In some ways this event can be seen as a dry run for greater dangers ahead...like the return of something like the Spanish flu. — Chester
we still have 7 months for current times to get more interesting. — Marchesk
I think there's an accurate definition for an economy to be in a depression, but this kind of unemployment will have a big effect. Naturally nobody will admit it, of course.Will it really be a depression? Or will the economy lurch toward online retail in a way that's irreversible? — frank
It's all about aggregate demand. Rule 1: Unemployed people or those believing that they might be unemployed don't spend as crazy. Rule 2: People are afraid and for a reason about the pandemic, which has already changed their spending habits. 3) Social distancing measures have hit the service sector, which employs the most people.Plus, could you explain how China deals with an economic downturn vs the American way? — frank
It's not about China at all, it's about the whole World. My and your country and Sweden or Brazil have already been affected. — ssu
Norway regrets lock down. — Chester
The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals.
A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.
Data it claims to have legitimately obtained from more than a thousand hospitals worldwide formed the basis of scientific articles that have led to changes in Covid-19 treatment policies in Latin American countries. It was also behind a decision by the WHO and research institutes around the world to halt trials of the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine. On Wednesday, the WHO announced those trials would now resume.
...
A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere’s employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess.
The company’s LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.
While Surgisphere claims to run one of the largest and fastest hospital databases in the world, it has almost no online presence. Its Twitter handle has fewer than 170 followers, with no posts between October 2017 and March 2020.
Until Monday, the “get in touch” link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.
Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as “unfounded”.
In 2008, Desai launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo promoting a wearable “next generation human augmentation device that can help you achieve what
you never thought was possible”. The device never came to fruition.
Desai’s Wikipedia page has been deleted following questions about Surgisphere and his history, first raised in 2010.
What could the motives behind this be? — NOS4A2
Never had one?But I was asking how China deals with recessions, or are they like Australia and they've never actually had one? — frank
Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement.
The Australian economy and foreign policy largely rested upon its place as a primary producer within the British Empire, and Australia's important export industries, particularly primary products such as wool and wheat, suffered significantly from the collapse in international demand. Unemployment reached a record high of around 30% in 1932, and gross domestic product declined by 10% between 1929 and 1931. There were also incidents of civil unrest, particularly in Australia's largest city, Sydney.
(See article China Abandons Economic Growth Targets Amid Pandemic)China is scrapping its annual economic growth targets for the first time since 1990, when it started announcing such economic figures, as its leaders grapple with the economic fallout of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In China's centrally planned economy, Beijing's GDP target serves as an all-important touchstone on which local governments and state enterprises fix their annual policies and investments.
China's economy shrank 6.8% in the first quarter this year, the first recorded contraction in more than 40 years. Official unemployment figures have risen to 6.2%, though independent analysts estimate the actual rate to hover around 20%. About 460,000 businesses have gone bankrupt, according to the South China Morning Post.
So this year, leaders are stressing economic stability and poverty alleviation rather than growth.
“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit.
“We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing,” she said. “They’re following asymptomatic cases. They’re following contacts. And they’re not finding secondary transmission onward. It’s very rare.”
I think that now you start to see the differences with in the numbers, like here in the Nordic countries:All that social distancing....for what? — NOS4A2
The global economy is expected to shrink by about 5.2% in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, making it one of the four most severe downturns in 150 years, the World Bank said Monday.
Never before have so many countries entered a recession at once, even during three more severe episodes—the Great Depression and the downturns following the two world wars, the bank said.
I would call that wager! Just that people likely will not now go to Northern Italy and other tourist placed would mean a lot just by itself. Just the slowdown in China would have effected dramatically the global economy even if the US and Europe would have avoided the pandemic.I wager there would be no such recession had everyone went the Swedish route. — NOS4A2
All that social distancing....for what? — NOS4A2
We'll see what happens. — Marchesk
On Saturday, Texas hit an all-time high of patients hospitalized with the novel coronavirus. It was the fifth day this week hospitalizations have broken new records.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, 2,242 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 — an increase of 76 patients from the previous record of 2,166 patients on Friday.
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