I don’t understand the “CDC is discussing/thinking about telling people to wear masks…” What’s to discuss or think about? Why delay? Just tell people to do it! NOT the professional masks that health care workers must have, but homemade masks, painter’s masks, SOME kind of cover over your nose and mouth. :rolleyes: Are they going to “discuss” it for two more weeks and then tell people NOT to wear them? If they’re ultimately going to tell people to use masks, then the sooner the better!
Because they can’t just do it because Trump. Heads would roll if they did it on their own, and he’d reverse the policy for who knows how long. So they’ve got to get Trump warmed up to the idea, and put him in the position of taking credit when he finally agrees.
You’re welcome! And thanks for the reminder of how beautiful Salzburg is—we took a short holiday trip there only a couple months ago. Hopefully we can all get back to singing the original tunes soon, leaving educational parodies such as this a distant memory…
The entire original shelter-in-place order has been fully superseded by a new order, dated March 31, with even more severe rules, effective through May 3 or as may be later amended.
[li] 199,934 people have registered as unemployed since the coronavirus crisis began, bringing the total number of jobless to 562,522. This gives an unemployment rate of 12.2%, the highest Austria has seen since 1946.[/li]
[li] Public-facing government offices long ago closed, but they have been taking steps to ensure that certain essential services are still available online, by phone, or by post. On Friday Parliament is expected to pass a new regulation allowing for naturalizations to be conducted by post. That is, since it’s no longer possible to take the oath of citizenship in person, it will suffice to sign a written declaration and mail it in.[/li]
[li] In a rare display of hypocrisy, chancellor Sebastian Kurz claimed that he had “no time” to concern himself with Orbán’s power grab in Hungary, despite the next day making a public statement in support of the US’s plans to oust Maduro from Venezuela. I surmise that Kurz wants to avoid angering a close neighbour and comrade (both Kurz’s Austrian People’s Party and Orbán’s Fidesz being members of the EU-wide European People’s Party) in a time of shared crisis. However, state media in Austria hasn’t been nearly so deferent; last night the national TV broadcaster, ORF, aired an English-language interview with Hungary’s justice minister in which some hard-hitting questions were posed.[/li]
[li] The Austrian Red Cross manages a volunteer force of 72,000, but says it is in urgent need of further volunteers, in particular to go shopping for high-risk individuals confined to their homes.[/li]
[li] Current statistics: 10,372 confirmed infections, 146 dead, 1095 recovered.[/li]
[/ul]
Excellent, eye-opening, animated graphicthat visually (and cleverly) illustrates the results of four virus-spreading scenarios, namely, freely moving around, attempted quarantine, moderate distancing, extensive distancing. Spoiler: extensive distancing is the most effective in containing the spread of the virus.
There is a LOT of information here. Study the animations. Each one is random and does not include deaths from the virus. Each time you run a new simulation it will be different.
This article from the Washington Post is supposed to be free (i.e., no paywall). I don’t know if the site will ask you to register, but you will not be asked to pay.
If you’ve got 20 minutes to spare, you could do a lot worse than have a look at the epidemic spread modeling by 3Blue1Brown. It includes a few more scenarios, among them one where people repeatedly visit some central hub (like, say, a supermarket).
This is a reminder that there is a still a lot we don’t know about this thing. So when a friend or a family member has GI symptoms, don’t assume they are just dealing with a normal stomach bug.
