News   Apr 03, 2020
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Covid-19

I've been wondering the same thing. The pathways have had way more traffic, in some cases I would say, double the usual traffic. Lots more children on bikes though, so that's good. Getting kids used to them at a young age, it might stick with them.
Certainly for all the new bicycle owners - will they just age away in the garage or is there a good portion of society that will keep their new habits.
 
It is interesting to live near Thomkins Park at 17th Ave and 8th Street SW on Saturdays since Covid. The place has taken off to medieval town square level of vibrancy - complete with wild characters shouting about anti-mask/anti-vax/anti-mask for children protests and a healthy dose of conspiracy and separatist mega-phone chants. It's often the same people across all issues but it's also super random and chaotic scene. Throw in all the scooters and increased pedestrian traffic and it's like a weirdly crowded futuristic/dystopian place like Blade Runner - but with way better weather :)
I went pas there on the weekend and it was buzzing. There were some guys playing music at the gazebo, and tons of people everywhere. Thankfully there weren't any anti-masker/anti-vaxxers around. I can't stand those retards.
 
As someone who planned to get a bike this summer, but didn't really act fast enough to the point I am not going to bother for this summer, I really hope to see a lot of great kijiji deals pop up when the snow starts flying.
Bike Stores should get their second shipment of summer bikes in the late fall / early winter, so Christmas deals should be everywhere! I also think there are going to be a ton of deals in the spring both in the stores and online since everyone got a new bike this year. I very highly doubt there will be a global run on inventory 2 years in a row, but you never know...
 
It's been a while since we've discussed Covid. The 2nd wave (or third in some cases) is happening. Any predictions and how it goes for Calgary, Alberta and Canada. or other parts of the world?
 
It's going very poorly in Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, and starting to be bad in Ottawa-Gatineau. Us and Vancouver so far are the outliers, hopefully we can keep it up. Who knows though.

Eastern Europe, South Asia, and South America are both out of control, with signs that things are spiking again in Western and Central Europe... and who the hell knows what Chinas actual numbers are but at this point w know for a fact that they're lying... when New Brunswick (one of the lowest impacted mainland populated jurisdictions in the world) is reporting more daily cases than all of China, you know they're completely full of shit.

In short, it's not looking good.
 
I think all the East Asian countries demonstrate that if you have a population that is willing to take COVID seriously and follow the rules, you can actually get back to something pretty closely resembling normal. Even if you're skeptical of China's numbers, you can see success in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. All of these places did have "second waves" in the summer, but those waves had low peaks and came down very quickly.

The problem for Canada is that have people throwing massive house parties, going to weddings, packing into churches, etc. which are driving up cases.
 
I wonder why Edmonton is doing so much worse. Would be interesting to see what is coming back in contact tracing reports.
I've been wondering that myself. A friend of mine has been up there a couple of times and thought there were more people not wearing masks. It's hard to say if that's true, and if it was, would it cause that large difference we are seeing?
 
I've been wondering that myself. A friend of mine has been up there a couple of times and thought there were more people not wearing masks. It's hard to say if that's true, and if it was, would it cause that large difference we are seeing?
Not in and of itself, but it could be indicative of a general attitude towards other gatherings. You don't have to follow all of the advice for it to help. Limiting the number of gatherings, limiting the size of gatherings, not sharing utensils or otherwise having close personal contact, spending time outside if possible. They're cumulative, not an all or nothing proposition. Masks might reduce the R number by 0.1 - and if R is at 1.1, that reduction is very important.

I think we've seen a breakdown where people start not following one rule, then decide if they are not following one, what is the point of following any, and don't realize they've went from relatively low risk to a relatively high risk set of behaviours.

Edit: Also some version of this (from the USA), people just deciding that the virus is over, it seems from assortative media consumption. There is plenty of this happening in Canada too.
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I think all the East Asian countries demonstrate that if you have a population that is willing to take COVID seriously and follow the rules, you can actually get back to something pretty closely resembling normal. Even if you're skeptical of China's numbers, you can see success in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. All of these places did have "second waves" in the summer, but those waves had low peaks and came down very quickly.

I wouldn't say I'm "skeptical" of China's numbers, I just know without any reasonable doubt that they are lying, per my previous rationale. I admire both how transparent and how successful Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea have been, that has nothing to do with China's lies.
 
Most experts agree that China's numbers are false. How far off from the true numbers, nobody will ever know, but Japan and Korea and Taiwan seem to have done a great job at controlling it, and I generally trust their numbers.


Typically pattern we've seen in many other countries., but better managed than most countries.
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China went from high numbers to almost nothing instantly. So the virus just magically disappeared overnight. What we've seen in all other countries, is the number of cases don't drop that quickly....that and it is China. I don't trust anything that comes from their government.

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With or without the real numbers, China got it under control early on. Before it was even a threat to the rest of the world, we saw images of the Chinese building temporary hospitals in the hot spots. Masks and physical distancing became mandatory.
Their population is 4.2 times larger than the U.S. For China to be on par with the U.S in terms of both cases and deaths, they would be reporting
33 million cases and over 900,000 deaths
I don't think they could hide those kinds of numbers if it was real. All of the Asian countries around China did an excellent job mitigating the impact of the virus.
That is why Trump's claim on February 29 ..."We've taken the most aggressive actions to confront the coronavirus. They are the most aggressive taken by any country." ....is both false and patently ridiculous. The number of deaths (215,000 and counting) since then proves he has no credibility. He is still pumping up himself and his administration and downplaying the severity of the virus (if I hear 'its going to disappear' one more time 🤬). The U.S clearly does not have it under control heading into cold and flu season.
Canada has done a significantly better job managing hospitalizations and deaths although case counts are starting to creep up.
 
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China has most certainly dealt with it better than the U.S. We'll never know the true numbers other than it's highly likely they're better than in the U.S., and highly likely their worse than they are reporting.

Almost all of the world has done a better job than the U.S. at managing the virus. Ironic that the most powerful country in the world...the same country that put a man on the moon and achieved so many other great things, can't manage this when so many other countries can. The virus has done a job revealing some of their fundamental flaws. Trump himself is part of the problem, and he's also a symptom of the problem.
 
Got a covid test yesterday, happy to report that nose swabs are no longer the go to.

The second wave is due to kids being back in school and more people back at work. Factor in young adults letting their guard down and we see what we have now.
 

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