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Coronavirus


Steve

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In this context ... one of my very early memories (I must have been 3 or 4) is standing in a line that went 3/4 of the way around the block.  That was to receive the vaccination for polio, which was a disease everyone in America dreaded.  (I've said before: I think that even if the Horseman of Pestilence Himself had manifested in front of them, parents would not have let that stop them from getting that vaccination into their kids.) 

 

It may take deploying the Marines to maintain order around the clinics that dispense it, but I expect similar scenes once a vaccination for this stuff becomes available on a large scale.

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3 hours ago, Hermit said:

 

Props to Canada.

 

Earlier this week, $275 million of medical research spending was announced by the Federal government.

 

Are we the first government to shut down?  Parliament is suspended for five weeks after today, resulting in cancellation of the scheduled release of the Budget.

 

Given the PM's wife is a confirmed case, and we have five other self-quarantined MPs, including two cabinet ministers, I'd say it's the right answer. 

 

I am also impressed that all parties reached agreement, with no one looking to score political points.

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My town (Hillsboro) had the first cases in Oregon.  I'm not aware of the current numbers for Hillsboro, Washington County, or Oregon.  

 

Oregon's governor has halted gatherings of 250 or more people, and has closed schools starting on Monday, to reopen April 6th.  Pursuant to this, GameStorm (my local convention) has been at the very least postponed, if not canceled entirely for this year.  They're still trying to figure out if and when it will happen.  This was not unexpected. 


My son is on an extended spring break; my wife had shoulder surgery on Feb. 21, with a four week recovery period off work, so she's been at home most of the time.  The university she works at is halting on-site classes starting Monday, and will be moving to online classes for at least the near future.  

 

My family and I are good right now; no symptoms so far. 

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One thing that was patently obvious during the WH announcement...Trump was trying very hard to create positive vibes, that Action Will Happen to solve the problems.  He did a very good job of that.  Ceremony started at 3:30 Eastern...he was calling up the CEOs at around 3:40 for about 10 minutes, then Pence. 

 

It's 4 Eastern.  Dow is up over 1000 points since 3:30.  Up 9+ percent for the day...pretty much wiping out yesterday's losses, I think.

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I took off today for a little oral surgery, and needed to go to my local supermarket to fill an antibiotic subscription and buy sugar-free popsicles.

 

The first thing that greeted me was a full parking lot on a weekday. The second thing was a sign on the door announcing that their new hours are 6 AM to 12AM. The third thing was that there were no carts or baskets available in the store itself. So I dropped off my prescription, and walked out to the parking lot to grab a cart. The only toilet paper that I saw in the store were 4 12-packs in one lady's cart*, and a 4-pack in the nearly-empty bottled water section. I saw several people wearing masks (some apparently designer), but none of them were respirators. Most of the pasta is gone, and about half of the sauces are, too. The soup aisle is pretty much a disaster area, and the canned goods section is only a little better off. I went back to the pharmacy, and commiserated with one of the pharmacy techs about people being idiots. 

 

 

 

*I might have said something sarcastic to her as I passed. The real fun's going to be when she finds out that she isn't allowed to buy all of the packs at the register.

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2 emails this afternoon.  One was from a leather company;  they're closing their showroom temporarily.  Another from a clothing company;  they're suspending factory tours.

 

First of, I suspect, several such...  These are mostly mail and online order companies.  They're not shutting down but they are cutting back their direct contact/exposure.

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Portland State, where I'm attending, has also announced that all of this term's finals will be held remotely, and classes will be taught online next term. I don't know how that's going to work out for classes that require hands-on work. I only had one term left until graduation (assuming I pass all of this term's classes) and now I'm wondering whether I'll be able to finish my degree.

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Just informed my mother in law that we will not visit in her house for the near future. She and my father in law are very at risk (old + diabetes + other underlying medical issues). There is no way I can really avoid bringing in anything I or my family might have. I can't stop going to work, my kids can't stop going to school, so I'm confident we'll get it sooner or later.

 

Yeah, she's heartbroken.

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... and I just found out that, at the insistence of the governor, I'm going to be a distance learning teacher for at least the next two weeks.

 

Naturally, this is the time that Canvas decides to go down.

 

What's that appellation Cancer's always using? DFUA? 

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I just got back from picking up a prescription refill at Sam's Club. The parking lot wasn't that full in the lead-up to Christmas. Apparently, they were restocked for both water and toilet paper earlier in the day, and they were all gone in 11 minutes, according to the pharmacy tech. She also told me that they were limiting both to two per membership, which explains the overheard comment from someone in the checkout line with 4 waters, "What is this? Communism?"

 

I chuckled, and hummed a cheerful tune on the way out.

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