The Virus - Are You Affected?

[T.G.G. Moogly]

My parents are still stuck in Portugal charting a safe way home, currently camped out in a small village with no cases. My concern is primarily with my wife who is 32 weeks pregnant, making sure she's fed and not stressed out. That's going fine, so the only mild concern left are hospitals being under-capacity right around the due date. Accept the things you can't control, control the things you can.

On the bright side the Health Ministry of Ontario and organizations across the province seem to be making genuinely smart decisions, which I think will manage to mitigate the impact. That and my wife just won herself a three week paid vacation, and is effectively off of work for the next year.

I also took a bit of a jaunt around today to pick up some things and see how grocery stores were doing. Plenty of stock left everywhere across the stores, except very specific things with a false scarcity. I surmise what's happening is that people without much money are stock-piling cheap goods. Plenty of expensive food left, and fortunately my wife and I are well within our means to afford that right now. Most people don't seem to be very panicked, and some businesses are still quite busy, but you can sense a kind of tension and unease.

At this point I have to feel for the state of the U.S., if you guys don't vote the bastards out after this all hope's lost.

We're okay here in the USA because there are enough people who realize Trumpo and his ilk are greedy and never to be trusted. We're free enough and intelligent enough to weather the xenophobic hatred and stupidity that regularly emanates from the Oracle of Ass.

Sounds like all is well enough with your future fatherhood. Congratulations, even if premature congratulations.

In a couple weeks I was supposed to go hug some trees on a Sierra Club outing, take a ten hour drive to get there. So far it is still on but that could change any day. It's a small group of fifteen people and a couple rangers so I hope they do not cancel.

 

[crazyfingers]

It looks like I will get my mom moved from her assisted living an hour and 15 minutes away to one 7 minutes away just under the wire. Both her current and new have now initiated strict screening of visitors with check of temperature, etc.. and limiting visiting hours and number of visitors to one. Mom moves tomorrow. They are warning of possible quarantines in the future.

We are moving her to be closer so we can see her more. Quarantines may nix seeing her more for a while but the priority is safety.

And my kids are out of school for two weeks.

Good luck on the move tomorrow!

Thanks. I got mom moved into her new place. She'll be fine there though because of safely issues, only one visitor at a time. She won't be able to see us all as much as we want for a while.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It looks like I will get my mom moved from her assisted living an hour and 15 minutes away to one 7 minutes away just under the wire. Both her current and new have now initiated strict screening of visitors with check of temperature, etc.. and limiting visiting hours and number of visitors to one. Mom moves tomorrow. They are warning of possible quarantines in the future.

We are moving her to be closer so we can see her more. Quarantines may nix seeing her more for a while but the priority is safety.

And my kids are out of school for two weeks.

Good luck on the move tomorrow!

Thanks. I got mom moved into her new place. She'll be fine there though because of safely issues, only one visitor at a time. She won't be able to see us all as much as we want for a while.

Glad to here there were no surprises.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Coronavirus: Isolation for over-70s 'within weeks'

I posted this link in the Science Forum but thought to post it here as well. It illustrates the huge difference in government response between the US and the UK.

 

[steve_bank]

From my trip to the grocery store today it appears the major survival items are canned soup, toilet paper, and bottled water. Picked clean.

The check out person told me tht people are buying huge amounts of food, and that it is becoming comical to watch.

Water and electricity will not stop flowing. Food supplies will not stop. We are now in a recession. Workorce is going down with layoffs, but the vast majority will keep on working.

The drama I see on CNN is harmful from what I see. Continual reinforcement of the feeling nothing is going right.

What happened to te American ability to weather a storm without screaming in panic? We live through tornados, hurricanes, droughts, and earthquakes. Past epidemics of polio, measles, TB.

Our history says we will get through it, learn from it, and become better prepared.

A lot of people in Seattle maintain emergency supplies for an earthquake. Enough food and water for 30 days. Several main highway bridges have been hardened to ensure supply routs in a major event. We all need to be prepared for short term interruptions of any kind.

We all can't go around in a fog thinking things are always going to go right.

 

[Politesse]

Our history says we will get through it, learn from it, and become better prepared.

Our history says that in America, you have to look out for your own in a crisis, because no one is going to come save you. So, we hoard. We do it before hurricanes and wildfires too, you just apparently haven't noticed.

 

[rousseau]

In a certain light a bit of hoarding can make sense if you aren't aware of the great unknown, but fortunately the pandemic shouldn't affect our food supply which is an essential service and has no real reason to stop. So I can kind of understand the hoarding a bit (although it is certainly not rational), but am not too worried about it.

I think the bigger risk is people running out of money because they aren't working or seeing customers in their businesses.

 

[Politesse]

Mass layoffs, unexpected deaths, and international embargoes couldn't impact the food and paper goods supply chain, you think?

 

[rousseau]

Mass layoffs, unexpected deaths, and international embargoes couldn't impact the food and paper goods supply chain, you think?

Well I'm sure it's going to be prioritized as we react to the pandemic. Trying to stop the virus doesn't mean anything if people aren't eating. But yea I'd concede there may be some issues.

 

[TSwizzle]

In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.

 

[ruby sparks]

Coronavirus: Isolation for over-70s 'within weeks'

I posted this link in the Science Forum but thought to post it here as well. It illustrates the huge difference in government response between the US and the UK.

And bear in mind that the UK's response is minimal compared to the rest of Europe, Asia and most other countries, and that many here are very worried that the UK government are for some reason under-reacting and not doing nearly enough by a LONG way. On my tiny little island for example, the southern (Irish) part has closed all schools, but here in the (British) northern part, they're still open. They're talking about closing them. They're even saying stuff like, 'when they close, it'll be for 16 weeks' but for some reason, they're putting off closing them.

So if the US is doing less, even than the UK........

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.

It might take 4 to 8 weeks. And the muddling is certain as the CDC was castrated by the Trump Administration and nothing was accomplished in the three month lead up to this.

The cities and states have been forced to put together an ad hoc response, because the Executive Branch is so utterly incompetent to handle this. But at least they got to rile up some liberals, so win some, lose some.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

From my trip to the grocery store today it appears the major survival items are canned soup, toilet paper, and bottled water. Picked clean.

The check out person told me tht people are buying huge amounts of food, and that it is becoming comical to watch.

Water and electricity will not stop flowing. Food supplies will not stop.

The issue is food supply for the last mile. We are likely going to see a pause. It is the only way to stop the spread. Unfortunately, states are having to deal with this on their own as the Trump Admin has been led by a guy who's priority is to look good and blame foreigners for this. If we go lock down for a period of time, that means people will be stuck with what they have at home.

We are now in a recession. Workorce is going down with layoffs, but the vast majority will keep on working.

No, they won't. Trump is pushing America towards a Depression. Without supporting companies immediately, layoffs will happen.

The drama I see on CNN is harmful from what I see. Continual reinforcement of the feeling nothing is going right.

Well, it isn't. How is lowering the fed rate going to help increase the line of credit for a corporation that has little in the way of assets and works on a revolving line of credit based on their revenue. If that revenue is based on billed hours to clients, it will not be seen. And who the fuck is going to be processing these loans? The money for my paycheck is needed this Friday and then in two more Fridays!

What happened to te American ability to weather a storm without screaming in panic? We live through tornados, hurricanes, droughts, and earthquakes. Past epidemics of polio, measles, TB.

675,000 died from the Spanish Flu, or about 0.5% of the population. If we don't slow down the spread, we are looking at potentially millions of Americans dying. This isn't panic, this is reality, so we need to provide mechanisms to slow the spread.

Our history says we will get through it, learn from it, and become better prepared.

We have the worst leadership in the White House in our nation's history.

 

[ZiprHead]

In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.

Or in two to three weeks time we could be like Italy that, like commander Cheeto, didn't take the situation seriously at first.

 

[TSwizzle]

In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.

Or in two to three weeks time we could be like Italy that, like commander Cheeto, didn't take the situation seriously at first.

Nah.

 

[TSwizzle]

In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.

It might take 4 to 8 weeks. And the muddling is certain as the CDC was castrated by the Trump Administration and nothing was accomplished in the three month lead up to this.

The cities and states have been forced to put together an ad hoc response, because the Executive Branch is so utterly incompetent to handle this. But at least they got to rile up some liberals, so win some, lose some.

Boo hoo Jimmy. Your whining is tedious.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.

It might take 4 to 8 weeks. And the muddling is certain as the CDC was castrated by the Trump Administration and nothing was accomplished in the three month lead up to this.

The cities and states have been forced to put together an ad hoc response, because the Executive Branch is so utterly incompetent to handle this. But at least they got to rile up some liberals, so win some, lose some.

Boo hoo Jimmy. Your whining is tedious.

Wah, people are dying needlessly. Such a whiny liberal.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.

Or in two to three weeks time we could be like Italy that, like commander Cheeto, didn't take the situation seriously at first.

Nah.

You are right. It’ll be worse. We have already reached a higher level of infection. We just don’t have the numbers yet. Good thing Trump told people to go to work sick.

 

[crazyfingers]

Today Massachusetts Gov ordered all schools in the state closed at least until April 7. All restaurants and bars closed except for takeout and delivery. All gatherings or 25 of more people banned.

 

[ZiprHead]

Devin Nunes says young people should just go out to bars and restaurants and have a good time. It's important those establishments keep a stream of money going.