And tomorrow is the anniversary of when this whole thread started.
And tomorrow is the anniversary of when this whole thread started.
Happy anniversary?
It would be happy except we should've had this shit sorted by now.
But oh, no. Some mad-hatter freedom-hating countries can't work out that the real way to hate freedom is to lock down for a bit and squash this on the head and have actual... freedom?
It was either get rid of Trump or get rid of Covid19... without Covid19, I really think trump would’ve won re-election...
Of course ideally we need to get rid of both... last year we were busy impeaching the guy and failed, glad we’re able to finally get it done one year later. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to get Covid under control since people have severely underestimated it from the beginning.
Yes, and without the Nazis, Rick would have stayed in Paris with Ilsa and there'd be no fucking Casablanca.
You know it and I know it. It is what it is.
acket.
Even "smarter" countries like ours are still suffering more than they probably should. Statistically, the #1 way to control the spread is to prevent travel. Period. Every country that has, has very few cases comparatively. Even our four Maritime Provinces, which have sort of broken away from the rest of the country and prevented just about anyone from coming or going, have got very few cases. But Big Bad Business has to keep rolling, rich fucks have to keep going to business meetings in far-off places, and priveledged people have to keep getting on airplanes for no good reason.
Business-loving leaders just don't want to make the call. Close all the borders. REALLY close them. And leave them closed.
After experiencing SARS, Taiwan was well prepared to deal with SARS II. The nation quickly ramped up mask production to ensure that everyone, not just the frontline workers have sufficient protective gears. Citizens are also mostly willing to endure wearing the masks for the sake of their own and others' safety. Border isn't completely closed; however, visitors need to follow strict quarantine and teams are ready to do contact tracing when needed.
Of course things could still go wrong..., there will always be some bad apples. Still, that's about the best we can do.
Taiwan nearly elected an idiot president like Trump... he was very pro-CCP. If he were elected, surely Taiwan would end up being just like US during this pandemic...
Anyway, politics aside, CA has mostly dems in charge without many idiotic republicans, but we are still not doing well... and we really don't have republicans to blame for it... not sure it's the fault of the rich folks in silicon valley either. Not only do we have a lot of cases, vaccine distribution is a mess... unemployment benefit payouts are not only slow..., and supposedly 10% were paid to fraudulent claims... so we need good leaders, and not expect certain parties will always produce good leaders...
At this stage, the best "border defense" is still our masks and keep distances and hand washing... I don't really know who to blame anymore... it's also kinda pointless at this stage. We just need to stay alert and make sure that we won't end up blaming ourselves for not being careful.
I'm mostly worrying for my 9 yr old daughter. I don't think there's a vaccine even in development for her age group. For the 1st time in my life, I regret letting her come into this world... well, not really regret as if I don't appreciate her, but I just feel sorry for bringing her into such a lousy world...
Last edited by Crazed_Insanity; January 26th, 2021 at 11:59 AM.
While masks, distancing and hand washing are good first line of defence, dont underestimate economic defence. If people can work from home or even not work, but still have money to live on, then its much easier to control the spread. Australia and NZ were good at that sort of thing. It meant our lockdowns could have a lot less people out there. Your business shut and you cant work - here is some money to keep you going. Add in free health care, free testing and you have people who arent going to be bankrupt by covid.
Ok its not perfect and some people are worse off, but big efforts to min the financial impact on people means you can tackle this.
Early in this someone commented that we should pay nurses more, I said we should pay other workers to stay home. Thats how you win.
Who cares if 10% went to fraudulent claims if this is what was needed to get covid contained. Actually we have some companies repaying gov supplements because their businesses didnt drop below the threshold for support.
So Australia is now sitting at 10 days without a local case (and we still have restrictions). Dont underestimate socialist attitudes of both the people and the government (and this was from our right wing gov) in getting this under control. Our big issue is citizens trying to return to the country as we limit the number of arrivals so our quarantine system can cope. Oh - and you cant leave without permission!! Thats pretty extreme.
I think the more progressive/socialistic nations are the indeed the ones doing relatively well during this pandemic.
USA is probably the least progressive/socialistic nation around...
Yeah, next time around, governments really need to put a plan in place. Identify who are essential, who can work at home and who can't work... and then assist those who can't work as well as the essential workers as much as possible. There needs to be enough masks also... Allowing the economy to churn only at a minimal pace... but perhaps allowing people to delay rent and mortgage payments and stuff like that automatically...
If governments want to shut things down, be willing to pay for it too. Shut things down for like 80~100 days to get things under control..., but don't just ask the business owners to incur all the costs of shutdowns.
Of course this is all just wishful thinking... even president Biden wasn't for medicare for all initially, but hopefully this pandemic has caused him to realize that progressives like Bernie Sanders isn't just a crazy old man.
Last edited by Crazed_Insanity; January 26th, 2021 at 03:05 PM.
Sweden and Brazil would give the USA a run for its money.Originally Posted by Crazed_Insanity
Focusing on Sweden for a second; compare it to Norway. A better comparison between government attitudes could not be made, as they are so geographically and economically similar.
Population
Sweden: 10,000,000
Norway: 5,400,000
Rona infections
Sweden: 550,000 or 5.5%
Norway: 61,000 or 1.1%
Deaths
Sweden: 11,000 or 0.11%
Norway: 550 or 0.01%
For Norway to proportionately match Sweden's level of COVID numbers, it would have to increase infections five-fold, and deaths ten-fold. The reason they are so much lower than Sweden's is most likely down to government response to the disease.
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