Deadly Wuhan Coronavirus

pigfarmer said:

In Brooklyn and Queens there have been massive spikes and they are selectively locking down certain zip codes. The NYC attempt to reopen schools was an absolute clown show. Appears to be zero preparation and zero plan to accommodate any problems.

The small (and not so small) school districts with a little distance from that particular flavor of management seems to be working. Busses are rolling, kids around here are starting to go back. Marist and Vassar colleges are in session. Mixture of on-site and remote, different days with different staffing. Glad I don't have kids and am not involved. A very close friend is a bus driver and has related all their covid measures and they are definitely banging away at them with a passion.

There's a saying that adversity reveals character it doesn't define it. It reveals incompetence too.

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It's getting crazy and violent in New York thanks in part to Cuomo's disastrous power trip...

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A Rising Orthodox Populist Is Leading A Violent Campaign Of COVID Denial In Borough Park

(Excerpt - much more violent stuff in the link)

The chaotic street scene marked the latest escalation in the fight over Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new coronavirus restrictions, which will shut down schools and non-essential businesses in Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with spiking COVID rates beginning on Thursday. Local Hasidic lawmakers who represent the area have come out against the rules, accusing the governor of singling out Jewish people by limiting capacity in houses of worship to only 10 people in the most restrictive "red" zones.

Agudath Israel of America, an international religious group that represents the ultra-Orthodox community, called the shutdown orders “appalling,” and hinted at a possible lawsuit.

But Tischler has gone a step further, vowing to stop the restrictions by force, while peddling conspiracy theories that Democratic officials are deliberately misleading the public about the virus for political reasons. Several people in attendance on Friday said they now believed that the lockdown measures were a ploy to interfere in the upcoming election.

“Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo are trying to destroy Donald Trump’s election,” said Heshy Friedman, a 57-year-old Borough Park resident. “They’re using COVID to try to close off all the neighborhoods that are pro-Trump.”

This in an interesting analogy and mentions covid related issues...

Welcome to Bizarro World

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nivek said:

It's getting crazy and violent in New York thanks in part to Cuomo's disastrous power trip...

A Rising Orthodox Populist Is Leading A Violent Campaign Of COVID Denial In Borough Park

(Excerpt much more violent stuff in the link)

The chaotic street scene marked the latest escalation in the fight over Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new coronavirus restrictions, which will shut down schools and non-essential businesses in Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with spiking COVID rates beginning on Thursday. Local Hasidic lawmakers who represent the area have come out against the rules, accusing the governor of singling out Jewish people by limiting capacity in houses of worship to only 10 people in the most restrictive "red" zones.

Agudath Israel of America, an international religious group that represents the ultra-Orthodox community, called the shutdown orders “appalling,” and hinted at a possible lawsuit.

But Tischler has gone a step further, vowing to stop the restrictions by force, while peddling conspiracy theories that Democratic officials are deliberately misleading the public about the virus for political reasons. Several people in attendance on Friday said they now believed that the lockdown measures were a ploy to interfere in the upcoming election.

“Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo are trying to destroy Donald Trump’s election,” said Heshy Friedman, a 57-year-old Borough Park resident. “They’re using COVID to try to close off all the neighborhoods that are pro-Trump.”

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Remember the New Rochelle hot spot under quarantine? Converting buildings into hospitals, the Javits Center, The Comfort ? Gee, where'd that all go? Just a reminder how quickly we move on.

Government mandates generally don't sit well with anybody and if the government in question lacks credibility that's a recipe for a problem. The whole country writ small here. I could see the easily orthodox as being one of the groups to push back. I've probably retyped these couple of sentences twenty times and can't get it right. Some lockdowns, some restrictions yes. Too little or too much can be toxic.

pigfarmer said:

Some lockdowns, some restrictions yes. Too little or too much can be toxic.

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Or should we all say frak it and go for herd immunity, back to business, back to normal and let the chips fall where they may?...That's certainly what many are calling for, but that kool-aid could also be spiked...We could be setting ourselves up for a huge death count in a short period of time going the route of herd immunity verse the slower compounding count of deaths over a longer period of time...Hospitals extremely overloaded like we haven't seen yet, huge amounts of people sick at home shutting down businesses because of lack of employees...Maybe none of this would happen if we went the way of herd immunity or maybe it would be even worse than I described, who knows...

Personally I think lockdowns are behind us, we cannot keep locking things down and restricting people's movements, diligent mask wearing and social distancing are the answer, even though it sucks wearing the mask...

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From some of the people I have talked to, many of them are weary of the whole Covid affair. They would just as soon forget the masks if they were given a choice.

I understand where they are coming from but I would choose to live awhile longer if possible. How long will it take before there is a tipping point and people just say f.... it and let the chips fall where they may. That time might not be too far off from what I see lately.

Huge jumps of new cases in the UK, this chart not including today's numbers of 17,540 new cases...

Huge jump in new cases in Poland as well, this chart not including the 4,280 new cases today...

More than 2.8K COVID-19 cases confirmed in Wisconsin; 110 hospitalized
The last report today . Sigh

In Finland the thing is back to Aprils numbers(top peak we had) and rising, and theres some talk of shutting places down again, but generally it seems this all came unexpected, when it didnt, like our government isnt taking things as seriously as in march. Wtf. Its gonna be a long and stressful winter ahead.

Part of the problem as I see it was that most of the world’s authorities painted a rosey picture back in March. Everything will probably be back to normal come September. A little common sense would tell you that this wasn’t the yearly flu that we were talking about. Now everyone has Covid fatigue and nerves are on edge.

Had more countries jumped on the problem early like New Zealand we might all be in a better position now.

nivek said:

Personally I think lockdowns are behind us, we cannot keep locking things down and restricting people's movements, diligent mask wearing and social distancing are the answer, even though it sucks wearing the mask...

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I think you've got the right of it. The learning curve isn't anything like what it was in March. I don't look at is as a hidden death sentence that might be around the next corner - I think we were all entitled to a good WTF over all that.

I've heard so much ridiculous nonsense over the past few months. So what have we learned? Well, this primarily affects short tall skinny fat people who are either brown or white or neither who do or do not have underlying conditions and who are young and/or old. About right? And coronovirus will fly up your nose off a doorknob fifty feet away but masks do or do not work, it's all a hoax or it isn't, and don't touch anything, ever, unless you think Freedom is at stake or you are part of a roving mob of rioters, in which case do whatever you want.

One thing I am sure of; ignore it at your own peril. You might get past it with therapeutics, maybe even as easily as Dear Leader. Somebody should have mentioned that to Chris Christie, he might literally be taking one for the team. Weren't we having an obesity epidemic immediately prior to this new, much more fashionable pandemic?

Out of curiosity - how many of us here have had or know people who have had covid?

1) immediate family members; spouse, partner, child, sibling
2) extended family; aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins
3) close friends and coworkers
4) acquaintances

I know exactly three people who have been confirmed and they would all be in group #4. I don't know either particularly well, just work with them. But at that I work pretty closely with two of them - enough to make me a bit concerned.

One guy about 40 - a bona fide weirdo of the first order, someone you would naturally distance yourself from as 'best practice'. He got sick at the store and isolated at home. Real sick, loss of taste & smell, weeks later he's back and as suspiciously weird as ever. His general hygiene is lacking and I wasn't really surprised he got this virus, and still wouldn't be if I heard he got some other revolting ailment. Probably a good candidate for an episode of Monsters Inside Me

I mentioned old Jerry. 81 (I think) and he is one tough bastard. I don't know many people his age humping five gallon buckets of paint up and down ladders. He got sick and is such a miserable f****r the virus probably fled his body voluntarily. He's fine but is finally retired. His wife probably still has him tied to the kitchen stove to keep him from coming back.

Last guy is 67. Spent quite a bit of time with him, he's normal in a sea of not-normal. Cancer survivor, high risk. He had a rough time of it but was not hospitalized and is now back.

pigfarmer said:

Out of curiosity - how many of us here have had or know people who have had covid?

1) immediate family members; spouse, partner, child, sibling
2) extended family; aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins
3) close friends and coworkers
4) acquaintances

Click to expand...

My uncle who resided in Kentucky got covid in a nursing home from a visitor who thought his freedom of choice to not wear a mask was more important than the people that would die as a result of his choice...The visitor was sick with covid and infected many of the residents in that nursing home including my uncle, about 7 days later my uncle died...

I'd also knew of two co-workers from my previous job who got covid but they were younger and had mild symptoms and recovered...

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Europe divided by second lockdowns: Spanish PM holds emergency meeting to impose lockdown on Madrid as anti-lockdown protesters take to streets of Paris and cases rise in Germany



European leaders trying to push ahead with new coronavirus lockdown measures are facing growing resistence across the continent. In Spain, ministers are today preparing to place Madrid into a state of emergency so they can force residents to comply with strict Covid travel bans after the capital's highest court shot down the rules on Thursday.

Meanwhile anti-lockdown protesters took to the streets of Paris - where bars have been shuttered since Monday, as the cities of Lille, Grenoble, Lyon and Saint-Etienne were placed under similar measures on Thursday evening. Health minister Olivier Veran also placed hospitals in Paris on alert, saying that 40 per cent of intensive care beds are now occupied by coronavirus patients as 'more and more people [are] infected'.

Case totals across Europe have been rising sharply in recent weeks, driven in large part by mass testing which is now detecting infections that were missed during the first wave.

However, recent upticks in hospital admissions and deaths suggest the virus is also starting to spread more rapidly than it did in the summer as schools and universities reopen, and people travel back into offices. The challenge for European leaders now is to determine how much of the rise is down to testing, how much is down to contagion, and how best to respond.

Germany, which has been credited with having one of the best virus responses in the world, recorded another rise in cases on Friday with 4,516 new infections logged, following a 40 per cent jump in infections on Thursday. Angela Merkel was due to meet virtually with mayors from 11 major cities in the country on Friday to discuss extra measures to bring infections back under control.

Germany's disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, has warned that a number of cities have passed the threshold of 50 cases per 100,000 residents, seen as a precursor to uncontrolled spread. Berlin's figure was at 51 per 100,000 residents, while Bremen was at 53.9, and Cologne and Essen were close, with 49.8 and 48.4 per 100,000 respectively, the centre said. Berlin's mayor Michael Mueller told reporters Friday that large gatherings had to be avoided and people need to take precautions on public transport, among other things.

The Netherlands also reported another steep rise in cases with more than 5,800 infections reported for the first time in the pandemic, which has seen it become one of the world's infection hotspots when cases are measured against the size of the population.

While the country previously bragged of its mask-free 'intelligent lockdown' approach, ministers are now considering bringing in laws requiring the use of face coverings. More blame has been laid at the door of the country's testing regime, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte admitting that capacity has fallen well short of demand. In some cases people have been unable to get tests and in others have been left waiting days for results, meaning that by the time a person knows they are infected, they may have passed the disease along to others.

Elsewhere Italy's second wave of coronavirus infections have hit a new high, with 4,458 confirmed cases, the highest number of new infections since April. Italy's southern Campania region added 757 cases, with the virus bearing down in southern regions far less equipped to handle it.

Campania, the region that surrounds Naples, in recent days has ordered bars and restaurants closed by 11 p.m. and was nearly a week ahead of the national government in mandating masks outdoors. Campania's governor, Vincenzo De Luca has warned: 'Let's understand one another: We have to return to the rigorous behavior of February, March and April, otherwise we'll be hurt.'

In Paris on Thursday night, anti-lockdown protesters took to the streets of the capital last night to stage a mock funeral to represent the death of their industry. Footage and images from the scene show bar and restaurant staff carrying a coffin draped in a black cloth in silence along the street based in the hip neighbourhood of the 11th arrondissement of Paris.

Other 'funeralgoers' can be seen lifting smoke flares high in the air as the procession marches down the street. The people carrying the coffin then lay it on the ground, before unveiling the words 'Bars, Restos, Clubs', which are scrawled on the side of the box.

Meanwhile Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was holding an emergency Cabinet meeting on Friday morning to consider declaring a state of emergency for Madrid and its surrounding region in order to impose stronger anti-virus restrictions on the reluctant regional governors. The meeting comes a day after a Madrid court struck down a national government order that imposed a partial lockdown in the Spanish capital and its suburbs.

The ruling sided with regional officials who had appealed the application of stricter measures against one of Europe's most worrying virus clusters. The judges said that travel restrictions in and out of the cities might be necessary to fight the spread of the coronavirus, but that under the current legal framework they were violating residents' 'fundamental rights.'

The national government said late Thursday night that Sanchez had spoken by telephone with Madrid regional chief Isabel Diaz Ayuso and gave her an ultimatum. Sanchez told Ayuso that if she did not quickly tighten measures or make a formal request for his national government to declare a state of emergency, then his government would go ahead and declare it anyway.

A state of emergency gives the national government extraordinary powers in time of crises to temporarily limit the constitutional rights of citizens. In this case, it would limit their freedom of movement by restarting perimeter controls on Madrid and some nearby towns also suffering from high contagion rates.

A much stricter nationwide state of emergency that began with home confinements was applied by the government from March until June to successfully rein in Spain's first wave of the virus that causes COVID-19. Since it ended, the regions have regained control of health policy and their responses to controlling outbreaks has varied. Some have applied perimeter lockdowns around areas or towns with viral clusters.

The Madrid region has a 14-day infection rate of 591 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, more than twice Spain's national average of 257 and five times the European average rate of 113 for the week ending Sept. 27. The bickering between Madrid's conservative-led government and Sanchez, the leader of the Socialist Party, has angered many Spaniards who find it petty to use a public health tragedy for political skirmishing.

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The US is hitting over sixty thousand new covid cases once again, 23 states at over a thousand new cases today...As reported the UK and Europe are seeing surges in numbers...

These are today's numbers from Worldometer...

Covid is killing minks as well as humans...

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At least 12,000 mink dead as coronavirus spreads among fur farms in Utah and Wisconsin

Thousands of mink bred in fur farms in Utah and Wisconsin have died from coronavirus, after scientists believe the virus was introduced to the animals by humans. The outbreak was first noticed in Utah in August. Ten thousand mink have now died in Utah fur farms, a spokesperson from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) told CBS News on Friday.

This week Wisconsin, the largest fur-producing state, became the second state to confirm a Covid-19 outbreak among their mink population, with one farm affected so far. Two thousand mink in the one farm - which is now under quarantine - have died, the channel reported.

Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) said that it had implemented new measures for "carcass disposal, cleaning and disinfecting the animal areas, and protecting human and animal health." On Wednesday a third state, Michigan, confirmed that mink there had tested positive too.

Scientists believe that humans passed the virus to the animals, and not the other way round.

This week researchers from University College London (UCL) concluded that 26 animals, including farm animals like pigs, horses and sheep, may be vulnerable to infection with coronavirus and could “warrant further investigation and possible monitoring”.

Professor Christine Orengo, from UCL Structural and Molecular Biology and lead author of the study, said: “We wanted to look beyond just the animals that had been studied experimentally, to see which animals might be at risk of infection, and would warrant further investigation and possible monitoring.

“The animals we identified may be at risk of outbreaks that could threaten endangered species or harm the livelihood of farmers.” She pointed towards cases of coronavirus outbreaks in mink farms that show some animals may act as “reservoirs” of Covid-19, with the potential to re-infect humans.

The scale of the outbreak among mink is unclear, as the fur farms say it is impossible to test every single animal.

The Fur Commission USA, which represents mink farmers, say that there are approximately 275 mink farms in 23 states across the county, producing about three million pelts annually, with a value of more than $300m.

Fur from the dead, infected mink is still being used commercially, and Fur Commission USA told the AP that the fur is processed to eliminate all traces of the virus before it is used for clothing.

As with humans, younger mink are less likely to contract the virus, and most deaths occur among older mink, ages one to four years old. Difficulty breathing is a common symptom, but the virus progresses extremely quickly, killing most infected mink by the next day. Researchers have reported that mink are especially susceptible to the virus due to a specific protein in their lungs.

The Netherlands has now moved up its deadline to end mink fur farming by three years to prevent future outbreaks, and killed thousands of animals earlier this year to stop the spread. Spain followed a similar path, and last week Denmark announced a million mink will be killed to stop the outbreak among animals there.

The Humane Society of the United States has called the inaction by the US government "indefensible." "Fur farms are miserable places for wild animals like mink," Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the US. "Now, with the coronavirus outbreak killing the animals by the thousands, the suffering has only intensified.

"The only way to end the dual problems of pandemic outbreaks on fur farms and the animal suffering inherent in fur farming is to close down this industry for good."

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I heard awhile back the covid had infected cats in the US some big tigers . One at Bronx zoo they think was infected by the zookeeper. https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploa...r-bronx-zoo-61.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=662