How COVID-19 is affecting society

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Quite correct, Chen, but why twice?

Quite simple: repeating yourself all the time makes your message ring more within the audience. Something which Trump practises all the time. Also teaching in school is based upon that fundamental principle.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Quite correct, Chen, but why twice?

"Well said, Chen""
"Yes, you can say that again!"

 

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Congress Reaches Deal On Major COVID Relief Package

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Capitol Hill negotiators sealed a deal Sunday on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package,...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Top Capitol Hill negotiators sealed a deal Sunday on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, finally delivering long-overdue help to businesses and individuals and providing money to deliver vaccines to a nation eager for them.

The agreement, announced by Senate leaders, would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefits and $600 direct stimulus payments to most Americans, along with a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses and money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction.

Woo...

“There will be another major rescue package for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in announcing the agreement for a relief bill that would total almost $900 billion. “It is packed with targeted policies to help struggling Americans who have already waited too long.”

Fuck you, Waitbringer.

 

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France Closes Border With UK As New COVID Strain Spreads In England

LONDON (AP) — Trucks waiting to get in and out of Britain backed up for miles and people were stranded...

talkingpointsmemo.com

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Flay your fart: viral clip calls on public to alter speech to curb Covid

Former translator poses as official ordering hard consonant sounds to be dropped in YouTube video

www.theguardian.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Luckily things aren't really that bad here in the middle of hick-nowhere. It's bad enough that there are definitely places where I'm the only one wearing a mask, but nobody's looked at me sideways for it yet.

 

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‘It’s unconscionable’: Outrage over the ‘three-martini lunch’ tax deduction in the new coronavirus aid deal

The latest COVID-19 relief package reportedly includes a tax break on business-meal expenses that President Donald Trump has pushed for months.

www.marketwatch.com

 

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And something is going [wr]on[g] at the churches!

Members of John MacArthur's Church Say They’re Being Pressured Not to Report New COVID Outbreak | The Roys Report

John MacArthur’s church appears to be having an outbreak of COVID-19, but members say they're being intimidated not to report.

julieroys.com

John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church (GCC), which has defied county orders banning indoor worship, appears to be having an outbreak of COVID-19 among its leadership and members.

But a GCC leader who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job says staff and members are being pressured not to report new COVID cases to the health department for fear of being shut down.

Under a county health order, places of worship must report to public health when at least three coronavirus cases are identified among church staff or congregation within a span of 14 days.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health told The Roys Report, “No additional outbreaks have been reported by Grace Community Church” since an outbreak at the church in October. (That outbreak was investigated and closed in November after no further cases were found among employees for 14 days.)

But the GCC leader, whose identity I’ve confirmed, said he knows of staff at GCC who recently contracted COVID, as well as two GCC members who are professors at The Master’s University where MacArthur is chancellor emeritus. He added that multiple members of the Filipino ministry have tested positive for COVID, including a leader of the Filipino ministry, who’s been hospitalized.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Flay your fart: viral clip calls on public to alter speech to curb Covid

Former translator poses as official ordering hard consonant sounds to be dropped in YouTube video

www.theguardian.com

That seems like something that could have been a Python skit.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

That seems like something that could have been a Python skit.

Wait until you experience the year 2020.









Where's my god damned sealab.

 

[Free]

Where's my god damned sealab.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Family of U.S. student jailed in Cayman Islands for violating COVID-19 rules calls on Trump to intervene - CBS News

On November 27, Mack flew to Grand Cayman where she was ordered to quarantine for 14 days and fitted with a smart wristband and given a cell phone to track her movements, according to her attorney, Jonathon Hughes. Mack signed a document, agreeing not to leave her place of isolation without permission and not to remove her wristband.

Two days later, she was seen at a jet skiing competition with her boyfriend Vanjae Ramgeet, a Cayman Islands resident. Mack wasn't seen wearing her wristband, and they were both reported to local police and transported to a mandatory quarantine facility.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Family of U.S. student jailed in Cayman Islands for violating COVID-19 rules calls on Trump to intervene - CBS News

The key bit of background to that story that we're missing is what the normal sentencing guidelines say should happen to them.

Her mother seems to be saying four months is exceptionally harsh, but we're given no indication of what the normal sentencing range is. A short custodial sentence doesn't seem to me excessive, given the extreme danger to the public her behaviour has potentially caused and the reckless way she flouted the quarantine, but I have no way of knowing what what the sentencing range is in the Cayman Islands.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

This is specific to Mpls, but thought I would post it here, as it is likely universal in nature. Seems due to the pandemic, third-party delivery services are sticking it to both the customer and the restaurants; charging up to 40% of an order to the restaurant in addition to charging customers, and you know it's not going to their drivers.

Since so many restaurants are already hurting, that can turn potential customers away due to the extra fees. I recommend, where possible, perhaps finding restaurants that allows you to order and pickup, many do offer that or even have their own delivery services.

Minneapolis imposes 15% cap on third-party takeout delivery fees | Bring Me The News

The City of Minneapolis has announced emergency measures capping the amount that a third-party delivery company can charge restaurants for delivering takeout orders. Mayor Jacob Frey announced the cap Monday, saying that third-party companies will not be allowed to charge restaurants more than 15% of the total value of the order for its delivery.

Restaurants have increasingly turned to third-party delivery companies such as DoorDash, BiteSquad and GrubHub as they handle the increased demand for takeout during the pandemic, but Frey says in some cases restaurants have been charged up to 40% of the value of the food ordered to get it delivered.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

We have always used curbside pickup for takeout. Those services have been fucking over resteraunts long before covid started.

 

[Beebo Brink]

The key bit of background to that story that we're missing is what the normal sentencing guidelines say should happen to them.

Is there a "normal" for this, though? We're talking about a global pandemic that is just barely a year old, so what exactly would you compare?

From what I read, the prosecutors sought a harsher sentence than the original judgment because of her premeditated actions. She apparently never had any intention of staying in quarantine and planned for her "escape" by requesting a looser monitor strap. Under the circumstances, I can see the justification for making an example of her case, as a deterrent to other tourists who want to ignore quarantine and are willing to pay a fine to do so. This isn't a transgression that money and community service hours can fix. Imagine if she'd been contagious when she attended the crowded ski event.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Is there a "normal" for this, though? We're talking about a global pandemic that is just barely a year old, so what exactly would you compare?

From what I read, the prosecutors sought a harsher sentence than the original judgment because of her premeditated actions. She apparently never had any intention of staying in quarantine and planned for her "escape" by requesting a looser monitor strap. Under the circumstances, I can see the justification for making an example of her case, as a deterrent to other tourists who want to ignore quarantine and are willing to pay a fine to do so. This isn't a transgression that money and community service hours can fix. Imagine if she'd been contagious when she attended the crowded ski event.

Sure, and I don't disagree with any of that. All I'm saying is that the report doesn't give the reader any way of assessing the mother's claim that her daughter has been unfairly treated, though it's pretty obvious that a short custodial sentence is certainly well-deserved.

My only question is where four months falls on the sentencing scale for this offence, and how the court arrived at it. If, for example, the maximum custodial sentence for that offence is six months, then (at least if it were an English court) four months would seem harsh after applying a discount for a prompt guilty plea, no previous criminal record (that we know of), and whatever other mitigation there is, since that's presumably what she'd have received had she already tested positive and attended the event anyway, so in those circumstances, I can see why her lawyer would be arguing for something closer to four weeks than four months before they deport her.

If, on the other hand, the maximum available sentence is more like two years, then she has little about which to complain, but I don't know which is the case.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How a string of failures by the British government helped Covid-19 to mutate | Anthony Costello

Ministers did not suppress the virus, and now a new variant is surging, says Anthony Costello, professor of global health at University College London

www.theguardian.com

The failures of the government’s pandemic response are legion. An earlier lockdown by just one week in the spring could have halved the death rate, according to Nick Davies, a Sage adviser. Ministers wasted billions on outsourcing an allegedly “world-beating” test-and-trace system to private companies. It has failed to monitor rates of self-isolation and provided scant financial support to those asked to quarantine at home, relying on workers who don’t get sick pay, such as those in the gig economy, to isolate while losing wages. After Britain’s spring lockdown, infection rates fell, but the government again failed to do what was needed in time to suppress the virus.

The government’s poor control of Covid-19 has increased the force of the infection and allowed more mutations to happen. On top of the economic costs of lockdown measures, the UK has now been effectively placed in quarantine by the international community. The prime minister’s repeated dithering, delays and seeming inability to make unpopular decisions have led Britain to have one of the worst death rates in the world. We have now cancelled Christmas and triggered international alarm. We can only hope that we’re not still in this position by Easter.

ETA

Plans for 30-minute Covid testing in England halted amid accuracy fears

Exclusive: government shelves Christmas rollout of lateral flow test centres

www.theguardian.com

The development is a blow to the UK government’s £100bn Operation Moonshot mass-testing plan, which aims to increase the number of tests carried out each day from 430,000 to 10m by early next year.

It also raises questions about the plan to rapidly test lorry drivers taking goods across the Channel, which is one of the UK government’s proposed solutions to bring an end to the disruption at Britain’s ports.

 

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