Coronavirus

[Michael Hopcroft]

A "stay home" order is now in effect statewide in Oregon. I haven't heard yet whether my office is open, but I doubt it. I'm going to have to tell them I'm following the edict, though. I can;t work from home. Still, there's hope that with more tax season available that conditions might improve and I can return to my job if I want to.

 

 

[RPMiller]

We got word today that the company is WFH for the entirety of April now. I suspect that it will likely extend into May. Since we are in healthcare, we have to be extremely sensitive about our immunizations and such, so I'm sure that even if they lifted the travel bans at the end of April, the hospitals wouldn't want to see us for at least a couple more weeks. I realized today that I absolutely need to start going for walks. The cabin fever is starting to get heavy.

[Cancer]

Washington is now under a Stay At Home order.  No gatherings, public or private, are allowed.

[Doc Democracy]

This is a fantastic graphic to show people questioning lock down and social distancing...

[Drhoz]

Down here in Perth I haven't seen any toilet paper in the stores for weeks.

 

Fortunately, my work means I can avoid going near or even talking to people, which is just as well since I doubt my asthma and COVID-19 are a good combination, especially since I've already had a bad cough and repeated throat infections since December. Unfortunately, my wife is a school teacher, and it's impossible to keep the little stench-goblins away from each other, and our idiotic government refuses to close the schools claiming it would be too hard for any health-worker parents to find child care, and "education is important". 

[Bazza]

[Bazza]

[Bazza]

[Bazza]

[Bazza]

Old Man can keep up with the news, I'll keep up with the memes.  

[Cygnia]

9 hours ago, megaplayboy said:

Google hangouts works pretty well for that.  

As does Discord

[Pariah]

[Michael Hopcroft]

On one of my other boards, there is a particular poster who really likes to be contrarian. He is of the opinion that any effort to spread out the spread or coronavirus -- "flatten the curve" -- is not only doomed to failure, but is going to utterly destroy the world's economy -- and thus civilization. I believe I have mentioned him before. In any case, today he posted the opinion that it would be far better to have the spike now than to prolong the suffering in vain.

 

Thus, e is of the conclusion that stay-at-home orders are the worst conceivable thing we could have done.

 

I actually see part of his point -- if our economy is built around people being out and spending money and we make that impossible for two to three months, then the system is likely to collapse. However, I am of the opinion that is we are astute about it, keep money flowing in other ways, and continue to pay attention to the facts and figures, then we can weather it out. This isn't so much about taking the best option as it is about taking the option that is least bad. The economy will be disrupted anyway if the virus goes unchecked. Further, there are going to be people with other illnesses not caused by the coronavirus whose care could be eliminated if we don't leave at least something available for them. (Mental health care is an obvious example).

 

I want to respond to him somewhat -- he is a legitimate user and not a full-on troll, and he does raise valid points albeit points with which I disagree. It's not like that guy who responded to a comment I made on Wagner with a revolting anti-Semitic diatribe.

[Hermit]

Some Ideas to try to make Corona virus living more fun for me.

1) Get Grim Reaper Costume with skull mask. If someone rings the doorbell I will have something to wear. Should be entertaining for at least one of us.

 

2) If someone nearby sneezes or coughs, I will not say "Bless you" rather I shall say "God and all his Angels protect us from the dark!"

 

3) Download and change Ringtone on my phone from regular rings to the guy from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail who rings a bell and yells "Bring out your dead!" (Of course, if it's bad news on the phone I'll regret that but until then!)

 

4) Assemble Mock up in Front Yard that resembles Dr. Who's Tardis, put sign nearby that says "Time Travel, Mistakes were made- Correcting your Timeline now. Appointments only please", watch and see if a line forms.

 

5) Answer phone going "You've reached Leper Island, most intact resident speaking..." then cough.

 

6) Explain to people that i can't talk to them right now, I must read and listen to audio books to placate the ravages of COVID -19 because I heard it was a "Novel" Virus. Pretend i don't get it when they try to clarify.

 

7) Sing at least one line of a patriotic song before I put my ass down on a sofa with a tv remote in my hand "Let's do it for our country, our Country wants us to"  etc

 

8 ) Pretend I am a soldier at Valley Forge and write Facebook accounts about how we are "Sorely in need of supplies" or perhaps a scribe during the black plague 

 

9) Set up a single roll of toilet paper in backyard with a nonlethal snare trap-wait and see what happens.

 

10) Email/Call Microsoft and bitterly complain their anti-virus software isn't working!

 

11) Make tiny masks, put them on the Garden Gnomes outside because the squirrels are too darn quick to catch.
 

[Pariah]

The idea that we need to be "out spending money" to save the economy is, to my view, at least 20 years out of date. Is this contrarian individual not heard of things like Amazon? Pretty much every retailer at this point has an online presence, and most of them have delivery. 

 

Is this guy still connecting to the internet using dial-up?

[Michael Hopcroft]

14 hours ago, sinanju said:

My girlfriend, an RN, sent me a Marco Polo video last night. As of last night, she's officially caring for Covid patients--so she's quarantined. She won't be able to visit for a while. Bummer. At least we can send videos back and forth.

Is she going in on the assumption that at some point she will contract the virus, sooner or later? And will she need the treatment for herself that she is providing for patients?

[Michael Hopcroft]

11 minutes ago, Pariah said:

The idea that we need to be "out spending money" to save the economy is, to my view, at least 20 years out of date. Is this contrarian individual not heard of things like Amazon? Pretty much every retailer at this point has an online presence, and most of them have delivery. 

 

Is this guy still connecting to the internet using dial-up?

I assume not. The board is centered around video games, which he plays. This implies he has at the very least a console. and almost nobody is without a smartphone in there times. Even my Luddite mother can make video calls and access Google on her phone.

[unclevlad]

USOC added its voice to the call for postponement, and the growing situation in Africa, finally convinces the IOC to postpone the Olympics.

[sinanju]

1 hour ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

Is she going in on the assumption that at some point she will contract the virus, sooner or later? And will she need the treatment for herself that she is providing for patients?

 

No, I think it's more just taking care that IF she catches the virus, she won't spread it.

 

She described the laborious, time-consuming, detailed procedure for masking, gowning, and gloving up before entering a patient's room, and then the even more laborious procedure for de-gloving/masking/gowning, and sterilizing the area where this happens when between patients. Also, each nurse is assigned four patient rooms and that nurse and ONLY THAT NURSE enters those rooms. And they have to do this procedure every time they go into or out of the room to do anything. The time-consuming nature of these precautions is why they're each only handling four patients.

[RPMiller]

1 minute ago, sinanju said:

 

No, I think it's more just taking care that IF she catches the virus, she won't spread it.

 

She described the laborious, time-consuming, detailed procedure for masking, gowning, and gloving up before entering a patient's room, and then the even more laborious procedure for de-gloving/masking/gowning, and sterilizing the area where this happens when between patients. Also, each nurse is assigned four patient rooms and that nurse and ONLY THAT NURSE enters those rooms. And they have to do this procedure every time they go into or out of the room to do anything. The time-consuming nature of these precautions is why they're each only handling four patients.

Wow. Having spent a fair amount of time in ICU units working with providers, my heart goes out to all of them. This situation is going to push a lot of them to their limits. And we mustn't forget that after all those work procedures, they then go home and have to go through similar procedures to protect their family. Tell her we appreciate the work she and all the healthcare providers are doing.

[Badger]

10 hours ago, Drhoz said:

Down here in Perth I haven't seen any toilet paper in the stores for weeks.

 

Fortunately, my work means I can avoid going near or even talking to people, which is just as well since I doubt my asthma and COVID-19 are a good combination, especially since I've already had a bad cough and repeated throat infections since December. Unfortunately, my wife is a school teacher, and it's impossible to keep the little stench-goblins away from each other, and our idiotic government refuses to close the schools claiming it would be too hard for any health-worker parents to find child care, and "education is important". 

 

Yeah, I probably cant take a chance visiting my dad since  Age:78 +diabetes+heart attack 2 years ago

[RPMiller]

Too bad the US doesn't stand a chance of pulling this off.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-south-korea-flattened-the-coronavirus-curve/ar-BB11AJwA

[Pariah]

57 minutes ago, RPMiller said:

Too bad the US doesn't stand a chance of pulling this off.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-south-korea-flattened-the-coronavirus-curve/ar-BB11AJwA

 

Four fairly simple, straightforward lessons. And we've blown them all. Fantastic.

[unclevlad]

31 minutes ago, RPMiller said:

Too bad the US doesn't stand a chance of pulling this off.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-south-korea-flattened-the-coronavirus-curve/ar-BB11AJwA

 

Nope.  FAR, FAR too late to do what they did.

 

The article gives 3 reasons;  the third is now, it's just too late.  This is a genie that you MUST keep in the bottle.  The first two, tho:

Quote

 

One is political will. Many governments have hesitated to impose onerous measures in the absence of a crisis-level outbreak.

Another is public will. Social trust is higher in South Korea than in many other countries, particularly Western democracies beset by polarization and populist backlash.

 

 

And let us be blunt.  There is no collective public will in the US;  there is no public trust in government.  There is no political will, there is only political paralysis.  And even if the politicians could by some miracle agree...the lawsuits would be streaming down incessantly.  

 

And now, Trump's starting to talk about ending many, if not most, of the restrictions.  Gahhh......  The only thing that, IMO, is probably worse than continuous, blanket restrictions is patchwork, intermittent ones.  We can get used to the restrictions, we can adapt.  Not saying it won't be brutal;  it will be.  BUT, some places like New York aren't going off restrictions any time soon, and figure the other states declared major disaster areas aren't, either.  Right there you've got, what, 15-20% of the country still tightly restricted.  Then...if you lift the restrictions, what's gonna happen?  Surges of new cases, suddenly requiring restoration of the tight movement controls.  That's incredibly jarring and chaotic.

 

Also...quite honestly, what scares me is that this will start a major schism between the states and the feds.  My hope is, the governors put enough pressure on Trump (along with the health care pros) to keep measures contained, at least until far more testing has been done, and maybe, just maybe, we start developing a stronger sense of the scope of the problem.   It also won't be the governors;  cities have the worst problem just because of population density.  Looks like Louisiana has about 1400 cases, of which almost half are in New Orleans...including 26 deaths.  

 

So it feels to me that the major impact of Trump lifting restrictions nationally, will just be chaos.  It won't help business, the economy, or the country that much in the best case;  in the worst case, IMO, it simply means we go onto a longer, even more uncertain roller coaster ride until far more testing is completed, and possibly until reasonably safe and effective drug treatments come online.  

[Duke Bushido]

5 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

I want to respond to him somewhat -- 

 

 

Honestly, I think it's better if you don't.

 

I mean, neither of you has a one-hundred percent chance of being absolutely right or absolutely wrong, and if we base a position on the last time the entire country shut down for a month or so--- we'll see that we have no data to pull from.

 

And ultimately, we will _all_ know soon enough, meaning that any time spent pithing back and forth about what will be in a month will have been time you both could have been solving differential equations.  

 

 And here's more news:

 

A dumbass I work with has exposed about 40 of us (me included).  Well, _may_ have exposed.  Let me sum this up:

 

Since Monday morning, Coworker has been regaling us with tales of the great time he and his family had with his sibling sibling's spouse all weekend.  They visited, they played with the kids, the did lots of fun things.

 

Today, three 0'clock this afternoon, the subject turns to "the virus."  Coworker announces that he hoped Sibling and Spouse got to their cabin okay.  Seems that was where they were headed to quarantine themselves after having been DIAGNOSED POSITIVE!

 

We can give all the suggestions or flat-out orders we want.  Stupid will make a mockery of it every time.