COVID-19 resurges in reopened countries; Wuhan sees first cluster in a month:
The World Health Organization on Monday called for continued vigilance as several areas that have eased lockdown restriction began to see a resurgence in COVID-19 cases—and the United States begins unbuttoning as well.
The Chinese city of Wuhan—where the pandemic began last December—saw its first cluster of cases in at least a month. The city began reopening in early April.
The cluster was just six cases: an 89-year-old symptomatic man and five asymptomatic cases. All of the infected lived in the same residential community.
[...] NPR's Emily Feng reported from Beijing that "The rise of such hard-to-detect asymptomatic cases has alarmed public health authorities in China, who have ramped up contact tracing and testing efforts."
China state media announced Tuesday that it has ordered all residents of Wuhan—roughly 11 million persons—to be tested within the next 10 days.
Likewise, the mayor of Seoul shut down bars and restaurants over the weekend—just days after South Korea had eased restrictions and allowed businesses to reopen—due to a spike of 86 new COVID-19 cases. Authorities identified a 29-year-old who visited five nightclubs and a bar while infected with the virus, sparking an outbreak of at least 54 cases, according to NPR. The uptick also led South Korean officials to delay the reopening of schools.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 17 2020, @03:21PM (10 children)
A key thing to remember here is that public infrastructure can't be better, if the economy can't support it. A lot of this privatization is driven by a sort of political triage - keeping the more popular public stuff, privatizing what can be privatized, and discarding the rest.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Monday May 18 2020, @01:42AM (9 children)
Swedens healthcare became more expensive and less effective after privatisation... though it seems I posted my reply (full of links etc...) in the wrong place (previous level).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 18 2020, @05:04PM (8 children)
What privatization? Instead, I read stuff (see page 111) like:
That study dates from 2017.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Monday May 18 2020, @10:32PM (7 children)
So it has the efficiency of the US military then?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:26AM (6 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday May 19 2020, @09:47AM (5 children)
By certain metrics, and when squinted at the right way only 10% of the UKs NHS has been privatised also... except the "public" parts have been forced to outsource their clinical front ends, pathology, equipment maintenance, IT, the list goes on. It's a license to print money, and this private sector drag is painted as public sector waste... and it has certainly turned the NHS into a failure relative to the rest of Western Europe. The same thing is happening here in Australia although we're not as far along in this neoliberal-managed decline. The more sensible and honest Germans put public and private healthcare in a seperate head-to-head matchup, with the private sector failing miserably with only ideological diehards now willing to waste their money on it. I haven't dived into the Swedish numbers specifically, but Swedish healthcares dive tracks the privatisation drive nicely just as in the UK and more recently Australia. Correllation does not equal causation, but from their rising costs and declining metrics after their privatisation drive it's a fair assumption that Sweden has the same termites sinking the more civilised parts of the anglosphere (though I can't speak for Canada).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @06:30PM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:26PM (3 children)
BTW, because public healthcare won a fair fight in Germany the righties busied themselvesfixing that [thetimes.co.uk]. They're closing and or privatising hospitals in the public system even during the pandemic so they can move to the less effective but more profitable Swedish and NHS model. It's no wonder Asia has pulled ahead in healthcare also.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @08:40PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday May 19 2020, @09:35PM (1 child)
OK, free market libertarian and/or libertarian [wikipedia.org] then.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 19 2020, @10:10PM