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solarbirdCOVID-19 is still very real. If we don't get lucky - if outdoor groups fail to spread the disease like indoor grouping does, and there are legitimate reasons to hope it doesn't - then we're in for a genuinely massive surge of cases starting, well, any day now.
Let's hope we get very, very lucky.
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As coronavirus deaths in Brazil surge, Bolsonaro limits the release of data
By Terrence McCoy
June 7, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/coronavirus-brazil-bolsonaro-official-death-count-case/2020/06/07/73a713f4-a8cf-11ea-a9d9-a81c1a491c52_story.html
RIO DE JANEIRO — As Brazil posts some of the highest daily coronavirus death totals in the world, President Jair Bolsonaro is reducing the amount of data his government is releasing to the public.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country’s Health Ministry has maintained detailed and robust data on the spread and reach of the disease that has now officially infected more than 672,000 people here and killed nearly 36,000. But that information disappeared from a government website on Saturday, to be replaced by a daily tally that shows only the numbers from the previous 24 hours.
The sudden removal of the cumulative data touched off an avalanche of criticism as people in cities returned to their balconies to bang pots and detractors suggested the federal government was trying to obscure the gravity of a public health crisis it has done little to address. President Jair Bolsonaro, who continues to dismiss the disease even as it maims his country, has repeatedly questioned the accuracy of the data and grown increasingly assertive in his efforts to restrict access to it.
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Protesters Must “Pick Their Pandemic”
Marching in a huge crowd is risky, but so is being a young black man in America.
By Mary Harris
June 08, 2020
https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/protests-pandemic-covid-coronavirus-risk.html
Dr. Howard Markel studies the history of medicine at the University of Michigan and is one of the scientists who came up with the idea of social distancing. I wanted to talk to Markel because it seems like his big idea for squashing a pandemic is coming to a dramatic end as states are reopening and thousands and thousands of protesters are filling the streets. Markel supports the protests against police brutality triggered by George Floyd’s death and respects the centrality of this cause. He calls racism and police violence a pandemic, as sinister as any virus. But he worries about these crowds.
On Monday’s episode of What Next, I spoke with Markel about what these protests could mean for the pandemic and what history can tell us about what might come next. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Let's hope we get very, very lucky.
- As coronavirus deaths in Brazil surge, Bolsonaro limits the release of data
- Protesters Must “Pick Their Pandemic”
----- 1 -----
As coronavirus deaths in Brazil surge, Bolsonaro limits the release of data
By Terrence McCoy
June 7, 2020 at 1:13 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/coronavirus-brazil-bolsonaro-official-death-count-case/2020/06/07/73a713f4-a8cf-11ea-a9d9-a81c1a491c52_story.html
RIO DE JANEIRO — As Brazil posts some of the highest daily coronavirus death totals in the world, President Jair Bolsonaro is reducing the amount of data his government is releasing to the public.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country’s Health Ministry has maintained detailed and robust data on the spread and reach of the disease that has now officially infected more than 672,000 people here and killed nearly 36,000. But that information disappeared from a government website on Saturday, to be replaced by a daily tally that shows only the numbers from the previous 24 hours.
The sudden removal of the cumulative data touched off an avalanche of criticism as people in cities returned to their balconies to bang pots and detractors suggested the federal government was trying to obscure the gravity of a public health crisis it has done little to address. President Jair Bolsonaro, who continues to dismiss the disease even as it maims his country, has repeatedly questioned the accuracy of the data and grown increasingly assertive in his efforts to restrict access to it.
----- 2 -----
Protesters Must “Pick Their Pandemic”
Marching in a huge crowd is risky, but so is being a young black man in America.
By Mary Harris
June 08, 2020
https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/protests-pandemic-covid-coronavirus-risk.html
Dr. Howard Markel studies the history of medicine at the University of Michigan and is one of the scientists who came up with the idea of social distancing. I wanted to talk to Markel because it seems like his big idea for squashing a pandemic is coming to a dramatic end as states are reopening and thousands and thousands of protesters are filling the streets. Markel supports the protests against police brutality triggered by George Floyd’s death and respects the centrality of this cause. He calls racism and police violence a pandemic, as sinister as any virus. But he worries about these crowds.
On Monday’s episode of What Next, I spoke with Markel about what these protests could mean for the pandemic and what history can tell us about what might come next. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
On a related theme
Date: 2020-06-08 10:23 pm (UTC)https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-10-coronavirus-ontario-june-8-stage-2-reopening-1.5602779
At the federal level:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-families-border-1.5602988