Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

It seems that every Swede received an SMS message from the government on Covid-19 today, and it's about... washing your hands.

Remember the days when celebrities made wash-your-hands online video en masse in virtually every country? Back when Nickelback was hot?

It seems that the Swedish government is still stuck in that era. Someone should tell them that it's December 2020 now.

I mean, sure, it's still kind of important, but it's like the third item on the list at best now when a health official gives us some guidance in the rest of the world. It's basically a non-essential measure now even though no authority would outright say so (because washing your hands is important ANYWAY!).

[miscmisc]

This is my favorite world map.

[miscmisc]

In case you are wondering, I do think that the UK and EU will reach some kind of a deal in the end.

[miscmisc]

This is the kind of crap that those right-wing ghouls are pulling in Georgia and elsewhere. Lies, lies, lies.

Kudos to this state representative. It's astonishing that no one hadn't done it before she did, though.

[miscmisc]

The most infamous superspreader in the world is probably South Korea's Patient 31. And this is the most infamous early superspreading event: Biogen conference in Boston.

A team of scientists analyzed the genetic links, and concluded that that conference alone is responsible for up to 300k(!) cases worldwide.

Unlike, say, the Sturgis motorcycle rally, another infamous large-scale superspreading event, there were only 175 attendants at Biogen conference, but they initiated the cascading series of superspreading events that spread throughout the world.

Biogen conference in Boston likely linked to as many as 300,000 COVID-19 cases worldwide, researchers say
www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/10/nation/biogen-conference-boston-likely-linked-330000-covid-19-cases-worldwide-researchers-say/



This is why Covid-19 is really hard to deal with; Quite often all it takes is just a few superspreading events. It can be frustratingly random, and that's why the question of why often has no good answer.

[miscmisc]

I keep saying that the UK and EU will reach *some* kind of a deal eventually, but most of the friends whose opinions on Britain I do value (to a degree, at least) tell me that I totally don't understand UK politics and that there will be no deal.

Well, I don't know. But that seems to be the consensus among the chattering class.

[miscmisc]

I talked about the disturbing slightly-tilted plateau of the German new cases, but in addition to that, the way the new case count has "bounced back" in places like the Netherlands and Britain is something new and certainly disturbing too.

I feel we need the vaccines a little sooner than planned. It just doesn't look good from any angle. We need the game changer.

[K1power]

Another great one I just happened to come across.



Even the name is brilliant "Karen Metal" LOL.

[miscmisc]

Dec 14, 2020 8:31:57 GMT 1 K1power said:

Another great one I just happened to come across.



Even the name is brilliant "Karen Metal" LOL.

The dude's pretty good. The way he kept up with all the random tempo changes during the Kenneth Copeland clip showed some fine musicianship!

[miscmisc]

It really looks godawful in the ex-Yugoslav countries. At this pace Slovenia, BiH and Macedonia might blow past Belgium in terms of deaths per capita, and I doubt those countries count "suspected" cases like Belgium.

In Slovenia, only 100 people passed away in the first wave - 2,000 have perished in the second one so far, and there are very clearly much more deaths to come.

[miscmisc]

This is a Swedish chart, and it looks remarkably similar to the Japanese chart with the only difference being the scale of infection (much bigger per capita in Sweden).

Both are no lockdown countries, so it's a meaningful comparison. The recent Swedish restrictions/guidance are significantly tougher than Japan's (still no masks though), so the patterns might deviate in the near future.



* These are huge numbers, though. Panic-level numbers. It will reach the breaking point soon if they keep rising at this pace. In an average country - say, Japan, the UK, etc. - these high numbers for older people would mean the collapse of the national health care system right there, finito. Sweden's system is excellent, but everything has its own breaking point. This is clearly unsustainable without massive HC reinforcements and tougher restrictions. Sure, the government should know much more about the situation than someone like me who doesn't even have deep interest in or connection to the country, but there is such thing as universal common sense as well.

[miscmisc]

This is purely anecdotal, but it seems that a lot of anti-vaxx types, mostly liberal-ish/left-ish ones, have changed their mind when it comes to Covid-19. It was probably one of the "in" things that they adopted as a tribal signifier, and their heart wasn't really in it. Good.

There are still a shit load of them out there, though, especially the right-wing ones, most of whom don't seem to have changed their mind an iota.

[miscmisc]

This has the strong "British measures based on The Science" vibe:

But people in all tiers will still be allowed to meet up to two other households to form a Christmas bubble between December 23-27.

A "Christmas bubble," eh?

I'd like to see how they come up with this kind of an extremely ad hoc policy. I think the consensus in political science, for what it's worth, is that governments should avoid this kind of ad hoc exceptions that go against the essential message of the policy framework unless some accident rendered it absolutely necessary.

The British government loved this kind of shit back in the global financial crisis too. And I remember most of it ending up confusing British people.

[miscmisc]

First question at the WHO press briefing comes from a Mexican journalist asking if Santa Claus will be able to deliver presents this year, being “very old” and overweight.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for Covid-19, says:

I understand that concern for Santa because he is of older age... but I can tell you that Santa Claus is immune to this virus. We had a brief chat with him and he is doing very well. Mrs Claus is doing very well and they are very busy right now, but he is immune. We have heard from a number of leaders across the world who have told us that they have restricted, or relaxed, the quarantine measures for Santa to enter the airspace, so he will be able to deliver presents to children.

You know what, I'll be Santa this year for a group of children.

And I don't know if I'm still immune or not!

[miscmisc]

This POS is fucking dumb as hell. 120% narcissism that even has nothing to do with the Georgia election.

This guy is really, really dumb as hell, a typical dumb Texan who thinks he's smart. But that's about the level of Republicans these days.