Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

New data from @CopernicusEU #Sentinel5P reveal decline of air pollution, specifically NO2 emissions, over Italy. This reduction is particularly visible in northern Italy which coincides with its nationwide lockdown to prevent spread of the #coronavirus 👉https://t.co/4BQX4vD6P3 pic.twitter.com/7SDN8XB2vH
— ESA (@esa) March 13, 2020

― mark s, Friday, March 13, 2020 11:31 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

OMG, what if the cov is nature's way of solving global warming, what a wonderful world

gaia sez HALLO

have now been officially asked to work from home for the rest of the month which i was already planning to do

looking forward to seeing what's left at the grocery store this evening

These are the exact stories that I find helpful. Not the worst case scenarios, which we should all be aware of even if not necessarily personally anticipating, but the most common scenarios for many people, those not at risk. Because it helps them/us ( those generally not in a high risk group) get a better bead on whether we ourselves may be ill or should self-isolate even if we don't need to go to the hospital.

Yes--I felt a little better when I saw that on CNN this morning. I check this page periodically, and the 7% death rate for closed cases is above the 3/4% I've been hearing for the last couple of weeks.

http://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

So...while I certainly don't want Trump's phony and dangerous optimism, I do take some solace in the occasional concrete reminder that most people are surviving.

Yes--I felt a little better when I saw that on CNN this morning. I check this page periodically, and the 7% death rate for closed cases is above the 3/4% I've been hearing for the last couple of weeks.

http://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

― clemenza

my suspicion is that death rate for closed cases is going to be a little artificially inflated rn because, well, you're not gonna close a case until somebody either dies or gets better, right? and the latter outcome takes longer to verify than the former, right?

that's just a guess though and i may well be completely wrong about that

I can feel my blood pressure slowly rising with every passing minute that our absentee management maintains absolute radio silence about wtf we're doing. Oh, but I'm still getting emails from them about business matters as if this was just any other day. No worries there. Shmucks.

xp

also, the mortality rate will go down once testing is more widely available. there are a lot of people who have mild symptoms who haven't been tested.

These are the exact stories that I find helpful. Not the worst case scenarios, which we should all be aware of even if not necessarily personally anticipating, but the most common scenarios for many people, those not at risk. Because it helps them/us ( those generally not in a high risk group) get a better bead on whether we ourselves may be ill or should self-isolate even if we don't need to go to the hospital.

Yes--I felt a little better when I saw that on CNN this morning. I check this page periodically, and the 7% death rate for closed cases is above the 3/4% I've been hearing for the last couple of weeks.

http://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

So...while I certainly don't want Trump's phony and dangerous optimism, I do take some solace in the occasional concrete reminder that most people are surviving.

― clemenza, Friday, March 13, 2020 9:43 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the prime minister and his wife likely both have it (unless Justin doesn't kiss his wife, which seems unlikely) and she's mildly sick and he's asymptomatic. it's not all doom and gloom

xp:
There was an early report from Hong Kong of a dog that had tested "weakly positive" for COVID-19.

It's somewhat important to me. I have a dog, my sister has one, my elderly parents have three. In the event my parents get sick, I would expect to have to care for their dogs for the duration of their illness, and vice versa. And if dogs were contagious, it would create issues with kenneling similar to those for schools.

also, the mortality rate will go down once testing is more widely available. there are a lot of people who have mild symptoms who haven't been tested.

― Karl Malone

good point, the only confirmed COVID cases at this point are going to be the most serious cases!

yep, exactly

of course...most of us are likely to get it this year, anyway. was reading a TPM thing this morning mentioning that since the whole point of tests is to try to contain it, the whole effort right now to ramp up testing is kind of a moot point. we're already past containment - we lost that battle before it even started, practically.

of course, normally, the point of tests is also to diagnose it for immediate treatment. but since there's no vaccine...that's also a moot point.

in other words, the advice for everyone now is to socially distance and try to prevent further community spread as much as possible. not much point in testing people, just so they can find out they have covid19 but there's no vaccine, and then tell them to isolate themselves, when that's what we're supposed to be doing anyway

Obviously very small bananas compared to everything else in the world, but my favorite bookstore (Literati in Ann Arbor) just announced they are closing their shop "indefinitely, effective immediately" though still taking orders online.

I'm hoping the wording is such because they just have no idea when they will reopen, but it really sucks. A great shop. I immediately ordered a couple books I'd been eyeing lately.

Just got paranoid when I started coughing from eating a salty cookie too quickly, mostly that I would be shunned

our absentee management maintains absolute radio silence about wtf we're doing.

My first reaction is you were talking about the federal government.

Local hot dog stand to the rescue

bigguyssausage_
So we’ve reviewed our SOPs and sanitation procedures, as extra precaution we’ve removed all self serve disposables, we have a tight-small staff and we’re all on the same team to limit the spread of this virus. We take our responsibility of serving safe food seriously, if you dine in we are constantly wiping the customer counter area and we also have hand sanitizer and wipes for extra precaution, we have a new hand washing station coming for the customer area as well. We figure people will be ordering a lot of delivery, we are partnered with door dash, and overall that has resulted in really fast deliveries. All we ask is if you do order please try and use our link below thru our website because our commission to them is greatly reduced that way. Stay safe and healthy and seriously come get some corned beef this weekend!
https://bigguyssausage.com/order-online/

xpost Yours and mine both. It sure as hell feels like the Trump administration is running my company atm.

trump admin. is more like if your company was running the whole gov't

95% of the stuff on my FB wall that's supposed be funny is pretty lame to my perhaps peculiar sense of humour. I did find an e-mail from the Nixon Library announcing closure amusing. I assume Nixon Twitter will have a comment: "Goddamnit, Bob, I made it back from WWII, and they can't keep a fucking library open?"

Two week quarantine for the assisted living facility where my mother lives. I wish I'd asked the director if there was a precipitating event when I had her on the phone, though she said it was just precautionary. My mom's main gripe is that she won't be able to go for her perm appointment next week.

The nursing home my friend is in went on lockdown earlier this week in response to a confirmed case in the same county where they're located (after several prior confirmed cases the next county over). I wouldn't worry about a precipitating event, likely they're just taking precautions.

the number-one source of 'dank corona memes' on my fb feed is in a band that's bravely charging ahead with a tour over the next couple weeks.

might as well be newton's fourth law: if you mock the coronavirus in public, you're gonna get it.

So I guess complaining does occasionally pay off, as writing my boss last night to request a WFH approval resulted in him calling just now to give me the go-ahead. Whereas he indicated that there's been no firm decision about the rest of our department/office, so it sounds like most of whoever's left will...still be in the office next week. Which sucks for them and seems fairly irresponsible imo.

dunkey is hit and miss but this is amusing if you are one of those gamer types
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqXRLwKJz7s

just cancelled trip to japan ah well

Husband took a salary freeze a couple years ago in exchange for a kind of phantom-shares arrangement - boss had a plan to sell within 5 yrs and offered the two founding employees a percentage of the sale price. A few weeks ago he got great news that a big-deal consultant was now involved in the sale, and everyone was excited.

Now this country is facing a massive recession and the sale is probably in the toilet.

This is peak first-world problems. But that money was gonna get us the fuck out of the Bay Area, finally. It was gonna give us a tiny chance at maybe owning a house in the not-distant future.

And there’s also the concern for my pregnant sister who has multiple chronic health conditions, including extremely narrow airways, and corona would undoubtedly kill her. But I’m actively refusing to think about that.

https://president.utexas.edu/messages-speeches-2020/covid19-identified-within-ut-community

President of the University of Texas showing real leadership by contracting COVID-19 last week in NYC and then returning to Austin and spending the whole week meeting with faculty, staff, and students on campus.

🙁 deems & justin3

sorry but

yup yup! ate that up. pic.twitter.com/jOtb42lNpG

— hįt mē lÿke a ræy òf shîiuuuüiin (@DaShaunLH) March 13, 2020

No school for a month here. Fun!

we're closing for 2 weeks to prepare to teach online. we are...not prepared.
current meeting is getting bogged down in "what about ___" "but what about_____" "yeah and how about ________"
ugh

Governor of Illinois just closed all schools through March.

Lots of good stuff on social media today for instructors on how to resist doing too much in this online transition. A main point: our students aren’t going to be able to work at full capacity, so we should not try to get them to do so, for their sake as well as ours.

All WA public schools now ordered closed til at least April 24

Ban on large gatherings also expanded statewide

Portland schools now closed until April 1. I'm sure it will be pushed out even further.

tbqh i am already isolated, living alone and being chronically sick, and now i'm warned not to see friends or hug them, let alone try to get laid for the next X months. It's a bummer.

plus the fucking work from home shit

Just spotted a "friend" on Facebook speculating that this is all caused by 5G and "whatever you do don't get the vaccine!"

libraries in SF closed

good thing I own a lot of books, maybe my daughter will finally finish Return of the King now

xxl yep, the FB conspiracy theories are starting up, I'm snoozing people right and left

xxl xxp

NYC schools still not closing...

we're a couple weeks behind Seattle, I would expect this is going to be kind of a rolling thing for other cities as the virus spreads

I don’t know if there’s any reason to wait around before adopting Seattle/Washington-scale interventions everywhere else in the US.

schools in Northampton MA closed "until March 28"

idg why they are saying this, does anyone really think there's going to be school before September at the earliest?

it's easier to cancel something than uncancel it.

my university might close soon. managers are scrambling.

this might mean me working from home. i am not forwarding phone calls to my mobile to take them in my apartment and they can't make me. so answering emails while reading dune in bed with my cat beside me potentially. sounds good

I think they're gonna be forced to close the NYC schools but it's a blow to all of the hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into the "community schools" model, which was meant to make school buildings a hub for services and resources for students, parents, & everyone. The mayor & chancellor and lots of non-profit orgs have been working hard for almost 10 years to get ppl to look to schools for everything they need and now they can't afford to admit that maybe what people need more is for their kids NOT TO BECOME DISEASE VECTORS. But at the same time ppl are getting health care and food pantries and mental health services and online access and interpretation and parents' ESOL and immigration legal support and 100 other things at their kids' schools. It's not just kids taking classes.

There's also a very interesting, very fraught dynamic imo where teachers aren't from the communities they work in and don't connect well if at all with their students' families and I'm sure they're teeth-grindingly desperate to go home to their families in New Jersey but they keep showing up to work and doing their best because you can walk away from your office paperwork but not from children.

this might mean me working from home. i am not forwarding phone calls to my mobile to take them in my apartment and they can't make me. so answering emails while reading dune in bed with my cat beside me potentially. sounds good

― COVID and the Gang (jim in vancouver)

just stay the fuck away from the brian herbert books

the schools thing is hard, out here as well they're serving as a grossly underresourced substitute for the nonexistent social safety net. how do you continue to provide essential services when every single person, place, and thing is a potential pandemic vector? on what basis does one make those decisions?

ah, you know, it's not my decision at least.

this email takes the cake imo

As new reports of Coronavirus (COVID-19) continue to develop, there's no denying that we have waded into unprecedented waters. The health and safety of our employees and customers remains our first priority, and because of that, I want to share my thoughts on these difficult times.

I've been in this business for a long time and have seen my fair share of highs and lows. One thing that has served me well throughout my career is the need to pause and take a deep breath during turbulent periods. To feel anxious is normal - it's hard not to be in a world that is changing day to day. We are faced with unparalleled challenges and adversity. But if history tells us anything, it's that the human condition will rise to the challenges we face, as we are doing now. No one knows what tomorrow will bring but that doesn't mean we stop preparing for it.

HSBC has been connecting customers to opportunities since 1865. As one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, we are incredibly diversified, with operations in 64 countries and territories. Our expertise and experience has allowed us to be where the growth is for more than 150 years, enabling businesses to thrive, economies to prosper, and ultimately, helping people to fulfil their hopes and realize their ambitions.

While today's markets are experiencing unprecedented volatility, rest assured that our best and brightest are working tirelessly to understand this environment. With a bench as deep as ours, we're aware of the historical parallels and potential outcomes.

Fear and uncertainty are real and tangible emotions and it is easy to succumb to the unprecedented negative news and the panic in the market. That is why on a personal note, I recently spoke to my own financial advisor to review my family's financial plan, and to ensure we can still achieve our goals despite the current and - potentially further - market turbulence. It was a great discussion and her advice was to stay the course as this crisis, like those in the past, will come to an end. 'Don't panic and take a long-term view,' were words that helped put me and my family at ease. Based on my experience, I'd encourage you to seek advice from your financial advisor as well.

Please know that we have comprehensive plans in place to ensure our employees remain safe and are ready and able to serve our customers without disruption. Following my signature below are additional details regarding HSBC's resilience and further information we feel is important to put in your hands. As the situation evolves we will adjust our efforts accordingly.

Additionally, I encourage you to access your accounts and perform routine banking transactions at home using Personal Internet Banking or the HSBC Mobile Banking App, as well as an ATM near you where you can also access cash.