I Said, Hey... What's Going On?

[JLSigman]

Two cases in South Carolina now. One is in Kershaw County, an old woman who was apparently in a care home and no-one can figure out how she got it. My older half-brother is the editor of the Camden Chronicle 3-a-week newspaper, and Mom's both proud of him and terrified for him.

[Robert S]

On 3/6/2020 at 2:06 AM, AxB said:

The UK Government's plan is to try to delay the spread of the disease so most people don't catch it until the Summer, because it's more survivable if it's hot outside apparently. Halfwits.

I think the general idea (at least that is what I read 2-3 weeks ago) is to delay it until the normal flu season is over so that there are not two similar diseases going around at the same time.

Apparently, starting on Sunday, large portions of northern Italy will become almost completely blocked off. My sister is living in one of these provinces and even ten days ago there was already quite some panic going around (she sent me a picture my brother-in-law took, from a mall that looked like post-zombie-apocalypse levels of empty in the middle of the day). School has been closed for two weeks now and will at least be closed for four more weeks (though there are talks that it will last at least until the end of April). As this means that all childcare facilities are closed as well, things get pretty complicated for families will children, where both parents are working (like my sister and my brother-in-law).

Edited March 7, 2020 by Robert s

[ohtani's jacket]

I live in Tokyo. We're in this holding pattern where everything's been cancelled left, right and center,  my daughter is off school indefinitely and yet they haven't increased the number of testing kits so we have no idea how bad the spread of infection is. It's pretty much impossible to get tested unless you're showing severe symptoms. It's not clear at this stage when things will return to normal. 

[NikoBaltimore]

Well, we finally got a case of it in Harford County.  Apparently an 80-year-old woman went on a cruise and got it from there.  So upon finding out it led to my brother-in-law going on one helluva tirade with all kinds of trash opinions.  So let's just say I asked my mom that we not discuss this again unless he's not around.  But other than that it's mostly business as usual.

[Robert C]

City and county have both declared states of emergency, despite a grand total of zero cases.  I get why they did it (to cancel SXSW), but it looks silly.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

No cases in my state yet, but I already feel like I'm at my breaking point.  Feel crappy and uneasy all the time, not concentrating at work, etc.  Never been prone to anxiety or other mental issues, but.... this feels like it could become something out of a horror movie and I've got no real interest in living in a doomsday prepper scenario.

Worrying about anything and everything.  Both my parents and in-laws are in their late 70's, with various health conditions.  Younger brother lost half a lung to lung cancer six years ago, etc.  Worried about my kids and nieces and nephews, worried about financial health of country, looting, food shortages, utilities breaking down, etc.  Randomly wore up this morning and began wondering who takes care of the shelter dogs if they lock down the country/region.

Nothing feels safe to me right now.  Dunno know how long I can muddle through this.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Yes, it's selfish on my part, but I'm going to be FUCKING pissed if the Newark Dynamite gets canceelled. Thankfully, there haven't been any reported cases in the Garden State.

[J.T.]

There are two cases in Montgomery County, MD near the ex-wifey.

I know she and I are on the outs, but I'm still worried about her.  We know we're a horrible couple, but there are some things we still need to accomplish together.

There is one case in Northern VA at Ft. Belvoir, also.  I figure we brave folks here at Ft. Lee will be working in hazmat suits any day now.

MOPP Level 4, bitches.

Edited March 10, 2020 by J.T.

[Guest The Magnificent 7]

From what I have read the case fatality rate after February 1st is under 1% now. The Wuhan CFR was skewing things quite a bit due to a number of factors including very limited resources (hospital beds, etc.).  
 

SARS was close to 10% if I recall correctly.  Be concerned, but you can’t go to bed wondering who is going to take care of shelter dogs if everyone dies. 
 

I have had a work conference in Philly scheduled for later this month canceled on us.  
 

I am a worrier by nature and a germaphobe, but we’re flying to Florida next week for Spring break and haven’t considered canceling anything on the itinerary.

I have parents in their 70’s and kids and have as much to lose as anyone. People need to calm down. This isn’t The Stand. 
 

[Robert S]

I have read a report that in Italy, they have a mortality rate of 5-6 %, in France and Spain about 3 %, Germany 0.2 % (or something like that). The problem is that different countries use different measures at what to count as COV-19 related deaths. Furthermore, in Italy they have begun testing every dead person for Corona. But the big issue (risk) with COV-19 is not the mortality rate itself, but the way that most of the people who get infected get barely any symptoms, i.e. they may wildly distribute the virus without ever knowing about it. There have been experts stating that without deeper precautions (like done in Europe all over the place right now), a spread from 25%-70% of the population might happen. And just type 7.8 billion * 0.01 (lower boundary of mortality rate) * 0.25 (lower boundary of a pandemic) into a calculator. Sure, the world population grows on average by 80 Million a year, but still.

[Guest The Magnificent 7]

The Diamond Princess I think had nearly 4,000 people on it and over 700 tested positive for the virus. 6 people died, but every single one was over the age of 70. I’d be a little worried if I were over 70, but if I were over 70 I’d be worried about dying from a lot of things. 
 

All I am saying is if you are losing sleep over shelter dogs, don’t unless shelter dogs are all taken care of by old people in your local shelters. 

[John from Cincinnati]

14 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Yes, it's selfish on my part, but I'm going to be FUCKING pissed if the Newark Dynamite gets canceelled. Thankfully, there haven't been any reported cases in the Garden State.

There's reporting today on a death in Bergan County.

Edited March 10, 2020 by West Newbury Bad Boy

[Robert S]

I am not worried about my own health, but I have lots of family and friends that are above the 70-year mark. For example, my father is 83 and, while general being in good health, is very prone to illnesses that effect the respiratory system.

[Technico Support]

3 hours ago, J.T. said:

There are two cases in Montgomery County, MD near the ex-wifey.

 

That's where I live (and work)!  Not too worried yet.  But I'm wondering if my company will press the "everybody stay home" button, as we're already doing the prep work for that.

[Leonidas]

The UK is still in their "containment" phase, when they should already be in their "delay" phase (shutting schools, cancelling events etc.)

We should have learned from Italy, whose healthcare system is now well overcapacity, that it is much more of a priority to get people to stop interacting before it is over the tipping point. There are not enough ventilators to go around for the people who will need them. The NHS already operates at 80-100% capacity, meaning if we get more than a few hundred cases, we will also not have enough ventilators left, meaning the doctors and nurses will have to choose which patients get priority treatment like it was a military hospital in wartime. And all countries will have this same situation.

But our government, the same as most, is more interested in delaying the economy from crashing than people's grandparents from dying. I'm going to try to put my relatives in bubbles, but most people, including my relatives are still very much in the "it's not as bad as they say camp". And that's my mum who said that, a diabetic who spent most of 2018 in hospital with a kidney infection . 

/rant over.

[Craig H]

I made mention of this in another thread, but my wife is a nurse, and a damn good one at that since she recently was promoted to regional manager. Neither one of us is remotely concerned nor are any of her work friends. Their main concern is when people start going to the ER for every little sniffle thinking they have COVID-19 or patients missing their scheduled dialysis treatments and then going to the ER for treatments instead.

While the transmission rate is high, it's still less than the flu and you have more people concerned about this than getting a fucking flu shot. As for the fatality rate, it's hitting seniors or people with compromised immune systems the hardest.

I get the concern for it because it's novel and a lot of people are confused, but if you're so concerned about this and haven't had a flu shot, go and get a flu shot because you're far more likely to be affected by that than COVID-19. The cancelling of events and all of the other panic like hoarding toilet paper is upsetting because it causes people to panic more than they should. 

As for my work, I'm a work at home employee already and so is most of my team. We cancelled all travel for a little bit. My wife though, who works for one of the largest medical companies in the world, isn't cancelling any travel if that tells you anything.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

3 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

There's reporting today on a death in Bergan County.

That's just fucking swell. At least, I don't live in Bergen county.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

5 hours ago, Craig H said:

I made mention of this in another thread, but my wife is a nurse, and a damn good one at that since she recently was promoted to regional manager. Neither one of us is remotely concerned nor are any of her work friends. Their main concern is when people start going to the ER for every little sniffle thinking they have COVID-19 or patients missing their scheduled dialysis treatments and then going to the ER for treatments instead.

A friend put me in touch with an infectious disease expert she knows.  Dude has worked all over with all sort of nasty diseases and said SARS was the only thing that scared him.  He thinks the hysteria about coronavirus will be worse than the actual virus.  

I go back and forth between paranoia and thinking a lot of this is an overreation.  The implications are frightening for certain demographics, but cancer kills something like 1,700 Americans a day, heart disease kills 2,000 Americans a day on average, the regular old flu kills 10-80,000 Americans per year (and a few hundred thousand around the world over).  I'm assuming most of those diseases have the same demographic profile as coronavirus (most people hospitalized in their sixties, most people dying in their 80's).

Dude also said he doubts the fatality rate is really 3-4% (113,000 confirmed cases, 4,000 deaths).  Fatality rates in epidemics are usually overstated, for one reason or another.   Majority of people testing positive for virus were discovered because they got sick enough to go to hospital.  Lot of people showing mild or no symptoms, so probably large numbers of people walking around not realizing they were sick or got misdiagnosed.

Not really sure what to think. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Tarheel Moneghetti

[SorceressKnight]

Thank God. Thank God Thank God Thank God. I may not be religious, but my prayers have been answered.

I didn't say which job had the concerns in my last post, but I work at Walmart. They just announced emergency changes to their absence/LOA policies that include "if you're not comfortable working during the panic, you can call out and it won't be held against you." 

I'm still not out of the woods, especially since I live in an apartment- but at least this helps a bit.

[AxB]

 

[piranesi]

Based on the numbers is South Korea, anyone under the age of thirty basically swallows Coronaviruses like Kirby and then just spits them out at other people and bops happily along their way.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

My immediate family has a lot of the things that makes this thing a killer

me: asthma, history of pneumonia

brother: asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure

mother: diabetes, high blood pressure, pre-existing lung conditions, over 65

so uh yeah we're holed up, good luck to the rest of y'all

[Nice Guy Eddie]

My new job has shut down for at least the next two weeks. 

...and because I can be a selfish prick, I'm fucking pissed about missing out on getting to be in attendance for a real War Games style match

[AxB]

I've been spending the week working on the assumption that I've already been exposed, because the nature of retail work is people hand things to you. But apparently there's only four cases in the whole county so far, and the high infection rates are all down South, greater London and that. So maybe I won't get exposed until next week instead. Having said that, I am immune to all sickness, so I'm not in any way worried.

Passed another test purchase this week. Test purchaser (who I did ask them for ID, like I'm supposed to) estimated me at 5'7" and "in his 20s". I'm 6'0" and 45 years old. Also said I had brown hair, and I'm not sure how they could possibly know that.

 

[J.T.]

On 3/10/2020 at 3:17 PM, Technico Support said:

That's where I live (and work)!  Not too worried yet.  But I'm wondering if my company will press the "everybody stay home" button, as we're already doing the prep work for that.

Stay safe, man.