Coronavirus Part V - 34 cases in ROI, 16 in NI (as of 10 March) *Read warnings in OP*

Longing wrote: »

Shocking what my daughter told me. Yesterday a co worker was saying a friend of his returned on Sunday from Northern Italy from holiday. He said he was not going to self isolate for two weeks has there was nobody at the airport checking incoming flights. My daughter's friend and his mate were in a gem when he was boosting about it. Daughter's friend left immediately.

Selfishness at the highest degree.

Very worrying.

wylo wrote: »

Not sure about this, America has its problems no doubt but I actually think they would seriously do what it takes to end it in USA. I even think if it gets really bad there it may unite them a little. I can already see Trump winning the election on the basis of executing their "Victory" over the enemy Covid19.

The yanks are well able to get their **** together when they have to.

Xertz wrote: »

To be quite honest, the country that I would be most concerned about not handling this very well, and that has the resources to do so, is probably the USA.

I've been talking to some American friends and keeping in touch online and between the climate of conspiracy theories, paranoia and politicisation of information and the fact that people are afraid to come forward for testing due to risk of fees, I would suspect that a lot of people will just get symptoms and stay at home.

I was talking to one friend of mine who's self employed and in a state with very little in the way of social protections and he is concerned that he will simply run out of money if he's quarantined, and there are no real back ups if he does.

On top of that, in the state that he is in (and I'm not naming it but it is one of the classic 'red states') that the whole thing has turned into a political mess and there's just no logical leadership at all coming form the top. You've people buying into conspiracy theories, others seeing it as the coming of 'judgement day' and all sorts of nutty stuff and that is actually represented in the political system there, not just some obscure fringes of the internet.

The US normally had pretty robust infrastructure with the CDC and other federal agencies, but they're being politically undermined too.

I mean, for all the flaws with HSE A&Es being over stuffed, at least Ireland's dealing with these things logically and, even without a new government in place, there's leadership coming from the top and from all parties and everyone's more or less on the same page.

I would also suspect that if it does get bad here, people will pull together, you're not going to get that sense that if there's limited policing the whole society will melt down and turn into looting, whereas you do get that sense in some US cities. Most of the time Ireland functions with very little policing anyway.

Eliana Uptight Caterpillar wrote: »

My friend's boss came back from an undisclosed location (won't tell him) in that general region and won't self isolate either. The boss told him use his annual leave if he insists on staying out and that he wouldn't cooperate with requests for social welfare because he's being hysterical. My friend has a wife who has cancer and a young child with a heart condition. Nice boss.