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Lockdown Fears Loom Large as Coronavirus Second Wave Grips Europe

Lockdown Fears Loom Large as Coronavirus Second Wave Grips Europe

Gemany’s Merkel: “The pandemic is spreading rapidly again, even faster than at the start of it more than half a year ago.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tku9PyTfBSc

Europe is experiencing the full fury of Wuhan coronavirus with the death toll surpassing that of the United States. “Across Europe, the number of infections since the start of the pandemic is now above 8.2 million and more than 258,000 people have died from COVID-19,” French TV network EuroNews confirmed on Saturday.

Germany is among the worst hit, with the number of deaths due to the Chinese virus crossing 10,000 on Saturday. “The rise in infections has spurred a number of local measures to be implemented across the country, and officials have warned of a national lockdown,” public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday issued fresh warning, telling people to stay home. “Please stay at home, wherever possible, whenever possible,” she warned.  ”The pandemic is spreading rapidly again, even faster than at the start of it more than half a year ago.”

Reuters on Saturday reported the worsening situation across the continent:

Europe became the second region after Latin America to surpass 250,000 deaths on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally, with record numbers of daily COVID-19 infections reported in the past two weeks.

Europe reported 200,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday, as many Southern European countries this week reported their highest number of cases in a single day.

Europe accounts for nearly 19% of global deaths and about 22% of global cases, according to a Reuters tally.

Europe reported 200,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday, as many Southern European countries this week reported their highest number of cases in a single day.

Europe accounts for nearly 19% of global deaths and about 22% of global cases, according to a Reuters tally.

The United Kingdom, Italy, France, Russia, Belgium and Spain account for nearly two-thirds of about 250,000 deaths registered until now from a total of about 8 million cases across Europe.

The United Kingdom leads Europe’s death toll with about 45,000 deaths, followed by Italy, Spain, France and Russia.

Two-thirds of France now under night-time curfew. France “confines 46 million of the country’s 67 million people to their homes from 9pm to 6am,” UK daily Indepedent reported. “A second wave of the coronavirus epidemic is now under way in France and Europe. The situation is very serious,” France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex warned.

“The European Union’s disease control agency has joined frantic health workers to sound the alarm over a coronavirus surge across the continent,” TV network France24 reported. “The continent was facing a major threat to public health and a “highly concerning epidemiological situation,” said Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).”

With the cases of the Chinese virus surging again, millions of Europeans are bracing for tougher lockdowns and more economic hardship. “A second wave of covid-19 is now washing over Europe. In many countries the daily numbers of confirmed cases exceed their spring peaks,” British weekly The Economist confirmed. European government “are falling back on blunt measures: shutting restaurants and introducing quarantines and curfews,” the magazine added.

As governments assume emergency powers, many in Europe are questioning the undemocratic powergrab in wake of the pandemic. “Is the coronavirus pandemic undermining German democracy?” German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle asked. “Chancellor Angela Merkel and the state premiers are bypassing parliament in their bid to fight the pandemic,” the news outlet noted.

Given the new lockdown measures, Europe may be heading for another recession, economic data suggest. “Europe’s economy is sliding towards a double-dip recession, with economists warning that rising coronavirus infections and fresh government restrictions on people’s movement are likely to cut short the region’s recent recovery,” London’s Financial Times predicted last week.

Despite sweeping powers in hands of the political class, Europe has fared worse than the United States, both in terms of stemming the outbreak and reviving the economy. “The eurozone’s gross domestic product [which includes Germany and France] fell 40.3% on an annual basis, far exceeding the 32.9% contraction in the U.S. economy” between April-to-June quarter, the Wall Street Journal confirmed.

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Comments

2smartforlibs | October 25, 2020 at 6:03 pm

So Sweden has no issues with no lockdown ever and Germany has issues and going for lockdown number 2. Maybe I’m missing something here but I’m pretty sure even the science says lockdowns don’t work.

    Sweden will survive Covid19, but will die from it’s bad immigration policies.

      JusticeDelivered in reply to TheFineReport.com. | October 25, 2020 at 8:01 pm

      Blonds will stop being born eventually, Sweden’s average IQ will fall close to 85, life will be bleak.

      The only thing which bight save them would being a massive die off of those Muslims.

    Not “the science™” — actual observed evidence. What real, non-“the”, science used to be based on.

    Lockdowns and masks do not work. Lockdowns *might* slow it down for a bit.

    However, comparing countries to each other is of no value. The death rate in Sweden is almost 5 times the German death rate, 2nd wave and all. Germany has a long way to go to match the Swedes.
    We don’t know why this is. It could be as simple as what deaths are counted as chinaVirus deaths. It could be some immunity exists in some countries relative to others.

    I think Sweden handled the chinaVirus about right.

A preview of what to expect here if the Communists seize power.

“Despite sweeping powers in hands of the political class …”

You mean because of?

I wish that stories that lead with “case” numbers would include total test numbers as well. (This is not Legal Insurrection’s fault, as nearly any news source you’re likely to cite omits this critical data.)

It would also help to note that the false positive rate of the SARS-COV2 PCR test ranges as high as 4%, so when virus prevalence is less than that, most of the “positive” tests are false positive.

    Vijeta Uniyal in reply to billdyszel. | October 25, 2020 at 10:39 pm

    I agree. That’s why I went with the death toll. One can question that as well. But that’s what we had to work with.

      MajorWood in reply to Vijeta Uniyal. | October 25, 2020 at 11:41 pm

      I estimate that about 10% of the deaths in Oregon have a significant WuFlu association. The other 90% are really old people and pretty sick people who just happened to get a little push off the cliff from it.

      At this point, I do not know anyone who has died, nor do I know anyone who knows anyone who has died. I don’t even know anyone who has gotten really sick, hence, my not taking this seriously at all approach, starting back around April 1.

      The most dangerous part of WuFlu is that it showed how ignorant and gullible the average American is these days.

    There are no valid numbers when the numbers become a political con game.

    What is a chinaVirus death? How is it counted? What is a case? What is the true rate of false positives? Much higher than 4% IMO.

    randian in reply to billdyszel. | October 26, 2020 at 8:10 am

    They also need to include the level of PCR amplification used to obtain the result.

“I wish that stories that lead with “case” numbers would include total test numbers as well.”

I also wish they would include hospitalization numbers. This would give a far more accurate picture of the seriousness of the situation.

So long as rioters and looters are exempted from lockdown rules, it’s just a hoax. This is a communist takeover attempt and we better be ready.

    It’s all a hoax anyway, and around here they tacitly admit it. Masks for customers are required almost everywhere around here, EXCEPT for in-person voting, where they are optional. Per the gov’s order, all employees of every business are required to wear masks, but not the poll workers. Of the half-dozen people working when I voted, two elderly women wore masks. None of the voters I saw wore masks.

This second wave is entirely consistent with standard behavior of influenza like spread. Simple really, what it boils down to is weather. When cold people go indoors. Indoor transmission is the driver for spread; closer proximity for longer duration equals potential higher viral load.

Nearly every flu season behaves this way. Tapers off in warmer weather and returns in fall. It isn’t the weather tempature, though sunlight is a disinfectamt but rather human behavioral response to tempature change. No surprise here. Add in the smaller homes and apartments in Europe v US and more intergenerational households in Europe and presto!

    Agree with your analysis.

    MajorWood in reply to CommoChief. | October 25, 2020 at 11:51 pm

    Temperature and thus humidity are also factors. As I told people this summer, hold your hand 6″ from your mouth and breathe on it hard. Is it wet? No. OK, now you know how far moisture droplets are traveling at 90 degrees. There is a reason why it is called cold and flu season and why it isn’t from June through September.

      CommoChief in reply to MajorWood. | October 26, 2020 at 9:01 am

      Absolutely, humidity plays a role, as.does outside temperature. The Rona is vulnerable to high temperature.

      However, the human response to temperature is, IMO, the real driver. Folks going inside to avoid cold or heat or worse yet, scared to leave their home except for a trip to the grocery or to work leads to closer and more sustained interaction.

      The texts I have looked at show the expected behavior throughout the year for influenza for every zone. These charts have been almost perfect in predicting the course of the Rona in terms of the spike, plateaus and fall off. The duration and reoccurring as temperature drops in fall is really uncanny.

    Infection cases is how we attain herd immunity. This is a good thing. Yet our politicians blindly follow the advice of the social “scientists” and shut down the economy while suppressing the voices of our medical scientists.

    China is waging biological warfare against the rest of the world to make major tactical moves. They see it as their big historical opportunity to take over the world. Allowing ourselves to be controlled by social distancing and mandatory masks is stupid beyond belief.

    We so need to declare a “National Freedom Day” where everyone agrees, including major corporations like Disney, to start ignoring these unconstitutional decrees and go on with living. These will not survive their day in court. Let’s force the issue before it is too late!

Would be nice if the quest to find the source was in earnest, and the CCP is not allowed to skate.

When all is said and done, will Europe look to China or Trump? It’s already clear with Democrats.

We live in the age of unreason.

The United Kingdom, Italy, France, Russia, Belgium and Spain account for nearly two-thirds of about 250,000 deaths registered until now from a total of about 8 million cases across Europe.

Implying a mortality rate of 3%. Far from the worst thing which has ever happened to Europe.

The basic reporting problem remains. What are “cases”? Test positives? Hospitalizations? Illness not requiring hospitalization? Which deaths are caused by the virus, and in how many is the virus merely a “co-morbidity”?

    Mortality rates vary directly with age. To have a mortality rate as high as 3%, they must have an enormous number of cases among the elderly, or they are just not *testing* anybody except for hospital admissions to skew the numbers because the average mortality rate for those below 70 is just around 1% depending on treatment.

    Every single country in the world is using a different yardstick to measure these numbers. Different testing methods, different reporting criteria, differet treatments, different policies on testing people who died post mortum, different policies on reporting the cause of death, et al… We can’t even establish an international baseline on what a C19 death can be defined as, so the numbers are near-useless. All we can say for certain is this disease is nowhere near as deadly as polio/mumps/measles/or any other disease we vaccinate for regularly, and thus do not worry about any more.

    Wear a mask in public around other people. Wash your hands. Stay home if you feel sick. Quarantine the ill. Let the healthy get on with their lives.

    venril in reply to tom_swift. | October 26, 2020 at 8:57 am

    As another famous statesman once (is reported to have) said, “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”

    A truth deeper than an election.

Cut the drama, Angela.

El Paso County TX just this evening imposed a 10PM – 5AM curfew. ICU are at capacity and a bit more. Supposedly setting up about 50 beds is the convention center. The ‘old Ft Bliss’ hospital will be accepting up to two hundred or so non-covid patients.

The issue we have as a border city is that…we are a border city. Lots of traffic, legitimate, across the border to Juarez. This spring when we at our peak Rona cases we were accepting all patients no questions asked. That’s a humanitarian response. Obviously it isn’t a practical way to ration a scarce resource; ICU beds. Same with much of the testing. No questions asked, no contact trace.

My wife tested positive last week. She is healthy and has very mild symptoms. However, no questions about members of the household and who we may have been in contact with. This isn’t the way to run this but in an overwhelmingly d city; home of Beto, what did I really expect?

    “ICU are at capacity and a bit more”

    Sorry to hear about your wife, hope she recovers quickly.

    Do you know what the percentage of your beds are chinaVirus victims? I ask because in many cases the ICU beds are filling up with those that put off treatment of other illness. As my sister the pulmonary specialist put it – “we have the number of ICU beds to meet the needs, and only a few more”. In normal times the ICU beds are near capacity in many hospitals.

      CommoChief in reply to Barry. | October 26, 2020 at 8:48 am

      The vast majority are Rona cases. We are spiking again, which should not be unexpected all things considered. Have aver 11,000 active cases. The last few days have seen several hundred new cases per day.

      The real problem that is the ‘elephant in the room’ is cross border traffic. There are many folks from Juarez who come to El Paso daily for shopping and employment. Likewise many cross the other way into Juarez to visit relatives.

      I suspect that, just as happened this spring, lots of the test positive are folks coming cross border to get tested. Not just from Juarez, we had folks coming from New Mexico as well. Likewise the ICU and hospitalization is likely to, again just as in the spring, have a high percentage of ‘non El Paso’ residents.

      The problem with this humanitarian approach is that we are not being transparent about it. During a public health ’emergency’ choices have to be made, sometimes unpleasant choices. The public isn’t given the information necessary to evaluate the choices being made. All information regarding who the ICU patients are by composition is very vague. Lots of anodyne statements about serving ‘the sick’, not rejecting anyone etc.

      CommoChief in reply to Barry. | October 26, 2020 at 10:43 am

      This Monday morning there are 12,500+ active Rona cases being reported for El Paso County. Airlift to other cities for ICU hospitalization being ‘coordinated’, though no specifics on Rona v other patients.

      In addition to the proposed 50 beds for Rona at convention center now temporary tent facility under discussion.

      IMO, I will believe in a true crisis when cross border traffic is halted. Until then, it’s lots of window dressing.

        rscalzo in reply to CommoChief. | October 26, 2020 at 11:23 am

        Other countries closed borders. canada did it. Until the southern border is closed why bother?

        Will everyone wake up when hospitals are overrun with those coming in from Mexico?

This virus is going to run its course no matter how much we hide from it.

    rscalzo in reply to Whitewall. | October 26, 2020 at 11:26 am

    Trimp said it.

    The media ran with it. But they ignore what he pulled off with vaccine developement. Politicians would still be discussing it looking for more red tape to add.

Pathogens welcome. With every lockdown, mitigation, and avoidance to address the virus and disease progression, they sustain safe sanctuaries for the virus to spread and occupy their vulnerable population.

Lucifer Morningstar | October 26, 2020 at 7:12 am

But . . . but . . . I was under the impression that Germany and the other European countries followed and obeyed The Science(tm) when it came to The Covid(tm) and therefore wasn’t going to suffer a huge second wave of infections and deaths. So what the hell happened. Was The Science(tm) wrong or what.

The pandemic is spreading rapidly again

So what? What are deaths and symptomatic cases doing? That these numbers aren’t being promoted shows the panic to be a manufactured one. If “cases” mattered people would be dying left and right. They aren’t, I bet Europe’s death rate isn’t significantly increasing if it’s increasing at all.

Chinese biowarfare. The west was pushing against Chinese expansion: they pushed back.

    Lucifer Morningstar in reply to venril. | October 26, 2020 at 12:14 pm

    The CCP didn’t like the fact that treatments and possibly cures for The Covid were being developed as quickly as they were so they’ve introduced a slightly mutated version of the original virus to re-infect the West and cause even more economic and social chaos with new lockdowns and quarantines. (All the while the CCP/Chinese economy is perking along just fine, thank you very much.)

Unless rigorously defined, I really despise the use of “Europe” as a comparison group of any type. What is Europe? Which countries are included? Western Europe? Eastern Europe? All of the European countries? +/- Scandinavia?

Europe is heterogeneous. If one wants to paint an agenda driven picture, one can select whichever region currently supports the point being made, and conveniently leave out other regions.

This is not specifically a rant against this story, just generally against the use of “Europe” in news stories on the Wuhan Coronavirus. I rarely see “Europe” defined in these stories, and that makes me wary

    CommoChief in reply to bigskydoc. | October 26, 2020 at 10:35 am

    Ok. That’s reasonable. Personally I’ve always been taught that Europe is generally defined as West of Istanbul/Constantinople. Though the Dardanelles would do just as well geographically. Culturally, I suppose the area’s immediately to the East and South of Istanbul/Constantinople would be included but then we drift into splitting hairs about cultural influence upon people/society v simple geography.