COVID-19/Coronavirus: Away From The World

[jeff1818]

Originally Posted by mario [Only registered users can see links.] that you can't have a functioning economy in the middle of a pandemic: Jobless claims in the first full week of January spiked to seasonally adjusted 965,000, a 23 percent increase from the previous week, and the highest weekly amount since August. Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick called the increase in new claims "shocking," and also linked it to the slow progress in fighting the pandemic.

those jumps might be partially artificial. some people had benefits run out and then with the extension, they are back on.

[mario]

Originally Posted by jeff1818 those jumps might be partially artificial. some people had benefits run out and then with the extension, they are back on.

That would make the drops in December artificial and these real.

[Mersh]

Originally Posted by Jack I believe the length of immunity results from the severity of the initial infection, no? The higher the viral load, the longer the immunity. I would think the big problem with that headline is dumb anti vaxers will read thst and conflate it with length of immunity from the vaccine. Then say they won’t put their body at risk for 6 mos immunity and take the shot 2x per year.

I am not taking issue with Josh’s criticism here because I see the validity of it, but anti-vax folks aren’t going to impacted by this IMO. If it wasn’t this it would be something else with those people.

[mario]

I just finished submitting my application for PPP Round 2. Because PNC didn't fucking care about me in Round 1 since I'm so small, I had wound up getting the first PPP at a smaller bank.

They're small enough they fit into the initial "community bank rollout" before the big banks get a bite at the Round 2 apple.

My bank set up an online portal and it took about ten minutes total to apply because it pre-loaded all the info from my Round 1 application.

We'll see how the submission process goes this time around. But I got a loan ID number of 00000012 so I think I was legit the 12th application, hopefully in before the crush.

[mario]

[Only registered users can see links.]

December retail sales fell 0.7 percent, adding to the growing list of data points showing the economic recovery stalling or even slipping into reverse.

Economists had expected sales to be flat through the holiday seasons.

The figure for November's sales was also revised downward to a 1.4 percent drop, down from an earlier estimate of 1.1 percent.

[Josh.0]

Don’t worry, Biden can shut it down Wednesday. And he must as it’s the only right thing to do, right?

[Mersh]

[Only registered users can see links.]

Hope this doesn't cause problems for people waiting on second doses and more widespread availability going forward.

[mario]

Originally Posted by Mersh [Only registered users can see links.] Hope this doesn't cause problems for people waiting on second doses and more widespread availability going forward.

When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar [Only registered users can see links.] that the federal government would begin releasing [Only registered users can see links.] vaccine doses held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans.

They ought to be impeached for this. An absolute disregard for the people of this country and a consistent pattern of lying about it.


So it turns out we're not going to be ramping up the 2 million vaccinations a week anytime soon.






Not even 10 million in a month. That's a 3 year pace.

[Josh.0]

@Tomacco

The analysis suggests that in five hard-hit states and New York City there were 8,300 more deaths from heart problems than would have been typical in March, April and May — an increase of roughly 27 percent over historical averages. That spike contributed to Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York state and the city having a combined 75,000 “excess deaths” during that period, 17,000 more than the number officially attributed to covid-19, the disease the virus causes.

That’s just in five states, in three months, and just heart disease.

8,300.

Over a full year that’s 33,000. In just five states. California, Texas, Florida, etc., most of our largest states, aren’t even factored in there. Now do that math over 50 states and realize we’re just talking about heart disease. We’re not covering cancer, stroke, diabetes, suicide, drug overdoses.

[Only registered users can see links.]

My sister’s neighbor/friend died of a heart attack two weeks ago. She was afraid to go to the hospital apparently and ignored symptoms. She was in her 50’s.

I’m not downplaying COVID. I currently have it and it’s not fun. But far more will die from the collateral affect of lockdowns, media panic, and poor messaging than the novel virus itself.

[jeff1818]

Fear is very real. If I were suffering a heart attack, I would go to the hospital, but I would be scared out of my mind thinking that everyone has it and now I'm going to get it. Luckily I'm a healthy guy and can forego regular checkups until I take the vaccine.

[mario]

Originally Posted by mario I just finished submitting my application for PPP Round 2. Because PNC didn't fucking care about me in Round 1 since I'm so small, I had wound up getting the first PPP at a smaller bank. They're small enough they fit into the initial "community bank rollout" before the big banks get a bite at the Round 2 apple. My bank set up an online portal and it took about ten minutes total to apply because it pre-loaded all the info from my Round 1 application. We'll see how the submission process goes this time around. But I got a loan ID number of 00000012 so I think I was legit the 12th application, hopefully in before the crush.

My Round 2 application was sent to the SBA today, we'll see how long they take to approve.

[mario]

[Only registered users can see links.] , hopefully they'll be punished and more people will learn the lesson before they get their employees sick.

On April 2, Brian Barker’s supervisors at the Original Philly Cheesesteak Co. plant in North Philadelphia handed him an electronic thermometer. He was ordered to scan the temperatures of his fellow employees as they arrived for work.

For Barker, 61, of Northeast Philadelphia, it would be his last day on the job.

The next day, plant owner Tyson Foods temporarily closed the 250-employee facility because of COVID-19. Barker was diagnosed with COVID-19 on April 7. And by April 23, he was dead from the virus. “He said goodbye to his family on Zoom,” said his family’s lawyer, Jeffrey Goodman.

His coworkers learned of Barker’s death several days later. Tyson did not inform his teammates that their supervisor had died of the virus, Goodman said.

Now, his widow has filed a wrongful death suit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. It alleges that Tyson “inexplicably failed to take proper safety precautions to protect workers.”

The suit last month is the second COVID-related wrongful death case to be brought by the Philadelphia law firm of [Only registered users can see links.] . In May, its lawyers filed on behalf of a 70-year-old union steward who allegedly contracted the virus while working at a different slaughterhouse in Bucks County. Another suit, targeting a third meat processing giant, is imminent, Goodman said.

[...]Business groups and conservatives predict a tidal wave of COVID-related lawsuits that they say will wreak havoc on industries...

[celluloid hero]

Originally Posted by Josh.0 @Tomacco That’s just in five states, in three months, and just heart disease. 8,300. Over a full year that’s 33,000. In just five states. California, Texas, Florida, etc., most of our largest states, aren’t even factored in there. Now do that math over 50 states and realize we’re just talking about heart disease. We’re not covering cancer, stroke, diabetes, suicide, drug overdoses. [Only registered users can see links.] My sister’s neighbor/friend died of a heart attack two weeks ago. She was afraid to go to the hospital apparently and ignored symptoms. She was in her 50’s. I’m not downplaying COVID. I currently have it and it’s not fun. But far more will die from the collateral affect of lockdowns, media panic, and poor messaging than the novel virus itself.

But fewer lockdowns = generally more people in the hospital for Covid and fewer ability to help those with other crisis problems like you mentioned.

If it was as easy as "oh just do this..." it would be done.

[Josh.0]

But we’re not actually seeing proof of that. Social distancing and (maybe) masking helps, some travel restrictions, but lockdowns (as in forcing people to stay home) don’t bear out, they’re leading to more inter-household and community spread within places like nursing homes. This is an aerosolized virus, it travels around in rooms and remains floating in the air for lengths of time we haven’t fully figured out or understood yet. That means apartment buildings, condos, elderly homes, etc. can’t escape it and trapping people inside may have the opposite of the intended effect.

The people that benefit the most from lockdowns may be two-person households where both people can work from home and where they have their own private lot and backyard. But the reality is that’s a privileged lifestyle not shared by many, maybe even most, of Americans.

Look at California. Completely locked down, has been forever. Among the highest infection rates in the country.

Newsweek, actually, just released an article outlining a study done by Stanford researches that came to this same conclusion: lockdowns don’t really do much to help.

Four of my best friends in CO got COVID. All four are hardcore liberal folks that stayed home as much as possible (one even broke her ankle months ago, effectively forcing her to stay home). They still all managed to get it, probably because they live in apartment buildings/condominiums. One is like Super Liberal Lockdown Everything Guy that writes for The Post and he got it too, and literally no one I know on planet earth has been more cautious than him.

[Tomacco]

I dunno, I’m conflicted. I mean, you yourself picked up COVID somewhere, which wouldn’t have happened if you were in a proper lockdown and stayed home. Social distancing and masks didn’t seem to work for you.

I think the issue with lockdowns is the same issue as JUST SAY NO and abstinence campaigns, they ignore human nature. They’re not realistic. People are going to take risks, and finger-wagging cold turkey solutions at them isn’t going to work all the time. Then again, what else can you do? When you relax the rules, people won’t take it seriously and more people will get the virus.

We’re in a lose-lose situation at this point. The warnings and projections are hard to even care about anymore because how much bad grim news can we take for this long? We all have lockdown fatigue by now, and after all the effort most of us have put into this the past year, things seem worse than ever.

[Josh.0]

Originally Posted by Tomacco I dunno, I’m conflicted. I mean, you yourself picked up COVID somewhere, which wouldn’t have happened if you were in a proper lockdown and stayed home. Social distancing and masks didn’t seem to work for you. I think the issue with lockdowns is the same issue as JUST SAY NO and abstinence campaigns, they ignore human nature. They’re not realistic. People are going to take risks, and finger-wagging cold turkey solutions at them isn’t going to work all the time. Then again, what else can you do? When you relax the rules, people won’t take it seriously and more people will get the virus. We’re in a lose-lose situation at this point. The warnings and projections are hard to even care about anymore because how much bad grim news can we take for this long? We all have lockdown fatigue by now, and after all the effort most of us have put into this the past year, things seem worse than ever.

Yeah, I dunno. It’s weird.

One thing I should mention that I didn’t the other day is that I live in a very large multi-unit complex, and I could have gotten it from anyone here. It may have traveled through vents, I have no idea. Someone with COVID may have just walked out of a hallway right before I walked into it. It may have happened when I got my mail. I share a building with probably 100 people.

In most cities that’s how the majority of the population within the city limits lives.

Trust me, this is not fun, don’t get me wrong, but I still firmly believe outside of social distancing and masking, and quarantining the elderly/high risk, there’s little more we can do short of a vaccine. People need to eat, they need to pay their bills. They need to feed their kids and keep the family’s health insurance intact. The world doesn’t stop for anyone.

[zaphod!]

its a shitty thing, because we know for a scientific fact that if you did an absolute lock down and eliminated all human interaction for like two weeks, the virus would almost certainly die out (unless it found some reservoir that we can't control).

but since we need some minimal interaction for absolute necessities, and since we know we all have significant factions in our populations that either don't believe in the virus, or that the government is using this virus to control us or some shit, then these lockdowns are not going to be as efficient.

but are they better than just letting everyone do whatever they want? if you look here in quebec, we've gone into total lockdown with curfew about a week and a half ago. in the past few days, the numbers of new infections and the test positivity % has gone noticeably down in the past few days. so, its not doing nothing.

i suppose we're just in "flatten the curve" mode until the vaccine rollout is done.

[mario]

Originally Posted by mario I just finished submitting my application for PPP Round 2. Because PNC didn't fucking care about me in Round 1 since I'm so small, I had wound up getting the first PPP at a smaller bank. They're small enough they fit into the initial "community bank rollout" before the big banks get a bite at the Round 2 apple. My bank set up an online portal and it took about ten minutes total to apply because it pre-loaded all the info from my Round 1 application. We'll see how the submission process goes this time around. But I got a loan ID number of 00000012 so I think I was legit the 12th application, hopefully in before the crush.

Originally Posted by mario My Round 2 application was sent to the SBA today, we'll see how long they take to approve.

SBA approval came through this morning at 8am

[Josh.0]

Well thank God.

[Mersh]

My county is only getting 1/4 of their expected allotment of vaccine. A county over they are cancelling appointments because of lack of supply. I hope we figure this out.