Coronavirus Special Coverage

A collection of news posted throughout the week for those that want signal, not noise.

  • Previous coverage - all of our posts in this ongoing series.
  • Coronavirus status page - learn how to prepare for possible spread to your area. Scenarios, shopping lists, background info and everything else you need, all in one place.

COVID-19: key developments for Wednesday, May 13, 2020

There are more than 4.4 million global cases.  The world gained over 83,000 new cases since yesterday. 19,000 of those new cases were in the US. The US has over 1.4 million cases. There have been over 1,600 deaths in the US in the last 24 hours. New cases and number of daily deaths appear to be on the decline in the US, primarily in NY state. States we worried about previously aren’t doing so bad, but others are now on the radar.

Can we beat the virus and reopen more safely by using an alternating work/school schedule? Go in for four days, stay home for ten. Rinse and repeat. Even if asymptomatic spreaders are present, the pattern would put you in isolation before you could become infective. It’s a sharp idea. But is it feasible? Would schools and workplaces allow it and enforce it?

One simple trick to avoid coronavirus—coronavirus hates it! Masks. It’s masks. And social distancing.

This public health crisis has become politicized, as many things have been in the US, and people are getting violent. Enforcing mask-wearing and social distancing is getting increasingly difficult and dangerous.

China is drastically decreasing beef imports from Australia in row over Australia’s push to investigate the origins of the pandemic virus outbreak.

There’s lots of choice meat out there, but it’s specialty meat and it’s expensive. Grass-fed meats, organic meats, and meats you don’t commonly buy are plentiful. Meanwhile, US meat producers are shipping more and more meat overseas. What gives? To paraphrase The Prepared contributor Josh Centers, what we’re facing in the US is not a meat shortage, but a meat processing shortage. We’ve got plenty of animals, but with processing plants badly impacted, exporting is the only option we have besides wasteful mass culling. It’s not just the US that’s having this problem. Meat processing plants are struggling around the world.

The darkest winter in modern history?” Dr. Rick Bright plans to issue a warning to Congress. He also plans to call for increased public health education and increased production of medical and essential equipment.

Speaking loudly for one minute generates huge numbers of virus-containing droplets that can stay in the air for up to 8 minutes:

Germany’s cases triple. Has their second wave begun? Germany began lifting lockdowns 6 days ago.

Once again, there are concerns that this may become endemic:

“The new normal” is more bizarre and dystopian than I can stomach:

Many would agree that public health risks to children during a pandemic are unacceptable. So the question is, what do you do about it? Denounce the recognition of the problem, or address the problem itself? I guess it depends on the severity of the problem. Now some would argue that quantifying the severity of the problem would be a good starting point…


  • 0 Comments