500,000

This morning the US passed the 500,000th death from the Trump genocide.

Tragic, half a million people killed in your country by a deadly virus that no one had heard of just over a year ago.

But Quill, we dont have a Trump, and there have been 120,000 deaths by Covid here, and your population is 6 times higher than ours.

Syl wrote:Tragic, half a million people killed in your country by a deadly virus that no one had heard of just over a year ago.

But Quill, we dont have a Trump, and there have been 120,000 deaths by Covid here, and your population is 6 times higher than ours.

He doesn't realize that this was a global event.

Syl wrote:Tragic, half a million people killed in your country by a deadly virus that no one had heard of just over a year ago.

But Quill, we dont have a Trump, and there have been 120,000 deaths by Covid here, and your population is 6 times higher than ours.

True, we don't have the grand fook-up of the Republican Party, Trump. But it takes time to curb the inertia that the idiot built up. Had we had the Pandemic Response Team, and a well-funded, built-up CDC/NIH, we would likely have avoided the whole thing beforehand, and not be picking up pieces after so disastrous a calamity.

What did Republicans gain by their austerity and deregulation? Lower taxes? A few pennies...a couple of shekels in each person's pocket?

The austerity chimera has become deontological, a precept without consequence or utility. Now we have Texas....and the same kind of catastrophe, caused by the same kind of stupidity. Save a few shekels, bring on a disaster. It’s greater than any given hurricane or drought. We have the technology, why not do better? Truth is, Austerity = Stupidity.

I would never defend anything Trump did, the mans a buffoon, but presumably in regard to the pandemic he took advice from the scientists and the experts. Had he not he would have carried on with his bleach injection theory.

He definitely did not take the advice from the scientists and the experts. Now released from the burden of constraint, Dr. Fauci has given interviews in which he said that working under Trump was about finding creative ways to sneak the truth out.

Trump continued up until the very end to invent his own scientific reality. And he never gave up on Clorox, even when the Clorox company disavowed his stupidity. If you think he took any advice from experts, I guess news of what it was like didn't reach your shores.

It probably did Quill, but tbh, we have had our own problems with our own government to occupy us.

What I think is a travesty is that the US CDC/NIH effort sets the gold standard for the world, and to carelessly disassemble it for a bad ideal, and precious few shekels, is, well...sheer stupidity.

Republicans are masters of divisiveness, and during the Trump administration they had nations fighting against nations, and states fighting against states, when together, we could have made coronavirus no more than an inconvenient moment.

Original Quill wrote:This morning the US passed the 500,000th death from the Trump genocide.

That’s a terrible figure.

Though I’m not sure Trump was personally responsible.

To put it in perspective, that number is a bit HIGHER than the population of Miami.

The global death toll and utter devastation and misery this virus has called is unprecidented outside of wartimes.

Something, someone, some practice is responsible.

Unless whatever caused this is faced addressed and changed, this will be happen again, and again in the future.

Syl wrote:The global death toll and utter devastation and misery this virus has called is unprecidented outside of wartimes.

Something, someone, some practice is responsible.

Unless whatever caused this is faced addressed and changed, this will be happen again, and again in the future.

Probably. Especially in light of how much we all travel compared to just a couple of generations ago.

But the good news is that the pharmaceutical companies basically had a vaccine within a few weeks of trying.

The trick will be to get it tested and released faster next time.

Yes, the speed of finding  vaccinations that seem to be working has been brilliant, and will no doubt save millions of lives.....this time.

But prevention is always better than cure, and unless mankind look towards the way they are treating this planet and everything on it, scientists predict that the next serious zoonotic disease could be a lot worse than this one.

Syl wrote:Yes, the speed of finding  vaccinations that seem to be working has been brilliant, and will no doubt save millions of lives.....this time.

But prevention is always better than cure, and unless mankind look towards the way they are treating this planet and everything on it, scientists predict that the next serious zoonotic disease could be a lot worse than this one.

I'm doing my part. I've stopped eating bats.

eddie wrote:

Original Quill wrote:This morning the US passed the 500,000th death from the Trump genocide.

That’s a terrible figure.

Though I’m not sure Trump was personally responsible.

Not responsible. Irresponsible! Trump, got rid of all the precautions put in place because we knew a viral pandemic was coming. Then, as he often does, he tried to wish it away. He was a juvenile in a child care center, and had no business running the WH.

Original Quill wrote:

eddie wrote:

That’s a terrible figure.

Though I’m not sure Trump was personally responsible.

Not responsible.  Irresponsible!  Trump, got rid of all the precautions put in place because we knew a viral pandemic was coming.  Then, as he often does, he tried to wish it away.  He was a juvenile in a child care center, and had no business running the WH.

without a doubt he is responsible through his irresponsibility

He like Boris downplayed the inital outbreak
he actively contradicted Dr Fauci's public health directives
and generally spread mass bullshit to the public regarding masks and other health directives that 100% would have saved lives

proof is in nations like Australia and New Zealand
https://covidlive.com.au/report/deaths
909 deaths out 25 million

an initial hard lockdown, all non essential workers got gov't handouts to keep the economy afloat
then hotspot lockdowns whenever it'd been detected (some times entire states, others just regions or cities), we're at a stage of handling it through contract tracing (we all login where ever we go now, QR codes on the doors and an App on the phone, it's already become second nature to just do it) with virtually no cases outside of quarantine

masks are mandated in some areas, everyone just complies ... although people are starting to get a bit lax about it in cities like Canberra(where i work now) that haven't had a case outside of quarantine in over 6 moths

Maddog wrote:

Syl wrote:Yes, the speed of finding  vaccinations that seem to be working has been brilliant, and will no doubt save millions of lives.....this time.

But prevention is always better than cure, and unless mankind look towards the way they are treating this planet and everything on it, scientists predict that the next serious zoonotic disease could be a lot worse than this one.

I'm doing my part.  I've stopped eating bats.  

Watch the film CONTAGION.....I watched it the other night.It begins in the wet markets in China, takes hold, is lied about by governments, spreads like wildfire, infects and kills millions globally.

It could be a documentary of what has happened in the last year, amazingly it's a fictionalised film made over 10 years ago.

That's a good and frightening film, as you say it could be a documentary.
The more people in a country, city etc the more the virus will spread and develop, so I would think you are bound to get more deaths. The conditions some of the population live in in some of these places are not good, multi generational households, overcrowding of ordinary dwelling houses to name a few. Too many people crammed together for their own good. I don't think there are large and crowded populations in New Zealand or even Australia compared to London, New York Tokyo etc. its hard to contain a virus where people are cheek by jowl almost 24 hours a day.

I haven't checked the death rates for quite some time, so I just did. Its odd to me that with the exception of the US, the highest 17 countries are in Europe.

Maddog wrote:I haven't checked the death rates for quite some time, so I just did.  Its odd to me that with the exception of the US, the highest 17 countries are in Europe.

They are the most vulnerable.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:I haven't checked the death rates for quite some time, so I just did.  Its odd to me that with the exception of the US, the highest 17 countries are in Europe.

They are the most vulnerable.

Why?

Poor leadership?

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

They are the most vulnerable.

Why?

Poor leadership?

Your assumption is that because European countries are the most technically advanced, they should be the least vulnerable.  But, if a virus comes down and attacks the very thing that cultures are good at, they take out at the top level.

Western Europeans and Americans are good at travel, intercommunication, and interaction.  Most technical advances reduce to these things.  These are highways for viruses.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Why?

Poor leadership?

Your assumption is that because European countries are the most technically advanced, they should be the least vulnerable.  But, if a virus comes down and attacks the very thing that cultures are good at, they take out at the top level.

Western Europeans and Americans are good at travel, intercommunication, and interaction.  Most technical advances reduce to these things.  These are highways for viruses.

Japan?

S Korea?

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Why?

Poor leadership?

Your assumption is that because European countries are the most technically advanced, they should be the least vulnerable.  But, if a virus comes down and attacks the very thing that cultures are good at, they take out at the top level.

Western Europeans and Americans are good at travel, intercommunication, and interaction.  Most technical advances reduce to these things.  These are highways for viruses.

Are you saying the problem is more complex than who the leader is?

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Your assumption is that because European countries are the most technically advanced, they should be the least vulnerable. But, if a virus comes down and attacks the very thing that cultures are good at, they take out at the top level.

Western Europeans and Americans are good at travel, intercommunication, and interaction. Most technical advances reduce to these things. These are highways for viruses.

Are you saying the problem is more complex than who the leader is?

That's a nonsensical polarity. It's not people or problems, but people vs. problems.

Problems come along. Good leaders are supposed to deal with them as they come along. If you have an ignorant autocrat, who doesn't care about anyone but himself, he's not doing his job and you've got a disaster on your hands.

A virus is a world-wide problem. When the autocratic, ignorant leader is head of the nation that has the most resources, it’s a world-wide disaster.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Are you saying the problem is more complex than who the leader is?  

That's a nonsensical polarity.  It's not people or problems, but people vs. problems.

Problems come along.  Good leaders are supposed to deal with them as they come along.  If you have an ignorant autocrat, who doesn't care about anyone but himself, he's not doing his job and you've got a disaster on your hands.

A virus is a world-wide problem.  When the autocratic, ignorant leader is head of the nation that has the most resources, it’s a world-wide disaster.

So Europe has the worst leaders.

Gotcha.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

That's a nonsensical polarity.  It's not people or problems, but people vs. problems.

Problems come along.  Good leaders are supposed to deal with them as they come along.  If you have an ignorant autocrat, who doesn't care about anyone but himself, he's not doing his job and you've got a disaster on your hands.

A virus is a world-wide problem.  When the autocratic, ignorant leader is head of the nation that has the most resources, it’s a world-wide disaster.

So Europe has the worst leaders.

Gotcha.  

You don't get it, do you? I said: "It's not people or problems, but people vs. problems." The biggest failure (in your terms, "worst leaders") is the nation with the most resources, whose leader does not mobilize those resources to effective use. If you want to talk about "worst leaders", talk about the US, under Trump.

I prefer a wink, to a "Gotcha".

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

So Europe has the worst leaders.

Gotcha.  

You don't get it, do you?  I said: "It's not people or problems, but people vs. problems."  The biggest failure (in your terms, "worst leaders") is the nation with the most resources, whose leader does not mobilize those resources to effective use.  If you want to talk about "worst leaders", talk about the US, under Trump.

I prefer a wink, to a "Gotcha".  

So Belgium doesn't have enough resources.

Gotcha.