The Coronavirus Thread

The stores are empty of nearly everything in Redwood City area. My dog eats raw chicken wings twice a day and I could not find anything close including San Jose. I had to buy *gasp* dog food. Mos Def First World Problems but it is a complete change of her metabolism and detox to get back off the dog food. This is one Hype Train I am on against my will.

 

supply/product generally is not an issue with a few exceptions. at this point it is just playing catch up. warehouses can't physically pick the number of cases to fill enough trailers in the short term but should not have a problem catching up in the short term.

when it gets to the store, the store crews have their work cut out for them. their number of trailers delivering now are 2-4x normal. you will see a lot of stocking throughout the day to again, catch up in the short term.

the cycle of filling and quickly running out on the mainstays is probably going to be typical for at least a week or two.

 

yeah, some of it is understandable. short term stocking up to limit trips while community spread curves flattens a bit makes sense to me (especially if you have an at risk person in the house).

unfortunately, soccer mom now is being driven to panic thru social media and otherwise is depleting shelves and filling the pantry like she won't be able to go again for six months.

 

Meanwhile, here people keep believing ordinances don't apply to them because they're too clever for bad things to happen to them, that's is basically italy in a nutshell - my dad calls it "the land of the clever" and he doesn't mean it as a compliment

The other day we had people just hanging out at the little beach here in the town proper, one dude just sitting outdoors in Genova because he was "bored of staying at home".


Of course you get the same thing elsewhere, but this is a deep-seated personal belief in their mental superiority - a whole country where everyone is utterly convinced of exclusive and innate talent for "big brain moves".

Usually its amusing, right now it's making me reconsider my stance on re-education camps.

 

A friend of mine is in supply chain at a large regional grocer and says she's a little surprised at the persistence of the panic buyers. She thought they'd have caught up to it by now. Believes it should resolve in the next 7-10 days as far as food is concerned. Supply not an issue. Not sure about cleaning supplies or TP. They don't sell bidets yet.

 

Quite interesting...

 

The problem about covid is not its lethality, but its countagiousness: while only a small percentage develops symptoms severe enough to require hospitalisation, the sheer number of infected could be so high that even a small percentage would be too much for the medical system to handle

 

Americans gave up freedom a long time ago for security. Also, laziness.

 

Here is a source for somewhat real time data:
https://infection2020.com/

 

People didn't panic in Italy at the start, now look at them.

Better be safe & caution as soon as possible, then be fucked later on by being lax.

 

Just take a look at the numbers of thee countries where the curve of new infections is now essentially flat, new infection rate is dropping rapidly. Yes even Italy is getting there or is increasing at a minimal rate:
81,058 China
27,980 Italy
8,320 Korea, South
Taiwan, Japan, Singapore are in the same group. And here are the graphs (orange China, yellow the rest, green people who recovered). The database is from Johns Hopkins and publicly available..


Use a calculator and the population numbers from Huvei province 60mln (Wuhan), and South Korea - 51 mln. The infection levels in the most affected countries, where the # of new infections is already dropping, are in the range of 0.1% to 0.15% ? So how do you propose we arrive at those high infection rates, according to some politicians 30% 70%, short of going door to door and giving everyone a shot of CV? Or just being totally stupid and not taking any precautions.

Of course we should avoid crowding, unnecessary physical contact, use Clorox on your steering wheel, handlebars, keyboards, wash hands, clean the washrooms more frequently etc...And quarantine is essential. But to shut down the country because we all may get infected is stupid.

Good example of people with smaller egos, bigger brains, the key to survival.

My neighbor Mike who is 79 may be right saying that people are buying so much of toilet paper because they are full of crap.

 

My partner tested positive yesterday after a week of low-level symptoms. Returned from an int’l conference in NYC on March 6 where 20 cases and growing were reported. The most fucked up characteristics of the virus are long incubation period, a broader symptom profile than advertised, and asymptomatic transmission. That coupled with good ol’ fashioned denial and stupidly inadequate testing capacity. The U.S. doesn’t even know how far behind it is tracking this. Currently, I’m asymptomatic but that doesn’t mean anything—except that I can’t get tested. So useless.

Anyway, I’m up in Santa Cruz, CA, where the county just ordered us to shelter in place.

It’s quite real in case anyone is still wondering.

 

I agree that over-preparing onself is a far better approach to life than being caught with your pants down when you need to run, but the degree of over-done also shouldn't go so far as to impinge on the security or sustainability of others.

Besides concern for Italian Friends, there are also other people there that I care for and worry about great deal. Things for them seem relatively calm which I am thankful for, but yes international perspective of how things are there is rather poor.

^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Here's another great collection of 20+ dashboards and visualizers: https://avatorl.org/covid-19/





Stores here are largely restocked, FYI.

We'll get through this, but don't take it lightly.

 

I'm currently still coming into work for laboratory stuff, but I'm getting the feeling that I need to wrap this up and go home. Unfortunately, clients still expect results at this time.... even if they've moved the meetings to teleconferences.

There's a bad balance of the masses panicking, workplaces trying (a little halfheartedly) to protect people, and the elites expecting things to go on as usual without much consideration. Not sure what the hell I'm supposed to be doing or who I should be taking cues from.

There are far too many sources of information. It's like asking for a drink and getting a bucket dumped on your head. Even if you factor out the blatant misinformation, bad actors with political agendas, sensationalist tabloid trash, and obvious idiots, it's still nontrivial to figure out what news to pay attention to vs. what stuff is reasonable sounding bullshit.