XYplorer Beta Club

Hi Sammay,

SammaySarkar wrote: ↑28 Mar 2020 20:40... well, staying alive yet.

glad to read!

To cite a British band's album title: It's Draconian Times !

Let's hope for a relief to come soon.

Best wishes to everyone,
Filehero

Here's a link to a very informative and scary graphic on the spread of confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Johns Hopkins University (scan down the page). https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51048366

klownboy wrote: ↑29 Mar 2020 17:14 Here's a link to a very informative and scary graphic on the spread of confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Johns Hopkins University (scan down the page). https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51048366

Yeah, I can confirm how scary it is, unfortunately...

Marco wrote: ↑29 Mar 2020 19:04 Yeah, I can confirm how scary it is, unfortunately...

Do you have a message from Italy?

(Here in Germany the performance of the government is pretty underwhelming. Few politicians seem to have a clue of what exponential growth means. The resulting regulations are incoherent, inconsequent, too slow, and too weak. Cool, calm and collected is nice when you can afford it, but this is an emergency that calls for speed and determination. My 2c.)

admin wrote: ↑29 Mar 2020 19:19

Marco wrote: ↑29 Mar 2020 19:04 Yeah, I can confirm how scary it is, unfortunately...

Do you have a message from Italy?

(Here in Germany the performance of the government is pretty underwhelming. Few politicians seem to have a clue of what exponential growth means. The resulting regulations are incoherent, inconsequent, too slow, and too weak. Cool, calm and collected is nice when you can afford it, but this is an emergency that calls for speed and determination. My 2c.)

My message is not original at all: stay at home and practice social distancing as strictly, meticolously, I'd say religiously as possible. Also, don't be an hero: if you have a temperature, call a doctor and quarantine yourself. Otherwise you'll potentially kill not only yourself, but all the people around you, among them doctors whose mission is saving lives, in a vicious circle.
Bare numbers just scratch the surface: what does 73k+ infected people mean? Half of them show few symptoms, but are a huge danger because they can infect a lot more people, and the fewer worst cases are people filling intensive care units, leaving no beds for other emergencies. On top of that, doctors are working double or triple shifts, doubling or tripling their chances to being infected. But they're not regular people, they're people who save other people. Without them, nobody lives.
The system is about to collapse. It takes more time to heal than to get infected. What are we going to do when we totally run out of beds? Do we send patients to other States (yes, we are already doing it, thank you Germany*)? Do we treat only those who have the highest chances of surviving?

We are not China. Here in Europe we cannot shutdown entire States like they did. We cannot quarantine every single person, we have to compromise. So we have to, we must, respect rules. This virus is not magic, and while we do not have a complete knowledge of it (but we are getting close to it), we know how it propagates and how much it takes to show up. And so when can beat it by avoiding any form of unnecessary social contact, and properly wearing masks in all the other cases. Ideally it would take just two weeks of such behaviour to estinguish this pandemic. Unfortunately we do not live in an ideal world, it will take longer, but the better we are at following these dead simple rules, the quicker we can go back to our previous lives.

Someone compared COVID19 to chickenpox. I did the same a month ago, comparing it to Herpes or Helicobacter pylori. Yes, they spread fast and relatively easily. But COVID19 kills. It's burdening the NHSs like nothing else. The only way we can stop all this is by staying at home.
In the global world, this is a global emergency. We might as well being facing a 2008 crisis part deux. Here in Italy we gasped in amazement when we read that Germany is ready to unleash 550B € to fight all this, and the US 2000B €. Frankly, what you say is surprising and baffling. The only thing I can say, bordering politics, is that this is not the EU the founding fathers had in mind 70 years ago.

* : this is a real thank you

Thanks for the report. I've seen the facts in the media but it's harder and more convincing to hear it from somebody I "know" for many years from the forum. Thanks for the warning!

It seems that most countries are slowly escalating the measurements as they see the numbers rising. The reverse strategy would have been right IMO: Total lockdown first, then slowly de-escalate. Well, it's too late now.

I live in a part of town where people are generally educated, informed, and well-to-do. But: When the sun comes out, they leave their homes and enjoy the wheather. Almost nobody wears a mask. That was yesterday (today the wheather is bad). Cologne people are known to be careless. And that's usually a plus. But now it's madness and embarassing. I wished it would be different.

A short report from the middle of Austria, EU:

In my household (= 1x60 + 1x67 + 1x91) we are all still alive (and apparently not infected, but who knows).
The hell on Earth (of an Italian type) is expected to start in some 8-10 days.
Masks (nose+mouth=protection of others) will be compulsory from the coming Wednesday (should be freely distributed at all supermarket entrances).
Sorry for the Tirol shit, all of you. What a mess, as it seems.

Marco and Sammay, may the health be with you! Thanks for the report.

May you all stay well.
Borut

Borut wrote: ↑30 Mar 2020 15:06 Sorry for the Tirol shit, all of you. What a mess, as it seems.

Blame it on the childish and ignorant party people throughout the world.

Good luck to you and your family!

Have a laugh, and read the tagline, https://xkcd.com/2287/

Italy, thanks for the pasta!

Two main sites, I've got them pinned in Palemoon:

Coronavirus update
COVID-19 Map - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center

I think that the following page is an eye opener:

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

I had viral pneumonia (very similar to coronavirus) in my early 30's, so I have some personal experience of what it is like not being able to breath. To say the least, it is frightening!

It took me the best part of six months to get back on my feet. I don't remember much of the first three weeks I spent in intensive care, and even when I moved onto a high dependency ward I spent much of my time in bed. I didn't have the strength to do much else. It has left me with permanent lung damage. That caused problems when they had to collapse my left lung for heart surgery (nearly 40 years later), even though they knew the lungs were damaged from the X-ray.

The biggest problem is not the virus but the behaviour of people - stockpiling food, which means that elderly people (like my-self) can't get even basic food. I was nearly knocked off my feet shopping by somebody pushing me out of the way to get what they wanted. There was a family opposite me unloading a van of food the other day, they must have gone to every supermarket in the area and bought as much as they could. I thought "I hope it goes rotten, it will serve you right".

I have polymyalgia rheumatica, so I always keep a reserve of food in the house, because sometimes I can't get out to shop. At the moment that reserve is keeping me going because it's not safe for me to go shopping. Not because of the virus, but because of the behaviour of other customers. At nearly 80, if I'm knocked off my feet and fracture my hip, that's probably the end. I'm still enjoying life too much (even though XY won't run on my system!) to die.

That's my tuppence worth. Good luck to everybody. Keep your spirits up. So much of this is a mental situation. Keep playing the guitar Don (acoustic I hope).

Holy shit. Yes, crisis reveals character. But how low can you go? Pushing other people out of the way in the supermarket? Already now? The Corona thing is just starting. I think it's called cognitive dissonance, but parts of my brain see things coming that other parts just cannot believe are possible. Gandolf, find somebody to do the shopping for you! Somebody big.

Yeah, acoustic guitar! When the oil stops I still can play for a while.

Here is my acoustic tip for tonight. If you have 5 Euros left you can see the great The Last Internationale LIVE in a little flat in Portugal where they got stuck thanks to Corona:
https://www.stageit.com/the_last_intern ... rt_2/72880
I'll be there!
To give you an idea, this is the cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" they played last Thursday at their 1st show (tonight will be the 2nd show):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLBmUjCxKlw

My taste in guitar music is somewhat earlier, 16th. and 17th. century. More often played on the lute than the guitar.
Having said that, I do occasionally listen to Hendrix, Pink Floyd etc... (but only when I'm in a psychedelic mood!!)