Thread: Covid 19 C&P

The pandemic has revealed a new kind of National power.
When the coronavirus arrived, as the historian Sulmaan Khan has observed, it “didn’t care how many aircraft carriers you had or how many Confucius Institutes you could stick up around the world or what size your economy was. The virus asked simply how your least wealthy people would be treated in times of illness. How effectively you could trace the contacts of those it afflicted. How swiftly your medical system could cope with unexpected demands. It wouldn’t spare you completely, of course, but if you could meet it with a dull, technocratic honesty, it would be easier to survive.”



The Pandemic Is Revealing a New Form of National Power - Defense One

Does Coronavirus mass testing make sense?
Austria plans to introduce mass testing for COVID-19, a measure already taken by Luxembourg and Slovakia. Should larger countries like Germany also make the effort to check their entire population?


Does coronavirus mass testing make sense? | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 17.11.2020

The US passes 250,000 deaths .
The United States passed a grim milestone on Wednesday, hitting 250,000 coronavirus-related deaths, with the number expected to keep climbing steeply as infections surge nationwide.
Experts predict that the country that will soon be reporting 2,000 deaths a day or more, matching or exceeding the spring peak, and that 100,000 to 200,000 more Americans could die in the coming months.
There is always a lag in deaths, compared with the rate of infection and hospitalizations, and with the latter measure now hitting records every day — 76,830 Americans were hospitalized on Tuesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project — the death toll is certain to go on rising.



Live Covid-19 Updates: NYC Public Schools Will Close Indefinitely on Thursday - The New York Times

Seeking a post COVID-19 reset for the World.


Think tanks and key leaders from around the world will meet in a massive online event this week to search for ways to reset history in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Friday 20 November, ASPI will take part in the ‘Global Town Hall’, a set of moderated discussions on foreign and security policy matters with a strong focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
It will take in the pandemic, the implications of climate change and cooperative measures that might head off disaster, and the impact of nationalism and populism, and examine the likely role of the United States under Joe Biden and in the fallout from Donald Trump’s reign.


Seeking a post-Covid-19 reset for the world | The Strategist

SA health says COVID - positive man was a casual contact, and not told to quarantine.

SA Health says COVID-positive shopper was not told to quarantine (thenewdaily.com.au)

California's ICU beds could be full before Xmas.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States for November surpassed four million on Saturday, more than double the record set in October of 1.9 million cases. And the sharp escalation is likely to continue after Americans traveled by the millions for the long Thanksgiving weekend.
By contrast, after three weeks of lockdown in England, the number of new cases has fallen 30 percent, according to new data.



Gov. Newsom warns California’s I.C.U. beds could be full before Christmas.













A Covid-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles. California is one of several states that had appeared to have gained control of the virus, only to see it spread rapidly throughout the fall. Credit...Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

California’s intensive care units could be overloaded by the middle of December, and its hospitals could be dangerously close to full by Christmas, according to sobering projections that Gov. Gavin Newsom presented on Monday.
And the strain could be even worse in the hardest-hit areas, like the San Joaquin Valley, which was projected to reach 83 percent of its hospital capacity by Dec. 24.

“If these trends continue, California will need to take drastic action,” Mr. Newsom said during a virtual briefing, adding that more severe restrictions, including full stay-at-home orders, could come within the next few days.
California is one of several states that had appeared to have gained control of the virus, only to see it spread rapidly throughout the fall. On Sunday it became the first state to record over 100,000 cases in just a week, according to a New York Times database.

A University of Arizona Covid-19 modeling team recently urged the state of Arizona to take action to stem hospitalizations or else “risk a catastrophe on a scale of the worst natural disaster the state has ever experienced.”
And in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the state will take a series of emergency actions as it faces a new “nightmare of overwhelmed hospitals.”

Already, 99 percent of California’s residents are under a curfew that bans them from leaving their homes to gather or to go to nonessential businesses after 10 p.m. Los Angeles County health leaders have gone even further, announcing a ban on all gatherings in public or at private homes that goes into effect on Monday.
Officials had spent the weekend talking with local leaders and health care providers about their concerns, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of health and human services, who also spoke during the Monday briefing.
“Everything is on the table, in terms of how we guide the state through this,” he said. “And we want to make sure what we do is impactful and as time-limited as possible.”

But unlike early in the pandemic, when just a few coastal states bore the brunt, the governor noted that the tidal wave of cases slamming the entire country has limited the likelihood of aid from the federal government or other states.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States for November surpassed four million on Saturday, more than double the record set in October of 1.9 million cases. And the sharp escalation is likely to continue after Americans traveled by the millions for the long Thanksgiving weekend.
By contrast, after three weeks of lockdown in England, the number of new cases has fallen 30 percent, according to new data.
Mr. Newsom emphasized that California will be able to build on work that the state began earlier this year, including a registry of retired or otherwise non-practicing health care workers who would be willing to return to work. Eleven surge health care facilities could be prepared quickly to receive patients.
“We don’t anticipate this,” the governor said, referring to the alarming hospitalization figures. “I want folks to know we intend to bend this proverbial curve.”

That loud thud was a Nation coming back to Earth. Sweden is a text book case in motivated perception.

Garry Linnell: How Sweden's magic trick fooled the anti-lockdown brigade (thenewdaily.com.au)

In the USA, the free market approach to this pandemic isn't working.

The US health care system has always been unequal, but Covid-19 has revealed it to be absurd.

Take testing, for instance. The number of tests being done has increased by more than an order of magnitude since last spring, yet we still don’t have enough to meet demand. The privileged and connected, however, don’t seem to be having any problems. Billionaire Elon Musk recently tweeted that he had taken four rapid antigen tests for Covid in succession, and then sent off multiple PCR tests (with an enviable 24-hour turnaround) for confirmation.

Musk may be an eccentric example of how the wealthy and powerful cut to the front of the testing line, but he’s not the biggest offender. More uncomfortable is the use of widespread testing to keep college campuses and professional sports open. Schools like the University of Illinois can run more than 10,000 tests per day, while nursing homes—the places hardest hit by the disease—struggle to keep their turnaround times acceptable. This is America’s free market health care system at work: If you can pay more or have the right connections, you get what you need; if you don’t, you suffer.

The Free-Market Approach to This Pandemic Isn't Working | WIRED