Coronavirus thread

[Kaga2]

A cup of black tea will not cure the virus, but that's no reason not to have a cup of black tea.

Green tea is even less likely to cure the virus, so might be the better choice.

When I was in my 20s I drank only black tea. In my 30s I developed a taste for the demon rumcoffee. In recent years, mostly green tea. So much easier on the stomach and one can infuse the leaves more than once.

But loose tea only. Tea bags are for desperate situations.

[Que]

Green tea is even less likely to cure the virus, so might be the better choice.

When I was in my 20s I drank only black tea. In my 30s I developed a taste for the demon rumcoffee. In recent years, mostly green tea. So much easier on the stomach and one can infuse the leaves more than once.

But loose tea only. Tea bags are for desperate situations.

I'm also a green tea drinker! Green tea has a more subtle flavour, is indeed easier in the stomach (less caffeine) and.... your teeth are significantly less stained in comparison to black tea. A bit of milk mitigates some of these downsides of black tea - the Brits know what they are doing. 

On topic: watching CNN last night gave me the impression that the situation in the US is getting dire... 

Here in the Netherlands the big question is if the expanded IC capacity will hold, while the duration of the stay of patients in IC turned out to be longer than anticipated and the number of patients is heading for a peak.
Fortunately there are the first signs of a rapid slowing down of the epidemic, with a reduced estimated infection rate of 0,3.

Q

[André]

Multiple stories of sanitary material hijacked or stolen by Americans, Israelis. Plane loads of masks purchased by France ready to leave the tarmac purchased cash by Americans and sent to the US. Chinese plane with material purchased by Quebec government lands in Montreal, 'rerouted' by DHL to Cincinnati. Israel tasking Mosad to get material by all possible means.

European media extremely critical of the USA. Not a word of these stories appear in US media.


https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-mossad-coronavirus-test-kits.html

https://www.en24.news/i24/2020/04/coronavirus-a-shipment-of-masks-from-china-destined-for-france-hijacked-by-americans.html

https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/04/01/une-commande-francaise-de-masques-detournee-vers-les-etats-unis-sur-un-tarmac-chinois_1783805

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Here's a great, heart-warming story about how much we can really get done if we choose to all work together.  Heard this on NPR this morning:  https://www.npr.org/2020/04/02/825800514/planet-money-the-parable-of-the-piston

[Karl Henning]

Multiple stories of sanitary material hijacked or stolen by Americans, Israelis. Plane loads of masks purchased by France ready to leave the tarmac purchased cash by Americans and sent to the US. Chinese plane with material purchased by Quebec government lands in Montreal, 'rerouted' by DHL to Cincinnati. Israel tasking Mosad to get material by all possible means.

European media extremely critical of the USA. Not a word of these stories appear in US media.


https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-mossad-coronavirus-test-kits.html

https://www.en24.news/i24/2020/04/coronavirus-a-shipment-of-masks-from-china-destined-for-france-hijacked-by-americans.html

https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/04/01/une-commande-francaise-de-masques-detournee-vers-les-etats-unis-sur-un-tarmac-chinois_1783805

Yeesh!

[Karl Henning]

Georgia now sheltering-in-place:

https://www.earrelevant.net/2020/04/gov-kemp-announces-statewide-shelter-in-place-order-for-georgia/?fbclid=IwAR1DdllkZwCaFLBRoJaLsWYPDpi3gNq5qw1_SODwjJiOtMOik4mwui-dd4Q

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Yeesh!

I don't know these sources?  How reliable are they?

I'm sure that there have been bidding wars for items; I had mentioned earlier about how states bidding against each other has been driving up the prices.  I could certainly see how that would also happen between nations too.

Our government really should have taken the initiative early on to come up with a plan and coordinate manufacturing of needed supplies...and work with other countries too.  Do listen to that NPR story.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Multiple stories of sanitary material hijacked or stolen by Americans, Israelis. Plane loads of masks purchased by France ready to leave the tarmac purchased cash by Americans and sent to the US. Chinese plane with material purchased by Quebec government lands in Montreal, 'rerouted' by DHL to Cincinnati. Israel tasking Mosad to get material by all possible means.

European media extremely critical of the USA. Not a word of these stories appear in US media.


https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-mossad-coronavirus-test-kits.html

https://www.en24.news/i24/2020/04/coronavirus-a-shipment-of-masks-from-china-destined-for-france-hijacked-by-americans.html

https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/04/01/une-commande-francaise-de-masques-detournee-vers-les-etats-unis-sur-un-tarmac-chinois_1783805

Hi André,

Where did you see this story?  "Chinese plane with material purchased by Quebec government lands in Montreal, 'rerouted' by DHL to Cincinnati."

I've been trying for some time to pull it up, but so far no luck.  Confused too:  you said *"lands in Montreal" and then followed by it being re-routed by DHL.  So, do you mean that after it had landed on Canadian soil, that it was then instructed not to dock there and unload the supplies and instead take off and fly to Cincinnati?

*or do you mean that it was supposed to have landed in Montreal?  Translation/languages are difficult I know; I make errors all the time--even in my own language! 

Best wishes,

PD

[North Star]

Multiple stories of sanitary material hijacked or stolen by Americans, Israelis. Plane loads of masks purchased by France ready to leave the tarmac purchased cash by Americans and sent to the US. Chinese plane with material purchased by Quebec government lands in Montreal, 'rerouted' by DHL to Cincinnati. Israel tasking Mosad to get material by all possible means.

European media extremely critical of the USA. Not a word of these stories appear in US media.


https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-mossad-coronavirus-test-kits.html

https://www.en24.news/i24/2020/04/coronavirus-a-shipment-of-masks-from-china-destined-for-france-hijacked-by-americans.html

https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/04/01/une-commande-francaise-de-masques-detournee-vers-les-etats-unis-sur-un-tarmac-chinois_1783805

And all these news from yesterday, hmmm... 

[Karl Henning]

Thanks to Trump, the coronavirus is very much not under control in the USA

On February 24, President Trump tweeted, 'The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.' It wasn't.

"I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We're going to go through a very tough two weeks."

With these words, on Tuesday afternoon, President Trump sounded a new and welcomed tone on the coronavirus.

But make no mistake, hard days lie ahead because of the president's botched, selfish, and incompetent response to the coronavirus crisis. A change in tone can't change that catastrophic reality.

Trump's calls for vigilance are a bit like declaring it's time to close the barn doors after the horses have escaped — and the barn is on fire and it's threatening to burn the entire farm down.

Tens of thousands of Americans (and possibly more) are likely to die because of the president.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Trump's public statements and actions have followed a similar trajectory: They have been dishonest, misleading, fantastical, and dangerous. It would blow over soon, he said early on. It would go away when the weather got warmer. "The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA," he tweeted. It wasn't.

While thankfully there's no more talk of re-opening the economy on Easter, the damage has been done. America has become the epicenter of a global pandemic.

Consider that the United States and South Korea reported their first coronavirus cases on the same day — Jan. 20. More than two months later, South Korea has just under 10,000 confirmed cases and 169 deaths. By comparison, the United States has more than 216,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 5,000 people have died. Taking into account population differences (the US has 327 million people and South Korea has around 51 million people), the number of cases is more than three times greater than South Korea — and the death toll is nearly four times as great.

These horrific numbers could have been avoided with genuine presidential leadership.

After the initial case was diagnosed in January, South Korea immediately began aggressive testing and quarantines. Private companies were encouraged to develop diagnostic tests. Within a month drive-through screening centers had been set up and thousands were being tested daily.

In the United States, Trump refused to focus on the issue. Two days after that initial positive case he declared "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming from China. It's going to be just fine." When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was first able to talk to Trump about the coronavirus on Jan. 18, Trump wanted to talk about a recently announced vaping ban.

Into February, Trump was still stubbornly resisting bureaucratic efforts to deal with the emerging crisis. The weeks lost in ramping up testing were a lost — and unforgivable —opportunity to save lives.

Trump's obstinance is bad enough — but the delay was also undoubtedly influenced by Trump's diktat that testing should not be a priority. The more testing that was done, the more positive results there would be and that was an outcome the president did not want.

Keeping the numbers low in order to avoid spooking Wall Street and negatively affecting Trump's reelection became the administration's focus.

Those presidential-created obstacles did more than prevent essential equipment from getting to communities in need — it seeded a deadly message of doubt, particularly to Trump supporters.

Researchers at the University of Washington look at five critical social distancing policies and the varying implementation between states. They found that states "with Republican governors and Republican electorates" delayed each of these initiatives "by an average of 2.70 days."

While more than 30 states have issued stay-at-home orders, a host of states have either not made such state-wide declarations or done partial orders. Nearly all are helmed by Republican governors. In Arizona, GOP Governor, Doug Ducey prevented cities and counties from putting in effect stay-at-home orders. He didn't issue his own statewide decree until this week. Last week, the Republican governor of Mississippi Tate Reeves overruled city and county social distancing measures. Under pressure, he announced a stay-at-home order on Wednesday that will go into effect Friday.

Trump is not directly responsible for these delays, but did Trump's suggestion that the disease was no worse than the flu give cover to Republican governors who preferred to delay social distancing efforts? Did it encourage them to drag their feet? It's hard to argue otherwise. With the combination of misinformation spread on Fox News (particularly during a crucial period in late February and early March when the outlet's anchors were playing down the threat from the coronavirus), will more Americans in red states test positive for the coronavirus and die needlessly? Almost certainly.

Trump has also publicly suggested that Democratic governors who don't show him proper veneration will have to get in the back of the line for medical supplies. And there is emerging evidence that Republican states are having their requests for ventilators and protective equipment met while blue states are getting the short end of the stick. How many people, simply because they live in a blue state, are going to die because of this president's petty cruelty?

It's not an easy thing to accuse a president of being personally responsible for the deaths of Americans, but with Trump and the coronavirus, it's simply a fact.

[Irons]

A friend of my daughter, a driving instructor in his mid forties and a non-smoker, felt unwell over last weekend. He grew steadily worse and when his lips turned blue his wife phoned 111 who sent for an ambulance. Due to the oxygen levels being dangerously low in his blood the medics rushed him to hospital. Twelve hours later his wife was contacted and instructed to pick up her husband and return him home, which she did. He experienced a terrible night, shared by his his family which included a 13 year old daughter, with a sky-high temperature, a constant cough and again blue lips. His wife again contacted 111 and an ambulance arrived a second time to take him to hospital. They have now informed his wife that they are 99% certain he has Coronavirus. 

The lack of testing equipment in the UK is a national disgrace and lives are being lost by shameful ineptitude.  

[André]

Hi André,

Where did you see this story?  "Chinese plane with material purchased by Quebec government lands in Montreal, 'rerouted' by DHL to Cincinnati."

I've been trying for some time to pull it up, but so far no luck.  Confused too:  you said *"lands in Montreal" and then followed by it being re-routed by DHL.  So, do you mean that after it had landed on Canadian soil, that it was then instructed not to dock there and unload the supplies and instead take off and fly to Cincinnati?

*or do you mean that it was supposed to have landed in Montreal?  Translation/languages are difficult I know; I make errors all the time--even in my own language! 

Best wishes,

PD

Hi PD,

The story is on various canadian news outlets, including the CBC (Radio-Canada)

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1690419/masques-canada-chine-quebec-avion-detournes


The story is about cargo bound for Montreal sold to the highest bidder on the tarmac of the chinese airport.

https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2020/04/02/des-masques-pour-le-quebec-detournes

TVA News mentions the plane's arrival in Montreal and rerouting to Cincinnati.

From RTBF (the belgian equivalent of ABC, BBC, CBC):

https://www.rtbf.be/info/dossier/epidemie-de-coronavirus/detail_coronavirus-masques-et-respirateurs-lorsque-les-etats-unis-et-israel-detournent-les-commandes-des-autres-pays?id=10474041

I've read about other countries doing the same thing. Check european news outlets for more stories.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Thank you for the links and suggestions André.

[Mandryka]

A friend of my daughter, a driving instructor in his mid forties and a non-smoker, felt unwell over last weekend. He grew steadily worse and when his lips turned blue his wife phoned 111 who sent for an ambulance. Due to the oxygen levels being dangerously low in his blood the medics rushed him to hospital. Twelve hours later his wife was contacted and instructed to pick up her husband and return him home, which she did. He experienced a terrible night, shared by his his family which included a 13 year old daughter, with a sky-high temperature, a constant cough and again blue lips. His wife again contacted 111 and an ambulance arrived a second time to take him to hospital. They have now informed his wife that they are 99% certain he has Coronavirus. 

That's a bad story, there's obviously pressure to get people out of hospital.

The lack of testing equipment in the UK is a national disgrace and lives are being lost by shameful ineptitude.

You may want to read this

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/absolutely-wrong-how-uk-coronavirus-test-strategy-unravelled

A friend of mine was a GP who gave up practising after an organ transplant, he's young but because of the transplant he's very vulnerable. He's bought an oximeter -- it measures the oxygen content of your blood, it's easy to use and (used to be) cheap and widely available on ebay. He thought that if he could report the O2 content to emergency services, there would be less questions, less dithering, if he was in trouble. Reading about your friend, I think he was wise to get one.

[Iota]

The lack of testing equipment in the UK is a national disgrace and lives are being lost by shameful ineptitude.

Indeed. Particularly deeply frustrating when from all appearances it is down to a lack of government foresight (or perhaps even concern) at the beginning of all this, about the vital nature of testing in confronting the looming pandemic. Despite numerous warnings from senior medical sources.

edit to add:
Having said that, I have little taste for criticism at the moment, as I can't see it serving much purpose. What I and I imagine almost everyone instinctively feels is a desire for constructive and cooperative behaviour, which seems our best hope out of this, both practically and mentally, and it's true every one of us has a part to play in a way I think.

When in passing the BBC news tonight showed footage of a busy London train terminal a few weeks ago, strange to say I almost welled up! How intense the ordinary can seem when it is suddenly denied you.

[drogulus]

     

[Karl Henning]

Boston hospitals getting 'game changer' machine that sterilizes 80,000 protective masks a day

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Boston hospitals getting 'game changer' machine that sterilizes 80,000 protective masks a day

Excellent!  I can't see the whole article, but that sounds like wonderful news!

Saw this too:  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/02/nation/kraft-family-used-patriots-team-plane-shuttle-protective-masks-china-boston-wsj-reports/

[JBS]

Indeed. Particularly deeply frustrating when from all appearances it is down to a lack of government foresight (or perhaps even concern) at the beginning of all this, about the vital nature of testing in confronting the looming pandemic. Despite numerous warnings from senior medical sources.

edit to add:
Having said that, I have little taste for criticism at the moment, as I can't see it serving much purpose. What I and I imagine almost everyone instinctively feels is a desire for constructive and cooperative behaviour, which seems our best hope out of this, both practically and mentally, and it's true every one of us has a part to play in a way I think.

When in passing the BBC news tonight showed footage of a busy London train terminal a few weeks ago, strange to say I almost welled up! How intense the ordinary can seem when it is suddenly denied you.

Someone on the news yesterday mentioned that  the UK has fewer ventilators per capita than the US...and the US number is also too low, of course.

Today's news is that 2000 of the ventilators the federal government has sent out were unuseable.

BTW, Gov DeSantis of Florida did issue a statewide order yesterday, to take effect tomorrow. He said he did only after tslking to Trump...

[André]

From today's Washington Post, this article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/02/trump-is-always-last-figure-it-out/

from which this pearl of wisdom shines like a beacon:

The contrast between the governors' level of sophistication and Trump's abject ignorance manages to still shock and appall us. On Wednesday, Trump explained how his thinking on covid-19 had changed. "The severity," Trump said. "I think also in looking at the way that the contagion is so contagious, nobody's ever seen anything like this where large groups of people all of a sudden have it just by being in the presence of somebody who has it. The flu has never been like that. . . . Also the violence of it if it hits the right person."

The contagion is so contagious. That's the president of the United States. He was warned by experts for weeks that this was highly contagious and that this was not the ordinary flu. Apparently, he was either not listening or did not understand that "just by being in the presence of somebody who has it" the contagion can, well, be contagious. The mind reels.