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The Koonzt/Camus Thread (for writerly solidarity during a time of plague)

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Here's a link to the WHO's info page on coronaviruses, of which Covid-19 is just one:

www.who.int

Coronavirus

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
www.who.int www.who.int

When comparing epidemics, it's important to compare like with like. The common cold, for example, is a coronavirus for which there is no vaccine. Now there's a sobering thought.

My point is, let's all go careful and not pretend we're epidemiologists. The science on covid-19 is new and rapidly changing. I think it's important, when we've got our serious hats on, to only share that which is backed up by medical research (very little at this stage).
 
Rich. said:
A light interlude...

El Mundo Today is a satirical Spanish newspaper. Here's a recent article which some of you may be able to read in full. For the rest, I'll translate the first few paragraphs:

www.elmundotoday.com

ÚLTIMA HORA: Los españoles ya se han comido la mitad de la comida que han comprado esta mañana | El Mundo Today

www.elmundotoday.com www.elmundotoday.com

BREAKING NEWS: Spaniards have already eaten half of the food they bought this morning

CITIZENS HAD SHOPPED FOR 10 OR 15 DAYS

They say that worrying makes you hungry. Spaniards have already eaten half -- in the best of cases -- if not all they compulsively bought in the last few hours that, following their initial calculations, should have allowed them to last the 15 day quarantine without another visit to the supermarket.

"I don't know what happened, but I'm bored and to distract myself, I ate the 15 kilos of chicken breast I bought this morning, so on Monday I'll have to go to the supermarket for a new batch and fight with whomever gets in my way," explained José F of Salamanca.

"For my afternoon snack I ate the two trolley loads of crème caramel I bought yesterday. I couldn't resist. When I see such an abundance of food I get crazy anxious," said Marisa González, a resident of Alicante who by the end of the morning had eaten 23 pre-cooked pizzas straight from the freezer, 13 tubs of hummus and 93 pots of custard. Many citizens are using masks, or improvised plastic bags over the head, to stop the indiscriminate ingestion of foodstuffs.


And so it continues... :)
Click to expand...

The "update" is too funny!!!
 
Life is reasonably normal here, with the exception of pretty much all major events cancelled. But everyone entering the country is now required to self-isolate for two weeks, and we're all expecting more measures to be put in place soon. I'm just not looking forward to self-isolating in our unheated shed with no electricity, which is where we're moving to in 10 days ... We'd kind of planned on being able to charge our devices at work, at the library, etc ... but I'm thinking we won't be able to. So if I go completely silent at some point, you'll know why. Our new house is supposed to be finished at the end of May, but I'm betting on major delays (I should say MORE major delays, since it was supposed to be finished in February ... Those delays due to incompetence, not pandemics). *sigh* Nothing for it, really, but to keep calm and wash hands.

We had a family mental health day yesterday--a long hike up a tall mountain, with a ban on any talk of the virus or our impending move. Just what we all needed. :)
 
Eva Ulian said:
In 2018, the most affected countries - the countries with the highest incidence rate of the disease - were Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia, Madagascar, Somalia and Ukraine.

These are underdeveloped countries- I'd hate to think what would happen if the coronavirus becomes diffused in such countries.
Click to expand...

Interesting there has been little mention of Corona in Africa and South America. This initial wave may have been accelerated by business travel so has hit the richer countries and those close to China. It seems inevitable Africa will be hit eventually so lets hope steps are being taken now to cope with it. One lesson learnt is that, as a nation, it's better to seemingly overreact early than wait and hope it will pass you by.
 
Robinne Weiss said:
We had a family mental health day yesterday--a long hike up a tall mountain, with a ban on any talk of the virus or our impending move. Just what we all needed. :)
Click to expand...
Very wise! And good luck with the move. It all sounds a bit tricky.

Steve C said:
Interesting there has been little mention of Corona in Africa and South America.
Click to expand...
There's info out there, but you have to hunt a bit. Countries on both continents are closing borders, etc. The WHO classified the outbreak as a pandemic on March 11.

www.cnn.com

WHO declares novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, adding "this virus can be suppressed and controlled."
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
 
Steve C said:
Interesting there has been little mention of Corona in Africa and South America. This initial wave may have been accelerated by business travel so has hit the richer countries and those close to China. It seems inevitable Africa will be hit eventually so lets hope steps are being taken now to cope with it. One lesson learnt is that, as a nation, it's better to seemingly overreact early than wait and hope it will pass you by.
Click to expand...
Interestingly, it seems to be travelling along a fairly narrow latitude. There've been a few studies on it recently. Whether it will eventually spread out of this corridor and take hold beyond it remains to be seen.
www.scmp.com

Scientists ask if lines on map hold key to coronavirus spread

Studies suggest that ‘hotspots’ for virus that causes Covid-19 are found between the 30 to 50 degree lines of latitude north.
www.scmp.com www.scmp.com
 
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This is a great thread. Keeping us all grounded.
The reason I've not been very active on Litopia of late is that, for the last several months I've been pretty poorly with repeated chest infections which have now caused part of my right lung to collapse. I was supposed to be going to my local respiratory clinic but that's been suddenly cancelled (no reason given but fairly obvious, I think). My age and current conditon obviously put me into a high risk category so I've put myself into voluntary isolation for as long as I can, only going out for dog walks. I'm lucky my rubbish circumstances allow me to do this, and that I live in a rural area with a low population. Amazon Fire and Radio 4 are keeping me more or less sane. I haven't done any writing for some time so I keep telling myself, this is a chance to really get something done. Looking on the bright side... :D
 
Rich. said:
Very wise! And good luck with the move. It all sounds a bit tricky.


There's info out there, but you have to hunt a bit. Countries on both continents are closing borders, etc. The WHO classified the outbreak as a pandemic on March 11.

www.cnn.com

WHO declares novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, adding "this virus can be suppressed and controlled."
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
Click to expand...
Been droned yet, Rich?

Spanish police using drones to keep people inside during coronavirus lockdown
 
Not yet! Drones are being used in the cities. We're out in the mountains, 60km north of Madrid. There was a police car with a loudhailer in a nearby town yesterday encouraging people to stay indoors, but there's no police presence in our village at all. People are staying indoors though (not least because it's raining today).

There is movement. Public transport is still running, and there are cars on the road. Essential travel is still permitted.

Our community's whatsapp groups are alive with offers of help (with shopping and the like for those with symptoms), materials to keep the kids amused, and all kinds of fascinating online happenings for the adults. A friend of mine ran her weekly Zumba class via webcam yesterday. :)
 
Barbara said:
Humanity has to compare viruses,
Click to expand...

I don't think I've expressed myself all that well when I used the word to "compare". Naturally I din't intend that we should not assess other viruses in the light of COVID-19, we must and we do. That's what they've done when trying to find a way of treatment for Covid-19, they researched the drugs used in the recent EBOLA and SARS epidermic, and I understand they are using some of the drugs used in those cases to treat the COVID-19. No, what I meant by comparison was in the 2nd use of "compare" namely of "measuring the equality or sameness". Measles is not the same as COVID-19, therefore it is no comparison. I apologise if I mixed people up with that dual use of "comparison."
 
RK Capps said:
I just heard the news @Eva Ulian and @E G Logan, 368 deaths in Italy ... did I hear right; in one day? o_O
Click to expand...
Up to 9th March the total deaths altogether since the outbreak was 1,266. Last Friday alone there were 250. I can't find the total figures up to today. They'll probably come out later. It's spreading fast here.
 
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This is the best article I've found complete with exhaustive data explaining what is happening and what we're in for.

I think the biggest question right now, is how long these lockdowns can be sustained and what will happen when they (inevitably) must let us out again. From what I understand from my search, scientists think Italy is going to "peak" in early April. And then the UK thinks it will be about two weeks behind that and the US for some reason even later (probably due to such a large geographic area). So I just can't help but think, how? How can we do this for two more months? And what happens after that?


Personally, as we work in the tourism industry, our income has completely collapsed. We are hoping to be able to pay our employees next month, but after that we will likely be entirely financially dependent on my mother. And as we are self-employed, we won't even be able to receive gov help.
 
Rich. said:
Not yet! Drones are being used in the cities. We're out in the mountains, 60km north of Madrid. There was a police car with a loudhailer in a nearby town yesterday encouraging people to stay indoors, but there's no police presence in our village at all.
Click to expand...
I can't help being reminded (on an almost hourly basis) of the old Mitchell and Webb sketch about 'The Event' and the constant warnings to 'Remain Indoors'.
 
Italy's Civil Protection Chief and Coronavirus Emergency Commissioner Angelo Borrelli has just said that "the trend in Italy's Coronavirus cases is downwards". An interesting choice of phrase.

Figures from end of today:
Deaths, day-on-day increased by 349.
A total of almost 28,000 have been infected during the outbreak. Those who have died now exceed 2,000.
23,073 people are currently infected, with over 1,800 in intensive care, while 2,749 people have recovered.
 
But yesterday, staggering back from my permitted shopping outing, I saw a home-made flag attached to the gates facing the entrance to the town hall square.

It said (in Italian) in large, bumpy letters: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE FINE. Surrounded by lots of pink/red hearts.
Followed by FORZA LEVANTO! ('Come on, Levanto!')
 
To be honest, my instincts tell me we’re about to experience our version of The Great Depression. That’s just my opinion and it obviously won’t be the same, but I do wonder what parts of society will cope and if governments will be able to step up. At the moment my husband is putting in 14 hour days trying to keep t(e law firm he works for running via working from home (for when that happens in earnest), because if he doesn’t, as IT manager, he’s out of a job. Over 200 lawyers and their staff will be reliant on him and his team and one of them is sick (not coronavirus!).

For home owners over here there’s talk of the banks offering a interest free holiday, but what about renters? Will landlords pass that on? I think most will, but the sea is always full of sharks... and will that be enough? Time will tell. We aren’t there yet. But people are cancelling lots. I’ve cancelled physio and speech, will my weaker lungs and inability to voluntarily cough, I’m at risk. But I’m in a position where I can pay them with government funding to keep my spot, and I had to nearly go to Court to prove I needed the support, but the majority of people probably aren’t in that position and services are going to be dropped like hotcakes.
 
Rich. said:
A friend of mine ran her weekly Zumba class via webcam yesterday.
Click to expand...
One of my coworkers runs an Irish dance school. Yesterday I overheard her on the phone with her business partner working out their plan for switching to video classes. And my husband is trialling platforms for delivering remote lab sessions to his university students. A lot of creative solutions will come of this situation.

As I taught a group of 5 year olds yesterday, I noted that, as usual, three quarters of them had snotty noses (not Covid-19, just the usual 5-y.o. germ factory), and all I could think was we primary school educators have been on the receiving end of disease outbreaks for forever ... my fellow teaching assistants and I were chatting about the fact we've been told not to come to work if we're unwell, but we all ALWAYS have a cold, because when you're moving between classrooms six times a day, you're exposed to every germ the wider community has to offer. If we didn't work when we were sick, we'd never work.
 
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