The Coronavirus Thread

What about the Chinese Restaurants?
Is there a deli near by?
How's the bagels?

My people in the east coast want to know these serious questions about life.

 

Governor Cuomo said today this is a test. I would have to agree. It is a test of the decisions toy make are for your own selfish needs or the good of the whole. All this talk of "social distancing" needs to happen, but so does take care of each other, use our best common sense.

I remember many years ago there was a gas shortage due to a downed supply line to middle Tennessee. Plans were made to truck in extra gas. If everyone would have just drove and filled up normal, there would have not been a shortage. However, for some looking out for only themselves, filled up at half or a quarter tank and once the first few stations ran out, it set in a HUGE panic for gas that we have not seen since 1977. Traffic jams everywhere. It seems cars were following the gas trucks. I never gassed up, even at 1/4 tank. By the time I needed gas, I had it, but only because the mayor and even the governor had to get involved and make statements that we are not at a shortage.

My point here is, we will all go back to our own survival instincts in times of crisis. However, if cooler heads prevail, we should realize that this is not a crisis. A setback for sure, but one that can be managed if we make some adjustments. Hoarding helps no one but yourself.

Keep calm and wash your hands.

 

Smart man. GF told me to go to this Mexican place. I hate it since they target drunk white girls. I love my hole in the wall places. I need my legit Mexican tacos with that hot sauce that burns up your butthole.

 

Happy Ending. I bought 3 weeks worth of wings this morning at 6 AM. I have a 40 pound bag of dog food as a worst case scenario. Life is good.

 

I hope this makes some of you smile in what are shaping up to be quite troubling times My best to everyone.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B92YWoEK3Lc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

I think that there's a huge difference in sending lifeline checks to the general population vs. tax breaks to the already affluent and corporations. The difference being that the bulk of the lifeline checks will get spent almost immediately, and domestically as opposed to going in to savings, stock buybacks, foreign investments, tax havens etc.

If the gov sends me 1K$ it'll get spent at the grocery store and gas station, generating sales tax and potentially payroll tax on paychecks that will also get spent domestically and repeated.

The money doesn't disappear, at least not until it's made its way to Amazon.

 

Unemployment..you apply if the employer so much as sneezes, frequently they deny, and then you appeal, always appeal, they have to prove you are not eligible, and it sound like you are likely eligible.... food stamps too. I wouldn't be surprised if a special benefit isn't created. Happens during hurricanes, etc...depending on where you live, may also be eligible for Medicaid with no income, good for a year....

 

$1000 check eh, manna from heaven! That'll cover a Bifrost2 and a nice bottle of single malt.

 

I’m going to throw in my perspective as an anesthesiologist who will be on the front-lines of this mess. The trackers, number crunchers, models, etc are all missing the key ingredient: data. We don’t have tests because of whatever reason. I work for the VA which is supposed to have everything we need. The reality on the ground is few tests are available (processed through state labs still & take 4-5 days). We don’t have the personal protective equipment to take care of these patients. I have to call my boss to justify obtaining a N95 mask. We have 5 PAPRs (respirators) in the whole hospital right now. Not to mention not enough ventilators for each ICU bed.
The bottom line is that this is the deep breath of calm before the storm. We have the luxury of worrying about TP and nonsense now, but in a few weeks we will be worrying for the lives of our parents and grandparents.

The incubation period and transmission patterns are going to congeal into a huge crush of very sick patients on the health care system. The hospitals and all levels of government are scrambling to have their shit together before this gets ugly. The testing won’t matter by that point because despite containment measures it will most likely be too late (I hope I’m wrong). The testing numbers are giving a false sense of containment right now. I know of two cases in my hospital which haven’t shown up even on the VA’s own tracker. The tests are trickling out because the more testing done will reveal the frightening picture that this thing is getting everywhere and induce panic.

We may be hoarding because that gives us a sense of control over this invisible threat. I sincerely hope that our inclinations for self-preservation will change into helping our neighbors and each other when the shit really starts hitting the fan. In my neighborhood we set up a spreadsheet where people (especially the elderly) can make requests for TP or whatever and we are trying to help each other already.

Edit: P.S. props to @jazztherapist for sharing his story. I wish your partner a speedy recovery and hope you are able stay healthy!

Picture or it didn’t happen.
Below I’m in full battle rattle about to take care of presumptive Coronavirus patient.

 

We're on a mandate to shelter-at-home here in Silly Con Valley. A good time to rediscover what's in the record collection.

 

When a virus is This contagious and with there being a period before symptoms arise, and with extremely limited ability to test or to protect our healthcare workers, it seems like it will be extremely difficult for anyone to avoid.

I kind of anticipate getting it from a cashier or someone behind me in line at some point, and feeling like death for ten days.

 

This is reasoning that kicks off further irrational behaviour. I have not come across a single instance of this being spread through 'walk around in public'. causes

I've been following cases in HK, where it hit two months ago. Every case is prolonged exposure- same household, sharing restaurant meals (hotpot, the single least hygienic method of eating possible), sharing meeting rooms. In China, there have been cases from people sharing the same long distance bus rides.

The only really random cases have been due to bad plumbing which leads to the virus following ventilation paths between apartments (lots of shonky building out this part of the world).

I haven't come across totally mysterious cases of people getting infected that would conclude they caught it when going out shopping, or walking around the street. I think that pretty much every case here has had a very direct cause, involving prolonged and close contact.

 

That would seem consistent with what these two specialists are saying here:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/he...us-has-an-achilles-heel-and-we-can-exploit-it

Main points regarding transmissibility: it takes a while to develop symptoms, and the most efficient transmission time is shortly after symptoms appear.

The downside of this, if correct, is that there could be a lot of infected people wandering around who don't know it yet (which would account for the current rapid rises in cases in countries where people have been aware of the risk, and hopefully taking steps, for a while now). But the upside is, they might not be (very) contagious until they start to develop symptoms - meaning, if people who start to feel sick isolate themselves immediately and wait the recommended 2 weeks before getting out again (as the average time for the thing to run its course is reportedly 7-10 days), transmission rates could be sharply reduced.

But I need to be optimistic: today BC closed all bars until further notice.

 

Wrong. This IS a crisis. Stay the f**k home.

 

I think its ridiculous how many people are being grounded in conspiracies or are trying to make aid policies a partisan issue. Like, do I normally like Mitt? Nope but hey if he and the Repubs agree to shunt $1k into my bank account so I can pay rent after losing income from shows I had planned for April, I'll take it. Its also interesting how people are flipping on each other. I've seen a ton of landlords complaining about property taxes/mortgages with the eviction ban when it seems they don't realize that its possibly to daisy chain issues together in order to mobilize where instead of coming at those who work gigs/service/entertainment for not having savings, we could like, team up and all lobby to the government for a rent/mortgage/property tax freeze and then we're all happy. But nope, has to be exclusively one side's fault entirely based on class lines.

 

Many counties in CA and as of today NV in lockdown. Can't imagine it was easy for NV gov to close casinos and gambling for 30 days:


Not sure how effective lockdown will be if we don't stop people from entering the country for a very long time and possibly traveling within as well though. I'm also 1000% baffled as to why the US hasn't made it an absolute top priority to get testing equipment. Let the numbers spike in the beginning - at least you can contain it rather than have possibly 50% (figuratively) of the country get sick b/c you had no data to work with from December when it was clear something was happening until now.

Regarding rents, etc - NV gov solution isn't bad IMO - no waivers or freeze payments (IMO forcing random things to be free will cause problems long run), but courts not taking any eviction cases and utility companies not shutting down service for non-payment. In short - it seems like a pause - not perfect, but basically tries to let anything that happens in this period of time exist mostly in it's own bubble w/o punishments that would also make things worse long term (recover economy + mass homelessness + people maybe leaving your state obviously worse than just having to recover economy).

@YMO - I agree with you in principle on most social and spending stuff, but one of the VERY few exceptions I've believe (and have thought should be done since I was in high school) is each person having a set number of "safety net" payments for $1k or $x, tax free, that they could use in their life. Once you're out, you're out, short of things beyond your control such as ID theft, fraud, etc. Things happen in life beyond our control such as this virus, and having a safety net/s you can use to prevent things from getting exponentially worse in a time like this will probably cost way less and be way better for our society / people in the long run.

 

Yeah the thing about the eviction freeze without a rent freeze is that if people can't pay their rent now because of lost work/gig reliance, chances are they're not going to have the $ to pay rent once the freeze stops let alone the rent debt that's built up over this period. So you're right that its a delay but its a delay from mass evictions now to mass evictions 3 months later and if the point is to avoid the economic/social impact of mass evictions, you gotta nip that problem in the bud and not stall it.