Interesting. Do you know if, as in the US, the opposed-to-mandatory-vaccines folks in Austria are an odd mix of far-right individualists and woo-loving neo-hippies?
Not really. As I’ve mentioned in past reports, all three of the anti-lockdown protests that I’ve observed were organized or attended by far-right groups, and plenty of anti-vaxxers were in attendance. But I’m not sure if far-leftists (or even apolitical neo-hippies) also count a lot of anti-vaxxers among their members.
I’d venture that in much of the developing world, the extremely poor do not have the resources readily at hand to avail themselves of bedrest.
Well, at least one contributing factor was likely a pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, which, by mid-April, had suddenly become one of the U.S.'s biggest hotspots.
Similar outbreaks across the Midwest over the past month-plus are all directly linked to meat plants, where the workers tend to work in close proximity to one another. My hometown of Green Bay suddenly became a hotspot a couple of weeks ago, specifically due to an outbreak among workers at a meat-packing plant there.
I’m not sure if it’s mentioned in that article, but a primary driver is that the company offered a $500 incentive to anyone who didn’t miss a day of work in April. The CDC report. (PDF)
Danke, psychonaut.
So it’s the Green Bay Packers’ fault. Gotcha.
Word from Southeast Asia is Vietnam has opened up after four weeks of no no community-transmitted infections, and people are acting just like before. Amazingly, there’s not been a single death there from Covid-19.
Highlight New Zealand in that graph.
The first datapoint on the graph is 22nd March.
Before that, public events were cancelled from 14th March (1st anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings, other large public gatherings).
People arriving in New Zealand were required to self-isolate (on their own recognizance) for 14 days from the 16th March, and further enforcement measures were added soon after.
Level 2 lockdown was announced 21st March (people over 70 years old and those with compromised immune systems were asked to stay at home).
Level 4 lockdown started midnight 25th March (only essential workers to go to work, schools closed to all but children of essential workers, work from home if you are able, controlled limited access to supermarkets, most other shops/workplaces closed).
Alert level 4 ended midnight 27th April
Alert level 3 ended midnight 13th May
You can also look at Australia - their response was a bit slower than ours, they gained control with a generally less severe lockdown, but have a longer tail of cases that hasn’t quite displayed good control of the virus. It’s going to slow down the establishment of a Trans-Tasman bubble for tourism.
If you take countries like Taiwan and New Zealand as having done more or less the right thing at the right time, the gap between their 91-DIVOC lines as a benchmark and other countries represents difference caused largely by political failure, social non-compliance and medical incapacity.
Yes, the vertical axis will differentiate similar rates of infection and death because of absolute population size, but apply the NZ-Taiwan shape and you’ll see they have rapidly dropped the curve, not just slowly flattened it, and it clearly could have been if their leaders had done their job.
Today in Austria:
[ul]
[li] Last week the federal chancellor—Austria’s head of government—caused a scandal by failing to maintain social distancing from members of the public at an outdoor press conference. Today Austria’s head of state, the president, was also seen breaking the lockdown rules, in this case by sitting in a sidewalk café over an hour past the legally mandated closing time of 23:00. It was a police patrol that discovered the president there with his wife and several other guests. It’s not been reported whether the president or the café owner was fined. In a Twitter statement, the president apologized for the “error”, claiming he and his companions dined at the café while it was still legally open but then lost track of the time. From what I can tell, the president is extremely popular (far more so than the chancellor), so it will be interesting to see how much, if any, this scandal damages his reputation. It seems he is already being attacked on social media, leading the Vienna Police to issue a warning, via Twitter, that anyone who criminally libels the president will be prosecuted.[/li][li] There’s been a rash of incidents throughout the country over the last week or so involving illegal gatherings of car enthusiasts. Separate events in Vienna, Salzburg, and Upper Austria were organized spontaneously through social media, leading hundreds of sports car fans to congregate in remote but relatively cramped outdoor parking lots. Public events of this size are still banned. Police broke up each of these events, handing out fines and in one case arresting an attendee.[/li][li] Despite a recent and well-publicized mass infection at a postal distribution centre, the most common source of new infections in Vienna is currently intra-family contact, according to the city-state’s medical director. Vienna currently has 476 active coronavirus cases.[/li][li] Current statistics: 16,429 confirmed infections, 640 deaths, 15,063 recovered. There are only 28 coronavirus patients in intensive care, in only 4 of the country’s 9 federal states.[/li][/ul]
Today the New York Times printed as its front page 1,000 names of people who died of covid-19.
That is just 1% of the US death toll.
And we’re only, what, 4-5 months into this pandemic?
Meanwhile, people are flocking to beaches, refusing to wear masks, gathering in groups.
The second wave is approaching.
Seems this story is hitting the international news. It’s now on the front page of the BBC, Guardian, and Politico websites (albeit not as the top story). There’s an article in Austria’s Der Standard speculating about whether the issue will oblige him to resign.
Meanwhile, in Ontario…
The first really summery day resulted in Trinity-Bellwoods park in Toronto being thronged with people. The city “called the crowds ‘unacceptable’ and that they threatened to undo the work done over the last 10 weeks to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
We went to Presqu’île Provincial Park and had a little picnic, staying well away from other people. The park is open (and free until the end of May), but no services are offered; even the outhouses are closed.
Renfrew County has come up with something called “virtual triage”. Essentially, paramedics are making house calls so people don’t have to go to hospital.
The Premier is sow saying that anyone who feels they need a test should go and get one; not just people with symptoms. This is in part because the new-case count has been going upward for ten days.
Last Thursday, I got an email from work saying that a recall letter would be coming, giving dates and times that I would resume work. I waited for the letter, but it never came. At the last minute, there was another email saying that projected customer orders for products were way down, and I would not be returning to work for another week at least. About a quarter of the pant’s production staff are back at work. So I get to [del]lay around in the sun[/del] work on my book uninterrupted for another week.
5,500,607 total cases
346,721 dead
2,302,069 recovered
In the US:
1,686,436 total cases
99,300 dead
451,702 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
The US did not record it’s 100,000th death from Covid-19 today; perhaps that milestone will be passed on Memorial Day. It would certainly make it easy to remember.
Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday (May 25) announced zero new cases of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), marking 43 days without a new local infection.
During his daily press conference on Monday afternoon, Minister of Health and Welfare and CECC head Chen Shih-chung announced there were no new cases of coronavirus for the fourth day in a row. Taiwan’s total number of cases still stands at 441.
Looking at the numbers, from April 20th, there have been only 18 total new cases. The number of active cases is now down to 20.
Today in Austria:
[ul]
[li] As reported yesterday, police discovered Alexander van der Bellen, the country’s president, breaking the lockdown rules by staying at a restaurant 78 minutes past the legally mandated curfew. The matter has now been referred to Vienna’s municipal authorities for investigation. In such cases the delinquent restaurant owner normally faces a fine of up to €30,000, and the patrons up to €3600. However, the president enjoys immunity from all legal penalties unless a majority of both houses of parliament votes to waive this immunity. It remains to be seen whether the Viennese authorities will impose fines, and if so, whether parliament will make an example of the president by revoking his immunity. For his part, the president has offered to pay any fine imposed on the restaurant owner.[/li][li] The government has confirmed its plans for the reintroduction of cultural events. From 29 May, indoor and outdoor events (concerts, plays, dances, etc.) with up to 100 standing or sitting attendees will be permitted. The limit for sitting attendees only will gradually be increased over the coming months: from 1 July, indoor events can seat 250 and outdoor events 500, and from 1 August, indoor events can seat 500 and outdoor events 1000. Standing attendees will remain capped at 100. Attendees, but not performers, will be required to keep a distance of one metre from each other. Masks and other face coverings will be required of neither attendees nor performers.[/li][li] Current statistics: 16,459 confirmed infections, 641 deaths, 15,138 recovered.[/li][/ul]
We’ve hit something of a milestone here in Hawaii, two days in a row with no new cases reported. We’ve had several days in the past two or three weeks with no cases reported but not consecutive days. And on the days with cases reported, it’s been single digits for some time now.
We’re holding now at 643 cases and 17 deaths.
Hell. Here in Panama, after gradually dropping over the last couple of weeks, and being between 150 and 170 recently, the number of new cases per day almost doubled starting Saturday, running 250-350 or so. I’m afraid this could be correlated with the first stage of reopening, which started on May 12. I wonder if it’s going to affect the next stage of opening scheduled for this week.