Covid 19/Coronavirus

[blacai]

Even if the flight is not banned, go abroad for holiday at this very moment is not a wise move

You're right, I know. It would have been a visit to my parents but I would not take the risk of going to the frankfurt airport with all the chaos and get infected before being with two 65yo ... it would be all but responsible.

 

[thraxil]

- Logically, if safety was an actual concern then they'd be sending the grunt labor home, but then they'd lose a lot of money. So they know who's really making them the money. The grunts that actually do all the work of couse.

Yeah, I see how that's frustrating to watch.

It's not really why things are done the way they are though. The general strategy is to send home anyone who *can* do their work from home without too much of an impact on the output. That tends to be more "white collar" jobs, but the intent isn't to just save those people from exposure. It's to get as many people as practical to avoid circulating unnecessarily. The overall rate of spread depends very directly on population density and contact. Having the people who can work from home do that helps protect those who can't as well (not just "grunt" workers, but health care professionals, emergency workers, and the people that keep essential services like electricity and water working).

We're at a point on the exponential growth curve where making even small improvements to the spread rate could make a huge difference on whether our entire health care system is overwhelmed or not and could mean thousands or millions of lives. The challenge is to maximize that without just shutting every business down. Shutting everything down and sending everyone home would basically put most companies out of business permanently, so they're trying to avoid that.

Honestly, if you are continuing to be employed throughout this whole situation, you are probably in a better position than a large segment of people who are just sent home to not work and won't be making any income at all or who lose their job because the company they work for goes out of business.

 

[SD83]

It's not really why things are done the way they are though. The general strategy is to send home anyone who *can* do their work from home without too much of an impact on the output. .

Actually, that might be one of the positive effects of this entire thing, if it catches on. There are, at least over here, tons of people who could just as well work from home who have to go to their office every day to work at their desk without ever actually talking to anyone in person, and for years I've been wondering what's the point in that?
Same goes for business and politics. Why do they have to meet in person? We're not living in the 1950s, most of us anyways. The future is here, and it has been for a while, real time video conference with dozens of participants should be no problem at all. If you have to talk to someone, there is no need to fly thousands of miles just to do that. If you have to fix someones car, you gotta go where the car is, but if it's just talking and exchanging data and stuff like that... also, trade fairs, I know people like to touch stuff, but we got virtual reality, there is (in many cases) no need to carry tons of stuff around, thousands of people, just to have them look at some new things.
And just imagine the next G20 summit taking place at a thousand places because it just takes place at the homes of every one who attends. Thousands of people would have trouble finding places to set random cars on fire...
There are a lot of jobs involved in that kind of stuff, I am very much aware of that. Mine is to some degree one of them. But I find this "meeting someone far away just to talk to them" thing downright archaic, earlier this year I drove 600 km to southern Germany to do just that, and then 600 km back, for about an hour of conversation... why? Because people still expect you to. If the Coronavirus makes some people rethink that approach, that might be a good thing, I think.

 

[Demiurge]

We just received advisement to start working from home indefinitely. I really can't complain about that.

 

[Randy]

I'm in NY and my mom is an ER nurse manager of 40 years, and they still haven't gotten any formal training on this. Said it's standard protocol for the flu etc until they get formal notice and training from either county board of health or CDC. Woefully unprepared.

Update on this:

Hasn't changed much. There was some formal training on the specifics of the virus, the transmission, what it does and how to treat it but they're not doing any treatment or testing at the hospital or anywhere in the country AFAIK. If someone calls or comes in with symptoms, they send them home and tell them to self quarantine and follow typical flu procedure. If someone asks specifically about a COVID-19 test, they're told to call the country Department of Health, and as of yesterday at least, DoH says they have no tests and usually tells them to call the hospital, in a loop.

Both are currently operating at the direction (or lackthereof) of the CDC, and it sounds like they're likely not up to speed on test supply, so they're just trying to tell people to keep isolated and HOPE they do as advised, and basically run out the clock until things either settle down, the test supply catches up or everyone has it. Seemingly.

Cuomo very aggressive about this though, so I wouldn't be surprised if you see things change before the end of the weekend.

 

[sleewell]

iran is digging mass graves.

did anyone see that vid where their health minister was saying everything was fine while the guy behind him obviously had it? that dude died like a day or two later.

 

[diagrammatiks]

Actually, that might be one of the positive effects of this entire thing, if it catches on. There are, at least over here, tons of people who could just as well work from home who have to go to their office every day to work at their desk without ever actually talking to anyone in person, and for years I've been wondering what's the point in that?
Same goes for business and politics. Why do they have to meet in person? We're not living in the 1950s, most of us anyways. The future is here, and it has been for a while, real time video conference with dozens of participants should be no problem at all. If you have to talk to someone, there is no need to fly thousands of miles just to do that. If you have to fix someones car, you gotta go where the car is, but if it's just talking and exchanging data and stuff like that... also, trade fairs, I know people like to touch stuff, but we got virtual reality, there is (in many cases) no need to carry tons of stuff around, thousands of people, just to have them look at some new things.
And just imagine the next G20 summit taking place at a thousand places because it just takes place at the homes of every one who attends. Thousands of people would have trouble finding places to set random cars on fire...
There are a lot of jobs involved in that kind of stuff, I am very much aware of that. Mine is to some degree one of them. But I find this "meeting someone far away just to talk to them" thing downright archaic, earlier this year I drove 600 km to southern Germany to do just that, and then 600 km back, for about an hour of conversation... why? Because people still expect you to. If the Coronavirus makes some people rethink that approach, that might be a good thing, I think.

you know that the point of conferences and going to busy meetings is to drink beer and look at strippers right.

it's just an excuse.

 

[Adieu]

iran is digging mass graves.

did anyone see that vid where their health minister was saying everything was fine while the guy behind him obviously had it? that dude died like a day or two later.

Maybe they're just using the cover of viral hysteria to quietly bury their political undesirables?

This IS iran we're talking about here...

 

[thraxil]

Actually, that might be one of the positive effects of this entire thing, if it catches on. There are, at least over here, tons of people who could just as well work from home who have to go to their office every day to work at their desk without ever actually talking to anyone in person, and for years I've been wondering what's the point in that?

I've been working remotely for almost six years now, so I'm inclined to agree. Offices, especially with the open plan layout that so many companies seem to favour are incredibly inefficient for a lot of work. But I'm also an introvert so I'm comfortable being home by myself for long periods of time (many people don't handle it well) and am very experienced at my job so I don't need to interact with others.

 

[ThePIGI King]

Maybe they're just using the cover of viral hysteria to quietly bury their political undesirables?

This IS iran we're talking about here...

Not to mention being a 3rd world country. Its not surprising they can't keep up with it. I wonder how the disease will impact the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hell, depending on how hard people get hit with this over there, the U.S. may actually be able to bring our troops home

In all seriousness I am interested to see how it impacts the middle east and our involvement there. I doubt it'll change much to be honest.

 

[Dumple Stilzkin]

From Tuesday to Wednesday there was a massive difference in the supermarkets. People are overreacting and honestly I went and l bought a few things myself. I don't want to contribute or participate in this idiocy but I also don't want to go shopping and find empty shelves. We do consume mostly fresh products with limited fridge life anyway but I'm worried what will happen if I can't find those products too.

Sounds like you and I eat similar. We’re going to out and buy some extra just in case. If things are shut down we can at least limit our need to go out in public. Things like canned foods. Get somes meats to freeze etc. Oh and 1 extra container of TP. Nothing crazy.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Not to mention being a 3rd world country. Its not surprising they can't keep up with it. I wonder how the disease will impact the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hell, depending on how hard people get hit with this over there, the U.S. may actually be able to bring our troops home

In all seriousness I am interested to see how it impacts the middle east and our involvement there. I doubt it'll change much to be honest.

if anything I feel like the US is going to use the virus as an excuse to go into Iran and offer "humanitarian aid"

 

[Metropolis]

People started hoarding toilet paper, potatoes, rice, pasta, bottled water and soda, ground meat, all sorts of stuff. And we didn't hoard nothing...

 

[thraxil]

People started hoarding toilet paper, potatoes, rice, pasta, bottled water and soda, ground meat, all sorts of stuff. And we didn't hoard nothing...

I'm just hoarding whisky and guitars. Of course, I started doing that *way* before this whole coronavirus thing....

 

[Metropolis]

I'm just hoarding whisky and guitars. Of course, I started doing that *way* before this whole coronavirus thing....

That's totally normal compared to this kind of hoarding

 

[Merrekof]

Not to mention being a 3rd world country. Its not surprising they can't keep up with it. I wonder how the disease will impact the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hell, depending on how hard people get hit with this over there, the U.S. may actually be able to bring our troops home

In all seriousness I am interested to see how it impacts the middle east and our involvement there. I doubt it'll change much to be honest.

Serious response: Turkey and Russia agreed to a cease fire in Syria. It takes a pandemic to get a cease fire in Syria, appareantly..

 

[Demiurge]

TP at the local supermarket is cleaned-out. Even Amazon is sold-out of most brands. Yeesh.

 

[Merrekof]

TP at the local supermarket is cleaned-out. Even Amazon is sold-out of most brands. Yeesh.

I've seen a lot of apocalypse/zombie/pandemic/disaster movies but NONE of them showed people hoarding TP. Is this really the biggest fear, running out of toilet paper?

 

[spudmunkey]

it's a secrutity blanket. People feel helpless, and they are doing the only thing they know how to do: stock up on necessities. Toilet paper is just the most visible, because a single 24-pack of "double rolls" or "mega rolls" takes up 2 cubic feet of display/shelf space, where you might fit almost 100 cans of soup. So there's a smaller quantity of customers that can be served by a typical display (even when over-sized) and it's a dramatic scene when an aisle is empty, making everyone think they won't be able to get it, and they buy it (and extra) when they find some. Real estate is also expensive, and toilet paper takes up a lot of room, so stores don't normally have enormous caches of it on-hand.

I was at a grocery store last night, and there was a guy grabbing armloads of bags of rice and canned beans, telling everyone around him that he was a marine and knows he can get by without toilet paper, but "a man's gotta eat!" The checkout line at the grocery store was about 35 minutes, the there was no toilet paper to buy even if you wanted it.

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

yes that's what happened. China woke up one day and decided today I'm going to try and kill all my customers.

It's crazy enough, it just might work!