New coronavirus in/from China

[Mark]

Did I see a tweet from a twat that Dexamethasone might work better with a little bleach?

I suppose that a drug which can save even a few lives is better than nothing but does it deserve all the hype in the press?

It doesn't seem to be a cure, but a big step forward.....?
Plus, it's proven safe, relatively cheap and globally available.....

Should help the argument for easing more restrictions ?

[Catweazle]

Combining proven therapies like the drugs and radiation is going to improve the outcome for many people. Slowing the infection rate so as not to overwhelm the NHS, so the treatments can be administered, and buying time for the treatments to be discovered, was the whole point of lockdown. It looks as if it was successful.

[vtsnowedin]

From a peak of over 1000 deaths a day in April UK daily deaths have declined to last weeks average of 155/day. That is still nine percent of the new cases you had two weeks ago so I can't see they are getting better at treating it as much as the decline in new daily cases gives the NHS less patients to deal with. Lets hope the downward trend in new cases continues in spite of the economy opening back up.

[kenneal - lagger]

The death rate reflects the number of people who started treatment as much as a couple of months ago. That is how long it takes to die of this disease in many cases. The lower death rate with this treatment will take probably a month to show in the overall figures and even then it will take a statistition to see it such is the small change in death rate.

[kenneal - lagger]

This article gives a view from a US standpoint of what we could do with the Covid broken economy instead of rebuilding it completely.

It says that covid has shown that there is a brake for the economy, something that anti degrowthers have said doesn't exist, and that it can be used. The Magic Money Tree does exist, something that the rich have known about since 2007 and even before, and that it can be used for all, not just those rich people who have known about it and taken advantage of it for a long time.

The article shows that the rich have been milking the economy at the expence of the working and middle classes since the 1970s (where have we heard that before?)

In 1965, CEOs made 20 times what typical workers made, but as of 2013, they made 296 times that amount. From 1973 to 2013, hourly wages rose only 9 percent, but productivity increased 74 percent.

Away from the article now, the problem is with a banking system which is designed to extract money from the average punter and place it in the hands of the already rich, and which is reliant on ever increasing growth.

There is also a problem with a few ultra rich people, the 0.1%, who have accumulated so much money that they are impoverishing the rest of us, as is illustrated in the quote above, and are so blinded by their mental impairment that they can't see that they are bringing the whole monetary system down.

Our first job should be to treat the ultra riches for their illnesses and then rearrange the banking system so that it can cope with a lack of growth. The second job would be impossible without the first being carried out initially.

[vtsnowedin]

This article gives a view from a US standpoint

Near the end of the article:

The pandemic revealed that the government is able to pull together trillions of dollars for public relief when it needs to—narrowly opening the door to the idea that it could do something similar for other serious health and safety issues, like climate change, in the future.

Apparently they assume non of that has to be repaid. Silly them.
And then there is this:

"Suddenly this virus comes along and it's clear there is an emergency brake and it can be pulled relatively easily," Hickel said.

Pull it again and that chrome plated knob will come off in your hand and just like the old country song it won't be pretty." Switch back corners and hairpin city. One of those curves looked like a malaria germ another one looked like a can of worms. " Wolf crick pass if I remember correctly.

[PS_RalphW]

The contact tracing app, which was going to be ready by mid May, and was critical to the lockdown easing, is being kicked into the long grass. Not ready before winter. No longer a priority. People prefer the human touch. The manual contact tracing is getting much better (no figures available).

So that's all right then.

[Little John]

It's being kicked into the long grass because no one is downloading it because no-one trusts the political class to not keep such technology in place once they get people used to it. Furthermore, the politicians know well enough that if they tried to force this on the population the BLM bullshit would be the least of their worries.

Good.

I understand how you may find this disappointing, though. After all being a Remainer, you'll be all for non-democratically accountable state monitoring and control of our daily lives. Especially all of those unruly "lower orders" who just wont do the "right thing".

Right?

[fuzzy]

People may rememember the 'caredata' scandal where they wanted to sell your medical details. There was a no option, but they made it hard to register. Protesters even designed their own opt out form and made it available. Eventually the project was shelved. Then a year [?] later the tories sold everyones data anyway, against public wishes.

[clv101]

It's being kicked into the long grass because no one is downloading it because no-one trusts the political class to not keep such technology in place once they get people used to it. Furthermore, the politicians know well enough that if they tried to force this on the population the BLM bullshit would be the least of their worries.

Good.

I understand how you may find this disappointing, though. After all being a Remainer, you'll be all for non-democratically accountable state monitoring and control of our daily lives. Especially all of those unruly "lower orders" who just wont do the "right thing".

Right?

Indeed! Yet more government incompetence. They should never have attempted to develop a centralised, data gathering, 3rd party, opt in app like this. It was never going to work, either technically or socially.

Instead, like most other countries, they could have used the de-centralised, anonymous, OS level tools Google and Apple have made available. But no, British exceptional strikes again.

[stumuz1]

Near the end of the article:

The pandemic revealed that the government is able to pull together trillions of dollars for public relief when it needs to—narrowly opening the door to the idea that it could do something similar for other serious health and safety issues, like climate change, in the future.

Apparently they assume non of that has to be repaid. Silly them.

Who is going to repay the printed out of thin air billion dollars that was given to BANKRUPT COMPANY AFTER IT HAD DECLARED BANKRUPTCY!!!!!!!!

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/15/hertz-s ... stock.html

Pandora's box has been opened. Things will never be the same again.

[Little John]

It's being kicked into the long grass because no one is downloading it because no-one trusts the political class to not keep such technology in place once they get people used to it. Furthermore, the politicians know well enough that if they tried to force this on the population the BLM bullshit would be the least of their worries.

Good.

I understand how you may find this disappointing, though. After all being a Remainer, you'll be all for non-democratically accountable state monitoring and control of our daily lives. Especially all of those unruly "lower orders" who just wont do the "right thing".

Right?

Indeed! Yet more government incompetence. They should never have attempted to develop a centralised, data gathering, 3rd party, opt in app like this. It was never going to work, either technically or socially.

Instead, like most other countries, they could have used the de-centralised, anonymous, OS level tools Google and Apple have made available. But no, British exceptional strikes again.

Rightyho

So, you would have preferred if the surveillance and monitoring were covert and buried in the OS's of our phones because that way, obviously, all of that pesky public resistance to such surveillance could have been neatly circumvented?

Oh, and of course, Google and Apple are to be trusted aren't they....

You really are the gift that keeps on giving CLV

[PS_RalphW]

Instead, like most other countries, they could have used the de-centralised, anonymous, OS level tools Google and Apple have made available. But no, British exceptional strikes again.

Why would remainers want big data more than anyone else?

The BBC has just announced the app has been shelved and will replaced with the de-centralised, anonymous, OS level tools Google and Apple have made available.

[clv101]

Instead, like most other countries, they could have used the de-centralised, anonymous, OS level tools Google and Apple have made available. But no, British exceptional strikes again.

Ha, we got there in the end:

UK poised to abandon coronavirus app in favour of Apple and Google models

The UK is poised to announce it has abandoned its attempt to built a centralised coronavirus contact-tracing app and will instead switch to the model preferred by smartphone giants Apple and Google.

The embarrassing U-turn comes after British officials concluded it was technically impossible to create an effective app that does not conform to the Google and Apple model – but switching alone will not solve the problems.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... gle-models[/quote]

[kenneal - lagger]

And will Google and Apple give all this information free or will the government have to pay for it?

If they have to pay it might spur them into actually taxing the bastards.