In our PM’s first presser of this style last week, the second question was from the Murdoch controlled Sky News: they asked (with no intro) “Can you tell us how many people will die?”. It’s an impossible question to answer, and should not be the focus. The public needs to be made aware this is serious, but generally needs reassurance not scaremongering hysteria from the mass media.

That's what they put out there in the presser, yes.

Wait, why aren't they reporting them? Waiting to get positive confirmation by testing, or am I missing something in translation?

Have I missed the Q&A about "tests are free, but is the treatment also free? And if not, will the treatment be affordable?".

From what I've googled, there is no commitment the treatment is free and who knows how much 20% copay of $X is. This seems like a pretty good question to ask in the next news conference.

You mean, like an actual emergency?

We are on spring break this week. From what I am seeing, the plan is to distribute the work through the e-learning center website that they have been using all year to document grades, assignments, and the kids can message with their teacher through that. There are digital copies of textbooks for a couple of my son's classes so for those classes they will have access to the book. I know a couple of teachers who trying to decide if they want to make videos of themselves lecturing for the kids. I suspect they are going to lean on YouTube videos instead.

My daughter is a freshman in HS and they seem to be doing everything through Google Classroom.

I hope some accommodations are going to be made with the state testing after all this.

I like the idea (and get Yang to implement it!) but I don't think it needs to be every adult, just those whose jobs were severely negatively impacted.

My wife is a teacher, I'm in IT. I'm more vulnerable than my wife but not near as vulnerable as others in the airline, restaurant, hospitality business. So spend the funds where there is truly a need.

Don't waste time on making it complicated.

the worst are the asshole parents who act like you are the crazy one for not allowing it.

Less than 24 hours after the non-answer declaring the need for robust debate, Michigan closes bars and dine-restaurants at 3pm today. Was announced in the morning so clearly something happened after yesterday's presser to convince the governor this needed to be done, and now. We've got about four people on average working at my job now to deal with carryouts; my particular job though effectively no longer exists. The company is feeding all employees for free for the duration of this. Two weeks as of now, and some people think they won't want to extend it further. I expect it to last much longer than that, but again nobody knows right now.

I haven't seen any examples of anybody ignoring the order around here. There are some who don't like it, most are in the 'world is crazy right now' mode and don't know what to make of it. I'm typically a passive survivor, but I'm doing some hard thinking right now about how to best use my unwanted time off.

Just catching up so others may have addressed it. I texted a friend when that happened and said I wish these reporters would stop trying to trap him and just ask questions that may be relevant to the situation. Stop going for the low hanging fruit.

At the same time, there are usually "reporters" from OAN there willing to serve him softballs.

Also, do we really need four threads on this now?

So we are nearing full shutdown mode here which I think is a good thing. No work for me, no schools, most public places closed, sounds like restaurants and bars closing. Where exactly does this leave supermarkets? What happened in Wuhan and Italy? I ask because do I need to make a canned food, frozen meat run like everyone else or will they stay open as an essential place of business?

Supermarkets stayed open in Italy, and pharmacies. Pretty much everything else was shut down. the order in Michigan specifically excludes those and some other places. I think this is just a recognition of the fact that people are always going to need food and medicine. Cutting that off is even worse than spreading the virus.

Grocery stores were listed on the "Essential businesses" list through the Shelter-in-Place order today in the Bay Area, meaning they will be staying open.

Edit: per a San Francisco Chronicle article, "Hospitals, grocery stores, banks, and pharmacies will remain open." They also mention restaurants can only serve take out or delivery orders, and "Daycare centers and veterinarians will remain open with some restrictions, as will laundry services."

Agreed but seeing how there is no toilet paper to be found wasn't sure how long it was until my family was eating canned beets and radishes due to supermarket runs. Also at some point the places supplying the food, trucks driving the food, people working at the stores may have to start shutting down.

I really hope this is an oversight and is fixed tomorrow, as otherwise it stinks of looking after big business (insurance) over small businesses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51906370

I think it'll go the other way in terms of shortages. The supermarkets and the supply chain for them will see increased demand and stay open. There's just some things that you can't shut down without total societal collapse.

Gun sales are up, surprised I hadn't seen articles earlier. But tbh, the 68% increase reported below doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. Probably much higher now.

Gun sales surge as coronavirus grips US | TheHill

Sorry, just getting back to this. I have no idea why it isn't being reported. My assumption is this administration will continue to try and make things look as good as they can until we break. I know more than a few healthcare workers and virtually all of them have stated things are getting exponentially worse.

Some good news.

First coronavirus vaccine trial begins as Seattle volunteer receives shot

Each of my kids got a packet sent him that had 10 days worth of assignments, separated by each day. All the teachers also have their own website where you can ask questions and access resources.

I am just doing what we can and not stressing over any missed work.

Mark Cuban mentioned something similar to this yesterday or earlier today.

His proposal was with many stores closing earlier for restocking and the improved cleaning we all keep receiving emails about, stores can block off the first hour or two of the stores operating time just for the 60+ population. The store should be at its most sanitized and they can be less exposed to the younger folks. I am sure there are flaws but I like the sentiment of both ideas.

I hope things go well for her. Not too many of us would be willing to go out on that limb.

Ramping up grocery delivery seems like a good idea too. Can leave it outside the door with no human contact. Most of the grocers here offer it but not sure how they're handling the demand.

Saw Amazon adding 100k people to help with deliveries.

Governor Kemp closing all schools now till at least March 31. My wife has just been crying for two days convinced my son's graduation is going to be cancelled.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

My wife used this a lot prior to anything going wrong just to save time and for some crazy reason it costs nothing additional at walmart or our local grocery. This week walmart has cancelled the program all together and the grocery is taking orders like 4 days out.

I pulled my kids early, as school is actually still open in my province this week, which blows my mind (they have it scheduled to close starting next week). So no direction or support yet, and we don't have any direct method of contacting the teachers. Rumor has it that we'll start getting info/directions later this week. Until then, we're basically making it up as we go along. Various learning apps, word searches and other puzzles found online, reading time, chores, walks outside, and I bought Rocksmith on sale today to start incorporating a 'music lesson' each day where they can try to learn a bit of guitar.

Bailouts for the billionaires already coming.

Boeing confirms it is in talks with the White House to receive government assistance pic.twitter.com/GBucOHQzkk

— Natalie Kitroeff (@Nataliekitro) March 17, 2020

Latest poll I can find says a third of people are planning to rethink travel, a quarter stop eating out. That's not nearly high enough. I hope it rises more, but jives with the whole 'mildly concerned' vibe that I've sensed. We're now at least a month past the point when that was appropriate IMO.

I see “being presidential” lasted all but 30 minutes as he’s back on twitter calling it the Chinese virus.

I know a couple people that "eat out" for some form of every meal.....that said, they aren't sitting down at a restaurant for even a quarter of those, so much as getting fast food, take out, or eating from a grocery deli. I imagine this will require quite a shift in thinking for those kind of folks, and there's probably a lot of them in America. Now folks who still elect to travel...I have no clue what those folks are thinking.

I've only been paying close attention to North Carolina & Massachusetts, but it seems like we're getting quite diligent updates on confirmed & suspected cases. I guess I could see the hospital holding back reporting publicly if they've tested and haven't heard back (or have possible cases but not enough tests), but that seems like a stretch. I'm also guessing that anyone in a high risk category (or who is a hypochondriac) will be trying to check themselves in if they have even a slight cough, even though a hospital is the last place I would want to be with a compromised immune system even in regular times.

A bit conflicted here as I work at an AR distribution center. Last week they announced Unpaid Time Off would not be enforced through March, attendance immediately plummeted to about 40%, and a fair amount of orders were delayed. I can see the argument that Amazon as a supply chain helps keep others inside, but while certain jobs (like mine where I'm in a managerial role) involve a little more space & less touching of the merchandise, I can't see any argument where closing schools and bars and sports and limiting any gatherings of 10 or more people makes sense, but still having 2000 of us go to work in close quarters with each other does as well. Even at this one which is a more advanced robotics facility, you have groups of 12-18 people essentially in a hallway next to each other for 3 3 hour shifts taking items out of chutes & boxing them up to be shipped. I'm off until Wednesday anyways, not sure if I'll go in then or sit it out (hey, that $2/hour pay raise for existing workers will also probably juice attendance!), and I'm hoping the government just takes the issue out of their hands & tells them to shut it down for 2 weeks, but otherwise it seems very emblematic of the haphazard ways things are being implemented right now.

At some point we need to be able to provide basic necessities as the stores run out and leveraging delivery to reduce contacts seems like a trade off. I realize with Amazon and other Ecommerce it also will be things that aren’t relay needed. If we reduce overall contacts by like 90%, especially things that reduce the risk of mass spreading that will have a huge impact. We can’t eliminate all human contact.

The entire northern Island of Luzon is now in shutdown here. Enhanced community quarantine. Roughly 49 million people.

Movement of people in Luzon restricted as island placed under 'enhanced' community quarantine

It would make a lot more sense if there was a corresponding limiting of what can be ordered, but you know, "essential" means a lot of different things to different people. :lol:

Unfortunately, possibly coming to a theater near you soon.

A hospital in Milan italy CoronaVirus (COVID-19) - YouTube

Is this legit? People in SF can only leave for a doctor visit or trip to the grocery store?
San Francisco Going on 24-Hour Lockdown for 3 Weeks

Yup, shelter-in-place starting Tue midnight I believe.

All of the Bay Area, 6 counties and 6.7 million people. It's not a lockdown; it's a "mandatory shelter-in-place." There's nothing mentioned anywhere about enforcement, and I've heard already today that three different car dealerships are staying open as "essential" businesses (I have family members that work at each). So I'm not sure how drastic it's actually going to be.

I work in the corporate office at a large utility company in Las Vegas, and we have some significant changes beginning tomorrow. Almost everyone at the corporate office will be working from home, beginning tomorrow. Non-essential work travel is prohibited. When work travel is absolutely necessary, it must be approved by a vice president.

Our field crews will be wearing new disposable gloves and company issued safety glasses at all times while performing service on customers' property. They will practice social distancing, including no handshakes and maintaining at least 6 feet distance. Customer signatures are no longer required. They have been given talking points to use when interacting with customers, explaining that these precautions are for the customer's safety and the safety of our crews.

Are those makeshift ventilators? Never seen those hoods before. Wondering if it's just pumping oxygen through.

Someone I work with just e-mailed and told us his wife probably has it. She's been sick with flu like symptoms but all those tests came back negative. They didn't have access to the coronavirus test at her hospital.

So they're both in some weird isolation. She's basically going to live in the basement for the next few weeks and he's going to take care of the kid upstairs and hope he doesn't have it himself. He was pissed that he couldn't get tested too. Now he doesn't know if their kid is being exposed or not.

Liquor up everybody, the hard stuff, the virus stands no chance against alcohol.
Get those moonshine machines going.

If it was exposed there is still an excellent chance of at most mild symptoms, that seems equally sure by now as does the higher risk of severe symptoms for elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.

It sounds pretty drastic to me. Grocery stores, pharmas, hospitals, nursing homes etc. for sure are essential but not car dealerships.

The rate of infection will be reduced which is the point but can't help but feel Bay Area is overreacting at this time. Before sheltering-in-place for pretty much everyone, I would try the mandatory quarantine or shelter-in-place for the vulnerable (e.g. elderly & pre-existing) and their helpers.

It'll be a fascinating social experiment to see how Bay Area folks do this. Will crime be reduced (probably), will crime increase in other areas (e.g. spousal abuse), will internet crash (probably spotty service), will entrepreneurial minds find a way to make money out of this (probably), will there be riots (low probability) etc.?

Needs to be like 70% proof. Forget the beers and go for the hard stuff.

TBH don't know, just found the yt video by reading here and there.

Re: field hospitals, there are a lot of dorm & hotel rooms empty now. CDC, FEMA, National Guard or whoever better have some plans in place just in case hospitals are overwhelmed.

The risk is also lack of healthcare professionals. In addition to existing healthcare professionals, they should be doing some emergency training for some military folks now, reaching out to retired Drs. and Nurses to see if they are willing to volunteer, and very importantly, making plans to take care of the healthcare workers' families if they are called to service/work.

How is everyone interacting with their elderly parents?

I live about 20 minutes from my mother. While she is still pretty strong, My nephew who is in college locally and I generally handle most of her shopping and drive her to most medical appointments and such. I stopped by on Saturday but have not been since. My nephew stays with her so I am not as concerned as I would be if she lived alone.

Not seeing my parents. I did have to call my mother yesterday to yell at her for going to her weekly bridge game. My dad will be 90 this year. My in laws are taking it far more seriously, which is interesting because my MIL is a Fox news die hard trumper. I picked up some prescriptions yesterday for them and did a quick exchange with my father in law outside.

My friends that work at Publix said there was a line of 75+ people outside the store twenty minutes before it opened at 7am today.

Our groceries were rough over the weekend, but they were fine yesterday. People seem to get the hoarding out of their system after they've done it once.

My mom is 68 and has COPD. I usually take her grocery shopping once a week, but last 2 weeks I've done the shopping for her. She did go to a pharmacy the other day and went INSIDE instead of using the drive thru. She said the drive thru line was too long. I said too bad, you should wait in it.

My in laws are 8 hours away and are Fox News diehards. They have not been taking this seriously at all. One has lung issues, the other is on dialysis.

I went to the grocery store in our small town last night around midnight. I was surprised at how well stocked they were. If you didn't need bread, meat, or potatoes, they were fine. I was specifically in search of milk and figured I'd have to hit every gas station and convenience store trying to find it...but their dairy larder was full.

This might be a small town advantage, though. Our whole county runs about 15k people and we've got two grocery stores, a CVS and a small WalMart just in our town. When I talked to the cashier (since overnights are when the bulk of the stocking happens), she said they weren't having any problems getting stock in (with the exception of bread and toilet paper) and expected even those temporary shortages to resolve themselves in the next couple of days.

My mom is in her low 70s, my brother is local to her and she had him bring her groceries and had him leave them outside her door and wait until he was gone. I think that is smart at this point. She's been laying low, staying inside her home for the past few weeks already.

Could be put on the other thread but thought it fit here just as well.

Don't know if this is specific to coronavirus but likely added to the stress levels. The slap-punch occurs deep into the video. Poor flight attendants.

Brussels Airlines passenger slaps stewardess over elbow room dispute

I live with my Mom who is in her 80's. She is definitely in the high-risk zone if she gets the virus with multiple medical conditions. She and her friends get together a couple times/month to do card crafting. They have put that on hold for now.


Went to Publix yesterday where they wiped down every cart, even the electric cart she uses in there. Wiped down the Pharmacy counter while we there, and elsewhere in the store. Myrtle Beach has about 83 Walmarts so our grocery access hasn't been a problem. We have one small trip we need to do there later this week to pick up something we ordered,and I have a dentist appointment next week that they want me to keep, but otherwise we are ready to ride this out.

Wife came back from Publix after a run. Still no/low on staples and reduced selection on canned food & vegetables but still plenty of beer.

She brought back from green cookies and reminded me its St. Patrick's Day. I think everyone has forgotten about it.

That passenger would be sitting uncomfortably in restraints for the rest of that flight if they were on my plane.

I didn't know you were into BDSM :eek:

Wife placed an order for pickup two days ago. Today was the earliest date for pickup. It was about $250 to feed 5 adults for a week to 10 days. Kroger couldn't fill half of it. Now she's a little worried about not only quantities, but she has a special diet and can't get the foods that she calls staples either.

Nice gesture and flys in the face of narrative China is our enemy :
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma tweeted for the first time ever to say he's started shipping 1 million masks and 500,000 coronavirus testing kits to the US

The article said the guys that restrained him after the punch broke some ribs.

I meant cuffs, behind his back.

Parents, your Spring Breakers are heading back home.

Florida bars and nightclubs to close, students ordered home, DeSantis says

Dentist changed their minds, so no doc/dentist appointments until april

We saw my parents for what we figure will be the last time for a while over this weekend.


SI

Watching the news conference now.

Pence interrupted Trump as he began to ramble and adlib. Trump stepped aside and Pence clarified.

Has that ever happened before?

Not that I remember ever seeing.

When it happened, I was thinking wow. I could see Fauci doing it but not the sycophant Pence.

Yeah, unfortunately there is some lag time there. I don't think stores were prepared for this "run", and the supply chain takes 2-3 weeks to replenish. I can't speak to what the manufacturing supply chain looks like, but typically Kroger would order, it would take about a week to ship (sometimes more), then the Kroger buyers have to get product to local warehouses, then the stores themselves order product in for themselves. That all takes another week or two. I'm sure they're trying to get as much as they can, but if the manufacturer supply is low, it could be another couple of weeks before they get everything back up to regular levels.

That's for packaged goods and dairy, can't speak for meat or bakery.

And now, for the more important news:
Un hombre disfrazado de dinosaurio desafía el estado de alarma... y es cazado por la Policía - MarcaTV

Translated using Google from a Spanish website: "A man dressed as a dinosaur defies the state of alarm ... and is hunted by the Police"
Subtitle translated: "The Local Police of Murcia has published a video in which an agent is seen intercepting a person disguised as Tyrannosaurus Rex: "In a state of alarm, pets are allowed to walk accompanied by a person, always with short walks to relieve themselves The one that you have Tyrannosaurus rex complex is not contemplated, "read the tweet."

SI

I wonder if it's for all Italians or just the Chinese in Italy, as per a story about the Chinese government "assistance" a couple of days ago.

China offers Italy medical aid as province donates masks to help overseas Chinese, East Asia News & Top Stories - The Straits Times



The story is a bit confusing, though. The first part is how the Chinese government wants to help Italy but there are no specifics. The second part is about how a specific province sent a specified number of masks and medical equipment, specifically for Chinese nationals in Italy (not the best look).



SI

Picking up my 70-year old dad from the hospital (had hip replacement surgery yesterday). I've tried to lock myself away since Friday (outside of my wife/kids). Luckily, I have an office in an external annex at work to where I'm not around many people. After I pick him up and get him situated at home this afternoon, I think I will finally take a break and go to my wife's uncles for a very small St Patty get together (6-7 people total) and have a few beers.

A bunch of my friends were at the bar on Saturday night and were texting me all night to show up. But knowing I had to get my dad today, I refrained. It is a little aggravating, but some things are more important than a night out of drinking.

Coronavirus: US hospital uses five months' worth of supplies in six days as shortages hit | The Independent

It's a hospital in Albany, GA that thought it had prepared very well for this. They have about half the current confirmed cases in the state at their hospital. They'll run out of supplies in 6 more days.

Actually these ones are coming to the US.

Something I was thinking about (as an aside), but how much do mass transit systems play into the virus spread? Both Italy and China are almost entirely mass transit. In Phoenix, we have virtually no mass transit systems (just a small light rail around downtown) and I wonder if that's why we don't have it as bad as some other places to this point.

It may be a reason why many parts of the US can avoid the high numbers Italy had. But, on the east coast, you have more mass transit and I wonder if that will make things worse out there.

Can this idiot stop saying this thing crept up on us. We have known it was coming for some time.

"nobody is going to be more bipartisan than me"

30 seconds later

"I watched the debates, they were horrible, Obama completely screwed up the swine flu"

Kentucky derby postponed.

This morning on MARTA I was easily able to put the 6 ft of distance in place.

Though I have heard NYC's mass transit the last few days may have spread the virus a bit.

How can this be? According to United States Coronavirus: 5,723 Cases and 97 Deaths - Worldometer there are only 12 serious or critical cases nationwide. Does this mean that everyone, even when their case is not critical is taking a bed?

Probably confirmed cases. It's still near impossible to get a test in most of the country. ER doc from New Orleans was on TV the other day talking about how they have some new critical cases that they're sure are coronavirus but haven't been able to test them.

No, that source has misleading data if you assume (like I did) serious/critical is the same as treated on intensive care. Apparently they're not the same thing.

Woman on my towns local facebook group just asked if anyone knows of any salons that are open because she needs color.

We are all going to die.

Woo hoo. Looks like many of us will be getting freebie $1000 (?) checks.

I do appreciate the thought and would use my $1000 to buy something as a stress relief (new laptop or ipad) but they should figure out who really needs it.

FWIW, just a data point. Local restaurant and Cheesecake factory are open and seating guests.

The best global models have us at 10-20x the number of cases as are reported. We're probably around 50K not 5K right now. However, tests are still so difficult to get so there's no way to know. I have 3 people in the medical profession in my family and they've been seeing cases that look like this for almost 2 months now and they have had no way to test. Looks kindof like the flu but tests negative for flu and strep.

SI

Too much delay in getting the money out.

Give everyone a check and then raise taxes on high income earners later in the year to make up for the people who didn't need it.

Makes me wonder about all those vaping deaths though that is going pretty far back.

All NC bars and restaurants are delivery and carry-out only as of 5pm today.

Depends on what people think "some time" is. This particular corona virus was first reported in the USA on January 22nd, roughly 2 weeks before this thread was even started, it just didn't land yet this would be a pandemic.

What's the threshold of "high" there? As a fairly typical suburban family of four, assuming the market recovers in the next 20ish years, this has been a minor financial windfall:

• No longer paying $180/mo for drama/gymnastics classes
• $260 soccer refund
• Monthly gasoline bill dropping by ~$125/mo
• $850 refund on school DC trip
• $700 that had been set aside for trip, place to stay, dog boarding, etc. for a wedding weekend likely freed up
• Additional harder-to-guess savings from being forced to eat at home more, but probably another $150-$250/mo. (Heck, even just ordering carry-out instead of eating in saves by not getting three drinks that cost 10 bucks total when you include the tip. :mad:)

I realize that the DC trip and wedding aren't "typical," but the others seem fairly standard for the middle/upper-middle class, but good luck raising taxes on that crowd.

Marriott furloughing "tens of thousands" of employees. More furloughs & layoffs to come.

I'm in the midst of getting thousands of dollars of refunds for cancelled trips to Disneyland and Europe in the next 6 weeks. It's an opportunity to both build the emergency fund and be charitable.

In NY the hospitalization rate is 19% of confirmed cases.

We're heading to Hilton Head in less than three weeks and have a house rented there. Unless the owners come back and say they'll refund us the entire rental cost I can't see not going on that trip. We're driving, and going from one house to another house as a family. We don't have any other group events or outings to go to there. I can't see needing to cancel that one, certainly not for the money that's already laid out to go. However, I did posit a hypothetical to my wife, and if the owners did offer to refund, it would be very hard not to turn our money down, in light of current events.