Matt the Bruins

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-malaria-drug.html

http://therandyreport.com/woman-who-mocked-covid-19-dies-from-virus-two-weeks-later/

Perhaps someone should float the potential image boost rewards of bravely becoming "Test Subject One" by the Oval Office?

That concerns me—domestic cats aren't all that different in biology from the big kind aside from size, are they? Does this mean the virus can be transmitted by the most common household pet in the US? (I'd be personally worried if the alley cats behind my building hadn't been winnowed down to the two most antisocial; I'm pretty confident I'm the only human being they'll allow to touch them.) Also, if felines are able to catch COVID-19, doesn't that mean it's far likelier that pigs can, and possibly other hooved livestock?

I try to avoid using public restrooms whenever possible, but on those occasions when it's unavoidable you'd better believe I want toilet paper to be available!

Honestly toilet tissue is the only thing I was worried about (I live in a small university city surrounded by farmland, food isn't hard to come by). And that largely solved itself when I bought a 12-pack of mega rolls last week—that should last me until May. The only things I've shopped for and come up wanting have been Welch's grape juice (since obtained) and Clorox wipes (still waiting). And rationing the latter would be very difficult to tell from my usual "eh, I'll clean the kitchen in a couple days" procrastination. I'm fortunate that my job is one I can do from home, my boss ordered everyone who could to do so and closed my office, and for now my company's ongoing contracts don't seem to be affected. IIRC, the general economic implosion of 2008 took most of a year to work its way around to my industry, so things might get dicey around the holidays or early next year, but I'm hoping school closures now will mean lots of demand for product next year and a continuing supply of work.

At least someone will be dining in public again?

Here in Arkansas there hasn't been an official order, but non-essential businesses have largely closed voluntarily and people are largely practicing social distancing and staying home for the most part. There is a big streak of self-sufficiency in this region that doesn't necessarily correspond to social irresponsibility. Early Saturday evening my city had an EF-3 tornado cut through its two busiest streets at dinnertime and demolish the airport and the normally-packed mall; 83 homes were destroyed and another 375 damaged (with costs estimated at several hundred million dollars). Yet there was a grand total of 22 injuries, only 2 of them requiring hospitalization, and no deaths because everyone was home and able to take shelter quickly when the tornado sirens/alerts went off.

I'd say the deaths; hopefully all but a tiny percentage of those new cases will recover.

Based on what the severe cases are doing to people (weeks on a ventilator, then death or scarring that reduces healthy people to the lung function of geriatric emphysemics), a treatment that either works or kills you fast with a heart attack would be something I'd jump at if facing that decision.

I don't have links handy with the actual info, but I saw promising results the other day written up about the effectiveness of that experimental combination of malaria and lupus treatment drugs. Particularly that it was cutting hospitalization times to less than half of the standard in other patients, which has good ramifications for the effective capacity of hospitals to treat more patients as well as for the recovery of the individuals being treated. Here's hoping the combo doesn't turn out to be highly carcinogenic or have some other medium to long term effect that would dampen its usefulness as a treatment.

The first episode of Kingdom, a South Korean period adventure that complicates an early 17th century political power struggle with a zombie outbreak. Pretty stylish and well-done, I found myself absorbed by it despite the language barrier.

He's not that bright, and if he thinks the virus is caused by beer...

I suppose it's a silver lining that when a tornado collapsed my city's airport and part of the main shopping mall today, the shutdown of air travel and non-essential businesses thanks to the virus seems to have spared us from potentially hundreds of casualties that might have happened on a normal Saturday in March. There are only reports of six injuries so far, which is a miracle considering the amount of property damage. https://www.kait8.com/2020/03/28/tornado-warnings-issued-throughout-region-craighead-poinsett-counties-pm/

Slapshot is the best hockey movie. I would also recommend Sudden Death. Where else can you see Luc Robitaille skate AND Jean-Clause Van Damme in a battle to the death with Iceburgh?