Author Topic: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?  (Read 675334 times)

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3250 on: July 29, 2020, 10:08:55 PM »
And some people have shown to be be positive for covid with no symptoms and go about their lives while spreading it without a clue that they are doing so. Why would they get tested if they are healthy and feel fine? Why would they call into work or stop going about their business?

Sounds like the genie is out of the bottle if you have 700 today how many more are out there passing it around...


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The advice from the government is that the community transmission numbers aren't going up. The huge increase in cases is due to known transmission at aged care homes. And the message from the government is that it's not from asymptomatic community spread but rather from symptomatic employment spread. Daniel Andrews has stated that it's due to people who are sick but still insist on going to work.

But it may be that due to the way this virus affects certain sectors more than others that we need to have carve outs - e.g. all aged care workers and abattoir workers need to get tested (and get paid leave while doing so) whether or not they have symptoms, before resuming to work.

Kyle Schuant

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3251 on: July 30, 2020, 03:48:59 AM »

Maybe next time around we just impose early and pre-emptive restrictions on high-risk industries. Pay them $1500 over a fortnight to not go to work for those 2 weeks.
Back in April during the first lockdown when our state started on its fine-heavy approach, I noted that the federal and state governments had already set aside an extra $420 billion for economic stimulus, unemployment benefits, etc. That's $25,250 per Australian adult (going on the 16,635,280 registered voters). This doesn't include extra money tossed into the healthcare system.

With quick work with Google and Apple, they could have created an app, saying, "Stay home or go out as you wish, but if you do not go more than 20 metres from your registered address for more than one hour a day, we will pay you $500."

$500 a day for 7 days a week is $182,000 annually. 97% of the adult population earn less than this, and so would have a financial incentive to stay home even if it meant taking unpaid leave from work.

50 days of this would lead to the same cost we've hit already, not counting the cost of the depression we've created with the lockdowns. I'm not necessarily in favour of government spending all that money, but if they're going to anyway, the question is how best to do it.

Or it could be $250 a day for 100 days, or $125 a day for 200 days, etc.

Of course, we would have to allow for people we actually wanted to leave home, like aged care workers, freight drivers, etc. Other than drivers, mostly we could just register their work address in the software, too. But overall it'd keep more people at home for longer than did the authoritarian approach, and probably end up costing less for the government and the economy overall.

But that's not the authoritarian, finger-wagging, punitive way, so our leaders aren't interested in it.

Kyle Schuant

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3252 on: July 30, 2020, 03:54:06 AM »
The state govt has been keeping people in aged care homes, knowing the were covid+, until they needed ICU. That's driven the spread within the aged care homes.

SA, WA and Qld took any person in aged care who was covid+ and put them in hospital. After all, if they're 92 and diabetic with a heart condition and become covid+ they'll need ICU inside 3 days anyway.

Shades of Cuomo in NYC, really.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3253 on: July 30, 2020, 07:13:03 AM »

Maybe next time around we just impose early and pre-emptive restrictions on high-risk industries. Pay them $1500 over a fortnight to not go to work for those 2 weeks.
Back in April during the first lockdown when our state started on its fine-heavy approach, I noted that the federal and state governments had already set aside an extra $420 billion for economic stimulus, unemployment benefits, etc. That's $25,250 per Australian adult (going on the 16,635,280 registered voters). This doesn't include extra money tossed into the healthcare system.

With quick work with Google and Apple, they could have created an app, saying, "Stay home or go out as you wish, but if you do not go more than 20 metres from your registered address for more than one hour a day, we will pay you $500."

$500 a day for 7 days a week is $182,000 annually. 97% of the adult population earn less than this, and so would have a financial incentive to stay home even if it meant taking unpaid leave from work.

50 days of this would lead to the same cost we've hit already, not counting the cost of the depression we've created with the lockdowns. I'm not necessarily in favour of government spending all that money, but if they're going to anyway, the question is how best to do it.

Or it could be $250 a day for 100 days, or $125 a day for 200 days, etc.

Of course, we would have to allow for people we actually wanted to leave home, like aged care workers, freight drivers, etc. Other than drivers, mostly we could just register their work address in the software, too. But overall it'd keep more people at home for longer than did the authoritarian approach, and probably end up costing less for the government and the economy overall.

But that's not the authoritarian, finger-wagging, punitive way, so our leaders aren't interested in it.

That's not gonna work, Kyle. Firstly because it's easy to spoof your mobile GPS location. (Or just leave your phone at home obviously.) But secondly, let's imagine there's a foolproof way for the government to monitor someone's location. Firstly, you're gonna have a bunch of freedom crusaders saying this is a huge infringement on our human rights. Secondly you're going to have privileged cunts like me immediately deciding to stay home for 200 days so I can scoop up $100k in free taxpayer money, fuck yeah. Meanwhile all those underprivileged angelic people who have to go outdoors and work essential jobs will be saying "where's my money"?

So let's say you then make the app cognisant of everyone's registered home and workplace - and multiple workplaces for those who have multiple jobs (you can already see this is impossible to do, but let's humour the approach). Then what about all those unfortunate people with carer's responsibilities? They'll need additional freedoms, but they still want their money. Those who need medical treatment or to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting? Should they be discriminated against? Those who need to attend a protest? You're basically with-holding $500 a day from people just because they're exercising their democratic right to protest.

Can't you see it's just a way to further entrench inequality? Even if the system worked perfectly, do you think the Australian populace would ever want rich professionals staying at home to get even more money for doing fuck all? So no, you'd have to restrict it to, say, only those earning under $80k a year. But then obviously compliance will go down somewhat.

And even if you just limited it to those under $80k, you'd basically have to have so many exemptions for people who need medical treatment, who need to give care, who want haircuts, who are homeless, who are problem gamblers attending Gamblers Anonymous, etc, you might as well just give everyone $500 in a way that's completely unenforceable. And then you end up where we are anyway, but a lot more in debt.

Kyle Schuant

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3254 on: July 30, 2020, 07:44:29 AM »
Even if the system worked perfectly, do you think the Australian populace would ever want rich professionals staying at home to get even more money for doing fuck all?
Office workers report doing no more than 2.5hr a day of actual work on average, and at least 40% think their job is entirely bullshit. We already pay well-off professional a lot of money to do fuck all.

The current system of subsidising one sector but not another, fining and otherwise harassing the already marginalised, and locking up poor people is not equitable, either.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 08:38:53 AM by Kyle Schuant »

Shane

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3255 on: July 30, 2020, 07:52:05 AM »
These technical problems of tracking citizens will all be solved, once and for all, when we're all forced to get the Covid vaccine, including Bill Gates' tracking chip.  /s

Just Joe

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3256 on: July 30, 2020, 02:09:25 PM »
And Chinese 5G towers to track it...

scottish

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3257 on: July 30, 2020, 03:52:16 PM »
Now that the US has it's way with Huawei equipment, it looks like it'll be Ericsson.    They've come on board with the spreading covid through their cell towers just like Huawei does.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3258 on: July 30, 2020, 08:38:04 PM »
There was a cluster of 12 cases at a construction site. So the site got shut down.

The premier's been going around speaking to Islamic leaders to try to get the word out about no family gatherings during Eid etc

And apparently 1 in 4 people diagnosed with Covid are not staying home (as uncovered by spot checks at home!)

The government's looking at localised lockdowns (by sector) which I think is a great idea.

I know Kyle's criticised the Victorian government, but I think it's done the best it could without the benefit of hindsight.

Best case scenario is that in 3 weeks we can let the general population relax restrictions moderately while continuing tight restrictions for at-risk sectors and workers.

For me, I'm grateful we can still exercise outside, visit our nuclear families (as long as you're a member of the same household), and visit our intimate partners. The only freedom I really want back is the freedom to drive to day trips for hiking. I can live with all the rest.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3259 on: July 31, 2020, 02:07:15 AM »
There was a cluster of 12 cases at a construction site. So the site got shut down.

The premier's been going around speaking to Islamic leaders to try to get the word out about no family gatherings during Eid etc

And apparently 1 in 4 people diagnosed with Covid are not staying home (as uncovered by spot checks at home!)

The government's looking at localised lockdowns (by sector) which I think is a great idea.

I know Kyle's criticised the Victorian government, but I think it's done the best it could without the benefit of hindsight.

Best case scenario is that in 3 weeks we can let the general population relax restrictions moderately while continuing tight restrictions for at-risk sectors and workers.

For me, I'm grateful we can still exercise outside, visit our nuclear families (as long as you're a member of the same household), and visit our intimate partners. The only freedom I really want back is the freedom to drive to day trips for hiking. I can live with all the rest.

It's been just over a week since the mask order. I'm optimistic that we'll start to see a decline in cases, given the incubation period and time between getting a test and receiving a result.

Spud

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3260 on: July 31, 2020, 05:04:02 AM »
Reading the discussion between Kyle and Bloop regarding Kyle idea of making an app to tell people to stay at home and offering a monetary incentive, it is open to abuse if someone purchases a burner phone/dumbphone so they could leave their smartphone at home with the GPS telling the government that they’re staying locked down whilst they’re out and about.

Regardless, I think this all comes back to the point that the world, as a whole, was in no way prepared for this pandemic. As a planet, we've responded reasonably well in some areas and very badly in others, but overall, there really isn't that much we can do. We as humans love the illusion of control and ofimposing our collective will on a thing to make it do what we want, but in the grand scheme of things, looking at the numbers going through the roof in the US, Brazil and India, there's nothing we can do other than watch.

Sure, small, remote, low population countries like New Zealand (22 total deaths) or Iceland (10 total deaths) can make it look every nation should be containing this, but as soon as you look at any large, densely populated country, the pattern becomes clear - if you give this virus an inch, it takes a mile.

Australia were beating it, now they're struggling again, even if only slightly.

It's still just as deadly as it ever was, still just as contagious as it ever was. Still we have no vaccine, and want to do for a long time. People's tolerance of lockdown is basically at zero.

The US and Brazil are basically, whether they want to or not, now just letting this thing run rampant through the population. That's what the numbers are showing anyway.

habanero

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3261 on: July 31, 2020, 05:10:11 AM »
Iceland in addition to being a small country with low population, a remote island and happening to have a, relative to country size, pretty big genetic research company that handles the mass testing Iceland pretty much has a single point of entry: The Keflavik airport outside the capital.

Bar a few low-risk countries, anyone arriving on the airport has the option of taking a test (result is communicated via SMS within a few hours) or quarantine for 10 days.

Davnasty

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3262 on: July 31, 2020, 01:38:39 PM »
Regardless, I think this all comes back to the point that the world, as a whole, was in no way prepared for this pandemic. As a planet, we've responded reasonably well in some areas and very badly in others, but overall, there really isn't that much we can do. We as humans love the illusion of control and ofimposing our collective will on a thing to make it do what we want, but in the grand scheme of things, looking at the numbers going through the roof in the US, Brazil and India, there's nothing we can do other than watch.

Sure, small, remote, low population countries like New Zealand (22 total deaths) or Iceland (10 total deaths) can make it look every nation should be containing this, but as soon as you look at any large, densely populated country, the pattern becomes clear - if you give this virus an inch, it takes a mile.

The numbers do not agree with your assessment

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

There's many different ways to look at the data available at this link, but I would recommend selecting "per million people" and looking at either "confirmed cases" or "confirmed deaths" on a linear scale to show the extreme variation among countries.

You can also remove the countries with lower population densities using the list to the left.

Italy's trajectory is particularly interesting considering they were hit well before the US and therefore had less time to prepare. Look where they are now. Something they did is working.

Quote
It's still just as deadly as it ever was, still just as contagious as it ever was. Still we have no vaccine, and want to do for a long time.

Every day we learn new things about the virus: how it affects people and how to treat them, how it spreads and how to avoid spreading it. Even if it were inevitable that the virus will infect every last person on Earth, buying time for research and to spread out the burden on healthcare systems has and will continue to save lives.

pressure9pa

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3263 on: July 31, 2020, 02:35:37 PM »
My initial thought was a systematic misinterpretation of the question (% of population vs % of cases), but you never know with people, numbers and statistics.

That still doesn't explain it.  They thought 20% of people caught the virus, and 9% died.  Even if you think they understood the question as how many people who have caught the virus have died, they are still orders of magnitude off.  No matter how they interpreted those questions their beliefs are very disconnected from reality, but you can find the actual numbers published on dozens of websites.  It's so easy to look up and find out how many have actually died.

I know people are bad at math, but this is some seriously elementary math.  I don't even understand how someone can function in life without being able to perform such simple math.  The study says it's nationally representative, so I assume they aren't taking these polls in some kind of care home of mentally unfit people.  Apparently it's just free range mentally unfit people that are representative of our actual population. 

Or maybe these people just don't follow anything and were not prepared at all, like if you asked me how many people die from leukemia each year.  100? 1,000?, 10,000? I have no fucking idea, and I spend exactly 0% of my life worrying about leukemia, even though I'm aware of it and I know it kills people.  Still, if I was part of a survey and had to give an answer it would probably seem completely disconnected from reality, because it is and would just be made up on the spot.

I took a paid survey a couple of weeks ago, asking how many people (gross, not %) had contracted the virus.  I had no clue, because I've never really thought about what the population of Indiana was.  I looked it up later, and my percentages were pretty close, but I really underestimated the total population.  I can see how changing question and analysis between raw numbers and percentage would really throw those numbers off.

scottish

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3264 on: July 31, 2020, 03:11:41 PM »
Regardless, I think this all comes back to the point that the world, as a whole, was in no way prepared for this pandemic. As a planet, we've responded reasonably well in some areas and very badly in others, but overall, there really isn't that much we can do. We as humans love the illusion of control and ofimposing our collective will on a thing to make it do what we want, but in the grand scheme of things, looking at the numbers going through the roof in the US, Brazil and India, there's nothing we can do other than watch.

Sure, small, remote, low population countries like New Zealand (22 total deaths) or Iceland (10 total deaths) can make it look every nation should be containing this, but as soon as you look at any large, densely populated country, the pattern becomes clear - if you give this virus an inch, it takes a mile.

The numbers do not agree with your assessment

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

There's many different ways to look at the data available at this link, but I would recommend selecting "per million people" and looking at either "confirmed cases" or "confirmed deaths" on a linear scale to show the extreme variation among countries.

You can also remove the countries with lower population densities using the list to the left.

Italy's trajectory is particularly interesting considering they were hit well before the US and therefore had less time to prepare. Look where they are now. Something they did is working.

Quote
It's still just as deadly as it ever was, still just as contagious as it ever was. Still we have no vaccine, and want to do for a long time.

Every day we learn new things about the virus: how it affects people and how to treat them, how it spreads and how to avoid spreading it. Even if it were inevitable that the virus will infect every last person on Earth, buying time for research and to spread out the burden on healthcare systems has and will continue to save lives.

As long as the disease isn't being spread by things we cannot control - like the black plague was spread by fleas on rats in the middle ages - it really doesn't seem to be that hard to stay on top of it.    I'm sure there are going to be small outbreaks for the next several years, but there's really no need for everything to be completely screwed up.     All you need is competent leadership and reasonable medical advice...

OtherJen

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3265 on: July 31, 2020, 03:13:47 PM »
Regardless, I think this all comes back to the point that the world, as a whole, was in no way prepared for this pandemic. As a planet, we've responded reasonably well in some areas and very badly in others, but overall, there really isn't that much we can do. We as humans love the illusion of control and ofimposing our collective will on a thing to make it do what we want, but in the grand scheme of things, looking at the numbers going through the roof in the US, Brazil and India, there's nothing we can do other than watch.

Sure, small, remote, low population countries like New Zealand (22 total deaths) or Iceland (10 total deaths) can make it look every nation should be containing this, but as soon as you look at any large, densely populated country, the pattern becomes clear - if you give this virus an inch, it takes a mile.

The numbers do not agree with your assessment

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

There's many different ways to look at the data available at this link, but I would recommend selecting "per million people" and looking at either "confirmed cases" or "confirmed deaths" on a linear scale to show the extreme variation among countries.

You can also remove the countries with lower population densities using the list to the left.

Italy's trajectory is particularly interesting considering they were hit well before the US and therefore had less time to prepare. Look where they are now. Something they did is working.

Quote
It's still just as deadly as it ever was, still just as contagious as it ever was. Still we have no vaccine, and want to do for a long time.

Every day we learn new things about the virus: how it affects people and how to treat them, how it spreads and how to avoid spreading it. Even if it were inevitable that the virus will infect every last person on Earth, buying time for research and to spread out the burden on healthcare systems has and will continue to save lives.

As long as the disease isn't being spread by things we cannot control - like the black plague was spread by fleas on rats in the middle ages - it really doesn't seem to be that hard to stay on top of it.    I'm sure there are going to be small outbreaks for the next several years, but there's really no need for everything to be completely screwed up.     All you need is competent leadership and reasonable medical advice...

...which is why the USA is fucked.

scottish

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3266 on: July 31, 2020, 03:29:05 PM »
Jeeze, only until January.      Only 5 months to go.

OtherJen

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3267 on: July 31, 2020, 03:32:55 PM »
Jeeze, only until January.      Only 5 months to go.

Yep, and 150,000 Americans died of COVID-19 in the last 5 months. (You’re also more optimistic about a regime change than I am.)

scottish

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3268 on: July 31, 2020, 05:25:11 PM »
Looks like Florida is now the covid-19 epicenter in the US.   Here's some Trump action in Florida today.



Does the crowd seem smaller than it used to?

marty998

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3269 on: August 01, 2020, 04:52:15 PM »
Some things never change... crowd still looks very white and very aged.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3270 on: August 01, 2020, 08:33:29 PM »
Vic Police doing a good job of fining gatherings - they have been catching out house parties, booze parties and today fined a group of 5 at a religious gathering (and I'm sorta relieved that this is in the news because it means that religious practice won't get an exemption from the lockdown rules).

Remember guys, gatherings of only 2 people max! (And have to be household members or intimate partners!)

lost_in_the_endless_aisle

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3271 on: August 01, 2020, 09:05:59 PM »
Vic Police doing a good job of fining gatherings - they have been catching out house parties, booze parties and today fined a group of 5 at a religious gathering (and I'm sorta relieved that this is in the news because it means that religious practice won't get an exemption from the lockdown rules).

Remember guys, gatherings of only 2 people max! (And have to be household members or intimate partners!)
Where does something like this map conceptually? There are so many strange things happening all at once I can't keep track of what the standard narrative should conclude is most salient (police violence, free speech, public health concerns). I will point out the protesters blew their chance over 4 pandemicless years to hold their gathering, though given the facts in the US, I'm not sure whether or not the actual statistics in Australia support an interpretation of this incident based on widespread & pervasive racial bias.

deborah

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3272 on: August 01, 2020, 11:50:52 PM »
Melbourne has gone from level 3 to level 4 lockdown, and now has a curfew, and you can't really travel more than 5km.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3273 on: August 02, 2020, 01:49:38 AM »
Vic Police doing a good job of fining gatherings - they have been catching out house parties, booze parties and today fined a group of 5 at a religious gathering (and I'm sorta relieved that this is in the news because it means that religious practice won't get an exemption from the lockdown rules).

Remember guys, gatherings of only 2 people max! (And have to be household members or intimate partners!)
Where does something like this map conceptually? There are so many strange things happening all at once I can't keep track of what the standard narrative should conclude is most salient (police violence, free speech, public health concerns). I will point out the protesters blew their chance over 4 pandemicless years to hold their gathering, though given the facts in the US, I'm not sure whether or not the actual statistics in Australia support an interpretation of this incident based on widespread & pervasive racial bias.

That protest was in Sydney which is facing much laxer restrictions. That said, the protest was still ruled illegal, and eventually fizzled out.

Melbourne's just announced even stronger restrictions. The main changes seem to be:

1. You can only exercise within 5km of your house, and for one hour per day [my commentary: the 5km restriction seems just to be a codification of the stage 3 guideline which was that you should exercise at the nearest park to you, although it's now more onerous for bicyclists. The 'one hour per day' is obviously unenforceable.]

2. Only one family member can do the daily shopping, and it has to be within 5km of your home. [My commentary: seems sensible to me]

3. You can only travel more than 5km away from your home for work, care giving, etc [my commentary: seems sensible]

4. You can only exercise in groups of 2 max, and you can no longer play recreational sports e.g. golf [my commentary: not completely sure why recreation is being ruled out, but it's probably a matter of optics; anyway, seems vaguely sensible to me]

5. Curfew from 8pm to 5am [my commentary: I assume this is meant to discourage parties or social dinners/gatherings, and in that sense I agree with it, though otherwise it seems a strange measure]

There is still an exemption where you can visit / exercise with intimate partners, which I think is sensible.

I think there should be more of a focus on explicitly banning religious gatherings and extended family visits. They are banned under the rules but we should be clamping down hard on these big super-spread events.

My 2 cents

lost_in_the_endless_aisle

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3274 on: August 02, 2020, 02:14:21 AM »
Vic Police doing a good job of fining gatherings - they have been catching out house parties, booze parties and today fined a group of 5 at a religious gathering (and I'm sorta relieved that this is in the news because it means that religious practice won't get an exemption from the lockdown rules).

Remember guys, gatherings of only 2 people max! (And have to be household members or intimate partners!)
Where does something like this map conceptually? There are so many strange things happening all at once I can't keep track of what the standard narrative should conclude is most salient (police violence, free speech, public health concerns). I will point out the protesters blew their chance over 4 pandemicless years to hold their gathering, though given the facts in the US, I'm not sure whether or not the actual statistics in Australia support an interpretation of this incident based on widespread & pervasive racial bias.

That protest was in Sydney which is facing much laxer restrictions. That said, the protest was still ruled illegal, and eventually fizzled out.

Melbourne's just announced even stronger restrictions. The main changes seem to be:

1. You can only exercise within 5km of your house, and for one hour per day [my commentary: the 5km restriction seems just to be a codification of the stage 3 guideline which was that you should exercise at the nearest park to you, although it's now more onerous for bicyclists. The 'one hour per day' is obviously unenforceable.]

2. Only one family member can do the daily shopping, and it has to be within 5km of your home. [My commentary: seems sensible to me]

3. You can only travel more than 5km away from your home for work, care giving, etc [my commentary: seems sensible]

4. You can only exercise in groups of 2 max, and you can no longer play recreational sports e.g. golf [my commentary: not completely sure why recreation is being ruled out, but it's probably a matter of optics; anyway, seems vaguely sensible to me]

5. Curfew from 8pm to 5am [my commentary: I assume this is meant to discourage parties or social dinners/gatherings, and in that sense I agree with it, though otherwise it seems a strange measure]

There is still an exemption where you can visit / exercise with intimate partners, which I think is sensible.

I think there should be more of a focus on explicitly banning religious gatherings and extended family visits. They are banned under the rules but we should be clamping down hard on these big super-spread events.

My 2 cents
Some of those requirements do not make any sense to me. Are people more likely to catch covid >5km from their house? Car ownership in AU is >85% according to this so traveling more than 5km could just entail a lengthier car trip with no added risk.

Regarding golf, that is also ridiculous. What is the typical distance between golfers in normal times--100 yards? I think the optics of restrictions that have no common sense to them is worse than the infinitesimal risk of getting covid on a putting green. Furthermore, it's unclear how much these restrictions will prevent people from spending time outside/getting sun exposure to produce vitamin D, low levels of which are increasingly being linked to very bad outcomes with this illness, as well as the better established research linking low vitamin D levels to bad outcomes in respiratory diseases and immune function in general.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3275 on: August 02, 2020, 02:26:21 AM »
I agree there's no particular virus-transmission logic behind the 5km shopping restriction, but I suspect it's mainly to keep people in their local suburbs (which makes it easier to know where hotspots are, since there's less mixing), and it dovetails with the ban on social gatherings and family gatherings. If everyone knows they can only travel 5km, people are less likely to visit Nan on the weekend, etc...

Next pandemic, we should probably announce, as one of the very first steps (stage 2), a complete ban on parties, extended family visits, and social gatherings of any kind other than household members and intimate partners. In hindsight, that should have been the first thing we did.

I'm pretty comfortable with the heightened restrictions. I think they strike a good balance.

lost_in_the_endless_aisle

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3276 on: August 02, 2020, 02:27:30 AM »
You are right--the mixing thing matters and might justify that radius (though if imposed at 5km where I live my only option would be Walmart)

former player

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3277 on: August 02, 2020, 02:30:05 AM »
Bloop seems to have acquired a reasonable attitude to this: good for them.

The further someone drives the more often they have to visit the petrol station and the more likely they are to have mechanical failure or an accident, all of which take them out of their bubble and potentially put others at risk.

Golf is potentially fine if all it is is someone walking around a field with a club and a ball, although even then the optics are difficult - it's generally a sport for rich old white men.  But golf also involves club rooms and bars and the pro shop and parties of 4 going round the course and pinch points at the start and finish. And potentially driving more than 5km to the course.  So no.

kei te pai

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3278 on: August 02, 2020, 03:24:37 AM »
NZ lockdown (way back then) had a pile of possibly arguable restrictions such as no surfing,even if you lived right by the beach. There were plenty of but, but, but,  arguments expressed although compliance was generally good.

Time has shown that this was an effective strategy for the country. The fewer people out and about the easier contact tracing is, and the more apparent  breaches of lockdown are.

Travis

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3279 on: August 02, 2020, 05:15:27 AM »
Some things never change... crowd still looks very white and very aged.

That carefully framed shot was the entire crowd. Only about 20 people showed up.

marty998

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3280 on: August 02, 2020, 05:32:30 AM »
NZ lockdown (way back then) had a pile of possibly arguable restrictions such as no surfing,even if you lived right by the beach. There were plenty of but, but, but,  arguments expressed although compliance was generally good.

Time has shown that this was an effective strategy for the country. The fewer people out and about the easier contact tracing is, and the more apparent  breaches of lockdown are.

It makes perfect sense to me. If you say everything is banned except golf and surfing guess what happens? Tens of thousands of people will suddenly take up golfing and surfing.

Don’t laugh, you know it.

former player

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3281 on: August 02, 2020, 06:06:21 AM »
NZ lockdown (way back then) had a pile of possibly arguable restrictions such as no surfing,even if you lived right by the beach. There were plenty of but, but, but,  arguments expressed although compliance was generally good.

Time has shown that this was an effective strategy for the country. The fewer people out and about the easier contact tracing is, and the more apparent  breaches of lockdown are.

It makes perfect sense to me. If you say everything is banned except golf and surfing guess what happens? Tens of thousands of people will suddenly take up golfing and surfing.

Don’t laugh, you know it.
My retired (and by their recycling bins heavy drinking) neighbours started walking every day when lockdown rules meant that was their only way to leave the house.  They now look fitter and happier than I've ever known them.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3282 on: August 02, 2020, 06:11:10 AM »
NZ lockdown (way back then) had a pile of possibly arguable restrictions such as no surfing,even if you lived right by the beach. There were plenty of but, but, but,  arguments expressed although compliance was generally good.

Time has shown that this was an effective strategy for the country. The fewer people out and about the easier contact tracing is, and the more apparent  breaches of lockdown are.

It makes perfect sense to me. If you say everything is banned except golf and surfing guess what happens? Tens of thousands of people will suddenly take up golfing and surfing.

Don’t laugh, you know it.
My retired (and by their recycling bins heavy drinking) neighbours started walking every day when lockdown rules meant that was their only way to leave the house.  They now look fitter and happier than I've ever known them.

Fitter. Happier. More productive.

Shane

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3283 on: August 02, 2020, 10:40:55 AM »
Bill Maher calls out public health officials, the media, and politicians for not being willing to even mention the uncomfortable truth that eating more healthily, exercising, and losing weight might help increase Americans' chances of surviving any serious illness, including covid. Maybe Bill's right that it may not be a coincidence that the countries with the lowest rates of obesity have had the fewest covid deaths. "Maybe China isn't hiding all their covid deaths. Maybe their secret is that their obesity rate is 6% and ours is 42..."

boy_bye

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3284 on: August 02, 2020, 05:28:10 PM »
Bill Maher calls out public health officials, the media, and politicians for not being willing to even mention the uncomfortable truth that eating more healthily, exercising, and losing weight might help increase Americans' chances of surviving any serious illness, including covid. Maybe Bill's right that it may not be a coincidence that the countries with the lowest rates of obesity have had the fewest covid deaths. "Maybe China isn't hiding all their covid deaths. Maybe their secret is that their obesity rate is 6% and ours is 42..."

Bill Maher is a racist misogynistic idiot and I cant believe anyone watches or listens to him.

PS the evidence about how dangerous it is to be fat and how feasible it is to lose weight does not lead to the conclusions Maher has jumped to

dougules

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3285 on: August 02, 2020, 05:49:21 PM »
Fitter. Happier. More productive.

Another Radiohead fan I see. 

Shane

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3286 on: August 02, 2020, 07:11:27 PM »
Bill Maher calls out public health officials, the media, and politicians for not being willing to even mention the uncomfortable truth that eating more healthily, exercising, and losing weight might help increase Americans' chances of surviving any serious illness, including covid. Maybe Bill's right that it may not be a coincidence that the countries with the lowest rates of obesity have had the fewest covid deaths. "Maybe China isn't hiding all their covid deaths. Maybe their secret is that their obesity rate is 6% and ours is 42..."

Bill Maher is a racist misogynistic idiot and I cant believe anyone watches or listens to him.

PS the evidence about how dangerous it is to be fat and how feasible it is to lose weight does not lead to the conclusions Maher has jumped to

UK and US public health officials seem to agree with Maher.

The UK study Maher mentions:

Excess weight can increase risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 "Being obese or excessively overweight increases the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, a new Public Health England (PHE) report confirms."

CDC says, basically, the same thing:

"Having obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above, increases your risk of severe illness from COVID-19."


MudPuppy

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3287 on: August 02, 2020, 07:31:25 PM »
You don’t get points for this? No shit Sherlock that generally speaking, a normal BMI is correlated with better health outcomes. Thumping this drum right now, however is useless.

Shane

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3288 on: August 02, 2020, 07:43:07 PM »
Eating healthier, exercising, quitting smoking, living as healthy a life as possible, lowers risk of negative outcomes from covid and everything else. Seems like common sense.

MudPuppy

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3289 on: August 02, 2020, 07:53:26 PM »
Right. What’s your point?

Shane

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3290 on: August 02, 2020, 07:57:23 PM »
That public health officials might mention that fact, once in a while, along with their other recommendations.

MudPuppy

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3291 on: August 02, 2020, 07:58:30 PM »
They might also mention that water is wet and the sky is blue. It’s not a helpful or relevant fact right now.

Travis

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3292 on: August 02, 2020, 08:02:47 PM »
That public health officials might mention that fact, once in a while, along with their other recommendations.

It's not going to stop people from catching the virus, which is the primary issue right now.  I'm seeing testimonials on my military discussion groups from young 20-somethings in peak physical condition whose lungs are now useless after getting COVID.

OtherJen

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3293 on: August 02, 2020, 08:14:18 PM »
They might also mention that water is wet and the sky is blue. It’s not a helpful or relevant fact right now.

Right? It would be like telling a housewife with two young kids whose husband just walked out that her finances would be so much better if she saved 20% of her income in a Vanguard index fund. It may be true, but it's neither kind nor helpful.

Shane

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3294 on: August 02, 2020, 08:22:39 PM »
That public health officials might mention that fact, once in a while, along with their other recommendations.

It's not going to stop people from catching the virus, which is the primary issue right now.  I'm seeing testimonials on my military discussion groups from young 20-somethings in peak physical condition whose lungs are now useless after getting COVID.

Nobody's claiming that living healthier will keep people from catching covid. Maher was just pointing out that, "the number one thing you can do to improve your chances, in the event that you get covid, is to be in better general health, and the number one route to that is an improved diet." Maher suggested replacing sugary sodas with water. Seemed like good common sense advice that anyone could easily follow.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3295 on: August 02, 2020, 08:33:07 PM »
They might also mention that water is wet and the sky is blue. It’s not a helpful or relevant fact right now.

Right? It would be like telling a housewife with two young kids whose husband just walked out that her finances would be so much better if she saved 20% of her income in a Vanguard index fund. It may be true, but it's neither kind nor helpful.

That might be true if the person had already caught coronavirus, in which case the person has bigger fish to fry. Given that the pandemic has already lasted six months and might easily last another six, it's good advice for those in the general population who want to mitigate risks.

I understand fat shaming is bad, but telling people to try to be healthier can be done in a sensible way. The backlash against "telling people to try to be at a healthy weight" is reminiscent to me of the backlash against shaming pregnant women for drinking small amounts of alcohol. Yeah, it's your life and you have autonomy over it but some things are objectively likely to be bad for you (or in the latter case, the foetus).

Travis

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3296 on: August 03, 2020, 01:24:56 AM »
That public health officials might mention that fact, once in a while, along with their other recommendations.

It's not going to stop people from catching the virus, which is the primary issue right now.  I'm seeing testimonials on my military discussion groups from young 20-somethings in peak physical condition whose lungs are now useless after getting COVID.

Nobody's claiming that living healthier will keep people from catching covid. Maher was just pointing out that, "the number one thing you can do to improve your chances, in the event that you get covid, is to be in better general health, and the number one route to that is an improved diet." Maher suggested replacing sugary sodas with water. Seemed like good common sense advice that anyone could easily follow.

Which is something their general practitioner has probably been telling them for years. Clearly Americans don't listen to their doctors. What effect would a complete stranger have telling them the same thing when that doctor has been screaming for the last six months that they could have avoided the virus entirely by wearing a scrap of cloth over their faces?

Kyle Schuant

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3297 on: August 03, 2020, 03:17:39 AM »
Which is something their general practitioner has probably been telling them for years. Clearly Americans don't listen to their doctors. What effect would a complete stranger have telling them the same thing
I dunno. We managed to greatly reduce the rate of smoking across the West. What measures achieved that? Copy that.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3298 on: August 03, 2020, 03:46:02 AM »
Which is something their general practitioner has probably been telling them for years. Clearly Americans don't listen to their doctors. What effect would a complete stranger have telling them the same thing
I dunno. We managed to greatly reduce the rate of smoking across the West. What measures achieved that? Copy that.

Social stigma, basically. Over time. And huge taxes on cigarettes.

cerat0n1a

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Re: How long can we wait while flattening the curve?
« Reply #3299 on: August 03, 2020, 05:17:24 AM »
There are differences with smoking. Being obese doesn't directly impact the health of others in the way that smoking does (one could argue that it does indirectly). Also smoking is in some respects an active choice. In the UK we had public health campaigns to help people to stop smoking, banned advertisements for cigarettes, imposed warning language on packets etc.

Becoming obese is perhaps more something that happens to people by default. They have to choose to eat vegetables, take exercise, get more sleep, avoid sugary drinks (or whatever other set of actions you think might help to avoid it). I don't see us going down the road of putting health warnings on every chair, or television set, or can of Coke. It also seems to me that it's much harder for someone who is obese to lose weight than it is for someone to give up smoking.

Anyway, here in the UK, it seems the government has decided that Covid is the prompt to announce some half-hearted measures to combat obesity. That's quite a turnaround for our Prime Minister, who has previously opposed such things (and who said that he himself was "way overweight").