WTF :2019-nCoV NovaCoronaVirus Thread

[dZeus]

Where I live we're now at 255 per 100000 for the Covid19 incidence rate, just behind Paris at 260.

Seems like one of the highest incidence rates in Europe.

[VJ]

Orange and red mean you can only travel abroad if you have completed test in EU within last 48h. Without the test you need to quarantine for 10-14 days upon arrival. For orange in Schengen there is no quarantine. For orange elsewhere there is. Germany put some of our regions on red/orange list. We have Poland on green list and some western EU regions on red list.

That I know, I meant that I don't know fully how it affects local restrictions. For sure here it affects the public gatherings/weddings (different limits on max. number of attendees compared to non-red zones) and I believe in red zones masks are mandatory everywhere (not 100%).

[Umfriend]

Not sure. Positive tests have been going up since early August I think and it took longer for hospitalizations and ICU to catch up than I expected. But people find it hard to grasp the power of exponential demise, err, growth!

Since last Tuesday, national measures have been taken. We wanted a regional approach but basically we are just one region so that's not very easy. Bars/restaurants now close at 22:00. Luckily, it does appear that more people revert to working at home if possible. I am hopeful we'll see declining positive rates as of next Sunday or so with hospital/ICU following about two weeks later. Masks are still not required other than in public transport but are now highly recommended in shops and other closed buildings. This is quite the kerfuffle: The government wanted shops to choose and regulate but that is asking for trouble. Indeed, even where authorities intervene (e.g. a wedding party with 180 guests), no fines are written nor arrests made because "it is not feasible". So now, if some of those guests turn out positive, all of a sudden we need to contact-trace 180 people and beyond. Had they been fined then at least we'd have a starting point.

I could do with a vaccine...

[Umfriend]

Where I live we're now at 255 per 100000 for the Covid19 incidence rate, just behind Paris at 260.

Seems like one of the highest incidence rates in Europe.

So I am a bit confused. We are at 26.3 positive tests per day per 100K. We believe we have 840 contagious people per 100K. Still below where we believe we were in March. Our R is estimated to be 1.27.

[dZeus]

So I am a bit confused. We are at 26.3 positive tests per day per 100K. We believe we have 840 contagious people per 100K. Still below where we believe we were in March. Our R is estimated to be 1.27.

from how I've understood 'incidence per 100K', an incidence of 255 per 100000 means that in the metropolitan area where I live (about 1.4M population), there have been 3570 positive daily tests on average over the past 7 days.

[Umfriend]

I see. Our dashboard does not do 7-day averages I think but we're about the same, a bit over 255 I think. Our R is supposed to be declining a bit, 1.17 now but I guess it could be statistical noise as well. It would be a bit early given we started to have some more restrictions (compared to end of June I think) last Tuesday.

Some people are getting agitated. Apparently, one of the best known, uhm, Covid-skeptics (Willem Engel) got physically attacked. Not good. Then again, his crew comprise many agitators so it is not totally unexpected.

Bankruptcies are very low since April. Support to business also keeps some living-dead alive. As if and when we can get back to normal life (if ever) and support stops, we'll see a weird kind of split where some business will be doing very well while others fail very miserably.

[VJ]

Poland uses an internal coding for the different regions (red, yellow, at risk of becoming yellow, clear). Until today, there were a few red zones, a few yellow zones and some at risk; the majority was clear. This changed - a bit out of the blue - when today they declared the whole country as a yellow zone (plus some red zones). It affects mask wearing, public gatherings, limitations of people in rooms and various things.

Belgium imposed a closure of bars, pubs, ... in the Brussels region and a curfew on restaurants (23.00). No alcohol in public places (restaurants can serve still).

[UtwigMU]

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-claims-it-foiled-plot-kidnap-michigan-governor

13 Charged In Foiled Militia Plot To Kidnap Michigan Governor

[MultimediaMan]

The Michigan Supreme Court got to her before those bozos. The FBI is going to have an interesting time pursuing this, because even though their actions were illegal (conspiracy), their grievances against her policies were totally and completely proven and adjudicated to be unconstitutional in court. So, they were correct on point, but on balance, they chose to plan to deal with it in an illegal way (which was doomed to failure, and one wonders if it was the just the beer talking - which is going to be their defense). The FBI used a Confidential Informant (CI), which IMMEDIATELY calls into question all evidence brought forth by the CI into the investigation. Confidential Informants are usually on the hook to a law enforcement agency for other infractions/ charges. Defense Attorneys will start with the CI's past criminal history and seek to bring forth any Quid Pro Quos in this case to the court. The case may fall apart right then and there. I'm not defending the idiots who conspired to do this (even in jest), but the FBI has a bad track record of trying to "make a case" where there is none.

[UtwigMU]

Doc hasn't posted in a week and now this news. I put the two and two together....
(joke, hope Doc is allright)

[Dr Mordrid]

I'm fine, just busy. Granddaughter had surgey (nothing life threatening) and our daughter & son-in-law bought a new house

In Michigan there are two sides to the militia group story;

1) inward facing, more a social group with behaviors like preppers and survivalists. Not all right wing & white, there are black, left leaning, mixed, and they tend to be law abiding/law & order types.

2) neo-nazis.

My radar started throwing alarms 3 days before this story broke; there was a shootout with the FBI in Madison Heights. The now deceased perp was #2 who had only been here a few years.

As MMM said, it's not as if Whitmer hasn't pissed off half the state.

[Umfriend]

Still, she has a postive favorability rating (51% to 41%). Imagine if a group of people were planning to storm the WH to kidnap Orange Blob and put him on trial. I suspect he has been rebuked by the SC at least once and favorability is at 43%-54%. Pissed off over half the entire country.

[Dr Mordrid]

Her approval rating has dropped from 68% to 51% and it's still trending down. She screwed the pooch, especially outstate. This may give her a temporary bump, but there's more bad news coming on the policy front.

[Dr Mordrid]

Tick-tock of the Medtronic-SpaceX ventilator collaboration, centering around increasing the production of proportional solenoid (PSOL) valves, which SpaceX already makes for Falcon 9 and Dragon. They worked in the Dragon Hatchery facility.

https://news.medtronic.com/A-Ventilator-Valve-Victory

>
“I have never seen anything like this in my life,” said [Matt] Phillips, who manages a ventilator research and development team in Carlsbad, California. “The partnership came together so quickly, and everyone moved with a sense of urgency and purpose because we knew people’s lives were on the line.”
>
“We had their best technicians. We had their best engineers,” he said. “Some of the people working on this project are the very people who just launched the first private commercial crew to the International Space Station. They brought the same kind of energy to this project that they brought to putting astronauts into space.”
>
“When it comes down to it, these ventilators are going to save lives,” Phillips said. “So every component has to be perfect. There is no room for error, which is why we put these valves through such an intensive testing protocol.”

The company will make approximately 9,000 valves for Medtronic ventilators over the next eight to ten weeks. That amount is roughly the same as the Galway plant produced last year.
>

[VJ]

Cases in Belgium are increasing rapidly, they are already considering a full lockdown. Main issue is that people are just not behaving, and the big increase is a result of that. Normal healthcare is already affected, non-urgent care and operations are postponed. (current number of hospitalized cases is still lower than in March)

In Poland it is also increasing rapidly, but people are behaving better than in Belgium. Today we woke up again in a nearly empty city. But here it seems that healthcare is already pushing the limits (current number of cases, both hospitalized and non-hospitalized are highest since the start).

It is starting to get to me... will I manage to see my parents again?