Coronavirus Thread III: The Show Must Not Go On (READ OP)

[Ethel mermania]

I didn't know that only Americans refer to each other by their nationality, instead of calling people "africans" only when they aren't in Africa.

African Americans almost never have an African nationality. It's code for African ancestry not nationality.

And here I am, lecturing an American on the American language. This really is sad.

And if you call a first gen African in America an African-American they will go one side of you and down the other.

I have made that mistake twice, my butt is still sore.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

African Americans almost never have an African nationality. It's code for African ancestry not nationality.

And here I am, lecturing an American on the American language. This really is sad.

And if you call a first gen African in America an African-American they will go one side of you and down the other.

I have made that mistake twice, my butt is still sore.

So they'd rather be called African? Or are you supposed to guess their actual nationality ...

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Some very good news. If it’s approved Phase 2 testing could begin shortly with, Phase 3 in the fall meaning mass roll out would be winter of this year

Two superlatives in the first sentence make me a bit dubious about the source. That's a press release direct from Moderna.

Same drug, different source

[Salandriagado]

The lethality of the virus, and indeed almost all of the most severe symptoms, come well after the main period of infectivity, so the evolutionary pressure in that direction will be very weak, if it's present at all.

What are your thoughts regarding the virus' interaction with other coronaviruses?

Fuck knows. We haven't observed any such interactions, so anybody who claims to know at this point is simply lying.

[Thermodolia]

Some very good news. If it’s approved Phase 2 testing could begin shortly with, Phase 3 in the fall meaning mass roll out would be winter of this year

Two superlatives in the first sentence make me a bit dubious about the source. That's a press release direct from Moderna.

Same drug, different source

They already started phase 1, they are waiting on FDA approval to start Phase 2.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Two superlatives in the first sentence make me a bit dubious about the source. That's a press release direct from Moderna.

Same drug, different source

They already started phase 1, they are waiting on FDA approval to start Phase 2.

Your source is more up to date? Well that's something.

[Ethel mermania]

And if you call a first gen African in America an African-American they will go one side of you and down the other.

I have made that mistake twice, my butt is still sore.

So they'd rather be called African? Or are you supposed to guess their actual nationality ...

Didnt get that far, but I did know one was Nigerian and the other Senegalese

[Salandriagado]

His eyes might be red because it's the first time he has seen daylight in months.

Reading Illuminati conspiracy theories has that effect on the eyes.

Wow, a conspiracy theory conspiracy theory. That's a new one.

[Salandriagado]

This virus was the result of a containment breach at the Wuhan lab so the CCP tried to cover it up, the aftermath is our fault but we can't forget the source of the pandemic.

At least it wasn't smallpox.

Is that confirmed? I thought tests had (somehow) confirmed it was a 'natural' disease occurring in an animal?

It definitely came from bats (specifically: we know which bat-endemic coronavirus it came from, which explains the "how"). There is some question as to what path it took between bats and humans, with everything from direct transmission (someone got exposed to it off a bat), or routing through other animals (some other animal got infected by a bat, human got infected by that animal) through to "a lab studying the bat virus fucked up their safety procedures" all being plausible (and essentially impossible to discern between).

[Salandriagado]

That’s scary if true and you should send your plan for reopening to every state Governor

Not as scary as the weaponized anthrax in Sverdlovsk or the Marburg/Reston breaches.

Or smallpox...what is saddening is the fact that the last samples of this virus will never be destroyed, ending it forever simply because they are maintained in two different countries.

That's intentional, and very much not a bad thing - the point is that we can never be 100% certain that there isn't some reservoir of smallpox or something like it hiding out somewhere (anything from "frozen in permafrost" to "isolated group of humans"), so we need the samples in labs somewhere so that we can use them to shut down any future outbreaks.

[Galloism]

Is that confirmed? I thought tests had (somehow) confirmed it was a 'natural' disease occurring in an animal?

It definitely came from bats (specifically: we know which bat-endemic coronavirus it came from, which explains the "how"). There is some question as to what path it took between bats and humans, with everything from direct transmission (someone got exposed to it off a bat), or routing through other animals (some other animal got infected by a bat, human got infected by that animal) through to "a lab studying the bat virus fucked up their safety procedures" all being plausible (and essentially impossible to discern between).

Especially when China abjectly refuses to allow anyone to investigate.

[Salandriagado]

Holy crap! That's horrifying. Do people actually have those kinds of attitudes?

The point is that people in deprived areas have worse health before catching covid-19.

The comment is actually insightful. But it's possible there is also less capacity of hospitals or lower quality of care there.

Also generally darker-skinned populations (hence more Vitamin D deficiency).

[Salandriagado]

Coronavirus patients from black African backgrounds in England and Wales are dying at more than triple the rate of white Britons, a study suggests.

The Black Africans are Black Africans living in England and Wales, not Black Africans in Africa.

Once again, yes I didn't read the article. Frankly I think the headline is pretty flawed then if it refers to black people living in England as "black africans" and white people as "white britons."

This one isn't the headline-writer's fault: they're reporting the census terms without editorialising.

[Salandriagado]

I think there's a good reason to say "black Africans" which Americans might miss. Significant immigration of "white Africans" from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

I personally wish we weren't even using these color terms, but if we must, I still think it makes more sense to call them Black African Britons than just black africans.

But you do you Britain. I know you don't want a random American telling you how to run your nation.

Why? They're reporting ethnic background, which has literally nothing to do with where you live. America's tendency to mix the two in one term is just odd and confusing: "African American" sounds like it should refer to people holding dual citizenship of countries in Africa and the Americas.

[Gormwood]

Boris Johnson is quite unpopular for many. I'm glad he survived though, as I hope he'll see the NHS in a more human light after it saved his goddamn life.

And England becomes a republic.

[Salandriagado]

So, there's another Imperial group paper out (still a preprint for now). There's a lot there, but I'm just going to pull out their comorbidity figures, reproduced below, with some extra numbers that I've looked up/calculated:

Comorbidity	Prevalence in study	Prevalence in population	Ratio
Chronic cardiac disease	29%	11%	2.6
Uncomplicated Diabetes	19%	7%	2.7
COPD	19%	2%	9.5
Asthma	14%	12%	1.2

That "ratio" column is the percentage of this sample (essentially people who end up in hospital) with the comorbidity divided by the percentage of the general population with it. That is: COPD massively increases the chance of being hospitalised, diabetes and cardiac disease increase it by a large chunk, and asthma only increases it slightly. It's possible that the numbers will be different for the risk of dying, but this does seem to confirm previous hints that asthma might be less of a problem than expected.

Those are the only comorbidities that they published exact figures from, so everything below is pulled from their table, so has a fair degree of possible measurement error. Also, note that I've been lazy and have not controlled for age - it's very unlikely that dementia/rheumatoid arthritis are actually such large risk factor,s it's just that they are massively correllated with age, and age is a risk factor. There will be similar, though smaller, errors in other figures, but I can't find good enough age-stratified data to do it properly. I'm also very sure that the "chronic neurological condition" figures are a similar artifact. I also couldn't get anything out of the obesity, smoking, or "diabetes (with complications)" figures, due to varying definitions, and I gave up on the figures towards the bottom due to the margins of error getting too high:

Comorbidity	Prevalence in study	Prevalence in population	Ratio
Dementia	12%	1.3%	9.2
Chronic neurological disorder	10%	At least 15% (the categories don't match up exactly)	<0.8
Malignant neoplasm	9.0%	4%	2.3
Rheumatological disorder	8.9%	1%	8.9

[Corrian]

So Maryland had tests from South Korea directly flown to the Baltimore Airport, which never normally happens as flights from Korea go to the DC airport, because they were afraid the federal government would seize the tests. They also have it under watch of the NATIONAL GUARD to keep it protected from the federal government as well.

[Rojava Free State]

I didn't know that only Americans refer to each other by their nationality, instead of calling people "africans" only when they aren't in Africa.

African Americans almost never have an African nationality. It's code for African ancestry not nationality.

And here I am, lecturing an American on the American language. This really is sad.

Being of African descent doesn't mean you have African nationality.

[Rojava Free State]

So Maryland had tests from South Korea directly flown to the Baltimore Airport, which never normally happens as flights from Korea go to the DC airport, because they were afraid the federal government would seize the tests. They also have it under watch of the NATIONAL GUARD to keep it protected from the federal government as well.

So what happens if the feds show up and the state militia is like "you arent taking our shit motherfucker"?

The trump administration is so soulless for taking supplies from states.

[Genivaria]

So Maryland had tests from South Korea directly flown to the Baltimore Airport, which never normally happens as flights from Korea go to the DC airport, because they were afraid the federal government would seize the tests. They also have it under watch of the NATIONAL GUARD to keep it protected from the federal government as well.

It's really strange that the federal government stealing test kits isn't getting more attention.

[San Lumen]

So Maryland had tests from South Korea directly flown to the Baltimore Airport, which never normally happens as flights from Korea go to the DC airport, because they were afraid the federal government would seize the tests. They also have it under watch of the NATIONAL GUARD to keep it protected from the federal government as well.

So what happens if the feds show up and the state militia is like "you arent taking our shit motherfucker"?

The trump administration is so soulless for taking supplies from states.

I dont think its debatable at this point he is trying to screw over blue states. If he is reelected after this whole thing and the GOP is not decimated down ballot I give up on democracy

[Rojava Free State]

So what happens if the feds show up and the state militia is like "you arent taking our shit motherfucker"?

The trump administration is so soulless for taking supplies from states.

I dont think its debatable at this point he is trying to screw over blue states. If he is reelected after this whole thing and the GOP is not decimated down ballot I give up on democracy

I think it is more than justified to use violence at this point to defend medical supplies procured by the state. Trump is committing the equivalent of burglary against the states.

[San Lumen]

I dont think its debatable at this point he is trying to screw over blue states. If he is reelected after this whole thing and the GOP is not decimated down ballot I give up on democracy

I think it is more than justified to use violence at this point to defend medical supplies procured by the state. Trump is committing the equivalent of burglary against the states.

He pretty much is

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/health/r ... index.html

Just great. Experts predict two more years of this pandemic. I do not see how we can sustain social distancing and on and off lockdown for two years.

[Ifreann]

So Maryland had tests from South Korea directly flown to the Baltimore Airport, which never normally happens as flights from Korea go to the DC airport, because they were afraid the federal government would seize the tests. They also have it under watch of the NATIONAL GUARD to keep it protected from the federal government as well.

So what happens if the feds show up and the state militia is like "you arent taking our shit motherfucker"?

They all open fire, civil war breaks out, nukes fly, the world ends, the living envy the dead.

Or, you know. Nothing. People call their bosses, who call their bosses, who call lawyers, and eventually they all just go home.

[Zeritae]

So what happens if the feds show up and the state militia is like "you arent taking our shit motherfucker"?

They all open fire, civil war breaks out, nukes fly, the world ends, the living envy the dead.

Or, you know. Nothing. People call their bosses, who call their bosses, who call lawyers, and eventually they all just go home.

Everyone goes home eventually, but shouldn't we be careful to be alive and not dead?