How rigged though. Why didnt they have every team in Brisbane as a hub. Interstate teams have to leave yet Victorian teams can stay at home. If it was a fair system it should be every team in Brisbane as a hub and have teams playing through out the week. As a Victorian i am disgusted once again with it being so blatantly rigged. At least i have MMA and Boxing yes its rigged also but not as bad. I actually think The AFL is the most corrupt sport in the World ATM.

Sounds like lyrics to a great heavy metal song!

Watch the doco. The Greatest Story Never Told. Awesome about that Era how they were the first Country out of the Great Depression.

There is a very good chance I will be moving further up North (French river Area, Ontario), a lake and crown land as my neighbours. Starting to downsize and we are preparing a year in advance. Partly because of the virus.

Its improved the UFC you can hear coaches yell out instructions so much better than drunkard fans yelling abuse.

That's rough.

How about a "hug curtain"?

I do miss handshakes, high fives, hugs, and handjobs.

A reminder that this is a uniquely American phenomenon. While there are grifters, charlatans, and psychopaths in every country, the "open up the country, it's just the flu" crowd is vastly smaller pretty much everywhere else, and vastly less well funded.
One of the interesting aspects of this pandemic is how American Media, which often exists in it's own bubble, is immediately contrasted with the rest of the world also coping with the exact same issue(s).
And yes, there are a handful of parallels between countries, but the sheer enormity of difference is readily perceptible.

A quote from our Prime Minister back when this all began, which I hear quoted alot among those I interact with, at work and after hours...

"All businesses are essential businesses! ... all workers are essential workers!"

I think that is one of many things that have made a big difference in getting through for our experience here.

Also spending (borrowing) 100's of billions of dollars helps, of course. Just to start with equivalent to about au$10000 per head capita was dished out from the govt. through various chanels. .. and then more has followed.

That debt isn't going away any time soon either ....

Rage Against The Machine! Yeah!! ...

That theme Really needs to be a pinball!! ....

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe

Everyone is being played. Those that think that others are being, are being played, too. The networks that aren’t downplaying the virus are up-playing it.

Under counted?

This fat nothing burger is overstated bc lots of deaths are being attributed and counted as covid when they aren't true covid deaths. There's incentive too... 20% bump in your drg. Plus many are asymptomatic which would drive down the percent of deaths per infected if we had true counts.

Funny to see people digging in their heels. Easier to fool someone then convince them they've been fooled I guess.

that was lovely, thank you.
It reminds me I need to go and catch up on the absolute genius Subnormality comics http://www.viruscomix.com/subnormality.html

I’m just going to leave this here:

If the aim is to get closer to "realistic" mortality rates first we would need to multiply the "official confirmed" infection number by at least 10. Considering all accounts, and filtering that which simply doesn't add up. This thing has been getting around since well before 'chyna' rang the world alarm bells about what was happening there, even if it has evolved. There is a very high proportion of asymptomatic and antibody carriers.

There are always views opposing to and fro based on this and/or that. Information. Inconsistency. Argument, or lack of it. But, very very few will ever know the complete truth, actual. Conflicting information, censorship, division, confusion, lack of discussion... "polarising", a whole topic for itself....

"The Truth?? .... You Can't Handle The TRUTH!"

Woodstock happened during the summer between my junior and senior years in high school. This the first time I have about any pandemic going on in that period of time.

During senior year, we were kids being kids. Pandemic? What's that?

My antibody results just came back and I’m negative.

We closed the world down to flatten the curve. Is it flat yet?

11F03ABA-05ED-4711-B2A6-CAEBB371D280 (resized).png

Thanks, I only work for the largest medical group in San Diego. What would I know.

I'd love to hear your WW II stories. I am old enough now to really appreciate the WW II info.

The most reliable marker is to compare total death count over time - all causes considered. You can plot weekly number of deaths as a function of time and compare it to previous years. I have seen the graph in France, and Covid-19 translates into a significant increase over a few weeks. We are now back to basal levels thanks to a 8-week lockdown. The only time during the last 20 years when a very significant peak was found was during a heat wave in summer 2003, which killed 13,000 people in a matter of a few weeks (as compared to an estimated death count of 27,000 for Covid-19 for a current population of 67 million, about 1/5 of the US)

Even then, this peak is only visible in the most affected areas, where it led to a large increase in mortality of up to 200% - 3 times more death than normal. In comparison, the areas more or less free of the virus experienced a slightly lower than normal mortality, in part because of a 50% global decrease in car accident fatalities - traffic was very, very light ! So obviously even at the scale of a country of a size 15x smaller than the US, the virus was not felt the same way everywhere. At least here people in the spared regions don't believe it's fake because they did not experience saturated hospital and emergency burials...

It's also hard to compare countries (and perhaps states or counties), where the criteria used to include death as corona death may differ. For example some countries count every suspicious death with Covid symptoms as a Covid death, while other countries would require a positive PCR confirmation. As a result, the case fatality ratio is higher in Belgium than in Germany. Both ways make sense, but this difference makes comparisons difficult.

So you are implying the largest medical group in San Diego is committing fraud.

That's interesting. Is that the same across Europe or just France? Is the 'hoax' thing solely a US thing?

No, you insulated fraud was the only way things could be coded as covid. It's well documented that we were taking a liberal approach to coding covid cases. That's why the number was adjusted down... Significantly.

Unfortunately no country is spared from it, but I suppose the % of people believing in absurd theories differ. Some people were against (and are still against) the lockdown in Europe too. But most would not go as far as claiming the fear of the virus was based on fake claims with an artificially increased death count.

"living in fear" is one of my favorite 'Rona burns.

It's like saying "You wear a seat belt? STOP LIVING IN FEAR"

"You look both ways when you cross the street? COWARD!"

"You won't strip that asbestos without a mask? SHEEPLE!!!!"

I'm so over these idiots to be frank.

I think "hoax" is a confusing word for the discussion. Most people I speak with do not think CV is fake at all. Most question that it is accidental, and having WMD flashbacks. Hoax and Deliberate Accident (or misinformation about it) are completely different ideas. One did not happen, the later did happen. No doubt there is a virus killing people, which has been named whatever, 'x' ... "CV19", "the chyna virus". Depends whom you ask.

What would you know? What do you do there?

Is this related?
https://www.hockani.com/blog/76/seeking-kaiser-permanente-whistleblowers/

How much is "lots"? What data do you have to support this opinion?

It’s become the same old, same old. About a quarter of the shelves empty and suppliers are taking a hit on manufacturing and processing. TP still comes and goes first think in the morning. We were short on meat products for a little bit seam to have got caught up. Been to busy to keep up with this thread so just getting a chance to catch up.

Yep

The other one is “so we just shut everything done forever?”

I don’t know anyone at all that wants that. Really all we need/want while we wait on treatment or vaccine advances are clear signs of some leadership and a plan as we open.

Allow CDC to do their job and give clear direction (visibly and verbally supported by administration) on the phases of reopening, mask usage, better PPE for frontline workers medical and non-medical, best practices for public facing employees, and most of all - a robust testing, tracing, and isolation plan. And feedback loops that help states know when they are moving too slow or too fast. We don’t even have to make it up ourselves, several other countries to copy.

But most of all for the plan to be unequivocally backed by the members of congress and the executive branch. PSA’s encouraging adherence instead of stealth social media campaigns to torpedo it.

Actually that's kind of where the divide is here. Probably 1/2 the population here doesn't believe it's a threat any worse than the usual illnesses. Not so much on the origin of the virus or anything else, there's discussion on that but nobody really cares that much.

When this is all said and done. Those handful of states that forced the nursing homes to take back in their covid sick residents are going to be considered the biggest screw up of this whole thing. And probably the largest single contributor to covid deaths. To make matters even worse is here in PA Wolf and team are having an investigation of the nursing homes to find any negligence on the facilities. Well the biggest negligence was them.

This is why the upcoding won’t be as widespread as what DJ is suggesting. I owned a company whose sole purpose was to search out FWB (fraud waste and abuse) in medical billing. There is always some there, but pretty easy (and lucrative) to find, but not widespread. Between the whistleblowers and the payment integrity companies, providers are pretty wary about pushing the coding too far. They have a lot to lose by jacking around with billing.

If you have evidence of lots of asymptomatic Covid patients dying in your hospital for other reasons, but being coded as Covid deaths to enhance revenue it will be a big scandal. You should become a whistleblower and get your 30% reward on the overcharges. And blow the lid off this hoax!

Just because you didn't hear about it...

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1968-pandemic.html

Very interesting interview of the Chinese government's senior medical adviser, Dr. Zhong (as stated in this article, he is a highly respected figure in China thanks to his role in the 2003 SARS outbreak)
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/16/asia/zhong-nanshan-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html

Good God, how many times is this ridiculous argument going to be thrown out there?

First, the 20% increase in payment for a COVID DRG vs a pneumonia DRG is to offset the increased cost of treating a COVID patient. Recent reviews of major hospital system records show that it actually costs hospitals about 35% more to treat a COVID patient vs a pneumonia patient so they are LOSING money on every COVID patient. https://www.hfma.org/topics/financial-sustainability/article/cost-of-covid-19-cases-likely-to-eclipse-relief-measures.html

Second, if you actually did work for the largest medical group in San Diego in any capacity related to billing you would be familiar with the terms compliance, RACs and medicare fraud. Major hospital systems and medical groups spend billions every year ensuring their physicians are billing codes correctly and that their codes are supported by their documentation. Do you REALLY think those same healthcare systems are going to throw all that out the window in the last two months to grab that measly 20% increase on COVID cases? If my time in medicine has shown me anything it is that Medicare is in the business of paying LESS for services, not handing out 20% increased payments like Oprah to fraudulent hospitals and doctors.

It’s like bending over to pick up a penny in a crowded prison shower. Just not worth the risk.

Emerging data suggests Asthma might not be high risk after all.

"Rogers also cited mortality statistics from the New York State Department of Health, in which "asthma is not even in the top 10" comorbidities"

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86323

All the interstate teams get to stay at home except for SA and WA due to their government policies . The WA and SA teams are only going to Brisbane because the QLD government is paying them to go there . There are 18 teams in the league and 10 of them are in Victoria . Majority of players on interstate clubs lists are from Victoria . If anything interstate clubs should come to Victoria so their players could stay with family and friends , as the AFL is cutting costs everywhere . The only unfair thing in the AFL is Tassie doesn't have a team .
If you want to win the granny you have to play at the G .
We should probably start an Aussie rules thread .
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-aussie-rules-thread#post-5651979

High volume of fresh, non-recirculated airflow is the winning recipe.

Same analogy as the Fukushima disaster: “Distribution is the solution to pollution”

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them?fbclid=IwAR2qVycFsyj4R6OdFJoB7MIgqNsbU35uItGxP4w5cp0-aX7MJs-I6pKIwbU

Update from our little slice of hell. No one seems to care about the virus. The grocery store hasn't put up cashier shields, no 6ft stickers, no arrows. Covidiots still standing around talking to each other everywhere. Yet to see someone wear a mask.
Now for some drama. I had a free bbq sitting on my curb. A 20 year old couple we know stop by on their bikes still drunk around 10am yesterday. So my wife and I stood on our front lawn and chatted for 5 minutes. They just came from a house party at the druggie, swinger couple in town house. I'm already shaking my head but it gets better. A nurse at the retirement home was there and got caught making out with the swinger husband by the wife and the fight was on.
I'm long past the stupidity of people during this crisis but this stupid fukn nurse should be called out/fired/drop kicked in the head. She'll be back at the home Monday working with the 100 year olds like nothing happened. Yet our friends can't enter that retirement home to see their mom's and dad's while being responsible themselves.

Wow, still with the TP?

I have no problem securing the "environmentally friendly" rolls, which are OK for me.

Does your store require masks?

Here's a video of a Karen threatening to bring a lawsuit against her grocer. Oh well at least she didn't shoot anyone...

https://tuckbot.tv/#/watch/glbmtk

Yeah, sure. I read the other posted article. But how come no one was talking about it way back when? Why I am only hearing about it 50 years after the fact ?

As I have gotten older, I started getting interested in history. When this is all over, I am going to the city library, pull some film rolls and see what my local news paper was printing at that point in time.

TP is starting to become easier to get around here. The last few times I was in the grocery store there was plenty of TP available. It wasn't necessarily my preferred brand, but a few weeks ago you couldn't find any at all. Hand sanitizer is also starting to appear on shelves again. The only thing that's still almost impossible to get where I live are the Clorox/Lysol disinfectant wipes. Unless you are at the store right when they first open in the morning, you don't have a prayer.