News COVID-19 pandemic

[Urwumpe]

France is asking the German army for helicopters to transport infected people into hospitals with free capacity.

---------- Post added at 15:20 ---------- Previous post was at 15:13 ----------

The lack of any sort of European response is a shame, but I'm not surprised given past examples.

The funny part is, that this isn't even the whole truth. The European Civil Protection mechanism did work this year for China (it also is available for non-european countries in distress), but so far fails to do anything meaningful for Italy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direc...il_Protection_and_Humanitarian_Aid_Operations

At the same time, the EU Commission had invested 50 million out of their own budget to provide support to Italy, because nobody reacted on the call for help via the ECPM.

I can only explain this with two possibly hypotheses:

1. Italy is not asking for the proper help and even with people trying to help, the relief is not getting ahead inside Italy.
2. The ECPM can't get the requested resources easier than the member states can.

For example, among the problems, a large number of supplies with destination Italy disappeared under strange circumstances in Czech Republic.

 

[Quick_Nick]

This is quite possibly an underestimate to be corrected later, but the weekly unemployment numbers are out and they are unprecedented.

States are also reporting individually, for example Louisiana with a 32x increase.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/26/weekly-jobless-claims.html

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Sunhillow]

This is quite possibly an underestimate to be corrected later, but the weekly unemployment numbers are out and they are unprecedented.

Your graph shows the paradigm for un-braked capitalism and neo-liberalism. No protection at all for many employees leads to immediate job cuts as soon as there comes a crisis. Shouldn't this be worth to be rethought? Of course not by the government currently in power, but maybe the following one will to things better!

 

[Notebook]

Summary
Some 3.3m Americans filed jobless claims last week - more than four times the previous record
The figure was released after the US Senate passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill, including $1,200 for most adults
Confirmed cases in the US near 70,000, with at least 1,050 deaths
Deaths surge by 655 in Spain, taking total to nearly 4,100
UK deaths rise to 465, out of 9,500 confirmed cases
Financial support for the UK's self-employed is due to be unveiled
Although infections are slowing in Italy, deaths are rising in the poorer south

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-52044452

 

[Urwumpe]

This is quite possibly an underestimate to be corrected later, but the weekly unemployment numbers are out and they are unprecedented.

Just to not assume to much here - is there anything like "reduced working hours" in the USA?

 

[insanity]

I said something similar to this upthread and I'll say it again: we're seeing the power of pandemics to lay bare the ills of our society. The lack of a suitable check on capital concerns is accelerating the worst outcomes in the US. The misplaced notion of American exceptionalism has left us wholly unprepared to reckon with how to prepare for this. Our celebrity culture has granted power to a band of reckless idiots whose only strategy to solve any crisis is prayer.

For my own part, it's been worth using this time to reflect on my own contributions to the above and to think of ways to use my good fortune and good luck to give more back to many.

I am very relieved that my state has real leadership and that we took a bold step before the rest of the country. I hope that we see the curve really begin to flatten in CA; I just took a quick look at the logarithmic trend-line and it is promising that we're moving from 2-3 day doubling to something like 4 day doubling. We also have a test shortage here because of NY so who knows how true our data is (though the shortage has existed long enough that I do kind of trust the trend-lines and not the real numbers).

 

[4throck]

The ECPM can't get the requested resources easier than the member states can.
[/LIST]

My bet is it gets lost in bureaucracy, because that's all it is (no actual manpower). So direct contact between national entities works best.


Not to be negative about the EU, here's a nice map they put out:

PS - I like the notion and principles of the EU, but I don't agree with the way it works right now.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Just to not assume to much here - is there anything like "reduced working hours" in the USA?

For some professions and companies, yes. A friend of mine works with an AI/machine learning company and was placed on half-time working from home.


But for service industries like restaurants and bars and such, there really isn't any benefit to retaining staff now as there is no business. There is a provision in the stimulus for small business loans that can be used for payroll, and would be forgiven if they don't lay off anyone, but how that will actually affect layoffs is to be determined. If a company already laid off their staff, can they still get these loans and have them forgiven because they didn't lay off any more? It's really something of a bastard capitalist version of temporary UBI and was enacted because it doesn't look like socialism *gasp*!



The current unemployment figures are for last week. Many states only enacted shut-downs earlier this week, so these numbers are the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Urwumpe]

I like the notion and principles of the EU, but I don't agree with the way it works right now.

Welcome among about 101% of the European citizens. :lol:



All agree that things have to be improved, but when it comes to agreeing in which direction it should get improved, we have some tiny different visions...

 

[jedidia]

This is quite possibly an underestimate to be corrected later, but the weekly unemployment numbers are out and they are unprecedented.

How the hell is it even legal to fire employees without notice unless you're filing for bankrupcy? I knew the US had some deficiencies when it came to labour protection, but this is getting unreal. No paid sick leave? No mandatory medical insurance? no notice? I wouldn't even bother signing a contract in those circumstances.

 

[insanity]

How the hell is it even legal to fire employees without notice unless you're filing for bankrupcy? I knew the US had some deficiencies when it came to labour protection, but this is getting unreal. No paid sick leave? No mandatory medical insurance? no notice? I wouldn't even bother signing a contract in those circumstances.

Systemic gutting of labor rights over the last 40 years. Employment is "at-will" meaning that you can terminate/be terminated at any time and for any reason (baring protected class discrimination, which is murky enough and legally cost-prohibitive to pursue). Paid sick leave as a benefit is really only extended to white-collar employees and even then it's often put in to the same bucket as other leave-with-pay. Given that your employment is your ticket to affordable health-insurance you really have no leverage.

The US public health system is basically Popsicle sticks and prayers because our government is corrupted by the influence of money.

 

[Fabri91]

I agree, a common European response would have been neat.

I think that will be hard to implement in the future, because giving a central authority powers to limit freedom of movement and impose curfews like we're seeing will be a difficult sell.

What I'm hoping will result out of this is at least something that aims to remedy logistical problems, such as a common stockpile of medical equipment and emergency-deployable ICU units or something similar.

 

[Urwumpe]

What I'm hoping will result out of this is at least something that aims to remedy logistical problems, such as a common stockpile of medical equipment and emergency-deployable ICU units or something similar.

Yes. I would also prefer to keep a bit of the production of such goods in Europe, even if this means more EU subsidies. It was not good this time, that the companies appear European, but the production takes place in China.



Quite a number of European companies produce protective masks, but in China, and are now supposed to only sell them to the Chinese government, so they can bring them to Europe.....

 

[Fabri91]

In that we're relatively lucky in that there are relatively many textile firms able to retool on short notice and so within a couple of weeks from now we should be able to cover about 50% of the internal demand for simple masks at least, but that's a relatively small consolation.

 

[Linguofreak]

How the hell is it even legal to fire employees without notice unless you're filing for bankrupcy?

I'd say that the present situation is one of the strongest arguments *for* allowing no-cause termination at will. Payroll is the largest expense item for most companies, and there are many that presently can't do business (and this can't bring in revenue) at all. If those companies survive, they *will* be looking to hire back as much of their previous workforce as possible. If they don't, they won't exist to hire anyone back.

Also keep in mind that many people are legally prohibited from working by lockdowns if their job is neither remotely workable or essential. In such cases, the worker won't be getting paid anyway, and laying them off, as opposed to having them quit and look for other work, allows them to get unemployment benefits.

---------- Post added at 16:47 ---------- Previous post was at 16:14 ----------

Just turned up with a fever. I had a flu in December, which gave me a post viral cough until allergy season started, so I'm unable to get a good signal-to-noise ratio on my symptoms. My healthcare provider's online assessment classified me as low risk,so I probably won't be tested any time soon, which irks me as I live with two 70+ year olds.

 

[Notebook]

Take care, and do what you must.

George.

 

[mahdavi3d]

 

[Ripley]

In that we're relatively lucky in that there are relatively many textile firms able to retool on short notice and so within a couple of weeks from now we should be able to cover about 50% of the internal demand for simple masks at least, but that's a relatively small consolation.

There is also an Italian firm wich is doing this, for free.
https://www.3dprintingmedia.network...orkeling-mask-into-a-non-invasive-ventilator/

Edit: I just saw (nearly) the same was posted on the 3D printing thread.

 

[jedidia]

I'd say that the present situation is one of the strongest arguments *for* allowing no-cause termination at will. Payroll is the largest expense item for most companies, and there are many that presently can't do business (and this can't bring in revenue) at all. If those companies survive, they *will* be looking to hire back as much of their previous workforce as possible. If they don't, they won't exist to hire anyone back.

Or, you know, you could just have mechanics that have the state temporarily pay part of the salaries so companies can get through times of low business without laying people off. It's less overhead on the bureaucracy, and you get to keep such an essential right as "my boss cannot just kick me out from one day to the other because of whatever".

Also, because of no minimum wage apparently many people are having trouble *feeding their kids* because they had to rely on the schools doing that. That gives the term "working poor" a whole new definition. I'm sorry, but your country is broken.

 

[llarian]

Makes a good case for governments ensuring a decent minimum living allowance. Drop the corporate welfare and provide for the people in times of need.