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[ChairmanPoo]

Some would. Depends on the filter. Many painter masks do have HEPA filters.


The problem with all this is that, indeed, the manufactury of all this shit was exported to China and now every European country is struggling.
Tbh before you blame the Chinese remember they had their own covid crisis. And that Germany and France tried to do the same before the EU intervened and warned that it was unwise to do that (Italy is doing poorly *now* but it will recover eventually. It might be that by then it's Germsny or France in need of medical supplies). Also remember that Chinese material shipments are on their way now. Its just on the other side of the world.

What is clear is that relying so much in "Just in time'" internstional supply chains doesn't work  very well for strategic industries in times of crisis. Many things will need to be rethought

[delphonso]

Also, we have 1.4 billion people to look out for. Those tests are just sitting in warehouses.

[martinuzz]

Also, we have 1.4 billion people to look out for. Those tests are just sitting in warehouses.

Indeed. Even with the capacity to test 1.5 million people a day, it would still take nearly 3 years to test everyone in China.

[Frumple]

Don't hold your breath for a vaccine being ready in about a year.
There might never be a vaccine.
There's still no vaccines for many other corona virusses, like the ones responsible for common cold.

Untrue on like several fronts. CoV stuff only accounts for a fraction of the slew of viruses that causes "the" common cold (which is largely why not much has been done on that front, a cold vaccine would be like a dozen different vaccines, not one, and folks haven't been deciding the resource/return ratio was good enough... particularly for the virus family that only accounts for a minority of cases), and there's explicitly been vaccines made for coronaviruses before -- it's just they're for CoV varieties that target non-humans, hence why we have cow and dog CoV vaccines currently in existence.

The year or so is probably accurate. If we didn't care about possible side effects we could have vaccines out, like, now, or in very short order. Most of the time involved with that 14 or so months is testing, to make sure the vaccines produced don't have significant negative effects.

[sluissa]

Re: Home made masks.

While there's been plenty of fibbing going on (mostly in an attempt to reduce panic buying), I have seen suggestions from various places that while the high grade masks are necessary for workers who are around this stuff all day like medical workers and first responders, if you're just talking about a run to the store to pick up some supplies, even just something like a cotton t-shirt wrapped around the face can drastically reduce your chances of catching it/spreading it.

Probably worth doing if you have access to nothing better, and probably the best chance you'll ever get to be a t-shirt ninja.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Cthulhu]

Don't hold your breath for a vaccine being ready in about a year.
There might never be a vaccine.
There's still no vaccines for many other corona virusses, like the ones responsible for common cold.

Untrue on like several fronts. CoV stuff only accounts for a fraction of the slew of viruses that causes "the" common cold (which is largely why not much has been done on that front, a cold vaccine would be like a dozen different vaccines, not one, and folks haven't been deciding the resource/return ratio was good enough... particularly for the virus family that only accounts for a minority of cases), and there's explicitly been vaccines made for coronaviruses before -- it's just they're for CoV varieties that target non-humans, hence why we have cow and dog CoV vaccines currently in existence.

The year or so is probably accurate. If we didn't care about possible side effects we could have vaccines out, like, now, or in very short order. Most of the time involved with that 14 or so months is testing, to make sure the vaccines produced don't have significant negative effects.

Speaking of which, if you're not scared enough yet, they've observed antibody-dependent enhancement in CoV-vaccinated cats.

[ChairmanPoo]

Re: Home made masks.

While there's been plenty of fibbing going on (mostly in an attempt to reduce panic buying), I have seen suggestions from various places that while the high grade masks are necessary for workers who are around this stuff all day like medical workers and first responders, if you're just talking about a run to the store to pick up some supplies, even just something like a cotton t-shirt wrapped around the face can drastically reduce your chances of catching it/spreading it.

Probably worth doing if you have access to nothing better, and probably the best chance you'll ever get to be a t-shirt ninja.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's my thought as well.

And if you have it w/o knowing you'll spread it less.

I think maska are a civic duty now

[feelotraveller]

There are not enough tests available for lack of materials. 

Yes but that was (and still is? not sure) a solvable problem.*  So much for 'the art of the possible'.

(* Though as far as I can tell the limitation is not in 'materials' but sheer production capacity.
If items in the chain are in short supply, e.g.

lysis fluids, test tube racks, plastic microplatforms to isolate RNA, pipette tips and waddings

that again is a solvable problem and just needed a little anticipation in increasing production - or having a decent stockpile to start with.
)

[Bralbaard]

I think maska are a civic duty now

Depending on where you live, probably. In the Netherlands it is kind of seen as a civic duty to -not- get a mask. Goverment has made it clear masks are intended for hospitals, not individuals, as we have far too few.
Sure crafting your own might solve that, but they can hardly expect everybody to craft their own masks. For now people are not even willing to stay indoors and practice social distancing.

[martinuzz]

The UK has temporarily (for half a year) nationalized the railways, to ensure the trains can keep going when railway companies go bankrupt.

[ChairmanPoo]

I think maska are a civic duty now

Depending on where you live, probably. In the Netherlands it is kind of seen as a civic duty to -not- get a mask. Goverment has made it clear masks are intended for hospitals, not individuals, as we have far too few.
Sure crafting your own might solve that, but they can hardly expect everybody to craft their own masks. For now people are not even willing to stay indoors and practice social distancing.

Well. I attached a DIY video. Some other person attached how to do a tshirt bandana. Its not that hard.

Re: noncompliers. That happens EVERYWHERE. Thats why lockdowns have to be as harsh as possible, and enforced.

Here in Spain I think we should go harder. Full lockdown on the most affected cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Vitoria-Gasteiz), I say.

[feelotraveller]

Depending on where you live, probably. In the Netherlands it is kind of seen as a civic duty to -not- get a mask. Goverment has made it clear masks are intended for hospitals, not individuals, as we have far too few.
Sure crafting your own might solve that, but they can hardly expect everybody to craft their own masks. For now people are not even willing to stay indoors and practice social distancing.

One upside for Australians is that the recent bushfire season - the previous catastrophe of the capitalist system of crisis - left many of us well equipped with facemasks. 

Edit: although the respiratory damage caused by the previous event does make for worry about the virus having fertile fields to plough...

[Reelya]

Well I'm getting paid to sit at home and catch up with my movie/tv backlog due to the coronavirus at the moment (full time employee but they have no work for us), so I say, yay coronavirus :/

Though they should have some other work for us by "wed or thu". My money's on Thursday.

[Bralbaard]

I think maska are a civic duty now

Depending on where you live, probably. In the Netherlands it is kind of seen as a civic duty to -not- get a mask. Goverment has made it clear masks are intended for hospitals, not individuals, as we have far too few.
Sure crafting your own might solve that, but they can hardly expect everybody to craft their own masks. For now people are not even willing to stay indoors and practice social distancing.

Well. I attached a DIY video. Some other person attached how to do a tshirt bandana. Its not that hard.

Re: noncompliers. That happens EVERYWHERE. Thats why lockdowns have to be as harsh as possible, and enforced.

Here in Spain I think we should go harder. Full lockdown on the most affected cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Vitoria-Gasteiz), I say.

Yes, I agree that people should wear masks if possible, but realistically, with the current goverment advice, people are not going to do this. It is being actively discouraged. Also the advantages of masks are being downplayed. (everybody will be fine if you just wash hands and stay 1.5 meters away from other people, which for a resporatory virus, may not be enough). It will take a massive information campaing to suddenly convince people of the opposite, and even have them start crafting masks.

[martinuzz]

South Korea didn't have full lockdown.

Bars, cafes, restaurants all stayed open.
People did all wear facemasks though, so perhaps they are more important than our government has been telling us.
Or maybe not, because the other thing SK did was test everyone and trace and test all the contacts of those infected using phone records, CCTV images and public transport card records, and when infected, quaratined those.
Which is something we can't, because, no tests available.