Coronavirus

[BarretWallace]

26 minutes ago, Cancer said:

 

 

It'll be taken seriously when people with millions die.  Many people with many millions.

 

...what you said.  "Hit 'em in the wallet" seems to be the only thing many people will even notice these days.

 

I even have close friends--though maybe they are no longer so close as I might think--who have, at best, a highly cavalier attitude toward the virus.  They never wear masks, even while out and about.  Social distancing?  What's that?  They put their kid on a plane to fly out east without a second thought.  Days after another kid gets home from a country at warning level 3, they are mixing and mingling with the public at large.  I have skipped one gathering with them because of these decisions and behaviors, and this weekend will skip another gathering for the same reasons.  My heart aches, because these are good people and I don't want any of them sick or dead.  I also can't stop them.

[Tom Cowan]

35 minutes ago, Cancer said:

 

 

It'll be taken seriously when people with millions die.  Many people with many millions.

Only if the 'right' people with the millions die. 

[Pariah]

47 minutes ago, BarretWallace said:

My heart aches, because these are good people and I don't want any of them sick or dead.  I also can't stop them.

 

This is my feeling regarding going back to school (I report back for inservice stuff in just under a month). I like the teachers and students I work with. I don't want to see anything happen to any of them. But I work in an area with a higher than average number of high-SES (e.g., wealthy white) conservative parents who are more likely to buy in to the whole "It's no worse than the flu" fallacy. A part of me can't help but think that it's inevitable that we're going to lose someone along the way.

 

We had one of our students die from a freak accident at a summer camp a few years ago, and it completely shook the community. I'm trying to imagine how bad it would be If we lost a student to COVID-19 in the middle of the school year. Or multiple students. Or a teacher. Or a teacher's family member.

[unclevlad]

What is so....frustrating, terrifying, baffling...

 

The Georgia governor issued an order banning cities and counties from issuing an order to require masks.  Georgia's got a severe outbreak...3400 new cases yesterday, with a population of 10.2M, so 1 per ~3000.  That's not the worst rate in the US but it's bad.  Using yesterday's data...the worst rates were in FL, LA, NV, AZ, MS, AL, ID, TN, SC, TX, and then GA.  

 

Worse yet...as is the norm with covid-19, some areas are hit harder than others.  MUCH of Georgia is bad and should be deeply concerned...but some are being crushed.  Yet the governor issues this kind of insane order.  It's pig-headed to say "no I'm not going to require masks" but it's downright draconian to attempt to bar mayors from doing it, when some of them are in a MAJOR crisis.

 

And the NYT has an article about other states still not issuing mask orders...Idaho was one.  Their rate yesterday was 1 case per 2600 people.  What does it take......

 

That's where my mind becomes blown, and where I have to say, I have no reason to hope for the future now.  None.  If our handling of this is THIS bad, then we will never address any core problem meaningfully.

[Cygnia]

In Australia...

 

Police urge people in isolation to ‘put some clothes on’ when answering door

[unclevlad]

Shoot, it's not like I'm exactly dressed to the nines on days when the only time I plan to step out of the house is to get the mail...which is most days...

 

[pinecone]

6 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

In Australia...

 

Police urge people in isolation to ‘put some clothes on’ when answering door

I think the proper response is "Don't knock on my door"

[Ragitsu]

Brian Kemp is a POS.

[Pariah]

"Okay, I'll wear a mask, but I'm going to be a jerk about it."

 

Anti-mask protesters are wearing masks that don’t offer COVID-19 protection to prove their point

[Old Man]

Brian Kemp may also have made himself legally responsible for future coronavirus deaths.  We'll see.

 

Fun fact: Just south of Georgia, Florida's per capita case rate is now higher than New York's was at its peak.  And it's probably underreported.

 

My Florida coworkers have gone from "only leaving the house to go to the market" to "not leaving the house for any reason, ever". 

[Old Man]

On the plus side, progress is being made.  Preliminary results for the London vaccine are promising; the Moderna vaccine is less so but still positive.  It'd be January before any non-elite American gets a needle in their arm but it's still encouraging.

 

Treatments are likewise making headway.  Remdesivir helps, a little.  Dexamethasone helps, a little.  Trials are still underway to determine whether other viral inhibitors might work.  We now know that ventilators are a last resort and that pronation, oxygenation, and anticoagulants help.

 

Faster, cheaper, more accurate tests are also being developed.  One described in Nature requires 40 minutes and hot water, and no PCR machine.  Another aims to detect the virus in saliva, which is certainly more pleasant than having one's brain swabbed through one's nose.

 

We've come a long way since March when masks were actively discouraged and no one knew the virus targeted epithelial cells.  There's a light at the end of the tunnel.  It's six months and an election away, but it's there.

[Ragitsu]

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

On the plus side, progress is being made.  Preliminary results for the London vaccine are promising; the Moderna vaccine is less so but still positive.  It'd be January before any non-elite American gets a needle in their arm but it's still encouraging.

 

Treatments are likewise making headway.  Remdesivir helps, a little.  Dexamethasone helps, a little.  Trials are still underway to determine whether other viral inhibitors might work.  We now know that ventilators are a last resort and that pronation, oxygenation, and anticoagulants help.

 

Faster, cheaper, more accurate tests are also being developed.  One described in Nature requires 40 minutes and hot water, and no PCR machine.  Another aims to detect the virus in saliva, which is certainly more pleasant than having one's brain swabbed through one's nose.

 

We've come a long way since March when masks were actively discouraged and no one knew the virus targeted epithelial cells.  There's a light at the end of the tunnel.  It's six months and an election away, but it's there.

 

I want us to come out the other end stronger than before. I'd like a non-violent revolution that addresses the corrupt/greedy healthcare system, our abysmally low standards of education and the damage done to our biosphere, but I'm expecting that the majority will lie back thanks to the ensuing overconfidence high and settle for the mediocrity we've touted as being "exceptional". I want us to help build roads, dams and structures that foster community instead of bombs that do nothing but destroy; we should be looked at the world over as a force for positivity and not a harbinger of doom or exploitation.

[Cygnia]

 

[Matt the Bruins]

20 hours ago, Badger said:

I am a Christian, who doesn't believe in that rapture.  I find a get out of jail free card for the end of days goes against the whole persevere against the testing of your faith throughout the rest of the teachings.

 

You're missing the point of the Rapture—gleefully fetishizing the suffering of all the sinners left behind on Earth.

[unclevlad]

5 hours ago, Old Man said:

Brian Kemp may also have made himself legally responsible for future coronavirus deaths.  We'll see.

 

Fun fact: Just south of Georgia, Florida's per capita case rate is now higher than New York's was at its peak.  And it's probably underreported.

 

My Florida coworkers have gone from "only leaving the house to go to the market" to "not leaving the house for any reason, ever". 

 

Seems unlikely the governor can be held liable for the ramifications of his order.  It probably falls under general executive immunity.  What I question is whether he has that authority, but I haven't heard about a challenge...this one would go straight to the state Supreme Court, I'm sure.  We shall see.  

 

I'll say this...if I was still working, and my boss told me I had to go to Georgia for a week or be fired...I'd take being fired.  

In similar news...

https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/georgia-named-among-18-states-in-covid-19-red-zone/DPXDBFIJ2FELJCXHVR4462DXYM/

 

Yeah, Florida's number yesterday was 1 case per 1500 people.  That isn't red hot, it's white hot.  Arizona had 1 day at that level.  Highest for New York state was around 1 per 1700.

For another negative comparison...Chile is getting their outbreak under control.  Their daily case numbers have been on a solid decline for several weeks.  Peru is doing better.  Mexico's increase was slow and steady...but the last few weeks have seen what looks to be no growth in case numbers, from the graphs.  The US, on the other hand, has been on a sharp rise for 5 solid weeks, with no end in sight.  

[Lord Liaden]

I expect Brian Kemp will be held accountable at the ballot box, at least. There's no way his political career can survive such a monumental blunder.

[BNakagawa]

11 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I expect Brian Kemp will be held accountable at the ballot box, at least. There's no way his political career can survive such a monumental blunder.

 

that depends on whether or not his successor is better at voter suppression than he was.

 

[Badger]

3 hours ago, Matt the Bruins said:

 

You're missing the point of the Rapture—gleefully fetishizing the suffering of all the sinners left behind on Earth.

I'd be late for departure, anyway

[Badger]

I dont know Stacey Abrams severely underwhelmed me.

[pinecone]

On 7/16/2020 at 2:29 PM, Ternaugh said:

 

The Rapture as a doctrine only dates back to the early 19th century.

 

And a cynical person would say, "Maybe, it's already happened."

Didn't it happen at the first millenium? (1000 a.d.)?

[Cygnia]

[Badger]

At this point since we will be in quarantine till 2048. I wonder if we should just undo the masks and get it over with

[Lord Liaden]

It might not get over with, and that could be worse.

[Ranxerox]

5 hours ago, pinecone said:

Didn't it happen at the first millenium? (1000 a.d.)?

 

Actually, it would have been about 70 AD.  That was when the Second Temple fell which was one of the big end of day prophesies (Matthew 24:2), and was still early enough that some of the people people Jesus spoke to after his resurrection would have been alive to see his return as promised (Matthew 16:28).

[Badger]

8 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

It might not get over with, and that could be worse.

 

 

Well, since I am in essential category, I tend to ebb into the feeling that the pro-quarantine has pretty much left me out to die. I dont get that way too often, but today is one of those days (usually after a rough day of work, like yesterday). I usually shake it in a day or 2. (ANd not against quarantine, though I wish step 2 was less vague)