Pi Day

Merry Pi Day!

Wow. Canada totally has a handle on this coronavirus thing.

Oh, wait:

“In the absence of makeshift tent hospitals and the cancellation of all non-urgent admissions and surgeries, a coronavirus pandemic risks exhausting our system’s bed capacity within weeks,” hospital physician Richard Osborne warned in the Toronto Star this week. Late last month, Alan Drummond of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians stressed that many lessons had been learned from the 2003 SARS outbreak. But many Canadian hospitals are already operating at or over capacity, he noted.

A 2017 study modelled the effects of a pandemic on the healthare system in Canadian census metropolitan areas. Without a vaccine available, it estimated minimum peak ICU demand, as a percentage of capacity, at between 31 per cent (in Thunder Bay, Ont.) and at 98 per cent (in Saint Catharine’s, Ont.). It estimated the maximum peak demand in those cities was 78 per cent and 243 per cent of capacity, respectively.

“We can’t function in a mild flu season. What are we going to do if there is a major pandemic?” Drummond asked, warning of the prospect of “rationing … care and doctors making the decision of who lives and dies.”

If Canada escapes COVID-19 relatively unscathed, all this ought to serve as a warning: Canada’s healthcare system should, can and in future may well have to be much better to avoid disaster. That would be something for which to be appropriately grateful — because if the worst should occur, it’s not a warning we will have any opportunity to ignore.

Yes, that's what SARS was for. Instead of using that dreadful experience as a precautionary note,  no one in this country sought develop any meaningful measures to deal with a future experience. Here we are in 2020 and the government that assured everyone that people have nothing to worry about has fled the capital. As of this writing, the death toll in Canada stands at one with one hundred and ninety-eight infected. No flights from hot zones are stopped and the border is unrestricted.

It gets better:

Patients with the new coronavirus keep the pathogen in their respiratory tract for as long as 37 days, a new study found, suggesting they could remain infectious for many weeks.

Oh, good. That and an abundance of stupidity will get people where?:

Canadians in Europe are scrambling to make their way back home as several European countries are restricting traffic, closing borders and suspending international flights in an effort to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

**

What was once an alarming but distant tragedy in China is now, in a slow-to-dawn suddenness most saw coming but didn’t accept, Canadian reality. Or at least the start of what is expected to become reality.

Many Canadians seem stuck in the stage of thinking the most important thing is to hoard toilet paper or else laugh at people hoarding toilet paper.

The reality, however, is sinking in.

No, not really.

You have, in typical Canadian fashion, procrastination and an unwarranted faith in a government so corrupt and incompetent that foreign dictators must be taking notes. Couple this with stupidity and poor planning and you have a fiasco that can only happen to Canadians.


Also:

A recession is coming later this year as the economy is derailed by the impact of COVID-19 and a plunge in oil prices, economists said Friday.

Royal Bank of Canada forecasts the economy will grow at an annualized pace of 0.8 per cent in the first quarter, then contract in the second and third quarters of the year.

RBC is forecasting an annualized decline of 2.5 per cent in the second quarter and 0.8 per cent in the third quarter. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth is considered a recession.

We were in a recession before. The virus has made everything worse.

(Merci)




How are other countries weathering this epidemiological storm?

They aren't:

Iran said Saturday the coronavirus outbreak has killed another 97 people, pushing the death toll in the country to 611, as war-ravaged Syria announced a number of strict measures despite the government saying it has no confirmed cases.

Iran is suffering from the worst outbreak in the Middle East, with 12,729 cases and even senior officials testing positive. It is a close ally of the Syrian government in the civil war, with military advisors as well as Shiite pilgrims frequently travelling between the two countries.

** 

South Korea continued to see a slowdown in the pace of the novel coronavirus spread for the third consecutive day, with the total number of infections coming in at 8,086 Saturday morning, up from 107 from the same time a day earlier. 

**

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have fled Pyongyang for fear of the coronavirus epidemic there.

 

Hey! Just like another dynasty.

 

 

 

 

Kim Jong-Un is a fat b@$#@rd:

 

North Korean authorities are quarantining suspected COVID-19 patients in overpriced accommodations and then passing the bill on to them, demanding that patients pay for their quarantine in full before they are allowed to return to their homes, sources in the country told RFA.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Pyongyang has still not reported a single confirmed case of the disease, but outside experts believe it to be extremely unlikely that the virus is not spreading there. The country has taken extreme measures to limit its spread over the past month, including cancelling large events and locking down entire counties near the Chinese border.

 

But people in the south are trying to outdo him:

 

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification says it’s unrealistic, but liberal lawmakers in Seoul say they have a plan to solve the country’s face mask shortage and thaw inter-Korean relations at the same time.

Ruling Democratic Party (DP) Rep. Woo Won-shik and Justice Party Rep. Youn So-ha on Thursday released a statement calling on Seoul to reopen factories in the Kaesong Industrial Complex with North Korea so that they can be used to produce face masks to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

 

 

 

Oh, you think?: 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "seeking to identify those most responsible" for abuses against DPRK prisoners

 

Many celebrate Women’s History Month. Look at this young North Korean female sentry. How old does she look? #NorthKorean female soldiers usually have to serve at least 5~7 years in the military at the age of 17. The young girl's future looks uneasy. (Getty/Xiaolu Chu, 2016) pic.twitter.com/9nMZMa2gSK

— William Kim 김영권 (@NKMESSENGER) March 10, 2020

 

 

 

 

(Kamsahamnida) 

It's just money:

The Canadian Parliamentary Budget Officer has revealed through a report that the #ShutDownCanada rail blockades cost the Canadian economy $275 million over a few weeks. 

The report cited the VIA Rail layoffs, port disruptions, and the number of passenger trips, as the main sources that particularly affected the economy. They also used similar historical events as a point of reference—such as the 2014 Port of Vancouver trucker strike and the 2008 Ottawa transit strikes.