Not official news, but they are basically reporters in their countries for Asian Boss, so I believe they offer valid information for the situation in their countries.
I am now officially less worried about the corona-virus and more worried about the cranial damage that I might incur from all the facepalms due to the conspiracies surrounding the virus:
www.cbc.ca/news/technology/fact-check-viral-video-coronavirus-1.5506595
Youtube pulled the video down, but it is the internet, so it survives in other mediums.
Forget the masks, invest in crash helmets 
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
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Yesterday I saw people dropping off food in from of the quarantined building.
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No, but it’s a bit funny if someone doesn’t take a pandemic seriously at first, and even thinks it might be a good idea to just let people die, but then he gets infected himself.
However, now I feel genuinely sorry for BoJo and also even more for his fiancé.
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Thanks for posting this @Vsotvep ( https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/ ).
I noticed that the plots for Sri Lanka and Vietnam look quite interesting. I don’t know much about Sri Lanka, but in Vietnam, people have been wearing masks since the beginning of the pandemic, and this song getting “viral” probably also helped.
Also, I’ve been following these plots recently: http://www.dkriesel.com/en/corona
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Pretty funny dude.
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In the meantime, in Italy a group of 1200 amateur musicians inscribed to the Rockin’1000 group made this:
Really nice. Especially the choice of the song (an Italian success of Max Gazzè, “Una musica può fare”) it seems appropriate for the period.
I don’t know how many of you know Rockin’1000. Several live performances already done in Italy (and not only). This time an incredible remote session.
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It’s a very catchy song, I think I’ll make it my quarantine anthem. 
(I couldn’t find a good translation of the lyrics, I hope it doesn’t say “puppies suck, do the Tide pod challenge, YOLO” )
I can’t tell if it offers a useful perspective tho.
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It is not easy to translate because it is made by short sentences that leave the rest to your imaginatoin. Let me try:
Lyrics "Una musica può fare" (A music can do)
A music can do
singing lilillì or lalallà (maggiore)
A music can do
changing nininnì or nanannà
A music can do
Where are you doing? Don’t you want me? Stay with me.
A music can do
What are you doing? Don’t you want me? It is the same
A music can do
Saving you on edge of the precipice
You can’t complain about it!
A music can do
Sleeping babies during the day
A music can do
Awake babies in the night
A music can do
Loneliness spent making something to eat
Loneliness spent making you fell in love
Under the wardrobe (with the radio)
Under the wardrobe (with the radio)
Under the wardrobe
A music can do
Loving only words
A music can do
Talking only about love
A music can do
A music can do
Saving you on edge of the precipice
What the music can do!
Saving you on edge of the precipice
You can’t complain about it!
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Huge thanks and it’s also my new ringtone from now on.
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I saw it and dismissed it as fake. It’s not, then?.. That’s sad.
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If only one month ago someone had told us that this would have been possible we would have said that it was a fake news of conspiracy theorists.
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Has anyone in the USA experienced going to a food assistance place, or other aid station? I’ve been seeing stuff on the news about the long lineups, and none of them specifically mentioned any transmission precautions. They were wearing masks and gloves in the video / pictures, but who knows how long they had been wearing them for.
I also see reports of long lineups in front of Walmar and other stores, which brek social distancing practices. Can anyone speak about that too?
I’d also like to hear about any generic stuff Americans see happening. I mostly want to understand why the USA is doing so badly, and I’m currentl ynot sure if people there are actually following any guidelines or taking any precautions.
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I’m on the board of my local Salvation Army chapter. We distributed 175 food boxes to the community today. The workers and volunteers all wore gloves. But use of masks was selective, and they didn’t really social distance from each other. I didn’t see any lineups at today’s distribution. Some organization did give my particular county an F for social distancing. That said, we’ve only seen 3 deaths so far.
As for why the U.S. is doing badly, I’m not convinced that it is. You have to remember that the U.S. is a vast country. And the bulk of the U.S. response has come from state governments (for better or for worse). As a result, there’s huge disparities in case and death rates depending on where you are. Here in California the numbers are pretty good, thanks to car culture and good governance at the top. New York is having a rough time because it’s a densely packed city where people rely on the subway for transportation, and there were still packed subway cars through April from what I understand. New Jersey and Connecticut are doing badly for the same reasons. Michigan also relies on public transportation. Louisiana is doing badly in part because of Mardi Gras in late February. I think that most other states are doing comparatively well.
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Thanks.
Because of the inubation time and time to death/serious symptoms, you need to wait 7-14 days before you can compare with how many die. “Only 3 deaths” is only in relation to how things were for you 2 weeks ago.
Can you give any specifics on how the food was handled / transfered to the person / vehicle?
Was there any guidance given on how it should be done? If so, were directions followed properly?
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Gloved workers packed food into boxes. They then loaded all the boxes into a truck and unloaded them onto wood pallets at location. People would then take a box or have a worker load it into their vehicle. I can’t say more because I wasn’t there today.
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I don’t have any experience with respect to the food assistance, but I can describe a bit about what it is like with retail and general life in my part of the Northeast United States.
I am in Massachusetts in the Greater Boston area.
The implementation of social distancing measures have been a bit scattered and disorganized in this state. Days to weeks before state-wide orders and advisories from the governor, various measures began to come into effect at the local level (by cities/towns and case-by-case across businesses). Businesses began to advise employees to work from home, and various towns began to shut their schools. Only later, did the governor order statewide for schools and non-essential businesses to close, and eventually to put into a place a stay-at-home advisory. Note: many states across the US have put into place a stay-at-home (or “shelter-in-place”) order, which means that it is backed up by legal enforcement that could impose fines (or maybe even arrest) for violations.
However, Massachusetts is somewhat peculiar in that it is only strongly recommended. However, some cities and towns are implementing stricter measures at the local-level. For example, I believe Boston now has an advisor curfew and Chelsea (a city adjacent to Boston) has recently declared shelter-in-place order since it is experiencing a very high amount of cases.
As for grocery stores and other essential retail (like home supplies, pharmacies), the implementation of social distancing protocols have been haphazard. A big problem has been the crowding at grocery stores, and only very recently have their been more orders to practice better social distancing (like limiting the number of customers, requiring people to queue with adequate spacing, police to help oversee the application of the rules). I think each day, there have been various, little piecemeal measures (like closing deli counters to avoid a waiting crowd) as we try to figure out how to better do social distancing.
Here is what it looks like at Market Basket (a popular high-volume, low-price grocery store chain local to this area):
Some stores are offering curbside pickup. I just picked up an order at Target (a general home supplies retailer with some groceries) tonight, and the employee just comes to bring your order and put it in your trunk. They even scanned the bar code on my phone app through the closed driver-side window. However, it is still possible to simply walk into the store and shop like normal. I’m not sure what the measures are like in the store. However, I’ll note that the employee that came out to my car tonight had no PPE on (no gloves or mask). I hear that a lot of places are not doing a good job of providing PPE to their employees. While I was there, that employee also had to talk to another customer at her car (I guess there was an issue with her order), and they simply talked with the window rolled down, neither wearing a face mask, and with their faces within a couple feet of each other.
Overall, I don’t think we’re doing a great job with respect to social distancing measures. I think people staying at home and trying to be more careful is helping, but I think it remains to be seen how effective we can be toward quickly flattening the curve.
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