Category Archives: Economics

Jeopardizing people’s health.

The Washington Post: ‘People are just being dishonest’: Parents are sending coronavirus-infected kids to school, Wisconsin officials warn. “As authorities in suburban Milwaukee gamed out the complex preparations to allow children back into classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic, they didn’t plan for one scenario: parents deliberately sending infected kids to school.
Yet that’s exactly what’s happened multiple times in Washington and Ozaukee counties, health officials said this week.”

The Washington Post: The code: How genetic science helped expose a secret coronavirus outbreak. “POSTVILLE, Iowa — It wasn’t until their colleagues began to disappear that workers at Agri Star Meat and Poultry realized there was a killer in their midst.
First came the rumors that rabbis at the kosher plant had been quarantined. Then a man who worked in the poultry department fell ill. They heard whispers about friends of friends who had been stricken with scorching fevers and unbearable chills — characteristic symptoms of the novel coronavirus.
Where was the contagion coming from?”

“It’s unclear why the state did not report the full number of positive antibody tests. But at least 20 percent and as many as 29 percent of Agri Star workers contracted the coronavirus between mid-March and early May. These numbers, which Guerrero confirmed, clearly exceed the CDC’s recommended definition for an outbreak — two or more linked cases of a disease — and likely meet Iowa’s 10 percent threshold.
Health experts and worker advocates have criticized Iowa’s metric, which was adapted from an older policy for monitoring flu outbreaks in schools.
Covid-19 is far more contagious and virulent than the flu, said Jan Flora, a sociology professor at Iowa State University. “To use the same threshold means that the state and the meatpacking plant will always be attempting to close the barn door after the horse has escaped.“
In denying The Post’s request for Agri Star’s case numbers, the Iowa Department of Public Health said it only released information about workplaces in cases of “active viral infection.” In other words, because the state took so long to test workers, the peak of the outbreak had already passed — so Iowa never had to acknowledge that the outbreak occurred at all.“

Emphasis mine.

“Trump hat einen unglaublichen Machtinstinkt.”

Deutsche Welle: Philosoph Hösle: Trump zeigt “klassische Strategie eines Diktators”. “Für den Philosophen Vittorio Hösle steht das transatlantische Verhältnis an einem Scheideweg. Im Falle einer Wiederwahl von US-Präsident Trump hält er ein Auseinanderfallen für möglich.”

“Falls Trump als Präsident wiedergewählt wird…
…wird es um die Einheit des Westens noch viel schlimmer stehen als jetzt schon. Aus dem Bolton-Bericht wissen wir, dass Trump eigentlich aus der NATO austreten wollte. Und im Falle seiner Wiederwahl würde er jede weitere Gelegenheit nutzen, die europäischen Länder zu demütigen. In seinem Weltbild spielt Europa kaum eine Rolle. Er hat im Grunde das Weltbild eines Mobsters, eines Clanchefs, der die Welt in Einflusssphären einteilt nach dem Motto “Dieser Teil der Stadt ist für meine Drogenhändler, der andere ist für dich”. Ansonsten hat er keinerlei Verständnis für Verfassung oder Gewaltenteilung. Das verachtet er alles. Deshalb: Wenn er wiedergewählt wird, wird es noch düsterer werden.”

“Vittorio Hösle, am 25. Juni 1960 als Sohn einer italienischer Mutter und eines deutschen Vaters in Mailand geboren, lehrt seit rund 20 Jahren an der University of Notre Dame im US.Bundesstaat Indiana.Zuvor war er an Universitäten in Deutschland und der Schweiz tätig und leitete das Forschungsinstitut für Philosophie in Hannover. Hösle ist Beiratsmitglied im “Komitee für eine Demokratische UNO“. Papst Franziskus berief ihn 2013 in die Päpstliche Akademie der Sozialwissenschaften.”

Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance

Tomas Pueyo: Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance. “What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time”. (March 19, 2020)

Here’s the Epidemic Calculator that is being used in the article.

Older article by the same author: Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now. “Politicians, Community Leaders and Business Leaders: What Should You Do and When?” (March 10, 2020)

Deutsche Übersetzung: Coronavirus: Warum du jetzt handeln musst!.

Here in Germany all schools and daycare facilities have been closed for one week already and will remain so for at least the next four weeks.

Our state and our county have issued a general decree, imposing the following rules starting last night at midnight: All public places are closed, including roads. People are not allowed to leave their houses except to go to work, or to the doctor, or to shop for essential groceries. Gatherings of more than five people are prohibited. However, you are still allowed to go for walks by yourself or with people living in your own household if you keep at least two metres (six feet) of distance to other people. The decree is in effect for at least two weeks. (Our county shares a border with the Grand-Est region of France to the South, which has been declared an international risk area.)