Coronavirus - What Happened?

THAT is funny!!!

Chris, this one is for you.

there has been a lot of controversy how in the US Trump is trying to get restrictions lifted by May 1, and some such as Dr. Fauci are saying that that is premature.

We here in Canada have issues between the provinces and federal government as to the same question, as this article describes:

Also in, Trump is now threatening to halt funding for the World Health Organization, saying that they didn’t alert the world soon enough to mitigate properly Covidl-19 effects.

I know that early on, I think in January if I am correct, they declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. After the virus started appearing in significant case amounts elsewhere, they declared a public health emergency.

Was Trump in these initial instances chomping at the bit to take heavy action?

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Oh no no - they’ve got blood on their hands as they’ve been helping China in the coverup , falsely claiming that there’s no conclusive proof of human-to-human transmission despite knowing otherwise.

Also, they pretty much ignored Taiwan.

Nope. He banned flights from China to pander to his base and that was it. Yellow peril and all that.

Now he and his acolytes are attacking the WHO in order to distract from his complete inaction (except the travel ban) in January and February and tweets such as these:

image

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Lol

Why should the US foot so much of the WHO’s bill?

I think of the WHO as a charity which also helps the USA. But it’s main goal is to help 3rd world countries. If the WHO is defunded, there better be another organization out there that will do an equal or better job of identifying and mitigating the next pandemic and/or infectious disease outbreaks. Otherwise we just shot ourself in the foot.

Defunding the WHO in the teeth of a historic pandemic is terrible timing. I hope it doesn’t have dire consequences. They may not be as good as they claim, but they sure are better than the next option… Which as far as I know, is nothing. With hindsight, 2013 would have been a great year to defund. With forsight, 2021 would be a good year to defund. But not 2020- the year of the CV pandemic.

I just heard a few seconds ago on CBC front burner that the WHO praised China’s efforts in order to placate them so that they would cooperate internationally.

Agree, the timing is bad. I still don’t understand why we have to provide the majority of the funding.

Well the general idea is that if people have to die from a blood boiling flesh putrefying virus it’s better if they do it on the banks of the river Ebola where it’s endemic and not on the streets of NYC.

That’s the general idea in theory behind a global response to a pandemic - address it at the source, something that emphatically hasn’t been done with Covid-19.

Oceans and walls cannot protect you, as the Spanish Flu and Covid-19 have shown.

We are the biggest, richest country that gives a shit about humans. Pretty simple. We also benefit the most from a healthy, thriving world. Chinese people will weather sickness, hardship and shit conditions a lot better than soft, fat Americans will. And the Chinese govt knows that, and will exploit that.

Also, not everything needs to be an economic cost/benefit analysis. Especially with humanitarian programs, which the WHO absolutely is.

Do you agree, or disagree that there needs to be a neutral organization which focuses on worldwide health like the WHO does? Regardless of how it is run, do you think the idea of a WHO is a good/neccessary organization?

In an ever-shrinking globalized world, why is the US footing the majority of the bill? Why isn’t the EU or China or private organizations? Why aren’t they at least funding at the same level?

It’s not really that simple. We pick and choose what humans we ā€œgive a shit aboutā€ and often when we give a shit as well.

So we’re being exploited?

Gonna have to disagree. If my tax dollars are funding an organization I want to know if they’re worth the money. The WHO might be, I’m not arguing either way.

We know people take advantage of hardship. People immediately started mass buying masks, soap, disinfectants, etc… to resell at a premium.

It is as important if not more so to make sure an organization is using donated money for the good of their purpose when it’s humanitarian in nature, imo.

Does there need to be one? No, I don’t think there needs to be one. Is it a good idea to have one, assuming they’re actually neutral, yes I think so. I certainly don’t have a problem with an organization like the WHO existing especially if it’s privately funded, but I’m also fine with it being taxpayers subsidized if they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

I just don’t understand why, yet again, the US is funding an organization designed to impact global issues more so than all the other countries involved. Particularly China moving forward considering this did originate on their soil.

The idea is good, in the sense that an organization like the WHO will presumably catch, stop, or mitigate the spread of an epidemic/pandemic, but I’d say how it is run is pretty important in being ā€œgoodā€ in this context. Perhaps they are, but the WHO should be held accountable for their efforts (audited annually at a minimum).

I agree America is being exploited. But it’s our own fault. Our lowest acceptable level of health, living, safety, etc is waaaay higher than the Chinese people’s, so we foot the extra bill to raise the standard. It’s not fair, but it is in our interest to pay more.

Similarly, I do the large majority of the dishes in my house because my fiance just isn’t a tidy person, but it really bothers me to live/cook in a messy house. It’s not worth it to fight about it everytime, and if I stop doing dishes she is perfectly happy to let dishes pile up indefinitely.

I hope cutting the WHO funding is a scare tactic to get them to make changes to get their shit together, and we resume funding shortly.

I wonder what the reason was for the apparent ineptitude of the WHO early on in the CV saga. Maybe we tie resumption of funding to a self report/analysis of what went wrong, and changes to implement.

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The only country(with believable stats) that has had 0 cases this week…

ISN’T A MEMBER OF THE WHO.

lmfao

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0_o

Nothing huge in Germany for a long while. If I remember right they quickly banned meetings of over two people?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/coronavirus-sports-cancellations/a-52569936

4 confirmed cases in Hong Kong.

All imported.

Hong Kong and Taiwan have learnt 2 things in the couple of decades.

  1. Don’t trust China.
  2. Don’t trust your own government to not fuck things up.
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Thanks! I was wondering what they decided to pick for the antigen and if they had a specific strategy in mind. I find it interesting that they decided to adapt from MERS instead of SARS, which I would have guessed based on genome homology.

Tons of unknowns here. I wish them the best! Vaccine development is tricky at the best of times.

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