And the US death rate stays stubbornly above 1.0 
Taiwan confirmed no new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, keeping the total at 440 since the pandemic began late last year, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
At a daily press briefing, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said it was also the 30th straight day that no domestically transmitted infections had been recorded in Taiwan.
The number infected is down to 61, all of which are kept hospitalized in negative pressure rooms, even for asymptomatic cases.
Life is pretty much back to normal here, with very few restrictions. I think nightclubs and karaoke bars are still closed. Other things are getting opened or have already been opened.
In a rather mundane point, Worldometer has finally revised the Y-axis of the graphs for the number of total deaths and daily deaths. Taiwan has had only seven total deaths with a maximum of two in one day. Up until a couple of days ago, the axis was increments in 0.5 deaths. “I’m not dead yet!”
Not if the overall money supply is kept constant (i.e., if money for the stimulus payments comes from redistributing existing reserves of money). In a fiat currency system with, say, only $100 in circulation, of which Peter owns $90 and Paul owns $10 and the $1 price of a widget reflects its true value (i.e., the actual labour cost to produce it), then printing up and releasing an extra $10 into the system will only mean that the actual labour cost of a widget is now $1.10, and unless Paul gets more than $1 in stimulus money, he’s no better off than he was before. But if the stimulus is instead effected by the government taxing $1 of Peter’s money and giving it to Paul, then the actual labour cost of a widget, which is independent of Peter’s net worth, is still $1, but Paul is twice as wealthy.
I don’t think this is any great mystery. The people in charge of writing and enforcing the laws recognized the threat early, locked down the country immediately after the first couple deaths were reported, didn’t dismiss the severity of the pandemic or sugarcoat the prognosis to the general public, kept public communication regarding their measures and plans short and to the point, served as role models for the use of social distancing and protective equipment, used the lockdown to shore up pandemic control measures, and didn’t start relaxing the rules until the rate of infection had been brought under control. Trust in and compliance with the government’s advice was therefore extremely high.
Compare this situation with some other countries, where those in power dismissed the threat amongst themselves or to the public, dithered about what to do and when, exhausted the public’s attention span with interminable press conferences-cum-campaign speeches, fought publically amongst themselves over the application of regulations and allocation of services and equipment, gave vague and conflicting advice to the public about what to do, publically flouted their own lockdown rules, failed to enforce the lockdown rules on others (or even praised those who violated them), and/or started lifting the lockdown well before the rate of infection had subsided to safe levels.
Tennessee’s rate of death hit third highest ever.
A Kroger employee died of it, in the community where I live.
There is a nursing home within a ten minute walk. 4 deaths there.
Is there much difference between the instruction for Panama City and the rest of the country? I travelled to Panama a couple of years ago and the city was totally totally different from the rest of your (very very beautiful) country and it looked like people lived quite different lives.
The First Movers group of countries with the corona stats that have declined to very low, are in talks about reopening for travel and trade between them. The EU seems to want in on that and are having a phased reopening with travel between low virus nations to be normalized by june 15.
Basically, nations that can’t get their virus under control won’t be allowed travel and limited trade going forwards.
This is huge, and it exposes a festering problem with the US, where right wing media and politics have undermined the general public’s confidence in government for decades. Mainstream media haven’t helped either, of course.
Surely, you’re not talking about us! 
Moderator Warning
Keep the political potshots out of this thread. This is an official warning. Do not do this again.
Colibri
Quarantine Zone Moderator
Sadly, not specifically. Many of the entries in my “how not to handle a pandemic” list can be observed in practice in several different countries.
Sure, assholes, just punch some other low-wage schlub who’s just trying to get through his day. As if he was the guy responsible for your having to endure the soul-crushing tyranny of having to wear a mask.
Creating a situation where someone has to go to a hospital should be at least temporarily upgraded to attempted murder.
I’ve thrown out a grand total of 3 people for mask related things at work. Nobody has taken a swing at me yet, although one woman screamed at me that I was a socialist. Anyone know what’s that about? Socialists wear masks?
I thought socialists wore OTHER people’s masks??
I think the logic in the mind of such a person would go like this:
People who get upset about mask-wearing are largely towards the right end of the spectrum.
In her mind, people on the left are to blame for her having to wear a mask.
And in her mind, people on the left are socialists.
No political commentary intended, just connecting the dots.
I guess that makes sense.
Today in Austria:
[ul]
[li] The health minister has announced plans to reopen theatres on 29 May. The government is currently drafting regulations concerning the appropriate level social distancing by patrons and staff. Vienna’s only drive-in cinema will reopen this Friday.[/li][li] As long as the pandemic remains under control, the Austria–Switzerland border, like the Austria–Germany border, will fully reopen on 15 June. It is likely that the borders with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia will be at least partially opened in June. But the chancellor said today that the idea of relaxing border controls with Italy is completely out of the question for the foreseeable future.[/li][li] Restaurants will reopen on Friday, and in a bid to encourage their patronage, the city of Vienna will be distributing meal coupons in the amount of €25 (for individuals) or €50 (for families) to all 950,000 households in the city. The coupons will be redeemable at any of the city’s 6000 eateries between June and September.[/li][li] Churches and other religious institutions can resume public worship from Friday, provided congregants wear face coverings and keep their distance from one another.[/li][li] The federal government has announced financial aid for non-profit organizations, including clubs and sporting associations, in the amount of €700 million. A further aid package for the hotel industry in the amount of €500 million will be detailed on Monday.[/li][li] Current statistics: 15,973 confirmed infections, 624 deaths, 14,304 recovered.[/li][/ul]
Anyone care to comment on this:
There are certainly plenty of people who will not submit to a vaccine even if one becomes available.
What about the prospect of this turning into something that we learn to live with?
They’ve been saying this since the start. It’s not unlikely that a COVID jab will eventuality be given out alongside the flu jab every year. Hopefully they’ll be able to roll both into one.
Ignore - pesky duplicate post