COVID-19/Coronavirus thread

[Jerksticks]

My neighbor is an EMT outside of Austin.  He said the governor has had them running constant tests at all nursing homes since the whole thing started and pretty much every Covid call is at a nursing home (for EMS calls).  He says it’s just been slaughtering those places.  
 

Even with all the constant testing they’ve been doing for months it just rips through them.  

[southsider2k5]

39 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:

My neighbor is an EMT outside of Austin.  He said the governor has had them running constant tests at all nursing homes since the whole thing started and pretty much every Covid call is at a nursing home (for EMS calls).  He says it’s just been slaughtering those places.  
 

Even with all the constant testing they’ve been doing for months it just rips through them.  

My mom is in a LTC facility and the daily numbers are just staggering once it gets in.  It just explodes once it enters.  And this is in a facility that hasn't taken visitors or new patients since early May.  You aren't even allowed to take your family member OUT of the home.  If you do, they are NOT allowed back in until their quarantine is over.  Between staff and patients, they have almost 60 cases, and 8 deaths.

[caulfield12]

In April, the National Association of County and City Health Officials estimated that communities would need 30 contact tracers per 100,000 people.

But there are far fewer contact tracers than that in eight states rife with Covid-19 infections, according to new data obtained by CNN from Nephron Research, an independent health care research firm that has been monitoring contact tracing across states. 

As of Monday, Florida has about seven tracers per 100,000, Texas has about 11 tracers per 100,000 and Arizona has about five tracers per 100,000.

Just six states have more than 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents, led by New York and North and South Dakota.

www.cnn.com

Dakotas here a bit of a shock...must be due largely to scares over meat/poultry processing plants. Gov. Kristi Noem has been really outspoken, but negative attention on her state has dramatically decreased from 6-8 weeks ago.

A lot have been tough on Cuomo and de Blasio, but almost every health expert recently has given the highest marks to NY/NJ in terms of overall response and especially a scientifically-centered methodology for bringing outbreaks under control.

What’s really frustrating here is having months and months ahead of time to prepare and basically having a 12% national success rate in terms of states ramping up capacity on tracing...rather than reacting to this only after the situation becomes Italy/Spain/Brazil or NYC-levels of horrifically dire.

 

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/06/28/beachgoers-heckle-broward-county-4th-july-chen-vpx.cnn

Beachgoers heckle officials after July 4th announcement

CNN's Natasha Chen discusses how beachgoers reacted as Broward County, Florida, officials announced that their beaches will be closed July 4th weekend over coronavirus concerns. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by caulfield12

[Heads22]

 

[The Beast]

4 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

Probably a good idea to continue to avoid indoor spaces

And yet Planet Fitness has opened in Illinois and my account will probably be charged. I want to go and lift but I can’t be positive that I can trust everyone else who is lifting shared weights to not have COVID-19. I wish they would let me freeze my membership instead of having me cancel it for the time being.

[Jack Parkman]

Since the record for a safe vaccine is 48 months, and we have the entire world working on it, I have doubts about a vaccine that is developed in fewer than 30 months. It seems like a disaster waiting to happen in terms of safety. You don't want to compound the pandemic by disabling people in an attempt to solve it. 

If they can chop 18 months off the record, I'd buy that. Anything less and I'd be very skeptical about the validity of the protocols necessary to declare a vaccine safe. 

In any case, I'd want the science to be internationally scrutinized if it's released before 2025. 

I'm all for vaccinations but I'm very concerned about something getting rushed to market and causing major damage to human health. 

I don't think this is an unreasonable position to hold. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[Jose Abreu]

8 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

Since the record for a safe vaccine is 48 months, and we have the entire world working on it, I have doubts about a vaccine that is developed in fewer than 30 months. It seems like a disaster waiting to happen in terms of safety. You don't want to compound the pandemic by disabling people in an attempt to solve it. 

If they can chop 18 months off the record, I'd buy that. Anything less and I'd be very skeptical about the validity of the protocols necessary to declare a vaccine safe. 

In any case, I'd want the science to be internationally scrutinized if it's released before 2025. 

I'm all for vaccinations but I'm very concerned about something getting rushed to market and causing major damage to human health. 

I don't think this is an unreasonable position to hold. 

I understand your concerns, but I would be shocked if it's not released by the end of 2021

[Jack Parkman]

2 minutes ago, Jose Abreu said:

I understand your concerns, but I would be shocked if it's not released by the end of 2021

Now....if they're piggybacking off of the SARS vaccine that they've been working on for 15 years I can buy it a lot easier. I'd want to hear from experts all over the world that the science is solid and that there was no fuckery going on. 

[StrangeSox]

 

 

 

[Balta1701]

12 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

Now....if they're piggybacking off of the SARS vaccine that they've been working on for 15 years I can buy it a lot easier. I'd want to hear from experts all over the world that the science is solid and that there was no fuckery going on. 

Of course they're piggybacking on everything they possibly can. The groups at the more advanced levels are each trying different things, the Chinese version is a fully dead virus version, the other 2 are targeting the "Spike" proteins in various ways to teach the body how to attack those, and the reason those are somewhat understood is work on these things. It's also entirely possible that the first vaccine versions only offer partial protection, maybe limiting or reducing severe cases but not stopping it overall.

I will agree with you that I'm somewhat worried about f***ery going on as well, so we'll see how the results are presented. 

 

 

[Jack Parkman]

2 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Of course they're piggybacking on everything they possibly can. The groups at the more advanced levels are each trying different things, the Chinese version is a fully dead virus version, the other 2 are targeting the "Spike" proteins in various ways to teach the body how to attack those, and the reason those are somewhat understood is work on these things. It's also entirely possible that the first vaccine versions only offer partial protection, maybe limiting or reducing severe cases but not stopping it overall.

I will agree with you that I'm somewhat worried about f***ery going on as well, so we'll see how the results are presented. 

 

 

I'm genuinely worried about the scenario suggested in that tweet actually playing out. 

[RTC]

1 hour ago, Heads22 said:

 

Cue Greg’s hair in 3..2...1...

[caulfield12]

CDC says U.S. has 'way too much virus' to control pandemic as cases surge across country

The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to get it under control as some other countries have, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday.

The U.S. stands in stark contrast to countries like South Korea, New Zealand and Singapore as it continues to report over 30,000 new infections per day.

"This is really the beginning," Schuchat said of the U.S.'s recent surge in new cases.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/cdc-says-us-has-way-too-much-virus-to-control-pandemic-as-cases-surge-across-country.html
 

Finally, the real expert and likely head of CDC in a new administration is speaking out after being hidden since the first couple of task force briefings.

 

https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/Guy-Philips-I-can-t-breathe-Farhan-Zaidi-masks-MLB-15368883.php

“F—- that guy!”

Edited June 30, 2020 by caulfield12

[greg775]

12 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

That's about what Texas was like in May and the first 20 days of June when the Governor was telling everyone it was safe and under control. 

I've got some theories about masks that Im not going to share because guess what ... I'm learning to behave on here. I now know what's going to cause a major earthquake on here and won't go there. Let's hope the 4th is safe and fun despite COVID. This 2020 really truly sucks so far.

[bmags]

Seeing the discussion around California, Michigan, and now NJ and New York debating wheter to include indoor dining/bars as part of reopening has me dreading the next week.

It also is what annoys me about the trying to blame state and local actors equally with fed. That perspective will put blame on governors/locals for reopening if it leads to a surge.

It's pretty clear there are specific industries are in the age of covid a specific threat to public health and its the entertainment industry. They make up so much of the real estate and makeup of every town and city in america, and should n't just be told they can't operate and forced to fail, but compensating them with the mechanisms that local and state governments have at their disposal is extremely difficult. You want them to take out loans to support a bunch of individual owners in an industry that is notoriously difficult to keep afloat anyway?

If federal lawmakers stepped up and created a bailout for that industry that allowed them to stay closed and would be reimbursed and employees paid at some level there would be nowhere near the local and state pressures to reopen them. Notice how much easier it is for states and locals to keep schools closed - the funding is by and large set, so they are only discussing public health impacts, and despite much less of a public health issue as entertainment it is still up in the air whether they will reopen in many places. Not so with restaurants.

Illinois/Chicago should let outdoor dining continue, but this is so stupid to allow indoor dining/bars open from a public health standpoint. 

[caulfield12]

What is the market size of the Bars & Nightclubs industry in the US in 2020?

The market size, measured by revenue, of the Bars and Clubs is roughly $27 billion.

 

1 Million

Number of eating and drinking locations nationwide in 2017.

14.7 Million

(10 percent of the U.S. Workforce): Number of restaurant and foodservice jobs nationwide in 2017.

$799 Billion

(4 percent of the U.S. GDP): Projected sales for the restaurant and foodservice industry nationwide in 2017.

$2 Trillion

annual economic impact of the restaurant industry (just under 10% of GDP)

Edited June 30, 2020 by caulfield12

[StrangeSox]

Illinois has been trending back upwards slightly in daily case counts since mid-June.

[Dick Allen]

Why listen to Fauci? He is a scientist. He is full of shit. Listen to Trump and Pence. They always tell it like it is.

[bmags]

Good day.

New cases 724, tests 31,069 = 2.3% Pos rate.

The only good news recently is the consistent hitting of 30k tests. With expanding our opening, you'd want that to be 40k at least soon to catch more asymptomatic cases.

If you've explored more recently, I highly recommend getting tested after 5 days.

[Jack Parkman]

4 hours ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

Everyone is risking their lives going into work.  Them less-so since they work outside and are healthy individuals (most likely).. It's all a joke.

While true, it's not safe for all of us to be working either. Too bad we don't have a union that can stand up to unsafe working conditions. 

Complain about your CEO putting a monetary value on your life. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[Balta1701]

5 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

What is the market size of the Bars & Nightclubs industry in the US in 2020?

The market size, measured by revenue, of the Bars and Clubs is roughly $27 billion.

 

1 Million

Number of eating and drinking locations nationwide in 2017.

14.7 Million

(10 percent of the U.S. Workforce): Number of restaurant and foodservice jobs nationwide in 2017.

$799 Billion

(4 percent of the U.S. GDP): Projected sales for the restaurant and foodservice industry nationwide in 2017.

$2 Trillion

annual economic impact of the restaurant industry (just under 10% of GDP)

You can still keep places open that have drive throughs, curbside pickups to mitigate some of that. But yeah, the choice is going to come down to losing that sector of the economy or renewing outbreaks for the next year it seems.

[Chicago White Sox]

28 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

While true, it's not safe for all of us to be working either. Too bad we don't have a union that can stand up to unsafe working conditions. 

Complain about your CEO putting a monetary value on your life. 

Who is everyone?  Are you actually suggesting a complete shut-down of all manufacturing and retail operations in the US?  What you want is not even remotely realistic and no CEO is going to remain in his role if he acts in complete disregard to financial performance.  No doubt the health & safety of US workers is important, but so is a functioning economy.  There is a balance to this and you seem way too extreme on labor relation issues to appreciate that.

Also, the manufacturing plant for my business is union based (one of the strongest in the country) and they have worked throughout this pandemic outside of a three week shutdown.  Yes, some people have temporarily elected out over COVID-19 concerns, but the vast majority are working because they want to get paid and feel the safety protocols in place are good enough.  The union did not just scream “unsafe working conditions” and refuse to work like you are suggesting.  They are willing to accept some level of risk because they realize there is no perfect solution here.

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

1 hour ago, Jack Parkman said:

While true, it's not safe for all of us to be working either. Too bad we don't have a union that can stand up to unsafe working conditions. 

Complain about your CEO putting a monetary value on your life. 

I am glad I am working lol.. God please no more unions

Edited June 30, 2020 by Squirmin' for Yermin

[Jack Parkman]

1 hour ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Who is everyone?  Are you actually suggesting a complete shut-down of all manufacturing and retail operations in the US?  What you want is not even remotely realistic and no CEO is going to remain in his role if he acts in complete disregard to financial performance.  No doubt the health & safety of US workers is important, but so is a functioning economy.  There is a balance to this and you seem way too extreme on labor relation issues to appreciate that.

Also, the manufacturing plant for my business is union based (one of the strongest in the country) and they have worked throughout this pandemic outside of a three week shutdown.  Yes, some people have temporarily elected out over COVID-19 concerns, but the vast majority are working because they want to get paid and feel the safety protocols in place are good enough.  The union did not just scream “unsafe working conditions” and refuse to work like you are suggesting.  They are willing to accept some level of risk because they realize there is no perfect solution here.

1st bolded-no, not even close. 

2nd bolded-what's good for the employee is good for business. The economy is not a zero-sum game. You can make it bigger. 

I suggest you watch "Saving Capitalism" By Robert Reich. He talks about how there's a cycle of prosperity where everyone gets more, and a cycle of austerity where inequality runs rampant. The economy runs from the bottom up, not the top down. 

The Italics: 

If they feel safe, that's good. The fact they went on strike for 3 weeks to negotiate working conditions is what is supposed to happen. 
 

It's all about what's essential and what isn't. Baseball and other team sports aren't essential, so they shouldn't happen, period. 3 weeks ago I could buy this stuff coming back. Now, no way in hell because the shutdown did nothing. If this pandemic should have taught you anything, it's that the people that get paid the least are the most important workers in our society. How does that make sense? 

1. I don't think it's safe for people(the public) to go into stores though

Retail(including groceries) should be instacart-style or contactless curbside only. Hire people to be package delivery drivers and do contactless/app based delivery. They shouldn't let the public in retail stores, Period. It's not safe for the employees, especially when idiots refuse to wear masks as a political statement. 

2. With regard to manufacturing/food chain issues, they have to spread out more. They absolutely need to keep running, but they should have to space people out 2-3 times more than they are. No being packed into a plant like sardines. My thoughts are that they need to cut the number of workers in per shift in by 1/2 to 2/3 for safety purposes. Everyone keeps their  job and benefits, just work fewer hours. 
 

3. I'm not suggesting a full shutdown, but I think phase 1 is the furthest that I'd go at this point, and even some of those protocols don't go far enough. 

It's fairly obvious that opening businesses is hazardous to your health. Anyone who can do commerce online, should. you can pass the shipping costs out to the consumer. The bigger issue is people cannot be trusted to police themselves in the US. 

There's always going  to be some risk, but the amount of risk that people are asked to take is way too much imo.  Also, I question the safety of public transit so that opens an entirely different can of worms. The thing is minimizing the amount of people in one place at one time, and who is allowed in and who isn't.  

It seems like this thing is really contagious indoors, but significantly less so outdoors. We need the entire country, all 50 states to get on board with this plan otherwise it's going to get out of control for the foreseeable future. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[illinilaw08]

2 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

You can still keep places open that have drive throughs, curbside pickups to mitigate some of that. But yeah, the choice is going to come down to losing that sector of the economy or renewing outbreaks for the next year it seems.

Colorado hasn't seen a huge spike - though we have seen an uptick - and Polis shut the bars (defined as no food) back down, a mere 12 days after they were reopened (still can do carryout and delivery).

The feds have to step in with some serious additional stimulus.  The choice should be the feds pay businesses to stay closed and workers to stay home (bmags stated it perfectly above) - not we lose businesses that equal 10% of GDP or we have constantly renewing outbreaks.  Extend the $600 UI benefit indefinitely, target direct grants to businesses that have been shutdown, and let's have a national, across the board, strategy for containing the virus going forward.  Because the first try at reopening... hasn't worked.