COVID-19:  Why are we not talking about Taiwan?

The international comparisons of Wuhan virus impact are fascinating.  Some things jump out at you. Canada and Australia are very similar in many ways but their virus story is very different.  Canada 95,269 cases; 7,717 deaths.  Australia 7,251 cases; 102 deaths.  Australia has a markedly conservative government and has had for some time.  Canada we all know about.

But with 443 cases and 7 deaths, Taiwan is the real standout. So why are we ignoring that?  Taiwan is politically contentious so that is clearly the reason but it does mean that information about it is sparse.

With a population of 24 million people (similar to Australia) it is not insignificant among nations.  I give below what Time magazine says about it:

Taiwan has managed a truly admirable response in less-than-ideal circumstances, despite being next door to China. Rather than shuttering its economy for weeks on end in an attempt to slow the virus, the self-governing island went another way—after quickly closing its borders and banning exports of surgical masks, the government used contact tracing and mobile SIM tracking to ensure those in quarantine were actually abiding by the rules. Taiwan has a single-payer health care system. Medical officials held briefings for the public daily, and businesses were kept open with aggressive precautionary measures like taking temperatures and providing sanitizer before patrons could enter. Taiwan’s response ranks among the world’s best.

With no lockdowns they had a LOW death rate.  That adds to an increasing body of evidence that lockdowns are a mistake that should have been abandoned long ago.  Other measures should have been used

SOURCE

**********************************

Sweden's coronavirus death rate is now falling FASTER than the UK's despite never having a lockdown

Sweden's coronavirus death rate is now falling faster than the UK's even though the country avoided having a lockdown.

Sweden registered 1.6 deaths per million people on Thursday which was higher overall than the 1.4 deaths registered in the UK. But the country's death rate has fallen by 2.51 deaths per million since June 9, when it was the highest in Europe at 4.12.

In the same time period the UK's death rate fell by just 1.88 deaths per million, with the figure largely stalling since mid-June as Britain attempts to exit a lockdown that has devastated the economy.

The only European countries which now have higher death rates than the UK and Sweden are Macedonia, at 3.4 deaths per million, and Kosovo, at 2.1, the European Center for Disease Control says.

By comparison Belgium, which for a time had the highest death rate anywhere in the world, registered just 0.27 deaths per million on Wednesday. Italy, where the pandemic first took hold in Europe, had 0.31.

Sweden's state epidemiologist Ander Tegnell has repeatedly argued against lockdowns, saying they 'fly in the face' of the science around epidemics and pointing to the UK's high death rate as evidence that they don't work. He has argued that the measures merely delay the inevitable and - over the long-term - all countries will end up in the same position.

Because of that, he argues that lockdowns are not worth the economic price-tag they carry. However, he has been forced to admit that Sweden's death toll is too high, and that harsher measures should have been taken to protect the vulnerable, particularly in care homes.

Sweden has so-far registered 73,858 cases of the virus and 5,482 deaths, far higher than its Nordic neighbours which did bring in lockdowns.

Norway has just 8,950 cases of the virus and 251 deaths after going into lockdown early, while Finland has 7,273 cases and 329 deaths. Denmark has 12,900 cases of the virus and 609 deaths.

The United States, which avoided full lockdowns of the kind seen in Europe, currently has a death rate similar to Sweden - at 1.76 per million on Wednesday.

South American countries which have found themselves at the epicentre of the pandemic currently have some of the highest death rates in the world. Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro has recently tested positive for the virus, has a current death rate of 4.8 per million people. Chile has one of the highest rates in the world at 5.58, narrowly followed by Peru with 5.52.

While deaths have also been increasing they have failed to keep pace with the number of cases, leading some to claim that the virus is getting weaker. Others tout improved treatments and hospital capacity

SOURCE

*********************************

The vast reach of insane Leftism

It was another night of mayhem in Washington, D.C. Left-wing nutjobs descended upon Lafayette Park in an effort to destroy the statue of Andrew Jackson. The Left-wing mob has scalped The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Eskimo pie" is now problematic. Uncle Ben's Rice and Aunt Jemima pancake syrup are now undergoing rebranding. Even Gushers has decided to take preventative measures in order to avoid being turned into sashimi by these progressives. The Confederate flag has been banned at NASCAR. Some are calling for the Masters Tournament to be renamed.

In the beginning, this was about tearing down Confederate statues. It was never about that. It was about the Left's hatred of America. Oh, and they're tearing down those statues, along with Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and now Theodore Roosevelt. This is a cultural revolution we're witnessing. These people are organized, violent, and devoted to burning America to the ground. They want to remake it, rewrite it, through a "woke" lens. It's an absurdity on a grand scale. This is what Tyler Durden would support and want if he were political and leaned way to the left.

"I am Jack's smirking revenge."

The desecration of statues, these leftists seizing portions of Seattle, and the general lawlessness that has plagued our cities is intolerable. And yet, it's all part of the far-Left's multifront war against us. I know I've said this, but these clowns that were made famous by us on various websites for their liberal antics have all graduated. They're now in publishing, media, the sciences, and now cooking.

Yes, Bon Appetit, the food publication that was engulfed in a brownface scandal recently that saw its editor-in-chief being jettisoned, will not be, get this, vetting recipes. No, I'm not kidding. You will get a political lecture with a side of penne. Is this real life? The Left has f**ked food, everyone. I mean, it's a tad funny, but also shows the reach the left mob has right now. Bon Appétit magazine, a publication that should be miles upon miles away from this political correctness nonsense, is now going to be ensuring food isn't racist anymore. Wait...what?! (via BA):

This newsletter has historically been Bon Appétit’s Letter from the Editor. Until we have a new editor in chief, the BA and Epicurious staff will use this platform to update you on the work we’re doing to address racism and biases at the brands, both internally and in our editorial coverage. This week, BA’s research director Joey Hernandez talks about how we’re auditing our existing recipes to add cultural context and address appropriation and tokenization.....

I grew up eating the Technicolor Filipino shaved ice dessert, a confection studded with sweetened beans, jellied fruits, flan, lychee, tapioca. It defined so much of my childhood of hazy California summers spent with my brothers sitting on our curb, scarfing down the haphazard assemblage with abandon. And here was one of my favorite treats in Bon Appétit, except with gummy bears, berries, and popcorn

It was jarring, to say the least. Was a Filipino person consulted on this? Did the writer do the first bit of research? Like many people who had seen a beloved recipe “riffed on” in a major publication, I had so many questions.

Halo-halo was hardly the only offender: BA’s recipes for Vietnamese pho, mumbo sauce, flaky bread, and white-guy kimchi all erased these recipes’ origins or, worse, lampooned them. Every time, promises to “do better” came quick and easy, but these mistakes are not one-offs. As San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho recently wrote, “The power of mainstream media is in what it normalizes. And in the case of today’s food media, what it normalizes is a white culture that sees everything foreign to it as a spectacle, something to be tamed and translated for an audience that can’t understand it.”

In all these cases and more, BA has been called out for appropriation, for decontextualizing recipes from non-white cultures, and for knighting ”experts” without considering if that person should, in fact, claim mastery of a cuisine that isn’t theirs.

In my role as research director, I’m working with the Test Kitchen editors of BA and Epicurious to address many of these problems of authorship, appropriation, the white gaze, and erasure. The events of recent weeks are indicative of larger problems, but correcting the record is a big part of our work of making BA a more inclusive publication.

To that end, our team will be auditing previously published recipes and articles that may not have been thoroughly fact-checked or read for cultural sensitivity when originally authored.

The Left will make you care. Whatever issue is out there, they will find a way to pervert it and turn it into another cultural battleground. Every time you eat something, remember, you might be aiding racism because the person who cooked it was a white person or something. Is it shocking? Probably not. When Portland went absolutely insane over two white women selling burritos, I guess the writing was on the wall.

This is our long war, folks. This will take generations to correct. It won't end if Donald Trump is re-elected. It won't end in elections after that. These are deeply entrenched bastions of liberal cultural power that must be destroyed. Hollywood, the news media, television, literature, the arts, academia, and now cooking publications are all infested with the stench of progressivism peddling illiberal agenda items. There is no discussion anymore. It's now "submit before Zod" or be destroyed. These are not people with differing views. These are intellectual terrorists who must be confronted. It's not going to be pretty, and I don't think the Right has the unity or the stomach to pull it off.

SOURCE 

**********************************

IN BRIEF

Despicable vandals cut down 9/11 Memorial flagpole in New York village (Fox News)

Tennessee's State Capitol Commission approves moving Nathan Bedford Forrest bust to Tennessee State Museum (Tennessean)

DC Council votes to end police involvement in public-school security (The Washington Free Beacon)

DC mayor: Police budget cuts make the district "less safe" (CNS News)

The Internet is changing drastically and dreadfully for Hong Kong's citizens (MIT Technology Review)

Australia ends Hong Kong extradition treaty, extends visas (AP)

Tropical Storm Fay bears down on mid-Atlantic, New England (Fox News)

Concealed carrier stops man who was strangling a woman in a Tennessee restaurant parking lot (The Truth About Guns)

Joe Biden supports two regulations that would destroy entire industries (Foundation for Economic Education)

Thousands of North Carolina voters double-voted, watchdog group finds (The Daily Signal)

After Trump took office, judicial-nominee obstruction skyrocketed from 3% to 75% (The Federalist)

Policy: After the U.S. leaves the WHO, should the UN be next? (Issues & Insights)

Despite the recent coronavirus surge in southern states, three states — New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts — account for about 42 percent of COVID-19 deaths in America. Why?

Jobless claims at better-than-expected 1.3 million, total getting benefits falls to 18 million (CNBC)

Pandemic accelerates the death of malls (Washington Examiner)

Big Ten moving to conference-only model for all sports this fall (ESPN)

Madison Avenue business sues Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio for riots, estimates $100 million in damages (PJ Media)

NYC Black Lives Matter marches can continue despite large-event ban, Bill de Blasio says (Fox News)

"Who the hell wants to stay on this job?" NYPD retirement filings surge by 400%, forcing department to limit applications

Plasma therapy successes stoke high hopes (Washington Examiner)

Wearing a mask cuts own risk of novel coronavirus by 65%, research shows (Fox News)

U.S. Treasury sanctions Chinese entities, officials using Magnitsky Human Rights Act (The National Pulse)

China vows to retaliate against U.S. sanctions (CNBC)

Army investigates handout suggesting Trump campaign slogan constitutes "covert white supremacy" (Military Times)

Arrests along Mexico border jumped 40% last month (The Washington Post)

***********************************

For more blog postings from me, see  TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH,  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, and Paralipomena (Occasionally updated), A Coral reef compendium and an IQ compendium. (Both updated as news items come in).  GUN WATCH is now mainly put together by Dean Weingarten. I also put up occasional updates on my Personal blog and each day I gather together my most substantial current writings on THE PSYCHOLOGIST.

Email me  here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here (Academic) or  here  (Personal).  My annual picture page is here.  Home page supplement

**************************