The good news about Lockdown and Covid-19 is that it may point the way to decreasing Global warming as pollution levels have dropped significantly on a worldwide because motor vehicle and aircraft emissions have decreased. It is also likely to have an impact on the level of road injuries and deaths that would have resulted in hospital admissions - almost no one is driving. A further positive note is that it may enable the government to start regulating informal settlements where overcrowding results in more health threats than just SARS.
Hmmm. I'm an epidemiologist and a veterinarian who knows about Foot and Mouth Disease and what it did to the UK in 2010 when this sort of message was broadcast by politicians . Covd-19 causes SARS ( Sudden acute respiratory syndrome), which is a horrible death. It is not being confused with elderly people getting pneumonia in the last stages of their lives and passing away. Of course, people with heart conditions and pneumonia die and may be getting Corona when hospitalised. However, those who have SURVIVED are not being counted here - nor their symptoms described. They are also in hospital for days on oxygen. Mild cases are told to recover at home. BUT a high dose of virus can kill younge, healthier people and some of our athletes that have been infeceted are very unlikely to return to their previous health. The Previous SARS outbreak left a lot of people with life long debility. We need to self isolate or go into lockdown
What are your thoughts on Japanese/Swedish/S. Korean/response? I am also hearing that lockdown helps spread the virus - thoughts? I agree with self-isolation/quarantine for sick and vulnerable. Here in SA, our economy WILL go over the abyss. How many will die if we go to 80% unemployment?
With regard to the economy we have a very serious problem, however I do not agree with your estimate of 80% unemployment as you have given no figures to substantiate this. One underestimated economic disaster will be that people cannot pay rent and will default. This is a major source of income in both developed and underdeveloped sectors in South Africa. The informal economy will probably survive this best - they are used to coping with incredible difficulties on a daily basis.
As a veterinarian, I have seen our country's success in surviving animal disease epidemics with severe economic consequences over the last 5 years - Avian Influenza, African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease ( whose draconian regulations in regard to auctions were lifted this month - just before lockdown was announced!!! So no auctions in any case . Maybe you have some ideas for how online auctions of livestock could be accomplished during lockdown!!!
If our economy contracts, unemployment will sky-rocket. Nobody can predict unemployment in the future. I was obviously taking a guess. Informal sector will be WORST hit. If we had closed borders early, then quarantined sick, we would be in better position. WHO stuffed it up. Townships are not locked down anyway. Even now, not seeing any coronavirus-caused deaths yet in SA. Am sure they are coming. Only 50 in hospital. Obviously drastic measures are required, but if you think unemployment won't skyrocket, and that people don't die of unemployment, then you're being naive. How am I meant to know about auctions? Animals aren't vectors? Your link says nothing about Japan. They have 56 currently in hospital. Despite being a neighbour to China. Same deal with Russia. I don't care about global warming. And anybody who owns a car doesn't either.
People don't die of unemployment. In fact, most of the survivors ( including myself) are self employed and have several skills that can bring in sufficient to feed a family and themselves even in really difficult times. Auctions are one of the ways meat gets to your table - farmers have auctions, feedlots buy at auctions, feedlots send animals to abattoirs. Quite a lot of livestock goes to the informal markets via auctions. Winter is coming, some of SA is in a chronic drought situation. Cattle that die on farm will definitely not enter the food chain. If you have your own backyard chickens and or goats in an informal settlement of rural area, you will survive. The super rich can afford expensive meat. They will survive. Cattle farmers wont....
Read about opioid deaths among unemployed in US. Every year more people die of it than all theirs wars from 1950 combined. Unemployment equals poverty equals death. If most jobless employed themselves then we would not have 30% unemployment rate. Not rocket science. Not sure why you keep going on about cattle.
@Cheryl Your kind of emotionally directed propaganda drivel pollutes social media. I doubt your bio is true and if it is you seriously need to go back into education. It is overwhelmingly clear from 2020 that ‘lockdowns’, previously a prison terminology, are utterly useless in preventing a viral pathogen spread, that is quite literally everywhere (it was found in deer in national parks, nowhere near humans habitation).
So go back to school little girl. P.s. How many patients have you attempted to improve their immune system in your practice, I bet like most doctors now, you don’t even know how?
The "darkness at the heart of all this" is the ego's clinging and its inability to accept death. In years gone by the ego was placated by a belief in a variety of fantastical afterlives where the personality/ego/soul could live on forever if it pleased a variety of gods. Now that we are discovering that the personality is a self-clinging construct, which -- like all false things -- ultimately has to fall away, those soothing old beliefs no longer work. We find ourselves terrified. For most, this terror lurks in the Unconscious.
We smother our terror with entertainment, busy-ness, power games, ritual, denial and projection. This outbreak has broken through our defenses and is exposing our collective terror. This is an opportunity to turn inward and learn who you are not. The spotlessness that remains at the core is untouchable. Once it is allowed to shine on the construct that is "you", you no longer have a need to be saved. You want to be spent. The most blissul way of spending ourselves is by pouring out compassion, kindness and understanding into this world driven by craving and ignorance.
You believe Putin/Russian statistics? Watch Russian TV. The poor f*ckers haven't overcome the fact that they lost the cold war. Their propaganda is an insult (to non-Russian's) intelligence.
Hey Chris. Born and raised at your competitive school down the road. Currently live in the states where we are around 12 days into a “lock down”. The devastation caused by the reaction is overwhelming. Your article is fact based yet will be viewed as “totally irresponsible” by the vast majority due to its lack of social conscience. Well done for taking a stand contrary to popular option. Too often fact is ignored in today’s society in favor of popular opinion.
Nearly 18 months down the road, and you have been vindicated Chris!
Sad to be right about this one.
The good news about Lockdown and Covid-19 is that it may point the way to decreasing Global warming as pollution levels have dropped significantly on a worldwide because motor vehicle and aircraft emissions have decreased. It is also likely to have an impact on the level of road injuries and deaths that would have resulted in hospital admissions - almost no one is driving. A further positive note is that it may enable the government to start regulating informal settlements where overcrowding results in more health threats than just SARS.
Hmmm. I'm an epidemiologist and a veterinarian who knows about Foot and Mouth Disease and what it did to the UK in 2010 when this sort of message was broadcast by politicians . Covd-19 causes SARS ( Sudden acute respiratory syndrome), which is a horrible death. It is not being confused with elderly people getting pneumonia in the last stages of their lives and passing away. Of course, people with heart conditions and pneumonia die and may be getting Corona when hospitalised. However, those who have SURVIVED are not being counted here - nor their symptoms described. They are also in hospital for days on oxygen. Mild cases are told to recover at home. BUT a high dose of virus can kill younge, healthier people and some of our athletes that have been infeceted are very unlikely to return to their previous health. The Previous SARS outbreak left a lot of people with life long debility. We need to self isolate or go into lockdown
What are your thoughts on Japanese/Swedish/S. Korean/response? I am also hearing that lockdown helps spread the virus - thoughts? I agree with self-isolation/quarantine for sick and vulnerable. Here in SA, our economy WILL go over the abyss. How many will die if we go to 80% unemployment?
With regard to the economy we have a very serious problem, however I do not agree with your estimate of 80% unemployment as you have given no figures to substantiate this. One underestimated economic disaster will be that people cannot pay rent and will default. This is a major source of income in both developed and underdeveloped sectors in South Africa. The informal economy will probably survive this best - they are used to coping with incredible difficulties on a daily basis.
In Sweden, their guidelines are also in line with those of the WHO , but voluntary. Japan's death toll has just started accelerating (https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/412880/lockdown-what-lockdown-sweden-s-unusual-response-to-coronavirus).
Korea is using test, treat and quarantine; which is the optimal response with 376000 people having been tested. I wish it had been possible in the rest of the world. In South Africa we do not , even now, have enough test kits to monitor our population. Another problem is the large proportion of undocumented people (https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/high-number-of-undocumented-immigrants-untenable-committee-on-home-affairs-20190806).
As a veterinarian, I have seen our country's success in surviving animal disease epidemics with severe economic consequences over the last 5 years - Avian Influenza, African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease ( whose draconian regulations in regard to auctions were lifted this month - just before lockdown was announced!!! So no auctions in any case . Maybe you have some ideas for how online auctions of livestock could be accomplished during lockdown!!!
If our economy contracts, unemployment will sky-rocket. Nobody can predict unemployment in the future. I was obviously taking a guess. Informal sector will be WORST hit. If we had closed borders early, then quarantined sick, we would be in better position. WHO stuffed it up. Townships are not locked down anyway. Even now, not seeing any coronavirus-caused deaths yet in SA. Am sure they are coming. Only 50 in hospital. Obviously drastic measures are required, but if you think unemployment won't skyrocket, and that people don't die of unemployment, then you're being naive. How am I meant to know about auctions? Animals aren't vectors? Your link says nothing about Japan. They have 56 currently in hospital. Despite being a neighbour to China. Same deal with Russia. I don't care about global warming. And anybody who owns a car doesn't either.
People don't die of unemployment. In fact, most of the survivors ( including myself) are self employed and have several skills that can bring in sufficient to feed a family and themselves even in really difficult times. Auctions are one of the ways meat gets to your table - farmers have auctions, feedlots buy at auctions, feedlots send animals to abattoirs. Quite a lot of livestock goes to the informal markets via auctions. Winter is coming, some of SA is in a chronic drought situation. Cattle that die on farm will definitely not enter the food chain. If you have your own backyard chickens and or goats in an informal settlement of rural area, you will survive. The super rich can afford expensive meat. They will survive. Cattle farmers wont....
Read about opioid deaths among unemployed in US. Every year more people die of it than all theirs wars from 1950 combined. Unemployment equals poverty equals death. If most jobless employed themselves then we would not have 30% unemployment rate. Not rocket science. Not sure why you keep going on about cattle.
What? OF COURSE PEOPLE DIE OF UNEMPLOYMENT. Poverty correlates VERY HIGHLY with increased morbidity in every area.
@Cheryl Your kind of emotionally directed propaganda drivel pollutes social media. I doubt your bio is true and if it is you seriously need to go back into education. It is overwhelmingly clear from 2020 that ‘lockdowns’, previously a prison terminology, are utterly useless in preventing a viral pathogen spread, that is quite literally everywhere (it was found in deer in national parks, nowhere near humans habitation).
The All Cause Mortality Rates in European countries, has not significantly increased in 2020 in lockdown or not-lockdown, although lockdown has caused unnecessary deaths. (https://hectordrummond.com/2021/03/05/sweden-is-a-success-story-and-the-rest-of-the-world-should-emulate-it/)
And beyond all that, sars-cov2 has a infection fatality rate of just 0.05% in under 70’s (Iaonnidis, 2020), same as the common flu. https://www.who.int/bulletin/online_first/BLT.20.265892.pdf
Oh, and we all have natural immunity already. Many of the deaths attributed to CV are just bad medical practice. https://rumble.com/vjow2d-proof-that-puts-an-end-to-the-sars-cov-2-narrative-professor-sucharit-bhakd.html
So go back to school little girl. P.s. How many patients have you attempted to improve their immune system in your practice, I bet like most doctors now, you don’t even know how?
The "darkness at the heart of all this" is the ego's clinging and its inability to accept death. In years gone by the ego was placated by a belief in a variety of fantastical afterlives where the personality/ego/soul could live on forever if it pleased a variety of gods. Now that we are discovering that the personality is a self-clinging construct, which -- like all false things -- ultimately has to fall away, those soothing old beliefs no longer work. We find ourselves terrified. For most, this terror lurks in the Unconscious.
We smother our terror with entertainment, busy-ness, power games, ritual, denial and projection. This outbreak has broken through our defenses and is exposing our collective terror. This is an opportunity to turn inward and learn who you are not. The spotlessness that remains at the core is untouchable. Once it is allowed to shine on the construct that is "you", you no longer have a need to be saved. You want to be spent. The most blissul way of spending ourselves is by pouring out compassion, kindness and understanding into this world driven by craving and ignorance.
Sounds like Brave New World. Gods? Or God?
All constructs of god/God contained in the world's 4,300 religions, whom each adherent professes to be the one true one.
"God is greater than God." - Meister Eckhart
Brilliant, thank you
Thank you, I will share this far and wide. Scary how quickly the sheeple can have their personal liberties revoked. Fear of the inevitable!
You believe Putin/Russian statistics? Watch Russian TV. The poor f*ckers haven't overcome the fact that they lost the cold war. Their propaganda is an insult (to non-Russian's) intelligence.
I think the vast number of NGOs there precludes too much fake data. SA is an open democracy and our first two deaths reported were both LIES.
Hey Chris. Born and raised at your competitive school down the road. Currently live in the states where we are around 12 days into a “lock down”. The devastation caused by the reaction is overwhelming. Your article is fact based yet will be viewed as “totally irresponsible” by the vast majority due to its lack of social conscience. Well done for taking a stand contrary to popular option. Too often fact is ignored in today’s society in favor of popular opinion.
I couldn't agree more Chris...thanks for your informative, intelligent and well-written articles