Coronavirus

Somehow senile Joe Biden knew this was coming. Check out this editorial from him from January 27th:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...mn/4581710002/

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Originally Posted by broncofan

Both he and De Blasio said that. I'm not trying to brag but I posted about asymptomatic cases in the politics forum on February 27th. I'm not a doctor, have no science background, and am not responsible for the public's welfare. Total dummies.

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Fitzcarraldo: And it looks like De Blasio and Kemp have a contender for the title of dumbest elected official. Statements like this endanger a lot of people. Scary.

https://twitter.com/KevinCate/status...65705503932420

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Originally Posted by broncofan

Australia IS well ahead of us in terms of not having nearly as many infections per capita nor deaths per capita at peak. This is not to diminish what you guys have done because you've clearly handled this situation better than most countries, but what effect do you think weather has?

I've read a couple of articles that basically say that warmer weather and humidity doesn't make the virus go away but may make a slight difference in transmissibility which can matter a lot in aggregate. Has there been any talk of that?

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I haven't seen any discussion of that. Until 3 weeks ago we were on a fairly similar trajectory to other countries, and it was warmer back then. If it's a factor it has probably been far less important than other things.

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Originally Posted by Fitzcarraldo

The Australian population, in general, is more dispersed than in the US. Big cities like Melbourne and Sydney are fairly dense, but most of the country isn't. Surely that's a factor.

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Australia is actually more urbanised than the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_by_country Nearly 60% of the population live in 5 big cities with over 1 million population. Average population density is very low, but 70% of the country is virtually uninhabitable due to lack of water.

It is true that the largest Australian cities are probably less densely populated than the largest US cities, so there is some advantage, but less than commonly assumed.

What city are you in Flighy?

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Originally Posted by broncofan

Australia IS well ahead of us in terms of not having nearly as many infections per capita nor deaths per capita at peak. This is not to diminish what you guys have done because you've clearly handled this situation better than most countries, but what effect do you think weather has?

I've read a couple of articles that basically say that warmer weather and humidity doesn't make the virus go away but may make a slight difference in transmissibility which can matter a lot in aggregate. Has there been any talk of that?

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I wish that was true as I love Australia and Australians. Unfortunately the Tsunami wave has not yet hot Australia. Australia will see its cases skyrocket once they go through their own winter in the coming few months. Luckily they have few months to prepare and get those PPE and ventilators ready.

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Originally Posted by Fitzcarraldo

Somehow senile Joe Biden knew this was coming. Check out this editorial from him from January 27th:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...mn/4581710002/

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Didn't he call Trump's action to shut all travel from China on February 6th Xenophobic and uncalled for. Could you imagine the cases we would have if he was President!

Looking back, I think most politicians called it wrong, even some in the medical profession. Simple reason, they did not want to contemplate the worst at that stage. They tightened their buttocks, clenched their jaws, and put their hands together to pray that it not happen here. It happened.

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Originally Posted by fred41

Don’t want to overburden this thread Stavros, but I didn’t want to leave your question hanging either.

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Agreed, the topic is off piste. But a fascnating post with some insights I could not know from here. Many thanks, and stay well!

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Looking back, I think most politicians called it wrong, even some in the medical profession. Simple reason, they did not want to contemplate the worst at that stage. They tightened their buttocks, clenched their jaws, and put their hands together to pray that it not happen here. It happened.

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There was a pretty broad consensus among epidemiologists pretty early on. Politicians who were saying reckless things in February and March really have no excuse for themselves. There's a doctor on television here called Dr. Drew who repeatedly said that covid-19 is less virulent than the flu and in February said people had a greater chance of getting hit by an asteroid than dying of it. He has no excuse for himself and his words almost certainly caused death.

By the time the virus was out of China, which had an unbelievably strict lockdown as they were bleaching the streets, what basis did anyone have for not believing it would spread? What basis did anyone have for not thinking it was deadly when the numbers in every health system looked ugly?

Almost all of the people who want to open up the economy without any plan for controlling resurgent outbreaks are people who had no clue even in early March this was going to be bad.

https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/stat...37226268983297