Around The World With COVID-19

Probably too late, Iran is finally warning its citizens that millions of Iranians could die in the pandemic if they ignore the health guidelines. Those are basically the same health guidelines virtually no one is following in any of the Trump counties and states. Until recently Iran has followed the same basic guidelines as Trump-- basically ignoring the outbreak and hoping it would go away. There are no accurate numbers available from Iran but you get stories about bodies piling in morgues, mass graves and many thousands of critically ill people in swamped hospitals without the capacity to care for them.

In announcing the new warning, the Iranian state TV journalist, Dr. Afruz Eslami, cited a study by Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology, which offered three scenarios: If people cooperate fully now, Iran will see 120,000 infections and 12,000 deaths before the outbreak is over; if they offer medium cooperation, there will be 300,000 cases and 110,000 deaths.

But if people fail to follow any guidance, it could collapse Iran’s already-strained medical system, Eslami said. If the “medical facilities are not sufficient, there will be 4 million cases, and 3.5 million people will die,” she said.

...Underlining that urgency was the fatwa issued by Khamenei, which prohibited “unnecessary” travel. It comes as the public ignored repeated warnings and pleas from security forces. Such a decree is rare by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.

Some Iranian media later said Khamenei hadn’t issued a fatwa, though semiofficial news agencies believed to be close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the order had been made.

Late Monday night, angry crowds stormed the courtyards of the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad and the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom. Many people visit the shrine in Qom 24 hours a day, seven days a week, touching and kissing the shrine.That has worried health officials, who for weeks wanted Iran’s Shiite clergy to close them.

State TV had announced the closures earlier in the day, sparking the demonstrations.

“We are here to say that Tehran is damn wrong to do that!” one Shiite cleric shouted at the shrine in Mashhad, according to online video. Others joined him in chanting: “The health minister is damn wrong to do that, the president is damn wrong to do that!”

Police later dispersed the crowds and made arrests. Religious authorities and a prominent Qom seminary called the demonstration an “insult” to the shrine.

Iran’s shrines draw Shiite pilgrims from all over, likely contributing to the virus’ regional spread. Saudi Arabia has closed off Islam’s holiest sites and on Tuesday said it would halt communal Friday prayers in the kingdom.

President Hassan Rouhani said that despite the closures, “our soul is closer to the saints more than at any time.”

State TV reported teams were deployed to screen travelers leaving major cities in 13 provinces, including the capital, Tehran. But Iran has 31 provinces and authorities haven’t tried to lock down the country the way its allies Iraq and Lebanon have done.

The teams check travelers and send those with fevers to quarantine centers. Iran has been urging people to stay home, but many ignore the call.

In apparent efforts to try to curb the spread, Iran has released 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said. That number included half of all “security-related” prisoners, he said without elaborating. Western nations have urged Iran to release dual nationals and others, alleging they are used as bargaining chips in negotiations.

Dozens of Iranian officials have tested positive and 78 year old Ayatollah Hashem Bathaei, a member of the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint or dismiss Iran’s supreme leader, died on Monday.

Ahmad Amirabadi represents Qom is the Majlis (Parliament) and he says that "The coronavirus outbreak situation in Qom is not good. In my opinion, the government's control of the spread of the disease has failed. The government's fight against the coronavirus is zero. To date, the nurses in the hospitals have no appropriate [protective] clothing for the conditions of the quarantine and they are treating patients in fear and horror. The nurses have had many problems so far, but have few resources. Unfortunately, the government is not as fearful as it should be, and is not treating the issue as a crisis. It is true that we must maintain calm, but we must not reflect the scope of the crisis [to the public] as if nothing were happening. Ten people are dying every day in Qom from coronavirus. In the past two weeks, up to last night, some 50 coronavirus patients have died in Qom, and the blame rests on the health minister. Unfortunately, three weeks have passed since the virus reached Qom, but the authorities have informed [the public of this] only recently. It is true that 250 people are now quarantined, but there are not enough resources in Qom, and sometimes not enough masks in the pharmacies [for the public]. At a secret Majlis session I asked the health minister to quarantine Qom, and I even argued with him about the lies he is telling the public, because the circumstances are not as the government is telling the public, and the situation in Qom is critical... The government did not want to release the news about the coronavirus so as not to frighten the public... All this time, since the outbreak of the virus in Qom, 32 people in quarantine have died... Two children were diagnosed with it, [and] even the president of Qom University of Medical Sciences was infected, and in light of the critical situation a substitute [for him] must be chosen as soon as possible. The nurses have no means of protection, despite the health minister's statements that since this morning 7,000 [sets of protective] clothing have been sent to the nurses. I don't know if these statements are true or false. The government has so far taken no special action against the coronavirus... In the past 48 hours, four opthalmologists were sent to Qom, but they fled overnight. According to statements by the Qom University of Medical Sciences president, the first deaths from coronavirus were on February 13."

And now for the raging generational war. The Wall Street Journal published a piece by 3 reporters in Europe-- Bojan Pancevski in Berlin, Stacy Meichtry in Paris and Xavier Fontdegloria in Barcelona. I suppose if they would have added a reporter in the U.S. they would have had to talk about the anger building among young people in America towards the elderly, for so much because of coronavirus but because of the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-All, free public colleges and the whole progressive agenda being shredded so the brain dead old Democrats can put brain dead old Biden up against Trump. But it was just the three Europeans. "Scientists and government officials fighting the coronavirus epidemic," they wrote, "say they have a problem: Carefree youths. As authorities moved to restrict social gatherings last week, bars and restaurants from New York to Berlin filled up with revelers, illegal 'lockdown parties' popped up in France and Belgium, and campuses in the U.S. lit up for end-of-the-world dorm parties."

The idea is that because there have been reports-- only partially true-- that young-- under 50-- coronavirus patients experience mild or no symptoms and all the really bad cases are in people over 50, the young are pissed off because of the extreme measures societies are taking to combat the pandemic. I might add-- although the 3 reporters didn't-- that a Dutch study last week said that 50% of the patients in intensive care in Holland are under 50, including a 16 year old and a 39 year old marathon runner. The reporters do acknowledge that "scientists say tests have shown children and young adults are no less likely than older people to get infected and transmit the virus. Epidemiologists are growing concerned that the millennial pushback against social-distancing measures-- and an emerging generational divide about how the disease is perceived-- could undo all efforts to slow the spread of the virus and put vulnerable people at high risk." Young people, primarily in the U.S.-- but everywhere where social distancing recommendations aren't enforced-- are not listening.

College students are partying like it's 1999.

“People were not ready to give up their lifestyle without one last hurrah,” said Ben Weissenbach, a Princeton undergraduate English major who was critical of some of the partying. “At a really privileged place like Princeton, we don’t tend to even consider the possibility that our bubble could be popped.”

In an email to all students on Friday, the university announced stricter measures and penalties for offenders, saying “we are disheartened to see that so many students are failing to heed these protective measures and engaging in disruptive behavior.”

In a display of juvenile gallows humor, the hashtag #BoomerRemover, a nickname for the novel coronavirus, briefly trended on Twitter last weekend.

Across Europe, where social life is shutting down faster than in the U.S., a divide is spreading between the young, many of whom say they don’t fear the virus, and their elders, including politicians and scientists, whose alarm about the illness is growing by the day.

In Berlin, a European clubbing hot spot, authorities ordered the closure of all bars and clubs on Saturday. Yet many establishments ignored the decree, forcing police to forcibly shut down some 63 establishments across the city.

That night, the Ernst basement bar in the trendy district of Kreuzberg was packed with patrons enjoying loud electronica. “Beware: Coronavirus” was sprayed on a bench near the entrance.

Inside the stylish Wagemut cocktail bar, a young woman pretended to sneeze in someone’s face, unleashing thunderous laughter.

On Sunday, Berlin health officials said 42 people were thought to have infected themselves in Berlin clubs. Some of those were club-hopping, spreading the virus as they went.

“This is the attitude of people who are part of this nightlife,” said Lutz Leichsenring, a director of the association of Berlin club owners. “So what? You get the flu, you’re not going to die.”

Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel herself, in her first press conference on the epidemic, urged young people to respect the new social restrictions for their grandparents’ sake.

Despite the pointed fingers and occasional excesses, many young people bristle at the accusation of selfishness, saying the new social constraints are disproportionate and unfairly target their generation.

“They’re preventing us from living,” said Timothée Thierry, a 30-year-old statistician at France’s health ministry. He spoke on Sunday, after the government shut down bars but before it locked down the entire country.

In Italy, which has been on lockdown for days, young people, especially students, face a choice between returning to their parents’ homes or remaining cooped up in small apartments, desperate for a social outlet.

One student in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy said she sneaked out of her apartment to attend a dinner party because she was feeling depressed from days of isolation. The party was only a 10-minute walk away. Once there she joined four other people, drinking wine and eating around the dinner table.

Just before midnight, the police knocked on the door and asked for the identification cards and phone numbers of everyone in the group. They ordered the revelers to return home, warning them that their information was being kept on file. Each person was subject to a hefty fine or jail-time for attending the party, the police said, according to the student.

Some say they are less frustrated by the prospect of extreme confinement than they are doubtful it could ever work in the West, which prizes individualism and freedom.

“If I get sick, I will spend some days at home to avoid spreading it to others,” said Monica Rubio, 19, who was having a late breakfast with three friends late last week in Barcelona, Spain, one of Europe’s most heavily affected countries.

“Otherwise I won’t change my life because of it. I can’t imagine people would stop shaking hands, kissing or hugging. It is deeply entrenched in our society.”

In Asia, there have been fewer complaints from authorities about younger people flouting social-distancing rules, but with the epicenter of the pandemic now shifting to Europe, the sense of urgency, palpable at the peak of the Chinese epidemic, has begun to recede in the East.

Mong Kok, a busy shopping hub in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district, has been noticeably busier than in previous weeks, with many young people tentatively returning to their pre-coronavirus weekend routines. Despite the greater crowds, many youthful bystanders still wear surgical masks and keep hand sanitizer close to hand, even attached to rucksacks.

“I think it’s quite boring staying inside. Teens and young people you see, they’re stuck at home and out of the office. It’s quite hard,” said Hailey Cheng, 27, as a street performer tried to fire up a lackluster audience nearby.

On a recent night in the semiautonomous city, Peel Street, a thoroughfare lined with bars and popular with expats, thronged with hundreds of maskless drinkers. A band played in the lower half of the street, where people stood shoulder to shoulder.

“I stayed at home for two months. I’m not staying any more,” said Ryan, 26, who was walking with his friends down the main strip of nearby Lan Kwai Fong, a series of streets filled with bars and clubs. “Life goes on.”

“We worry,” said Nicole, 25. “But either you worry yourself to death or you drink yourself to death.”

Welcome to Thailand

And countries with huge tourist industries? Thailand is pretty loose about regulations when it comes to nightlife and yesterday they announced they are finally closing down schools, bars, movie theaters, cockfighting arenas, kick boxing matches and other entertainment centers.

The planned measures come after new cases jumped by nearly threefold in the space of a week to reach 147. Thirty-three new coronavirus infections were reported on Monday. One person has died of the respiratory illness in Thailand.

Restaurants will probably be allowed to remain open if they take precautions against coronavirus contagion such as social distancing, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said.

But he added that two clusters of infections linked to a bar and a crowded boxing match showed the need to limit public gatherings. He also recommended that government employees work from home if they can.

...Some businesses have already acted on their own, temporarily shutting their doors as customer numbers have dwindled.

Jumbaree Parlick, who owns a pub in one of Bangkok’s busiest nightlife districts, closed it down for the first time in over 40 years due to a lack of customers. “I think it’s not worth it to stay open. Even if the government hadn’t ordered it, we ought to close ourselves,” she said.