My Life on this planet.

Nederlands Mensen zijn in de war: waarom werden aan het begin van de coronavirus-crisis maskers niet aanbevolen en zelfs afgeraden terwijl ze nu verplicht zijn in vele plaatsen? Waarom deze grote verandering?   Onmiddellijk na de komst van het virus zeiden specialisten dat een masker niet beschermt omdat ze vanuit het oogpunt van verpleegkundigen en artsen dachten: heel dicht contact met erg zieke mensen die het dodelijke virus uit hun longen ophoesten rechtstreeks op hulpverleners, dan heb je zeer goede beschermingsmiddelen nodig om je te beschermen en een gewoon mondmasker (dat neus en mond bedekt) beschermt niet voldoende.   Nu weten we dat het onwaarschijnlijk is dat mensen je ziek maken als je buiten voor een korte periode en op voldoende afstand in contact komt met anderen, zeker niet omdat de meeste mensen het virus niet hebben.   Sommige mensen hebben wel het virus, zelfs zonder dat ze dit altijd weten en dus een masker geeft extra bescherming vermits het de versp...

Economies are restarting, a necessity Societies are slowly restarting their country, including opening borders so people can travel again. In Belgium shops opened while schools for some students restarted. People can also restart non contact sports. But, we're also reminded to continue to keep a distance from others and to continue washing our hands regularly.  Unfortunately, for many people this restart comes too late as the economy plummeted worldwide and companies need to fire people or close completely when they couldn't survive two months of inactivity. And, although many people acknowledge this lockdown was necessary, up to 25% of businesses say they won't survive a second lockdown; I also think " Mr Doom " is more realistic when he says that the recovery will be much slower than the IMF thinks it will. And yet, bars and restaurants still can't reopen in Belgium while also tourism that includes travel agencies, airline companies, hotels and others suffe...

An article and video to explain the statistics behind the coronavirus deaths but also to record illnesses.   Excess mortality I'm in favour of using excess deaths (excess mortality) as a starting point to determine the severity. Of course, it doesn't need to be only death as the seriousness of something can also be defined as numbers of people who can't perform normal activities as is done for flu or heatwaves. But, as we're in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic that kills, I'll continue with excess mortality i.e. how many people die more compared with the average of the same months in previous years (see figure 1 for explanation). This excess death (and if data is available excess sick) informs quickly whether a day, week, month and year is normal or not.   Already this is done in the healthcare sector when GPs and/or hospital doctors notice an increase in patients and thus record the numbers of patients who are very ill or die to know whether a warni...

Again a journalist who may think that President Trump may not survive the coming presidential elections by repeating he didn't do enough to halt the coronavirus crisis . I'm not sure this is a good strategy from opponents as he can repeat again and again what he did before any other country. Indeed, at the end of January President Trump ordered the closing of USA's borders for people coming from China and later acted on Americans returning from China. And yes, he had to defend this decision as not everyone agreed. And again and again because opponents can't say this was good. Later when the catastrophe in certain European countries became clear, President Trump ordered on March 12 the closing of the USA for Europeans , a move condemned by the EU that only a few weeks earlier ruled out to close Europe's Schengen borders although the virus was already obvious in Italy. A few days later the EU was forced to close its external borders while one country a...

Previous UK PM Brown called for the creation of a world government to tackle the coronavirus and the very likely resulting economic crisis. President Trump and the EU USA President Trump doesn't want to join  and so the USA looses credibility. That's noted. Indeed, we know since three years that he is angry with how the USA always needs to finance organisations such as the NATO and the UN and its subdivisions. He's angry with the trade deficit of the USA versus China and angry when he is ridiculed for trying to reverse this. He's angry because he's ridiculed when he tries to convince North Korea's leader to stop its nuclear weapons program. Indeed, he acts while previous presidents complained about many things but the world knew they wouldn't abandon responsibilities while President Trump does unless countries agree with him to e.g. contribute more for the NATO. And yes, it is unbelievable that many Europeans continue to believe they don't need a we...

China and America acting not very statesmanlike by blaming each other for the coronavirus Covid-19. President Xi of China , there is nothing to be ashamed about, illnesses can originate everywhere with exactly the same outcome: at the start the infection rate is too small to notice until it hits sufficient numbers of people. Inform your people about this and about your adequate response of quarantining regions and even the country so new cases dropped to nearly zero. Indeed, also other countries are hit hard. But, tell your diplomats to stop telling Chinese citizens that the virus was imported by the USA army (unless you show us evidence) as that may result in hate towards Americans. President Trump of the USA , stop listening to people who tell you your response was inadequate and too late as you acted earlier than many European countries that were forced to act after you closed your country's borders which is now followed by Europe. Anyone in power would be powerless aga...