Uli Meyer

Exactly. Here is why: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/18/21184992/coronavirus-covid-19-flu-comparison-chart

Trump has now changed his mind again. This report from The Guardian: Trump cited projection models that said potentially 2.2 million people or more could have died had the country tried to “wing it” and not put social distancing measures in place. “I kept asking and we did models,” he said. “These are 2.2 million people would have died. “And so, if we could hold that down, as we’re saying, to 100,000 – it’s a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 [thousand] and 200,000 – we altogether have done a very good job.” He has extended the national shutdown for a further month.

The virus has so far spread to almost every country on the planet. Do you think there are areas in the US where it can't reach? I really doubt that.

In Italy they are just now starting to see the effects of the lock down. There are less new infections. It takes a few weeks to notice results. Richard, last week you agreed with Trump that everybody should go back to work at Easter. He's gone awfully quiet about that. What do you think now?

Beautiful and a little sad the same time.

The shutdown. My wife and our newborn at her salon on the day she had to close it.

Hah, great fun! Thank you for sharing.

The Chinese wet markets are where the virus crossed species. Something clearly has to change. The wet markets where livestock, wild animals and meat are sold in one place are part of the Chinese culture. It would be a huge task to shut these down since they are a massive part of local economies. And that is the reason why nothing happened to them after the first Sars outbreak. Lots of farmers would have lost their livelihoods and since "only" ca. 800 people died from Sars, the ensuing economic hardship would have been much bigger. Do you recognize the argument? Hopefully this time economic considerations won't stand in the way of change. It is ridiculous to call someone racist who points out the problem. But it is not helpful to call the virus 'Chinese". Too many idiots out there looking to attack innocent citizens.

Quick, build that wall!

Jon, I have nothing personal against you, we never met. I have family dotted around the planet, my children live in New Zealand, Brazil and the UK and since December I have a newborn son. My work has dried up and I am living off savings, just like so many of us. Those savings will run out at some point but I would still prefer to continue to adhere to what has been proven to work when it comes to stopping this thing from spreading too quickly. This will save lives. It does frustrate me when I read comments where the desperation to go back to work is so strong that people are willing to accept higher death rates. I couldn't live with the thought that I have caused someone's death because I went back to work too early. And I don't understand how anyone could.

Quoting Dr. Gregory Poland, an American physician and vaccinologist: We won’t reopen in April. The number of new cases we’re seeing now in the United States is increasing by almost 50% every day. We are on the steepest part of the curve right now. What we’re seeing is a reflection of transmission two to four weeks ago, which means whatever you’re seeing now, it will be significantly higher and worse in a few weeks. It doesn’t make any sense to loosen restrictions during an epidemic. You’re fundamentally choosing economics over our lives. Let’s say you live in a community with a 200-bed hospital. They have five to 10 ICU beds, half of which are used for heart attacks and everything else. So maybe they have five beds and five ventilators. If you admit one person a week, you can give great medical care. If you admit 20, 50, or 100, mortality rates shoot up. It means your hospitals are overrun. People are on carts in the hallways, and they die in the hallway waiting for medical care. There aren’t enough ventilators, IV fluids, doctors and nurses. It’s a scenario you never want to see. So if everybody goes back to work, people start dying in droves.

Some sort of strategy? What do you suggest? Every vulnerable person to be moved to one part of the country which is then hermetically sealed? I would love to hear your ideas. The only way to beat this thing is to keep the spread of the virus as minimal as possible. Everything else is just wishful thinking.

That’s worrying, According to California governor Gavin Newsom, nearly half of the state’s confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus were of people between the ages of 18 and 49.

The government here is still trying to figure out how to help the freelancers in the UK but are worried that there might be some that might get support and don't really need it. So they leave 5 million people hanging in the air. Strangely they do not have that worry when it comes to giving taxpayer money to the mega industries.

https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forum/58-please-critique-my-work/

They wouldn‘t be asking Trump. If that happens they would ask the US government, no matter what party the president belongs to. Same as the airlines, the oil industry, the cruise ship industry etc. But it would probably be spun that way.

Hey Marcel, The link does not work...

Now that's what I call letterbox!

The world is still moving. Just because it isn't moving the way you are used to, doesn't mean it isn't. I'm afraid that a lot of people will use lower death rates as an argument that the drastic measurements weren't necessary instead of recognizing that this is what helped keep them low. Yesterday a 13 year old girl died. What do you think her parents would say? I think we can all agree that you can recover from economic hardship. You can't recover from death.

I'd be in for the 435 tap adaptation!

Trump is a fool. Nobody is "hiding". Nobody wants this. People are trying to prevent unnecessary deaths. Again, show some courage ffs.

What all governments could have done is to start getting medical equipment ready just in case. We knew what was happening in China.

The WHO alerted all governments about the possibility of an epidemic in mid January. Nobody acted. It is of course a difficult decision to make because if you act early and nobody dies, people would question if there even was a threat. If you wait you are risking lives and people will ask why you didn’t act sooner. You can’t really win. It doesn’t help that Trump dismantled the White House pandemic department.

Don’t forget that he initially said it was a hoax, then said it would be over quickly only to realise a bit late that this is serious. His Brazilian buddy Bolsonaro did something similar. He insisted at first that the virus was fake news. Valuable time lost that cost people’s lives.