Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

‘Worst is yet ahead of us’ in coronavirus outbreak, WHO warns
April 20, 2020


https://globalnews.ca/news/6842358/who-warning-lockdown-worst-coronavirus/



"The head of the World Health Organization has warned that “the worst is yet ahead of us” in the coronavirus outbreak, raising new alarm bells about the pandemic just as many countries are beginning to ease restrictive measures.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn’t specify exactly why he believes that the outbreak could get worse. Some people, though, have pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are far less developed."

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

A spectre is haunting the West – the spectre of authoritarian capitalism
16 April 2020

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/a-spectre-is-haunting-the-west-the-spectre-of-authoritarian-capitalism/

"Amidst the turmoil in global financial markets in recent weeks, something unusual has happened.

Investors, seeking shelter from the coronavirus-linked sell-off, have piled into Chinese government bonds on an unprecedented scale. These purchases have increased the total foreign ownership of Beijing’s bonds to record highs, even as much of the country is still emerging from lockdown after the viral outbreak. In an ironic twist, the country where the pandemic originated has become an unlikely safe haven for investors – a shift that one prominent trader has described as “the single largest change in capital markets in anybody’s lifetime.”"

"This is the first great crisis of the post-American world."
Carl Bildt, former Swedish Prime Minister

"In 1848 Karl Marx wrote that ‘A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.’ Today another spectre is haunting the West: its name is authoritarian capitalism."

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Coronavirus antibody testing begins in NY, may be key to reopening country
Updated 8:22 AM


https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/04/coronavirus-antibody-testing-begins-in-ny-may-be-key-to-reopening-country.html


"Cuomo said 3,000 people across the state will randomly receive tests from the state Department of Health to detect for the presence of antibodies. The statistical sample will help determine what percent of the population may have been exposed to the virus.

“That will tell us, for the first time, what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now, at least short-term, immune to the virus,” he said Sunday. “This will be the first true snapshot of what we’re dealing with.”"

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WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service, working in partnership with the Treasury Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, announced today that recipients of VA benefits will automatically receive automatic Economic Impact Payments.

Veterans and their beneficiaries who receive Compensation and Pension (C&P) benefit payments from VA will receive a $1,200 Economic Impact Payment with no further action needed on their part. Timing on the payments is still being determined.

Moving VA recipients into the automatic payment category follows weeks of extensive cooperative work between VA, Treasury, IRS as well as the Bureau of Fiscal Services.

"Since many VA recipients typically aren't required to file tax returns, the IRS had to work with these other government agencies to determine a way to quickly and accurately deliver Economic Impact Payments to this group," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. "Additional programming work remains, but this step simplifies the process for VA recipients to quickly and easily receive these $1,200 payments automatically. We deeply appreciate the sacrifices and service to our country by each and every veteran and their families, as well as the assistance of VA and the Bureau of Fiscal Services in this effort."
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For benefit recipients with dependents, extra step needed to claim $500 for children; Register now for earlier delivery

The law provides eligible taxpayers with qualifying children under age 17 to receive an extra $500. For taxpayers who filed tax returns in 2018 or 2019, the child payments will be automatic.

However, many benefit recipients typically aren't required to file tax returns. If they have children who qualify, an extra step is needed to add $500 per child onto their automatic payment of $1,200 if they didn't file a tax return in 2018 or 2019.
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(Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info Here https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here
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Watch out for scams related to Economic Impact Payments

The IRS urges taxpayers to be on the lookout for scams related to the Economic Impact Payments. To use the new app or get information, taxpayers should visit IRS.gov. People should watch out for scams using email, phone calls or texts related to the payments. Be careful and cautious: The IRS will not send unsolicited electronic communications asking people to open attachments, visit a website or share personal or financial information. Remember, go directly and solely to IRS.gov for official information.

More information

The IRS has posted frequently asked questions on IRS.gov/coronavirus and will provide more updates as soon as they are available.

quote:

ORIGINAL: obvert

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Coronavirus antibody testing begins in NY, may be key to reopening country
Updated 8:22 AM


https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/04/coronavirus-antibody-testing-begins-in-ny-may-be-key-to-reopening-country.html


"Cuomo said 3,000 people across the state will randomly receive tests from the state Department of Health to detect for the presence of antibodies. The statistical sample will help determine what percent of the population may have been exposed to the virus.

“That will tell us, for the first time, what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now, at least short-term, immune to the virus,” he said Sunday. “This will be the first true snapshot of what we’re dealing with.”"

Exactly

quote:

Student Loan Payments

The stimulus bill that just passed requires the Department of Education to pause student loan payments, principal, and interest for 6 months, through September 30, 2020, without penalty to the borrower for all federally owned loans. This is automatic - borrowers do not have to request it.

That's a huge benefit for student loan borrowers. No payments for roughly 6 months!

Note: Interest will not capitalize during this time as well.
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It's important to note that this only applies to borrowers with loans held by the Department of Education. This includes all Direct Loans, and Federally-held Perkins loans and FFEL Loans. The easiest way to tell if you have Federally-held Perkins or FFEL loans is to simply login into your loan servicer's website - you'll see your loan payment $0 and interest rate 0% if they are approved loans for this.
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Stopping Collections and Tax Offsets

The Department of Education announced on March 25 that they will be suspending collection activity on student loans - including garnishments, tax offsets, Social Security offsets, and collection activity like phone calls.

If your tax refund happened after the emergency declaration, you will get a refund. If your garnishment happened before the emergency declaration on March 13, it doesn't appear you'll get a refund.

The suspension of collection activities will last until September 30, 2020 right now.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alfred

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Ethiopia is also teetering on default over a big Chinese funded road project that was supposed to bring tourists to Addis Ababba Disneyland.


Guess which UN agency lately in the news is headed by an Ethiopian whose nomination was advanced by the Chicoms?

Anyone? Anyone?

Angola is in for $20B. Angola? Really? There isn't a chance in Hell they can pay that back.

https://qz.com/africa/1634659/ethiopia-kenya-struggle-with-chinese-debt-over-sgr-railways/

I'll see you and raise you one more from the New York Times, circa May 2017.

Guess which Ethiopian leading a UN agency lately in the news has been associated with covering up several Ethiopian cholera outbreaks?

Anyone? Anyone?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/health/candidate-who-director-general-ethiopia-cholera-outbreaks.html

Evidence for direct culpability is lacking but there sure seems to be some similarities with the current news du jour and how evidence of cholera was then officially viewed.

Alfred

That is what Joe Gannon would call an "M.O'"

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

The Chicoms KNEW how bad SARS-2 was...so they corner the market on world PPE production and then they turn loose thousands of ambulatory virus reproduction machines on the rest of the world and THEN they sell the same f****** crap back at 16x the original price.

That is PURE evil. There absolutely needs to be global retribution lasting for a couple of generations.

Greed is to be expected in the so-called free trade system where one country corners the market on something and gouges the rest of the world on price - the consumers are free to pay or not buy!

While we are talking about "free market greed", what do you make of the US Federal Government commandeering mask orders that the states had ordered and confirmed, then sending 300,000 of the badly needed masks to NYC, but not to State or Hospital hands, instead to a storage warehouse where private companies could offer them to the highest bidder!
What does the Federal Government get out of that arrangement?
Who controls the company that got control of resale of the masks?
What was the delay in distribution caused by the auctioning process?
Why haven't we seen widespread anger about the whole process? (I suspect it is because the government throws so many distractions at the media that the story can never become something people fixate on).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: obvert

quote:

ORIGINAL: warspite1

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

@ obvert/Warspite1/Encircled (or other Brits)

Have you lot found a website that provides granular detail across the UK? I'm talking county by county / country by country (including Wales too of course) for Scotland, England, Wales and N. Ireland? I don't know how to get that stuff from the Worldometers or Covid Tracking Project sites-my 'go to' sites for daily national and state information.

warspite1

I've not been able to find anything that granular - but then we can't even give a total figure of recovered so I'm not surprised....

This Guardian page has been running since the beginning here. When I first checked, my council had one case. Now, Waltham Forest lists 636. This is mostly by county, but includes all London councils.

I'm sure the PHE website has some similar stuff, which is where The Guardian lists this as coming from.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/coronavirus-uk-how-many-cases-are-there-in-my-area

Thanks obvert. From that link, I could get more granular information on Wales, for example.

My hypothesis is that Welsh cases/deaths will look differently than major urban metropolitan areas (e.g., Londinium, Edinburgh, etc.) due to the very different levels of urbanization/population density and so forth.

Looking at the Welsh data, it looks like Wales' COVID-19 mortality peaked over a week ago. Good news that may be useful for determining staggered 're-opening' patterns for your country.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sammy5IsAlive

Here's the scatter plot of the English figures - to me the relationship between density and cases reported looks to be closer to linear rather than exponential. I no longer have any access to statistics programs like SPSS so that is very much an 'eyeball' evaluation.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sammy5IsAlive

Here's the scatter plot of the English figures - to me the relationship between density and cases reported looks to be closer to linear rather than exponential. I no longer have any access to statistics programs like SPSS so that is very much an 'eyeball' evaluation.

Yes, it looks linear. Not very steep either. Probably some of those areas are tied at the hip like Brooklyn and Manhattan. My guess why NY got hit so bad is high usage of crowded public transit.

quote:

"You [Xi], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn't respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace,” wrote Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Germany’s largest paper, Bild, which had questioned if China “should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide.”

Reichelt added: “You rule by surveillance. You wouldn't be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country. You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them – and with them, the rest of the world.”

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Bild takes it to Xi.

Glad to see it isn't only right of center US media getting worked up.

quote:

"You [Xi], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn't respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace,” wrote Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Germany’s largest paper, Bild, which had questioned if China “should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide.”

Reichelt added: “You rule by surveillance. You wouldn't be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country. You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them – and with them, the rest of the world.”

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Bild takes it to Xi.

Glad to see it isn't only right of center US media getting worked up.

quote:

"You [Xi], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn't respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace,” wrote Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Germany’s largest paper, Bild, which had questioned if China “should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide.”

Reichelt added: “You rule by surveillance. You wouldn't be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country. You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them – and with them, the rest of the world.”

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I haven't heard anything about this, but it doesn't seem plausible at first reading. The media would appreciate an opportunity to skewer the president or any department in his orbit. They wouldn't let volume or distractions get in their way. Also, while the government is big and therefore often inefficient or cumbersome or awkward, it seldom does something this openly ridiculous. Most people at least try do their jobs, and those who are going to be underhanded, criminal or grossly incompetent usually try to hide it. Do you know more or can you provide links?

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

The Chicoms KNEW how bad SARS-2 was...so they corner the market on world PPE production and then they turn loose thousands of ambulatory virus reproduction machines on the rest of the world and THEN they sell the same f****** crap back at 16x the original price.

That is PURE evil. There absolutely needs to be global retribution lasting for a couple of generations.

Greed is to be expected in the so-called free trade system where one country corners the market on something and gouges the rest of the world on price - the consumers are free to pay or not buy!

While we are talking about "free market greed", what do you make of the US Federal Government commandeering mask orders that the states had ordered and confirmed, then sending 300,000 of the badly needed masks to NYC, but not to State or Hospital hands, instead to a storage warehouse where private companies could offer them to the highest bidder!
What does the Federal Government get out of that arrangement?
Who controls the company that got control of resale of the masks?
What was the delay in distribution caused by the auctioning process?
Why haven't we seen widespread anger about the whole process? (I suspect it is because the government throws so many distractions at the media that the story can never become something people fixate on).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: obvert

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Coronavirus antibody testing begins in NY, may be key to reopening country
Updated 8:22 AM


https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/04/coronavirus-antibody-testing-begins-in-ny-may-be-key-to-reopening-country.html


"Cuomo said 3,000 people across the state will randomly receive tests from the state Department of Health to detect for the presence of antibodies. The statistical sample will help determine what percent of the population may have been exposed to the virus.

“That will tell us, for the first time, what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now, at least short-term, immune to the virus,” he said Sunday. “This will be the first true snapshot of what we’re dealing with.”"

Exactly

Please note the extremely small sample size and the needed extrapolation towards the greater population's prevalence rate. I think this is a good idea, but is worlds apart from from testing everybody that 'wants' it. Worlds apart from testing everybody for asymptomatics and worlds apart from testing everybody for antibodies as part of some 'health passport'.

I hope that they will cross-correlate known virus positives and suggestive histories of transient / mild disease as well when they're enrolling these pilot study participants. It would be a good time to capture this data and compare known virus positives with antibody titer levels. So I hope it's not a truly blind random trial.

BTW, what did the German data show? The serosurveillance there was noted in this article.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I haven't heard anything about this, but it doesn't seem plausible at first reading. The media would appreciate an opportunity to skewer the president or any department in his orbit. They wouldn't let volume or distractions get in their way. Also, while the government is big and therefore often inefficient or cumbersome or awkward, it seldom does something this openly ridiculous. Most people at least try do their jobs, and those who are going to be underhanded, criminal or grossly incompetent usually try to hide it. Do you know more or can you provide links?

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

The Chicoms KNEW how bad SARS-2 was...so they corner the market on world PPE production and then they turn loose thousands of ambulatory virus reproduction machines on the rest of the world and THEN they sell the same f****** crap back at 16x the original price.

That is PURE evil. There absolutely needs to be global retribution lasting for a couple of generations.

Greed is to be expected in the so-called free trade system where one country corners the market on something and gouges the rest of the world on price - the consumers are free to pay or not buy!

While we are talking about "free market greed", what do you make of the US Federal Government commandeering mask orders that the states had ordered and confirmed, then sending 300,000 of the badly needed masks to NYC, but not to State or Hospital hands, instead to a storage warehouse where private companies could offer them to the highest bidder!
What does the Federal Government get out of that arrangement?
Who controls the company that got control of resale of the masks?
What was the delay in distribution caused by the auctioning process?
Why haven't we seen widespread anger about the whole process? (I suspect it is because the government throws so many distractions at the media that the story can never become something people fixate on).

It started with the April 2 news conference in which VP Pence talked about sending the 200,000 N95 masks (not 300K as I misremembered) to NYC and then later in the news conference mentioned the shipment would go to a warehouse in NYC to be sold off. I searched for that part of the news conference but I am shut out of most US newspapers (they want subscribers) and the clips I did find cut off before the reporters questions that revealed the warehouse situation. Jared Kushner was somehow involved in arranging the transfer.

Governor Cuomo talked about it in one of his briefing and it was covered on some news channels. I also searched for his briefings around that time but it may have been a question from a reporter not during his formal briefing. I remember him being incensed that the President and VP were saying they were giving NY 200K masks but in fact the masks were going to a warehouse for resale.

quote:

ORIGINAL: obvert

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: obvert

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Coronavirus antibody testing begins in NY, may be key to reopening country
Updated 8:22 AM


https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/04/coronavirus-antibody-testing-begins-in-ny-may-be-key-to-reopening-country.html


"Cuomo said 3,000 people across the state will randomly receive tests from the state Department of Health to detect for the presence of antibodies. The statistical sample will help determine what percent of the population may have been exposed to the virus.

“That will tell us, for the first time, what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now, at least short-term, immune to the virus,” he said Sunday. “This will be the first true snapshot of what we’re dealing with.”"

Exactly

Please note the extremely small sample size and the needed extrapolation towards the greater population's prevalence rate. I think this is a good idea, but is worlds apart from from testing everybody that 'wants' it. Worlds apart from testing everybody for asymptomatics and worlds apart from testing everybody for antibodies as part of some 'health passport'.

I hope that they will cross-correlate known virus positives and suggestive histories of transient / mild disease as well when they're enrolling these pilot study participants. It would be a good time to capture this data and compare known virus positives with antibody titer levels. So I hope it's not a truly blind random trial.

BTW, what did the German data show? The serosurveillance there was noted in this article.

As I've been advocating, a big enough sample size taken from a representative demographic can start giving an idea of overall infection rates in various populations. If it's smart and targeted, random within chosen constraints, then it can be repeated for verification, compared with other "hotspot area" and eventually used statistically with more confidence.

quote:

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

... while they thought nobody was looking, they arrested a bunch of pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong last weekend...

quote:

ORIGINAL: obvert

quote:

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: obvert

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Coronavirus antibody testing begins in NY, may be key to reopening country
Updated 8:22 AM


https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/04/coronavirus-antibody-testing-begins-in-ny-may-be-key-to-reopening-country.html


"Cuomo said 3,000 people across the state will randomly receive tests from the state Department of Health to detect for the presence of antibodies. The statistical sample will help determine what percent of the population may have been exposed to the virus.

“That will tell us, for the first time, what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now, at least short-term, immune to the virus,” he said Sunday. “This will be the first true snapshot of what we’re dealing with.”"

Exactly

Please note the extremely small sample size and the needed extrapolation towards the greater population's prevalence rate. I think this is a good idea, but is worlds apart from from testing everybody that 'wants' it. Worlds apart from testing everybody for asymptomatics and worlds apart from testing everybody for antibodies as part of some 'health passport'.

I hope that they will cross-correlate known virus positives and suggestive histories of transient / mild disease as well when they're enrolling these pilot study participants. It would be a good time to capture this data and compare known virus positives with antibody titer levels. So I hope it's not a truly blind random trial.

BTW, what did the German data show? The serosurveillance there was noted in this article.

As I've been advocating, a big enough sample size taken from a representative demographic can start giving an idea of overall infection rates in various populations. If it's smart and targeted, random within chosen constraints, then it can be repeated for verification, compared with other "hotspot area" and eventually used statistically with more confidence.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alfred

quote:

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

... while they thought nobody was looking, they arrested a bunch of pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong last weekend...

You overlooked something else done last weekend. China has just created 2 new administrative districts in the Paracel and Spratly islands.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-20/vietnam-protests-beijings-expansion-in-disputed-south-china-sea/12165646

This action has far longer term ramifications than the Hong Kong arrests for it represents outright de facto annexation. It moves the South China Sea conflict from one over internationally disputed islands to one over established sovereign Chinese land. At least that is the legal narrative China will present to any legal challenge made under the Law of the Sea rules.

Alfred