Society's ChildS


People 2

Media report UK govt mulls scrapping two-meter social distancing rule


RT
Sat, 02 May 2020 17:14 UTC
social distancing
© AFP / Oli Scarff 12An employee of a Boots pharmacy takes a prescription from a customer in Pontefract, Britain. April 27, 2020.
The UK government will hold discussions about whether it's necessary to stay two meters (six feet) apart from other people during the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report says. The WHO and EU guidelines on this issue are less strict.

Citing government sources, the Daily Telegraph reports that ministers have asked the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to ascertain whether the two-meter social distance rule is effective in slowing down the spread of Covid-19. Last week, SAGE called the measure "appropriate," but officials now want to assess all options once more in the wake of the government's plans to begin gradually reopening the country.

The two-meter rule is the subject of "live discussion" among cabinet members, one minister told the Daily Telegraph, adding that the government is focused on getting Britain "back to work."
This is not about weakening the rules, but about trying to test if it's actually necessary to be two meters. What is the empirical evidence on this?
The minister noted that there has to be "common sense" in the way social distancing is being observed. "If someone's fallen over and you need to pick them up, you can't [maintain] a two-meter distance rule," he said.

Staying strictly two meters apart in public places has been advocated at the highest level, including by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ever since the country went into lockdown. However, the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) advise that it's necessary to maintain only a one-meter (3ft) distance to protect oneself from Covid-19.


Comment: And both distances are pulled out of thin air. Since the hysteria is unavoidable at this point, how's this for common sense: let people self-distance if they want. Don't penalize others who don't care if someone walks through their imaginary safety bubble.

Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Disaster capitalism: Wealthiest Americans raking in billions from coronavirus pandemic

Kristin Myers
Yahoo
Fri, 01 May 2020 17:00 UTC
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, left, and Adena Friedman, President and CEO of Nasdaq
© AP Photo/Mark LennihanZoom CEO Eric Yuan, left, and Adena Friedman, President and CEO of Nasdaq
As 30 million Americans have lost their jobs over the last six weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic, America's billionaires are becoming even richer.

According to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank, over the past 6 weeks, American billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $406 billion — a boost of just under 14% to their net worth.

An initial decline

The global pandemic has impacted everyone's pockets, regardless of income. As the markets have been roiled by the coronavirus and broad economic shutdown, hundreds of billionaires saw their net worth decline. In total, 267 of the world's 2,153 billionaires saw their worth decline below $1 billion, dropping off the billionaire list. But as some billionaires struggled, others, particularly in the United States, profited.

"U.S. billionaires have seen ups and downs over the same period. Their ranks increased from 607 to 614 people, but their total wealth declined from $3.111 trillion in 2019 to $2.947 trillion in 2020," the report noted.
Read More...
Briefcase

Judge dismisses US women's national soccer team's claim for equal pay

Li Cohen
CBS News
Fri, 01 May 2020 16:19 UTC
womens soccer
The U.S. women's national soccer team has been fighting for months to receive the same rate of pay as their male counterparts. On Friday, a judge dismissed the claim for equal pay, but said that other allegations of discrimination can proceed to trial.

U.S. District Judge R Gary Klausner said he would not allow the equal pay allegations to go forward because the women's national team previously "rejected an offer to be paid under the same pay-to-play structure" as the men's national team. According to CBS Sports, the women's team sought $66 million under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"The WNT was willing to forgo higher bonuses for benefits, such as greater base compensation and the guarantee of a higher number of contracted players," he wrote in the 32-page decision. "Accordingly, plaintiffs cannot now retroactively deem their CBA (collective bargaining agreement) worse than the MNT (men's national team) CBA by reference to what they would have made had they been paid under the MNT's pay-to-play terms structure when they themselves rejected such a structure."
Read More...
Chess

Colorado's Health Department reclassifies nursing home deaths as coronavirus

Brian Maass
CBS Denver
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:15 UTC
Someren Glen
© CBS
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has reclassified three deaths at a Centennial nursing home as COVID-19 deaths, despite the fact attending physicians ruled all three were not related to coronavirus, according to a CBS4 Investigation.

The deaths occurred at Someren Glen, a senior living community with about 200 residents who receive various levels of care.

Tim Rogers, Executive Director at the facility, wrote that in mid-April, "We were informed of their (CDPHE) intention to override some of our physician's rulings and reclassify some resident passings we have experienced in the last few weeks."

The facility had four residents die with their deaths directly tied to coronavirus, and they were listed as such on the official state health department website. But Rogers, speaking of the three additional cases, wrote, "Other residents have passed, but the attending physician has ruled their death as a result of other ailments for which they were receiving care for including hospice services."
Read More...
Heart - Black

Sadists: Ottawa tells family members to stop window visits at nursing homes

Elizabeth Payne
Ottawa Sun
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:06 UTC
window visits
© AP
It has become an iconic image of the COVID-19 pandemic — a family member waving to an elderly loved one through the window of their long-term care home. Even Ontario Premier Doug Ford has talked about his wife visiting her mother that way.

But it will no longer be an option for families with loved ones in long-term care homes run by the City of Ottawa. In a memo this week, Dean Lett, director of long-term care for the city, asked families to stop visiting their loved ones at windows "to help ensure that physical distancing remains in place for all our residents."

The news has devastated family members who say the visits are the only remaining connection they have with anxious and isolated loved ones whom they've been unable to see in person during the pandemic. Many of them do not respond to electronic communications the same way, say families.
Read More...
Wall Street

Fake News industry moves on to next lie as Kim Jong-Un shows up alive


Sputnik
Sat, 02 May 2020 12:03 UTC
north korea kim jong un
'Surprise!'
Kim Jong-un's well-being has been a matter of speculation over the past several weeks as the North Korean leader has been conspicuously absent from public events which led to rumours that he was either ill or even dead.

A video of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a fertiliser plant in Sunchon after his several-week absence from public functions has been shared by the Korean Central News Agency.


In the footage, the supreme leader is seen cheered by locals in face masks outside of the plant, waving flowers and flags. Kim himself was filmed talking with top officials, seemingly in good health and spirits. Notably, none of them was wearing any facial protection.

He was also seen examining a machine installed in the plant and giving instructions to officials who escorted the chairman. Kim, a habitual smoker, was also spotted with a cigarette during a meeting at the facility.



Comment: The Coroney virus will never take him then.

Read More...
Arrow Up

COVID-19 not as deadly as feared, hospitals will shift back to normal - UPMC doctor

David Wenner
Penn Live
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 19:52 UTC
Yealy
Dr. Donald Yealy of UPMC in Pittsburgh, Pa. speaks to reporters during an online briefing on April 30, 2020.
A UPMC doctor on Thursday made a case the death rate for people infected with the new coronavirus may be as low as 0.25% — far lower than the mortality rates of 2-4% or even higher cited in the early days of the pandemic.

Dr. Donald Yealy based it partly on studies of levels of coronavirus antibodies detected in people in New York and California, and partly on COVID-19 deaths in the Pittsburgh region. The studies found that 5-20% of people had been exposed to the coronavirus, with many noticing only mild illness or none at all, he said.

"We've learned that way more people, far, far more people have actually been exposed to the infection without any knowledge of it. That makes the overall death rate much lower," said Yealy, who is UPMC's chair of emergency medicine. "Many people just didn't feel sick at all and recovered without difficulty."

Comment: Whilst it's a good sign that doctors are seeing reason and are brave enough to speak out against the coronavirus propaganda, world leaders are decrying that there will be no returning to 'normal' - whether we like it or not - and, by all metrics, this hysteria has done an untold and potentially irreversible amount of damage to the world's economies, and the death toll caused by the draconian lockdown and its knock on effect has yet to be tallied, but it's highly likely it caused more deaths than the coronvirus:

Read More...
Megaphone

Raucous protest in Huntington Beach demands beaches open, end of stay-at-home order

Andrew J. Campa, Hannah Fry, Luke Money
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 01 May 2020 15:27 UTC
huntington beach protest
© Allen J. Schaben/Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles TimesThousands of protesters rally at the intersection of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.
More than 500 protesters converged on Huntington Beach again Friday to demand stay-at-home rules in California be lifted and to express their displeasure with Gov. Gavin Newsom's directive closing local beaches to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The crowd that descended on the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street was significantly larger than a demonstration at the same site near the Huntington Beach Pier two weeks ago. The raucous protest included people carrying banners that read "All jobs are essential" and "Freedom: We the people." One person had a sign that said "Recall Gavin Newsom."

Parents walked hand-in-hand with children to the now-closed beach, while protesters, some bringing their dogs, arrived on bikes, skateboards and scooters. Several shared their grievances through chants, signs and occasional songs.

Comment: You bet they're pleased - convincing people to give up their jobs, their life and their constitutional rights for an over-hyped flu is something beyond the authoritarian's wildest dreams. They should be happy that the protest at this stage has been peaceful. Once the true repercussions of the bogus lockdown are fully realized, protests are likely to take on an uglier tone.

See also:

Read More...
Eye 1

UK's 'snitch hotline' receives 194,000 calls during lockdown, police admit protracted measures making it harder for people to comply

Vikram Dodd
The Guardian
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 18:49 UTC
Park coronavrius
© George Wood/Getty ImagesA sign reminding the public about the closure of a play area in Peel Park, Bradford.
Police say they have received 194,000 calls "snitching" on people alleged to have broken the coronavirus lockdown, and say the draconian measures are getting harder to for people to observe the longer they go on.

The figures from the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) give an insight into how the tough rules, and fears of the virus spreading, have affected communities.

Sara Glen, a deputy chief constable who is part of the NPCC's leadership tackling coronavirus, said: "We have members of the public who are coming in on the phones and [via the internet] to report where they've got concerns either at gatherings of people that they can see from their locations, or if they think people aren't adhering to the regulations and that's actually putting them at risk."

Comment: It should no longer be a surprise to anyone how a country can so easily become a totalitarian state with citizen informers:

Read More...
Beaker

Best of the Web: There is no such thing as 'The Science'

Rob Lyons
Spiked
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
lab samples PPE bottles
© Getty Images


Science is not some grand tome we can consult to get the 'right' answer.

According to David Blunkett, a former senior cabinet minister in Tony Blair's governments, attempts to have a blanket lockdown on the over-70s are discriminatory. He believes that the current 'shielding' rules are too crude and need to be more nuanced. Whatever the merits of his ideas, his comments on the scientific advice that the government is receiving are interesting.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World at One on 28 April, Blunkett argued that the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has a problem. Drawing on Matthew Syed's book, Rebel Ideas, he said that 'major mistakes in the recent past have been made by people of similar ilk, similar ideas, similar background, similar thinking being considered the only experts that you could draw down on. And I'd like RAGE - a Recovery Advisory Group - that had a very much broader swathe of advice and expertise to draw down on.'

Comment: See also:

Read More...