How COVID-19 is affecting society

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Jolene Benoir]

40% of U.S. COVID Deaths Could Have Been Averted If It Weren't for Trump

"Instead of galvanizing the US populace to fight the pandemic, President Trump publicly dismissed its threat," the report in The Lancet explains.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Covid: experts warn of huge UK wave if restrictions lifted too soon

Despite success of vaccine programme, scientists ‘genuinely worried’ about potential surge in cases

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

'A very dangerous epoch': historians try to make sense of Covid

Experts say it is not just the pandemic that makes these feel like unusually significant times

www.theguardian.com

The historian and broadcaster Michael Wood, a professor of public history at the University of Manchester, says: “Everything that is going on at the moment, it seems to me, all links together.”

History has seen great civilisations in China, India and across Eurasia, “but they’ve not caused these crises that we are living through now, and nor has the African world.

“You know what happened? Roughly 500 years ago, these small, aggressive maritime powers on the shores of Europe went across the world with their technology and created their empires by sea.

“And I think what we are seeing now can all be interpreted in the light of the post-imperial [age].”

Other societies may now be enthusiastic participants, but it was not they who created western industrial capitalism, he argues.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

What will happen to all Britain's empty shops?

FT article (hence Evernote link) about the long-term effect of Covid-19 on commercial property prices in general and on high street shopping in particular. It's specifically about the UK but I would think other countries are facing similar problems.

 

[danielravennest]

What will happen to all Britain's empty shops?

FT article (hence Evernote link) about the long-term effect of Covid-19 on commercial property prices in general and on high street shopping in particular. It's specifically about the UK but I would think other countries are facing similar problems.

Amazon delivery centers? Homeless shelters? "Work away from home" pods for people who don't have space at home, or where its too distracting? Food service a plus. Places like Starbucks have been used as temporary work spaces, but its makeshift at best. I'm thinking cubicles with a proper work desk, monitor you can plug into your laptop, etc. Maybe some office supplies as needed.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Amazon delivery centers? Homeless shelters? "Work away from home" pods for people who don't have space at home, or where its too distracting? Food service a plus. Places like Starbucks have been used as temporary work spaces, but its makeshift at best. I'm thinking cubicles with a proper work desk, monitor you can plug into your laptop, etc. Maybe some office supplies as needed.

Yes, there's all sorts of things that they could be used for, but the point is that Covid is causing a huge shake-out in the city centre retail business, and what happens next requires a degree of serious thought and planning, both because it has such a large impact on particular sectors of the economy, and however they eventually repurpose existing buildings, or knock them down and build something else, it's inevitably going to mean lots of legislative work at both the national and local levels.

These are all changes businesses and planners were expecting sooner or later, but Covid means they've happened far sooner and more comprehensively than anyone would have expected 18 months ago.

 

[Pamela]

Somewhat off topic but it’s not just that it is ten degrees in Austin atm, but it’s on top of a year of quarantine, and it can all feel very apocalyptic.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Has Covid changed the price of a life?

A pandemic is a moral and economic minefield. How should governments weigh up the difficult choices?

www.theguardian.com

Interesting and illuminating discussion of how the various costs and benefits of particular responses to Covid-19 are assessed, with a particular emphasis -- which I certainly found helpful -- on the distinction between two distinct concepts, the value of a prevented fatality (VPF) used to assess the overall costs and benefits of particular courses of action (e.g. the cost of a road-widening scheme vs the number of lives saved each year by reduced road traffic accidents) -- and "quality-adjusted life year," which is appropriate when you know more about the lives you're saving (e.g. triage when there are fewer ICU beds than patients who need them, or when you're allocating limited places in the lifeboats as the ship sinks, in which case younger and healthier patients/passengers will normally take priority).

Mixing those two up, as so often happens in discussions about the costs of lockdown, causes all sorts of difficulties.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

According to Google Translate, the problem is that the court held the curfew should have been imposed only after a parliamentary vote (as it was in the UK) rather than by executive action under various emergency powers, so presumably it will be re-imposed after the correct parliamentary procedures have been followed.

I'm actually glad about this, because while all the emergency regulations we've seen imposed in the UK by the government are certainly necessary and proportionate, taken together they're a pretty extreme restriction or removal of some basic civil liberties, and it's crucially important under European human rights law that this be done only with the close scrutiny and consent of the parliament and the courts.

So this ruling shows the system is working, though I hope that that any necessary restrictions will soon be re-imposed with the necessary parliamentary approval.

 

[Free]

 

[Beebo Brink]

 

[Sid]

According to Google Translate, the problem is that the court held the curfew should have been imposed only after a parliamentary vote (as it was in the UK) rather than by executive action under various emergency powers, so presumably it will be re-imposed after the correct parliamentary procedures have been followed.

I'm actually glad about this, because while all the emergency regulations we've seen imposed in the UK by the government are certainly necessary and proportionate, taken together they're a pretty extreme restriction or removal of some basic civil liberties, and it's crucially important under European human rights law that this be done only with the close scrutiny and consent of the parliament and the courts.

So this ruling shows the system is working, though I hope that that any necessary restrictions will soon be re-imposed with the necessary parliamentary approval.

It was implemented under one of the emergency powers, but the judge found it no emergency, because a possible curfew has been discussed a longer period of time (over weeks) before it was implemented. So according to this ruling the emergency powers can't be used for this curfew and it needs an own (temporary) law.

The government had plans to end the corfew on March 2. I don't expect they will go for the temporary law.
They will appeal the court decision though.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Now I'm curious if the Krewe house down the road from me did this.... Pensacola and Mobile are about as involved in the Mardi Gras scene as NOLA is. [Really, the Gulf Coast areas are more in common with each other than the rest of our states.

 

[danielravennest]

This is now being called "Yardi Gras".

 

[Innula Zenovka]

This is now being called "Yardi Gras".

I hope this doesn't give rise to any unfortunate misunderstandings with visitors from Jamaica or the UK.

 

[Free]

 

[Casey Pelous]

Majorities trust teachers' unions and school administrators?

That seems a bit like rooting for the cobra and the mongoose.

Or being passionately opposed to evil and being a Tom Brady fan.

 

[Free]

 

[Pamela]

Well that was no fun.