Why are American hospitals begging for medical supplies?
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Poor planning and response.
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Because we are no longer a first world country?
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I don’t wish to open a political debate (not least as they are not allowed by HO) but this seems to me to be a feature of countries with right wing governments. We have a similar situation in the UK - I believe it stems from a disinclination to state intervention. Governments of a more centrist or leftist view seem to have gone for lockdown measures quicker and wider in scope.
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I really like you Harters but President George W. Bush, my second favorite behind President Ronald Reagan, because they didn’t take crap from anybody.
Anyway W. warned in 2005 of a pandemic but it was buried in politics.
There are multiple articles. I’m also a huge Iron Maiden fan.
Here in the US my observation is that those categories aren’t really relevant. Our fifty states and handful of territories are a statistically significant data set. We have Republican and Democratic governors responding aggressively (Gov. Hogan of MD and Gov. DeWine of OH) and similarly responding poorly (Gov. DeSantis of FL and Gov. Whitmer of MI).
Leadership transcends party.
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Only the strategy of lockdown at the frontier in very early stage and track down any single case and quarantine the people in touch with the sick is effective, it comes without the meltdown of the medical system nor the economy, meaning no to disrupt the normal economic and social activities and probably less unemployment. The strategy to confine at home when virus is everywhere is too late and price to pay is too high. Only Taiwan and South Korea are the best models and worth some praise. I have to say most countries are naive about the destruction and late to act.
In France, many retirement homes are infected with 1/3 or half of the residents dead, extremely sad. The caretakers were not given the right instructions that they could be the contaminators even without symptoms. One believes that 1/3 of the French population has got the virus, and 1/10 becomes very sick, the others have no or slight symptoms continue to spread the virus in an unconscious way. The no masks, no test policy for general public is idiot, why the stupid politicians can’t just admit they didn’t see that coming and things are in shortage even for the medical! The best is yet the warlord style masks fighting: some regions who saw their stock of masks arrived in plane, they are instantly requisitioned by the government. Unfortunately it is always the innocents who pay. One sad observation is idiocracy is universal.
Enough say about politics.
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The lamb finally arrived, a week late. Luckily the date of expiry is 14 April, I put all the packages except the rack in the freezer.
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But did it lie down on Broadway? ( Any Genesis fans in the house? )
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Close enough?
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There are two bits here. One is what should individuals do to care for themselves and immediate loved ones. That path goes to toilet paper hoarding because people are not always reasonable. The other bit is how society at large should respond. Here in the US closing boarders was decried as racist. sigh A greater problem (<- opinion) in the US has been disturbingly low compliance rates with social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Some churches have been particularly egregious violators. Easter and Passover are likely to be petri dishes for another surge of infection.
We’ve got three or four weeks before we have to go outside at all beyond picking up mail at the end of the drive and taking the trash bins to the street.
Unfortunately, in many countries religious gatherings is one of the high risk factor for contamination. In France, some journalists traced back the mega gathering in February of an evangelical church, 2500 participants in Mulhouse, 5 days events with 3 Chinese tourists and tourists from other countries including European (Italian) and American participating ending in nearly all 2500 infected and spreading everywhere in France, and overseas French territories and other parts of the world. It was only a week after, the government tried to trace or inform everyone… So far 23 people died from this event.
Sigh!
I’d take the view that closing a border to particular nationalities is different to closing a border to all in the face of a worldwide pandemic. The latter certainly isnt racist. The former may be.
The issue of faith gatherings is no longer an issue in the UK - as such services are now included in the list of banned events.
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Is there any chance of limiting this thread to what people should stock up on, and not general thoughts on the pandemic, politics, and everything else? Please?
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Very little I would have thought.
Bearing in mind that I have time on my hands, I looked back at earlier posts. You need to go back eleven days to find the last one post actually suggesting something to stock up on (dried mushrooms). What I’m suggesting is that this has always been a free-ranging thread.
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You are right with the request. The mod of culture board has started but in vain to delete all the political and pandemic posts in this thread. The workload will be a few weeks of posts to read and to moderate. It’s not an ideal situation with this free ranging thread, but this is an exceptional situation and only this thread.
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Thank you! I have no problem with a free-ranging discussion; I just don’t want it clogging up a specifically focused and useful thread. (Oh, and re John’s comment on dried mushrooms–I wish I had known that sooner, because I couldn’t find canned mushrooms in the supermarket today!)
naf - I know that we all play here at the discretion of the site owner and of the mods. And I always respect the mods. They are not always right but they are always the mods.
I do not envy the mod who is doing the deletions. If the intent is to reduce the thread to posts only dealing with “what to stock up on”, then there will probably be a total of about 30 posts, not the current 700+ dating back to the end of February that are currently here and which, IMO, have been generally helpful to the spirit of the community in these difficult times. I suppose on one level, it’s an easy, if time-consuming task - simply look at thread and decide if it mentions something to stock up on, or soemthing directly related to that question.
Having commented on the question in the thread title several weeks ago and now taking the view that there is nothing now to stock up on, I’ll happily leave this thread to others, who may still wish to discuss the matter within the new confines of the thread. My thanks to the mods for allowing us the chance, over recent weeks, to share our fears, failures and successes.
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I’ll be happy to dine at your house, and help you out with eating the rack - la creme de la creme IMO. I’ll bring some beautiful tulips, and a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal or Charles Krug - your choice. Damn this corona thing, and I’m sorry your country and beautiful city are having such problems. A global tragedy also, just not severe everywhere…yet.
Agree with you @Harters about this thread, and very eloquently put on your part. That said, I think we all need to grant ourself some grace during these extraordinarily difficult times. My input would be to move, rather than delete the irrelevant posts. We are living history right now, and for better or worse, it needs to be preserved.
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