General Discussion/Q&A on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[RooFlyer]

Arrrgh. I've been avoiding watching any news on telly. But I ventured onto the local Hobart news tonight, and there, an Australian couple in India wanting govt assistance because they can't get out. I guess news goes seeking these types, and I feel sorry for the couple, but FFS ... I'm sure everyone here knows the timeline of this thing, and when the Aust Govt first said 'come home'.

No more telly news for me. I skim the on line news outlets, but don't focus on anything that looks negative - I can't change it, so don't need to see it.

 

[Flashback]

Arrrgh. I've been avoiding watching any news on telly. But I ventured onto the local Hobart news tonight, and there, an Australian couple in India wanting govt assistance because they can't get out. I guess news goes seeking these types, and I feel sorry for the couple, but FFS ... I'm sure everyone here knows the timeline of this thing, and when the Aust Govt first said 'come home'.

No more telly news for me. I skim the on line news outlets, but don't focus on anything that looks negative - I can't change it, so don't need to see it.

Agree and I found it was impacting my mood levels and general well being, so have tried to self-isolate from media while having to self-isolate from the wider world as well. Coming to the end of week 1 and already going mad..... so as Tesco says, every little helps!

 

[PineappleSkip]

And those people on the news banging on walls demanding to be let out of the Intercon or wherever they are locked up so they can get fresh air etc. Had me thinking these are just the sort of people who should be locked up. Am I mean?

 

[get me outta here]

I have heard a few reports of people booking many flights one after the other which then get cancelled due to no fault of their own as countries change their travel bans in and out. That has happened in India and in some South American countries, and possibly others. It’s not all people behaving irresponsibly.

Arrrgh. I've been avoiding watching any news on telly. But I ventured onto the local Hobart news tonight, and there, an Australian couple in India wanting govt assistance because they can't get out. I guess news goes seeking these types, and I feel sorry for the couple, but FFS ... I'm sure everyone here knows the timeline of this thing, and when the Aust Govt first said 'come home'.

No more telly news for me. I skim the on line news outlets, but don't focus on anything that looks negative - I can't change it, so don't need to see it.

 

[get me outta here]

Best read the AFF editor’s latest AFF Gazette : Opinion: Stop Blaming Australians For Being Stranded Overseas

 

[RooFlyer]

I have heard a few reports of people booking many flights one after the other which then get cancelled due to no fault of their own as countries change their travel bans in and out. That has happened in India and in some South American countries, and possibly others. It’s not all people behaving irresponsibly.

Of course there will be some whose circumstances couldn't be helped. But I was talking about DFAT's advice, not the locking of certain countries borders from the inside.

Let me take @Mattg 's advice to 'put yourself in their shoes'. I was in many of their shoes - I was overseas mid February, scheduled to return today, as it happens. But I immediately shortened my itinerary by a week, avoiding Asia, when it was obvious that the infection was getting out of control, before border controls were being spoken of (I think just China, at that stage). Then I again shortened my itinerary by another bit over a week as soon as wider border controls started to be enacted (but not yet in the area I was). That was before DFAT issued its world-wide 'reconsider your need to travel' and I was home before DFAT advised Australians to come home.

Sure I'm a hero [/facitiousness], and many aren't as fortunate as I am in having a great TA to get them out of dodge city. But just as not everyone who is stuck overseas now could avoid it, there are many who could have. This isn't an attack on the poor souls who are stuck somewhere beyond their control. But there is a manifestation in this issue of the phenomenon which we've seen time and time before - those who don't think, leave things until the last minute and then need the government to bail them out. In present circumstances, the government should bail them out, if possible.

 

[drron]

And in the self isolation in hell news comes the King of Thailand.
"The King of Thailand has taken a harem of 20 concubines with him into self-isolation at a grand hotel in southern Germany, it has been reported."

King of Thailand self-isolates with 20 concubines at German hotel

King Maha Vajiralongkorn has booked out an entire Bavarian resort to self-isolate with a harem of up to 20 concubines. It's not known if Rama X's wife is present at the hotel.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[drron]

A lot happening in the airline world.Emirates as expected to get Government cash.

Emirates Getting Equity Injection From Government

The Government of Dubai has announced plans to provide Emirates with an equity injection and more, in light of the current situation.

onemileatatime.com

AA to retire 145 planes.Including all 757,767,A333 and E190s.

American Airlines Retiring 737s, A330s, And More

American Airlines plans on retiring some Boeing 737-800s, Airbus A330-300s, and Embraer 190s, as demand for travel falls.

onemileatatime.com

Though in what I would consider better news is a major drop in AirBNB listings and a rise in long term rental stock.This from the UK.

London renters could see rents drop as ex-Airbnbs flood market

Londoners are scoring rent reductions as Airbnb land lords convert properties from short- to long-term lets, boosting the supply of available rental homes.

www.homesandproperty.co.uk

 

[Cossie]

This going to get interesting!

Artania cruise ship refuses to leave WA amid fears dozens on board may be infected with coronavirus

There are fears a cruise ship responsible for dozens of coronavirus patients in WA hospitals could be harbouring many more, as the ship's operators resist demands to leave Australian waters.

www.abc.net.au

 

[get me outta here]

People isolated in hotels are given microwave Y class meals. However, they have no mwave.

 

[Pushka]

People isolated in hotels are given microwave Y class meals. However, they have no mwave.

Are they already heated though?

 

[mrsterryn]

So in this time loads of online shopping. Is this the most negible item that needs to be sent ?
I need removable sticky tape that is for photos .
Cost $10.00 no idea on postage lol
I thought my el cheapo reading specs the other day were cheap enough

 

[tgh]

sigh…. the mid game seems sorted but the endgame is anyone's guess

A new study has found that people who have had the all-clear from a throat swab could still have coronavirus lingering in their poo and spit.

Chinese scientists made the discovery studying 133 patients admitted to Beijing Ditan Hospital from January 20 to February 27.
They found 22 people’s spit and poo samples tested positive for the virus, despite negative throat swab results.
The virus was detected in spit and poo for up to 39 and 13 days respectively, after the throat swabs were negative.
Throat swabs are widely used to see if a patient should be discharged from hospital and whether isolation is still required.

 

[drron]

sigh…. the mid game seems sorted but the endgame is anyone's guess

A new study has found that people who have had the all-clear from a throat swab could still have coronavirus lingering in their poo and spit.

Chinese scientists made the discovery studying 133 patients admitted to Beijing Ditan Hospital from January 20 to February 27.
They found 22 people’s spit and poo samples tested positive for the virus, despite negative throat swab results.
The virus was detected in spit and poo for up to 39 and 13 days respectively, after the throat swabs were negative.
Throat swabs are widely used to see if a patient should be discharged from hospital and whether isolation is still required.

Though that doesn't necessarily indicate that they are able to infect others.Positive may mean viral particles were found.
Of course it also doesn't mean they aren't either.

 

[tgh]

like I said.. anyone's guess…..

 

[Anna]

Number of cases 450,000. Number of deaths 20,000

Last Thursday's figures above. Today, Thursday - 887,067 people around the world have become infected, 44,264 of whom have died.

 

[PineappleSkip]

I make it 950,000 right now, and will exceed 1,00,000 tomorrow. Still a better result in relative terms. Two weeks ago, reported case numbers, excluding china, were doubling every three-four days. To what extent its a limit in infection and to what extent its a limit to testing, who knows.

 

[RooFlyer]

SBS News. Clip of the Governor of Georgia (Brian Kemp) saying, in a news conference.

"Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad," he said, "but we didn't know that until the last 24 hours."

I've never linked from "BuzzFeed" before, but the current crisis makes strange bed-fellows

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Said He Only Just Found Out The Coronavirus Can Be Transmitted By People Without Symptoms

The CDC, which is based in Georgia, has been warning for over a month that spread might be possible by people without immediate symptoms.

www.buzzfeednews.com

God save the United States of America, because this plonker won't.. The US Centre for Disease Control is based in Georgia and of course has been saying this for months.

 

[get me outta here]

“Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed”. Reporting on the White House’s herky-jerky coronavirus response, Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman has a quotation from Jared Kushner that should make all Americans, and particularly all New Yorkers, dizzy with terror.

According to Sherman, when New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said that the state would need 30,000 ventilators at the apex of the coronavirus outbreak, Kushner decided that Cuomo was being alarmist. “I have all this data about I.C.U. capacity,” Kushner reportedly said. “I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators.” (Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top expert on infectious diseases, has said he trusts Cuomo’s estimate.)

Even now, it’s hard to believe that someone with as little expertise as Kushner could be so arrogant .... “

Opinion | Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed

 

[drron]

Though you can't go past NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and his Health Commissioner to find the reason for NYC's present crisis.Until early March urging New Yorkers to go to large gatherings and parades as well as eating out in Chinatown.