Prime Minister Mia Mottley advised the country tonight that Barbados will impose a curfew from 8PM to 6AM starting on Saturday 28 March 2020 until 14 April 2020. On a personal note the Prime Minister also shared she will be MIA for a while because her medical team advised her to undergo a medical procedure this coming weekend. Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw will act as prime minister. The blogmaster wishes her well.
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I think it may have peaked a couple of days ago.
@ Greene
If true, that is the problem with the best leader in the land. She seems only to see her childhood friends and sycophants and the nation celebrates it.
This is a crisis and we are still playing petty politics. Even if yo have a modicum of common sense, how can you appoint a sociologist, whatever that is, to be the Czar of a medical/health crisis? Of course, after the event, such an appointment may be necessary when we are looking back to see what we did right and what we did wrong.
I won’t ask what his thesis was on – was it communicating in a docile nation at a time of crisis?
@Greene
On what basis do you make your assertion? Richard Carter has a solid reputation in local circles as a diligent professional. Why do we have to brand everyone with a political label if their body of work is there to judge?
(Quote):
Richard Carter is one of MAM right hand men… (Unquote)
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And??
Sometimes you need to keep your partisan ‘drawers’ in the political closet instead of putting them out to air to spread the virus of “yardfowlism” with Mariposa posing as Typhoid Mary.
At least Artax has ‘acquired’ the antibody to fight off the virulent impact.
This crisis carries not only widespread public health ramifications but also serious implications for the integrity of the social fabric of the tiny country called Barbados.
Whom should she have appointed to be the Czar of Covid? Hal Gollop?? How about Maureen Holder?
MAM should have appointed the Bishop of Barbados. After all, he would have a direct line to the alpha and omega of this evil called Covid.
@ Hal March 30, 2020 6:35 AM
I always wash fruits and vegetables with a bleach solution ( Table spoon/gallon of water is adequate). As for the newspapers, read and then in this case wash your hands. The viability of this virus is not very long on things like paper. If in doubt zap it for a few seconds in the microwave. Do a test run with a sample of paper to ensure there is no fire.
@ David March 30, 2020 7:26 AM
Yes. But let it be known that that is his job. Instead he comes across as though he is an authority ( listen to him on this morning’s V,O,B’s news.
@ John March 29, 2020 4:16 PM
The virus seems to have mutated and is more virulent than the variant from China.
@ Robert
Thanks. What was the subject of the Czar’s thesis? Is he a medical sociologist?
@Dr. Lucas
We can always debate style, have there been any utterance you have heard from him that is open to question by you?
robert lucas
March 30, 2020 10:40 AM
@ John March 29, 2020 4:16 PM
The virus seems to have mutated and is more virulent than the variant from China.
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I saw that early and agree that is a possibility but then you would expect there to be more states like New York, more countries like Italy.
But there aren’t.
New York I believe is human error.
I think the UK’s numbers over the next few days will be instructive.
@ Hal March 30, 2020 6:35 AM
I continued my stroll this morning, curious to see what the shut down ordered by government entailed. There was little vehicular traffic on the road. When I reached opposite where the old Harbor Police Station was, I was pleasantly surprised to see a young fellow picking almonds from a tree where the old house craft center used to be .Almonds were scattered all around the base of the tree. Fifty-years ago, there would have been competition for the almonds. Also brought back memories of helping my mother make mattress and cushions. She had attended a class at the house craft center. Had to go and buy the coconut fiber from where the Fairchild street market used to be, walk up Bay st. with the fiber. It had to be washed first and put to dry on the bleaching ground before use. Jordan’s supermarket has a line but it is short. Popular has a very long line. There were only a few persons by Cherish. I passed the Old City and the silence is thick in the air. All the watering holes are shut. See a few fellows hanging around. Went further into town, Saw Durant a retired public health member. Tells me he had a stroke but wanted to have drink with me, as he put ,we do not know how much longer we have before we shuffle off. Tell him another time. Went by Scotty’s . One can enter and leave at will: Seems that last week’s action was mere window dressing. Large sweet peppers are $2.40 for the orange and red and $1.70 for the green .. I buy the green ones. All have about same Vitamin A content. Expose the green ones to ethylene gas and the color becomes orange ( can use a ripe banana to achieve the same objective). Retraced my steps and passed by Old City again. This time the loungers have bottle of liquor and are busy in polishing it off( I knew that they would find a way to bottle). Walked up Bay St. decided to stroll along the beach. The place is littered with old boats. Remember one could borrow a boat ( without the owner’s knowledge) and go fishing, making sure the boat was returned afterwards Brings back memories of a Sunday morning in 1970,when I went fishing with Sonny Pierre from the gap. My bothers did not want to go. I went. We borrowed a Moses from Brown’s beach rowed as far as London Bourne Towers, where we moored and started fishing for anything that came along. The Old Wives were biting, they are bottom feeders we caught a dozen. I expected to get at least half. Much to my consternation I only got two. The facts of life in the fishing business was explained to me. The Captain got first (I was not the Captain according to Sonny. I was just an able -bodied helper) claims. In this case, claims were made for borrowing the boat, being Captain( two shares), knowing were to go to catch the fish and so on. I never went out fishing with Sonny again.
For me the Hong Kong experience is informative.
4 deaths and 642 cases.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china-hong-kong-sar/
NO NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS CANCELED BY MAINLAND CHINA AS THEY WERE IN MAINLAND CHINA!!
Sometimes I wonder.
India with all its teeming millions has had 1,071 cases with 29 deaths.
Maybe they don’t test and don’t record deaths!!
Singapore with its Chinese populations, 869 cases and 3 deaths.
The numbers are telling a story.
Is the coronavirus a result of the development of capitalism and agribusiness, the commodification of nature, resulting in the disruption of the natural world? What is the remedy? Is the herd immunity model a disrespect for human life? Is washing your hands enough? Does profit come before the lives of ordinary workers? Discuss.
Question two: about 1.7bn people are in some form of lockdown for the first time in history. The best predictions is a form of contraction of up to 5 per cent, and according to the OECD, output in most GDPs will fall by 25 per cent – 20 per cent in China, 25 per cent in the US and the same in Spain.
A lockdown buries output. The UK is already in recession. What does this supply – and demand – shock mean for a small island-economy dependent on tourism? How will it impact investment? What does the collapse in oil prices mean for the developing world?
@ Robert
Keep it up. A brilliant record of Barbados/Bridgetown in a time of coronavirus. Important social history.
@Dr. Lucas
Why not post your feedback on your walks directly to the blog created?
@ Hal
I CAN GUARANTEE YOU IF THE UK AND US CONTINUE TO HAVE DEATHS OVER A PROLONG PERIOD BARBADOS CAN KISS TOURISM TRAVEL GOODBYE AS THEY HAVE GROWN USE TO.
THE WORLD KNOWS THIS VIRUS WAS PRIMARILY SPREAD VIA GLOBAL TRAVEL.
ALREADY IN THE US AIRLINE TRAVEL IS DOWN 90%.
ALSO KNOWN IS THAT AIRPLANES AND CRUISE SHIPS HARBOR THE VIRUS WHICH CAN REMAIN ON SURFACES FOR DAYS.
Here comes the doom and gloomers. This is life, we will recover, life continues.
steuspe.
Here comes the doom and gloomers. This is life, we will recover, life continues.
steuspe.
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CARRY ON SMARTLY.
TIME TO FIND NEW INDUSTRIES.
LIFE WILL NOT BE THE SAME AND HOPEFULLY BAJAN LOCALS AND INEPT LEADERS WILL NOW WAKE-UP TO THE REALITIES OF THE WORLD.
STEUSPE.
I refuse to post photos in real time i am getting.
but it could not hurt to ready yourself.
Coronavirus: ‘Most economies won’t return to pre-pandemic levels of output for 2-3 years’
A global recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic is poised to be deeper than that of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
According to the IHS Markit Global Economic Forecast Flash by Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh and Chief International Economist Elisabeth Waelbroeck-Rocha, most economies around the world should expect to not recover to pre-COVID 19 levels for two to three years.
In the note, Behravesh and Waelbroeck-Rocha point out that real world GDP is expected to plunge 2.8% in 2020, compared with a drop of 1.7% in 2009. Meanwhile many major economies will see double-digit declines (at annualized rates) in the second quarter, with the contraction continuing into the third quarter.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-covid-19-news-and-live-updates-120246923.html
Some on this blog are too dishonest. No! Hal Austin is too dishonest! All of a sudden someone is incompetent/unsuitable if their thesis isn’t what he thinks it should be. This is the same man that has a penchant for downplaying academic credentials. What your theses pon given that you comment on and know everything? A real 🤡.
What will everything look like after the coronavirus
Let’s start with some first order effects for commerce, and move on from there.
First many businesses that are booming during the pandemic will continue to thrive, maybe not explosively, but should grow above trend for some time. People are already busy figuring out the new, new things.
On the flip side of the companies that will make out, are those that will suffer. Mark Penn of the Harris Poll says many Americans won’t fly even six months after the virus is mostly gone. “People see airports and particularly planes and they really fear that,” Penn told me. “Airlines are going to have their job cut out for them.” More so with cruise ships of course, as well as hotels and resorts and all the millions of jobs associated with them.
(Domestic vacation locales, accessible by car, will be big.)
Then there’s the restaurants. While the big chains; Subway, McDonald’s, Starbucks and KFC have the wherewithal to survive, many independent restaurants could be decimated. In all cases, it’s likely prices will go up to cover new unemployment protections that companies will put in place voluntarily or that are mandated by the government. That could prove to be inflationary.
What was the subject of the Czar’s thesis? Is he a medical sociologist?(Quote)
Some on this blog are too dishonest. No! Hal Austin is too dishonest! All of a sudden someone is incompetent/unsuitable if their thesis isn’t what he thinks it should be. …(Quote)
???????????
@ Hal March 30, 2020 1:35 PM
David Ellis has him on to explain things.
Some on this blog are too dishonest. No! Hal Austin is too dishonest! All of a sudden someone is incompetent/unsuitable if their thesis isn’t what he thinks it should be.
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Sociologists study people’s social lives, activities, behaviours, interactions, processes, and organizations within the context of larger social, political, and economic forces. They examine how social influences affect different individuals and groups, and the ways organizations and institutions affect people’s lives.
@ Hal YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT WHEN YOU ARE ATTACKED BY THE SAME BLP GOVERNMENT BLIND MICE ON BU.
A SOCIOLOGIST IS NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED IN NOOOOOOOO CAPACITY.
@ Greene MAY BE RIGHT THAT HE IS A MIA LACKEY
Hal what was the subject of your theses?🤣🤣🤣 Going by your statement you should have written many. I assure you that Richard Carter is more competent than you by miiiles. Your own guvment hired the man. Funny thing is he taught at the same school you’ve been busy bigging up the past few days. Go ask any of his former students about the man. Always never informed but blurting. Oh gaawd!
Baje
March 30, 2020 1:06 PM
On the flip side of the companies that will make out, are those that will suffer. Mark Penn of the Harris Poll says many Americans won’t fly even six months after the virus is mostly gone. “People see airports and particularly planes and they really fear that,” Penn told me. “Airlines are going to have their job cut out for them.” More so with cruise ships of course, as well as hotels and resorts and all the millions of jobs associated with them.
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How long after 9/11 were airlines making profits?
People will move on.
Hal Austin
March 30, 2020 11:48 AM
Is the coronavirus a result of the development of capitalism and agribusiness, the commodification of nature, resulting in the disruption of the natural world?
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I don’t know how the virus was formed but I do know cultural celebrations marketed to attract large gatherings should be reconsidered to prevent the spread of the next one.
How long after 9/11 were airlines making profits?
People will move on.
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9/11 WAS AN ISOLATED ATTACK BY LESS THAN 20 TERRORISTS ON 1 DAY USING 4 AIRPLANES AS BOMBS A DELIBERATE ACT SOLELY WITHIN THE US.
THIS IS A WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME AFFECTING THE WORLD TRAVEL INDUSTRY INVOLVING CRUISE SHIPS AND AIRPLANES MOVING THOUSANDS OF TRAVELERS WITH CONTAGIOUS AND DEADLY VIRUS AROUND OVER SEVERAL MONTHS WITH NO CLEAR ENDING IN SIGHT FOR NORMALCY.
DURING 9/11 BUSINESSES IN US WERE NOT CLOSED OR ELSEWHERE WORLD WIDE AFFECTING BILLIONS OF PEOPLE AS THE CORONAVIRUS IS CURRENTLY DOING GLOBALLY.
FOR YOU TO EQUATE THE 2 SHOWS YOUR CONTINUED IRRELEVANT ANALYSIS.
The airlines will fly as soon as the majority of people have had the virus and most have immunity. Then and only then will life return to normalcy.
While we may hope that by isolation the virus can be stopped in its tracks, that is idealistic and improbable. The alternative then, is that most will get it, with some dying, very sad. The point of the isolation is to sieve the infections through such that the hospitals can cope and restrict the numbers of deaths, while better treatments are found and resources including equipment put in place.
This is why I agree with Dr.Lucas stating that the antibody test, to see who has had it, is what needs to be a focus. The symptoms will tell who needs medical care, but the antibody test will identify those who had it and can go back to normal life.
When this happens and the world starts working again, the airlines will fly. However, what will restrict the travel is not fear, but money.
Many, including in the US and UK will have lost jobs in the interim, they need to build funds to travel, this will take time.
The cruise industry however, is most likely all but finished. The experiences there seem to have been horrific and it will be hard to recover from this.
Probably, when the time is right, they will offer very low fares for a few first cruises, to get people back on the water.
That may work, or not.
The main point here is that economic recovery must come after medical recovery, this will take time.
I would expect that the government is communicating or has communicated with the IMF to defer all programme payments out an extra year already, in light of the difficult scenario.
One of the lessons out of this is to improve the country’s medical fast response unit, to be able to accommodate urgent situations. This applies to all countries.
Additional resources should be placed on educating nurses and other technically skilled medical personnel.
@robert lucas March 30, 2020 4:14 AM
“ELISA or monoclonal anti-body…”
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I agree that this test will be most useful. However I want to ask whether it suffers from the following drawback: it will detect anyone with COVID-19 antibodies, therefore failing to distinguish those who have had the infection and subsequently recovered, from those who are still actively infectious.
Hal
UK reporting 2,619 cases, 1,408 deaths in total 180 deaths for the day, down from a peak of 260 two days ago.
My projection for the UK was 2,500 deaths or less.
Still sticking by that!!
The Imperial College gurus are out to lunch, just frightening poor foolish people and giving Boris the runnings.
How the hell Imperial College got 500,000 deaths as a projection?
Looking at China’s data. their daily deaths fell from a peak of 150 to 42 within a week.
I think within a week UK’s deaths will be down to less than 50!!
They are my projections.
Just trying to lift your spirits and encouraging you to look at the data for yourself.
Use the data sensibly and you will make sense of the crap that has gone on here thanks to the Press!!
The UK is days away from zero deaths.
Boris should put Nyall Fergusson in the Tower of London and then draw and quarter him!!
@John March 30, 2020 3:42 PM
“The Imperial College gurus are out to lunch, just frightening poor foolish people and giving Boris the runnings.”
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The entire point of their research appears to be to scare Boris into the sensible Public Health measures of testing, isolation, and anti-social distancing. It worked.
peterlawrencethompson
March 30, 2020 4:03 PM
@John March 30, 2020 3:42 PM
“The Imperial College gurus are out to lunch, just frightening poor foolish people and giving Boris the runnings.”
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The entire point of their research appears to be to scare Boris into the sensible Public Health measures of testing, isolation, and anti-social distancing. It worked.
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The old pink elephant theory!!
I’ll make another projection.
The number of COVID-19 deaths in the entire world of 7 billion people will be of the order of the number of deaths that occur in a normal flu season in the entire US with a population of 350 million, 20 times less!!
I think the biggest change coming out of the experience will be the changes we see in the Press.
I will make another projection this time for Barbados.
There will be few if any deaths.
There will be little or no pressure placed on the number of ICU beds.
Nyall Fergusson also projected deaths in the USA at 2.2 million!!
So far there have been 2,951 deaths in the US.
In the entire world so far there have been 52,150 deaths.
COVID -19 has been blown way out of proportion.
“FOR YOU TO EQUATE THE 2 SHOWS YOUR CONTINUED IRRELEVANT ANALYSIS.”
that is what they do, irritate and annoy with their closed minded small minded nonsense….just watch and see them blame Covid for everything under the sun when this is done, just like they did 9/11…i had to angrily tell some, it did not happen in Barbados you jackass….stop blaming it for everything.
they should thank it for hopefully gettting them out of the bondage of dependency tourism, if the leaders can actually see to allow the people free enterprise…don’t hold breath…so far they are their usual FAILURE…..
John A had so much shite talk this morning, but that is all any of them are capable of…….
@John March 30, 2020 4:22 PM “In the entire world so far there have been 52,150 deaths. COVID -19 has been blown way out of proportion.”
You are only saying so now because none of those 52,150 DEAD PEOPLE are not you immediate family or close friends.
@ peterlawrencethompson March 30, 2020 3:39 PM
The virus is a foreign body. The response to the foreign body( the antigen) is the production of antibodies. which if the immune system is strong enough neutralizes the antigen.. A person who is full blown for COVID-19 will have a very high concentration of antigen present( the body immune system is incapable of neutralizing the antigen). When the test is carried out ,the blood sample from the infected persons requires the use of a lot of antibodies : this can be visualized by tagging the antibody with a color agent. The intensity of the color can be measured using a densitometer. In the case of the person who has recovered from the illness, the amount of antibodies( called the titre) present decreases and the color intensity is less. So one can tell the difference.
@ Robert
You need a degree in sociology, then the president will take you seriously. By any measure, you should be on the coronavirus task force. People need to protest until you are appointed.
@ Robert
You need a degree in sociology, then the president will take you seriously. By any measure, you should be on the coronavirus task force. People need to protest until you are appointed.
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@ Hal
COME ON MAN.
YOUR THINKING TOO MUCH FIRST WORLD.
A BAJAN CROWD WOULD GATHER MORE TO SEE DR LUCAS GET CUSSED OR BEAT UP THAN TO RALLY FOR HIS INVOLVEMENT.
THEY WILL HOWEVER RALLY FOR THEIR CROOKED AND INEPT POLITICIANS THAN ONE OF THEIR WHO CAN TRULY HELP.
SAD SAD FACT IN 2020.
Still waiting to hear what theses you submitted and their subject. After all you’re an expert in EVERYTHING and should have plenty theses. Now Dr.Best (I wonder if Richard Carter taught him at school?) is a public health specialist and CMO and is leading on the medical front. The Carter gentleman has experience in working with the Ebola epidemic and is assisting with the messaging but he is unsuitable because the PM appointed him. DFID your own guvment musse he friend too. A short, inferior-complex infected character of a man are you. Bittuh like aloes!🤣🤣
So wait the Covid 19 Tzar is a PR person?
sumbody enlietun a Dullard
@Enuff
I am wondering if you have any insight into why Barbados is not paying attention to the following WHO guideline: “We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test.”
After all, they point out “You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.”
287 tests in four weeks is a woefully inadequate testing schedule. Iceland, for example, has performed over 10,000 tests in that same timeframe.
Do you know where the bottleneck is?
287 tests in four weeks is a woefully inadequate testing schedule
Man Nah, You ain’ on’stan. We duz do tings De Bajan Way.
The outside world ain’t understand this virus like we. In fact, we don’t need to test a boy.
Our hospital and doctors are world class and we can handle anything.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.