CoronaVirus ==> Empty Shelves

[GraemeCook]

......he started every roadwork project you could think of (except for the East-West link, which was the only one he should have been doing anyway). ....

Melbourne ..... East-West Link ..... ????????

Melbourne social demographics raise two questions:

• Why would anyone in the East want to go to the West?
• Why should anyone in the West be allowed to go to the East?

[GraemeCook]

Jaysus Peter, did you actually read that tosh from Albrechtsen? .....

Who still reads albrechtsen???? Or the cohort of news ltd "journalists" huddling to the right of rupert and his commercial interests.

I must be getting old, but I can remember the young Rupert who thought that to create an interesting paper you had to employ both Karl Marx and Ghengis Khan. Remember when the Australian's stable included the likes of Paddy McGuinness and Mungo MacCullum and Pickering?

[GraemeCook]

.....
We have already seen the US refusing to supply Canada with face masks, despite the fact that Canada supplies the US with the raw materials to make them. ....

????? How much cotton is grown in Canada?

[Chesand]

Melbourne ..... East-West Link ..... ????????

Melbourne social demographics raise two questions:

• Why would anyone in the East want to go to the West?
• Why should anyone in the West be allowed to go to the East?

Now, now, not nice.

[woodhutt]

????? How much cotton is grown in Canada?

As I understand it Graeme they're made from a specific type of woodpulp which Canada exports to the US.
Pete

Mitch Garber, an investor and member of the Order of Canada, wrote: "Today Canadians are deeply disappointed in @realDonaldTrump's actions regarding the availability of @3M masks in Canada. It's worth noting that these masks are made with Canadian produced pulp, & Canada will not withhold that pulp, because that is not how countries act."

[Bushmiller]

Melbourne ..... East-West Link ..... ????????

????

Not being from Melbourne, could it be for the continued supply of toilet rolls?

Regards
Paul

[doug3030]

Melbourne ..... East-West Link ..... ????????

Melbourne social demographics raise two questions:

• Why would anyone in the East want to go to the West?
• Why should anyone in the West be allowed to go to the East?

It's not so much the east or the west that are the problems - it's the bits in the middle

[BobL]

Really interesting case study of SARS-2 transmission in a Chinese restaurant

Early Release - COVID-19 Outbreak Associated with Air Conditioning in Restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020 - Volume 26, Number 7—July 2020 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC

A1 was the infector - the other red circles were the Infectees - note dates at which affected diners were picked up.
It looks like the AC (which was recycling air in the room) was able to drag SARS-2 from A1 back to infect C1 and C2.
This is almost certainly droplet transmission.

Screen Shot 2020-04-12 at 4.22.58 pm.jpg

[Sturdee]

Melbourne ..... East-West Link ..... ????????

Melbourne social demographics raise two questions:

• Why would anyone in the East want to go to the West?
• Why should anyone in the West be allowed to go to the East?

I wasn't going to comment on the East West link but since others have I'll chime in with what I know.

The link did not proceed because the cost would never be recovered by the projected usage as it would only generate 20% of the operating cost of the tunnels, so the secret agreement reached by the then government was for all major roads between East and West would also be tolled. This included the roads leading onto the Westgate bridge, the old Princes Highway, the Western ring road and a few others.

All these roads would be tolled at the same toll cost as the East West link tolls, effectively dividing the city in two.

Peter.

[woodPixel]

Maybe Aus, NZ and Japan for example should be looking at a collaborative pharmaceutical industry...

Recently I spoke with our local pharmacist about this. He is a compounding chemist. I had a joke with him that there are enough meth-head junkies in the suburb that we could press them into service brewing stuff up!

He wasn't amused (probably heard that 50 thousand times over the years).

He stated, resignedly, that even IF we could get all the right gear and right people in the right place, that ALL the precursors used for literally everything are made either in China or India.

These precursors are apparently not easy to make. Bits for various drugs come in from a dozen places, apparently. Most of the stuff we use here is assembled in Malaysia/Philippines.

He said China/India have an economic stranglehold on production and that no pharma would dream of touching that area as it would get killed by price. Even with this plague, he said that it would take years to crank up any local facility to the levels we'd need.

In his estimation, not do-able.

His advice, as he was shaking various boxes, would be to try like hell to get off anything and everything you can... cos it might not be on the shelf in 6 months... or ever....


..
..
(I need to loose weight, get fit, eat properly, sleep well, drink more water, loose the depression, drop the blood pressure, fix the cholesterol.... loose 20 years of age...) sigh.....

[NeilS]

I enjoyed reading this article in the SMH (currently free access) that I thought highlights the best of us.

A force for good: how the coronavirus crisis is sweetening our collective tune

[GraemeCook]

I enjoyed reading this article in the SMH (currently free access) that I thought highlights the best of us.

A force for good: how the coronavirus crisis is sweetening our collective tune

Thanks, Neil.

So rare to see main stream media publishing good news stories these days.

[NeilS]

Really interesting case study of SARS-2 transmission in a Chinese restaurant

Early Release - COVID-19 Outbreak Associated with Air Conditioning in Restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020 - Volume 26, Number 7—July 2020 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC

A1 was the infector - the other red circles were the Infectees - note dates at which affected diners were picked up. It looks like the AC (which was recycling air in the room) was able to drag SARS-2 from A1 back to infect C1 and C2. This is almost certainly droplet transmission.

What precludes person A1=> crockery/utensils => to staff hands when clearing items from table => to new crockery/utensil for table B and C => to persons on table B and C.

With no reported staff infection that reduces the likelihood of that transmission pathway.

However, it is proper etiquette in China to lift your eating bowl (not the serving bowls or plates) close to your mouth while eating. It is not unreasonable to think that droplets could be deposited on the bowl while eating and that these could then be transferred to a staff member's hands when removing eating bowls and chopsticks from the table, then transfer the virus onto the new crockery/utensil for table B and C. The research letter reports that the infected persons on all three tables were present during an overlapping period. So, this is an alternative explanation to transfer via the air conditioning. I'm not sure if this alternative explanation may not have cultural/political sensitivities and was not raised for that reason or it could simply be that the order of table service, etc, may have eliminate this explanation, but that was not reported on in the research letter.

The cruise ship phenomena has given aircon transmission some legs, but I would have thought that food service (east or west) is just as likely to be the explanation, plus all of the other possibilities like stairway railings, lift buttons, etc, etc. are just as likely.

[clear out]

No chance of cross infection when a few mates and myself used to go to Chinese restaurants 40 years ago.
We’d put the full esky down next to us and a few locals would ease out the door.
Once we had a few and Al would start laughing the rest would soon follow.
We weren’t swearing or arguing, just bloody loud.
No droplets were ever exhaled but the peas and carrots had been known to be sprayed from moving vehicles. If you got the window down in time.
I just sit and grin when the missus and I are in a restaurant nowadays and some young una are having a good time.
Karma I reckon.

[BobL]

Some Good points Neil,
Maybe if it was staff transfer one might also expect diners elsewhere in the restaurant to be affected?