Posted on 04/17/2020 8:39:57 PM PDT by RaceBannon
EU
Brits ‘could still have summer holidays’ despite pandemic but sunbathe in plexiglass boxes
...summer holiday hot spot Greece is urging the EU to draw up a pact containing common rules - including ‘health passports’ - in a matter of weeks.
Self-catering villas are likely to be allowed to open before big hotels as social distancing is more achievable, while Italian company Nuova Neon Group 2 has designed plexiglass boxes for isolated sunbathing.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brits-could-still-summer-holidays-21898921
CHINA
China rattles sabres as world battles coronavirus pandemic
BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China is becoming increasingly assertive in the region as the coronavirus crisis eases on the mainland while raging elsewhere in the world, with a crackdown in Hong Kong and sabre-rattling around Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
The U.S. State Department said China was taking advantage of the region’s focus on the pandemic to “coerce its neighbours”.
The one I got was a cheapo. Probably good enough for me as I’ll soon be 75 and having 2 of them—at least one will likely outlast me. LOL
DATA - BUSINESSES and RESEARCH
Bing makes COVID-19 dataset available to academia and research, creates GoFundMe module
Microsoft Bing on Monday rolled out new COVID-19 data features and a partnership with GoFundMe.
Last month Bing debuted a COVID-19 info hub and map tracker. Now it is making its COVID-19 aggregated data available to academia and research here and on GitHub. It also created a COVID-19 tracker widget that developers can use on their websites.
Links embedded in article:
https://bing.com/covid/dev
https://github.com/microsoft/Bing-COVID-19-Data
https://www.bingplaces.com/
https://www.google.com/covid19/
called the COVID-19 pandemic as a black ‘genocide’ and the well-known researcher condemned what she called “systematic oppression” by white people...
The thread ended with mentioning Dr Fauci and Dr Adams to check their “privilege” and added that “Think critically. Stop spreading harmful fallacies that support white supremacy.”
******************************************************************************
LOL. The dummy should follow her own advice and try to think critically. Ignoring issues that are within an individual’s ability to change, while grumbling about some racist something or other is ineffective at best and really stupid.
And if black genocide is really her worry, then she should start with the abortion of black babies—that truly is millions of black innocent babies.
Another thing, Vitamin D3 is very important for anyone in the Northern latitudes. So they should all be taking that too.
CHINA
China plays victim card as lawsuits over its handling of coronavirus grow
China on Monday played the victim card, calling on the United States to stop blaming the country for the global COVID-19 crisis, as pressure increased over Beijing’s mismanagement of the novel coronavirus that has infected more than 2.4 million people worldwide.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a press briefing that COVID-19 is a “common enemy of all manind.” He added that China was “also a victim,” and that the global community should work together instead of seeking a single source to blame.
FOX 9 hrs ago
https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-lawsuits-handling-covid-19
lying conniving pandas. It’s been said that the ‘aid’ they gave to their citizens amounted to about $7 each. In the meantime, they’re still pouring concrete like there’s no shortage of materials, still badgering Hong Kong and Taiwan with police power and military maneuvers, and looking to buy up French, Spanish and Italian businesses failed from the pandemic at firesale prices to strengthen their foothold in those countries.
They act the fool with their left hand and shake a fist with their right.
GERMANY
China, Germany’s Bild in war of words after newspaper scorched Xi over coronavirus
China and the largest newspaper in Germany have been in a war of words, according to reports, over the role of President Xi Jinping in the coronavirus pandemic.
...Reichelt added: “You rule by surveillance. You wouldn’t be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country. You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them – and with them, the rest of the world.”
...China shot back with an open letter to Reichelt, denying the allegations and denigrating the paper’s “nationalism, prejudice, and hostility against China.”...
...It added: “We note that many countries now struggling with COVID-19 have had time to prepare for the cross-border spread of the pathogen after China reported its outbreak under IHR [World Health Organization] guidelines.”
does it sound, besides the obvious derogatories, that China is actually saying, it’s your own fault you had time to prepare?
TEXAS - American Ingenuity and PPEs
Texas nurse works to develop masks with better filtration than N95
The chief executive nurse at University Health System has developed a mask that has better filtration than the N95 masks.
Nurse Tommye Austin used AC filter material she purchased at Lowe’s to create 600 masks as reserves as San Antonio, Texas, prepares for a surge in coronavirus hospitalizations that expect to occur in May, according to reports by KSAT.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/texas-nurse-develop-masks-better-than-n95
VIRGIN AIRLINES
Richard Branson offers his island as collateral as Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia face collapse
In an open letter to employees, Branson said the survival of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia was important to provide much needed competition to British Airways, an IAG (ICAGY) subsidiary, and Qantas (QABSY). “If Virgin Australia disappears, Qantas would effectively have a monopoly of the Australian skies,” he noted.
Branson, who has already pumped $250 million into Virgin Group companies in response to the pandemic, said he would offer his Necker Island estate in the Caribbean as collateral “to raise as much money against the island as possible to save as many jobs as possible around the group.”
CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/business/virgin-australia-richard-branson/index.html
https://twitter.com/LauraHarth/status/1252531909504184320
“Want to know China’s point of view? Following Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy To Build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind Through International Cooperation Against COVID-19” by PRC Foreign Minister Wang Yi”
No, his business is open so it’s really until the threat is mostly gone.
Field report this morning—I hit the early “senior hour” at the nearest Walmart (N CT).
Traffic was light but there were a lot of blue collar folks in their trucks out early heading to work. CT has allowed a lot of blue collar type businesses to stay open as “essential”. I also noticed that convenience stores were open. The governor’s “essential” list is a large one—and the wild claims we see around here about everything being closed is just wrong in this state.
I had not visited Walmart for seven weeks—we did not run out of anything since I was well prepped back in February thanks to Chris Martenson and folks around here in the early CV threads.
All the employees and customers were wearing masks—really happy to see that.
There was a person at the front of the store to make sure only seniors entered but when I asked them if they wanted to see ID they indicated it was not necessary.
There were very few customers there at the early hour.
They had everything on my list—another win.
Paper products were limited to one per customer, so I bought the largest size of TP and paper towels. They did not have full stock, but had a decent selection.
Everything else I needed was available without limitation.
They were a little low on bread.
One amusing end-cap was a huge stack of paper plates—up to the ceiling—Looks like they over-produced those. :-)
After reading all the crazies around here, it was a pleasure to see the folks in N CT doing the right thing.
CT is going to do very well—flattening the curve while allowing a lot of businesses to stay open.
It also gives positive results for other corona viruses that are very mild and people wouldn’t have bothered with more than a cold. HKU1, for example, which would have spread unchecked.
And it is as yet unvetted, as far as such tests go.
So it may or may not be accurate, in its results (yep, you have had a corona virus...), but it is not very precise (… but we don’t know which one). That is something they teach you about in every college level freshman science course.
On the other hand, the upper bound estimate for the number of cases in the US, including recovered, dead, and pre- and asymptomatic, is around 16 million, or about 5% of the US population.
The test also gives positives for some corona viruses that would be considered a cold.
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