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[TamerVirus]

Some outlets have reported that Trump’s PR ‘it’s a hoax!’ response comes from how instead listening to trained professionals, Trump listened to Jared Kushner.
Now reports are also saying Kushner has his own ‘Coronavirus task force’ running around in the shadows.

[coalboat]

they were being used to re-use Single Use Only PPE and equipment.

This is likely to be true. In early February doctors in Wuhan had to wear makeshift suit made from plastic file folder and large garbage bag when the equipments ran out.

About conspiracy theory:
Right now it is not useful to discuss if it is a bio-weapon or not. Even if it is, does this make virus more dangerous or less? We have tens of thousands of cases around world for experts to study, and the origin of the virus is already not important to determine its characteristics. This is also why whether it is originated in China or "brought to Wuhan by participants of Military World Games" is completely irrelevant to how to fight the pandemic.

About the suspected very high death number:
A significant portion of the deaths in Wuhan was actually not directly caused by the virus, but was caused by the collateral damage of quarantine.

@Lidku, and Flying Dice: If you live in US, think if a hurrican happens, but the whole area is surrounded by army to keep you from leaving, and all public transportation and hospitals stop operating, and you don't have a car, and it's winter, and you have pneumonia... or maybe you don't have pneumonia but you have chronicle disease and are running out of necessary medicine, or you need to go to hospital regularly but now cannot... or you are disabled but your family members are quarantine and you cannot cook or bath or go to toilet by yourself...

I don't think even Trump has the power to quarantine a whole US city with army, and most Americans have car, and now the temperature is already rising... What happened in Wuhan is different from what will happen in where you live.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The most effective quarantine for the US is shutting down all businesses - most Americans simply have no lives outside of work and will run aground between the lack of other businesses to patronize and only ever having one weekend of activity planned at most.

I'm not sure what people will actually do as this continues, but I am confident that people will just sit inside and do nothing for some period of time.

Except boomers and older. They're freaks who'll go outside and get in fistfights with cops if denied, even if they weren't planning on going out anyway.

[scriver]

Swedish hospital staff has been making makeshift face screens out if overhead projector plastic papers

[ChairmanPoo]

Swedish hospital staff has been making makeshift face screens out if overhead projector plastic papers

It's the same all the world over.

I think the Chinese DIY mask videos should be shown to the general population. Every little thing helps.

Stay safe

[Reelya]

The bioweapon stuff is the stupidest conspiracy theory out of all the coronavirus nonsense.

https://www.ccn.com/coronavirus-exiled-billionaire-says-china-burning-1200-bodies-a-day/

Guo Wengui has a history of making outlandish claims against the CPC. He's now alleging that China could be incinerating 1,200 bodies daily.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/times-fact-check/news/fact-check-satellite-images-showing-high-levels-of-sulphur-dioxide-indicate-mass-cremations-in-china/articleshow/74130633.cms

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3874013

In an interview with the Taiwan FactCheck Center, WeatherRisk Explore Inc. President Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said that Czech company Windy derives its data on pollutants from NASA's GEOS-5 simulation system, which is not based on real-time satellite data, but rather "near-real-time" estimates derived from past emissions levels. Peng said the burning of oil or coal would produce high levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2), while the human body is mainly composed of hydrocarbons and proteins.

Peng said that cremations of human corpses would produce more in the way of nitrogen oxides (NOx) than SO2. Peng added that even if coal, gas, or oil was used to burn the bodies, it would be unlikely to produce such a large concentration of sulfur dioxide.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sulfur-coronavirus-cremations/

Problem One: Not an Actual Observation of Sulfur Dioxide Concentrations

The source of the data highlighted in the Twitter thread is a company named Windy.com, which combines several models and meteorological inputs to create global maps of weather conditions aimed primarily at people who partake in outdoor sports. Windy, in turn, gets its sulfur data from a NASA climate model named GEOS-5. Arlindo da Silva, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, told the British fact-checking organization Full Fact that the GEOS-5 sulphur dioxide models do not “assimilate real satellite data” into their forecasts.

Instead, he said, “Our forecasts are based on fixed emission inventories,” which “do not account for the day-to-day variations in SO2 emissions and as such cannot account for sudden changes in human activity.” The sulfur fluctuations present in the GEOS-5 model stem from “variations in the meteorological conditions, in particular winds.” The high levels of industry in the region — the Wuhan Iron & Steel Company — are likely the cause of higher “emission inventories” prescribed by the model for the Wuhan region.

So, major problem: the SO2 emissions are based on projections not on observations, so it's literally impossible for them to have picked up any change, assuming it even exists.

Problem Two: Sulfur Emissions Are Not A Significant Factor in Cremation

The viral twitter thread asserts that “sulfur dioxide [is] commonly associated with the burning of organic matters.” This is a technically correct statement that is grossly misleading in this context. Sulfur dioxide is commonly associated with the burning of coal. Coal, formed from the carbon compounds of dead plant material buried and heated naturally in the earth for millions to hundreds of millions of years, is indeed an example of “organic matter” that, when burned, can release sulfur dioxide.

Humans, while also an example of organic matter, nevertheless contain a negligible amount of sulfur.

Second major problem: humans actually contain fuck all sulfur.

Can't we just put this one to bed? It's an extremely dumb conspiracy theory.

[Imic]

I live in the countryside, so there’s very little worry of catching It, if only because there’s very few people to catch it from, and most of them are taking heavy precautions anyway, as am I. My Uncle’s stopped coming for food, thank God, because he’s convinced I and everyone else in the village already have it. The government sent out a speech from the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) a few day ago, and apparently they’re going to provide welfare for those who can’t work or lose their jobs or are at risk, which is nice. They’re acually spending money on the populace for once. It was a hideously scripted speech though, and he quoted Winston Churchill at one point, completely forgetting that he was the shithead who ordered the fucking Black-and-Tans to come over and brutalize us. It was better than it couod have been, a lot better than the responses in the UK and the USA, but christ if I can’t stand that man sometimes.

[delphonso]

Honestly pretty upset there aren't dumber ones. I remember some hurricanes being blamed on Osama Bin Laden.

[Il Palazzo]

I like those coronavirus threads for how they bring crackpots out of the woodwork. Seems to be, every forum has some lurking about.

[Quarque]

Some outlets have reported that Trump’s PR ‘it’s a hoax!’ response comes from how instead listening to trained professionals, Trump listened to Jared Kushner.

I didn't know that he is capable of listening to someone.

[Reelya]

He does listen to people, his attention span is just enough to retweet stuff.

[ChairmanPoo]

I live in the countryside, so there’s very little worry of catching It, if only because there’s very few people to catch it from, and most of them are taking heavy precautions anyway, as am I. My Uncle’s stopped coming for food, thank God, because he’s convinced I and everyone else in the village already have it. The government sent out a speech from the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) a few day ago, and apparently they’re going to provide welfare for those who can’t work or lose their jobs or are at risk, which is nice. They’re acually spending money on the populace for once. It was a hideously scripted speech though, and he quoted Winston Churchill at one point, completely forgetting that he was the shithead who ordered the fucking Black-and-Tans to come over and brutalize us. It was better than it couod have been, a lot better than the responses in the UK and the USA, but christ if I can’t stand that man sometimes.

I think Dublin's going to become a warzone. Cork too probably. The rest of Ireland might be sort of safe due to low pop density but don't be too confident. Araba in the Basque Country also had low pop density and has a very nasty outbreak due to the antisocial behavior of a few.

I think it might be a bit milder in Ireland, if only because St Patrick was cancelled in time.

[misko27]

Live from New York, it's Saturday Morning Plague Hour.

St. Patricks being cancelled in New York had a very interesting impact on me for the one time a year we went to pick up wine for cooking purposes and managed to forget the day; the liquor store was absolutely fucking packed.

My building is circulating contingency plans for a shelter-in-place order, which has suddenly made that possibility seem quite real to me, and also made me really hope it doesn't come to pass: from talking about who will and won't be allowed into the building to asking for volunteers to be doormen to the expected cessation of mail delivery to talking about contracting security for the duration. Also, I'll probably volunteer to be a doorman if this does become a thing because why not.

Finally, I'm getting really concerned about the hospital situation. Earlier in the week it hadn't seemed so dire: they had cancelled elective surgery, but my mother still had her colonoscopy scheduled (it wasn't elective because it was to be the second one this year: last time they had removed stuff but there was a spot they had had to come back to), so I figured things were still OK. The following day it was cancelled. I fear we'll be strained to the breaking point, and then some.

[ChairmanPoo]

For what I've heard official NYC estimates already stated a week ago that they didn't have enough resources to cope. Even assuming a degree of exaggeration, it will be very very bad. Worse because the fed govt is doing nothing

[ChairmanPoo]

http://nrg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mjh/covid19/

If only there was a pill to sleep until all this was over