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dan-o

Turbo Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
6,499
2,805
Ordered food from near our place in maine.
Website mentioned take-out and outside dining.
Walked in and was shocked by packed bar, (distanced) tables inside, tables and live band outside.
Honestly had to fight urge to sit down for a drink, but that didn't feel right being from out of state.
 

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
Bars and restaurants in Holland are pretty much back to normal.
Covid cases are still going down, now to 4 new hospitalized cases a day and 2 dead a day.

If covid is really as bad as weve been told, numbers should have already went through the roof or are gonna go up any day now.

I think the coming weeks are gonna be interesting, but when I look at how people are interacting in every day life and at work for example Im starting to be fairly optimistic.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Honestly had to fight urge to sit down for a drink, but that didn't feel right being from out of state.
Holy shit a self aware visitor to another community! Dano, I love you! Can you bottle that and mail it out here? I need something to smash over the heads of all the self important California twats that plague my community.

Speaking of California twats, just check your favorite plague tracker to see how we're absolutely smashing those daily new case numbers. We exceptional.

Kevin. Cover your face. We coming on airplanes and we stoopid.
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,220
2,744
The bunker at parliament
NZ now has zero active cases and Covid restrictions are moving back to normal daily life as of midnight tonight with the exception of the borders, still closed to non NZ residents for the foreseeable future (I'm picking until there is an effective vaccine).

 

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
California has a population of 40 million and 4000 covid deaths so far.
Holland has a population of 20 million and 6000 covid deaths.

These are really small percentages and nowhere near as bad as what weve been told was going to happen.
In fact were not even talking about an actual pandemic if we look at the numbers world wide.

I realize were not there yet, but looking at the situation objectively Im starting to wonder how bad all of this really is and how much there is to gain for pharmaceutical companies by keeping everybody as scared as possible.

The pharmacutical industry is very much like the weapons industry in that they have large interests in keeping people scared for profit and are also very much infiltrated in our political systems through lobbying.

The fact that current covid policies are super rigid and that theres no room for criticism are imo not a sign that were dealing with this objectively.
 
California has a population of 40 million and 4000 covid deaths so far.
Holland has a population of 20 million and 6000 covid deaths.

These are really small percentages and nowhere near as bad as what weve been told was going to happen.
In fact were not even talking about an actual pandemic if we look at the numbers world wide.

I realize were not there yet, but looking at the situation objectively Im starting to wonder how bad all of this really is and how much there is to gain for pharmaceutical companies by keeping everybody as scared as possible.

The pharmacutical industry is very much like the weapons industry in that they have large interests in keeping people scared for profit and are also very much infiltrated in our political systems through lobbying.

The fact that current covid policies are super rigid and that theres no room for criticism are imo not a sign that were dealing with this objectively.
A pandemic is by definition a disease prevalent over a whole country or the world, so we are discussing an actual pandemic.

Reported deaths are currently about 0.006% of the world population, so I suppose that we could argue that the affliction is a tempest in a teapot...
 

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,602
9,609
A pandemic is by definition a disease prevalent over a whole country or the world, so we are discussing an actual pandemic.

Reported deaths are currently about 0.006% of the world population, so I suppose that we could argue that the affliction is a tempest in a teapot...

americans are a stupid people by and large....we believe pretty much wharever were told...

the bigger the lie...the more they believe?
 
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Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,335
7,745
California has a population of 40 million and 4000 covid deaths so far.
Holland has a population of 20 million and 6000 covid deaths.

These are really small percentages and nowhere near as bad as what weve been told was going to happen.
And these are with a prevalence of about 3% (for those currently and previously infected).

Is there some innate immunity that'll shut this whole thing down, Rep Akins-style? Maybe. But if not then multiply current death tolls by about 20 or so before this is over.
 

chuffer

Turbo Monkey
Sep 2, 2004
1,559
903
McMinnville, OR
And these are with a prevalence of about 3% (for those currently and previously infected).

Is there some innate immunity that'll shut this whole thing down, Rep Akins-style? Maybe. But if not then multiply current death tolls by about 20 or so before this is over.
Any chance you could break down that bold part in your own words? Specifically, where does the factor of 20 come from? Are you just dividing some predicted / modeled outcome by our current body count?
 

Sandro

Terrified of Cucumbers
Nov 12, 2006
3,224
2,537
The old world
Looking at Italy I don't get the feeling that the reaction was overblown in any way, us northern Euros have just been tremendously lucky that the virus didn't hit here first and we had some more time to prepare.

I'm all for opening public and commercial back up responsibly, but i think it's going to be a bumpy ride. A single church service in Frankfurt at the end of May has resulted in 200 infections and people in general don't seem to be nearly as cautios as a month ago.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,335
7,745
Any chance you could break down that bold part in your own words? Specifically, where does the factor of 20 come from? Are you just dividing some predicted / modeled outcome by our current body count?
Simple models would suggest herd immunity given initial R0 estimates at about 60% prevalence. (With overshoot it could be 80%...)

60% / 3% * current death toll, roughly.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,743
12,763
In a van.... down by the river
Yep - the current state, in my view, is the result of *most* people around the world doing the right thing to reduce R0 - specifically following the "essential movement" rules and practicing social distancing.

This is making it appear, for some, as a big "nothingburger" - but the alternate scenario (again, in my view) was VERY likely to play out like it did in Bergamo, Spain, and NYC for a lot of cities/countries.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
California has a population of 40 million and 4000 covid deaths so far.
Holland has a population of 20 million and 6000 covid deaths.

These are really small percentages and nowhere near as bad as what weve been told was going to happen.
In fact were not even talking about an actual pandemic if we look at the numbers world wide.

I realize were not there yet, but looking at the situation objectively Im starting to wonder how bad all of this really is and how much there is to gain for pharmaceutical companies by keeping everybody as scared as possible.

The pharmacutical industry is very much like the weapons industry in that they have large interests in keeping people scared for profit and are also very much infiltrated in our political systems through lobbying.

The fact that current covid policies are super rigid and that theres no room for criticism are imo not a sign that were dealing with this objectively.
Remember this fact: There's not one single human being on this planet that we can even study to determine the long-term effects of covid. You see those links westy and toshi and others have been posting about endothelial cell damage? This isn't just about whether you die or not. You may get some cardiovascular, kidney or digestive tract souvenirs for the rest of your life.

What happened in Spain, Italy, NYC and what IS happening in South America is something we can either learn from or ignore. Don't forget the guy in China who first broke the silence on this. He died at 35. I think one thing that's been fairly well proven is that passing one person on a trail isn't likely to infect you. But unfortunately people interpret that as 'outside I'm safe', while all not registering that they're sitting on a beach or a trailhead 3 feet from 20 other people.
 
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mykel

closer to Periwinkle
Apr 19, 2013
5,109
3,822
sw ontario canada
Yep - the current state, in my view, is the result of *most* people around the world doing the right thing to reduce R0 - specifically following the "essential movement" rules and practicing social distancing.

This is making it appear, for some, as a big "nothingburger" - but the alternate scenario (again, in my view) was VERY likely to play out like it did in Bergamo, Spain, and NYC for a lot of cities/countries.
That is always the way it is - People are stupid.
Remember the Y2K thing?
Even to this day people say that it was a huge nothing.
Well it was a huge nothing because people like me busted their humps for a long time to ensure that nothing much happened.

Fuck people are stupid.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,457
20,254
Sleazattle

slimshady

¡Mira, una ardilla!
Down here we have a horde of wackos coming out every Saturday to protest against everything they consider evil: mandatory social isolation, 5G connectivity, vaccination... Hell, some of them even claim the coronavirus vaccine is just a pretext to inject everybody with tracking chips... And then those tracking chips would be exploited via said 5G connectivity, which by the way HASN'T BEEN IMPLEMENTED DOWN HERE YET. I'm still amazed how so many contradictory theories can coexist in one rally... :crazy:

The funny part is the "public personalities/influencers" calling the people to the streets always find an excuse to miss the date: failing public transport, a relative suddenly feeling sick, etc. What's not so funny yet much more tranquilizing IMHO is how the mandatory isolation measures implemented by the government still have a good 80-85 % of approval by the rest of the population.
 

Mo(n)arch

Turbo Monkey
Dec 27, 2010
4,441
1,422
Italy/south Tyrol
Down here we have a horde of wackos coming out every Saturday to protest against everything they consider evil: mandatory social isolation, 5G connectivity, vaccination... Hell, some of them even claim the coronavirus vaccine is just a pretext to inject everybody with tracking chips... And then those tracking chips would be exploited via said 5G connectivity, which by the way HASN'T BEEN IMPLEMENTED DOWN HERE YET. I'm still amazed how so many contradictory theories can coexist in one rally... :crazy:

The funny part is the "public personalities/influencers" calling the people to the streets always find an excuse to miss the date: failing public transport, a relative suddenly feeling sick, etc. What's not so funny yet much more tranquilizing IMHO is how the mandatory isolation measures implemented by the government still have a good 80-85 % of approval by the rest of the population.
This phenomenon is seen in Europe aswell. People claiming Gates for the virus and Soros for protests. Also vaccines are teh evil and gets all children infected with autism.
I am still voting for a meteorite, this weak-ass BillGatesVirus is moving way too slow. On the other hand, meteorites are getting attracted by 5G, so it could be soon. :D
 

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
Looking at Italy I don't get the feeling that the reaction was overblown in any way, us northern Euros have just been tremendously lucky that the virus didn't hit here first and we had some more time to prepare.

I'm all for opening public and commercial back up responsibly, but i think it's going to be a bumpy ride. A single church service in Frankfurt at the end of May has resulted in 200 infections and people in general don't seem to be nearly as cautios as a month ago.
Ok but how many of those people developped severe Covid? How many died? What was the demographic and what percentage already had severe underlying conditions?
Im not doubting the virus spreads rapidly, but those numbers really dont say much.

Models mean absolutely nothing in complex social situations. No matter how precisely executed, most scientists will tell you that theres one thing you can predict from these models, and thats whats definitly not gonna happen.
The models we got from the WHO at the start of the pandemic have been proven to be miles off.
Predictions used to decide preventive measures in the UK were in the millions by now.

I live in the epicenter of the Corona outbreak in Holland and Im currently working as a supervisor in construction. So far absolutely nothing has changed in terms of social distancing or prevention in the workplace.
People are still working close to eachother. Eating in small, not well ventilated places and theres tons of Eastern European immigrants who work all over Holland and live with other immigrant workers, mostly in small appartments with multiple (up to 4 or 5) others.
Most of these people are typical working class with very little regard to personal safety.
They smoke, drink, work in dusty surroundings and eat super unhealthy.
If Covid was as bad as predicted people should have been dropping dead all over the place.

I dont want to argue how bad this is or what is still to come. I dont think anyone can know for sure at this point.
But I think its safe to say (thankfully) its not as bad as we initially thought it was.
So what we now need to do now is wonder if the measure still in place need to be reconsidered in order to stop the suffering of millions of people around the world who simply can not afford this lockdown.
And by afford Im not just talking economic, but also cases of domestic violence, depression/suicides etc.
Right now it looks as though the measures weve taken on bad information are taking a far larger toll than the actual virus.

Another thing that really bothers me is that were almost 6 months in and we have very little to no statistics.
I know we cant predict long term effects, but the only numbers were hearing is cases and mortality rates.
It shouldnt be that hard to bring out more specifics and I think as much information as possible should be available to the general public if we want to form objective opinions on the situation.

If we look at the latest research the social distancing doesnt do much.
The virus doesnt spread outdoors unless you pack tons of people really close together. Advice for indoors situation is still to keep 6ft apart while its becoming fairly clear this virus spreads through aerosols that will linger in a room for hours after being spread. Aerosols dont give a fuck about your 6ft distance so the emphasis should be on ventitalion instead of keeping your distance.
Ive been to plenty of shops and other places by now that could easily open a window or leave the door open but every place is still sealed tight.
Instead people are worrying about touching a doorhandle.
Again if the virus was as bad as we thought in the beginning this should be the cause of way more severe cases.
 

slimshady

¡Mira, una ardilla!
Ok but how many of those people developped severe Covid? How many died? What was the demographic and what percentage already had severe underlying conditions?
Im not doubting the virus spreads rapidly, but those numbers really dont say much.

Models mean absolutely nothing in complex social situations. No matter how precisely executed, most scientists will tell you that theres one thing you can predict from these models, and thats whats definitly not gonna happen.
The models we got from the WHO at the start of the pandemic have been proven to be miles off.
Predictions used to decide preventive measures in the UK were in the millions by now.

I live in the epicenter of the Corona outbreak in Holland and Im currently working as a supervisor in construction. So far absolutely nothing has changed in terms of social distancing or prevention in the workplace.
People are still working close to eachother. Eating in small, not well ventilated places and theres tons of Eastern European immigrants who work all over Holland and live with other immigrant workers, mostly in small appartments with multiple (up to 4 or 5) others.
Most of these people are typical working class with very little regard to personal safety.
They smoke, drink, work in dusty surroundings and eat super unhealthy.
If Covid was as bad as predicted people should have been dropping dead all over the place.

I dont want to argue how bad this is or what is still to come. I dont think anyone can know for sure at this point.
But I think its safe to say (thankfully) its not as bad as we initially thought it was.
So what we now need to do now is wonder if the measure still in place need to be reconsidered in order to stop the suffering of millions of people around the world who simply can not afford this lockdown.
And by afford Im not just talking economic, but also cases of domestic violence, depression/suicides etc.
Right now it looks as though the measures weve taken on bad information are taking a far larger toll than the actual virus.

Another thing that really bothers me is that were almost 6 months in and we have very little to no statistics.
I know we cant predict long term effects, but the only numbers were hearing is cases and mortality rates.
It shouldnt be that hard to bring out more specifics and I think as much information as possible should be available to the general public if we want to form objective opinions on the situation.

If we look at the latest research the social distancing doesnt do much.
The virus doesnt spread outdoors unless you pack tons of people really close together. Advice for indoors situation is still to keep 6ft apart while its becoming fairly clear this virus spreads through aerosols that will linger in a room for hours after being spread. Aerosols dont give a fuck about your 6ft distance so the emphasis should be on ventitalion instead of keeping your distance.
Ive been to plenty of shops and other places by now that could easily open a window or leave the door open but every place is still sealed tight.
Instead people are worrying about touching a doorhandle.
Again if the virus was as bad as we thought in the beginning this should be the cause of way more severe cases.
Isn't Holland some sort of massive geriatric home? I mean, you guys have a severely aged mean population, or at least that's what a couple of friends lving there told me.

As you said, most of the cases will be mild to low in severity, but those same cases become massive contagion vectors about 2-4 days after catching the disease. And as pointed out up above, we still don't know the real damage the virus does to our bodies. Now since every single young/middle aged person who catches COVID can transmit it to the segment of the population in real danger (65 and above), you need to slow/contain the spreading as much as you can.

Down here the right wing media is attacking the social distancing and shelter in place measures, stating they are destroying the economy (which in a country with a considerable slice of the money/jobs is driven into informal channels is true to some point), but the goverment put out stimulus packages to mitigate those effects. As I wrote before, they just want to incite people to defy the mandatory lockdown -which isn't total, see below- and ultimately have some massive death count to throw onto the government.

Most of the country has got into phase-5 measures -this means bars, restaurants, regular stores can be open again, with mandatory use of face masks and a minimum of 6 ft between every customer- but the big urban conglommerates are still in phase 3 (i.e. shelter in place and everythig else).

As you said, aerosols AND body contact (which in Latin America is a hard-to-break habit) are the main contagion vectors. That's why face masks worked so well here in Argentina: they act as a natural deterrent to the infamous kiss as a greeting/salute, while also visually enforcing the minimum distance rules.

If we look at the statistics aboou domestic violence, it hasn't increased above the mean from previous years. Interestingly, what has seen a dramatic jump was police brutality, just like in the US.

My point is, the virus is bad to some point, but what we do as a community/socially can make it worse or better. See Bolsonaro/Brazil, Moreno/Ecuador and Lopez Obrador/Mexico in Latin America for instance. Pretending the virus isn't as bad as they've been told and prioritizing the economy led them to pile up dead bodies like it's the Black Plague all over again. In contrast, in Argentina we've been watching what you guys in Europe have been through and tried to prepare the best we could to deal with the disease and contain possible infection focus as fast as we could.

Take a look at this for reference: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/how-political-science-explains-countries-reactions-to-covid-19/
 
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Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,457
20,254
Sleazattle
We quietly hit 2 million confirmed yesterday and are crossing the threshold back to Rt>1.

Second wave has started and we haven't even finished the first one.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,335
7,745
I now know the very weird sensation of having a COVID nasal swab.










I have seasonal allergies. Thus when I woke up this morning with a runny nose, a very mild sore throat, and a very occasional cough it was probably due to that.

Nevertheless I stayed masked up and distanced at work and called employee health. They thought I should be tested and pulled me from working until they clear me.
 

dan-o

Turbo Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
6,499
2,805
Has a 2nd wave started?
Most of the states seeing increases (beyond the perceived increases caused by more testing) are in their first wave.

MA numbers are plummeting and def not 2nd wave. I believe same goes for other NE states but I stopped giving a shit once the streets were awash in people with zero fucks given by health officials. The cats out of the bag now.