Coronavirus

[Liberty]

I don't think it's that big of a deal. When I graduated high school it was during a time when high school went from 5 to 4 years for university going people. They were ok to shrink 5 years in 4 with no problem. Then in university in year 1 they pretty much cover again what you did in the last year of high school. Then if you go the blue collar way it's not a tragedy that you're not so good at trig, calculus or King Lear.

 

So from a quality of learning I dont think it maters at all.

 

School's primary function is pretty much to babysit kids while parents work. There's actually a very low density of learning going on there. The social aspects are important, but can also be two-sided since many schools have pretty bad peer culture and are run more like prisons than anything else (if your school wasn't like that, good for you, but I'm sure most people here don't come from bad neighbourhoods..).

 

I'm sure it'll be bad for some, neutral for others, and maybe good for some...

[Investor20]

Interview with Dr. John Ioannidis. Excerpts below

https://usa.greekreporter.com/2020/06/27/up-to-300-million-people-may-be-infected-by-covid-19-stanford-guru-john-ioannidis-says/

 

Fatality rate by age:

 

For people younger than 45, the infection fatality rate is almost 0%.

For 45 to 70, it is probably about 0.05-0.3%.

For those above 70, it escalates substantially, to 1% or higher for those over 85.

For frail, debilitated elderly people with multiple health problems who are infected in nursing homes, it can go up to 25% during major out breaks in these facilities.

 

On risks of lockdown:

 

Globally, the lockdown measures have increased the number of people at risk of starvation to 1.1 billion, and they are putting at risk millions of lives, with the potential resurgence of tuberculosis, childhood diseases like measles where vaccination programs are disrupted, and malaria. I hope that policymakers look at the big picture of all the potential problems and not only on the very important, but relatively thin slice of evidence that is COVID-19.

...........................

 

Schools do lot more than education.  Many schools insist on vaccination which prompts parents to get children vaccinated.

They provide meals.  Speech therapy and other early interventions. Provide facilities for sports.

When 0-45 years fatalities rate is "almost zero", why dont we focus on real vulnerable?

We had 40%+ deaths from Nursing homes which are most vulnerable and closed schools including elementary schools.

 

[Liberty]

 

People noticing their resting heart rate is higher even after months with a mild covid. Scary.

 

Also:

 

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.29.174888v1

 

"Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19"

[Liberty]

EMT describing what experience can be if your area gets overwhelmed with COVID:

 

 

Putting on the EMT hat:  What to expect if you don't take Covid seriously and it overwhelms your area.  Let's assume you're now really sick, brutal fever, having a hard time breathing.  Even in normal conditions, that's go-to-the-hospital time.  How you get there? ...

 

1) You call an ambulance.  They might not have enough crew that's fresh and/or experienced.  Why?  Because many are down with covid themselves.  2)  Ok, you drive yourself, or risk having someone drive you.  Somehow you get to the Emergency Room.  Next ...

 

3) Don't expect you'll go to the front of the line, no matter how bad off your are.  Even in non-pandemic times, Emergency Rooms can be quite busy.  But now, unless you're collapsing right before them, you're in a crowded Emergency Room full of people just like you. Continue ...

 

4) The medical staff will be tired and overwhelmed.  It's hard enough to take care of seriously ill and injured people.  Add the stress and burden of layers of Personal Protective Equipment, and stress and exhaustion goes to new levels. 5) Ok, finally, a doctor will see you ...

 

... Just as soon as the doctor introduces him/herself, they get called away to someone who will literally die if the doctor doesn't immediately intervene.  6)  A different doctor comes by, 90 minutes later.  Same thing.  They get called away to someone more serious than you ...

 

7) You've been there 3 hours now.  You need to go to the bathroom.  But there's no family or friends to take you.  They're not allowed in.  You can't go yourself.  They've got an IV in you and wires all over you.  You ring the bell, again and again.  Nobody comes by.  Read on ...

 

8 ) Finally (!), someone comes by to take you to the bathroom.  You get walked past a hallway full of people just like you.  You now feel lucky to be tucked away in that corner that, at first, felt too isolated. You assure the attendant you know your way back to your bed. More ...

 

9)  In the bathroom, your fever causes a spasm of chills accompanied by uncontrolled coughing.  You slip and fall.  Nothing too serious, but you can't get up on your own.  You're too weak.  They should have given you a bedpan.  But again, the staff is tired and overwhelmed ...

 

10) You call for help, but your weakened voice is not heard over the alarms going off at all the beds of people much worse off than you.  You sit on the dirty, cold, wet hospital bathroom floor for more than 30 minutes until someone tries to use the bathroom themselves ...

 

11) Finally, they get you back to your bed and a doctor comes by to do as full an evaluation as can be done in 5 minutes before she's called away ... again.  But that was enough to know you have to be admitted.  Your oxygen saturation rate is way too low. You're quite ill ...

 

12) You've been in the ER for 7 hours now.  You'd be hungry, but you're too sick.  You'd sleep, but the place is too bright and noisy.  Plus, you feel too crappy to sleep. You wait.  They need to find a bed for you.  But there are none.  You wait some more.  6 more hours pass ...

 

13)  You notice that the longer you're there, the harder it feels to breathe.  Still no free bed for you.  They tell you your oxygen saturation levels are getting worse.  You know.  It's so, so very hard to breathe.  You're alone. Cold.  Scared.  Really, really scared now ...'

 

14) You've now been in that same ER bed for over 17 hours.  You lost track of what time it is. Your fever is so bad, and you're now so weak, they put a catheter into you so you can go to the bathroom. It's uncomfortable at first, but you really don't care. Your fear grows ...

 

15) You strain to breathe. Air, air. That's all you can think of.  They've had a mask strapped to your face giving you oxygen for the past 12 hours. At first, it was so uncomfortable, but now you're glad it's there. But you still struggle to breathe.  Air. That's all you want ...

 

16)  Still no beds, and you're coming up on 20 hours in the ER. Someone comes by and says they need your space so they have to move you.  It barely registers.  Until later.  Now you're in a brightly lit hallway, people in heavy PPE, coming and going all the time.  Still alone ...

 

17) Noisy. You're sort of awake, sort of asleep now. Getting enough air is all you think. So tired just from breathing.  18) They tell you its Covid.  Of course, you think, even though you really didn't think you could get it.  You definitely didn't think it would be this bad ...

 

19) In your half-aware state, you can tell something's wrong.  There's two nurses and a doctor talking something about falling oxygen saturation levels.  You hear alarms and realize it's you.  20)  You no longer need just a bed. You need an ICU bed.  And there's none available.

 

21)  For the next 12 hours, you'll be tended to by medical staff whose specialty is emergency medicine, not intensive care medicine.  That's the best they can do.  22)  Two shift changes have occurred while you've been in the ER.  You're still in the hallway, still alone .

 

23)  At some point they create more ICU space; you'll soon be moved.  There are so many patients now, none of the staff remembers you.  They get your name wrong, ask the same questions over and over.  No one's there to speak up for you.  You feel even more alone, more scared ...

 

24) You wore a mask, sometimes, but like your friends did.  But you're grateful for that mask they have strapped to your face now.  It's still not enough.  All the time now, the only thing you can think of - when you can think clearly - is air, air. It's so hard to get air ...

 

25)  Your loved ones are at home, horribly worried.  Calls to the hospital go unanswered.  Relatives in far-away cities have been called.  Close friends too.  They all worry.  You know how you are. The whole time, you know how you are.  But they can only imagine the worse ...

 

26) You get awoken by some distant-sounding noise.  It's an alarm over your bed, where they had moved you when you were out of it. You're still in the ER.  You're now scared out of your mind.  Desperate for air, your anxiety level rises.  A nurse comes by with an iPad ...

 

27)  It's your loved ones, via Facetime. Something's not right.  Your family explains they need to put a tube in you to breathe.  You're terrified now.  All these people in PPE come and surround your bed now. A tube!?!?  "That means I'll die!", you think. You're so, so scared ...'

 

28) Your family cries, and say how much they love you.  The alarms keep ringing and you still can't breathe.  The medical staff doesn't have much time.  Too many other sick people need their attention.  29) They give you drugs. A new paramedic intubates you ... you're out.

 

Final thought:  These scenarios can go different ways. But I've taken enough patients to ER's to have a good sense of how things flow, especially when they get busy.  Please, even if others don't take Covid seriously, take it seriously yourself. Stay safe, be well.  Pass this on.

 

I’m sorry if my story scared anyone; that is, unless I scared you to take this pandemic seriously and be careful. Then I’ll have done some good.  I’d love to hear back if sometime down the road what I wrote tonight made a difference. Take good care everyone.

[Liberty]

Bill Nye:

 

Also:

 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.08.20148775v1

 

"Air recirculation role in the infection with COVID-19, lessons learned from Diamond Princess cruise ship"

[Liberty]

I wonder if this type of disinformation is russian psyops or just dumb people, probably both..

 

[Liberty]

Fauci:  ‘I Don’t Think You Can Say We’re Doing Great. I Mean, We’re Just Not.’

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dr-fauci-partisanship-has-made-it-more-difficult-to-suppress-covid-19/

[Investor20]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-airborne/new-who-guidance-calls-for-more-evidence-on-airborne-transmission-idUSKBN24A2E5

New WHO guidance calls for more evidence on airborne transmission

 

....................................................

 

How about this?

 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/496483-evidence-mounts-that-outside-is-safer-when-it-comes-to-covid-19

Evidence mounts that outside is safer when it comes to COVID-19

 

May be WHO can ask themselves why outside is safer than indoors when it comes to Covid-19.

[Gregmal]

So I saw large outside gatherings in NYC were cancelled til September. But not protests. The politics continue to drive this.

[Viking]

Has anyone seen or looked into anything on what the potential effects are of school aged kids potentially missing a year plus of class? Lets get real, online learning, at least for certain age groups, isn't feasible.

 

I was thinking about this today. Tried to think of a positive situation.

 

- High School graduates this year and the next few years may entertain the idea of not pursuing college right away or at all.

    - Could help sure up the lag in filling blue collar jobs.

    - Potentially change the financial mindset of an entire generation.

    - The plethora of BA. BS holders looking for employment may benefit if there is some lag in upcoming college graduates. Basically give them some more time to filter through

      the system (if the economy up ticks)

 

I have three kids. Bottom line, one year on-line should be fine. If this stretches into fall 2021 and 2022 then i am not sure.

Kid 1.) entering third year university: mix of school and coop job in fall. Transitioning to online learning not a big deal.

Kid 2.) entering first year university (computing science): was told by university councillors to only take 4 courses (versus usual 5) due to all classes being online. Doing some prep this summer.

Kid 3.) entering grade 12: currently taking French online (during summer) to get one course finished before fall. Sept classes will be mix of in class and on-line.

 

The big difference is both kid 1 and 2 will be living at home (versus living away from home). The key will be keeping things fresh in the house, especially when exams hit :-)

 

We have also had each kid figure out what they need for technology and work stations to get the most out of online learning. Computers, lap tops, iPads (pencils), desks, chairs etc. We actually did not need to spend much but the exercise was time well spent. And Money well spent. Kids need to feel like they are in control.

 

Now families with younger kids or toddlers... yikes! Older kids? Not ideal but manageable.

 

PS: the best part of Covid is each of our three kids are learning how to cook. They each do at least one meal a week. The only rule is their is no rule. They give me their ingredient list and i buy it no questions asked. Beef tenderloin. Tiger shrimp. Prime rib. Gnocci (make from scratch with 60 minute zoom call with grandma). Chicken parmesan. Shrimp linguini. Eggs benedict. etc. They are all having fun coming up the next favourite menu item. Great education can also happen outside of school.

[Jurgis]

I wonder if this type of disinformation is russian psyops or just dumb people, probably both..

 

 

Usual urban legend/conspiracy theory fare.  ::)

 

 

We have a fair :P share of these on CoBF too.

[ERICOPOLY]

So I saw large outside gatherings in NYC were cancelled til September. But not protests. The politics continue to drive this.

 

And not banning religious assembly either.

 

The US Constitution continues to drive this in both cases.

[Liberty]

I wonder if this type of disinformation is russian psyops or just dumb people, probably both..

 

 

Usual urban legend/conspiracy theory fare.  ::)

 

 

We have a fair :P share of these on CoBF too.

 

Yeah, but we know that Russia is actively planting stories like these, so it could be either one, or started by one and amplified by the other. Their aim is to hurt the US, so disinformation and sowing division are tools to that aim, just like supporting Trump was. You can go back to the report on Russia disinformation in 2016 and this is exactly their style.  It's not a conspiracy theory when you know they're actually doing it, even if you can't know for a specific piece of data. But if they wanted to hurt the US, they couldn't do better than convince people that the virus and masks are a political issue and/or a hoax. That'll cost thousands of lives and trillions of extra dollars over what the cost would've been otherwise.

[rb]

I wonder if this type of disinformation is russian psyops or just dumb people, probably both..

 

 

Usual urban legend/conspiracy theory fare.  ::)

 

 

We have a fair :P share of these on CoBF too.

 

Yeah, but we know that Russia is actively planting stories like these, so it could be either one, or started by one and amplified by the other. Their aim is to hurt the US, so disinformation and sowing division are tools to that aim, just like supporting Trump was. You can go back to the report on Russia disinformation in 2016 and this is exactly their style.  It's not a conspiracy theory when you know they're actually doing it, even if you can't know for a specific piece of data. But if they wanted to hurt the US, they couldn't do better than convince people that the virus and masks are a political issue and/or a hoax. That'll cost thousands of lives and trillions of extra dollars over what the cost would've been otherwise.

I'm gonna go with dumb people. Russian psyops spell better.

[Liberty]

So I saw large outside gatherings in NYC were cancelled til September. But not protests. The politics continue to drive this.

 

And not banning religious assembly either.

 

The US Constitution continues to drive this.

 

People lose all nuance. The very worst kinds of places for spreading seem to be interior places where people are close together, stay there a long time, touch a lot of surfaces, and talk or sing or scream really loud, with AC that recirculates air and pushes it around.

 

So bars seem to pretty much be the worst.. Everybody screaming really close at each other because of loud music, staying there for houses in recycled air, touching lots of common surfaces, etc. Restaurants really bad, but a little better than bars, probably.

 

Churches are pretty bad too, with all the singing and standing close to other people and such, staying there a long time, though not as bad as bars.

 

Exterior things seem to be a lot less risky (I've seen 10-20x numbers vs interior), and if you can keep mostly a distance and wear a mask, probably not ideal, but not too bad. You don't touch a lot of common surfaces and any wind/air flow will make a huge difference.

 

So a sporting event will be worse because people are sitting (touching seats) close by for hours and are screaming (lots of droplets from talking and screaming) and eating/drinking (putting hands close to face, can't eat with mask), etc, than a protest where people are marching in open air and can more easily stand apart and will wear masks. Probably explains why the cities with the biggest protests haven't seen huge spikes despite the time lag yet.

 

But protests are definitely dangerous too. It becomes a question of risk vs reward. If this is the moment when people can finally get some progress on systemic police brutality and racism and change some things, to many it'll be worth taking some risks to get there. This is different from a sporting even, where you're not going to change laws and affect civil rights that may change many people's lives for generations to come... It's a bit like the hong Kong protests, some things are important in a democracy. Just like you don't cancel the election because there's a virus, you figure out how to do it as smartly as possible (which is why Trump is trying to taint the idea of voting by mail despite the fact that absentee ballots have been pushed a lot more by republicans than democrats in the past 20 years and Trump himself voted by mail).

[Liberty]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/10/wearing-masks-is-now-the-most-important-thing-for-the-economy-feds-kaplan-says.html

 

"Wearing masks is now the most important thing for the economy, Fed’s Kaplan says"

 

Took them long enough..

 

Also: site I hadn't zeen before that tries to estimate the R0 in each state of the US:

 

https://rt.live/

[Liberty]

https://apnews.com/a319d390255fbe1836228e8c9a07ea64

 

As part of its strategy to administer the vaccine as quickly as possible, the Trump administration has agreed to invest more than half a billion in tax dollars in ApiJect Systems America, a young company whose injector is not approved by federal health authorities and that hasn’t yet set up a factory to manufacture the devices.

 

“The fact of this matter is, it would be crazy for people to just rely on us. I would be the first to say it,” said ApiJect CEO Jay Walker. “We should be America’s backup at this point, but probably not its primary.”

 

Trump administration officials would not say why they are investing so heavily in ApiJect’s technology. The company has made only about 1,000 prototypes to date, and it’s not clear whether those devices can deliver the vaccines that are currently in development. So far, the leading candidates are using traditional vials to hold the vaccine, and needles and syringes in their clinical trials.

[rkbabang]

I don't know if this has been mentioned here already, because I haven't been reading this topic much, but I have a friend who is a biologist working in biotech and he recommended this podcast to me.

 

https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/

 

I've started listening to the latest few episodes today.  Informative.

 

[Liberty]

Fauci piece in the FT:

 

https://www.ft.com/content/57834c2c-a078-4736-9173-8fb32cfbbf4e

[Gregmal]

FL Gov...If Walmart is open, school should be open.

 

100% agree. One of the greatest scams of the government shut down, one that certainly many lobbying dollars supported, was the fortification of big business. It dawned on me a couple months ago while NJ was shut down. My son and I every Friday(pre Covid) used to go to the local toy store and he'd see, and play with, and pick out a toy car or truck. So a few weeks into lockdown, he noticed this hadn't happened and asked why we hadnt gone in a while. I loosely explained the world to him and he asks "where can we get toys". I thought, holy shit. Walmart and Amazon. While the little mom and pop store, with great, quality Bruder trucks and imported toys, was forced shut despite, "maybe" seeing foot traffic of 2-3 people AN HOUR. How in the world is it that in the name of public health and safety, and keeping large crowds from gathering, forcing everyone to go to a high traffic super center box store is deemed safer than simply letting a business that sees a dozen customers a day stay open? Oh, lets say only "essential" businesses. Great, but then why are the "essential" businesses allowed to sell "non essential" items? Its a total load of shit and more evidence of a crooked system. This is also, not to be confused with bars and shit like that, which is entirely different.

 

Similarly, I saw a taxidermist who had similar thought. "I work out of my shop, and sit by myself working on mounts all say. I might get 4-5 customers stop by, PER WEEK! Why cant I work? I have to pay my bills."

 

Welcome to America.

[Castanza]

FL Gov...If Walmart is open, school should be open.

 

100% agree. One of the greatest scams of the government shut down, one that certainly many lobbying dollars supported, was the fortification of big business. It dawned on me a couple months ago while NJ was shut down. My son and I every Friday(pre Covid) used to go to the local toy store and he'd see, and play with, and pick out a toy car or truck. So a few weeks into lockdown, he noticed this hadn't happened and asked why we hadnt gone in a while. I loosely explained the world to him and he asks "where can we get toys". I thought, holy shit. Walmart and Amazon. While the little mom and pop store, with great, quality Bruder trucks and imported toys, was forced shut despite, "maybe" seeing foot traffic of 2-3 people AN HOUR. How in the world is it that in the name of public health and safety, and keeping large crowds from gathering, forcing everyone to go to a high traffic super center box store is deemed safer than simply letting a business that sees a dozen customers a day stay open? Oh, lets say only "essential" businesses. Great, but then why are the "essential" businesses allowed to sell "non essential" items? Its a total load of shit and more evidence of a crooked system. This is also, not to be confused with bars and shit like that, which is entirely different.

 

Similarly, I saw a taxidermist who had similar thought. "I work out of my shop, and sit by myself working on mounts all say. I might get 4-5 customers stop by, PER WEEK! Why cant I work? I have to pay my bills."

 

Welcome to America.

 

Welcome to the new “free market”

[Spekulatius]

FL Gov...If Walmart is open, school should be open.

 

100% agree. One of the greatest scams of the government shut down, one that certainly many lobbying dollars supported, was the fortification of big business. It dawned on me a couple months ago while NJ was shut down. My son and I every Friday(pre Covid) used to go to the local toy store and he'd see, and play with, and pick out a toy car or truck. So a few weeks into lockdown, he noticed this hadn't happened and asked why we hadnt gone in a while. I loosely explained the world to him and he asks "where can we get toys". I thought, holy shit. Walmart and Amazon. While the little mom and pop store, with great, quality Bruder trucks and imported toys, was forced shut despite, "maybe" seeing foot traffic of 2-3 people AN HOUR. How in the world is it that in the name of public health and safety, and keeping large crowds from gathering, forcing everyone to go to a high traffic super center box store is deemed safer than simply letting a business that sees a dozen customers a day stay open? Oh, lets say only "essential" businesses. Great, but then why are the "essential" businesses allowed to sell "non essential" items? Its a total load of shit and more evidence of a crooked system. This is also, not to be confused with bars and shit like that, which is entirely different.

 

Similarly, I saw a taxidermist who had similar thought. "I work out of my shop, and sit by myself working on mounts all say. I might get 4-5 customers stop by, PER WEEK! Why cant I work? I have to pay my bills."

 

Welcome to America.

Maybe he realizes one day that he can’t open the schools because he chose to open things that should have remained closed given the circumstances.

 

The ability to open schools safely is going to be driven by infection rates and particularly hospitalization rates. With the numbers that FL, AZ, GA, TX and Southern CA are putting up, I don’t think they are going to be able open the schools which pretty much guaranteed another 6 month of crappy economy in these states. It‘s not a matter of politics either, the Virus doesn’t care whether a state is red or blue. What matters is if you give him a chance to spread.

 

A lot of countries have shown to safely safely open schools. If any state can’t open the schools, it’s not on Trump, it’s on the Gouverneurs and to some extend on the people too. You eat your own cooking with this epidemic and share them when with your neighbours.

[Spekulatius]

https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa939/5867798

 

It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19

Some excerpts below.  Full article accessible at above link

 

Together with the authors, 239 scientists support this Commentary

 

Most public health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), do not recognize airborne transmission except for aerosol-generating procedures performed in healthcare settings.

 

Hand washing and social distancing are appropriate, but in our view, insufficient to provide protection from virus-carrying respiratory microdroplets released into the air by infected people.

 

This problem is especially acute in indoor or enclosed environments, particularly those that are crowded and have inadequate ventilation relative to the number of occupants and extended exposure periods (as graphically depicted in Figure 1). For example, airborne transmission appears to be the only plausible explanation for several superspreading events investigated which occurred under such conditions e.g. [10], and others where recommended precautions related to direct droplet transmissions were followed.

 

 

The measures that should be taken to mitigate airborne transmission risk include:

Provide sufficient and effective ventilation (supply clean outdoor air, minimize recirculating air) particularly in public buildings, workplace environments, schools, hospitals, and aged care homes.

 

Supplement general ventilation with airborne infection controls such as local exhaust, high efficiency air filtration, and germicidal ultraviolet lights.

 

Avoid overcrowding, particularly in public transport and public buildings.

.....................

 

I saw some newsmedia saying this supports using masks, though from a search of the article, I did not find mask being mentioned even once.

 

I gathered some additional info about air circulation that might be useful for some.

 

Most heating and air circulation systems will recirculate some used air to reduce energy consumption. HEPA filters in the duct path should catch droplets, but may not catch aerosols , so that may pose some risks. in the Montreal area, there was one urging home where insufficient air circulation was suspected to be a factor in an outbreak.

https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-canada-quebec/canada-sends-army-to-quebec-care-homes-on-frontlines-of-coronavirus-outbreak-idUSL2N2C31TG

 

I talked with a manager of a manufacturing company (which I consider very proactive with respect to COVID-19) and they Changed their heating/air conditioning setup to single use air only a while ago. This prevents recirculating, but it also increases the nerdy consumption.

 

I had a talk with a local residential HVAC guy (because our central HVAC is 20 years old and likely to break down soon). I got a quote for a replacement system and it’s has an optional UV duct unit for about $525. This unit should get rid of the Virus if it circulates through the duct system.

 

There should be commercial systems like this as well (costing likely much more). I will talk without facility engineer at work of what he thinks of installing them as a precautionary measure.

[John Hjorth]

... One of the greatest scams of the government shut down, one that certainly many lobbying dollars supported, was the fortification of big business. It dawned on me a couple months ago while NJ was shut down. My son and I every Friday(pre Covid) used to go to the local toy store and he'd see, and play with, and pick out a toy car or truck. So a few weeks into lockdown, he noticed this hadn't happened and asked why we hadnt gone in a while. I loosely explained the world to him and he asks "where can we get toys". I thought, holy shit. Walmart and Amazon. While the little mom and pop store, with great, quality Bruder trucks and imported toys, was forced shut despite, "maybe" seeing foot traffic of 2-3 people AN HOUR. How in the world is it that in the name of public health and safety, and keeping large crowds from gathering, forcing everyone to go to a high traffic super center box store is deemed safer than simply letting a business that sees a dozen customers a day stay open? Oh, lets say only "essential" businesses. Great, but then why are the "essential" businesses allowed to sell "non essential" items? Its a total load of shit and more evidence of a crooked system. This is also, not to be confused with bars and shit like that, which is entirely different.

 

Similarly, I saw a taxidermist who had similar thought. "I work out of my shop, and sit by myself working on mounts all say. I might get 4-5 customers stop by, PER WEEK! Why cant I work? I have to pay my bills."

 

Welcome to America.

 

I hear you, Greg,

 

If this is true [i suppose it is], it's a shame, tragedy & scandal in its own right.

 

- - - o 0 o - -

 

Going anecdotal and local [, as a Danish analogy to Greg's post] :

 

Danish numbers :

 

Population [from worldometer] : 5,792,835.

 

Hospitalized COVID-19 related persons as of yesterday : 17

Of which persons in ICUs : 4

Of which persons in ventilators [in Danish it's called respirators] : 4

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

In short : Everything should be reopened by now here.

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

Now what's the status? : Well, the MPs have left the Danish parliament [called "Folketinget"] for vacation. What's "hung" of restrictions? A really stupid restriction that tourists from abroad have to book at least for 6 days when visiting Copenhagen. So the hotels in Copenhagen are still bleeding dearly! I suppose it must be evident to everybody that July is peak season time for hotels in Copenhagen.

 

Tweet by Anni Matthiesen [Yesterday].

 

Ultra short translation :

 

Q : "What does it take to get rid of the "six days" rule?"

 

A : "Sorry, the Danish Parliament can't reply until August because of vacation."

 

To me, it's soo appalling.

[KCLarkin]

I"m always skeptical when people answer so definitely to questions for which the answer is still very much in doubt. The CDC just revised their estimates down to an COVID IFR of 0.27%. If IFR for the flu is the commonly accepted 0.1%, that'd make it 2.7x not 10x.

 

CDC revised their estimates again. The new best estimate for IFR is 0.65%. And this time they actually cite a source.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html#table-1