Coronavirus update, 30/3: Hope You've Only Got One Friend...
Infection numbers dropping; two-person limits; Naomi Wolf vs Antony Green
Hello, welcome to ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’ for March 30 — a bit happened overnight.
Each day I’m bringing you 5 big things to know, and 5 other bits, about the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak — misinformation and dodgy claims; good news and bad news; resources to do your own fact-checks, to not fall for shit, and keep abreast of the latest info.
The fire hose of news being blasted out every day is getting more intense and confusing.
You can email me at joshb2@protonmail.com or find me on Twitter at @joshbutler if you have tips, feedback, ideas or just want to chat. If I’ve made a mistake, shared something I shouldn’t have, or done something wrong, please tell me. I’ll be here.
Wash your hands and sneeze into your elbow. Practise physical distancing - at least 1.5 metres of separation. “Stay the fuck at home”.
5 BIG THINGS
Today’s statistics:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 6.47am Sydney time on Monday) report 713,171 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 33,597 deaths, and 148,995 people have recovered.
The United States (136,880 cases) took the top spot of cases last week, and has now far and away the most — Italy is second with 97,689 and China third on 82,122.
By comparison, in Australia — the latest federal Department of Health stats (as of 3pm Sunday) show 3966 cases. The death toll is 16, after a handful of deaths in recent days. We’ve done more than 211,000 tests, which is being hailed as one of the highest testing rates in the world, and one of the lowest positive result rates. This are the latest graph from the federal department, showing case numbers:
Infection numbers are dropping:
As you can see from that first graph above, numbers of new cases have been decreasing. The vertical bars on the horizontal axis show daily new cases, and the latest one is smaller than any of the preceding eight. That’s good news! The social distancing rules (smaller gatherings, warnings to stay home and avoid groups), implemented last week, were expected to take a week or more to have any effect on numbers, and that seems to be feeding through now.
For instance, on Monday, NSW — the worst-hit state — recorded 127 new cases in the last 24 hours. That compared to 174 on Sunday and 212 on Saturday, obviously far higher numbers. This is good news, but NSW’s chief medical officer Kerry Chant urged against complacency, saying Monday: “While it is pleasing we have seen a stabilisation in case numbers, it is important to know that they can vary and jump around day to day… we need to be cautious.” So keep doing whatever it is that you’ve been doing, we’re definitely nowhere near out of the woods yet.
Hope you’ve only got one other friend…
Because we’re now restricted to meeting in just groups of two. Scott Morrison announced last night that groups “should be reduced to two persons in public spaces and other areas of gathering” — that has since been clarified to mean outside, inside, at home, anywhere at all. It doesn’t include people in the same household (i.e. your housemates, girlfriend, partner etc) or family, but you will only be able to meet one friend if you don’t live together (story here).
We’re also being told not to leave home *at all* unless it’s to shop for essentials (including, weirdly, puzzles apparently — more on that below), get medical care, go to work/school, or exercise outdoors. Oh yeah, and outdoor gyms, playgrounds and skate parks are also closed now. “Gatherings outside or inside should not be more than two people unless it is your immediate family. That is something we will enforce,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Monday. VIC Premier Daniel Andrews said police in his state will be giving out $1600 on-the-spot fines for breaching gathering rules.
Rental relief
Morrison also announced a six-month “moratorium” on rental evictions. The plan hasn’t really been fleshed out yet, but basically he said tenants and landlords should get on the phone and figure out some arrangement around paying rent, if they’re affected by coronavirus financial troubles.
This idea, as many renters would know, is easier said than done — I’ve had landlords and real estate agents who take months to come and fix actually dangerous faulty power points, so asking pretty-please for lower rent might not work for everyone. But in saying that, I’ve had three friends in the last week who asked for a rent reduction, and the agent said yes… so worth asking the question!
Thieves stealing masks, sanitiser from hospitals
Here’s some unpalatable behaviour — NSW health minister Brad Hazzard claimed Sunday that masks, gloves and other protective gear are being stolen from medical facilities, including hand sanitiser dispensers being ripped off walls (story here). That’s not good. Don’t do this. NSW Health reminded people that washing your hands with simple soap and water is just as good as anything for stopping virus spread, so you don’t need special sanitiser. Dr Andrew Rochford told The Project on Sunday that sanitiser in one hospital had been taken, with others emptied out and watered down.
Again — don’t do this.
5 OTHER THINGS:
ScoMo’s Group Text, v2.0: Last week, the government slid into everyone’s DMs and sent out a nationwide mass text about coronavirus (story here). Now, there’s a nationwide group chat on Whatsapp, where you can get the latest info on coronavirus, like symptoms, stats, safety info and more (story here). There’s also a government-built coronavirus app online. Find them at aus.gov.au/whatsapp, or search ‘coronavirus Australia’ on your phone’s app store.
Puzzles are essential, according to the PM. When answering a question about why shopping centres are still allowed to open, Morrison said “you should be only going out to shop for things that you actually need… Our kids are at home now, as are most kids, and [his wife] Jenny went out yesterday and bought them a whole bunch of jigsaw puzzles. I can assure you over the next few months, we're going to consider those jigsaw puzzles absolutely essential.” Of course, that instantly generated a bunch of (also essential) memes.
Donald Trump doesn’t understand why New York hospitals are using lots more masks. In a pandemic. Of a respiratory virus spread by droplets from sneezing or coughing… it truly is a mystery.
"How do you go from 10 to 20 to 30,000, to 300,000 -- even though this is different. Something is going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going?" -- Trump suggests that there is some sort of New York nurse conspiracy to steal masksThis comes as NYC becomes a devastating hotspot, with 237 people dying in the last 24 hours — that’s one person every six minutes (story here). The New York Times says the 911 system is overwhelmed. Things are rapidly deteriorating.
Author Naomi Wolf is grilling ABC election analyst Antony Green on Australia’s coronavirus-era pariamentary system. It’s strange and interesting and very entertaining. We need to find a way to harvest and harness Green’s seemingly infinite capacity for patience as a renewable energy source. Their Twitter tête-à-tête went most of yesterday and has continued today. Check it out here.
Give House Party a go — it’s a fun video chat app where you can keep in touch with a bunch of friends and play games (trivia, a Pictionary-style drawing game, and a few others). Over the weekend, it suddenly replaced the likes of Zoom/Teams/Skype/etc for a lot of my friends, so get on it before you’re the only holdout. Free on app stores.
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY:
You “must” stay home at all times unless: shopping for essential supplies, and even then, doing that as infrequently as possible; getting medical care; exercising alone or with one other person; or work and education.
be hygienic; wash your hands properly, for at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows; use hand sanitiser
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies
World Health Organisation latest statistics here
Australian government latest statistics here
Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is. Verify, fact-check, don’t be part of the misinformation problem
Signing off - stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others
Josh