Now that the numbers are finally catching up from the Xmas holiday break the last reporting period saw the world's case total pass 81.6 million along with over 1,780,900 deaths. :-(

In the case race the U.S. (1st) is now just 1.03 million away from passing the combined totals of India (2nd), Brazil (3rd) and Russia (4th) with well over 19.7 million cases along with over 343,000 deaths as their overly expensive and sub standard heath care system is on the verge of collapse. :-O

Russia also passed the 3 million mark and is now 8th in the death race while the U.K. (6th) set a new daily case record of over 41,000 (as they chase France down), Colombia has displaced Argentina from 11th as Peru became the 16th country to pass the 1 million mark followed by the Ukraine who took up 16th place and South Africa became the 18th to that same mark while taking over 17th from Peru.

Pakistan displaced the Philippines from 28th spot, but we still have to wait for Sweden to put their numbers in (as usual these days), Japan jumped over Ecuador and Azerbaijan to claim 43rd as Slovakia jumped over Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic to claim 51st while Denmark leapt over Kazakhstan, Kuwait and Bolivia to land in 55th, Kazakhstan also passed Kuwait to stay in 57th.

Greece displaced Guatemala from 61st, Palestine jumped over Oman and Egypt to take over 63rd while Tunisia passed Oman into 65th, Lithuania jumped Ethiopia as well as Oman to claim 66th as Slovenia passed Venezuela to take over 71st, Malaysia kicked Paraguay out of 74th, Libya slipped past Algeria into 76th and South Korea jumped over Ghana and Albania to claim 87th place.

Little Montenegro repassed just as little Luxembourg to take 92nd as Latvia took 96th from Finland while Australia will remain in 99th for several more days, our Kiwi cousins across the ditch are now down in 164th and Vietnam is back down to 170th again.

Well that's it for now in the great COVID race.

Remember all those warnings about death panels when Obama Care came in?

Well now it is Trump Care and the death panels are real!
https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/huntington-hospital-officials-could-be-forced-to-make-difficult-decisions-about-who-receives-health-care/ wrote:

According to a message posted on the Huntington Hospital website on Christmas Eve, medical personnel could soon be forced to make hard decisions regarding who gets vital care.

“As we hit record COVID-19 infections in the midst of these shortages, we need to be very careful with our resources to ensure we have enough to serve our entire community, including those who have illnesses unrelated to this virus,” the hospital posted.

These resources include life support machines, such as ventilators, intensive care unit (ICU) beds, and healthy medical staff to care for patients.

If the virus continues to surge out of control, a team of doctors, including an expert in health care ethics, would review cases of critically ill patients and could decide to provide those resources to patients with the best chance of surviving.

“This team will make necessary decisions about allocating limited medical resources based on the best medical information possible and will use the same decision criteria that are being used nationally and throughout California on all patient cases,” the message states.

The team will only receive information about the health of the patient. Information regarding race, gender and insurance will not be provided.

“If a patient becomes ill and the doctor believes the patient needs extra care in an ICU or needs mechanical ventilation (breathing machine), their case will be reviewed, along with other patient cases, to determine how these resources should be shared throughout the hospital,” the statement reads.

“If a patient becomes extremely sick and very unlikely to survive his/her illness (even with life-saving treatment) – limited medical resources may go to treat other patients who are more likely to survive. If care in the ICU or a ventilator is not offered or is stopped, the patient or a family member has the right to ask their doctor for further detail concerning this decision and will receive everything they need to ensure they are comfortable and free of pain or discomfort.”

With such a profit centric country, surprised it took them this long.
Meanwhile...

"It is not a document which will be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for data protection."

New target for hackers...
... or even the scaremongers within the media.

BBC reports that there is a revised count of the Russian deaths total. up significantly from 55,827 to 186,057.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-55473196 at 10:00

Russia admits its death toll is three times higher

More than 80% of the excess deaths in Russia this year are linked to the coronavirus pandemic, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova has said.

According to the Rosstat statistics agency, there were almost 230,000 additional deaths between January and November this year compared to 2019 - which would give Russia a total coronavirus death toll of more than 186,000.

The revised total is more than three times higher than the estimated 55,000 fatalities previously acknowledged by Russian authorities.

Only two other countries - the US and Brazil - have reported a higher number of deaths in the pandemic.

Russia has developed its own vaccine, the Sputnik V, which it has already begun rolling out.

and 10:55

As we reported earlier, new statistics from Russia show a dramatically higher number of deaths from Covid-19 than previously thought. Here's how its death toll compares to other countries:

USA - 334,963 deaths
Brazil - 191,570
Russia - 186,057
India - 148,153
Mexico - 122,855
Italy - 72,370
UK - 71,217
France - 63,235
Iran - 54,813
Spain - 50,122

Note: Totals for all countries except Russia based on data from Johns Hopkins University. Russia's numbers are based on excess death figures from statistics agency Rosstat and statements by Russia's deputy minister. Different countries use different measurements for what counts as a "Covid death".

New target for hackers...
... or even the scaremongers within the media.

I'm more worried it'll trigger the human rights conspiracy theorists who think that some unspecified 'they' are trying to fill us up with microchips under the guise of a vaccine.

But more seriously, I hope they distinguish between vaccine 'refusers', and people like allergy sufferers who are advised not to take the vaccine on medical grounds.

Reality bites back.

Luke Letlow [Rep]: Newly-elected US lawmaker, 41, dies from Covid

Aged 41... Rather young for our day and age.

Condolences to all those around him.


Now perhaps the USA can get serious about wearing masks to stay alive?

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

The last reporting period saw the world pass 83 million reported infections while setting a new daily death record of over 14,700 taking that total past 1.8 million. :-(

Meanwhile the U.S. set a new daily death record of 3,880 taking that total well past 350,700 as their total infection number passes 20.2 million and is now just over 817,500 cases away from passing the combined totals of India, Brazil and Russia (they should pass that mark sometime next week). So much for the world's supposedly most technically advanced country. :-O

Anyhow in the case race, even though Cameroon is even more casual about reporting their numbers than Sweden is I'll now give 100th place to Estonia (Australia should have a day or maybe 2 left occupying 99th) while South Korea blasted Singapore out of 86th, Tunisia jumped past Palestine and Guatemala to take over 63rd as Lithuania flew past Greece to claim 61st, Moldova slipped past Qatar to reclaim 59th and Denmark blew Armenia out of 54th spot.

Bulgaria became the 48th country to pass 200,000 cases, Japan took 42nd place from Georgia as Portugal became the 34th country to pass 400,000 infections, Sweden passed Morocco to claim 31st place based on their numbers from the previous reporting period while Czechia became the 21st country to pass 700,000 cases, South Africa (17th) and the U.K. (6th) also set new daily case records for themselves.

But I'm not looking forward to the numbers that'll be reported in 2-3 weeks time as a result of the festive season just going on the behavior of the idiots here and those backpackers here have now been warned that if they get caught breaking anymore restrictions their visas will be immediately cancelled and they'll be put into immigrant detention until the 1st plane is available to take them back home (they'll also be blacklisted from ever returning).

That's it for today as I prepare for a small NYE get together here. Stay safe, keep your distance (wear a mask where you can't) and wash your hands while enjoying your NYE.

It has gone to full crazy here in Los Angeles County. Mortuaries are now refusing cases because they have no room. In a day or two the bodies will be being stacked like cord wood by the hospitals. The coroner has no more cold storage. There is no more room at the inn. Hospitals are treating in the parking lots. It is war zone medicine.

Yesterday the dorks were out in force, not wearing masks and shopping in large non-family groups. One small shop I saw had a note in the window by the door "No mask + no reason = NO SALE", with a footnote saying that they would ONLY respect medical reasons is supported by a Dr's Note".
Early this week the Police in Wales were handing out PCNs as if they were confetti, reporting a vast number of cars illegally parked and people going to the National Parks in mobs from London.

Now here's a taxing situation, PCN for leaving an English tier 4 area, PCN for entering Wales from an English tier 4 area, then another couple on the return journey, and the car driver getting one for illegal parking. That could be a very expensive trip, especially if they went into a shop en-route without a face mask. Worth remembering that while the English & Welsh Covid-PCN systems are independent of each other each successive one is automatically double its predecessor, and the prize starts at £100 in each case, so that's a minimum of £300 in each country, with no early-pay reduction as you've got another one.....

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

"The people we are getting are, like the first wave, my age really. I am 58 and I would say half the patients are younger than me. It is middle-aged people or a little bit older that we are getting."

Seeing much the same here. The worst of them queue jumping & ending up in your face while at the checkout.
"Blood on their hands"

"The people we are getting are, like the first wave, my age really. I am 58 and I would say half the patients are younger than me. It is middle-aged people or a little bit older that we are getting."

Seeing much the same here. The worst of them queue jumping & ending up in your face while at the checkout.
"Blood on their hands"

Yes.

Our government have been far too soft and stupidly inconsistent on the message given to people to stop the deadly spread of COVID infection... The continuing pandemic painfully demonstrates that.

What next?


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Our government have been far too soft and stupidly inconsistent on the message given to people to stop the deadly spread of COVID infection... The continuing pandemic painfully demonstrates that.

Not much governments can do about selfishness or stupidity

What a difference!
Ain't progress a bit*h.

What a difference!
Ain't progress a bit*h.

The only progress I see is the amount of red tape.

The only progress I see is the amount of red tape.

Hmm, lets see...
1950
Orderly
Sensibility
Organised
Belief
...for starters...

2020/21
...for starters
Stupdity
Selfishness
Disorder
Disbelief

It probably helped that smallpox is more of a 'drop dead in the street with a nasty rash' sort of disease.

Actually I was wrong.
There has been lots of progress making it easier and safer to perform the inoculations.
Pre-packaged swabs instead of packs of cotton wool and alcohol.
Disposable Syringes and needles, no backroom staff handling used equipment and using dangerously hot autoclaves, then preparing trolley for the next batch of victims. (Been there done that, when mum, ward sister on male surgical ward, but was supervising both the men's and ladies wards, decided she needed a dogs body during flu epidemic when I was about 14)
Computers etc instead of paper records that get lost frequently.

True but lets look to history.
1918 Influenza pandemic, an "estimated" 100 million dead.
Smallpox -

Smallpox has now been eradicated but its characteristic rash used to be feared throughout the world with estimates that 300 million people died from the disease in the 20th Century alone.

From what can be seen, they were handled in an organised manner.
Looking at the timeline, populations were devastated due to a raging world war & another one still fresh in the memory. Countries couldn't afford to have their populations further reduced so acted.

It's more than likely that as countries were geared to fight a major conflict (or just ended doing so) it would be easy enough to shift focus as the organisational skills & mindset was still available.

Now in the 2nd decade of the 21st century:
What changed?

All that progress & at least in my view, what a shambles.
Will BoJo make it worse or better in just over 4 hours time with his "televised address"?