[mjn.mixael]

New daily cases in Italy have been slowly but steadily increasing for days, and today we had 845 new daily cases, the highest increment since 16th May.
Now I think it can be certainly said that we are in the 2nd wave too 

Moreover, the number of people wearing masks is steadily decreasing. I have a bad feeling about this

Those are rookie numbers... here in the US we haven't even finished with the first wave yet.

[Mobius]

Alright, it's not my intention to discourage anyone here, but the "second Covid-19 wave" feeling is growing and spreading. Infection rates are on the rise again, and levels are comparable to those seen in early March. I hear of events being cancelled left and right, and while a new lockdown doesn't quite seem a possibility, I believe we'll have more restrictions in place very soon.

Oh, and schools are supposed to open in two weeks. They probably will, but we have no idea how. Many older teachers are asking for special sick leaves.

[starlord]

I’m more concerned about the growing anti masks sentiments and protestations in Europe. It seems the US example on why people being stupid is a bad thing society wise will fall on death ears.

[Grizzly]

Dutch are def. down to that whole "second wave thing" now.

I hate it.

[Mobius]

I vaguely understand the language, but it seems that the screened-to-positive ratio has escalated. It's the opposite of what's occurring over here, where the number of tests has increased quite a lot, yet the ratio is much lower compared to that experienced during the first wave. Nevertheless, the situation is tense and some of the restrictions should be enforced, IMO.

[Grizzly]

There's no ratios there mind, only absolute numbers.

They are terrifying either way./

[Scourge of Ages]

Maaaaan, I really liked The Netherlands when I was there, I was hoping that they'd be one of the smarter nations to handle this. Just keep doing your part, you'll get through this eventually.

[Grizzly]

It's not been one of the smarter nations I think. Our government is mainly trying to avoid a full lockdown, but it seems like they are merely delaying the inevetable.

[qazwsx]

https://dangoodspeed.com/covid/total-cases-since-june
So the US case rate has become extremely partisan

[mjn.mixael]

Imschocked.gif

[Scourge of Ages]

Imschocked.gif

got ya, bud:

[Whitelight]

Whew... i didn`t see pennsylvaina in that list.

[Lorric]

https://dangoodspeed.com/covid/total-cases-since-june
So the US case rate has become extremely partisan

That's interesting. So we may get to see who was right in the long run, the Democrat view leaning more towards prioritising saving more lives from the virus, or the Republican view leaning more towards thinking that it will do more harm in the long run if you don't open up the economy.

[Grizzly]

That assumes that the laissez-faire approach of the Republicans isn't harming the economy either way. Or that this little morbid experiment isn't having cross-state consequences, which it sadly does (hell, it has global consequences). Or that the value of a human life can be equated with a certain level of economic growth.

There's been plenty of countries that were able to open up their economies again a long time ago simply becuase their approach meant no more covid cases. The US has been struggling with deaths continuously. Unless states are suddenly allowed to bar travel from one-another, any state that is slacking on its response is a risk to the states that are trying to do the right thing. And all the money in the world isn't going to bring back loved ones, those who died in isolation and who had to have their funerals with about 2 people because no one wants to suffer the same fate.

And if everyone had locked down properly, there wouldn't be a second wave. There wouldn't be a massive amount of cases in that top-10 list since the virus had already been locked down at the source. Every single virus case that is happening across the globe is an argument in favour of those who argued for full lockdowns.

[The E]

I think it's pretty clear which strategies are working and which ones aren't. Countries with strong social safety nets, where people are free to visit their doctors and where losing a job (or even just having hours cut or something) isn't an immediate life-threatening crisis are doing better, economically, than countries like the US. Preserving people, and making sure that jobs are preserved as much as possible using state subsidies, is just working better than shrugging and hoping for the best.

[Grizzly]

Take a look at South Korea. 24000 cases, 400 deaths, due to massive, co-ordinated testing and lockdowns when neccesary.What is the economic impact of the policies that South Korea took?

The economy of South Korea is forecast to grow 1.9%, which is down from 2.1%.

Oh.

[The E]

Here in Germany, our current predictions show an economic contraction - but one that is only half as bad as originally projected, and with a path to recovery that will have us at pre-covid levels in a year (however, do bear in mind that we are currently deep in a second wave, with new infection numbers at least on paper being as high as they were in April; there's a chance that this looks worse than it is because our testing infrastructure is better now than it was back then, but it's still a worrying sign)

[Grizzly]

Germany is still doing a whole lot better then the Netherlands in that regard. Germany's testing was already far better then the Dutch testing procedure when this whole thing went down, and ours hasn't improved much thanks to some stubborness and nepotism amongst the people in charge of handling the outbreak.

[perihelion]

At least you don't live somewhere everyone has decided they don't need masks anymore because "the numbers are down."  Some school districts have even announced that they are not going to support remote learning after the end of this six weeks.  My kids' district hasn't done that yet, but unless something drastic happens, I'm either going to have to pull them out of school or send them back to face-to-face teaching beginning of next year.  The principal has been sending "encouraging pictures" of the kids that have come back to face-to-face classrooms.  Yes, the kids are wearing masks, but they are less than 1-foot from mouth-to-mouth, and they are holding hands!  And the principal sends these photos out as if to see, "Look how well we're social distancing!"

Everyone around here is acting like "it's almost over!"

It's not even close to "almost over."  I have to physically fight the urge to scream, and my wife's panic attacks have started again full force.

[Grizzly]

Turns out the dutch prime minister agrees with my critique of the dutch prime minister.