outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

xposts - it depends on what you mean by "impact", or "sufficient".

covid19 has certainly made an impact on global emissions. but compared to where global emissions need to be in order to avoid the worst of climate change? not even close. there was this bit in the WaPo writeup that stood out to me:

The unprecedented situation produced by covid-19 has offered a glimpse into the massive scale required to cut global emissions, year after year, in order to meet the most ambitious goals set by world leaders when they forged the 2015 Paris climate accord. Last fall, a United Nations report estimated that global greenhouse gas emissions must begin falling by 7.6 percent each year beginning in 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

so in a sense, yes, there's a pessimistic takeaway, which is that even a global pandemic that wrecks the economy only amounts to a decent start on the kind of reductions that need to happen every year for at least 30 years.

in short, i think what you said here sounds right: "covid had not shut down the real producers of emissions (large corporations / energy companies) and so even during the shutdown the reduction was negligible."

but i don't think that adds up to an argument that consumer behavior isn't an important factor, though - but i think that's a topic one of the climate change threads, because it has to do with how consumer spending, energy/industry production, and laws and regulations relate to each other.

confirmed U.S. cases have now reached 1.5 million

oh good

Haven’t heard anyone else talk about this so I will: hydroxychloroquine will give you FUCKED UP NIGHTMARES. My research group took it daily while we were in Ghana and about half of us dreamed about being buried alive. So next few days should be a real roller coaster ride.

— David A. Banks (@DA_Banks) May 19, 2020

The chances he's actually taking it are very low, I'd have thought.

anyone else had the nose swab test? because GAHHHHHH that is some intense shit

https://www.thecut.com/2020/05/dr-steven-levine-on-plastic-surgery-during-quarantine.html

Extremely successful people are used to getting what they want, when they want it. That is the reality of their life. One very well-known entrepreneur wanted to come to my office on the Upper East Side and get her face done, like, yesterday. She offered me more than four times my usual fee, all cash, and told me she’d have her lawyer draft a nondisclosure that she wouldn’t tell anyone we did it. I told her, “I love you to death, but no.”

A lot of my clients have cornered themselves off in their mansions around the world, and they want to get things done while they’re there. I’ve had people be flirty or playful to convince me to come over with injectables or open up the office for surgery. There’s a lot of, “Hypothetically speaking … would you come over and treat me in my house if I let you leave with my car?”

anyone else had the nose swab test? because GAHHHHHH that is some intense shit

― sleeve

Yes. Hated it.

But results were negative :)

had the swab today. not that bad tbh, thought it would be worse.

you wouldn't imagine you have that much space for them to cram it in, but you do

it's such a weird feeling, like your body knows damn well nothing should be up there

of course, i've had it in the ear before

lol

seeing Cuomo take the swab test right there definitely reassured me about it somewhat

I’ve had my sinuses MRIed as a prelude to having and alien removed from up in there and there are vast unexplored realms.

my 18 month old also had it today (throat and both sinuses) and he cried for less than a minute.

Cuomo's had his nips pierced which I assume is worse

I aint so tough, but the swab isn't as rough as a bone biopsy

ouch, I bet

Oh yeah i mean the swab is unpleasant but it's over fast.

hmmm

https://interestingengineering.com/cannabis-might-block-covid-19-infection-study-shows

So yes, while the findings are promising they are yet to be peer-reviewed. The results cannot be taken as conclusive evidence of cannabis’s ability to treat the virus since the researchers haven't been able to identify what the ideal ratio is of THC to CBD, or even if the active ingredient is CBD or some other component or combination.

the researchers haven't been able to identify what the ideal ratio is of THC to CBD

oh, i know that one

right there with ya, buddy

Kinda fed up with the whole weed-as-panacea trend tbh.

cannabis probably good for everything it turns out

hell yeah i've been inoculating myself with WEED this whole time

Except for those cancers that only LSD and/or magic mushrooms can cure.

xp

some uptight assholes told me back in march that i should stop smoking to protect my lungs from covid but i told them to fuck off and my health thanks me for it <3

Is the ratio in the vicinity of 1:5 maybe

^ cool guy who knows about drug jokes

i can't think that inflaming one's lungs with hot vapor is a good idea tbh as much as it pains me to say it

xp Mordy: there's been some work on both smoking and nicotine that suggest a mixed role. Basically, smokers and vapers are underrepresented in hospitalized cases, but if hospitalized, smokers have worse progression. A protective role for nicotine is hypothesized, and the French are doing a trial with nicotine patches in hospitalized patients.

My local snus outlet (a cigar/pipe tobacco shop) closed, so I've been surviving off convenience store vapes.

We've been eating pot brownies mostly. Slower to act, but mellower.

And CBD for the hyper kid.

One month ago today, Trump claimed that the American death toll from COVID-19 could reach as high as 50,000 fatalities by August 4th.

We will pass 100,000 deaths by the end of this week.

yeah, but many are saying it could be as high as 2-3 million, so compared to that, we're actually doing #1 in the entire world in terms of how good we are

three years pass...

this seems scary: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/19/asia/china-coronavirus-spike-intl-hnk/index.html

― JoeStork, Monday, January 20, 2020

From that CNN article:

SARS infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774 in a pandemic that ripped through Asia in 2002 and 2003.

It's interesting to track ilx's conversation about it going forward up through the end of March. It has been one hell of a year so far.

It's a 'badge of honor', he said.

xp

during hard times, when thinking about how bad things are and how much better they could have - no SHOULD have - been, i find it useful to take a deep breath and then say:

"i did the very best job that has ever been done"

fwiw the WH's predictions that we could reach 3,000 deaths/day by June 1 probably aren't coming true so I guess that's a small bit of good news

Larry Kudlow, close advisor to the President, said on February 25: "We have contained this, I won't say airtight but pretty close to airtight."

Words are meaningless and forgettable.

god if only anything else were

If someone is in an airtight space they will suffocate and die, so... Kudlow... otm?

Enjoy the virus.

xp

All I ever wanted, all I ever needed is something like SARS

You'll see your problems multiplied
If you continually decide
To faithfully pursue
The policy of truth

No one in this red suburb (in one of the most effected metro areas) is wearing masks out shopping.

https://i1.wp.com/digbysblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/download-97.jpeg

It's appalling. We may hold under 3k deaths/day through 1 Jun, but I'll be surprised if that number isn't regularly broken through the month.

fwiw the WH's predictions that we could reach 3,000 deaths/day by June 1 probably aren't coming true so I guess that's a small bit of good news

― frogbs, Wednesday, May 20, 2020 4:40 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not so sure. the current death rate and trajectory is a function of the social distancing that was happening a month ago.

also, what is the percentage of actual covid related deaths we think are accurately being reported in the US? 60%? 70%?

Maybe we all died

My suburb is where the first covid-19 case in the state of Oregon was discovered, in a janitor working at a local elementary school about 2 miles from my house; my town of 30,000 has a large concentration of professionals and college grads and leans more to the liberal-moderate side of the political spectrum. Very white middle class or wealthy, very polite.

Here I see masks aplenty when grocery shopping, but almost no masks worn among people out for daily walks on the street. It is dead easy for those walkers to maintain a 6 ft distance when passing one another and that amount of proximity is only momentary. I can live with that. Since I have no other contact with anyone around here other than on walks or grocery shopping, I can supply no wider observations for comparison.

Here in small town AZ, nobody was wearing a mask. Then all the sudden everyone was. Mine finally arrived in the mail, and then once I started wearing it, it was back to nobody wearing one! I assume everyone thought the cooties magically disappeared once the Gov opened stuff back up.