"the trials of this intensely urban, hyper-international country hint at a global future in which travel is taboo, borders are shut, quarantines endure, and industries like tourism and entertainment are battered."
For your own protection, of course.
"Singapore seemed to have coronavirus under control, until cases doubled" by Hannah Beech New York Times, April 20, 2020
Singapore did almost everything right.
After recording its first coronavirus case Jan. 23, the prosperous city-state meticulously traced the close contacts of every infected patient, while keeping a sense of normalcy on its streets. Borders were shut to populations likely to carry the contagion, although businesses stayed open. Ample testing and treatment were free for residents, but over the past few days, Singapore’s coronavirus caseload has more than doubled, with more than 8,000 cases confirmed as of Monday, the highest in Southeast Asia. Most of the new infections are within crowded dormitories where migrant laborers live, unnoticed by many of the country’s richer residents and, it turns out, the government itself.
Trump acted far too late.
The spread of the coronavirus in this tidy city-state suggests that it might be difficult for the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world to return to the way they were anytime soon, even when viral curves appear to have flattened. Although countries can closely track contacts to try to keep an outbreak at bay as Singapore did, the coronavirus is sickening, killing, and spreading with each passing day, leaving scientists and political leaders racing to catch up with its relentless pace and new dangers.
If anything, the trials of this intensely urban, hyper-international country hint at a global future in which travel is taboo, borders are shut, quarantines endure, and industries like tourism and entertainment are battered.
Those indu$tries will likely not exist except for elites.
“This is the likely future for the next 18 months minimum, this being the anticipated time to make a first vaccine available at scale,” said Josip Car, a top specialist in population health sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
There they f***ing go again, jabbing at us!!!
You can shove your goddamn vaccine you know where!!!!!!
With cases proliferating, Singapore abandoned its strategy of maintaining a semblance of normal life. Schools were closed on April 8, and residents are now required to wear face masks in public. Hundreds of thousands of foreign workers have been quarantined in their cramped quarters, with testing among them turning up hundreds of new cases a day.
“I am very scared, of course,” said Monir, a worker from Bangladesh who is not allowed to leave his dormitory despite his need for other medical care. He declined to give his full name because his employer had not authorized him to speak to the press. “There is the COVID and we cannot leave.”
You never will.
Foreign migrants proved a major blind spot in the coronavirus pandemic, exposing the starkly different experiences of rich expatriates and poorer ones in a city-state where 40 percent of residents are foreign born.
What, Gates and Rockefeller didn't plan for that?
While arrivals at Singapore’s airport were closely monitored for the coronavirus, the contagion was spreading in government-built dormitories crowded with 200,000 foreign laborers, mostly from South Asia and China.
The first low-wage foreign workers tested positive for the coronavirus in February.
Now, dozens of dormitories and lodges are suffering from outbreaks. Packed with up to 20 laborers in a single stifling room, these foreign-worker dormitories have been the sites of previous outbreaks of disease, including tuberculosis. Three workers said their rooms had not been disinfected in the wake of the coronavirus, despite promises that conditions would improve.
Confined to his room in a government dormitory where hundreds of foreign workers have been infected with the coronavirus, Monir said he had one wish.
“I want to go home,” he said.
That's funny, because we want to get out of ours.
--more--"
Related:
"The World Health Organization chief warned Monday that “the worst is yet ahead of us” in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, didn’t specify why he believes the outbreak that has infected some 2.5 million people and killed more than 166,000 could get worse. He and others, however, have previously pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are far less developed. “Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,” Tedros said from WHO headquarters in Geneva. Some Asian and European governments have gradually eased or started relaxing “lockdown” measures like quarantines, school and business closures, and restrictions on public gatherings, citing a decline in the growth of COVID-19 case counts and deaths. Tedros and his agency have been on the defensive after President Trump of the United States — the WHO’s biggest single donor — last week ordered a halt to US funding for the agency, alleging it botched the early response to the outbreak. Tedros said: “This virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have differences.”
Trust them?
HA!
South Korea looking into reports about Kim Jong Un’s health
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is reportedly in fragile condition after surgery, so pray for him, people!
The last thing the world needs right now is a North Korean power struggle.
"For weeks President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has presented Turkey’s performance in handling the coronavirus as one of the world’s most successful, as he maintained strict control over information about the outbreak. The presidential palace rolled out a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign, ensuring reports from hospitals, grave sites, and mourning relatives remained virtual absent. Doctors who spoke out on social media were reprimanded, and 410 people were detained in March for “provocative and abusive” posts, but data compiled by The New York Times from records of deaths in Istanbul indicate that Turkey is grappling with a far bigger calamity from the coronavirus than official figures and statements would suggest....."
They said Iraq had WMDs.
Next!
"Iran on Monday began opening intercity highways and major shopping centers to stimulate its sanctions-choked economy, gambling that it has brought under control its coronavirus outbreak — one of the worst in the world — even as some fear it could lead to a second wave of infections. There are still lingering questions over Iran’s outbreak and the safety of those returning to work. Taxi drivers partitioned their seats from the customers with plastic shields and wore masks, having seen colleagues sickened and killed by the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. Iranian state TV quoted Health Ministry spokesman Kinoush Jahanpour as saying Monday that another 91 people died of the virus, bringing the country’s death toll to 5,209 amid more than 83,500 confirmed cases. Iran is the region’s epicenter of the pandemic, though even Iran’s parliament suggests the death toll is nearly double that and overall cases remain vastly underreported....."
Oh, there will be a second wave so you better not open up anything, ever.
Better $afe than $orry!
"Schools reopened Monday in Belarus following an extended spring break, but authorities allowed parents to keep their children at home even though the government has steered clear of closures and restrictions on public movement amid the country’s expanding coronavirus outbreak. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron hand for more than a quarter century, ordered classes to resume at the nation’s 3,067 schools after the regular one-week break was prolonged by two additional weeks. Lukashenko has consistently dismissed concerns about the new virus and lockdowns imposed elsewhere in Europe as “coronapsychosis.” Factories, stores, and restaurants in Belarus conduct business as usual, and spectators fill the stands at sports events. The number of people known to be infected in the nation of 10 million surged by nearly one-third to 6,264 since Friday, including 51 deaths. Belarus now has more confirmed virus cases than neighboring Ukraine, which has four times as many people."
That is when they let it loose on you, like the basketball player and BoJo.
Looks like Turkmenistan will be next:
"Soccer has resumed in Turkmenistan with spectators as the Central Asian nation lifted a suspension of its national league. Turkmenistan is one of the few countries in the world that have not reported any cases of the coronavirus. Around 500 people attended Sunday’s game between Altyn Asyr and Kopetdag in a 20,000-capacity stadium in the capital, Ashgabat. It was the first game played in the Yokary Liga since March 20. The crowd size was broadly in line with typical domestic league games in Turkmenistan and, as usual, attendance was free. The game ended 1-1. The eight-team league was suspended March 24 amid the coronavirus pandemic."
Fans attend the soccer game Sunday between Altyn Asyr and Kopetdag as the country rebooted its domestic season owith fans returning to stadiums in one of the few countries yet to declare a case of coronavirus (AFP via Getty Images).
How dare they not practice social distancing?
HOW DARE THEY??!!!!
"More than a dozen staff members at the Afghan presidential palace have tested positive for the coronavirus, and the country’s 70-year-old president, Ashraf Ghani, has mostly isolated himself, according to two Afghan officials. Ghani remains in good health, has tested negative for the virus, and continues to run the country by conducting most meetings with video teleconferencing, one official said. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi would not comment on the president’s health but said Ghani continues to conduct all necessary business through a combination of video and in-person meetings. The outbreak at the heart of Afghan political power comes as transmission of the virus is escalating in the country. Testing in Afghanistan remains low, but health officials say they expect to see a spike in confirmed cases in the next two weeks."
I guess we won't be able to leave now, huh?
"Across the globe, hospitals have been reflexively refusing relatives the opportunity to visit patients dying of COVID-19, fearful that family members could contract the virus at the hospital or that relatives might unwittingly carry the virus with them when saying their goodbyes, infecting hospital staff. Shortages of personal protective equipment have only added to the reasons for rejecting deathbed visits. A New England Journal of Medicine article last week lamented the dilemma for hospitals and described “creative workarounds,” like nurses holding phones up to patients’ ears or using their own smartphones to let relatives see patients over Skype, WhatsApp, or FaceTime, but it said these stopgaps sometimes ran afoul of privacy rules or poor connectivity, and called for new national guidance. No one had a good answer....."
Well, the master race has one, and at least Trump sent them a million masks to help even as we run short.
"Deal extends Netanyahu’s rule as rival accepts Israeli unity government" by Isabel Kershner and David M. Halbfinger New York Times, April 20, 2020
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former challenger, Benny Gantz, agreed Monday night to establish a unity government, a deal that finally breaks a yearlong political impasse and keeps Netanyahu in office as he faces trial on corruption charges.
After three inconclusive elections in the past year, the creation of the new government forestalls what had appeared to be an inevitable fourth election and offers a deeply divided Israel a chance for national healing and unity as it battles the coronavirus pandemic.
Oh, good!
I was really, really worried about them.
Despite the sense of urgency to form a joint government to fight the virus sweeping through the country, the final sticking points in the negotiations were political. The agreement required compromises on both sides. For now, it offers a vital lifeline to Netanyahu, who can fight his corruption trial from the prime minister’s office.
By seizing the initiative and taking aggressive steps to combat the coronavirus, Netanyahu had already gone a long way to reasserting his leadership and varnishing his international profile.
You can put lipstick on a Zioni$t war criminal, but he's still a Zioni$t war criminal.
Many of Gantz’s former supporters have accused him of betraying them by joining Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious coalition. Some analysts said the decisions may have ended Gantz’s nascent political career.
Gantz has argued that given the public health crisis, it was the only responsible thing to do.
“We prevented a fourth election,” he said in a Twitter post Monday night. “We will preserve democracy. We will fight the coronavirus and take care of all of Israel’s citizens.”
That is why I really didn't give a shit about the political drama the pre$$ cared so much about here. I couldn't care any less which blood-pouring-from-the-fangs war criminal member of the Zioni$t cabal is head of state.
The coronavirus is known to have infected more than 13,600 Israelis and has claimed at least 173 lives so far. The country has been under lockdown, with potentially devastating economic consequences, and is only beginning to allow some businesses to resume operation under strict conditions.....
Netanyahu is using the Mossad to surveil everyone, and I'm $ure they will extort the rest of the world with their Holohoax™ racket once again.
--more--"
Also see:
Supreme Court bans nonunanimous jury verdicts for serious crimes
Juries will soon be a thing of the past.
Only judges from here on out.
Police say man who hijacked Texas bus was sought in slaying
He was headed east:
At least two dead as severe weather sweeps through the South
That's because of the warming oceans, according to Bloomberg:
Warmest oceans on record adds to hurricanes, wildfires risks
Finally, the guns of (play)war have gone silent.
