COVID Latest: British 'Bonk Ban' In New Corona Rules
Thursday: controversy already over HomeBuilder grants; questions over drug studies
Morning! It’s Thursday, June 4. Here’s today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’.
Here’ 5 things to know about COVID-19 today, + 5 non-corona things as well.
Latest AU stats: as of 9pm Wednesday, Australia has 7229 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +8 since the day before), with 6640 reported as ‘recovered’, and 102 deaths, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. More stats below.
1 QUICK THING
HELP PLEASE! I’d like to make 5+5’ more useful and informative, so please share your thoughts with me at this survey here. It will take about one minute (mostly multiple choice) and would be really helpful for me, to know what you want. Click here to do the survey.
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Controversy over ‘HomeBuilder’ grants
Scott Morrison has unveiled a $688 million program to provide $25,000 grants for smaller home builds or large renovations (link). It’s called HomeBuilder (yes, written in that style, same as JobSeeker and JobKeeper) and it’s supposed to stimulate demand and activity in the construction sector, which has been hit hard by COVID shutdowns. Projects have to be valued between $150,000 and $750,000, so this isn’t for small home renos or to build huge mansions, but the government hopes it could contribute to up to 30,000 projects, and comes a day after the country was announced to be officially in recession.
But questions are already being raised about why it’s being targeted only at people who have $150k+ to splash out on a home reno or build at this point, instead of — for instance — being invested in building new social housing stock, or pouring more money into helping those people who lost homes in the bushfire crisis, as has been suggested by some. Labor leader Anthony Albanese is already calling it out:
NSW heading toward post-COVID ‘icebergs’
A state politician has warned NSW could be sailing straight toward trouble when the JobKeeper wage subsidy ends in coming months, saying the state needs to reinvent itself in terms of what industries it relies on. “On the horizon are more economic and social icebergs,” minister Victor Dominello told the Daily Telegraph, saying “there will be tourism jobs lost that will never return. Even small businesses like catering companies may not come back”.
Dominello said the government needs “to re-skill and reframe the future of this state” in the post-COVID period, saying it needs to focus on more than just construction. It’s the latest warning that things won’t simply “snap back” to how things were before all this…
Britain ‘bonk ban’ in coronavirus lockdowns
The United Kingdom is easing its corona rules, but a new rule has prompted mockery and jokes. Under new regulations, Reuters reports “no person may participate in a gathering which takes place in a public or private place indoors and consists of two or more persons” — which Britain’s papers are calling a “bonking ban”.
“What this is about is making sure we don’t have people staying away from home at night,” government minister Simon Clarke said.
“On Twitter, #sexban was trending in the United Kingdom,” Reuters reported. This comes after, as we reported yesterday, Harvard Medical School researchers urging people to wear face masks during sex (link).
Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t help, another study rules
Another snag in the search for COVID drugs — hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug flagged constantly by Donald Trump as a possible miracle cure, is no better than a placebo. The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study from infectious diseases researchers, who carried out a randomised controlled study on people who were at high-risk of contracting the virus, which “suggests the drug is no more effective in protecting people exposed to the virus than a placebo” (link). The Guardian reports “among those who received hydroxychloroquine, 49 developed Covid-19 (or compatible symptoms such as fever or cough), compared with 58 in the group that received the placebo.”
Oh well, back to the drawing board. More studies into the drug continue, including one from the World Health Organisation which was resumed this week after recently being paused.
But still on The Guardian, an investigation has found that data used in other studies on hydroxchloroquine may have been based on “flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company”, calling into question the findings of other recent studies (link).
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 9.30am AEST Thursday) report 6,399,230 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 384,436 deaths.
The United States has 1,849,852 confirmed cases; Brazil is next on 555,383, then Russia (431,715). The U.S. has the most deaths (107,099), then the United Kingdom (39,811) and Italy third on 33,601.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 9pm Wednesday) show 7229 cases, 6640 people recovered, and 102 deaths.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
The investigation into British toddler Madeleine McCann’s 2007 disappearance has surfaced again, with a 43-year-old German man now being investigated for "possible murder" (link). The man “has previously been convicted for sexually abusing children, and is currently serving a "long" jail sentence "for an unrelated matter."
Police seen clobbering 7 News journalists from Australia during protests in Washington D.C. this week have been placed on “administrative leave” while an investigation into their conduct is carried out, according to the United States Park Police (link). 7 journalist Amelia Brace called the attack “absolutely terrifying” (link), after she was hit with a club and her cameraman was punched and smashed with a riot shield. The U.S. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called the assaults “reprehensible and clear violations of the First Amendment.”
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has slammed Donald Trump, saying he is making “a mockery of our Constitution” in his response to the race protests by calling in the military (link). It is quite unprecedented and extraordinary for such an official — let alone Mattis, a decorated and esteemed Marine general — to issue a rebuke like this.
Three men connected to right-wing extremist groups have been arrested in Las Vegas after allegedly trying to travel to protests there and incite more violence and tension (link). They were found with molotov cocktails and petrol. The three men — reportedly with military experience and “ties to a loose movement of right-wing extremists advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government” — are “self-identified as part of the “boogaloo” movement”. It’s a strange right-wing extremist term, basically a joking reference to ‘Civil War 2’, or a massive societal conflict which some right-wing groups are trying to instigate and encourage.
Watch this incredible mudslide in Norway carry several houses into the ocean. According to news outlet VGTV (link, but it’s in Norwegian, so you’ll need to translate it) “Several buildings and a dog were washed down on the lake” at Kråkneset, on the country’s west coast, on Wednesday. I hope that’s a bad translation, or if it’s not, that the dog is OK.
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
Be hygienic; wash your hands properly, 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.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here; Australian government latest statistics here.
If you haven’t already, please sign up above to get this every day in your emails (and tell your friends + share on social).
Email me at joshbutler.journalist@protonmail.com for tips, ideas or just to chat. You can also find me on Twitter at @joshbutler; on Facebook; and Instagram.
Signing off — stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others.
Josh