The Coronavirus Thread

The company I work for just gave us 30 days extra of sick time to deal with whatever we have going on in regards to Covid-19. They also have everyone working from home 2 half days per week. Seems very progressive and smart since a Mandatory Quarantine is probably the next step.

 

We just need a few weeks of a nationwide lockdown of all inessential to survival businesses. Throw anyone out and about after curfew who doesn’t comply in prison until it’s over. Partying on the street? Enjoy a month in the drunk tank. Let them out 2-3 weeks after it’s over. It’s not hard.

 

Same here. I certainly subscribe to the adage politicians are like diapers.......

I'm happy with our universal single payer health care. But again I agree - I'm glad to live somewhere where who is in charge makes relatively little difference to my life. Lots of places where that is not the case.

 

At least the American public panicked en mass unlike Iran and Italy, with their football fields of bodies like Bosnia and Cambodia.

 

Some of those taking the hardest hits from this global event are the very people responsible for the music to which we listen. Please consider supporting musicians in any way you can. Bandcamp is waiving musician fees today and giving them 100% of the amount paid: https://bandcamp.com/

 

Less drastic but that's what they are doing in Poland and Hungary, talked to my friend yesterday. Everyone coming back to the country or who was in contact with someone infected gets registered and goes to 14 days self-isolation . If you cannot do that because of family concerns or you do not have means, the government sent students home, rented the student dorms and you stay there.
Police has a power to do random checks on self-isolation, first time it is just a fine of roughly $1200, the second time your isolation may become a lot longer than 14 days. People look at it as harsh but necessary measures.

 

That’s pretty much a month of income there. Insane.

 

Terrible and somewhat morbidly funny at the same time, but from my kids I've heard that some other teens are calling CV19 "Boomer Remover".

Oy...

 

We have the "can fix anything" mentality. We think we can stop all suffering, pain and death. My mother is 84 with COPD and on oxygen 24/7. I can't get her to stay in the house (she lives 7 hrs away) as she totters around the grocery store, wants to drive to her silver sneakers class, etc. I am trying to explain to her that she needs to stay at home, get her groceries delivered, etc. But she's already lived thru a shitload of stuff, doesn't care about this and can't figure out why people are losing their minds over it. She is more worried about the potential ruin to the country than the virus.

My 86 yr old Dad lives in a different city and works full time at a grocery store "to stay busy". He is more worried about getting laid off because he doesn't know what he'd do with himself if he had to sit at home all day. They've been divorced for 40+ yrs, and I swear this is the first thing they've agreed upon in at least 30 yrs.

That's a good a approach... when has government (either party) ever figured anything out in time? Don't count on government and you'll be better off.

Exactly this. We will hopefully flatten the curve, the hospitals will hopefully not get overrun, and joe public that is living paycheck to paycheck will get screwed. The right wants to give everyone a check for $1k, the left wants it to be $4k, and neither amount will address the problem or meaningfully change spending habits in a time of panic. The people that have will hoard in fear, the people that don't will go into financial ruin. Sending everyone a check is a feel-good approach that doesn't help the person just laid off from 2 jobs and barely making ends meet.

Yesterday PA announced full, indefinite lockdown mode, effective midnight tonight, for all "non-life sustaining" businesses... even publishing a spreadsheet of what can be open and what has to close. Luckily we transitioned to working remotely last week, so this has little effect on our firm (short term), but I can't imagine what some families are going thru right now. If this goes more than 3-4 wks then even firms like ours will be in big trouble... We can't continue to make payroll when money in the door starts to slowdown. People will slow/stop paying their bills, the states will slow payments to contractors (ie., AEC industry), etc.

 

First arrest in Canada: Montrealer who'd tested positive after returning from abroad and was instructed to self-isolate but was found out and about. I didn't hear what the penalty is likely to be.

Edit: The person is from Quebec City, not Montreal - and has been sent to a hospital (enforced isolation).

 

Firing squad sounds fair to me.

 

Karma might prefer a year or more volunteering at a senior center, serving those they were putting most at risk (after they’re better, of course)

 

Here's a question, if the seasonal flu kills more, why are medical systems overrun? Is it simply because having both is too much?

 

Also for you all's pleasure.

 

Seasonal Flu kills more than have died so far, but this thing is just getting started and the highest projections of possible deaths in the U.S. alone are over two million.

 

I guess it's just because more people will get infected then. It's not because it's more deadly, it isn't.