Coronavirus Pandemic: Apocalypse Now! Or exaggerated scare story?

[loreta]

Context:
Here in São Paulo, Brazil, the biggest state and the economic center of the country, with just over 45 million people, the alleged pandemic is beginning its "harshest moment", according to the state governor, João "worker" Dória. Supposedly, over 200 people are dying each day, while many others require all of the medical resources available of the richest city (and one of the most unequal in the world) in Latin America.

Little story:
I went to my daughter's school yesterday to get her books because the schools (and the parks, libraries, stores, groceries, etc) are going to be closed until our local politicians decide that we the sheeple are really complying with the social distance stuff, because, you see, the last time they checked they noticed that we are short of the 50% goal of social distance.

I had to wear a mask. First time. The school sent an e-mail "asking" all the parents to do so. I didn't want to cause trouble, so I wore one. Terrible experience, I felt short of breath all the time, emotionally isolated from the others. Adding the fact that we at home are so tired of having to work more and also having to take care of our daughter 24/7 (my parents are scared of all this and really believe that they have to be isolated, her parents live too far), I just wanted to get done with that the fastest. It gave me the chills seeing the huge school without any sound, any children playing.

So when I went back home I was feeling quite depressed. On my way, all stores closed, except the market and the drugstore. Then I passed in front of the hairdresser I use to go to. There he was, without a mask, smoking a cigarette, just in front of the shop with the door closed behind him. I felt such a relief, god, people can smoke in the streets yet, without a mask, for the last 30 minutes I thought there was no hope. And now I'm asking for a hair cut, with my voice down, in case someone hears. You know, he's not supposed to work during this crisis. It's not essential. He laughs and tells me that it's okay, he will do it. I felt elated after that, if I had won a lottery ticket.

More context:

Our governor starts his day swearing and provoking our president Jair Messias Bolsonaro. He tells the media that Bolsonaro was stupid and callous, when he said that this whole pandemic was just a "little flu". People are dying, Mr. President, just come over here or go to Manaus (where corpses are being hoarded in containers for lack of space in morgues, the media repeats ad nauseam) to see your beloved subjects suffering and dying, all because of you being such a despicable character not parroting the usual and correct line of "Stay Home. Save lives".

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Bolsonaro (the tropical Trump) fan. But the way the media and the majority of the governors are bashing him all the time is really suspect. They are already giving him for dead. If it were not for the confinement, he'd be impeached now. Or so they say.

Thank you for reading and sharing all this amazing mosaic of facts and observations, guys. It's awesome, this thing called networking. I mean, it really works. Everyone gives a bit and everyone is rewarded with something bigger and brighter, something that shines over our current dystopian reality, exposing our current lesson. Thank you.

Thank you latulipenoire for sharing your story, how important is to know how others live this situation, their insights, their experience. I was very touched.

 

[Aiming]

Yesterday we had the weekly free of charge little regional newspaper in the mailbox. Now guess what. On the last page there's an article with the headline "Conspiracy theorists under surveillance". I've attached the image below, since I couldn't find the article on the internet.

The article talks about a man here in this region, who received a leaflet in his mailbox with the title of "Corona voices of other experts". Apparently, many people have received leaflets in their mailboxes. This man then goes on to find out about the sender, an alternative German website called kla.tv. Plus, he writes to the local newspaper about having received this leaflet and wanting to know their take on it. Oh my... you'll know the result already.

So, this regional newspaper uses all the known terms of 'conspiracy theorists', who 'believe in a deep state' and who talk about "prominent investors in research of virology such as the Bill Gates foundation".

Interestingly, they call the website "kla.tv" a cult (where have we heard of that one before?).

In any case, the article closes with saying that the Bavarian 'Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism' (!) are now in the process of checking the website's content and will then decide about a lawsuit.

Well, just another anecdote.

 

[echo]

This may also be construed as a link:
'WHO Hails Lockdown-Free Sweden as 'Model' for 'New Normal' Despite Gloomy COVID-19 Predictions'

'In the words of WHO leading emergencies expert Dr Mike Ryan, there are “lessons to be learned” from the Scandinavian nation, whose model largely rests on mutual confidence between the authorities and citizens.

“What Sweden has done differently is it has very much relied on its relationship with its citizenry and the ability and willingness of its citizens to implement self-distancing and self-regulate”, Ryan said, as quoted by national broadcaster SVT. “In that sense, they have implemented public policy through that partnership with the population”.
Ryan went on to dispel what he described as a misconception that Sweden “refrained from control measures” and “allowed the disease to spread”. According to Ryan, Sweden “put in place a very strong public policy around social distancing, around caring and protecting people in long-term care facilities”.

WHO Hails Lockdown-Free Sweden as 'Model' for 'New Normal' Despite Gloomy COVID-19 Predictions

While Sweden utilised no lockdowns in its battle against the coronavirus and has already seen more fatalities than its Nordic peers combined, a professor has predicted that the death toll could reach 20,000.

sputniknews.com

Well, I live here and I can confirm that people are following and endorsing these new rules fine. Did I mention this meme that was going around; "Stockholm before/after Covid"? Two pictures showing people social distancing before the Covid-farce came down. I'll see if I can find it, I've only heard about it from a friend. In other words, Swedes are already socially distant to a large extent. We are known for being rather nonchalant and unfriendly compared to other nationalities. It is blamed on the weather (Freezing dark winters) but I'm wondering if it isn't "engineered" somehow also. After all our daycare-system is based on ideas from the Soviet Union. Sorry if this is OT but I feel pretty strongly about since I have a son in daycare. I try to minimize his time there though, but for some kids it's 8-9 hrs/ day. Sad, really.

Swedish daycare: International example or cautionary tale? | Archive of IMFC

www.imfcanada.org

In Soviet Union, Day Care Is the Norm (Published 1974)

Article describes day-care facilities in USSR; compares widespread programs in USSR to newly developing structured day care in US; some Soviet women express astonishment at idea that some Amer women want to stay home to raise children rather than holding jobs and being more independent (M)

www.nytimes.com

 

[Yupo]

There's a book I found very inspiring many years ago: How I found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne. Things are less free now, of course. The philosophy and method is the same. Freedom will cost you, but some of it is achievable. His method is about breaking some chains with cash payments and otherwise carefully staying under the radar. Here are the ideas within:

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne Summary - Nat Eliason

An excellent primer on pursuing more freedom in your life. Very impersonal egoist influenced, and it makes good arguments around honesty, priorities, and the traps that we put ourselves in. One of the few self-help books I'd recommend.

www.nateliason.com

 

[lilies]

The Universe is sending the message to people that Ketogenic Diet is King!
‘No need to generate undue alarm’: Doctors call for calm amid media hype over Covid-19-linked inflammatory syndrome in children

IMO: If you eat sweets = lots of carbs ==> Corona & Co. will get you!!
- Why are children suddenly are getting sick from Corona & Co.??
Well, what do You think these parents of now-suddenly-getting-sick-children, all over the world, are indulging their children with? What do these parents are poisoning their children with??
What did Laura say?:
- Don't give sugar to your kids, because you don't want "the child climbing the walls"!
[IIRC]
Very simple: During Corona.. eat lots of sugar and you die.

I'm appalled how parents are poisoning their kids with deadly diet & toxins-from-store-shelves these days.
Good American parent Exemplars in all Hollywood movies parrot this Big Food Sponsored Ad Sentence with all those kitchen-scenes in the mornings with those bowls, pouring deadly milk into it and pouring the Deadly Dry Corn Flakes from a paper box onto the deadly milk - stirring it with a spoon - that had to be included in movie scripts, because of Very Rich Sponsors:
- Billy?!! Eat you cereal!!!

Well, this virus is here as God's Blessing, teaching people - Russians already are recognizing this:
Unexpected effect? Russians give up booze and sweets as Covid-19 causes healthy lifestyle kick

I think, if you eat sweets during these virus epidemics, you'll exacerbate your symptoms and if you are elderly with a weak physique, weak heart, weak lungs, you might die.
Sugar-filled sugar-stuffed children.. same

So, I think, Covid is giving us the best possible time to switch to Keto or drastically reduce your carb intake!

 

[kenlee]

I know how you feel. Wrath is also one of my sins. Something that's been much easier to work on lately. I can just recommend some of the stuff that helped me put things into perspective. Try to remind yourself why you are here, why you are doing the work. Re-read all of the important references to petty tyrants and the way of the warrior from Castaneda. Re-read the Wave, with a special focus on the STS/STO dynamic. It seems to me that having negative emotions in relation to what's happening is decidedly STS. As Don Juan said, if the warrior doesn't have a petty tyrant in his life, he must go and seek one out. Well, happy times then, aren't they? We have an overabundance of those, and they are getting ever more powerful. As he says, the best petty tyrants are the ones with authority. This is the perfect time to work on one's self-importance and to put all of the attributes of the warrior into practice. It's a great time to be in the Work.

I also am inclined to anger and wrath but I tend to suppress it until it becomes ferocious and explosive. I used to release it in the martial arts and boxing but now I don't get that opportunity due to health issues. For myself I found that there are two aspects to my anger. One is narcissistic and the other is righteous. But in my ordinary, day to day reality they are mixed and left to themselves the two kinds of anger null each other out. The narcissistic anger "eats" the righteous anger until my state of consciousness (in this context) becomes at best, a nullity, and at worse, destructive (for myself).

Two things that has helped me is the BAHA breathing and learning to differentiate the nature of the two types of anger and then (later) diminishing the narcissistic anger (thru breathing and self observation) and just leaving (to a greater degree) the righteous anger and transforming it into action and 'seeing.' But it takes an action of the Will for this and I can only do this in moments. But I think the moments do add up even if it takes a very long time. I think the narcissistic anger in me is totally destructive and really can't be transformed. It must be seen, acknowledged and known via study and it will diminish somewhat on it's own thru shedding light on it via awareness. It has a certain 'taste' to it by which I'm more able to differentiate it from my righteous anger. But I think the energy pattern of the righteous anger is more inclined to the higher, more intellectual parts of our 'centers', and has the seeds within it for it's own transformation which necessitates the power of choice transforming it's energy dynamic into a higher quality of energy to propel me into controlled focused dynamic action and seeing more into the essence of things. But it sure does take takes a LOT of work! Hope I explained this right. FWIW.

 

[Gaby]

So the higher death toll is quite possible without going to outright euthanize people.

Another anecdote which may help clarify. One of my patients was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea just before the lockdown. The appointment with the pneumologist for her treatment was cancelled because of the lockdown. Sleep apnea is a risk factor for heart attacks. Fast forward nearly a couple of months of stress-provoked COVID madness, and she began with angina. Basically, she can have a heart attack any day now. Despite the fact that she went to the ER with heart pain, nobody gave her treatment for it, nor was she derived to the Cardiologist. I took care of it ASAP and after the fact. She will only do better once her sleep apnea is treated though.

Mind boggling medical negligence these days.

@Gaby was sent this from a friend on FB not sure if you have seen it yet.Copy pasted Most of it, full document attached below.

Nice compilation!

 

[Beau]

This drives me almost insane, I want to scream in frustration and to be honest I do break out in rage occasionally. It is all so pointless and stupid but she finds comfort in the ritual and feels it is keeping her safe.

What about talking to her straight up about how you feel and telling her that it's not helping you to do those things and since she gets such satisfaction in that ritual, she can do it and you will not? That seems like a fair middle ground.

 

[anka]

This drives me almost insane, I want to scream in frustration and to be honest I do break out in rage occasionally. It is all so pointless and stupid but she finds comfort in the ritual and feels it is keeping her safe.

What about talking to her straight up about how you feel and telling her that it's not helping you to do those things and since she gets such satisfaction in that ritual, she can do it and you will not? That seems like a fair middle ground.

I had a similar thought on that. In fact, you could (should) try to re-focus her attention towards your relationship. Love between you two is so much more important and if she still has some deep feeling for you, that should help her to ease that stress about corona. I think that women in particular can survive very difficult times once they know they can rely on their partners who (to them) seem to know what to do and how to overcome the situation.

It is a great opportunity for you to be the man and show her that you, as a couple, can handle this together. If she wants to continue her solo drama, she probably will anyway. But if you can explain her that you have investigated the topic thoroughly and you are sure that you two can get through all this and remain of top of things without being hysterical, even be thriving, she might experience a big relief and both you will become a much stronger couple.

If you don't succeed then it is a question whether to continue living in such a non-collinear relationship.

 

[Bluegazer]

Well, now I think it's my turn to rant. A few hours ago I went to my doctor to get my insulin doses. Although the bureaucracy in my country leaves much to be desired, the public health services, even with the economic problems, work. But this quarantine broke everything. They don't have insulin (don't worry, they were able to give it to me in the end), they don't know when they will get it, the provincial government doesn't respond and what they can deliver is thanks to other people's donations. The doctor who takes my medical records took a leave of absence and no one knows when she will return. The one who is impersonating her is just a clinical doctor... Social distance is an absurdity. Just to receive the test strips, you have to sign them in your own handwriting. Before I left home, I couldn't stop showing my face of displeasure for wearing a mask that doesn't help at all... just to hear my mom say: But in Germany they are wearing masks... (As if it was a good example to follow). When the meteors arrive I will celebrate with champagne and lots of bacon.

 

[Mari]

I was listening today a video call from my 4th grade son with his class and his teacher.
The last topic was back to school new rules.

[...me taking a deep breath...]
****
School starts most probably on Thursday, because they still have organisation stuff to do.
They will divide the class in 3 groups, so each group cca. 8 Kids.
Kids have to write until Sunday, 2 friends with whom they want to be in the group. How nice of them....

Now comes the "new normal" stuff:
Each group will have a different teacher assigned and a different meeting point somewhere in/around the school.
The kids will come to that designated place and keep safe distance of 1,5m from each other.
It would be good that kids bring 1,5m stick (!!!) to school until they get a feeling how far they should be from each other.
Then the teacher will say when is the time to go to classes, walking of course on safe distance.
As kid enters the classroom, he has to wash his hands and clean his desk.
The masks are not like mandatory but they should have them. They should have them in clean boxes and keep them with them.
During learning time they won´t wear the mask, so they can easily breathe, but they should have them with them all the time.
***

I mean.... I don´t know what to say....

I don´t know what to do....
I don´t want that my son grows up like that.

My partner and I were talking now to ask the teacher if my kid can be home-schooled, with reasons:
- I´m sooooo scared of the corona
- here in NRW is most cases of corona in whole Germany
- my kid has history of lung issues and allergies
- in school are too many adults with whom he would get in contact and I´m afraid for his wealth-being

I´m prepared to lie my ass out for a greater purpose.... And hope I´m doing the right thing....
This 4th grade is anyway only on paper because it´s actually 3rd grade notes that counts here in Germany for going to secondary school.

So, here you go, with brave new world....

 

[Alejo]

Here's the latest from Tucker Carlson, he seems to be on a roll. it gets better towards the end of the video. Very astute observations about ruling without limits, he even throws in Hillary at some point and shows a clip of her going "This is a crisis that should not be wasted" which is quite the slip I would say.

 

[Ina]

The really difficult part of this whole exercise is when you own family, in this case my wife, have completely bought into the scam. I find it so frustrating having to deal with all the little rituals around shopping. We have groceries delivered, I am not allowed to handle the bags without gloves, I need to wash everything or wipe it down with disinfectant, all boxed items are unboxed and the boxes disposed of, grocery bags are put in a cupboard for 3 days to allow the virus time to die, benches where the bagfs sat must be disinfected, I ned to wash my hands with anti bacterial soap afterwards, the fridge doors are disinfected. This drives me almost insane, I want to scream in frustration and to be honest I do break out in rage occasionally. It is all so pointless and stupid but she finds comfort in the ritual and feels it is keeping her safe. And so sad to see somebody I love dearly and always thought was a smart and discerning person so completely overwhelmed by this complete nonsense. It leaves me with a great feeling of loss.

When the effort of sanitation is at lest a 50-50 split, I suppose it could be bearable for an agreed amount of time and practicality. Otherwise, if it is a top down instruction driven operation it begs some gentle adjustments. How about giving notice for a strike when next supplies are delivered?

 

[Palinurus]

Source: Many coronavirus patients are developing blood clots, Dutch research - DutchNews.nl

Many corona virus patients are developing blood clots, Dutch research

April 30, 2020

It is becoming increasingly clear that corona virus is causing life-threatening complications in some patients, broadcaster NOS said [in Dutch] on Thursday, in report on research by three Dutch hospitals.

The research, involving 184 corona virus patients who spent time on intensive care wards, shows that around half of them developed symptoms of thrombosis – blood clots which impede the flow of blood through the circulatory system.

Doctors world-wide have reported thrombosis as a side effect of corona virus and this research helps show the size of the problem, NOS said.

‘We did not know that so many patients develop thrombosis complications,’ Leiden teaching hospital professor Menno Huisman told NOS. ‘These results have generated surprise around the world. Until now the focus had been on lung infections and their consequences, not thrombosis.’

The research means that doctors can now take action, such as by prescribing higher levels of blood thinners to corona virus patients to reduce the chances of thrombosis-related complications, he said.

Most of the patients were found to have lung embolisms, but a number developed clots in the brain. It was also notable how many clots were found in patients who were not considered to be at risk because they did not have high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol or were smokers, NOS said.

Sent home

Meanwhile, officials say some 7,000 corona virus patients have been discharged from Dutch hospitals since the pandemic took hold – around two-thirds of the total number of people admitted to hospital with the disease.

The discharged patients have an average age of 63 and spend some seven days in hospital, the figures by health foundation Nice [in Dutch] show. A further 1,400 patients have died on ordinary hospital wards – many of whom are over the age of 80 and who were not admitted to intensive care wards after consultation with their families.

Just 20% of intensive care patients have been sent home, and 26% have died in an ICU ward, Nice said.

Similar coverage:
Half of Covid-19 ICU patients form blood clots: study

Research paper:
https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020201544

 

[WIN 52]

I don't know if it's related, but I've noticed that the weather predictions in the last month or so have been erring more than before. For the most part, I've noticed that in the '10 days ahead' predictions they have estimated much warmer temperatures than what has manifested. Has anyone else noticed anything similar?

Long range forecasts use past averaged data
collected as a reference, which quite often means nothing in real time.