Dola, and probably the biggest crowd I played in front of :D

I loved Amsterdam too. We did the stupid American thing and exceeded our abilities at a "coffee shop", took in the free boozy happy hour at the hotel suite floor lounge we paid for with points, had the paranoid feeling we didn't really belong, the goods kicked in, we fled and took a nap in the room and were awoken by turndown service, and in that moment, I thought days had passed and we missed our flight. I scrambled for my phone to figure out what day it was. it had been about 45 minutes.

I love the use of the phrase "exceeded our abilities"

SI

Ok, can we stop right there? This thread is depressing enough without stories about the dark side of Amsterdam. The only thing I liked to do there was going to Amsterdam Admirals games. It wasn't NFL caliber football, fans of the NY Jets might disagree, but at least it was football. :rolleyes:

On the bright side, we actually shifted away from the depressing topic. So yes, that was good for a smile.

I have never seen the dark side of Amsterdam. I have to check that side out next time we go.;)

I don't feel/see the effects of a second wave but that is comparing it to first wave effects, symptoms etc.

My guess is fatigue, little talk of lockdown, many businesses have learn how to do remote, no shortages at Krogers, restaurants being open for take out, less unknowns (and dread) than before etc. This second wave will become obvious by increased # of infections reported in MSM but albeit a lower death rate.

So second wave for # infected but my guess is, other than for that metric and assuming some stimulus in next 2-3 months, not as bad as Apr-Jun.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/19/healt...day/index.html

If the dark side of Amsterdam is playing football in the park, I think you’ll be disappointed!

People and businesses seem to be tiring of mask mandates, at least at one of my local Walmarts. Still required to wear one in, but no one at the door watching, and quite a few people with a mask or taking them off when they get inside.

Got a test today so I could go back to work next week. According to the nurse, we're back up to 5-6% positivity after being below 1% for a while.

Honestly, seeing today's stories that the next 2-3 months will be the worst part of the pandemic... is not very good for my mental state.

I was back in Blue Ridge today and very few of the places are enforcing the mask mandate (they say masks required, but most people were not entering with masks). Somebody told me that he read masks actually make you sicker because you don't get exposed to germs, like kids at daycare. I told him, next time he goes in for surgery, let the surgeon know that he doesn't need to gown and mask up so his immune system could get a boost. He was very confused.

Is agitation a symptom of covid? I feel like going out and step-mom someone's throat for no real justifiable reason.

Also another person at my work may have caught the covids and a large part of their work has fallen to me.

Seems as if we were in the 40K daily new for the longest time. Easily past it now. Hope the damn vaccine(s) get here soon to complement the (seemingly) better treatments/therapeutics.

I really want to plan on some sort of travel next summer.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/24/healt...day/index.html

One glimmer of hope is that while cases have been increasing in the U.S. for 6 weeks, and in some cases, longer in Europe, the death rates haven't tracked the same. In Italy for example, their daily new cases are now almost triple what they were when they got hammered in March, but the daily deaths are 10% what they were. Other countries are showing similar patterns.

That could be some combination of more testing, better treatments, hospitals learning how to deal with this, or, COVID is evolving to be more contagious and less deadly, like many viruses do.

It's also a simple case of the considerable delay between case reporting and death reporting. Look at cases 3 weeks ago and those are roughly those you see as deaths today on average. This was the exact pattern in the US over the summer.

There is also always a difference between cases slightly increasing over time and what is happening now. Usually an explosion follows a gradual rise or a plateau. The US was at or under 45k as a 7 day average from Aug 20 to Oct 6th. So there's no reason for deaths to have risen much yet from the current surge (although i would not call a 15% increase over the last week nothing).

Of course testing was nonexistant in March, that's why you had 30-50 % positive rate and 'only' 10 now. 18k cases aren't as bad as 7 in spring, absolutely, no question. For all the reason you list* + this time it starting in younger people, more barriers build up between generations even outside care settings (of course people are more carefull with older relatives for example).

But at the same time, there's a breaking point where the odds of older people getting it surpass the increased caution and where the sheer number of infections counteract any gains on a case by case basis. Remember it gained a foothold in mid february (earlier individual cases notwithstanding) and from mid/late march it was in sharp decline from measures taken and the weather turning (people outside vs inside is the single biggest factor). That's essentially 1 month of buildup. Now we are staring at a massive buildup in October with 3-4 months of winter ahead and everybody trying to rightfully prevent/avoid doing lockdowns.

And when i see France at 40k cases, very few of them get results in a timely manner, i am unfortunately very sure their 200-300 deaths will turn to much worse much worse before long. Because those deaths are from the first jump from 3 to 10k-12k cases in September. Since early October it has now risen to 30k average and climbing.

The Czech Republic is currently at the population adjusted equivalent of 600 deaths in Italy or France and it has doubled within 1 week. Cas es went from 500 to 2000 in September, already from 2k to 11k in October. This sort of exponential rise is where things get messy and you are really only measuring data, not using it (f.e. to quarantine contacts).

I am not trying to be bleak, but i see very little reason not to be extremely on edge and hope the people in charge are too.

*It has nothing to do with the Virus, that's not substantiated by anything really other than "well, could't that happen ?". The whole theory is based on there being a somewhat notable mutation becoming the dominant group of strains, replacing the initial ones. But this actually happened in February/early March, not anytime recently. This D614G mutation was almost exclusively present in samples/cases before we got to March in both Italy and New York for example.
It might well have made it a bit less deadly and spread easier, but it has already been in place when the tragedy happened in the spring.

So I went to Krogers in my half doctor's plague mask and some woman asked to take my picture.

I almost feel like a celebrity.

Went to Kroger's today, everyone was wearing masks.

Also went to Academy Sports, and maybe 50% were wearing masks. Not going to support Academy Sports anymore.

It has been really interesting to see which stores/businesses are operating with a "the Governor says you should wear a mask, but, whatever, we're not your Dad" vibe and the ones operating with a "we don't want to get sick, so you are not allowed in here without a mask. Curbside delivery is VERY available" vibe.

dola:

I'm a liberal who loves good BBQ, so I don't do the whole "boycott places that don't agree with my politics" thing.

But I have been avoiding places that are lax on mask compliance b/c that's not a political thing. That's a don't make me sick thing.

Once this is all behind us, I'll be happy to go back and start getting good BBQ again.

Pence's chief of staff and at least two other staff members are positive.

Now a total of five in Pence's staff. Pence himself has decided to continue on as he's an essential employee.

France reporting 523 deaths today (a casual 30% of the average 'normal' deaths on a day in France) after 260 last tuesday. And that's still from comparatively modest transmission Levels 2-3 weeks ago. Those tripled since then ...

Even here in Germany it would take just 4 more weeks of current trend to overwhelm hospital and ICU capacity (not even considering acompanying personnel shortages and regional bottlenecks) and we only have the bloody most of them per capita in the world and still a considerably lower trajectory in cases and lower positivity rate with better testing/isolation. So yeah, this will get much worse before it gets better ... Again, people are still trying by and large but this thing is just a nightmare to prevent unless people interact much less with others unfortunately. Hope it was mainly a case of being blindsided of it starting so early combined with wishfull thinking and societies turn that corner now and officials keep hammering home the point ... Hate to see any closures, but unless people reduce private and office contacts massively for at least a couple weeks i'm at a loss to the alternatives to at least some, especially of the social variety (bars for one, social clubs/societies/sports for another. Sucks massively but least costly economically)

Hospitals around the St Louis area are at over 90% capacity. Making things difficult for them and anyone who may need to go to the hospital.

Well I tested negative. I was surprised at how quick it was. I did the drive thru testing at walgreens and I've spent longer times in Taco Bell drive thrus. It only took two hours to get the results back as well.

Waiting for a colleague's testing. If it's positive, then I was probably exposed.

Barf.

Ugh. Hope they come back negative.

Oh man JP, hope it comes back negative.

Good luck JP.

My sister was exposed, again this week at work. She works with some dumbasses. Girl came into work 3 days in a row with a fever. Didn't tell anyone. Someone noticed she looked bad the 3rd day, she told them thinking they wouldn't snitch. They snitched. Girl had to get tested. Positive.

I hope she was fired also

Looks like I will be getting tested soon; no known exposure, but I've got a fever and the doc wants to rule it out. No other symptoms at all, so I'm hopeful this is just a "check the box" sort of test.

Weird being sick when you have an infant. Hard to believe I haven't already exposed her, to be honest.

Prayers, man.

Hoping everything is okay Vince!

Good luck Vince

Feel fine and no news tonight. I'm more concerned about my colleague that is 65+ with some health problems.

Good luck Vince.

Best wishes to everyone. Hoping for the best.

Good luck, Vince!

My daughter's hitting coach is confirmed positive this morning. She hit with him on Monday, he started showing symptoms on Tuesday.

So, off we go to get tested today! :D

So, in good news, I'm negative. In bad news, the fever is due to an abscess, and I'm getting prepped for inpatient surgery now. Sounds like prognosis is great and it's a simple procedure, but the recovery sounds awful.

Good luck.

Good luck, Vince.

Good luck homie.

Tons of people out trick or treating today in large groups. Seeing very few facemasks. We decided not to participate this year which really sucks because I look forward to Halloween every year. Doing so this year just seems insane but people seem desperate for normalcy regardless of the consequences.

I suspect there will be a lot of maskless Trick or Treaters. We decided to put a a bowl out with candy and a Happy Halloween sign just past our front steps. We won't be answering the front door. Sad but makes it a little safer for Trick or Treating

We decided to do the same.

I did tell my wife not to put it all out at one time (in case there are some assholes) so we'll be checking and refilling as needed.

UK entering a second lockdown for a month but tbh, it doesn't sound like a real lock down.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/31/europ...ntl/index.html

Thanks for the well-wishes folks. Looks like surgery was a success, now for the much less exciting recovery.

We’re really doing nothing much different from last year, just sitting a bit farther from the table.

My wife rigged a PVC pipe to our steps railing so we could put the candy in the pipe and let it slide to the kids.

We only got 5 kids, but that was 5 more than last year!

We built a candy catapult for the drive way. We're having my son and a few of his D&D crew man the catapult for trick or treaters that venture out.

That is cool. Take a pic and share it!