How COVID-19 is affecting society

[detrius]

He just cannot help himself. And what else is he gonna do, get a real job?!

Alex Jones gets warning from FDA for pushing phony coronavirus cures online

Infowars founder Alex Jones has received an official warning from the Food and Drug Administration for peddling phony coronavirus cures online.In a formal letter to the alt-right television personality on Thursday, the agency ordered Jones to stop telling viewers of his widely watched broadcasts...

www.rawstory.com

They include “Superblue Silver Immune Gargle,” “SuperSilver Whitening Toothpaste,” “SuperSilver Wound Dressing Gel” and “Superblue Fluoride Free Toothpaste,” all of which the FDA referred to as “unapproved new drugs sold in violation” of the law.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Coronavirus conspiracy theories

British academics sharing coronavirus conspiracy theories online | News | The Times

British academics sharing coronavirus conspiracy theories online Dominic Kennedy, Investigations Editor Saturday April 11 2020, 12.01am, The Times Piers Robinson, co-founder of the Organisation for Pr...

www.evernote.com

 

[Ashiri]

Coronavirus conspiracy theories

British academics sharing coronavirus conspiracy theories online | News | The Times

British academics sharing coronavirus conspiracy theories online Dominic Kennedy, Investigations Editor Saturday April 11 2020, 12.01am, The Times Piers Robinson, co-founder of the Organisation for Pr...

www.evernote.com

Goes to show academics are just as capable of being idiots as anyone else. Especially when they weigh in on subjects outside their specialty. On that note, I've encountered two climate change 'sceptics' in Earth Sciences / Geography.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

For what it's worth, the equivalent provisions in the UK are considerably simpler and fairer, at least for most people -- if you've been paying tax as a self-employed person rather than as a salaried employee, showing profits of < £50,000 a year, and these profits account for at least half of your taxable income, then you qualify for a taxable grant calculated as 80% of your average profits for three months, on the basis of your tax returns for the last three years, whether you're an accountant, a painter and decorator or a sex worker.

So long as you've been declaring your income, that should be sufficient.

It's not perfect, by any means, but it sounds a lot better than the mess she describes.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Goes to show academics are just as capable of being idiots as anyone else. Especially when they weigh in on subjects outside their specialty. On that note, I've encountered two climate change 'sceptics' in Earth Sciences / Geography.

Interesting discussion of pandemics and conspiracy theories here

Why pandemics create conspiracy theories

From anti-Semitic hysteria during the Black Death to the recent burning of 5G masts, epidemic diseases are breeding grounds for misinformation and persecution.

www.newstatesman.com

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

For what it's worth, the equivalent provisions in the UK are considerably simpler and fairer, at least for most people -- if you've been paying tax as a self-employed person rather than as a salaried employee, showing profits of < £50,000 a year, and these profits account for at least half of your taxable income, then you qualify for a taxable grant calculated as 80% of your average profits for three months, calculated on the basis of your tax returns for the last three years, whether you're an accountant, a painter and decorator or a sex worker.

So long as you've been declaring your income, that should be sufficient.

It's not perfect, by any means, but it sounds a lot better than the mess she describes.

To be fair, I think the POSes in charge would happily not give anyone a check, especially anyone who's a woman.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Interesting report on comparative approval rates for US governors vs Trump and vs each other.

MSN

www.msn.com

Timeline Dark Dashboard by MSN US - Infogram

infogram.com

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Interesting report on comparative approval rates for US governors vs Trump and vs each other.

MSN

www.msn.com

Timeline Dark Dashboard by MSN US - Infogram

infogram.com

I'm surprised Florida's that high for our gov.

 

[Sredni Eel]

I've discovered a little thing about this pandemic that isn't helping with morale: Facemasks make it impossible to parse what people are telling you, if you're even a little hard of hearing. I have to watch a person's mouth move to "hear" what they're saying. It's not really lip reading, so much as a weird neurological quirk (my sister has it too).

Car wouldn't start when the laundry was done so I had to call AAA. I had a difficult time figuring out what the tow driver was saying, and he had a hard time with what I was saying, because we were both wearing N95 masks. In the end, we got it sorted out. And I had to walk 2.5 miles to meet him at the automotive repair shop.

Today needs a hard restart.

 

[Rose Karuna]

I'm surprised Florida's that high for our gov.

I think that DeSantis is being saved because of some really diligent city and county officials who started locking down their areas long before he made a decision for the state.

I know in our part of Central Florida, we (Osceola County) were one of the first areas in Florida on lock down (before Broward or Miami/Dade counties). Our county was also one of the first in Florida to require that everyone wear a mask if they go out and there is also a curfew (even for people designated as "essential services"). What it amounts to is that only medical and emergency responders can be out after 11:00 PM at night. It's kind of radical but we are close to Disney which has had a pretty high rate even though Orange County closed down fairly quickly too. To date, Orange County is 902 cases and Oceloa County is 305 compared to Broward (2,679) and Miami/Dade (6,300).

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Goes to show academics are just as capable of being idiots as anyone else. Especially when they weigh in on subjects outside their specialty. On that note, I've encountered two climate change 'sceptics' in Earth Sciences / Geography.

At Arkansas State I ran into a number of faculty members who objected to the geology and natural history exhibits for covering evolution.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

This is the most America method of veiling I have ever seen:

 

[Kara Spengler]

The tweet I posted isn’t in English and highlights Quebec/Canada + Provinces/States (it was just posted after our premier mentioned results live during his daily briefing) but I found where he got the info from in the other link included if you are interested...

COVID-19 Community Mobility Report

See how your community is moving around differently due to COVID-19

www.google.com

Not sure if I should be proud or embarrassed at our discipline (following gvt orders). Yessss master... whatever helps I guess.

Well, DC is up there too. It is sort of like anarchists complaining that Massachusetts citizens were staying indoors while the police were chasing the marathon bombers. Umm, yeah, many of them have relatives that are first responders and all of them wanted the +=/>/=$_*!s caught.

 

[detrius]

Covid-19 from the West Wing: 'History's verdict will be unforgiving'

Our DC bureau chief on covering a escalating public health crisis, an economic crisis – and a crisis of leadership

www.theguardian.com

I disagree with the George III comparison, since on both occasions when he was suffering his fits of whatever caused his condition, the government of the day was very quick to pass a Regency Act (their equivalent of the 25th Amendment, and a much simpler procedure), but I think the general point, that he is clearly unhinged, is probably true.

It might be that he's simply temporising by making wild announcements about what he's considering, without any real intention of doing it, simply to keep up the pretence of trying to govern, while in fact hoping something will turn up to save him from the one crisis among the many he's caused that he can't divorce, declare bankruptcy on, or ask his father to pay to go away, but that's no less depressing.

There was an article in the German newspaper "Die Zeit", asking whether Trump is Prince Prospero from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"... or the Red Death himself.

They concluded that he's actually both characters.

 

[bubblesort]

I just saw another article complaining about the teenagers on spring break. That's just dumb. Those teenagers were doing the responsible thing.

If you are in a low risk population, like the average teenager is, your goal should be to get corona as fast as possible, so you can develop antibodies, because as you get older, your risk goes up. Doing it on spring break is a great idea, because that limits your exposure to your parents and older relatives, who are probably much higher risk than you. When you return to your home town, you have antibodies, so you can take an essential job and maybe even support your family if they are a rough time financially. Also, super high risk grannies wouldn't have to be working cash registers so much.

In fact, I think that if we wanted to build herd immunity fast, the best place to start would be for the government to sponsor a 3 week long spring break, and lower the drinking and marijuana age to 16 for those 3 weeks. Let them go nuts, tell them to all get infected and recover before sending them home to work essential jobs, with extra disaster pay. Beef up hospitals in the area for the few who might have complications, of course, but generally, let them have a blast.

They would probably wear masks and wash their hands constantly just to be rebellious, but it's worth a try.

 

[Fionalein]

I just saw another article complaining about the teenagers on spring break. That's just dumb. Those teenagers were doing the responsible thing.

If you are in a low risk population, like the average teenager is, your goal should be to get corona as fast as possible, so you can develop antibodies, because as you get older, your risk goes up. Doing it on spring break is a great idea, because that limits your exposure to your parents and older relatives, who are probably much higher risk than you. When you return to your home town, you have antibodies, so you can take an essential job and maybe even support your family if they are a rough time financially. Also, super high risk grannies wouldn't have to be working cash registers so much.

In fact, I think that if we wanted to build herd immunity fast, the best place to start would be for the government to sponsor a 3 week long spring break, and lower the drinking and marijuana age to 16 for those 3 weeks. Let them go nuts, tell them to all get infected and recover before sending them home to work essential jobs, with extra disaster pay. Beef up hospitals in the area for the few who might have complications, of course, but generally, let them have a blast.

They would probably wear masks and wash their hands constantly just to be rebellious, but it's worth a try.

Only of those teenagers would be put into concentration camps for at least half a year after... you would not want them spread the virus.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I think that DeSantis is being saved because of some really diligent city and county officials who started locking down their areas long before he made a decision for the state.

I know in our part of Central Florida, we (Osceola County) were one of the first areas in Florida on lock down (before Broward or Miami/Dade counties). Our county was also one of the first in Florida to require that everyone wear a mask if they go out and there is also a curfew (even for people designated as "essential services"). What it amounts to is that only medical and emergency responders can be out after 11:00 PM at night. It's kind of radical but we are close to Disney which has had a pretty high rate even though Orange County closed down fairly quickly too. To date, Orange County is 902 cases and Oceloa County is 305 compared to Broward (2,679) and Miami/Dade (6,300).

Yeah, I'm not sure if it was a county decision or a city one, but we shut down pretty fast, but we're right off of i-10 and so now we're up to over 200 cases.

Though, it might just be our three hospital services are proactively testing, while Bay isn't really testing much at all, comparatively.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

 

[bubblesort]

Only of those teenagers would be put into concentration camps for at least half a year after... you would not want them spread the virus.

You made me curious, so I dug around and can't really find a solid answer from official authorities on how long COVID19 contagiousness lasts. People are saying it's around 2 weeks, but you know... kinda feels like we're in fogs of war tarritory or something. Nobody knows anything.

 

[Kara Spengler]

I got bored, so I went to Wolfram Alpha and started calculating whether or not we have enough surface land mass to have everybody in the world to stand 6 square feet apart. Turns out we do, and we have 135,010,000 square feet to spare.

Because, you know... that might be useful to know, someday... but probably not, LOL

Remember a lot of that land people would not want to be on (antartica, deserts, volcanos, etc). Plus when one person wants to move other people would need to move too.