International COVID-19 Megathread

[Cassius]

Good.

Hopefully it also leads to civil unrest and the destruction of the dictatorial regime.

Yeah, what a fantastic idea: civil war in a large, nuclear state currently experiencing an epidemic. What could be better?

[Cassius]

The issue with the ‘circuit breaker’ concept is, in the absence of a vaccine or some other deus ex machina like mass testing, herd immunity or the virus ‘losing potency’, the case level will immediately begin to creep back up again once these restrictions are lifted, meaning we could be back where we are now in December.

[Cassius]

More fun and games in the UK yesterday as it emerged the huge numbers of "lost" tests was due to not just some bright spark entering them on Excel, but not even being aware of the basics of doing so.

(channelling Father Ted taking to Dougal - "that's a ROW, and this is a COLUMN")

Recruiting only the brightest and best to the Civil Service Summer Diversity Internship Programme I see.

[Cassius]

I mean in reality I’d never blame an intern for this sort of thing, because that’s what you expect them to do and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

[Cassius]

The current standard for lockdowns now appears to be:

Anything vaguely enjoyable: Banned or severely curtailed.
Anything dull and will-sapping: Carry on as normal (with a mask).

[Cassius]

I recall reading somewhere that they’ve known about this particular strain since September. A ‘break glass in case of media storm’ type explanation?

[Cassius]

Yes, it appears as though Johnson, Hancock, Whitty et al are essentially lying about the nature of this new strain to provide political cover for this imbecilic u-turn. Won’t do them any good... I hope.

[Cassius]

The EU is a fundamentally nationalist enterprise. Their nation just doesn’t exist yet.