COVID Latest: Sesame Street Characters Explain The Protests
Sunday: Brazil hiding infections and deaths; plus a few weekend long reads
Morning! It’s Sunday, June 7. Here is today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’ — 5 things to know about COVID-19 today, + 5 non-corona things as well.
Latest AU stats: as of 9pm Saturday, Australia has 7255 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +2 since the day before), with 6693 reported as ‘recovered’, and 102 deaths, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. More stats below.
1 QUICK THING
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5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
VIC fruit picker sparks public health alert
A man who travelled from Victoria to QLD, and was later confirmed as COVID infected after travelling on planes and buses, has launched a cross-border dispute (link). QLD officials say the case is reason enough to keep its borders closed to the southern states, which has been the cause of much conflict with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
“You’ve had politicians out week after week, irresponsibly calling for our borders to be open – irresponsibly calling for thousands of people to come,” QLD health minister Steven Miles said. “If you just imagine the risks that that would put to Queenslanders’ health and our economy, you would understand why we would keep those restrictions in place.”
Brazil now hiding official COVID stats
Brazil, currently with the world’s second-highest official coronavirus infection numbers, is starting to withhold some data about its outbreak from authorities (link). The South American nation’s health ministry is not updating its confirmed case tally as much as usual, and taken down a website logging the virus spread.
“The cumulative data ... does not reflect the moment the country is in,” the country’s president Jair Bolsonaro tweeted, claiming that “other actions are underway to improve the reporting of cases and confirmation of diagnoses.” He has also threatened to withdraw from the World Health Organisation (link).
It comes as Brazil jumps to third-highest global death rate on the JHU database with 35,026 fatalities, leapfrogging Italy on 33,846. One of the country’s top doctors has slammed Bolsonaro’s response to the outbreak, warning Brazil’s eventual toll could be on par with the USA, and telling The Guardian “the situation couldn’t be worse. It just couldn’t.”
The kids of COVID
The New Daily has an interesting look at what will become of the children growing up in the age of corona (link). With young people losing their jobs at alarming rates, having school and university disrupted, losing out on their social lives, having their fledgling superannuation accounts battered, and potentially having to move back in with their parents, they may be the ones suffering the most long-term trauma once the pandemic is over.
A few long reads
Because it’s Sunday, and you might have some time to dig into something a bit meatier, here’s a few pieces I enjoyed this week:
On vaccines and disinformation, a psychologist focusing on conspiracy theories has said “You need to inoculate people against misinformation by telling them ahead of time what they’re going to be exposed to”, in this piece looking at how anti-vaxxers have been riding the wave of COVID confusion.
There’s also been a lot of people sharing this one about the unlikely alliance between wellness bloggers and conspiracy theorists in recent times (link).
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 9.30am AEST Sunday) report 6,855,858 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 398,321 deaths.
The United States has 1,919,430 confirmed cases; Brazil is next on 645,771, then Russia (458,102). The U.S. has the most deaths (109,791), then the United Kingdom (40,548) and Brazil third on 35,026. As mentioned above, Brazil is pulling back on the stats it shares.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 9pm Saturday) show 7255 cases, 6693 people recovered, and 102 deaths.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Massive protests nationwide yesterday for Black Lives Matter and protesting Indigenous deaths in custody were overwhelmingly peaceful and safe (seriously, there was better social distancing, etiquette and hygiene than at some supermarkets I’ve visited recently) but the day was marred after police kettled and pepper-sprayed crowds inside Sydney’s Central train station (link).
Overseas, protests continue to grow in the United States. Massive demonstrations were held across America overnight, taking over many cities (link).
CNN has pulled in beloved Sesame Street characters to try and explain the protests, and what they mean, for young children who don’t understand the situation. It’s very cute but also very clever. Check out a few of these:
My former 10 colleague Eden Gillespie has published an excellent investigation into an online forum which is posting personal images of hundreds of Australian female journalists (link). Eden’s deep dive looks at how contributors to the forum appear to be using anonymous Instagram pages to follow the locked accounts of journalists, copying their private photos — of them on holiday, at the beach or doing workouts — and sharing them with a large audience of followers online. It’s pretty gross.
Oh, and Joe Biden (remember him?) is now officially the Democratic candidate for the Presidential election, after finally getting the number of primary votes needed to get over the line (link). Biden had been the presumptive nominee since Bernie Sanders dropped out and left him as the only name still in the race, but now it’s official, after he was named winner of a few more recent primary contests.
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.
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Signing off — stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others.
Josh