Dow down 1900 in two days; Corona virus prediction?

[LesPalenik]

The first photographic casualty:

It's actually a good thing. Shooting now any street scenes in Milano would be quite depressing.

[Rob C]

It's actually a good thing. Shooting now any street scenes in Milano would be quite depressing.

On the other hand, if you want those cityscapes without people messing them up...

:-)

[Alan Klein]

So I went for a medical test unrelated to the virus.  The medical lab had a warning sign by the elevator door.  This place doesn't test for the virus.  So I wonder how testing labs that do, will handle sick people? 

[chez]

So I went for a medical test unrelated to the virus.  The medical lab had a warning sign by the elevator door.  This place doesn't test for the virus.  So I wonder how testing labs that do, will handle sick people?

Take them into the back and shoot them. Simplest method of containment.

[Frans Waterlander]

Take them into the back and shoot them. Simplest method of containment.

And how is this an acceptable comment?

[Paulo Bizarro]

And how is this an acceptable comment?

Indeed... I hope the author does not lose any family member or friend to this new disease.

[Paulo Bizarro]

So I went for a medical test unrelated to the virus.  The medical lab had a warning sign by the elevator door.  This place doesn't test for the virus.  So I wonder how testing labs that do, will handle sick people?

Here in Portugal, contingency plans and instructions are very clear. People with such symptoms should call a phone number for clarification. If symptoms persist, they are taken to properly isolated facilities/hospitals prepared to handle such cases. They are tested there.

Right now many schools and universities are closed, public events are cancelled, etc. Even football matches will be played next weekend with no public. We have learned from the cases of Italy and Spain, who have enforced such measures too late.

[Jeremy Roussak]

And how is this an acceptable comment?

Indeed... I hope the author does not lose any family member or friend to this new disease.

Are both of you truly unable to detect humour unless it's emblazoned with smileys?

Jeremy

[Rob C]

And how is this an acceptable comment?

Because it's a black joke: it's the kind of humour that got the Brits through the bombings of WW2.

Rob C

[Rob C]

Are both of you truly unable to detect humour unless it's emblazoned with smileys?

Jeremy

It's another result of the hopeless deadness of years of political correctness killing off the delicate sensors that detect and identify different codes of human speech. Something about hammers and their ability to perceive the entirity of creation as a nail.

Thank goodness our Moderator is not a hammer.

;-)

[Rob C]

Here in Portugal, contingency plans and instructions are very clear. People with such symptoms should call a phone number for clarification. If symptoms persist, they are taken to properly isolated facilities/hospitals prepared to handle such cases. They are tested there.

Right now many schools and universities are closed, public events are cancelled, etc. Even football matches will be played next weekend with no public. We have learned from the cases of Italy and Spain, who have enforced such measures too late.

Meanwhile, over in France, Spain and in Britain... all that they are concerned with seems to be keeping tourism alive.

Perhaps, now, it really will be in the interest of Mexico to pay for a wall!

[Robert Roaldi]

A CNN interview with an expert in infectious diseases, Michael Osterholm, https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/opinions/osterholm-coronavirus-interview-bergen/index.html.

[LesPalenik]

In contrast to Trump who predicts that coronavirus will ‘miraculously’ go away by April, Angela Merkel thinks that most people will be infected by it.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Up to 70% of the population is likely to be infected with the coronavirus that is currently spreading around the world, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, adding that since there was currently no cure the focus had to be on slowing its spread.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-merkel/most-people-will-get-the-coronavirus-aim-is-to-slow-its-spread-merkel-idUSKBN20Y1EY?il=0

[armand]

For whatever it's worth, WHO declared this a pandemic.

[LesPalenik]

For whatever it's worth, WHO declared this a pandemic.

which was to be expected for a while.
Initially, the Chinese dragged their feet, then Trump and even WHO took their sweet time to correctly classify it.

[Alan Klein]

In contrast to Trump who predicts that coronavirus will ‘miraculously’ go away by April, Angela Merkel thinks that most people will be infected by it.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-merkel/most-people-will-get-the-coronavirus-aim-is-to-slow-its-spread-merkel-idUSKBN20Y1EY?il=0

In contrast to Trump who predicts that coronavirus will ‘miraculously’ go away by April, Angela Merkel thinks that most people will be infected by it.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-merkel/most-people-will-get-the-coronavirus-aim-is-to-slow-its-spread-merkel-idUSKBN20Y1EY?il=0

Of course an East German would think that.

[Chris Kern]

In contrast to Trump who predicts that coronavirus will ‘miraculously’ go away by April, Angela Merkel thinks that most people will be infected by it.

Of course an East German would think that.

Yup, sigh, that's so typically German: first listening to what the experts say, then accurately reporting it.  We, on the other hand, are fortunate to have a president who inherited a "natural ability" for science from an uncle was a "super genius" member of the M.I.T. faculty, thus allowing him to offer hunches about the future of a pandemic virus that are much more prescient than what the epidemiologists are saying.

[armand]

By slowing down the spread this is what we are trying to avoid: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/who-gets-hospital-bed/607807/?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share

In US people are even less likely to take this well if we reach that point, I really really hope we won't.

[Frans Waterlander]

Are both of you truly unable to detect humour unless it's emblazoned with smileys?

Jeremy

So are you OK with this kind of comment? Oh, it's "humor"? Come on, Jeremy, grow a spine and do your moderator job!

[LesPalenik]

By slowing down the spread this is what we are trying to avoid: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/who-gets-hospital-bed/607807/?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share

In US people are even less likely to take this well if we reach that point, I really really hope we won't.

That is an alarming article, and should be made a mandatory reading for WHO and the top US decision makers.
Here is two excerpts from the article:

Those who are too old to have a high likelihood of recovery, or who have too low a number of “life-years” left even if they should survive, will be left to die. This sounds cruel, but the alternative, the document argues, is no better. “In case of a total saturation of resources, maintaining the criterion of ‘first come, first served’ would amount to a decision to exclude late-arriving patients from access to intensive care.”
...
But if Italy is in an impossible position, the obligation facing the United States is very clear: To arrest the crisis before the impossible becomes necessary.
This means that our political leaders, the heads of business and private associations, and every one of us need to work together to accomplish two things: Radically expand the capacity of the country’s intensive-care units. And start engaging in extreme forms of social distancing.  Cancel everything. Now.