The COVID-19 war

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ART
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The COVID-19 war

Post by ART »

We are in a forum with people from all over :flag-eu: , or almost: in this thread I would like to briefly discuss the general situation and the measures to help ourself. I live in the area most affected by the infection actually (Lombardia, Italy) and here the measures are these:

1) do not leave home unless strictly necessary (supermarket, health, job)
2) keep at least 1 meter away from anyone
3) wash your hands often for at least 20 seconds
4) if you leave home absolutely avoid forming or participating in gatherings

All non-essential shops and activities are closed, moreover from 10 March travel outside of every municipality is prohibited except self-certification of real necessity (job, healt, indispensable supplies). These measures may seem excessive but here the situation is extremely serious: following those rules it is possible to remain safe, but the high relative number of patients is putting the state health system under enormous pressure. It is not an apocalyptic catastrophe but neither can it be overlooked as if nothing had happened.

Unfortunately we are paying dearly for the lack of a centralized European emergency management system: we are moving in random order and without cooperating. All of us will pay for this very dearly. Like a river flooded the "wave" will hit the whole EU, then it will pass, but being forced to slow down or stop economic activities and movements will have a very high cost. In this context it is a serious mistake to close the domestic EU borders: it is useless against the infection and is dangerous because it hinders the movement of goods, adding damage to the damage. We may have the illusion of being safely closed like rabbits in our lairs, but the reality is different. Now it is no longer a question of borders or circulation of public transports: sooner or later we must all stay out of the homes as little as possible.

Do not underestimate the matter, get ready and we hope to get out of it with as little damage and deads as possible.
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Akai
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by Akai »

ART wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2020 8:28 pm
1) do not leave home unless strictly necessary (supermarket, health, job)
2) keep at least 1 meter away from anyone
3) wash your hands often for at least 20 seconds
4) if you leave home absolutely avoid forming or participating in gatherings
the same here in Spain, #YoMeQuedoECasa :flag-eu:
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ART
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by ART »

At march 19 we have near 83200 infects in EU and dipendencies, we have passed China.
War is serious throughout Europe. To win, we need of:

- stay home as much as possible
- avoid gatherings
- doctors and hospitals (rapid health system strengthening)
- maximum European coordination (as much joint action as possible, common supplies, emergency mutual funds)



This mess concerns the whole world and this is particularly valid at EU level: who thinks that everyone will do better to only care about your own problems and give a shit about the others has understood the situation very badly.
Last edited by ART on Thu May 07, 2020 1:50 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Akai
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by Akai »

terrifying news, very sad.
Courage and a hug, we'll get through it.
FORZA ITALIA
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ART
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by ART »

Akai wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 7:18 pm terrifying news, very sad.
Courage and a hug, we'll get through it.
FORZA ITALIA
Thanks. The provisions for travel are increasingly restrictive, all non-essential activities will be stopped this week.
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ART
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by ART »

Disinformation reaches alarm level, especially the Russian one. The website of the EEAS (European External Action Service) task force against disinformation:

https://euvsdisinfo.eu/
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by Montgomery Burns »

Moreover, to ensure that handling cash remains as safe as possible, we are working closely with top-tier European laboratories to assess the behaviour of coronaviruses on different surfaces. The results indicate that coronaviruses can survive more easily on a stainless steel surface (e.g. door handles) than on our cotton banknotes, with survival rates approximately 10 to 100 times higher in the first few hours after contamination. Other analyses indicate that it is much more difficult for a virus to be transferred from porous surfaces such as cotton banknotes than from smooth surfaces like plastic.

Overall, banknotes do not represent a particularly significant risk of infection compared with other kinds of surface that people come into contact with in daily life. However, our cooperation with scientific laboratories will continue in the coming weeks to preserve public trust in the safety of banknotes.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/da ... 65.en.html
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by lmviterbo »

The ECB conveniently "forgets" mentioning coins…

Anyway, sanitize your hands after dealing with money (coins or banknotes) or any other public surface, and don't touch your face (or any face) if you can't sanitize them immediately. You should always carry with you a small bottle (like a shampoo sample bottle) filled with hand sanitizer gel, or a small vaporizer bottle filled with alcohol.

If you find masks in your country, use one; it will also prevent you from unconsciously reaching your face with your hands. But take into account: masks are effective only when used in combination with frequent hand-cleaning with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.

The most effective type of mask is the FFP2 (= 95% filtering) without a respirator valve (the respirator is really amazing to block other people from infecting you, but completely uneffective if you are an asympomatic virus carrier).

Image
Image by data scientist Tania Volskaya (posted here)

If you use one of these masks, or even a simple cotton face mask, you may want to wash it and reuse it. If they're made recently by a factory (and not homemade), check how many washing cycles they are certified for.
For example, these new Portuguese masks are advertised as reusable after 50 washing cycles, but they're only certified for 5, because there wasn't time to test for that many. These ones from another factory are suspicious: the website claims them to be certified for 10 uses, but they are sold at least since 7 April, when such certification wasn't yet implemented. (These links are in Portuguese, sorry.)
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ART
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Re: The COVID-19 war

Post by ART »

Akai wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 7:18 pmFORZA ITALIA
Fuerza España now (and go EU always).
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