Saturday, Apr 25th, 2020
Video animated coronavirus
WHO says there’s ‘no evidence’ people can’t get second coronavirus infection The World Health Organization on Saturday warned countries against issuing so-called coronavirus “immunity passports” to recovered patients because there’s “no evidence” they are protected from a second infection. As things stand, the United Nations agency believes such actions could increase the risks of the virus’ spread. The WHO, however, will continue to monitor antibody responses to get a better sense of whether people can develop immunity and, if so, for how long. Several countries have tinkered with the idea of creating some form of immunity certificate that would allow recovered patients and those with antibody to return to work during the pandemic. Chile was the first country to officially announce it planned to do so. Source: Reuters, Bloomberg
Some countries begin easing coronavirus lockdowns India announced Friday the relaxation of some aspects of its strict coronavirus pandemic lockdown measures. Some neighborhood stores are allowed to re-open, but only those situated outside of hotspots. Greece, which has received praise for its early actions in combating the pandemic, as well as for its citizens’ adherence to guidelines, is reportedly preparing to gradually reverse its lockdown measures beginning on May 4 when small shops, hairdressers, barbers, and beauticians will be allowed to go back to work. Greece’s actions largely prevented a major outbreak — the country has 2,490 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 130 confirmed deaths. In the United States, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Alaska have also eased some restrictions, though they all include limitations.Source: The Guardian
U.S. hits 50,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, outpacing expert predictions The United States crossed a grim threshold on Friday, officially recording its 50,000th death attributed to COVID-19. The U.S. now accounts for almost a third of the confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, and more than a quarter of the deaths. Many experts believe the toll of the disease in the U.S. is being underreported, due to insufficient testing and excess mortalities. America’s confirmed coronavirus deaths have now outpaced predictions by experts, who estimated last week that 47,000 would be dead by May 1, a number the country instead hit on Wednesday, April 22. “Just a few days from now,” writes The New Yorker, “more Americans will have died from COVID-19 than the entire toll from the Vietnam War.” The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., contains 58,320 names. Source: The New Yorker
Trump claims disinfectant comments were sarcastic after doctor condemnation President Trump on Friday claimed he was being sarcastic when he suggested health officials look into treating COVID-19 with measures like injecting disinfectants or hitting lungs with a “tremendous” amount of ultraviolet or “very powerful light.” His comments were widely criticized, and health experts slammed his suggestion, which came during one of Trump’s widely-viewed coronavirus briefings, as “irresponsible” and “dangerous,” seeing as disinfectants can be poisonous or deadly if ingested or injected, which Lysol warned. Trump said he brought it up “sarcastically to reporters” to “see what would happen.” The speculation about disinfectants was not interpreted as a joke by many viewers: The state of Maryland confirmed it had “received several calls regarding questions about disinfectant use” as it pertains to curing COVID-19. Source: The New York Times
CBO predicts nearly 40 percent GDP drop this quarter The Congressional Budget Office on Friday predicted the U.S. GDP will contract 39.6 percent year over year during the second fiscal quarter of the year, which runs from April through June. The nonpartisan group forecasts an 11.8 percent drop from Q1 of 2020. The CBO ascribes the massive contraction to the coronavirus pandemic and “the social distancing measures put in place to contain it.” It predicts economic activity will restart in Q3, leading to a 5.4 percent growth year over year in that quarter, or a 23.5 percent jump from Q2. The CBO says the unemployment rate will only continue to grow, hitting an estimated 16 percent in Q3, and efforts to mitigate the economic woes are expected to lead to a federal deficit of $3.7 trillion by the end of 2020. Source: Congressional Budget Office
The separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) announces the establishment of a self-ruled administration in southern Yemen, which the internationally-recognized government describes as “catastrophic”. STC forces are deployed in the city of Aden as emergency rule is declared. (Reuters)
The Lost Apple Project, a non-profit conservationist society based in the Pacific Northwest, announces the rediscovery of ten cultivars of apples previously thought to be extinct. The decad almost doubles the total amount of species the society has rescued, bringing the total to 23. (CNN)
Friday, Apr 24th, 2020
Trump signs $484 billion coronavirus relief bill President Trump on Friday signed a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill after it was passed by both chambers of Congress this week. The relief package includes more than $300 billion to replenish the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable loans to small businesses and recently ran out of money. It also includes $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing but does not include money for states and local governments. Lawmakers will turn to the next phase of coronavirus relief after the passage of this interim bill, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he wants the full Senate to return to Washington. Source: Axios
The Saudi-led coalition announces the extension of a unilateral ceasefire by one month to fight the pandemic. The Houthis did not accept the coalition’s previous ceasefire that expired Thursday. Reportedly, the Houthis “want a lifting of air and sea blockades imposed by the coalition to the regions they control before agreeing to a ceasefire”. (Reuters)
Thursday, Apr 23rd, 2020
Over the last week, 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. Since mid-March, 26.4 million have filed, which is more than 15 percent of the workforce. (BBC)
Facebook removes “pseudoscience” and “conspiracy theory” as options for targeted ads, as criticism mounts against social media for their role in spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. (Reuters)
50 crew members on the cruise ship Costa Atlantica test positive for COVID-19 after it docks in Nagasaki, Japan. (Reuters)
Wednesday, Apr 22th, 2020
The Department of Health and Social Care reports 4,451 new confirmed cases and 759 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the United Kingdom’s death toll to 18,100 and 133,495 total cases. (ITV)
The Indian Council of Medical Research advises states to pause rapid tests for two days, following reports of invalid results. (CNN)
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deploys the country’s first military satellite, using a new satellite carrier called “Ghased” (“Messenger”). (Deutsche Welle)
The Good
The following is part of an article by one of my favorite writers. Jim Howard Kunstler has been writing social criticism. he’s not always correct in his predictions but I have found him to be reliable in his observations over the years.
Warning: it is pessimistic. Do read read further if you are already having a bad day. I provide the link to the full article at the end.
“Probably the biggest argument is over the seriousness of the disease itself. The statistical through-put of the moment appears to underwhelm the models the USA and Europe constructed at the onset of the plague. At least, that is, far fewer people have died, and of those, mostly the very old and those burdened with chronic illnesses – but also quite a few doctors and nurses in the prime of life. The statistical model is queered by many other uncertainties: is this really the peak? Does the plague come raging back if people go back to circulating freely? Can you catch it again? Will it return in waves next fall and spring? We have those models and pockets full of suppositions, theories, terrors.
Here’s what I think about the disease just now (subject to further evidence): it’s not just another flu. It operates differently, it’s more lethal, it affects many organs and can damage them permanently, and it spreads rapidly. That seems to have been the consensus of public health officials the world round who promoted the lockdown policy – and it’s hard to believe that they all got snookered into that. I have no idea (or opinion) whether Covid-19 was engineered, either as a bio-weapon or a good-faith science project gone awry… or whether some hapless gourmet got it at the Wild Animal Cafe.
The plague didn’t cause the economic crash. But the lockdown response certainly accelerated, amplified, and ramified it. The crash happened because we built up a hyper-complex, over-scaled, just-in-time economic system with all its ecological redundancy edited out for the sake of efficiency, making it hyper-fragile. The system’s basic power module (fossil fuel) was failing on a cost-basis and we tried to compensate for that with debt. The debt got out of hand in both sheer quantity and from the dishonest games that bankers and politicians were playing with it. All of this happened for the reason that most things happen in history: it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The old system is permanently broken now. We’re having a hard time recognizing that, plague or no plague. Many activities have flunked the scale challenge and will not come back to running the way they used to, generally anything organized at the giant scale: global supply chains, global corporations that depend on them, fracking for shale oil, big institutions like colleges and even public school systems, commercial aviation and tourism, the auto industry, show business (including the Disney empire and things like it), suburbia as a general proposition, skyscrapers and megastructures, shopping malls, pension funds, insurance companies, mega-banks, and, of course, medical conglomerates. We’re deceived by Amazon.com, which appears to be successful at the moment because it is filling a vacuum that Amazon will also eventually fall into. Amazon’s business model is a joke. The model is: every item purchased makes a separate journey by truck to the customer. That’s a “sell” signal to me.
The lockdown is making people crazy. It’s one thing to be stuck in the house with spouses and relatives you can barely stand under normal circumstances. But to see all your financial support systems melt down at the same time, along with the implications for your hopes-and-dreams, is a pretty big shock. Naturally so many want to bust out of the waking nightmare and get going, to return to action, to at least see whether what they were doing before all this happened might restart.”
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/turning-and-churning/
artificial stupid 