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Disagree, while it's certainly a bit much to claim it's a perfect A/B test (but nothing can be, it doesn't exist like that in the real world) the differences in government responses are certainly stark and pointing that out isn't 'bollocks'.

That. Bonus points for using a tele lens that makes it look like everything is super crowded even when it isn't.

Sounds a lot like non-essential work.

Switzerland is planning on reducing the restrictions from April 26 after 3 weeks of lockdown, as the number of hospitalisations (and ICU usage) appears to have peaked. They're still using very careful language though, and no details on which restrictions exactly they're planning on removing when.

according to the same website the US has done a lot more tests than everyone else on that chart

Well... you are reaching a point with that number though where you have to start taking into account that the US has a lot more people than all other countries on that list apart from China and India. And once you look at it as 'tests per million inhabitants', the US is a lot less impressive. Though again, when you break it down into the different states, you can see NY is ahead of all other US states in terms of testing by quite a bit.

Yes, partially due to massively increased testing in NY, but not in terms of deaths. They've actually been doing surprisingly 'well' overall in that regard, so far, considering how bad their overall response is, and how many things like religious congregations were still going on.

-.-

"Cyclists ‘a real worry’ says North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner – before conceding they aren't actually doing anything wrong"

A guy I know wrote this: 'FAQs: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme', a House of Commons briefing paper. (PDF download at the bottom of the page, page might take a while to load for some reason)

As they say, "not intended to address the specific circumstances of any particular individual", but might still be interesting to read to figure out what that 'Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme' is all about. 24 pages, contents:

1. Background
   
2. Eligible employers
   
3. ‘Furloughed workers’
   
4. Eligible workers
   
5. Selecting workers for furlough
   
6. Meaning of wages
   
7. Other employment issues
   

Shit you weren't joking... :D

More and more, I get the impression that some people are misunderstanding the current situation as "make life as miserable as possible for everybody, and if you manage to still have any fun, you're doing something morally wrong".

Yes, I get that the situation sucks for a whole lot of people, be it overworked healthcare workers, people having to go to work with lacking (or no) protection, people who've lost part or all of their income, and of course last but absolutely not least the people actually sick or dying of the damn virus, and their family / friends etc. It certainly is not a happy time for a lot of people.

But no, this does not mean that everybody has to be miserable to show solidarity. If you can have fun in a way that is not a big risk to others - be it baking cakes, going for a solo cycle, or knitting -, that is fine. FFS.

This kind of thing is the best argument against giving the police any extra powers in this crisis:

A day after a police force threatened to snoop through people’s
shopping baskets, officers elsewhere have taken it upon themselves to
decide what count as ‘non-essential aisles’ in supermarkets. Police in
Cambridge tweeted a picture outside Tesco Barhill during their patrols
of supermarkets and green spaces. They said: ‘Good to see everyone was
abiding by social distancing measures and the non essential aisles
were empty’.

And:

Yesterday Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable, Nick Adderley, came
in for criticism after threatening that his force was ‘a few days
away’ from looking in shopping trolleys to see what people had bought.

I know those are individual people going a bit too far, but still, you give them one reason to be slightly stricter and next thing you hear talk about them checking your shopping trolley? Yikes.

Ah I see, OK in that context it makes at least a bit more sense!

Yes, otherwise I don’t get paid.

Do you get paid for going to parties? Because that's what that comment was about.

A lot more than earlier in the lock down although car drivers love a nice sunny day don't they?

The literal second I'm reading this sentence, I can hear some boy racer howling round the corner.

You mean you want to send a one-off email?

Also known as 'send an email', right?

No idea if this particular virus is deemed a high risk for a second wave but thought it was interesting that the 2nd wave theory is apparently less universally accepted than before.

Surely it would depend a lot on 1) what the 'first wave' is like and 2) what restrictions on the public are put in place and how they are relaxed exactly?

Thinking allowed

Not really sure what the problem is with that. If you're not interested in sociology and the like, probably not for you, but not everything has to be.

The theme tune is genuinely catchy though.

Perhaps the better way is just running in the street, on your own or at least with sufficient distance.

I mean I'd do that in a heart beat. But I wouldn't survive long doing it.

That is a wonderful colour. Makes me want to get it even though there is absolutely nothing I could do with it... GLWS!

The same applies to the Nordic region as a whole.

And the most for Finland, I found. I know it's a bit of a meme anyway, but I visited Helsinki not too long before the whole Corona thing and I found it amazing how wide the spaces between houses and blocks of flats are, how wide every pavement is, etc. Seems to be built with a 2m distancing rule in mind...

Yeah for sure it can be misleading when you don't fully realise that every tick is now a tenfold increase in numbers! And even if you do realise it, it's difficult to visualise unless, as you say, the linear representation is shown as well.

Not really surprising though. The fact that air pollution kills is well-known, we're all just very good at suppressing the knowledge because people don't spectacularly drop dead on the road when a car drives past. But overall, air pollution is linked to quite a few life years lost, and when something like Coronavirus comes up where any lung-related health condition is bad news, well...

Yes but the thing is, I have no idea how they even managed to make this graph in the first place, except fully manually maybe...

It allows you to see more clearly when the rate of growth is speeding up or slowing down. It can however also be misleading if people don't understand what a logarithmic graph is, and underestimate the number of people affected.

Talking about possibly weird graphs, it's difficult to beat this one (look at the y axis):