The World-O-Meter Thread

[Jokodo]

Europe was yesterday. China was the day before yesterday.

Today's the Americas.

I may be wrong, but I believe that this is the first day where 5 of the top 10 countries in terms of new (recorded) deaths are in the Western hemisphere (USA and Brazil top the list, with Ecuador on place 5, Canada 7, and Mexico 9).

 

[Elixir]

05-12

Europe was yesterday. China was the day before yesterday.

Today's the Americas.

I may be wrong, but I believe that this is the first day where 5 of the top 10 countries in terms of new (recorded) deaths are in the Western hemisphere (USA and Brazil top the list, with Ecuador on place 5, Canada 7, and Mexico 9).

Canada and Mexico got passed lat in the day. Nut no doubt that the USA is the epicenter of a global pandemic.
Sorted by descending daily deaths for a refreshing change.

 

[ZiprHead]

https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163_98173_99207---,00.html?fbclid=IwAR39IgzHABBPM6q-8xclxj04ABQHt_h7sBOZz0di70ZLEOQo4DTvSV3_OR0

Michigan is doing quite well. From a high of almost 1300 cases per day to just 31 new cases today.

 

[Elixir]

https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163_98173_99207---,00.html?fbclid=IwAR39IgzHABBPM6q-8xclxj04ABQHt_h7sBOZz0di70ZLEOQo4DTvSV3_OR0

Michigan is doing quite well. From a high of almost 1300 cases per day to just 31 new cases today.

New York and the west coast states all have declining new case numbers. The rising stars include Illinois (yesterday's surprise runaway leader), Tennessee, Texas, Florida and Georgia (three that religiously under-report).

 

[lpetrich]

3 Baltic States Announced a ‘Travel Bubble.’ What Is It and Could It Work in the U.S.? - The New York Times - "Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced a plan to allow for internal travel, and Australia and New Zealand are likely to follow suit. But in other parts of the world, establishing such a bubble would be tricky."

Like between US states.

“If any states created a bubble to keep out residents of disfavored states, the action would be open to challenge that the bubble violated U.S. Constitutional principles of equal treatment,” said Cam Winton, a lawyer with the firm Dorsey & Whitney, who has been advising people dealing with state-imposed coronavirus rules. “Those principles are enshrined in the Privileges and Immunities Clause, the Equal Protection Clause and the so-called Dormant Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from putting undue burdens on interstate commerce.”

Under its police power, a state can deploy nondiscriminatory public health measures like taking the temperature of everyone entering the state or requiring them to go into quarantine, as long as it imposes that rule on every person, regardless of where the person is from.

...
In the United States, measures created by some municipalities in recent months have created de facto bubbles, but the porousness of these varies from place to place and would be difficult, if not impossible, to make official without infringing upon the rights of states and citizens, experts said.

Then discussing Key West, a town with a de facto bubble.

The West-Coast states are another potential bubble, since they have a lot of mountains and low population density to the east of them -- and in their eastern parts as well.

 

[Elixir]

The West-Coast states are another potential bubble, since they have a lot of mountains and low population density to the east of them -- and in their eastern parts as well.

Meh. Bubble schmubble.
I'm in a rural high altitude county, hours from anywhere most people have heard of. Go downtown (town pop. is less than 7000) and there are more out of state plates than in-state, despite lodging restrictions, stay at home orders etc. etc.. Really pisses me off.

 

[Elixir]

1772 dead brought out in the US today.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

3 Baltic States Announced a ‘Travel Bubble.’ What Is It and Could It Work in the U.S.? - The New York Times - "Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced a plan to allow for internal travel, and Australia and New Zealand are likely to follow suit. But in other parts of the world, establishing such a bubble would be tricky."

Like between US states.

“If any states created a bubble to keep out residents of disfavored states, the action would be open to challenge that the bubble violated U.S. Constitutional principles of equal treatment,” said Cam Winton, a lawyer with the firm Dorsey & Whitney, who has been advising people dealing with state-imposed coronavirus rules. “Those principles are enshrined in the Privileges and Immunities Clause, the Equal Protection Clause and the so-called Dormant Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from putting undue burdens on interstate commerce.”

Under its police power, a state can deploy nondiscriminatory public health measures like taking the temperature of everyone entering the state or requiring them to go into quarantine, as long as it imposes that rule on every person, regardless of where the person is from.

...
In the United States, measures created by some municipalities in recent months have created de facto bubbles, but the porousness of these varies from place to place and would be difficult, if not impossible, to make official without infringing upon the rights of states and citizens, experts said.

Then discussing Key West, a town with a de facto bubble.

The West-Coast states are another potential bubble, since they have a lot of mountains and low population density to the east of them -- and in their eastern parts as well.

This is exactly how I have expected things to go. The countries that are serious about the virus will only allow in without quarantine those from other countries that are also serious about it. The deniers will end up shut out until their the harm of being isolated makes them behave or a vaccine replaces the quarantine requirement.

 

[lpetrich]

The West-Coast states are another potential bubble, since they have a lot of mountains and low population density to the east of them -- and in their eastern parts as well.

Meh. Bubble schmubble.
I'm in a rural high altitude county, hours from anywhere most people have heard of. Go downtown (town pop. is less than 7000) and there are more out of state plates than in-state, despite lodging restrictions, stay at home orders etc. etc.. Really pisses me off.

Those long-distance travelers?

I suspect that that may become a sticking point in reopening efforts, because some states' politicians may object to other states excluding their inhabitants.

 

[Elixir]

The West-Coast states are another potential bubble, since they have a lot of mountains and low population density to the east of them -- and in their eastern parts as well.

Meh. Bubble schmubble.
I'm in a rural high altitude county, hours from anywhere most people have heard of. Go downtown (town pop. is less than 7000) and there are more out of state plates than in-state, despite lodging restrictions, stay at home orders etc. etc.. Really pisses me off.

Those long-distance travelers?

I suspect that that may become a sticking point in reopening efforts, because some states' politicians may object to other states excluding their inhabitants.

Well then we just gots to build us a bigdam WALL is what.
Mostly long distance, yes. Many Texas plates, but FL, OH - pretty much you name it. But been noticing a lot of "fleet" (rental) plates as well. God only knows where those people flew in from.

 

[Elixir]

America first in too many ways to mention.
Illinois still leading the US case race with over 3200 new today.

 

[bilby]

3 Baltic States Announced a ‘Travel Bubble.’ What Is It and Could It Work in the U.S.? - The New York Times - "Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced a plan to allow for internal travel, and Australia and New Zealand are likely to follow suit. But in other parts of the world, establishing such a bubble would be tricky."

Like between US states.

“If any states created a bubble to keep out residents of disfavored states, the action would be open to challenge that the bubble violated U.S. Constitutional principles of equal treatment,” said Cam Winton, a lawyer with the firm Dorsey & Whitney, who has been advising people dealing with state-imposed coronavirus rules. “Those principles are enshrined in the Privileges and Immunities Clause, the Equal Protection Clause and the so-called Dormant Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from putting undue burdens on interstate commerce.”

Under its police power, a state can deploy nondiscriminatory public health measures like taking the temperature of everyone entering the state or requiring them to go into quarantine, as long as it imposes that rule on every person, regardless of where the person is from.

...
In the United States, measures created by some municipalities in recent months have created de facto bubbles, but the porousness of these varies from place to place and would be difficult, if not impossible, to make official without infringing upon the rights of states and citizens, experts said.

Then discussing Key West, a town with a de facto bubble.

The West-Coast states are another potential bubble, since they have a lot of mountains and low population density to the east of them -- and in their eastern parts as well.

This is exactly how I have expected things to go. The countries that are serious about the virus will only allow in without quarantine those from other countries that are also serious about it. The deniers United States of America will end up shut out until their the harm of being isolated makes them behave or a vaccine replaces the quarantine requirement.

FTFY

Make America Pariahs Again.

Are you tired of winning yet?

 

[Elixir]

Make America Pariahs Again.

Again? I don't remember the first time. This feels quite new to me.

Are you tired of winning yet?

I'm heartsick for the sacrifices that have been made, as it seems it was all in vain.
Our so-called leadership has given up. Trump wants this nation to close its eyes, stop counting cases and deaths and pretend all is well.
And there are enough idiot followers to make that work, right up until we get what we were trying to avoid.
Once there are so many bodies rotting in the streets that even the morons with Trump's dick in their mouths can smell it, there will be nothing to be done but blame Obama.
I know that most of the dead will be the "expendables", but hopefully a few oligarchs will end up on ventilators at the very least.

 

[Elixir]

The rising "New Cases" star on the world stage is Mexico, where the reported number of deaths is likely a minor fraction of the actual number. Their reporting systems as dysfunctional as their mortuaries, crematoriums are overwhelmed and hearses line up around the block. They can't even count the dead, which makes the whole situation just an abstraction to most Mexicans, and one that can still be ignored.
With over 125 million people and a healthcare system possibly even worse than that of the US, there's a lot of upside to the possible body count. So we should get a good preview of what's coming our way with this Brave New Re-Opened World. Not from the stats, but from the live feeds.

 

[lpetrich]

Brazil health minister resigns after a month on the job as COVID-19 deaths surge | CBC News

Brazil's health minister Nelson Teich handed in his resignation on Friday after less than a month on the job, adding to turmoil in the government's handling of the novel coronavirus as the country becomes a global hot spot for the pandemic.

Teich, who disagreed with right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, has submitted his resignation and will hold a news conference later Friday, his office said. Bolsonaro has been pushing in recent days for wider use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, which Teich resisted.

They have also disagreed on the pace of reopening the economy. Last week, the minister said he was not consulted before Bolsonaro issued a decree allowing gyms, beauty parlours and hairdressers to open for business.

Teich is the second health minister to resign amid the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil. In mid-April he replaced Nelson Mandetta, who also resisted broader use of hydroxychloroquine and disagreed with Bolsonaro's argument to do away with quarantines and other coronavirus restrictions.

JB goes through 2 Health Ministers without taking much of a hint amidst the growing death toll of the virus.

'The ship is sinking': Bolsonaro battles to block foul-mouthed cabinet video | World news | The Guardian

A two-hour video of a heated and expletive-ridden cabinet meeting chaired by President Jair Bolsonaro last month has become the subject of an extraordinary political arm-wrestle, exposing the intrigues and eccentricities at the centre of Brazilian power.

“This meeting is the perfect portrait of the Bolsonaro administration,” said Bruno Boghossian, a columnist for the Folha de São Paulo newspaper in Brazil’s political capital, Brasília.

“Conspiracy theories, ideological issues, made-up battles, and culture wars – all right there at the heart of government.”

With such potty-mouthed assessments as

“I’m not going to wait for [the federal police] to fuck my family and friends just for shits and giggles,” Bolsonaro fumes at one point, according to the official account, apparently in reference to police inquiries involving his politician sons.

Elsewhere Bolsonaro allegedly brands São Paulo’s governor a “shit”, calls Rio’s governor “manure” and seems to recognize the chaos engulfing his government, as it faces economic meltdown and a public health crisis that has claimed more than 14,000 Brazilian lives.

...
The foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, also reportedly attacked Beijing, accusing it of responsibility for the spread of what he calls the “communavirus”. (One report this week suggested China’s ambassador to Brazil had unfollowed Araújo on Twitter because of the alleged comments.)

...
Another cameo reportedly comes from the education minister, Abraham Weintraub. The magazine Veja has reported that during the assembly Weintraub calls for the imprisonment of Brazil’s supreme court judges and calls his country’s capital a “cancer” and “crap”.

Another outlet, UOL, claimed Weintraub admitted “hating” the expression “indigenous peoples”.

“My remarks are republican and polite,” Weintraub said on Twitter this week, adding that he was not in the habit of using blue language.

Bolsonaro’s economy minister, Paulo Guedes, apparently is. On Friday he was reported to have told the meeting the government needed to hurry up and sell “the fucking Bank of Brazil”.

 

[lpetrich]

Fearing second wave, China's Wuhan ramps up coronavirus tests - Reuters

WUHAN, China (Reuters) - Authorities in Wuhan have tested over 3 million residents for the coronavirus in April and May and aim to test all of the rest, state media said, as the city at the epicentre of the original outbreak faces the threat of a second wave of infections.

...
Fears of a second wave just as businesses and schools reopen flared at the weekend after Wuhan reported a cluster of cases, the first since a lockdown was lifted on April 8.

Those infections were previously asymptomatic - people who had the virus but had shown no fever or other symptoms.

WHO warns coronavirus could kill 150,000 in Africa, as Burundi expels experts | News | DW | 15.05.2020

COVID-19 could infect a quarter of a billion people in Africa and kill 150,000 within a year, a WHO model has projected. Amid rising death tolls, Burundi expelled experts from WHO, drawing international condemnation.

Brazil and Mexico report record surge in coronavirus cases as Latin America reels - Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Brazil and Mexico on Thursday reported a record one-day rise in new coronavirus cases, just as leaders of both countries intensified attempts to reopen their economies even as the spread of the virus in Latin America is seemingly gathering pace.

Brazilian right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro and Mexico’s leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have frequently swum against the tide of scientific opinion since the crisis broke out, first by playing down the threat of the virus and more recently by focusing on reopening their economies despite rising cases.

• Brazil: 202,918 confirmed cases, 13,944 new cases, 13,933 deaths
• Mexico: 42,595 confirmed cases, 2,409 new cases, 4,477 deaths, 257 new deaths

What a horrible disaster

 

[lpetrich]

Trent on Twitter: "@EmilyGorcenski @AprilDalaman I keep referring people to what just happened in south Korea. One man one pub crawl later now 7200 people now are affected. But I'm sure we have nothing to worry about, we Americans don't EVER bar hop here, right? https://t.co/2IWB5pwsqN" / Twitter

Covid 19 Coronavirus: South Korea hit by superspreader after bars opened - NZ Herald

South Korea was celebrating. Covid-19 was down for the count. Businesses were back. Bars were open. But it took just one unwitting party animal to wreck it all. A dramatic "superspreader" event in Seoul has reminded us just how contagious the virus behind the pandemic is. And it's a warning of what lies ahead as New Zealand and Australia begin to relax their lockdowns.

Just days after reopening its 2100 nightclubs and bars, the capital of South Korea has ordered them to close once again. Almost 6000 venues in the surrounding province also are shuttered. At the weekend, the country's health system reported the sudden appearance of more than 40 new coronavirus cases. It was the first time in a month the figure had spiked so high.

Contact tracers immediately went to work. What had caused this disturbing turnaround? Turns out, it was mostly due to just one 29-year-old man. He was desperate to let his hair down after long weeks confined to his home. He went on an epic pub crawl to make up for the lost time. In the process, he infected at least a dozen fellow partygoers. Some 30 infections are linked to the five nightclubs he visited. A further 7200 people may have been exposed.

Now South Korea is bracing for a dreaded "second wave" of pandemic cases.

Over 24,000 linked to Itaewon cluster tested: Seoul mayor | Yonhap News Agency

More than 24,000 people connected with the recent new coronavirus outbreak in Seoul's popular multicultural neighborhood of Itaewon have been tested for COVID-19, thanks to the adoption of free and anonymous tests, the city mayor said Thursday.

"The number of accumulated tests related to the Itaewon outbreak has reached 24,082 so far," Park Won-soon, mayor of Seoul, said in an interview with TBS radio.

Cases linked to bars and nightclubs in Itaewon hit 120 on Wednesday as secondary infections surfaced across the country. Infections in Seoul accounted for more than half of the cases at 70.

 

[lpetrich]

A tale of three cities by Mano Singham
notes
A tale of three cities: the places transformed by pandemics across history

Marseille, France in 1720 - after two centuries of keeping plague out by quarantining ships when people on board were suspected of being infected, someone decided to let in such a ship because it was carrying variable cargo. The city then suffered a plague which killed 50,000 of its 80,000 inhabitants.

Hamburg, Germany in 1892 - a major cholera outbreak there because its city leaders did not want to spend the necessary money to build a water filtration system for the dirty water of a nearby river - it would involve raising taxes. The believed that miasmas (a sort of bad air) spread disease, a theory that had become discredited by then.

Östersund, Sweden in 1918 - some barracks were hastily built for soldiers in a military mobilization for possible involvement in WWI, though Sweden succeeded in staying out of that war. The 1918 flu spread rapidly through there, and it led to demonstrations for better working and living conditions -- demonstrations that were put down violently. This violence was shocking enough to provoke reforms that led to Sweden's present-day welfare state.

 

[Elixir]

In the vein of Lpetrich's post above, I could not help noticing that among the "top ten" in today's sheet (sorted by new case#), there are three countries reporting deaths that are more than a tenth of their total reported cases.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In the vein of Lpetrich's post above, I could not help noticing that among the "top ten" in today's sheet (sorted by new case#), there are three countries reporting deaths that are more than a tenth of their total reported cases.

Maybe my math is off, but I don't see one with that criteria. The highest is about 6 or 7 percent.