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MisterDDDD
All schools closed in Washington State now though April 24th (at least).

Right thing to do..
I am a bit relieved my daughter (ironically home sick this week) will not be going for a while

You mentioned her a few days ago and I wondered how she got on, trust she's not too bad and does not have COVID-19.

Also a few days back you posted this link [www.vox.com]

It's the best graphic I've seen that clarifies the pragmatic importance of slowing down the infection rate even if you don't make a huge difference in the end to the total number of cases. I make no excuse for reposting, with credit to you, this link to get others to see it!

Stay well.

--
Captain Corella
60 Years a Fan

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CaptainCorella

You mentioned her a few days ago and I wondered how she got on, trust she's not too bad and does not have COVID-19.

Also a few days back you posted this link [www.vox.com]

It's the best graphic I've seen that clarifies the pragmatic importance of slowing down the infection rate even if you don't make a huge difference in the end to the total number of cases. I make no excuse for reposting, with credit to you, this link to get others to see it!

Stay well.

Thanks CaptainCorella, she is fine and I appreciate the concern

That graphic when I saw it really made it easier for me to to see the dramatic difference that is made when these measures are taken.
Appreciate the thoughts.

Follow the Facebook link for an account of the crisis in Italy, written by an American mother living in Bergamo. She did an interview on CNN earlier today which makes her credible in my opinion.

[m.facebook.com]

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cmc
Follow the Facebook link for an account of the crisis in Italy, written by an American mother living in Bergamo. She did an interview on CNN earlier today which makes her credible in my opinion.

[m.facebook.com]

Scary as hell

Just shared that FB posting - very scary! But real. We have to all isolate. Our goverment is no help and we have to take individual measures. Good luck everyone. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay isolated!!

With a heavy heart I've just cancelled all my hotel bookings. We have made the decision not to travel to USA for the tour even if it was to still go ahead. Travel industry is in trouble now and wouldn't want to lose out on our refunds if they went bust.
Such a sad day

You did the right thing. You beat the crowds and the rush. The band will be back. It's resilient. In the meantime, let's cue Ronnie's I Feel Like Playing. Now that's a great spin that one. I love the Pecker.

Charles Baudelaire
1821-1869

I hope some people took note of my previous comments. I have bulk rice, pasta, canned beans, veggies, and tuna fish. I have masks, gloves and goggles. I did this all a couple of weeks ago.

The chances of the food supply chain breaking down are very very slim. But there is also an unknown about what the food shopping environment is going to be like. People could be a danger.

The lock-down is going to hurt millions of people. And I am talking the small guys, the hobby shop owner, the owner of a small bar. Or perhaps a couple that own and run a dance studio.

Hopefully the lock-down will keep the virus under control and have it burn out much faster. And perhaps we can be cautiously optimistic and assume the vaccination will be ready by Q4 and be in production by Q1 2021.

So I am guessing a full return to normal life by Q1 2021. And the world will experience a global recession during 2020.

Schools, universities closed here in Louisiana, presidential primary postponed. Jazz Fest seems to be still on (starts April 23).

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ohmercy61
I hate to say this but they really do need to cancel the tour unfortunately people are going to really need the money they would spend on the tour to take care of themselves and their families..it stinks I know...

That is very true actually. Many people will loose 4-6 months of income this year. The governments will cover a lot, but we are the tax payers, and the government is us. This virus crisis will set us all back for one year economically.

Poor musicians and performers in the other end of the popularity scale vs The Stones do need the money, and many say we should not ask for refunds for already booked tickets to shown with low income performers now loosing all their income, but I am sure The Stones could manage well economically without this tour.

Bjornulf

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doitywoik

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SomeTorontoGirl
GTA researchers make COVID-19 breakthrough, isolate the virus...

We're having breakthrough reports here for certainly two weeks or so now, (a) researcher(s) claiming their vaccines be already tested in China, etc., so I'm a bit hesitant to put more trust than necessary in such reports until there are credible results.

May be there will be a vaccine coming out of a miracle somewhere soon, ready tested on animals and human beings, working perfect and with no side effects. But that would be a miracle resulting in the Nobel Price in Medicine. A vaccine do normally take 12-18 months to get ready, best case.

The swine flu vaccine was rushed out with too little testing, and it had a number of bad side effects, unfortunately.

Bjornulf

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bv

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ohmercy61
I hate to say this but they really do need to cancel the tour unfortunately people are going to really need the money they would spend on the tour to take care of themselves and their families..it stinks I know...

That is very true actually. Many people will loose 4-6 months of income this year. The governments will cover a lot, but we are the tax payers, and the government is us. This virus crisis will set us all back for one year economically.

Poor musicians and performers in the other end of the popularity scale vs The Stones do need the money, and many say we should not ask for refunds for already booked tickets to shown with low income performers now loosing all their income, but I am sure The Stones could manage well economically without this tour.

I appreciate your concern for other performers, but financially speaking I'm not in the donate money to performers business. Many of us have families to support and need to put food on the table. Same for sports teams. People pay good money and expect something in return. Performers can write off losses that citizens can't. What about restaurant workers who will be out of work, or concession workers, or the guy selling peanuts outside the arena? Who is gonna donate money to them?

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The Sicilian

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bv

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ohmercy61
I hate to say this but they really do need to cancel the tour unfortunately people are going to really need the money they would spend on the tour to take care of themselves and their families..it stinks I know...

That is very true actually. Many people will loose 4-6 months of income this year. The governments will cover a lot, but we are the tax payers, and the government is us. This virus crisis will set us all back for one year economically.

Poor musicians and performers in the other end of the popularity scale vs The Stones do need the money, and many say we should not ask for refunds for already booked tickets to shown with low income performers now loosing all their income, but I am sure The Stones could manage well economically without this tour.

I appreciate your concern for other performers, but financially speaking I'm not in the donate money to performers business. Many of us have families to support and need to put food on the table. Same for sports teams. People pay good money and expect something in return. Performers can write off losses that citizens can't. What about restaurant workers who will be out of work, or concession workers, or the guy selling peanuts outside the arena? Who is gonna donate money to them?

This is not something I am recommending, I just pass on information which is around in the cultural environment of my country. Anyone if of course free to spend the money at their own needs.

Bjornulf

Status Saturday morning in Europe:

- Denmark close their borders for all non-Danish people incoming at 12:00 noon today
- Norway closed their borders for all non-Nordic incoming travels today
- Poland close their borders for all foreigners Sunday

Norway recommend all their residents to come home, immediately, and they advice on NOT leaving the country.

Saturday, March 14: Coronavirus global update by Cyprus Mail

The above are all facts, then a personal comment and some observations:

UK seems to have a big party still. I watched Boris on CNN 1-2 days ago, he had a speech and after half an hour I just gave up, same with the CNN experts, all Boris said was "we will be doing this, we will be doing that", but still this is the status:

- Premier League close down because players and coaches are having the virus, not because of the UK government

- Cheltenham Horse race with 200,000 crowd go on as usual on Sunday

- UK has got some 800 confirmed cases but the number is really much higher according to the press, may be 10x

UK will probably be added to the list of countries where residents are banned from travel into USA, and it will happen soon, according to what the US president said in his press conference yesterday afternoon. Stones members and parts of the crew do live in UK, and then the tour will be technically impossible to happen

Some countries in Europe act fast, some drag their feet, I am surprised why UK are so slow now. UN and WHO said clearly days ago that any larger growds should be banned, also testing is essential, also distance 1m i.e. 3 feet between people, which is impossible when shows and crowds go on like business as usual.

Bjornulf

Here is an interesting (& frightening) article regarding the ongoing lack of test kits in the Seattle area. Also, the governor has expanded the ban on crowds over 250 & closed schools for the whole state. At first it was the greater Seattle metropolitan area.

[www.seattletimes.com]

[www.seattletimes.com]

Coronavirus: Italians sing from their windows to boost morale.

BBC

I will take a break from my Corona virus reporting and explain why I spend so much time on reporting about the virus and the issues.

I started as a newspaper boy when I was nine years old, just before I celebrated my 10th birthday. When I biked around on my 10 km i.e. 6 miles route of subscribers every day, I did also read the news as printed in the newspaper. As a young boy used to climbing trees, stepping on ice flakes in the Oslo Fjord, and living a life of no worries with a large family of five brothers and sisters, all the news in the newspaper did a major impression on me. I read the headlines, I read the stories, and I realized life was more than climbing trees.

Soon after I started to make my own "newspapers". Luckily my mother kept some of them, and I love to read the "newspapers" I made some 55 or so years ago. Already, by then, I think I was a reporter. That was back in 1964 and 1965. For the same reason, 15 years later, I started IORR, as I felt I needed to report on what was happening related to the band of my life - The Rolling Stones.

Now I have a busy life with grandchildren, and touring to see the Stones 3 months or so every year. When the Coronavirus appeared in the public early January, I realized this was just like the SARS virus back in 2003. I was hoping it would stay in China. A few weeks later I realized the Coronavirus was the worst threath to our normal life since World War Two, lasting for five long and painful years 1940 - 1945, my mother and father told me about all the suffers from the occupation of our country.

At the same time, I noticed nobody was doing nothing. There was an action and news vacuum. I followed the news from USA, UK, Europe, Asia and Norway. Just like back in 1965, when I made my "Barne-Avisa" newspaper, just like the first time I publised IORR flyers and the first magazine back in 1980, I felt I had to make a separate news entry here on IORR on the serious problem of the virus. Many countries did not care. The authorities did not care.

Sure my concern was the Stones tour, but it did not take long until I realized ther would be no tour this summer. I knew that by the end of Feb. From then on my main message in this thread have been:

WAKE UP - IGNORE FAKE NEWS - THIS IS REAL - ALL COUNTRIES NEED TO CLOSE THEIR BORDERS - PEOPLE NEED TO STAY AT HOME - ALL EVENTS NEED TO BE BANNED - THIS IS NOW OR NEVER



Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-03-14 12:09 by bv.

You have done a fantastic service, BV & it is much appreciated. Thank you! I'm sure there will be much more on this story to come. I too had a "career" as an amateur journalist. I actually won awards in high school for work on the school paper, so it has always interested me. Let's hope we all pull out of this intact even if a little worse for wear. Take care.

Yep good work - This and the bbc are my go to places on the outbreak it’s v balanced (apart from the odd denier) debate and discussion

You've done so much bv, thank you for keeping you passion, we all benifit so much from it.

I really really hope the Corona Virus will not last too long, I hope relatives and friends of all of us stay safe and that the world gets over it as fast as possible.

SARS was different, I was still a little boy when it happened, all I can remember from SARS is the SARS festival, and only because I love the Rolling Stones.
This is a scary situation.

I have great sympathy for what pregnant women are going through with this virus all around them.Hopefully it won’t cause serious medical conditions for them or their babies.I have two teenage kids but my cousin’s wife is6 months pregnant and scared

Am i missing something here, 12,000 people die from flue in the UK every year, 80 people die in Britain every day from flue and pneumonia. Flue always dies when the weather pics up, why cancel the whole calendar for 2020 at this stage, this virus will probably return and mutate every winter like flue and influenza. Seems like China have it contained, are people over reacting a bit with this. Sorry i don't watch the news much so maybe miss out on the political and media frenzy.

In London is born a baby with the virus.

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keithsman
Am i missing something here, 12,000 people die from flue in the UK every year, 80 people die in Britain every day from flue and pneumonia. Flue always dies when the weather pics up, why cancel the whole calendar for 2020 at this stage, this virus will probably return and mutate every winter like flue and influenza. Seems like China have it contained, are people over reacting a bit with this. Sorry i don't watch the news much so maybe miss out on the political and media frenzy.

Most people in the UK, especially the old and those with respiratory problems are vaccinated, annually, against the most common form of flu, free of charge - so, imagine how many would die without that .....I don't know but it's not hard to believe there would be many, many more.
This particular 'bug' is more contagious and currently there is no vaccine so.......if counter measures are not taken then potentially millions could die.

You mention China - bear in mind that their system went into hyperdrive to deal with that, not a just mere frenzy - they quarantined 60 million people overnight and built 2 x 1000 bed hospitals, from scratch, in 10 days.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2020-03-14 14:32 by EddieByword.

Thank you Bjornulf for providing this venue. Terrific reporting on your part.

I also appreciate reading the local-level accounts from those of you in different regions/countries. Much better than my tv.

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keithsman
Am i missing something here, 12,000 people die from flue in the UK every year, 80 people die in Britain every day from flue and pneumonia. Flue always dies when the weather pics up, why cancel the whole calendar for 2020 at this stage, this virus will probably return and mutate every winter like flue and influenza. Seems like China have it contained, are people over reacting a bit with this. Sorry i don't watch the news much so maybe miss out on the political and media frenzy.

Because this is a new virus to our species, no natural immunity exists. Significantly more people will die as this passes through the general population, than the normal flu. Depending on the preparedness of any particular country, up to 30x more likelihood of death, particularly ages 60+, or with an underlying medical/respiratory condition.

While it seems like China may have it contained, it is only because they started relatively early, and have employed draconian measures to do so, and even so 80000+ people and over 3000 died.

Most Western countries have not gone this extreme route, and are unlikely to...Italy is the first indication of what might happen to all countries, and it isn't pretty.

So if people seem like they're freaking out, perhaps it's because they are starting to become aware of what is happening. The best thing is to be prepared, and not panic. Everyone should be prepared in the event of any emergency...several weeks worth of food and other supplies, even medicine (fill your prescriptions if you can) on hand is a no-brainer. If it isn't COVID-19, it's another virus, or an earthquake, or some other catastrophic event that could happen.

It's great to have an organized community response to things, but you cannot solely rely on the fact that someone will come and rescue you, or bring you food because you weren't prepared. You may have neighbours come knocking on your door...you won't turn them away, so have extra.

And what I've maintained from the start, is even if you're community isn't currently impacted, it likely will at some point, and I don't want to be the one that is standing in a panicked 10 hour lineup to get groceries with everyone else that disregarded the news as 'fake'.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

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keithsman
Am i missing something here, 12,000 people die from flue in the UK every year, 80 people die in Britain every day from flue and pneumonia. Flue always dies when the weather pics up, why cancel the whole calendar for 2020 at this stage, this virus will probably return and mutate every winter like flue and influenza. Seems like China have it contained, are people over reacting a bit with this. Sorry i don't watch the news much so maybe miss out on the political and media frenzy.

Yes. You are missing something very important here.

China have contained the virus - as it seems - after four - 4 - months of extreme measures. They got the virus in Nov 2019, then they kept it secret for 45 days, then they reported about it late Dec 2019, then they closed down entire cities of 60 mill people. Then it took two months until numbers started to go down. Every person in Shanghai and Beijing and so on have to use an app with red, yellow, green every time they want to enter a place, the app knows everything about every person, who you were close on the metro, who you met, a system not even George Orwell could invent in his book 1984. UK, USA and Europe have got the virus since early January, i.e. for two months. If we did it the Chinese way, we should have closed Seattle, New York, Milano, Tyrol and many other places a month ago. But nothing is happening. This week-end there are 200,000 people in UK enjoying a horseride event, and crowds gather all over USA still, including USA, wher there is a major outbreak (virus cluster) just 20 miles north of Manhattan.

The denial excuse about the flu is so stupid. It is like believing the earth is flat, because it looks like it, or to believe in Santa Clause, because it feels so safe. There is a vaccine for the annual flu, and 30% to 70% of the older population age 65 above take it. The flu start late oct/nov and last for 3 months or so. As soon as it is getting warmer, and drier, the fly dies out and the older population and the respirator capacity is getting back to normal. The fatality rate of the flu is 0.1% i.e. one og 1,000.

The corona virus is like a car coming towards you at 100 miles per hour. If you are young you may get away and no worries. But if you are old there is absolutely NO protection. The fatality rate is 1% and in countries were many smoke and have bad longues with KOLS / COPD then the fatality rate is more like 2% or above.

Do the maths.

The flu : 0.1% of the 66 million population in UK means 66,000 dead people, but as many take the flu shot in UK, and also many old people stay at elderly homes and keep away from influaza sick people, it is "just" 12,000 people dead, if your number is correct.

The corona Virus is 10 times more fatal. In a population like UK, of 66,000 people, this means 660,000 i.e. more than HALF A MILLION people in UK will die from the corona virus, unless dramatic measures are taken now, not next week.

The graph below says it all. It is taken from a report in the Norwegian paper VG, with references to doctors now working in overload in Italy. Their message in Italy is simply:

Italian doctor : It is like a war. Every day. Please be prepared!

So keithsman, do you still not understand what the problem is? Are you happy with what Boris is doing in UK so far? Are you happy with 200,000 people close together at the Cheltenham horse race tomorrow? Do you have any friends or relatives age 80+, or with any kinds of diseases? Do you worry about them at all?



Bjornulf



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-03-14 15:18 by bv.

Makes one wonder if virus will pick up steam or strength as it spreads.

Of course, these are different times. In 1918-1920, nearly 100 Million died from the Sanish Flu. Source: Wikipedia.org

More deaths than occurred in the WW1 blood bath circa same time.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-03-14 15:32 by Chris Fountain.

From the BBC live reports this morning:

[www.bbc.com]

11:10

Ventilator production stepped up in Europe

Faisal Islam

BBC economics editor

German and Italy are ramping up production of medical ventilators to meet expected peak epidemic demand. They cost $17,000 each.

According to Reuters, Germany has ordered 10,000 ventilators, Italy has ordered 5,000.

Factories in overdrive in Europe. Italy is getting the army involved in helping the production line.

As far as I’m aware, the UK has one small manufacturer of ventilators that has 40% market share.

Bjornulf

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treaclefingers
Canada's first lady, Sophie Trudeau tests positive. Prime Minister is in isolation:

[ca.news.yahoo.com]

Sorry to be picky, but in Canada the wife of Canada’s Prime Minister is NEVER called the “First Lady”. She’s called the wife of the Prime Minister, just like in Britain.