#and i would estimate like 98% chance of that happening tbh

[tendercoretroglodyke]

look i just think it would probably be really fun to marathon all of (9+) doctor who with someone who had never seen the show before and had virtually no context or spoilers for it whatsoever. on the other hand if I made my roommate watch it with me and they said it wasn't for them I'd probably have to kill myself

[awed-frog]

hey, do you have some good sources/articles about whats been happening in europe regarding the virus? especially about how the other countries neighboring italy are reacting & how its not nearly enough. they dont necessarily have to be in english, german (or french?) should be fine too, if they have more specifics. if not, then it's fine as well! i just dont really know at which media outlets to look (tbh i don't even know where youre from but you seem like you know about whats going on there)

Hello! When it comes to European news, The Guardian is always a good place to start. Here is their Coronavirus page, and here there’s an update from today (March 14th) on how European countries are dealing with the outbreak.

(The Guardian is still 100% free but they have a kind of voluntary support system - I encourage you to look into that if you like them.)

Euronews is another great source. Depending on where you live, it’s also available as a TV channel.

eu-observer is a Belgian-based online newspaper which covers issues from the various member states in English. Here is their update on the situation.

swissinfo is also a good source on European news and the current mess, although they do focus more on Swiss stuff. It’s available in ten languages.

If you read French and German, you can have a look at Germany’s Die Zeit and France’s Le Monde - many articles are members-only, but there’s always a fair selection of free content. And: the French Press Agency, AFP, offers a fact-checking service in English, which at the moment it’s about 98% coronavirus.

The Italian Press Agency, Ansa, also has a page in English. 

(In case someone out there doesn’t know the difference: press agencies are typically about ‘raw’ news, which means no comment, no analysis, no opinion, no background or context, whereas newspapers also offer all of that. The advantage is that you can understand better what’s going on; the disadvantage, of course, would be open or covert bias depending on the journalists’ political leanings and/or funding sources.) 

Finally, The Local, originally a Swedish project, is also a decent source of European news. They now provide several websites for different European countries, and their information tends to be accurate and up-to-date. Here is the Italian website; look top right for the Austrian, Danish, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish versions.

As to how some countries are not taking proper precautions, you can find several Italian doctors discussing this and warning foreign governments to act more decisively. Here is one Twitter thread verified by Snopes, and here are a couple of articles from The Independent, the Boston Globe and Vox covering the same issue. 

Basically there’s a lot of racism-tinted nonsense making the rounds; only yesterday, a UK celebrity doctor claimed Italy was implementing extraordinary measures so that Italians could indulge in ‘one long siesta’. I’ve also seen people here on tumblr more or less arguing the same, or saying we shouldn’t worry because this is just a flu, or whatever else, so let me be clear: the main problem with this thing is that it is very contagious and it attacks the lungs much more aggressively than a seasonal flu. This means many patients (for now we estimate 10%) will need a bed in the ICU, and those beds are not that many. Out of that 10%, many will recover - if they can be treated. 

So, yeah - problem one is that vulnerable people (mostly the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions) are at risk no matter what; but problem two is that many sort-of-healthy people will need intensive care, and no country is ready to deal with thousands of people suddenly ending up in the ICU. There are not enough beds. There is not enough staff. There are not enough things. Hospitals don’t generally plan for thousands of critical patients for the same reason people don’t generally stock 700 rolls of toilet paper: there’s one chance in a million you’ll actually need that stuff. This is why Lombardy’s hospitals are collapsing: not because they’re inefficient, not because doctors are lazy, not because Italians are generally unreliable and idiotic, but simply because too many people got sick at the same time. And that’s why we need to stay home and wash our hands: because it’s likely most of us will get sick, but we can deal with it if we don’t all get sick over the same two months.

The goal here is to fit into that blue curve: people get sick over a longer period of time, they get treated, we have enough supplies for everyone, very few people die. There’s no need to panic, but let’s take this seriously.