I just heard a former classmate of a friend of mine died. He was a Syrian refugee who did his master's degree in Berlin. He died at the age of 32 in Italy, buried without any friends or relatives able to come. He had one brother, who died during a bombing in Syria years ago. He is survived by his mother, a widow. I can't begin to understand her pain.
General / Off-Topic The safest place
- Thread starter Robin of Spiritwood
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Kia Ora.... sounds like you've got the Mongrel Mob in your neighbourhood.
Bloody Tron hey.
It was a lot worse in the past, before one gang house got cleared out. The current lock-down does seem to be fanning the flames however. Maybe they are getting bored.
SI fear that when it takes hold in the poorer communities of "necessary workers" (which we don't really pay like they really are that necessary, like everywhere else I cynically assume)
I'm happy to report that over here we've decided that 'essential worker' status means you actually get more monies.
I'm not essential, can keep working from home, and happy to pay taxes to support these folks.I'm happy to report that over here we've decided that 'essential worker' status means you actually get more monies.
If societal sanity is a side effect of this crisis, I for one think we should celebrate it!
S
Well now we are really going to have the shortages.
Effective preparation for a Pandemic might be possible.
But what if the next disaster is an earthquake?
Or a flood?
Or a draught?
Or a war?
Most of the same preparations would still apply to all of these, and all of these are things that could easily lead to an epidemic/pandemic.
The ability to coordinate a coherent response, handle the logistics of that response, and ensuring stockpiles of emergency supplies are maintained would help with most conceivable (and probably a fair number of unprecedented) disasters.
To be sure, each scenario also has specific needs, but there is a huge level of overlap as well.
Guess it wasn't the miracle cure some thought it would be, huh.
Chloroquine diphosphate in two different dosages as adjunctive therapy of hospitalized patients with severe respiratory syndrome in the context of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection: Preliminary safety results of a randomized, double-blinded, phase I
Background There is no specific antiviral therapy recommended for the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Recent publications have drawn attention to the possible benefit of chloroquine (CQ). Our study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the safety and efficacy of two different CQ dosages in...www.medrxiv.org
Hydroxychloroquine trial halted, problems with heartbeats at high doses, increased death rate.
We could accept a higher cardiac risk if it cured COVID, as more would survive. But that didn't happen. So it seems that general use might end up causing more deaths at this dose, and certainly if no monitoring of hearts is done.
I still think that hydroxychloroquine could be used in selected cases with monitoring, but we need to see some definite benefit to doing so.
Fortunately you guys are managing the virus really well in NZ, you may be able to successfully eliminate the virus thanks to effective lockdown. We're not too far behind in Australia as long as morons stop holding dinner parties. Here's to living on islands!It is pretty clear here in NZ as well, as we do have very serious issues with especially child poverty, often seemingly along cultural divides. On my street, the locals are mainly polynesians living either out of choice in big family units, or out of necessity in overcrowded rental housing. My wife and I, white middle-class and approaching middle age, live with our piles of cats and chickens but otherwise without other relatives in the house. I, working as a GIS analyst and geologist can (and have) work from home, and her work for the regional council has been taken home as well. Life continues, with only our access to our horse on off-site grazing reduced.
Meanwhile, we can watch the fireworks in the public housing across the street, complete with in-street domestic spats and gang confrontations. The police are regular visitors, and that hasn't reduced during the lockdown at all! Many of the occupants are stuck with their children, living in garages.
COVID-19 was here first feared and used as yet another excuse for hating asians. Now it has been laughed off by some as a white man's disease. I fear that when it takes hold in the poorer communities of "necessary workers" (which we don't really pay like they really are that necessary, like everywhere else I cynically assume), it's going to burn hard and fast at least among those there with existing respiratory issues.
At high doses, seems so. South Korea had tried a protocol with half that dose. Thing is we can't tell if the cardiac risk outweighs the benefits till it is used. It's frustrating. We so badly need something theraputic now, let's not write it off yet.
Those are some big islands! But yea, count us in.
If Ardern manages to eradicate the disease, she'll be the first. Couldn't happen to a nicer lady.
This may sound strange, but I think DRAM (dynamic random access memory) could be half-way decent analogy to the trade off between efficiency and robustness in health services that this pandemic has revealed.
The dynamic in DRAM means it needs to be periodically refreshed to maintain it's charge and thus retain data. The problem is that DRAM cells, which are essentially tiny capacitors, have wildly variable capacitance, so retention times and thus refresh intervals are limited by the weakest cells.
For the longest time, DRAM manufacturers have stated that any sacrifice that reduced yields (the number of working cells and ICs [integrated circuits] one can extract from a given silicon wafer) was a no go due to the cutthroat competition and low margins of DRAM manufacture...then we started to see security vulnerabilities like rowhammer. Rowhammer is a means by which data in DRAM cells can be indirectly manipulated by depleting the charge of adjacent cells with certain workloads. Due to the tiny safety margins in the weakest of functional cells, defending against rowhammer and similar attacks has proven to be difficult when prioritizing transistor yields above all else.
In the process of searching for mitigations to these issues, people started to realize that if the weakest fraction of DRAM cells were fused off, DRAM became essentially immune to row hammer. Furthermore, the need to refresh the charge in DRAM cells dropped off dramatically, which both increased performance and saved considerable energy. Some DRAM manufacturers are now considering building higher capacity into DRAM ICs then sacrificing 5%+ of the weakest cells for the major advantages possible in all of these areas.
I know that this analogy is a stretch, but, being an electronics hardware guy, it was useful thought experiment for me and I can't help but wonder if we wouldn't see analogous side benefits from maintaining surplus hospital capacity that would traditionally have been seen as wasteful. Perhaps even a comparatively small surplus, combined with better logistics, could allow capacity to be quickly transferred from low priority to high priority areas, dramatically increasing surge capacity where it's needed most, without resulting in shortages anywhere else?
Just musing.
Was looking more into India's COVID-19 response and things don't look like they are going so well. Little sign of planning from the central government, comparatively tiny aid/stimulus packages, and a poor, uneducated, population whose ignorance and hysteria make some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories in this thread seem tame.
www.aljazeera.com
www.bloomberg.com
www.theatlantic.com
Too early to tell how things will pan out, but I'm not especially optimistic.
The dynamic in DRAM means it needs to be periodically refreshed to maintain it's charge and thus retain data. The problem is that DRAM cells, which are essentially tiny capacitors, have wildly variable capacitance, so retention times and thus refresh intervals are limited by the weakest cells.
For the longest time, DRAM manufacturers have stated that any sacrifice that reduced yields (the number of working cells and ICs [integrated circuits] one can extract from a given silicon wafer) was a no go due to the cutthroat competition and low margins of DRAM manufacture...then we started to see security vulnerabilities like rowhammer. Rowhammer is a means by which data in DRAM cells can be indirectly manipulated by depleting the charge of adjacent cells with certain workloads. Due to the tiny safety margins in the weakest of functional cells, defending against rowhammer and similar attacks has proven to be difficult when prioritizing transistor yields above all else.
In the process of searching for mitigations to these issues, people started to realize that if the weakest fraction of DRAM cells were fused off, DRAM became essentially immune to row hammer. Furthermore, the need to refresh the charge in DRAM cells dropped off dramatically, which both increased performance and saved considerable energy. Some DRAM manufacturers are now considering building higher capacity into DRAM ICs then sacrificing 5%+ of the weakest cells for the major advantages possible in all of these areas.
I know that this analogy is a stretch, but, being an electronics hardware guy, it was useful thought experiment for me and I can't help but wonder if we wouldn't see analogous side benefits from maintaining surplus hospital capacity that would traditionally have been seen as wasteful. Perhaps even a comparatively small surplus, combined with better logistics, could allow capacity to be quickly transferred from low priority to high priority areas, dramatically increasing surge capacity where it's needed most, without resulting in shortages anywhere else?
Just musing.
Was looking more into India's COVID-19 response and things don't look like they are going so well. Little sign of planning from the central government, comparatively tiny aid/stimulus packages, and a poor, uneducated, population whose ignorance and hysteria make some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories in this thread seem tame.
Indian doctors face censorship, attacks as they fight coronavirus
Doctors complain of intimidation for reporting shortage of safety kits, and attacks over suspicion they carry infection.
Doctors Come Under Attack in India as Coronavirus Stigma Grows
Trupti Katdare was in a slum in the central Indian city of Indore when the mob attacked.
www.bloomberg.com
The Callousness of India’s COVID-19 Response
The government is showing how not to handle a pandemic.
www.theatlantic.com
Too early to tell how things will pan out, but I'm not especially optimistic.
There’s a bit of an elephant in the room this morning....
Yeah, well, I’m sure the uk gov with the help of the press will do something similar.
Ed:
In other news, the pathogen wiping out olive trees is pretty awful too.
In the same way that a pandemic was/is inevitable for humans, are we risking our food supply in a similar way?
Ed:Ed:
Luckily I’m an optimist
Humans will pull through this crisis, and through even more severe natural and manmade ones.
We’ve done it before! I believe there is genetic evidence to suggest that humans went from around a million individuals circa 100,000 years ago down to around 12000 individuals circa 60,000 years ago! Well done them survivors!
Also, the growing evidence of a fragmentary comet hit around 12800 years ago would have decimated any ‘civilization’ at that time with the survivors telling stories to their kids about the previous enlightened time with gods that could do amazing things....
These sorts of stories kinda exist in the form of multiple religious texts...
Yep, humans are great survivors!
Yeah, well, I’m sure the uk gov with the help of the press will do something similar.
Ed:
In other news, the pathogen wiping out olive trees is pretty awful too.
In the same way that a pandemic was/is inevitable for humans, are we risking our food supply in a similar way?
Ed:Ed:
Luckily I’m an optimist
Humans will pull through this crisis, and through even more severe natural and manmade ones.
We’ve done it before! I believe there is genetic evidence to suggest that humans went from around a million individuals circa 100,000 years ago down to around 12000 individuals circa 60,000 years ago! Well done them survivors!
Also, the growing evidence of a fragmentary comet hit around 12800 years ago would have decimated any ‘civilization’ at that time with the survivors telling stories to their kids about the previous enlightened time with gods that could do amazing things....
These sorts of stories kinda exist in the form of multiple religious texts...
Yep, humans are great survivors!
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France remains in confinement until May 11.
After it will be necessary to see the evolution of the situation for a progressive deconfinement.
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After it will be necessary to see the evolution of the situation for a progressive deconfinement.
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No no no we don’t care about those, the new shiny is the virus
500-700 dead per day on average - Around 15,000 dead since March 1.
I believe about 30000 hospitalized and 7000 in intensive care on a ventilator.
The number of deaths at home is unknown.
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Information flows well in France.
Lots of discussions with specialists.
No need to ask a confirmed expert.
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No no no we don’t care about those, the new shiny is the virus
Nobody is preparing for asteroid collision.
When that one comes... everything will be small potatoes.
The numbers we have, thanks, they are bad.
How is it for you? What is the mood?
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Well, there is always something that will overcome us, however humans are almost indestructible as a race, we will survive that one too, maybe not you or I, but humans will.
I'm fine, thanks.
I live in a house with a garden. There is sun and blue sky right now
I have the forest 300 meters from the house (for jogging).
I am one of the people who "endure" the confinement without too much inconvenience. It is a chance.
And no health problems for me at the moment.
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I know you are on the front line in the fight at the hospital to treat the sick.
Protect you, Doctor, and get as much rest as possible when you can.
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