BarretWallace

On that note, I have two litter boxes which need cleaning this evening so if you want to drop by....

What about body cavity checking?

Your concern for the children of your neighborhood in the midst of your own struggles is an inspiration to us all.
 

...what Starlord said.  Kick Covid's butt!

I'm very sorry.  Please try to keep us updated if possible and take care of yourself!

I tested positive.

(bolding added)
 
I'm sorry, I'm currently suffering from a sarcasm overdose.  

Best wishes for a smooth recovery, and I'm sorry that a vacation turned into abusive hell.
 
I am trying to come up with good words for both things (sickness, abuse) and I don't think there are any.  I wish we could rally a throng of Herophiles to your support beyond these forums (though even on these forums, this remains one of the coolest groups of people I've ever found).

Finally got an appointment to be tested tomorrow morning...

I have a fever, wet cough and muscle pains.  Waiting to hear back from the doctor now on when I can get tested.

We use Teams at work. Most people don't have their video feed on. One thing that's superior to an old fashioned conference call is screen sharing of visual information, which we do all the time. We also conduct live training this way.  I recently completed two FEMA classes via Zoom, for example.

Within limits, sure.  It's easy to say "the government will pay for it", but that does not make it free.  How much more taxes are you willing to pay (not impose on other segments of the population - pay yourself - "who should pay taxes?" is a completely separate question from "what should taxes pay for")?  Or, what other programs (being realistic) are you willing to cut?  More funding for COVID, so less for other medical conditions?  More old people get hospitalized, so reduce social security benefits (or tax them more heavily) to compensate?  A special medical tax?
 
Just like the death rate is not the only COVID risk we should be concerned with (thanks, LL, for those two fantastic and very sobering links), we need to think beyond the immediate when we suggest ramped up spending.
 
Of course, there are also benefits - if we train up more medical personnel and build more facilities, they can be used for other purposes after the COVID crisis has passed.  Not everything we would need is limited to COVID care.  But a lot of what we would need, and would have ongoing value, requires years to implement.  Maybe some of it should be started now so we are more ready for COVID-2X!
 
The articles LL cited show the long-term damage.  That 20 something whose health is compromised will not be able to work either.  He or she will impose costs on the medical system, and the social system, for decades.  The lower his risk of death, the higher those long-term costs.  As well, as one article noted, we do not know that "that which does not kill me makes me stronger", and many experts are concerned with the possibility that "that which does not kill me today will be back to kill me later".
 
 
So what, wall off the US and give up?  Let the countries that have taken this seriously survive, and others can wither and die?  I suggest that having RO rates over 1.0 in 47 out of 50 states is an indicator that more, not less, has to be done.
 
 
Leaving aside the fact that mortality rate is not the only consideration - that has been debunked repeatedly, with LL's links providing a great recent example, that 20something working in the theater will, for the theater to make money, serve how many people a day popcorn that he scooped up. chatted with the consumer and took their payment?  Those people will, I expect, range across all age categories, at least if we accept your theory that all we need to do in order to restore the theater's economic prosperity is reopen and people will flock to sit in areas of poor ventilation for a couple of hours at a time.
 
Those people you quarantine are also out of work while quarantined.  People don't respect social distancing or masking protocols.  What makes you think they will respect quarantine, rather than follow the example of senior elected officials?  Will we enforce quarantine (police; millitary?).  If so, who will pay the enforcers? 
 
How about the theater gets to reopen, but must fund insurance for all workers or patrons who contract COVID in a manner which can be traced back to the theater, covering their medical costs, loss of income and including long-term health damage and loss of long-term income earning potential?  If the theater has to pay the freight for all risks its opening creates, how do the economics look now?
 
I agree there are no easy right answers.  However, that includes the easy answer of "screw it and just reopen everything".
 
 
 
 
 
Oh yeah, I came here to post this, which looks exactly like recent office staff meetings.  Bonus points if you can provide an example of something your office did on a videoconference than could not have been done on a phone conference call.
 

The theater industry has been on the ropes for years, pinched between the extortionist terms of the film distributors and their own business costs.  AIUI their only significant source of profit is the concession stand, where the the extortionist film distribution costs are passed down to the rest of us.  (In particular, the distributors offload all the risk onto the theaters, taking around 90% of ticket sales for the first couple of weeks of a movie's run, then allowing the theater to keep more of the box office takes for subsequent weeks... if the movie doesn't flop.)  I genuinely believe that the only reason theaters were still in business before the pandemic was the MCU, and it would not surprise me at all if the pandemic were to finish the job, forcing the distributors to either take over the theaters directly, or shutter them and go straight to streaming.
 
I mean, lockdowns are almost irrelevant in this case.  All theater restrictions could be lifted tomorrow and they could immediately release Wonder Woman 1984, Black Widow, Captain Marvel 2, and No Time to Die, for free, and I still wouldn't go.  Would you?  Sit in an enclosed room for two hours with a couple dozen unmasked strangers shoveling popcorn into their faces?  That's a hard pass for me.  I'm sure you could get some people to go, but not enough to get theaters out of the red.

We miss the old us too. Ironically enough, I think many Americans wish we more like Canada.

"That's the bedroom, but nothing ever happened in there."

"What a crime."

"Generally you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance."

Yeah, Bloomberg had a story earlier this week that local coffee houses aren't surviving...and the Evil Scum of the Water of Life, aka Starbucks, is getting further entrenched.  Have to figure that's gonna happen with book stores (if you even have a local book store) and restaurants.  It's already happened here, WRT package liquor...because the county has a set, VERY limited number of liquor licenses.  So, Wal Mart has 4;  Walgreens has 2 or 3;  Albertson's has 3;  Pic Quik (gas and quickie mart) has several.  That was separate;  the big stores just consistently offered too much for the small, local guys to say no.  There is *1* standalone, independent liquor store left.  So it's related:  the little guys don't have the resources to cope with the pressure.
 
When we pull out of this, it is very likely to be that much more corporate-dominated, altho several of those will be gone or greatly reduced too.  For the last 8-10 years, I'd say...the only really interesting local businesses have been the VERY good Mexican restaurants.  

I haven't been up to our local (pretty lousy) mall in a long time...I should go up there, just to see how many vacancies there are.  It's not like it's been terribly close to full up very much of the time in the last...decade.  

There is a lot I could say, but the flotsam and jetsam rising to the top of my brain is pretty much this: at this time next year, I hope all of us are still around and commenting on these boards.  Maybe some of us are getting to be old codgers, but this is a damn wonderful community.  I've never met any of you in person and maybe never will, nor am I the best or most prolific writer here, but dang, this is a great community of nut-jobs to be part of.  Stay safe and I look forward to your next posts!

There is a lot I could say, but the flotsam and jetsam rising to the top of my brain is pretty much this: at this time next year, I hope all of us are still around and commenting on these boards.  Maybe some of us are getting to be old codgers, but this is a damn wonderful community.  I've never met any of you in person and maybe never will, nor am I the best or most prolific writer here, but dang, this is a great community of nut-jobs to be part of.  Stay safe and I look forward to your next posts!

Had someone I know pop positive for Coronavirus today.
 
I was already headed into the Dr. Office for a persistent cough and shortness of breath.  Went through all of the usual and they decided to test me for Strep, Flu and Coronavirus.
 
Whoever invented the Coronavirus test deserves to be shot.  Rather, cut repeatedly, basted in honey and laid on the bank of a river where salmon are being hunted by grizzly bears.
The Q-tip like end was so swollen I was dubious about getting it into my TMA/MMA mangled nose in the first place.  The right nostril was a complete no-go.  I couldn't even get it to the bridge of my nose.  I can barely breathe out of that nostril as it is mostly scar tissue and my septum is deviated.  Other nostril I got further in and the nurse - between laughing fits - suggested I should aim for behind my eye.  I had blood on the f'ing Q-tip before I could get the last inch in.
This thing is designed for brain trauma.
 
Luckily the Flu test swap is thin enough you can actually slide it up your nostrils and into your sinus cavity.  Success.
 
The last one - a vomit-inducing tickler that you have to rub "over your tonsils".  I have no idea where that is I haven't had tonsils for 44 years.  I swabbed over my uvula and various parts of my throat will gagging repeatedly.
 
I do not enjoy the self-testing lane of the Dr's Office.  I would prefer the nurse or doctor wield the instruments of torture so I have a small chance of getting a valid test result.
 
They of course did not call me back as promised nor update my online records.  I did get an antibiotic so I **suspect** that only the strep test came back positive.
 
We'll see how it goes.

There is a lot I could say, but the flotsam and jetsam rising to the top of my brain is pretty much this: at this time next year, I hope all of us are still around and commenting on these boards.  Maybe some of us are getting to be old codgers, but this is a damn wonderful community.  I've never met any of you in person and maybe never will, nor am I the best or most prolific writer here, but dang, this is a great community of nut-jobs to be part of.  Stay safe and I look forward to your next posts!

There is a lot I could say, but the flotsam and jetsam rising to the top of my brain is pretty much this: at this time next year, I hope all of us are still around and commenting on these boards.  Maybe some of us are getting to be old codgers, but this is a damn wonderful community.  I've never met any of you in person and maybe never will, nor am I the best or most prolific writer here, but dang, this is a great community of nut-jobs to be part of.  Stay safe and I look forward to your next posts!

There is a lot I could say, but the flotsam and jetsam rising to the top of my brain is pretty much this: at this time next year, I hope all of us are still around and commenting on these boards.  Maybe some of us are getting to be old codgers, but this is a damn wonderful community.  I've never met any of you in person and maybe never will, nor am I the best or most prolific writer here, but dang, this is a great community of nut-jobs to be part of.  Stay safe and I look forward to your next posts!

There is a lot I could say, but the flotsam and jetsam rising to the top of my brain is pretty much this: at this time next year, I hope all of us are still around and commenting on these boards.  Maybe some of us are getting to be old codgers, but this is a damn wonderful community.  I've never met any of you in person and maybe never will, nor am I the best or most prolific writer here, but dang, this is a great community of nut-jobs to be part of.  Stay safe and I look forward to your next posts!

There is a lot I could say, but the flotsam and jetsam rising to the top of my brain is pretty much this: at this time next year, I hope all of us are still around and commenting on these boards.  Maybe some of us are getting to be old codgers, but this is a damn wonderful community.  I've never met any of you in person and maybe never will, nor am I the best or most prolific writer here, but dang, this is a great community of nut-jobs to be part of.  Stay safe and I look forward to your next posts!