, long before any pandemic was declared (and the US President+other Government Officials' response to call it such was sorely behind par--do you honestly expect 100% of the country to take this seriously when our own president won't?). Still, it was noted by fans/customers that GameStop/Nintendo should have issued out digital codes in place of the physical copies that people ordered originally.  Gamestop went so far as to release Doom a day early to help minimize the number of people. 

I'm an Animal Crossing fan myself. I pre-ordered New Horizons and I paid for it to be shipped to my house on the day of release. That requires contact with a delivery service driver who has/will have contact with who-knows-how-many others. No one can absolutely, 100%, reduce contact with other people. But people are doing the best they can while still living some modicum of their ordinary lives. 

 

Truthfully, I believe COVID-19 is proving how underprepared the world is for crises like this (or of any kind, really). To some extent, I think we are overreacting a little because we are unprepared. There was probably a better way to handle the pandemic without completely shutting everything down and disrupting every single human life on the planet. 

I mean, for one, think about everyone who is a victim of abuse, children and adults alike. As everything is on lockdown, they are trapped with their abusers who, in this time of lost control, are going to get extremely more violent in search of control. 

Think about those who don't have a stable source of food or shelter, children who rely on schools to get their only meal in the day. 

 

We don't have a way to adequately support them because everything is being locked up.

 

Not really. It doesn't really matter how long ago they ordered, is a game really more important than public health? You assume everyone there was doing what they needed to to prevent spread and I find that highly unlikely. I do agree, though, they should have either given out digital codes or had the games shipped. Or, they could have told people not to come and they could have called people a few at a time to come pick up or set up a schedule so only a few people were arriving at a time, which would probably have been better than having everyone show up whenever and forming line. But that doesn't mean they were in the right to go and pick up the games.

 

There was a better way to handle it. By testing people! The WHO had a test that worked, but what did the US do? We wanted to make our own instead of using the test that worked! Everything could have continued to mostly like normal if we just had enough tests to test everyone. Then only those who tested positive and the people they had contact with would have had to be quarantined.

[Classycal]

2 hours ago, Astreya said:

Well, it seems that Mr.Trump is directly responsible for a death of a guy who took chloroquine as Trump declared it a "cure".

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/coronavirus-cure-kills-man-after-trump-touts-chloroquine-phosphate

 

I saw on the NBC news that the man and his wife actually misunderstood the missive that chloroquine, used to treat malaria, and may be the reason why Africa has had fewer cases, could help treat COVID-19.  Instead they took chloroquine phosphate which is for treatment of fish parasites.  If someone will kindly tell me how to post a link from a tablet, I will link it.  Every time I try to copy the link, it just disappears.  

 

2 hours ago, ValidEmotions said:

I mean, for one, think about everyone who is a victim of abuse, children and adults alike. As everything is on lockdown, they are trapped with their abusers who, in this time of lost control, are going to get extremely more violent in search of control. 

Think about those who don't have a stable source of food or shelter, children who rely on schools to get their only meal in the day. 

 

Well, I don't know about other states (I'm in Kentucky.), but shelters are still open.  I seriously doubt policemen would not let an abused woman or man and the children not proceed to a shelter when they find out the cause that someone is out.  

 

Many of the schools in the tri-stare area I live in are getting their meals either by delivery or by pick-up.  

 

And getting a new game is not a valid reason to leave home regardless of the game being a new release.