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Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius? by lazyjones on Sunday March 15, 2020 @08:43AM (#22583150)
Europe is a chaotic mess. Germany is preventing exports of urgently needed masks and other medical supplies to Switzerland and Austria, Austria announced that no curfews were coming yesterday and today Tirol is under curfew and harsh curfew-like restrictions will be in place from Monday in all of Austria. I'm not really sure what the strategy is, the WHO recommendations after their China mission have been known for 3 weeks and there is no recommended middle ground.
Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius? by grey-area on Sunday March 15, 2020 @09:03AM (#22583244)
Not sure I agree with your assessment.

Germany is doing pretty well at just 9 deaths on 4.5k cases. The WHO is not the only or the best source of recommendations, nor is this over in China. I'd be very surprised if they don't see another outbreak there now that this is a pandemic it will spread to Africa for example, which has a huge no of Chinese working there who will bring it back.

Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius? by pasabagi on Sunday March 15, 2020 @09:20PM (#22588660)
I'm not sure german successses are anything to do with action on the part of the government. I've been consistently surprised by the abrupt reversals in policy - with border controls or school closures going from 'out of the question' to 'tomorrow' with very little time elapsed.

I think much of Europe is a little bit like this. Germany will probably be relatively well off because German culture is fairly anti-social, Germans are typically very healthy, and the healthcare system is somewhat robust.

However, I haven't seen any sign whatsoever of a consistent or coherent response to the coronavirus. I expect whatever response eventually percolates out will be fairly rational, since german civil servants are well-paid and competent, but so far, it's been all over the place.

Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius? by ficklepickle on Sunday March 15, 2020 @10:36PM (#22589231)
Antisocial: Unwilling or unable to associate in a normal or friendly way with other people.

That has not been my experience. How could the culture of an entire country be antisocial? A nation of hostile hermits?

Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius? by yulaow on Sunday March 15, 2020 @11:42AM (#22584036)
Germany is also not reporting deaths from coronavirus if the patients had also other pre-existing conditions just to keep the number artificially low.
Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius? by svara on Sunday March 15, 2020 @03:41PM (#22586062)
That's false, all recorded deaths do far were reported to have preexisting conditions.
Re:Ask HN: Is UK government insane or genius? by martinpw on Sunday March 15, 2020 @02:27PM (#22585479)
Do you have a reference for that?