Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

X

Pandemic: Coronavirus deaths and what we don't know

Nick Triggle
BBC
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
red mask
© Getty Images
The drastic measures taken in the UK to tackle coronavirus have been justified because of the need to save lives. Modeling by Imperial College London - used to inform government - suggests 500,000 could die if we do nothing. Even the government's previous strategy to slow the spread was likely to lead to 250,000 deaths, the research showed.

The warnings prompted ministers to announce on Monday the most draconian crackdown on freedom in peacetime with the public told not to go to pubs, clubs or theatres, and to work from home if possible.

The move has hit the economy, putting jobs at risk and prompting schools to be closed and exams cancelled.

No other option - experts

Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the lead academics involved in the modeling, told the BBC's Today Programme this week there was "no option" if 250,000 lives were not to be risked.

Comment: Some experts offer more rational perspectives for coronavirus-related deaths in lieu of scare tactics, health frenzies and incomplete statistic evaluations. 'Reason with knowledge' or 'hysteria from hype': those are the choices.

      Read More...
Shopping Bag

It was 'soul-destroying': UK foodbank ransacked in panic over supplies


RT
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 16:07 UTC
food bank
© Global Look Press/Simon Chapman
Bristol North West Food Bank
A foodbank in West Yorkshire, England has been broken into and £500-worth of items such as food, sanitary products and basic supplies stolen, as the febrile atmosphere in the UK cranks up amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Local Labour MP Yvette Cooper took to social media on Thursday afternoon to express her dismay at the brazen criminality committed against Knottingley Foodbank, tweeting: "Truly appalled anyone could do this right now."
Cooper - Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP - hit out at the culprits, insisting that if they had done this "in order to make profit from other people's desperation" then that would be "a shocking and shameful crime."
      Read More...
Family

France threatens stricter quarantine enforcement after police inspect over 800,000 citizens, issue nearly 39,000 citations


RT
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 14:18 UTC
officers
© REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
Police officers confront a man in Nice, France, March 20, 2020
French law enforcers have slapped fines on tens of thousands of uncooperative citizens, less than a week after the government introduced restrictions on non-essential travel and business in an effort to combat Covid-19.

The Ministry of Interior disclosed on Saturday that police across the country had carried out 867,695 inspections to ensure that people using transport or participating in other restricted activities had good reason to do so. As a result, cops reported some 38,994 instances of non-compliance resulting in fines between Tuesday and Friday. French authorities have also warned that they will become stricter with enforcement going forward.

Some of the fines were reportedly issued to homeless people in Paris, Lyon and Bayonne, according to an advocacy group for the disadvantaged. However, the group did not disclose how many people living on the streets have been penalized for violating the lockdown.

Comment: See also: While the West goes nuts over COVID-19, Russians are reminded there is no need for panic

      Read More...
Bulb

Omens of the end? Covid-19 not the only thing you should be scared of this spring (or maybe we should just chill)

Robert Bridge
RT
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 17:58 UTC
hysteria panic
© Getty Images/Ebby May
A palpable dread has gripped the entire planet as its wired denizens are given a non-stop drip of information on the coronavirus, to the point where there seems to be some truth in the adage 'ignorance is bliss'.

In the coronavirus-saturated news cycle, you'd be struggling to find news not connected in some way to the pandemic. The media's feverish coverage - of which RT is not innocent - is understandable: everyone wants to keep tabs on a potentially deadly disease on their doorstep.

But a recent poll by the Pew Research Center has shown most Americans (62 percent) think the media is exaggerating the viral threat, and finding respite from pandemic news is virtually impossible.
      Read More...
Health

Doctors warn of COVID-19 wave racking US prisons

Alan Macleod
MintPress News
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Elmore Correctional Facility
© AP
A prisoner walks near his crowded living area in Elmore Correctional Facility in Elmore, Ala. Brynn Anderson
Doctors are warning that the huge numbers of inmates locked inside large communal cells, often with dozens of other people, a perfect breeding ground for disease.

Amid the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, doctors across the United States are warning that prisons are a ticking time bomb. Dr. Ross MacDonald, the Chief Medical Officer for Correctional Health Services in New York City, sent a dire warning to city and state legislators yesterday.

"We who care for those you detain noticed how swiftly you closed your courts in response to COVID-19. This was fundamentally an act of social distancing, a sound strategy in public health. But the luxury that allows you to protect yourselves, carries with it an obligation to those you detain. You must not leave them in harm's way," he wrote, ominously adding that, "a storm is coming" and claiming they could no longer look the other way.

While prisons are very good at stopping humans from exiting the premises, they are powerless to stop viruses from entering. And while the traditional image of American jails is that of isolated inmates, perhaps sharing a cell with only one other person, the reality is that huge numbers are actually locked inside large communal cells, often with dozens of other people, a perfect breeding ground for disease. There are around 2.3 million Americans currently incarcerated, and the prison system is at over 100 percent of its capacity as a whole.

Comment: Perhaps one of these caring and thoughtful medical officers might make make the suggestion - and help implement - some very basic ways in which to help the prison population boost their immune systems:

      Read More...
Family

Coronavirus' greatest threat: our social fabric

John Couretas
Acton Institute
Tue, 17 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
empty shelves supermarket
Over the weekend, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that her office received 75 complaints of retailers gouging coronavirus-panicked consumers on the price of basic necessities:
Stores in Farmington Hills, Dearborn, Ann Arbor and Allendale have been accused of jacking up the price of hand sanitizers, face masks, and rice and lentils by up to 900%. In one case, the Allendale store was allegedly selling face masks that would normally sell for $3 apiece for $6 to $10 each. Another store had increased the price of a small bottle of hand sanitizer from $1 to $10 and another was selling bigger bottles of hand sanitizer for $20, $40 or $60 a bottle. One market allegedly boosted the price of rice and lentils by 60%.
The Detroit Free Press reported that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer "signed an executive order Sunday making it a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of $500, for a retailer to raise prices of essential items that are more than 20% higher than what the business was selling the products for as of March 9, 2020." The order went into effect at 9 a.m. Monday and will remain in place until April 13.

Now, as surely as panic follows crisis, we'll hear arguments from economists explaining why price gouging is an efficient way to allocate needed goods and services and how the price system will rebalance supply and demand.
      Read More...
Corona

Businesses reopening, people allowed to spend more time outside as China reports no local Covid-19 cases for third day - and other corona-viral news


RT
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 17:15 UTC
shanghai chinese masks
© REUTERS/Aly Song
People in Shanghai, China March 20, 2020.
China has marked its third consecutive day of no new local cases of coronavirus, as officials ease lockdown measures. The number of deaths in China from the disease has also slowed dramatically.

The positive development has coincided with the government's decision to relax strict quarantine policies put in place across the country. Even in Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease, officials said residents could spend more time outside. Local businesses were also allowed to re-open in communities and neighborhoods where there were no existing cases of the virus.

The rate of infection has been brought to a near standstill in China, which struggled for weeks to contain Covid-19. Although no new local infections have been spotted in 72 hours, China said that it suffered 41 imported cases on Saturday — the highest one-day tally of infections from abroad. Seven new deaths were also reported, but the figure represents a steep decline in fatalities. Around 3,255 people in mainland China have died from Covid-19 since the health crisis began more than two months ago.

Comment: Another 546 deaths were attributed to the virus over the last day in Italy, but note that these are not necessarily deaths directly caused by the virus - it just means that that many people died who also tested positive for the virus. There is undoubtedly some overlap (to what degree it's impossible to say yet without more data) between covid cases and people already ill who would have died whether or not they had the virus. It does seem that mortality in some cities is higher than usual, however. For example:
"At the moment we receive an average of 25 coffins a day but we can manage only 12," the manager of a crematorium in the province of Piacenza in northern Italy told RT's Ruptly.
Obviously, this situation creates an abnormal amount, bringing us to an emergency phase, making us very likely to halt for a few days in order to be able to recover some space.
Neighboring regions have already begun sending their own excess bodies to the Piacenza facility, the manager added, observing: "It is the same problem that Bergamo had and exactly for this reason, we are receiving the coffins from all across central and northern Italy. They do not have any more provisional spaces for coffins."
No word on how often, if at all, such a situation happens for the crematoria.

Spain's cases jumped to almost 25k, with over 300 new deaths, but because of the emergency situation, they're not even testing for the virus, so these numbers are worthless. German cases jumped by 2705, with 47 total deaths. (Again, the reliability of the numbers is in question.) The Bundesbank chief warns a recession in Germany is inevitable. The absurdity of the French situation was pointed out by officers to RT: they're not even sure that they themselves aren't infecting people by approaching them to enforce the restrictions on movement and gathering imposed by the government. Speaking of which, thousands of French are ignoring the quarantine orders, leading to nearly 39,000 citations for violations of the restrictions. A Dutchman received 10 weeks in jail for coughing on cops, saying, "I have the coronavirus and now you do, too."

A Turkey-based startup has invented a disinfection module for ATMs that removes bacteria and viruses. Maybe cash isn't dead after all! Russia delivered over 100k Covi-19 test kits to 13 countries, including Iran and North Korea. In the States, Illinois went into full lockdown (but only after the primaries). Maryland's National Guard reassured residents there is no martial law threat - after military humvees appeared in the streets. And Little Rock Air Force Base declared an emergency after one airman tested positive.

See also:

      Read More...
X

IRAQ: US Soldiers Locked Up In K1 Base Like A Prison

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 17:18 UTC
US army soldiers sit next a military vehicle in the town of Bartella, east of Mosul, Iraq, December 27, 2016.
© Ammar Awad / Reuters
A senior commander of the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces - PMF) Iraqi state-sponsored Shia militia said that the United States forces in Kirkuk do not play any role in the establishment of security in the region and have been locked up in the K1 military base.

"The K1 base in Kirkuk in which the US forces have been deployed has turned into a large prison," Ali al-Hosseini told the Arabic-language Baghdad al-Youm news website on Thursday.

Ali al-Hosseini also added that the United States personnel are not running any operations in Kirkuk as the region is under the full control of the Iraqi security forces, including the Iraqi Army, the Federal Police and Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces - PMF). Al-Hosseini called on the Iraqi government to evacuate the United States military forces from the K1 and turn the base into a tourist or economic area.
      Read More...
Dollars

Massive social difficulties loom as worldwide job losses from coronavirus lockdown and economic downturn expected to reach 25 million

Jerry White
World Socialist Website
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
prepare soup to be given away to member of the community
© AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Chef Tadd Johnson of the Canary Club restaurant on the Lower East Side of New York, and his wife chef Daisy Nichols, prepare soup to be given away to member of the community, Thursday, March 19, 2020.
Millions of workers throughout the world are being thrown out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic, creating the conditions for an unprecedented economic and social crisis.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has warned that 25 million workers could join the ranks of the unemployed over the next several months. By comparison, the 2008-09 global financial crisis increased global unemployment by 22 million.

The spread of the COVID-19 disease has already exacted a terrible human toll, with nearly 250,000 cases and more than 10,000 fatalities across the globe. The economic and social crisis, which began with the shutdown of a significant portion of China's economy and the disruption in the global supply chain, has now spread around the world as restaurants, retailers, airlines, public schools and factories close or sharply curtail operations.

While pouring trillions into the stock markets and preparing bailouts of the airline and other industries, the Trump administration in the US and capitalist governments around the world are doing little or nothing to protect workers from economic disaster.

Comment: See: 14 Million Americans have been laid off so far due to COVID-19

      Read More...
Stock Up

Russia's economy in for the long haul, low oil prices no concern for now


RT
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 15:46 UTC
russia oil rouble
© Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko
A Russian rouble coin inside a bulb with crude oil
Despite efforts by Russia to gradually cut its reliance on oil, a lengthy energy market turmoil could be challenging for the country's economy and could even result in a major economic crisis.

Oil has continued its dramatic fall this week, dropping to more than an 18-year low on Wednesday amid global recession worries and low demand. Both US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and international benchmark Brent slightly rebounded on Thursday, trading at $22.55 and $27.65 respectively.

The key issue now is not how low can crude prices plunge, but for how long this situation persists, Aleksandr Bakhtin, investment strategist with Premier BCS said in an interview to RT.

Comment: As Russia improves its domestic manufacturing capacity, it will be able to take up more of its oil production internally. It has is a ready-made market that will benefit from lower fuel costs.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts