The COVID-19 stories you need to know on 6 November

The COVID-19 stories you need to know on 6 November: Top stories: Mink cull in Denmark; record case rises in the US; new lockdown in Greece.

The political consequences of the Covid pandemic

The political consequences of the Covid pandemic: The Covid-19 pandemic has had major political consequences. The balancing act of curbing the spread of the virus and re-opening the economy has been a particularly high-profile challenge for policymakers in recent months. This column explore the political costs of (mis-)managing the pandemic. The findings suggest that governments are punished in terms of political approval when Covid-19 infections accelerate, particularly in the absence of effective lockdown measures. Economic indicators, in contrast, do not appear to be strong predictor of political approval rates during this crisis.

A Tale of Two Prescriptions. Pixilated by a pathogen

A Tale of Two Prescriptions. Pixilated by a pathogen:

Imagine you are facing a crisis and there are two prescriptions. 

Prescription 1:

Let life go on, protect the most vulnerable, practice some prudent distancing and heightened attention to hygiene, limit large “superspreader” environments for some time. Let our immune system and ability to medically treat this, both evolve.

 Prescription 2:

This is the prevailing orthodoxy. It is basically shut down the virus by shutting down life as we know it.

For the love of all that is decent, all that is sane, all that is humane can anyone tell us how this can possibly even be a choice? Might we agree to take the only sane medicine here? High time, in fact long overdue, necessary and needed, now.

Lockdown sceptics must be aware of the inevitable third lockdown

Lockdown sceptics must be aware of the inevitable third lockdown: First it was ‘flatten the curve’ (the timeline given for this completion was estimated at two-to-three weeks – all the way back in March), now the rhetoric is ‘control the virus’, whereas in practice, this resembles a carpet bombing tactic to eradicate the virus completely from these shores. ‘If the earth must be scorched to eliminate the disease - so be it’, is the rationale for the sacrifice of ancient civil liberties, along with cancer patients and suicide victims being viewed as nothing but cannon fodder. In a paradoxical equation: to save lives, this Government believes it must subtract its humanity....

When January 2021 arrives, the Government will be monitoring the COVID situation with eagle-eyed intensity. The finger-pointing will begin in earnest, directed at the millions who tried to return to some semblance of normality for the festive season. In addition, any noticeable increase in the COVID death rate may consist of Flu deaths which have been lumped into the total figure because of false-positive tests.

The Government will have their finger on the nuclear button for the third time in less than a year, determined as ever to press it.

 

Four ways Trump has meddled in pandemic science — and why it matters

Four ways Trump has meddled in pandemic science — and why it matters: One issue that resonates with the research community is the extent to which the current president and his administration have meddled with science and scientific advice during the pandemic — often with disastrous results.

Last month, a coronavirus-crisis sub-committee within the US House of Representatives released a report documenting 47 instances in which government scientists had been sidelined or their recommendations altered. And the report notes that the frequency of meddling has been increasing in the lead-up to the US election.

The Pandemic App Ecosystem: 493 Covid-Related iOS Apps across 98 Countries

The Pandemic App Ecosystem: Investigating 493 Covid-Related iOS Apps across 98 Countries | by Jonathan Albright | Oct, 2020 | Medium: Since March, I’ve followed these Covid-related iOS apps closely, compiling an extensive data set representing almost five hundred iOS apps across 98 countries. The data set, containing 493 Covid-related apps to be exact, is derived from the results of iOS app store queries for [Covid] and [Coronavirus] between March 24, 2020 and October 25, 2020.

Pandémie et confinement : et si les politiques se trompaient de stratégie?

Pandémie et confinement : et si les politiques se trompaient de stratégie?  

Combien de médias français ont-ils mentionné la Déclaration de Great Barrington? Combien de Français en ont-ils pris connaissance ? Plus de 11 500 scientifiques et 33 000 médecins du monde entier ont signé le 4 octobre dernier cette déclaration dans laquelle ils affirment que le confinement n’est pas la bonne solution pour se débarrasser du virus (on l’a bien remarqué) et que l’enfermement de la population pourrait causer des dégâts encore plus graves que le virus. Les signataires proposent une « protection ciblée des personnes les plus fragiles ». 

Dans une interview accordée au Wall Street Journal, les co-auteurs (avec Sunetra Gupta, professeur d’épidémiologie à Oxford) de cette déclaration, Martin Kuldorff, médecin et économiste, et Jay Bhattacharya, biostatisticien et épidémiologiste respectivement à Stanford et Harvard, expliquent leur initiative et répondent aux critiques et attaques qu’ils subissent depuis des semaines. Car la campagne médiatique a été systématique contre eux. Même Google a censuré le texte de la déclaration dans les jours qui ont suivi sa publication. Ce qui choque le plus les signataires, c’est la politisation de la pandémie. Si vous êtes pour le confinement, cela signifie que vous êtes de gauche, « progressiste » mais si vous contestez les fermetures, vous êtes forcément un « trumpiste ». Il faudra un enquêteur hors pair pour prouver que les 11 500 scientifiques qui ont signé cette déclaration sont des admirateurs du président américain…