International COVID-19 Megathread

[CumbrianLefty]

Whether or not the changes turn out to be that big, what is the case is that the way proponents of globalisation have pronounced it as "unstoppable" and "inevitable" - as if it was like the weather or some sort of act of God - was never as true as they made it out to be.

There are very few things in this world that are not, to at least a significant degree, a choice.

[CumbrianLefty]

So.......how bad could it get?

[CumbrianLefty]

So apparently there are people sick in Qom, raising the chances that the mullahs are apart of the sick.

Iran's deputy health minister says he has coronavirus

Despite being Iran's epicentre of the outbreak, Qom has yet to be quarantined.

Health minister Saeed Namaki defended the decision on Tuesday and said that quarantine is an "old method".

"We still do not agree with quarantining cities since we believe the people are cultured enough to refrain from travelling from infected cities to other places," semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying.

Well, that sounds promising......

[CumbrianLefty]

Khamenei might be dead fake news, some rando on his council

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1234395245573525506

Iran's response to this had been so bad, I'm starting to wonder if this might be their Chernobyl moment. It's one thing to kill dissidents through force. It's another to kill loyalists through weakness.

Though we had to wait another five years after that for the actual collapse of the USSR.

[CumbrianLefty]

Is it true that the weather getting warmer would help?

[CumbrianLefty]

Number of confirmed UK cases up to 115.

[CumbrianLefty]

Chatter that the UK parliament may soon be dispersed until the autumn because of the virus.

(something that a certain D Cummings would like to see in any case, I suspect)

[CumbrianLefty]

Confirmed cases in the UK up to 163.

[CumbrianLefty]

Do you think that it's going towards a Germany\France\Spain level or is Britain still safer?

Everywhere in the world that doesn't declare an all-out Chinese style total war to stop the spread is going toward a Germany\France\Spain level and well beyond.

The West in general, and especially the USA, is being painfully slow to react.

Trump being Trump over this, I see.

[CumbrianLefty]

UK confirmed cases up to 206. Reports of panic buying toilet rolls etc in some places.

[CumbrianLefty]

But that China is getting on top of the virus seems increasingly indisputable now.

[CumbrianLefty]

Now 319 confirmed UK cases.

[CumbrianLefty]

UK confirmed cases up to 373, with six deaths now - all elderly people with other health conditions.

[CumbrianLefty]

Tory MP and minister Nadine Dorries has confirmed she has the virus.

[CumbrianLefty]

UK confirmed cases up to 456, the biggest daily jump yet. Eight fatalities.

This ain't looking too promising right now.

[CumbrianLefty]

Now reported a Cabinet minister is believed to have the virus and has voluntarily self-isolated. It may or may not be the same one who was loudly coughing and spluttering during the Budget earlier today......

[CumbrianLefty]

Our PM has just held a press conference to confirm the UK is moving to the "delay" phase.

Not so many concrete measures announced, but the spring party conferences have been shelved (which means the new Labour leader will be announced next month "behind closed doors")

[CumbrianLefty]

Our government still insisting that this May's elections are going ahead. Given today's news about sporting events amongst other things, this approach is looking increasingly Canute-like.

[CumbrianLefty]

A few days ago Kazakhstan was the biggest country officially virus-free - is that still the case?

[CumbrianLefty]

India is possibly climate related?

[CumbrianLefty]

UK is encouraging young and healthy people to get it, under a herd immunity model?

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1238536850047995904?s=21

Is this really a good idea?

The idea that this infection can be "targeted" in such a way is pure pie in the sky, and frankly smells of Cummingsite "edgelord" social experimenting. Hopefully the grown ups will bin all this nonsense soon.

[CumbrianLefty]

21 deaths in the UK now - that number has doubled in the past few days.

[CumbrianLefty]

Not at all convinced by this keeping schools open thing (which our government also seems keen on)

[CumbrianLefty]

It seems to be taken for granted by many football observers that the Euros are off this summer.

[CumbrianLefty]

re-Euro 2020, I spoke to a friend who works for UEFA yesterday and his comment was that there is a meeting of all the federations on Tuesday, final decision is up to the federations themselves rather than UEFA and he didn't know how the meeting would go but figures most likely is they push to hold the thing in December.

Extremely sensible plan, can't see any obstacles to that at all