On one side people say Australia has so many advantages because they are isolated. But...
Talk about geography helping to isolate - North Dakota should have been the last bastion of infection and should have been able to easily control it with proper public health measures with contact tracing. No international flights - although North Dakota has an interstate highway, it is off the beaten path and too far North and reconnects with the more southern highway so most people take I-90 to the North West. ND is Very, very isolated.

You have to make an effort to see someone in North Dakota, big yards, low population density. It seems like NoDak residents are rubbing their noses with each others face masks as a greeting. I don't know how else such a low-density/remote population can manage to inoculate each other so efficiently. Sloppy, lazy, anti-science, manipulated, fake news, who knows? Just a lot of sadness in North Dakota.

Australia : 27M population, 27k infections, 909 deaths. 387k tests/million population: percent urban population 82%
North Dakota: 762k population, 77k infections, 902 deaths. 454k tests/million population: percent urban population 60%

IMO the prime reason ND and the surrounding areas are getting hit hard now is:

It's cold there and it's going to stay cold.

It's no surprise cases are increasing here in the Northern hemi while while decreasing after winter waves in the Southern Hemi.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/27/analysis-prepare-for-the-second-wave-of-the-coronavirus



https://www.the-sun.com/news/1098784/winter-trigger-second-coronavirus-wave/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/us/coronavirus-cold-weather-winter-alaska.html

PALMER, Alaska — Over the summer months, Alaska’s restaurants filled up, the state invited tourists to come explore and fisheries workers arrived by the thousands to live in crowded bunkhouses. And yet the coronavirus remained largely in check.
Of course, Alaska had the benefit of isolation and wide-open spaces. But officials had also developed a containment effort unlike any other in the country, doing more testing than almost every other state and then tracking every person who came back positive with an army of contact tracers, following up with daily phone calls for those infected and all their close contacts.
It paid off: Even with the extensive search for possible infections, Alaska was recording some of the fewest coronavirus cases per capita in the nation.
Now, as temperatures begin dipping back below freezing and sunset arrives with dinner, the state’s social gatherings, recreational activities and restaurant seating have started moving indoors — and the virus has seized new opportunities. With new case clusters emerging throughout the state, the acclaimed contact tracing system has grown strained.

Along with cold-season gatherings moving into more confined spaces, there is evidence that the coronavirus is more virulent in colder weather and lower relative humidities. Dr. Mohammad Sajadi, who studies infectious diseases at the University of Maryland, was among the researchers who examined global trends in the early part of the pandemic and saw a weather correlation.

Dr. Sajadi said there could be a range of factors: Researchers have found that some viruses persist longer in colder and drier conditions; that aerosolized viruses can remain more stable in cooler air; that viruses can replicate more swiftly in such conditions; and that human immune systems may respond differently depending on seasons.

 

IMO the prime reason ND and the surrounding areas are getting hit hard now is:

It's cold there and it's going to stay cold.

How naive - the exponential growth started when the weather was beautiful...

and do you have some "Opposite World" explanation for why Australia was able to keep the virus at bay all summer (I mean, during their winter)?

 

How naive - the exponential growth started when the weather was beautiful...

View attachment 223499

So are you saying weather (cold, decreases in sunlight Vitamin D, etc ..) has no effect by that simple statement or every model that predicted a fall/winter wave depended on fools not following simple rules.

Weather influences human behavior and the coronavirus environment. Social behavior in the north is environmentally driven and seasonal. It's likely IMO that social behavior and a enhanced transmission environment is driving cases in locations where cases were much lower in summer.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/08/1009650/winter-will-make-the-pandemic-worse/

Nonetheless, scientists are pulling together a picture of how the pandemic is likely to play out this winter. They are drawing on lab studies and a rapidly growing body of epidemiological data. In particular, they now better understand how lower temperatures and humidity affect the virus, and how different indoor conditions affect its transmission.

The results are not encouraging. “All the factors we associate with colder weather are looking like they will potentially accelerate the virus’s transmission,” says Richard Neher, a computational biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who is developing simulations of how coronavirus spreads through a room.

 

So are you saying weather (cold, decreases in sunlight Vitamin D, etc ..) has no effect by th

No, I'm saying (and my chart above is saying) the North Dakota infections were being transmitted long before the cold weather was keeping people indoors like you said in post 4162...

the prime reason ND and the surrounding areas are getting hit hard now is:

It's cold there and it's going to stay cold.

Or didn't you mean in that way?

 

No, I'm saying (and my chart above is saying) the North Dakota infections were being transmitted long before the cold weather was keeping people indoors like you said in post 4162...


Or didn't you mean in that way?

Most people would know that 'cold' means changes that include human behaviors due to weather changes. For you I guess it required explaining it in detail.

Some other curves. The exponential numbers match the change in seasons to 'cold'.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7489729/canada-coronavirus-cases-nov-27/

Even the models of low cases during the summer Japan and South Korea have seasonal increasing cases.
https://apnews.com/article/family-g...andemic-asia-6bde234b77760a022779e5bb40d533be


https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/C...-hospitalizations-creep-toward-critical-point

 

I'm sure you're right, the "cold" brings people closer together to inoculate each other. Nothing to do with certain groups insisting on packing kids into school buildings to share spittle with everyone in their community. In case there are no cases in a particular community, it was essentially to play interscholastic contact sports to share the wealth.

cold is the answer. Just like someone said - it really went away as it warmed up last April.

 

 

I'm sure you're right, the "cold" brings people closer together to inoculate each other. Nothing to do with certain groups insisting on packing kids into school buildings to share spittle with everyone in their community. In case there are no cases in a particular community, it was essentially to play interscholastic contact sports to share the wealth.

cold is the answer. Just like someone said - it really went away as it warmed up last April.

Digging a deeper hole I see. Sure, kids in school is a risk but so is buying a bottle of booze at the package store during the Pandemic. The risks of keeping them closed must be scientifically considered.

"As a pediatrician, I am really seeing the negative impacts of these school closures on children," Dr. Danielle Dooley, a medical director at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., told NPR. She ticked off mental health problems, hunger, obesity due to inactivity, missing routine medical care and the risk of child abuse — on top of the loss of education. "Going to school is really vital for children. They get their meals in school, their physical activity, their health care, their education, of course."

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925794511/were-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated

Despite widespread concerns, two new international studies show no consistent relationship between in-person K-12 schooling and the spread of the coronavirus. And a third study from the United States shows no elevated risk to childcare workers who stayed on the job.

Combined with anecdotal reports from a number of U.S. states where schools are open, as well as a crowdsourced dashboard of around 2,000 U.S. schools, some medical experts are saying it's time to shift the discussion from the risks of opening K-12 schools to the risks of keeping them closed.

'Cold' alone is not an answer and this has nothing to do with misguided inoculation or immunity protections from natural infection. The relationship between coronavirus infection and human behavior has a bias that's affected by the background environment. With mass changes to that environment it's only logical to look at what effect that has on the whole. Living through it is the only learn exactly how changes in the weather affect the pandemic but that don't stop people from looking while it's happening.

 

Rednecks and hillbillies pass the virus around when they gather to protest lockdowns without wearing masks and no social distancing.
Poor families live together with many generations or even together with many different families. They get the virus then continue going to work and shop knowing that they are infected but if they quarantine then they are afraid of losing their job and paychecks.

 

Digging a deeper hole I see. Sure, kids in school is a risk but so is buying a bottle of booze at the package store during the Pandemic. The risks of keeping them closed must be scientifically considered.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925794511/were-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated


'Cold' alone is not an answer and this has nothing to do with misguided inoculation or immunity protections from natural infection. The relationship between coronavirus infection and human behavior has a bias that's affected by the background environment. With mass changes to that environment it's only logical to look at what effect that has on the whole. Living through it is the only learn exactly how changes in the weather affect the pandemic but that don't stop people from looking while it's happening.

Well, that was a long way of saying you're either changing your mind or not changing your mind or waiting until winter is actually here to tell me what correction you meant to tell me before changing your mind. Did I get that right?

 

Rednecks and hillbillies pass the virus around when they gather to protest lockdowns without wearing masks and no social distancing.
Poor families live together with many generations or even together with many different families. They get the virus then continue going to work and shop knowing that they are infected but if they quarantine then they are afraid of losing their job and paychecks.

That's a factor in the total virus transmission equation but IMO just a small factor in the world-wide pandemic or even across the USA. Those Rednecks and hillbillies should be on the priority list for vaccines so they don't spread it to the rich.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29356350/

The first wave hits the poor, the second wave hits the rich

 

Well, that was a long way of saying you're either changing your mind or not changing your mind or waiting until winter is actually here to tell me what correction you meant to tell me before changing your mind. Did I get that right?

It's saying I'm waiting for more evidence to confirm present data and past experience.

 

It's saying I'm waiting for more evidence to confirm present data and past experience.

That's good to hear. It's a great relief that you're going to stop making your sweeping nonsense claims.

 

https://apnews.com/article/joe-bide...rus-pandemic-c48ec4c1f50387918fbe293b3bbacacb

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered at least two people executed, banned fishing at sea and locked down the capital, Pyongyang, as part of frantic efforts to guard against the coronavirus and its economic damage, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Friday.

North Korea has maintained that it hasn’t found a single coronavirus case on its soil, a claim disputed by outside experts, although it says it is making all-out efforts to prevent the virus’s spread.

The cure in NK.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11...-to-baby-with-coronavirus-antibodies/12932968

A Singaporean woman who was infected with COVID-19 in March when she was pregnant has given birth to a baby with antibodies against the virus, offering a new clue as to whether the infection can be transferred from mother to child.

 

https://apnews.com/article/joe-bide...rus-pandemic-c48ec4c1f50387918fbe293b3bbacacb

North Korea has maintained that it hasn’t found a single coronavirus case on its soil, a claim disputed by outside experts, although it says it is making all-out efforts to prevent the virus’s spread.

The cure in NK.

Those guys in the green circle were put in an odd position. Show your weapons but don't point them at the man in the suit. The guy in the red circle didn't follow the order - he just hid the gun behind is note pad.

 

https://scienceooze.com/covid-19-va...riority-to-people-with-learning-disabilities/

The news was not completely surprising, but reinforced the worst fears of many organisations, family carers and health practitioners helping people with learning disabilities – that this invisible killer has caused a massively disproportionate toll on one of the most disadvantaged segments of the population.

According to a study released by Public Health England earlier in November on the basis of the early months of the pandemic, people with learning disabilities are more than six times more likely to die from Covid-19 than the general population.

 

That bastion of rednecks and hillbilly's called New York City is reopening schools to force the spit throwing children out of the single-wide trailer while the parents drink moonshine in peace.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/nov/29/new-york-city-public-schools-to-reopen

New York City’s public schools will begin to reopen for in-person learning on 7 December , starting with elementary schools for students whose parents agree to a weekly testing regimen for the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday.

The schools were closed less than two weeks ago after the citywide rate of coronavirus tests coming back positive exceeded a 3% benchmark agreed to by the mayor and teachers’ union.

“It’s a new approach because we have so much proof now of how safe schools can be,” de Blasio told reporters on Sunday, adding the 3% benchmark was being scrapped and pointing to research that shows young children appear to be less vulnerable to Covid-19.

 

Ha, at 3-4% test positivity rates you call them hillbillies. What is your name for the people in states like South Dakota with statewide 15% and counties like Hansen county, SD with 44% positive tests?

 

How quickly we forget though...

Just a few things from last year:

https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/chaos-...atient-death-sask-nurses-union-says-1.4673973

https://www.vicnews.com/news/infogr...-hospitals-are-in-fraser-valley-northern-b-c/

The lower article talks about area where I live. It is very large with low population density and very limited resources. Our hospital was always overcapacity because they could not discharge patients due to lack of support services. When COVID "hit" (we got our first case a few weeks ago BTW), they emptied out the hospital. I cannot help but wonder about what happened to those people as we did not really get more support services.

I expect more people dying in near future from unadressed chronic issues etc.