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Posted by blue streak 1 on Sunday, March 29, 2020 8:25 PM

Dave:  have noticed that the countries near you are not reporting many  cases.  Is there any hint as to what is happening in those countries ?  Has Isreal closed its borders yet ?  Here is link to latest world wide infections.

 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries 

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 29, 2020 2:29 PM

Leader of ultra-Orthodox worldcalls for lone prayer due to coronavirus
Rabbi Kanievsky ruled that anyone not obeying social-distancing orders is like someone trying to murder another, is responsible for causing their death; permits reporting them to secular authorities.
By JEREMY SHARON   
MARCH 29, 2020 18:49Twitter  fb-messenger
After weeks of stalling, the most senior rabbinic leader of the ultra-Orthodox world, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, has ordered members of the community to obey social-distancing orders, pray alone instead of in a prayer quorum and report anyone who violates the orders to the police.
Kanievsky’s instructions were notable for the level of trust they imparted to officials and experts regarding the coronavirus epidemic in contrast to previous comments the rabbi has made, as well as to a prevailing attitude in the community itself which often puts greater trust in rabbis than officials of any other kind, including state and medical ones.
Two weeks ago, despite the widening coronavirus epidemic, Kanievsky and Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, the other senior leader of the ultra-Orthodox world, both decided not to close ultra-Orthodox boys schools and yeshivas, on the basis that children studying Torah provides physical protection to the Jewish people.
On Sunday however, after data was released showing rates of infection among the ultra-Orthodox public to be particularly high, Kanievsky finally issued several rulings instructing the community to take the epidemic seriously.
In response to a list of six questions apparently posed to him by members of the public in recent days, Kanievsky took a strong stance on the importance of adhering to social distancing instructions and obeying the instructions of doctors.
The rabbi was asked whether people, who claim they trust that God will prevent them from become infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus and therefore violate social-distancing orders issued by the Health Ministry, should be considered “like a rodef” – someone "pursuing" people in order to kill them. Kanievsky responded yes.
In Jewish law, extreme measures can be taken against a rodef to halt their actions.
Kanievsky added that if a person violated the social-distancing orders and thereby infected someone else and caused their death, that person would bear liability for that person's death.
The rabbi also ruled that people should leave a cell phone on over Shabbat and answer it in case a doctor is trying to contact them in an emergency situation.
Using a phone on Shabbat usually violates Jewish law unless there is a matter of life and death, so Kanievsky’s ruling demonstrates the seriousness with which he is now taking the coronavirus epidemic.
In addition, the leading legal authority ruled that it was permitted to inform law enforcement agencies about an individual, a synagogue and educational institutions which violate the Health Ministry orders, even if it means that fines or even imprisonment will be imposed on such violators.
Kanievsky said in summation that the general public should pray to stop the epidemic.
Since Kanievsky and Edelstein ruled to keep boys' schools and yeshivas open, many such institutions continued to operate for several days on a near-normal basis.

The two rabbis never rescinded that decision, but last week the winter term ended and ultra-Orthodox schools and yeshivas are now on their Passover vacatio

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 29, 2020 2:11 PM
Three more Israelis died from coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of victims to 15, as numbers of infected people surpassed 4,000 and discussions about increasing restrictions on the public continued.
 
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, officials from Health, Finance and Defense ministries shifted their focus slightly to considering restrictions on some specific pockets of society, such as the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox), many who continue to ignore certain guidelines.
 
“What is happening in Bnei Brak is like Italy,” one doctor from a major hospital in central Israel told Channel 12 over the weekend. “Almost every Haredi who is tested for the virus is found positive. There are families with 100% infection. The Health Ministry needs to go door to door, and take the sick from their homes. If not, in another few weeks, we will see them coming in by masses.”
 
Haredim constitute as much as 50% of coronavirus patients hospitalized throughout the country, Channel 12 reported: Schneider Hospital 50%; Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 60% in ICU, 50% in other units; Shaare Zedek 50% to 60%; Hadassah Ein Kerem 40%.
 
The Health Ministry is considering instituting a full lockdown only on those areas where cases are particularly widespread, such as Bnei Brak in general or neighborhoods within the largely Haredi town.
 
The government is still considering expanding restrictions throughout the country, too, which could include decreasing the number of workers allowed in the office from 30% to 15%, requiring staff to work in shifts, or asking employees if they have symptoms before they are allowed to enter the workplace.
 
At the same time, the government has committed to increasing coronavirus tests per day to 30,000 within two weeks.
 
On Sunday, the Health Ministry tested close to 6,000 people and is expected to reach 10,000 people per day sometime this week. Senior health officials say increased screening will enable the Health Ministry to better understand how much the disease has spread throughout the country and help identify coronavirus hot spots.
 
On Monday, the Defense and Health ministries, the Homefront Command, two Rami Levy grocery stores and one Victory supermarket will pilot a new program in which shoppers will be tested for coronavirus upon entering the stores. If the pilot is successful, this could become the new normal.
 
Back to the victims: Victim No. 15 is an 84-year-old woman who was being treated at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Victim 14 is a 90-year-old woman who had been hospitalized at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak, and the 13th dead is a 92-year-old man who was admitted last week in serious condition to Shaare Zedek.
 
All of those who died had pre-existing medical conditions.
 
At press time, 4,247 Israelis had coronavirus, according to the Health Ministry - 74 people were in serious condition, among them a young man in his 20s who was hospitalized at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital.
 
The numbers represent an increase of 628 people in 24 hours. 
 
The young man, who doesn’t have any pre-existing medical conditions, began his treatment with mild symptoms, a spokesperson for Assuta said. But in recent days his situation deteriorated and doctors decided to intubate him.
 
"Toward morning, the patient's respiratory condition worsened," said ICU head Meir Ami, who noted that his condition is stable and he is responding well to treatment.
 
In an interview with Channel 12, the patient’s mother cried, describing how she told her husband, “Our son is sick and we cannot be by his side, we cannot help him.”
 
She noted that he had returned to Israel from the United States with two friends last week, both who have coronavirus too. But only he is in critical condition.
 
So far, the majority of coronavirus patients in Israel are between the ages of 20 and 29 (67.5 out of 100,000), the Health Ministry reported. The second largest group of infected people (56.7 out of 100,000) are between the ages of 50 and 59.
 
Of those diagnosed with the virus, the majority continue to have mild symptoms: 3,944. The rest have moderate symptoms (82) or have recovered from the virus (132).
 
There are 500 people hospitalized with the virus and 59 on respirators, according to the Health Ministry.
 
In addition, as of Sunday morning, some 3,637 medical professionals are in isolation, among them 892 doctors and 1,229 nurses; some 141 who have been diagnosed with coronavirus.
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Posted by zugmann on Sunday, March 29, 2020 1:54 PM

Overmod
What's needed is a distributed solution, easy to use, ideally with some kind of incentive to use it rather than 'other people's compulsion' -- this is still America.  Then make the tracking architecture very low bandwidth and reasonably asynchronous... all the work we did decades ago when rural 'broadband' was still science fiction still applies now.  

Free gun with testing!

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by Euclid on Sunday, March 29, 2020 1:50 PM

zugmann
 
Euclid
The testing I described on previous page cannot be voluntary.

 

Good luck with that one. 

 

I don't expect it to be done.  It is just the basic tool to prevent pandemics.  Lesser tools doing a less effective job might be good enough.  What I descibed needs a new test method and new communication link.  It needs system of operation.  Ideally, it needs to be international because the virus is international.  Operating internationally would probably be impossible.  People would also balk at the intrusivenss of being tested all the time. 

But my main point was to wonder why I hear people apparently not understanding the point of testing everybody. 

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 29, 2020 1:48 PM

zugmann
 
Euclid
The testing I described on previous page cannot be voluntary.

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Posted by zugmann on Sunday, March 29, 2020 1:10 PM

Euclid
The testing I described on previous page cannot be voluntary.

Good luck with that one. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 29, 2020 1:01 PM

This in this morning, of probable interest to Euclid and others:

There is an early signature of IGm relative to IGg that is diagnostic of early infection (at least in most individuals retaining immune responses) and this is supposedly detectable with very small blood sample volume - comparable to blood-glucose meters.

So it should be possible to make large numbers of readers, possibly 'multiple-spectrum' depending on the type of strip inserted (or wells/circuits printed on that strip) which are then able to dereference data and transmit as the thermometers do (and, ideally, associated with those data) to give much better and quicker ID of infection.  I suspect, but can't prove yet, that an approach like this might distinguish between H1N1 influenza and corona spp.

Note the implications vs. typical intrusive blood testing or 'lab-centric' swabs...

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Posted by Euclid on Sunday, March 29, 2020 7:55 AM

zugmann
 
Euclid
The way that public officials ridicule the idea of testing everybody leads me to believe that they have never grasped the purpose.

 

We can't even get people to stay at home for a few days.  You really think everybody is going to voluntarily go in for testing?

 

The testing I described on previous page cannot be voluntary.  If it was, people would delay until they were convinced they have the virus.  And during the delay, they would infect others.  In the same way, all the rules about distancing and hand washing will see very hit and miss compliance because they are voluntary. 

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Posted by daveklepper on Saturday, March 28, 2020 10:12 PM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered authorities over the weekend to prepare to significantly tighten restrictions on movement starting Sunday, aiming to further reduce the number of people leaving their homes - and hopefully, contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Should there not be a change in the trend of infections over the weekend, Netanyahu warned, a full shutdown of the country will be necessary. The warning followed a meeting with ministers and ministry director-generals, during which the Finance Ministry was tasked with developing a plan for a further reduction of the country’s labor force.
 
The prime minister also ordered stepped up enforcement in supermarkets and pharmacies to ensure that people adhere to the Health Ministry’s directives regarding crowding.
However, according to ministry officials, as of Saturday there was slower than expected growth in the number of infections: Some 3,619 Israelis have been diagnosed with coronavirus - an increase of 926 cases over the weekend. Twelve people have died to date - all elderly individuals with underlying health conditions. Among the confirmed cases, 54 are in serious condition, including 43 intubated individuals. So far, 89 people have recovered.
An 82-year-old man, Shmuel Sifri from Haifa who was vacationing in Italy, also died of coronavirus, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. The Israeli consul in Rome, Eitan Avraham, is assisting the family following the man's death.
The greatest challenge seems to be within the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) neighborhoods, where the numbers per 10,000 people are among the highest: 53 in Kiryat Ye’arim, 38 in Kfar Chabad and 13 in Bnei Brak, in comparison to 4 in Tel Aviv and 1.5 in Haifa.
“What is happening in Bnei Brak is like Italy,” one doctor from a major hospital in central Israel told Channel 12. “Almost every haredi who is tested for the virus is found positive. There are families with 100% infection. The Health Ministry needs to go door to door, and take the sick from their homes. If not, in another few weeks, we will see them coming in by masses.”
In an interview with the television channel, Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov explained that behavioral changes had been noted in both the haredi and Arab neighborhoods, but that “the potential for infection is greater in places with greater population density.”
Highlighting the difficulty for effective isolation within high-density areas and large families, Bar Siman Tov said ministers had agreed to open dedicated isolation centers for both haredi and Arab individuals.
Netanyahu’s proclamation came on the backdrop of an announcement by the Health Ministry that it will increase the number of people it tests for coronavirus to 30,000 per day within a month. On Friday, some 6,000 tests were taken, and that number is expected to increase to 10,000 by mid-week, a decision that Defense Minister Naftali Bennett called “tremendous news.”
Due to a technical problem, however, the Health Ministry said test results from the country’s 27 laboratories were delayed on Saturday.
Morris Dorfman, head of regulation at the Health Ministry’s Digital Health and Information Systems Directorate, said that the results of eight tests were reported incorrectly by two laboratories to the ministry. The results had not yet been transferred to the patients in question, he said, and operations at the laboratories were continuing as normal.
As the number of confirmed cases and deaths from the pandemic continue to soar worldwide, including a death toll exceeding 10,000 in Italy, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. He sent condolences in the name of the Israeli government over the country’s large number of deaths. Netanyahu was set to convene a meeting with finance officials late on Saturday to finalize a delayed plan to support the economy and businesses struggling as a result of measures to contain the coronavirus.
On Saturday evening, Netanyahu is set to convene a meeting with finance officials to finalize a delayed plan to support the economy, as well as businesses struggling as a result of measures to contain the coronavirus.
The scope of the financial aid package requested by Netanyahu is set to be about NIS 80 billion, or 6% of GDP, including increased government-backed loans, deferred compulsory business payments and deferred taxation. It was also decided to include an NIS 5b. fund to bail out large businesses.
The plan, which will likely be presented for approval at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, will be in addition to NIS 8b. in support already allocated to businesses, primarily in the form of low-interest, government-backed loans.
On Friday, the government approved a series of emergency financial support regulations, including the provision of unemployment benefits for citizens over the age of 67 – estimated to stand at some 135,000 people. Individuals will receive up to NIS 4,000 if they were forced to leave work due to the outbreak.
“This is a significant and unprecedented step that shows the ongoing assistance of elderly citizens, especially those in the employment sector over retirement age,” Labor Minister Ofir Akunis said.
Among the latest casualties of the coronavirus was a 73-year-old man from Haifa with underlying conditions. His wife, 71, remains hospitalized at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center with the virus.
A 93-year-old man hospitalized at Soroka Medical Center, an 80-year-old man admitted to Wolfson Hospital and a 76-year-old woman treated at Rabin Medical Center also died over the weekend.
As of Saturday afternoon, police said they have issued 1,296 fines to date to individuals and businesses for defying Health Ministry directives.
A total of 849 fines between NIS 500 and NIS 5,000 were issued for prohibited activities in public; 152 fines for being present in a banned location; 108 for refusing to disperse from crowded locations; 105 for operating a forbidden business; and 73 for defying self-isolation orders.
Idan Zonshine contributed to this article.
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Posted by zugmann on Saturday, March 28, 2020 2:25 PM

SD70Dude
We haven't had those in Canada for years.

That's why we need to send troops to that border!  

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by SD70Dude on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:40 PM

zugmann
SD70Dude
How long before that gets spun into a conspiracy about taking DNA samples from everyone?

That's what pennies are for. 

We haven't had those in Canada for years.

Maybe we should bring them back, considering the well-known antimicrobial properties of copper.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:36 PM

SD70Dude
How long before that gets spun into a conspiracy about taking DNA samples from everyone?

How long before it turns into an actual conspiracy to take DNA samples from everyone?  (And to (mis)use some of the massive footballs of 'safety money' to use some of the resulting data for "political" purposes, or otherwise...)

There are already people in the insurance industry who are using advanced modeling to combine disparate public information to help determine people 'at risk' in order to 'optimize their participation in the insurance system' -- and to detect what may likely be pre-existing conditions before they evidence as clinical.  It would not be surprising to me to see even intercepted data streaming or helpful 'data channel allocation by social media providers' exploited by 'those in the know' -- not necessarily for nefarious reasons, but certainly exploitive ones.

Compare what is needed for a "23 and me" test vs. what Euclid would propose as a test kit...

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Posted by zugmann on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:31 PM

SD70Dude
How long before that gets spun into a conspiracy about taking DNA samples from everyone?

That's what pennies are for. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by SD70Dude on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:16 PM

zugmann
Euclid
he way that public officials ridicule the idea of testing everybody leads me to believe that they have never grasped the purpose.

We can't even get people to stay at home for a few days.  You really think everybody is going to voluntarily go in for testing?

How long before that gets spun into a conspiracy about taking DNA samples from everyone?

Remember, this is a Chinese virus that escaped from a lab.

(I read it on Facebook, so it must be true)

Greetings from Alberta

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Posted by Gramp on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:13 PM

Welcome to the infowars. 
Later,

sometime during 2021 maybe

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Posted by zugmann on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:10 PM

York1
On this forum, several posters cannot type a sentence without blaming the current administration.

At least they are balanced out by current fans of the adminstration. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by zugmann on Saturday, March 28, 2020 1:10 PM

Euclid
he way that public officials ridicule the idea of testing everybody leads me to believe that they have never grasped the purpose.

We can't even get people to stay at home for a few days.  You really think everybody is going to voluntarily go in for testing?

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

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Posted by York1 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:56 PM

As long as we're looking for leadership (or blame), NYC should look no further than their mayor's office.  

If you’re not sick, you should be going about your life”.  Bill de Blasio said the city is “telling people to not avoid restaurants, not avoid normal things that people do.”  March 11, 2020.

Now that's leadership!

York1 John       

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Posted by Euclid on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:51 PM

Miningman

Euclid-- Well that's interesting and logical but how do you test for something you don't even know exists in the first place. 

If we had such a 'plague detection system' in place it would be testing for known viruses only. We cannot predict the future.

Perhaps I am wrong.

 

Miningman,

I am not sure about that.  I don't know what viruses people may carry as normal routine.  Maybe lots, but maybe none.  But the testing would have to go on continuously as a watchdog.  And it would have to recognize the abnormal, just like watchdog would.  Certainly, this would be a major technological challenge, but I am guessing that it could be developed at this time, if only we recognized a need for it.  But before that problem, the first problem is recognizing the possiblity of such advanced test/monitoring.  The way that public officials ridicule the idea of testing everybody leads me to believe that they have never grasped the purpose.

I have explained it to lots of people, and I don't think any of them even paused to assimilate it.  It is not hard.  Maybe they hear the word "asymptomatic", and they hear doctor talk.  So their minds shut off because nobody wants to question a doctor.

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Posted by York1 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:45 PM

BaltACD
We are in the world of here and now! 

 

On this forum, several posters cannot type a sentence without blaming the current administration.

I merely pointed out CNN's report that the current and the past administrations have been warned and did not respond.

As far as leadership, it probably doesn't really matter what comes out of D.C.  Those who hate the current occupant say we're not getting any leadership, and those who don't hate the current occupant say we are.

 

If we are really looking to blame someone, everyone, left and right, should agree that WHO has a major part of the blame.

Taiwan was trying to warn the world in December that the virus was being passed person to person, but the WHO believed the Chinese government that it wasn't occuring.  It wasn't until late January that WHO finally admitted the virus was spreading through human contact.

 

York1 John       

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Posted by Convicted One on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:41 PM

GERALD L MCFARLANE JR
However, here's another way to look at this, nature is trying to tell us we have over populated the world and we need to do something about it.  If we won't, nature will.

Funny you would mention this, I was pondering the possibility just yesterday that SARS CoV-2 might actually be the antibody, and that we were the plague.

Perhaps a "cure" for global warming is in the works? 

Ironic how the skeptics to both so strongly overlap.

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:35 PM

Euclid
It is nobody's fault that we don't have the system I am advocating of full time testing for everyone.  It has never been developed, because is has no purpose other than protecting from palgues, and we thought we were beyond that old fashioned terror.  I believe we could develop such a system, however, but it is too late to stop this pandemic.  But if we had the system at the outset, we would have avoided this world disaster.  We would have stopped it at the first confimed case and case #2 would not have happened.

There are places this would work, and places it wouldn't.  Let me start by noting that for any 'Captain Trips'-like pandemic no particularly good system would work particularly well, and the 'fallback' position has to be a combination of extremely careful vigilance and the ability to seqregate or 'sequester' demonstrable infection as quickly and effectively as possible -- this well in advance of any conceivable treatment or even therapy for the infection or its logical sequelae or complications.

One reasonable 'start' to testing is, as mentioned before, a properly-deferenced system of early-warning devices.  The cloud-based thermometers (which I'm sure aren't properly dereferenced except by accident, not design -- but that should be easy to address) are one very good early approach, and it would only take 'a few million' of "stimulus" money to distribute them, and their power, and their instructions, to a wide range of people, and then to assure the necessary data bandwidth (which need not be synchronous, or full data-transfer grade, to 'get the message through' as needed with effective latency) and the secure data-warehousing and analysis to give the Spaceguard-like early warning of clusters of disease.  The architecture, and perhaps even much of the equipment, could easily accept more specific testing results or metadata once that has been developed (e.g., once a virus has been sequenced, its proteome reasonably mapped to determine key factors, and early Rx (which means 'responses', by the way) designed.

The concerns over potentially-intrusive responses, however, need to be considered too: at present there are too many ways a system like this could be manipulated, or gamed for 'other purposes', or used as one pawn in ongoing policy battles that ought to be eradicated from any thoughtful culture's democracy entirely.  And there is then the cost of the 'eternal vigilance' in what will likely be, most of the time, relative calm.  Waiting for the moment of screaming terror to reach under the pilot's seat for the aircraft manual to discover how to recover from that inverted dive at full power is not good timing ... but also remember the Babcock and Wilcox training models used for TMI2.  And be prepared to pay, a great deal, but not to waste any on the wrong stuff.  Of which there are sure to be many, many, many proponents, some of them well-connected, all of them insistent.

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Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:16 PM

York1
 
charlie hebdo
President for over three years?  Nothing done,  dismantled the office in the NSC for this type of emergency, still blaming Obama,  Bush.  Why not blame JFK?  Reagan?  Washington?  AWOL. 

So sidestep the issue.  Reread what was posted. 

From 2003 to 2015 (and one from 2017), the administrations ignored the warnings and advice of several agencies that the U.S. did not have the equipment or supplies to fight an epidemic like this.

We are in the world of here and now!  The country and indeed the World is looking for leadership - they are not finding it where it previously existed.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Miningman on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:16 PM

Euclid-- Well that's interesting and logical but how do you test for something you don't even know exists in the first place. 

If we had such a 'plague detection system' in place it would be testing for known viruses only. We cannot predict the future.

Perhaps I am wrong.

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:13 PM

GERALD L MCFARLANE JR
If after those 14 days you had no symptoms you're free and clear and can return to the outside world.

That has not yet been established, at least not to my satisfaction.  There was considerable evidence prior to the recent spate of outbreaks that some people 'recovering' to the point they are asymptomatic still continue to shed virus -- in plain language, are still capable of causing infections that can spread dramatically to at-risk population -- and hence the 'return to the outside world' has to be qualified by an effective (and cost-effective) test that shows negative virus titer.  

Yes, that should have been a priority, and yes, that still is a priority, and yes, it's pathetic that more hasn't been done even with present crude methods to develop effective logistics for making and distributing tests.  An interesting discussion that is probably years old by now was the idea of adapting the 'paper cell-phone' approach (using flexible circuit technology on relatively inexpensive substrates) to making viral/bacteriological test equipment -- 'plug it into a penlight battery and watch it recharge' and all that.  I have seen this brought up -- as a theoretical example of what we 'might' have with enough angel investment -- at least a couple of times since December 2019.  (And note that once it includes an actual paper cell-phone circuit, something for which all the SPICE was done long ago, you have the ability to upload properly-dereferenced data via any cell connection to 'the cloud'...)

Nature has told us many times that a little too much overpopulation -- or bad habits, like demonizing and killing cats in the early 1300s -- can be extremely bad for human business.  Some of the 'corrections' go largely unrecognized to this day; the "Mayan" and the prospective scourge of the Mississippi Valley mound-building culture being two of the more familiar examples.  

Every year at flu season a billion birds in China breed new avian strains of virus, including novel H1N1 strains.  Mercifully most of these, year after year, produce relatively noncritical responses (to which we have become almost inured) - I think it's been noted that something like 100x the deaths from H1N1 strains alone have been reported during the same timeframe as COVID-19 but no one has batted a particular eyelash at this, as flu is 'natural' until someone declares it a catastrophe.  Any year, at virtually any time, we could expect a pandemic that combines enhanced human sensitivity -- perhaps with high affinity for conserved human receptors followed by as long as possible an incubation time, coupled with high propensity to induce cytokine storm, ARDS, or other chronic debilitating sequelae -- and a prompt and ordered response to this up to and including use of all that armor-piercing weaponry cleverly issued to FEMA might have been required long before now.

The reasoned answer to this, which is common-sense even if charlie hebdo might disagree, is that anyone attempting to set up such a radical set of responses in a time the threat isn't in fact recognizably deadly already will be branded as crying wolf at best ... and just imagine the political future for anyone who plans to spend $2 trillion on only the first feeble steps of a working response to some of the rather obvious consequences of a pandemic.  

And although this is nothing more than a preference of mine, I would look far more carefully at the actual steps being taken, and their synergistic effectiveness, than at 'public perceptions', spin, clever exploitation, etc. etc. of the "crisis" or lack thereof surrounding each successive infectious-disease scare.  We have the choice of either buying sensible response to this sort of thing with our trillions wasted, or having this be another Ford-era swine-flu Kohoutek.  Given the impending need for radical Government cutback in the wake of a great dying-off of taxable income revenue in the next few years, I don't think there is much hope right now ... or in a Biden presidency, for that matter ... of anything particularly effective actually being worked out.  Which means it falls to people in the private sector to design it, and probably set up to provision it, then give it credence with direction from 'the democracy people deserve'.

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Posted by Euclid on Saturday, March 28, 2020 11:56 AM

GERALD L MCFARLANE JR
That's exactly what the 14 day quarintine period is for, 14 days from the first contact with someone that has the virus. If after those 14 days you had no symptoms you're free and clear and can return to the outside world.

I don't know what you are referring to, but if it is what I said above, I don't see it.  There is no 14-day quarantine until after a person has symptoms unless they were closely associated with someone known to have syptoms.  Otherwise everyone is free to spread the virus prior to having symtoms, and that give the virus a 2-3 week head start in its exponential rampage. 

It is nobody's fault that we don't have the system I am advocating of full time testing for everyone.  It has never been developed, because is has no purpose other than protecting from palgues, and we thought we were beyond that old fashioned terror.  I believe we could develop such a system, however, but it is too late to stop this pandemic.  But if we had the system at the outset, we would have avoided this world disaster.  We would have stopped it at the first confimed case and case #2 would not have happened.

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Posted by GERALD L MCFARLANE JR on Saturday, March 28, 2020 11:34 AM

That's exactly what the 14 day quarintine period is for, 14 days from the first contact with someone that has the virus.  If after those 14 days you had no symptoms you're free and clear and can return to the outside world.  The problem is with overlap, if we could get every single person to stay inside and isolate for 14 days(21 would be better), most likely cases would fall off the table.  I'm not going to say go to zero, but drop significantly.

However, here's another way to look at this, nature is trying to tell us we have over populated the world and we need to do something about it.  If we won't, nature will.

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Posted by York1 on Saturday, March 28, 2020 11:28 AM

charlie hebdo
President for over three years?  Nothing done,  dismantled the office in the NSC for this type of emergency, still blaming Obama,  Bush.  Why not blame JFK?  Reagan?  Washington?  AWOL.

 

So sidestep the issue.  Reread what was posted. 

From 2003 to 2015 (and one from 2017), the administrations ignored the warnings and advice of several agencies that the U.S. did not have the equipment or supplies to fight an epidemic like this.

York1 John       

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Saturday, March 28, 2020 11:10 AM

President for over three years?  Nothing done,  dismantled the office in the NSC for this type of emergency, still blaming Obama,  Bush.  Why not blame JFK?  Reagan?  Washington?  AWOL. 

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