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Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

bbc.com

231–240 of 915 posts

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#231

It seems like these actions taken by governments will ultimately be futile, so the question is: can a vaccine or effective antiviral be developed fast enough to be worth the ~2-4 months of "slow spread" that can be bought in exchange for the economic and social slowdowns a country will sustain by creating massive quarantines like this? While an authoritarian government may be better suited to positively addressing so…

It's all about to slow it down so that hospitals are not overwhelmed, nobody hope to block the contagion from spreading

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Comments like yours have no place on HN What ? Think about that.

The downvotes sum up you guys, you cant see a good thing in front of you. The irony is futurama level.

You're downvoted because you seem like you're hysterical over their comment and losing your shit.

I don't understand why the topic of coronavirus does this to people.

Just talk more civilly and make your point. Instead your comments read more like disjointed, frantic tweets. Get a grip.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#233
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lockdown in Italy is a concept that is difficult to enforce. And it's probably very different to what it means in China or even just South Korea or any other more organised and centrally governed country in Europe like France. But in essence: Schools are closed until next month. People can still move around freely for work reasons, and in general people still work in offices. Bars and restaurants close after 18pm. Sh…

Completely random and off-topic. I'm in the US and used to 12-hour time. I personally prefer 24-hour time, and am comfortable with 18:00 or similar for a time indicator. I don't know that I've ever seen a 24-hour time with am/pm attached to it. Is this common?

To feed off your random comment, I live in the US as well but switched all of my clocks (that I was able to) over to 24-hour time a few years ago. It just makes more sense to me. But everybody around me thinks I'm some sort of weirdo for it.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The united states is going to fare a lot worse. Their president is actively contradicting his own experts and essentially encouraging people to go on spreading the disease. It's going to be a clusterfuck.

People in other countries put too much weight in what the president says, Trump or otherwise, because they don't fully understand that there is an entire system of government that can fully function with or without the president. I won't go so far as to say that the position of the president is a figurehead, but it's been more than a little advisory for several generations. I watch a lot of BBC, NHK, and DW, and see…

In this case the President has weaponized the virus as a political issue. A sizeable number of people in the country don't believe that it's a serious issue and won't until their local hospitals are literally overrun. Maybe even not then.

I believe you are seriously underestimating the effect of chaff being thrown into the air over this issue on a number of fronts. It makes it much, much harder to have people follow public health advice or put pressure on lawmakers to pass the necessary appropriations that will be required to address the situation.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#235
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

National debt is merely a number's game. ECB can simply eat it. They are suffering from deflation after all and they could use some inflationary move. Debt accounting for the national governments is there to enforce financial discipline in normal times. Right now it is much more akin to war time. Evenly distributing the pain through bond and currency holders will be seen as just compared to the lives that can be save…

National debt may be a numbers game, but it's not merely that. There's nothing simple about any ECB decision on monetary policy, and the composition of the EU when combined with the nature of the Euro is such that pain almost by definition can't be evenly distributed.

ECB already implicitly backs every country's bonds. They just need to stick to their stance. After the crisis is over there will be time to work out the cost sharing among European countries.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#236

What surprises me is the number of deaths in relation to the number of infections. Even higher than Iran where I would expect less effective patient management than in northern Italy. What is your opinion on this?

Iran's numbers are either undercounted or under reported.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The united states is going to fare a lot worse. Their president is actively contradicting his own experts and essentially encouraging people to go on spreading the disease. It's going to be a clusterfuck.

People in other countries put too much weight in what the president says, Trump or otherwise, because they don't fully understand that there is an entire system of government that can fully function with or without the president. I won't go so far as to say that the position of the president is a figurehead, but it's been more than a little advisory for several generations. I watch a lot of BBC, NHK, and DW, and see…

> there is an entire system of government that can fully function with or without the president.

Except when a major global catastrophe hits, like a pandemic, the response requires massive coordination across local, state, and federal levels. What he says now may not be so relevant but the president's lack of appoints to key executive branch positions within the CDC and the rest of the healthcare apparatus (including eliminating health related positions from the National Security Council, one of the most important multi-agency coordination bodies) has drastically hampered the COVID-19 response effort.

People from other countries more often tend to underestimate the sheer scale and complexity created by a local-state-federal separation of powers weighed down by over two hundred years of judicial baggage and thousands of miles of geography. In a crisis like this, even figuring out who has legal jurisdiction and authority is complicated. Doing it without an effective executive body, whose job is to navigate and command that mess, is far more difficult.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The united states is going to fare a lot worse. Their president is actively contradicting his own experts and essentially encouraging people to go on spreading the disease. It's going to be a clusterfuck.

People in other countries put too much weight in what the president says, Trump or otherwise, because they don't fully understand that there is an entire system of government that can fully function with or without the president. I won't go so far as to say that the position of the president is a figurehead, but it's been more than a little advisory for several generations. I watch a lot of BBC, NHK, and DW, and see…

As if European countries worked differently...

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#239

I was not very surprised that Italy turned out to be the (first?) major hit in Europe. Considering the strong business connections, it had to be either us or Germany. We are, as much of the world, importers from China, but many enterprises here are also, somewhat, strong exporters to China (I can see it from my dayjob as industrial automation SI), and if you factor in the small average size of Italian companies requi…

> I was not very surprised that Italy turned out to be the (first?) major hit in Europe.

It’s not surprising. Out of the EU members, Italy and Greece are the most disorganized. Germany is the most organized, culturally and economically, and probably best prepared for this.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#240
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with this is that a 14 day total economic halt will be devastating. Even assuming all office workers work remote basic social structure will be endangered. The hospitals need to stay open, people need to keep operating water and electricity utilities, food distribution needs to continue as many do not have 14 days of stock at home. It is not about those dams politician that only care about reelection numb…

> The problem with this is that a 14 day total economic halt will be devastating. Yup, gotta protect that shareholder value! sigh

You do understand that 99.9% of businesses in Italy are small and medium companies with fewer than 250 employees [1], yes?

[1] http://doitbetter.info/smes-overview/

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