It's Time To Prepare For Coronavirus In Our Backyards Guys...

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Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency Nabs 100,000 Virus Test Kits

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...mpression=true

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Famed AIDS Researcher Is Racing to Find a Coronavirus Treatment

Columbia’s David Ho is leading a group that’s trying to compress a five-year process into one.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu..._medium=social

[lipripper]

So yesterday at work...they sent home all government employees to work from home untill notified when to come back to work....Us low life no count contractors....don't hear a word....nothing but crickets....I guess just the people with collars on their shirts matter....LMFAO

[Bouncer]

So yesterday at work...they sent home all government employees to work from home untill notified when to come back to work....Us low life no count contractors....don't hear a word....nothing but crickets....I guess just the people with collars on their shirts matter....LMFAO

so your still working or you aren't? i can't understand your scribble.

[Bouncer]

[redback]

The news the rest of the world is hearing paints a very different picture. The US score for healthcare access was way below the Global average. There is a lot of criticism from other countries regarding the way the US has handled things. Not saying anyone is perfect but there is a lot more involved than what that little picture show,

[decadecadeca]

Italy quarantined and locked down weeks ago but the deaths keep skyrocketing, not sure what's going on there.

[hitmansb]

I'm fearful that it's about to skyrocket in Canada and the US....travel should have been locked down BEFORE the peak travel season, starting with the earliest spring break dates for colleges/universities. All these assholes who just had to continue with their vacation plans are bringing it home to their communities this week. Government dropped the damn ball...shouldn't have even given them the option.

[Bouncer]

So far Singapore has done a helluva job at containing this thing...

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By Stefania Palma
Financial Times of London March 22nd 2020

Singaporean lawyer Iman Ibrahim was enjoying her snowboarding holiday in Italy, Switzerland and Austria this month when the coronavirus outbreak in Europe suddenly turned the trip into a race home.

With borders and mountain resorts closing around her and her flight back to Singapore cancelled, she drove to Germany and caught whatever plane she could back to the south-east Asian city state.

“The situation was changing every few hours . . . but once you’re back in Singapore you know everything is efficient and you will be looked after,” she said.

Ms Ibrahim did not know just how lucky she was to have made it home to the city, an international financial hub known for its quasi-authoritarian but effective government. Three days after her return, she tested positive for the coronavirus.

Singapore reported its first two deaths from the pathogen only this weekend, despite being one of the first countries to be hit by the outbreak outside China two months ago. That has made it one of the safest places in the world for patients of the disease, which has already killed almost 13,000 people globally.

The city’s success in dealing with the outbreak is attributed to the government’s speed in imposing border controls soon after the disease first erupted in China, meticulous tracing of known carriers, aggressive testing, a clear public communication strategy and a bit of luck.

“There is nothing they should be doing differently,” said Ying-Ru Jacqueline Lo, the World Health Organization representative to Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.

After controlling the first infections, Singapore now faces a second wave of cases from returning travellers, such as Ms Ibrahim. Authorities tightened travel restrictions and social distancing measures after the number of cases more than doubled to 432 in the past week. Yet many analysts believe Singapore will also bring the second wave under control.

Some of the city-state’s advantages in confronting the outbreak are difficult for larger western countries to replicate, such as its small population of 5.7m. It also learnt from its experience of Sars in 2003, which forced it to strengthen its healthcare system.

But similar to some Asian neighbours, such as Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, which have also managed to slow infection rates, Singapore’s example could contain lessons for the US and Europe, which have been caught wrongfooted by the virus.

As soon as information about the disease emerged from Wuhan, the city at the centre of China’s outbreak, Singapore began preparing by ramping up laboratory capacity for mass testing and developing its own test kits. This was seen as instrumental to containing infections and not overwhelming hospitals, a problem faced by countries such as Italy.

As of March 20, Singapore had conducted 38,000 tests, or about 6,800 examinations per million population, the health ministry said. That rate outpaced South Korea, the region’s poster child for fast and expansive testing, which had administered about 6,100 tests per million population in the same time frame.

“We used the lead time that China gave us by its massive shutdown to really refine our readiness,” said Dale Fisher, professor of infectious diseases at the National University of Singapore. “By the time we had one of our cases, we were able to do tests and within a week, tests were available in all major hospitals.”

Some experts say the fact most patients in the city have been below the age of 65 also helps explain the low number of deaths.

But Leo Yee Sin, executive director at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, which was set up after Sars and is helping spearhead Singapore’s response to the coronavirus, said: “I don’t consider us lucky. We are just giving the best of critical care to those affected.”

She said 15 per cent of confirmed cases were on ventilators in intensive care units, with two undergoing ecmo treatment, whereby blood was drained out of a person’s body and oxygenated in a machine.

The country’s business community also moved quickly. Soon after Singapore reported its first cases, banks divided their teams between offices, home working and emergency trading floors, many of which were in an outlying industrial area near the city’s Changi airport.

But while government measures to contain the first wave of infections were effective, they also raised questions about the invasiveness of the state. Surveillance cameras, police officers and contact-tracing teams have helped the government find 7,065 close contacts of confirmed cases, who have all been quarantined.

The government on Friday launched TraceTogether, an app that uses bluetooth to record distance between users and the duration of their encounters. People consent to give the information, which is encrypted and deleted after 21 days, to the health ministry. The department can contact users in case of “probable contact” with an infected individual.

“There’s a higher degree of acceptance of being monitored by the state,” said Chong Ja Ian, associate professor of political science at the NUS. “That makes some of the more invasive methods for contact tracing easier.”

But, he added, once such mechanisms are in place, “it opens the door for someone five to 10 years down the road to make use of this space in ways that are perhaps less noble”.

The government has also used a tough new online falsehoods law to correct misinformation in posts about the coronavirus, which critics have argued gave authorities too much latitude to censor.

And even though Singapore has been successful so far, the battle is far from over. To deal with a potential second wave of infections, the government on Sunday banned short-term visitors from entering or transiting through the country. Returning residents will have to undergo quarantine for 14 days at home or risk a fine of up to S$10,000 ($6,900) and/or six months in jail.

“This is going to be a long duration battle. We are only seeing the beginning,” Prof Leo said.

https://www.ft.com/content/ca4e0db0-...d-da70cff6e4d3

[jolter604]

http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/
So far LA is good until they start testing

[Bouncer]

Germany to Ban Gatherings of More Than Two People Nationwide

LOL...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...le-dpa-reports

Germany stopped short of confining people to their homes but will ban gatherings of more than two people as it tries to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.

Family members will be exempt from the rule, Armin Laschet, the premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said at a news conference Sunday, citing an agreement between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and regional leaders.

Merkel has been at odds with some of the nation’s 16 states about how best to contain the virus, which has infected almost 22,000 people and claimed more than 70 lives across Germany.

The chancellor is against a rigid lockdown, fearing that such a measure could backfire, but wants a more coordinated approach on restrictions to public life, according to a person familiar with her thinking.

[redback]

We just had all gyms, restaurants, cafes etc...all ordered to close. All state borders closed. Anyone trying to travel between states quarantined for 14 days. 105 billion dollar stimulus package going back to people who have lost their jobs, small businesses etc

[lipripper]

Shits crazy...

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Putin dons hazmat suit as Moscow says coronavirus outbreak is worse than it looks

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin donned a hazmat suit and respirator on Tuesday during a visit to a hospital treating coronavirus patients and the mayor of Moscow said the outbreak in the Russian capital was much worse than official figures showed.

The comments, by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, marked the strongest statement yet by Russian authorities suggesting they do not have a full grasp of how widely the coronavirus has spread throughout the world’s largest country by territory.

Russia has so far reported 495 cases of the virus, a figure that is much lower than in many European countries. One woman, who tested positive for the virus, has also died.

Putin has previously said the situation is under control, but some doctors have questioned how far official data reflects reality, a point taken up by Sobyanin, a close Putin ally, on Tuesday.

“A serious situation is unfolding,” Sobyanin told Putin at a meeting, saying the real number of cases was unclear but that they were increasing quickly.

Testing for the virus was at a low level, he said, and many people in the capital were self-isolating at their apartments or at homes in the countryside and not being tested after returning from trips abroad.

“...In reality there are significantly more of those who are sick,” Sobyanin said.

Putin on Tuesday donned a bright yellow full-body protective suit and respirator as he visited a hospital on the outskirts of Moscow that is treating coronavirus patients.

The Russian leader used the visit to praise doctors for their work, saying he had been impressed by what he had seen.

Separately, two senior lawmakers, including Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, on Tuesday proposed legislation that would make it an offence punishable by jail time to violate quarantine measures imposed to limit the virus’s spread.

Under their proposals, people who flout mandatory quarantine could be jailed for up to seven years if their actions led to the death of two or more people, or for up to three years if it led to mass infection, the RIA news agency reported.

Pavel Krasheninnikov, a senior lawmaker, said the legislation could be adopted by the lower house of parliament as soon as next week, RIA reported.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...KBN21B2F3?il=0

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While Trump wants mass church gatherings Putin preparing for the apocalypse...