COVID-19 - On the Ground

[seahawk]

A really worthwhile article. Citizens handing out masks and hand sanitizer to the poor?

How the Citizens of Hong Kong coped with COVID 19

If there was a country that could have been expected to have a hard time with this virus, it was Hong Kong. It’s one of the most dense cities in the world, with crowded high-rise housing squeezed into almost every available space, and more cross-border traffic with China than anywhere else in the world. The region relies on an efficient but packed mass-transportation system—trains run every few minutes but many are stuffed to the gills during many hours of the day.

snip

It wouldn’t have been shocking if, like many pathogens before it, this coronavirus had spread wildly through Hong Kong. The city is connected to Wuhan, where the pandemic started, via a high-speed-train line and many daily flights. More than 2.5 million people came to Hong Kong from mainland China just in January of 2020. The city also lacks a competent government with a strong basis of legitimacy. The people don’t have full voting rights and the region’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, who was hand-picked by Beijing, failed to muster an effective response when the protest movement engulfed the city in 2019. The region’s economy was already in recession before the pandemic, and things have worsened since. Lam is extremely unpopular, with a staggering 80 percent disapproval rating.

Lam fumbled the response to the pandemic as well, reacting with ineptitude, especially at first. Hong Kong’s first coronavirus case was reported when she was having dim sum with world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, and there was an outcry over the fact that she did not quickly return. She dragged her feet in closing the city’s borders, and never fully closed down the land border with China. The hospitals suffered from shortages of personal protective equipment. Lam wavered on masks, and even ordered civil servants not to wear them. There were shortages of crucial supplies and empty shelves in stores, as well as lines for many essentials. In early February, the financial outlet Bloomberg ran an opinion piece that compared Hong Kong to a “failed state”—a striking assessment for a global financial center and transportation hub usually known for its efficiency and well-functioning institutions.

And yet there is no unchecked, devastating COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong. The city beat back the original wave, and also beat back a second resurgence due to imported cases. But unlike in Taiwan or South Korea, this success can’t be attributed to an executive that acted early and with good governance backed by the people.

The secret sauce of Hong Kong’s response was its people and, crucially, the movement that engulfed the city in 2019. Seared with the memory of SARS, and already mobilized for the past year against their unpopular government, the city’s citizens acted swiftly, collectively, and efficiently, in effect saving themselves. The organizational capacity and the civic infrastructure built by the protest movement played a central role in Hong Kong’s grassroots response.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... us/611524/

[ousdahl]

[pdub]

Going to an outdoor backyard party of 10 people tomorrow.
No masks, just sun and fun.

[Deleted User 289]

Going to an outdoor backyard party of 10 people tomorrow.
No masks, just sun and fun.

Mazel Tov!

[HouseDivided]

Going to an outdoor backyard party of 10 people tomorrow.
No masks, just sun and fun.

Doing the same on Sunday.

[Shirley]

Going to an outdoor backyard party of 10 people tomorrow.
No masks, just sun and fun.

If you're lucky it will rain, and flush all the droplets and aerosol out of the air at the party, quickly.

Then again, as far as droplet and aerosol transmission, according to these "elites", your chances of catching the coronavirus drop 20 times when you're outside.

[Deleted User 289]

Going to an outdoor backyard party of 10 people tomorrow.
No masks, just sun and fun.

Doing the same on Sunday.

Mazel Tov!

[jhawks99]

Son in Law was admitted to a Covid hospital yesterday. O2 sat was low, trouble breathing and coughing. They have him on oxygen and he says he's feeling better.

[zsn]

Best wishes 99!

[ousdahl]

talked to a friend who ran into a guy on a mountain bike trail yesterday. Some Denverite up for a ride.

Apparently he got coronavirus, and wasn't allowed to go back to his job until he tested negative.

He then went on to test positive every day for 45 days straight. !!!

His symptoms were never more than "he just felt really tired for a couple days."

I dunno if it's more surprising he remained "positive" for 45 days, or that this country has 45+ tests to spare on just one guy.

[ousdahl]

oh yeah! and 99, hope your fam is doing better.

[DCHawk1]

Son in Law was admitted to a Covid hospital yesterday. O2 sat was low, trouble breathing and coughing. They have him on oxygen and he says he's feeling better.

I'm sorry, 99.

Hoping the best for him -- and the rest of you.

[HouseDivided]

talked to a friend who ran into a guy on a mountain bike trail yesterday. Some Denverite up for a ride.

Apparently he got coronavirus, and wasn't allowed to go back to his job until he tested negative.

He then went on to test positive every day for 45 days straight. !!!

His symptoms were never more than "he just felt really tired for a couple days."

I dunno if it's more surprising he remained "positive" for 45 days, or that this country has 45+ tests to spare on just one guy.

There’s shortage, though. Because Trump.

[CrimsonNBlue]

talked to a friend who ran into a guy on a mountain bike trail yesterday. Some Denverite up for a ride.

Apparently he got coronavirus, and wasn't allowed to go back to his job until he tested negative.

He then went on to test positive every day for 45 days straight. !!!

His symptoms were never more than "he just felt really tired for a couple days."

I dunno if it's more surprising he remained "positive" for 45 days, or that this country has 45+ tests to spare on just one guy.

There’s shortage, though. Because Trump.

Colorado got tests from Korea because of a test shortage.

[ousdahl]

all I'm saying is, if I was president - instead of downplaying it until I shrugged off responsibility and told the governors that the fed didn't have their backs, and if they wanted tests for their states they had to reach out on their own to foreign gummints that were also competing for tests; I would have somehow leveraged Merica's can-do attitude (remember that?) to procure ample testing, by January.

[HouseDivided]

all I'm saying is, if I was president - instead of downplaying it until I shrugged off responsibility and told the governors that the fed didn't have their backs, and if they wanted tests for their states they had to reach out on their own to foreign gummints that were also competing for tests; I would have somehow leveraged Merica's can-do attitude (remember that?) to procure ample testing, by January.

Then there’s the whole philosophical approach that says each state is sovereign and can determine its own approach and is responsible for supplying that approach. Personally, I much prefer that to the Feds running my life.

[ousdahl]

okay, so again back in January then, I as potus would have at least told governors this shit is serious, you should do something about it, just don't expect me to help, cuz I'll be at one of my golf courses offering nothing more than a spirited refrain of StAtE'S RiGhTs!

now do I have your vote?

[Deleted User 289]

Son in Law was admitted to a Covid hospital yesterday. O2 sat was low, trouble breathing and coughing. They have him on oxygen and he says he's feeling better.

Sorry to hear it 99! I hope he gets and feels better soon!

I should leave my comment/s at that but am feeling the need to call out the asshole rebels on here who get off on minimizing the "disease". Not saying there aren't assholes who maximize it too. There are.
People can label me as an asshole - who chooses to respect the ability of the Coronavirus.

[seahawk]

Son in Law was admitted to a Covid hospital yesterday. O2 sat was low, trouble breathing and coughing. They have him on oxygen and he says he's feeling better.

Oh gosh, 99, glad he's feeling better. best to all of you.

[HouseDivided]

okay, so again back in January then, I as potus would have at least told governors this shit is serious, you should do something about it, just don't expect me to help, cuz I'll be at one of my golf courses offering nothing more than a spirited refrain of StAtE'S RiGhTs!

now do I have your vote?

Just spitballin’ here, but it might have been easier to focus on such issues if the Dems weren’t running their fake Russia-gate scam at the time. I imagine it was kinda distracting, not to mention purely coincidental.