COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

[McLaren]

Lol common guys, it creates lots more problems on so many levels than it could ever help, if ever it did any.. Modern society of alcoholics or what? Jeez

Legal reason?
"The most obvious explanation may be that liquor falls under the category of food and agriculture. This category includes groceries, pharmacies, convenience stores, and other retailers that sell human food, animal or pet food, and beverage products. Restaurants with carryout or delivery service fall into this category as well. Liquor stores obviously sell beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. They often also sell snack foods. Many states allow convenience stores to sell alcohol. Mystery solved."

Possible reason?
"I suspect the most relevant reason liquor stores are included as “essential businesses” is the long shadow Prohibition still casts. While the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was a federal decision, more than 30 states had enacted their own Prohibition by the time the Amendment went into effect in 1920. Prohibition ended in 1933 and is regarded by many as a catastrophic mistake that caused more deaths and harms than if the government had taken no action. Prohibition caused far too many toxic home and other bootleg brews to be sold or traded in an extensive black market."
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...03/why-are-liquor-stores-essential-businesses

 

[Jtheripper]

Access to alcohol doesn't create alcoholics.

But it discovers, starts up and maintains them on and on. And alcohol doesn't just create problems and incidents if your alcoholic im pretty sure.

Legal reason?
"The most obvious explanation may be that liquor falls under the category of food and agriculture. This category includes groceries, pharmacies, convenience stores, and other retailers that sell human food, animal or pet food, and beverage products. Restaurants with carryout or delivery service fall into this category as well. Liquor stores obviously sell beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. They often also sell snack foods. Many states allow convenience stores to sell alcohol. Mystery solved."

Possible reason?
"I suspect the most relevant reason liquor stores are included as “essential businesses” is the long shadow Prohibition still casts. While the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was a federal decision, more than 30 states had enacted their own Prohibition by the time the Amendment went into effect in 1920. Prohibition ended in 1933 and is regarded by many as a catastrophic mistake that caused more deaths and harms than if the government had taken no action. Prohibition caused far too many toxic home and other bootleg brews to be sold or traded in an extensive black market."
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...03/why-are-liquor-stores-essential-businesses

Yeah well goes to show how people can't stop themselves, that's one of the reasons there was cheaply made poison home brew that time too.

Unless it cures this covid19 virus, and Belarus president is right, looking at their stats of the infected there.

 

[TJ13]

Trump said we have more cases because we've been testing more.


Yet there are so many that are out there that don't have anything that have it and yet they still can't get tested.

 

[McLaren]

But it discovers, starts up and maintains them on and on. And alcohol doesn't just create problems and incidents if your alcoholic im pretty sure.

Yeah well goes to show how people can't stop themselves, that's one of the reasons there was cheaply made poison home brew that time too.

I have a feeling these 2 statements are bit contradictory to each other.

How does a liquor store "discover, start up, & maintain" an alcoholic if people can't stop themselves when liquor is banned?

 

[TexRex]

But it discovers, starts up and maintains them on and on. And alcohol doesn't just create problems and incidents if your alcoholic im pretty sure.

What?

 

[Jtheripper]

I have a feeling these 2 statements are bit contradictory to each other.

How does a liquor store "discover, start up, & maintain" an alcoholic if people can't stop themselves when liquor is banned?

Lol well i didn't say it will fix all to close them, and my reply was about the access to alcohol reply, which is a broader discussion, not specifically stores, ..which my 1st comment was about..,liquor stores being an essential service. Cheers.

 

[Jtheripper]

What?

Alcohol access itself...im out on this, not going to start argue on this lol on and on. Did say my 2 cents, ..to each his own..

 

[Danoff]

Lol common guys, it creates lots more problems on so many levels than it could ever help, if ever it did any.. Modern society of alcoholics or what? Jeez

I'm sure you can still buy cigarettes today too. And wine. And caffeine. And sugar.

There is absolutely no way that snickers are essential, but I'm sure you can buy it. Potato chips, french fries, ding dongs, cake, tortilla chips, coke...

Really the only thing grocery stores need to have is like... beans and rice. Maybe some vegetables.

 

[TexRex]

Alcohol access itself...im out on this, not going to start argue on this lol on and on. Did say my 2 cents, ..to each his own..

'Kay.

For the record, alcohol--and by extension the producers and purveyors of alcohol--exists because there are those with the desire to consume it. Not the other way around.

 

[DesertPenguin]

I'm sure you can still buy cigarettes today too. And wine. And caffeine. And sugar.

There is absolutely no way that snickers are essential, but I'm sure you can buy it. Potato chips, french fries, ding dongs, cake, tortilla chips, coke...

Really the only thing grocery stores need to have is like... beans and rice. Maybe some vegetables.

And toilet paper apparently

 

[FerrariF1GT]

@Jtheripper

Alcohol withdrawal is real and can be fatal, especially if one is going cold turkey. I’m guessing that liquor stores are open so that habitual drinkers aren’t accidentally going cold turkey. If someone wants to quit a drug, including alcohol, they should never go cold turkey.

 

[Jtheripper]

@Jtheripper

Alcohol withdrawal is real and can be fatal, especially if one is going cold turkey. I’m guessing that liquor stores are open so that habitual drinkers aren’t accidentally going cold turkey. If someone wants to quit a drug, including alcohol, they should never go cold turkey.

Or for the taxes it brings in.

 

[Chrunch Houston]

President Trump just extended the 15 day whatever this is until April 30th.

 

[Dotini]

President Trump just extended the 15 day whatever this is until April 30th.

In The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot says, "April is the cruelest month".

 

[Joey D]

Or for the taxes it brings in.

No, what @FerrariF1GT said is 100% true and why liquor stores are deemed essential businesses. Alcohol withdrawals can easily send someone to the hospital, which right now can't exactly treat those types of patients very well. I live in Utah, if they could find a way to shut the liquors stores down they would, but even our staunchly religious and anti-alcohol government understands we can't shut them. The liquor stores here are, however, limited to just 10 people inside of them at a time and are only open for a few hours six days a week. I had to wait in line for 45 minutes just to enter the store and most of the stuff was gone when I got in there.

 

[TenEightyOne]

President Trump just extended the 15 day whatever this is until April 30th.

Most of the world expects it to go on until nearer September/October, Trump really does have the best numbers!

 

[fortbo]

Most of the world expects it to go on until nearer September/October, Trump really does have the best numbers!

That would cripple our economy if we kept up with this until September/October. The idea of social distancing isn’t to wait around until the virus is gone it’s just to flatten the curve so the peak amount of infections does not overwhelm the healthcare system. Economic hardships can cause just as much problems as the corona virus so there does need to be a balance with this. Not trying to downplay it whatsoever but we do have to realize that we can’t keep this up forever.

 

[Biggles]

Has anyone come across a plausible explanation for what is going on in Germany? They have plenty of recorded coronavirus cases, but the mortality rate is at 6%, compared to Italy's which stands at 45%. Those figures are arrived at by tallying the number of people who have recovered from having the virus compared to the number of people who have died from it. It doesn't seem like that would be affected in a significant way by the amount of testing done - as I understand it (but I could be wrong) is it is based on the number of people who are considered serious or critical cases, not including people with mild symptoms. No other European country has as high mortality rate as Italy, but equally, no country has one as low as Germany. Spain & France come in at around 26%.

What the number of deaths is likely to be in the US (or the UK) over time would vary enormously depending on whether the mortality rate turns out to be more similar to Germany's, or Italy's.

 

[Joey D]

That would cripple our economy if we kept up with this until September/October. The idea of social distancing isn’t to wait around until the virus is gone it’s just to flatten the curve so the peak amount of infections does not overwhelm the healthcare system. Economic hardships can cause just as much problems as the corona virus so there does need to be a balance with this. Not trying to downplay it whatsoever but we do have to realize that we can’t keep this up forever.

May is probably going to be a make-or-break time for many people and businesses. With bills piling up, there's only so much you can do before you completely collapse. Thankfully, I'm still employed, but my wife isn't so lucky. If it wasn't for my income, I'm not sure we'd be able to remotely survive much longer than 60 days since that's about all the cash reserves we have. I feel for anyone that's going through a layoff right now and I continue to be very grateful I work in healthcare and my job probably isn't going anywhere.

 

[TexRex]

Also I am having longer and more interesting dreams.

 

[Ether]

May is probably going to be a make-or-break time for many people and businesses. With bills piling up, there's only so much you can do before you completely collapse.

There's been talk of a second stimulus bill if need be.

For my own mental health, I don't attempt to understand how how that cash flow works.

 

[Joey D]

There's been talk of a second stimulus bill if need be.

For my own mental health, I don't attempt to understand how how that cash flow works.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Basically. It's not really there until we spend it and put it back into "the economy", which is what the gov't is hoping for. Because saving the economy is more important right now than working on saving lives.

 

[twitcher]

The mayor of New York hasn’t had a great week

 

[TheGeologist]

Has anyone come across a plausible explanation for what is going on in Germany? They have plenty of recorded coronavirus cases, but the mortality rate is at 6%, compared to Italy's which stands at 45%.

Where are you reading Italy has a 45% mortality rate? That is absolutely not correct.

Italy's death toll is now the highest in the world at 10,023. Fatalities passed the grim milestone on Saturday, with an increase of 889 since the last figures were released on Friday, according to Italy's Civil Protection Agency.
With 92,472 confirmed cases, Italy appears to have the highest death rate on the planet. Compare it to China, the epicenter of the pandemic, which has a roughly similar number of confirmed cases at 81,997, but under a third as many deaths, at 3,299.

(10023/92472) * 100 = 10.83%
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/28/europe/italy-coronavirus-cases-surpass-china-intl/index.html

Basically. It's not really there until we spend it and put it back into "the economy", which is what the gov't is hoping for. Because saving the economy is more important right now than working on saving lives.

I will gladly welcome more money in my pocket, but I really don't understand how these payments will stimulate the economy. Those that have lost jobs will likely use it to pay essential bills.

Since I still have my job, I'll be putting the entire payment in my savings account in the event I later become unemployed.

 

[Ether]

(10023/92472) * 100 = 10.83%
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/28/europe/italy-coronavirus-cases-surpass-china-intl/index.html

Assuming China's numbers are truthful....which I'm betting they aren't. Could likely be on par with Italy is my guess.

 

[TheGeologist]

Assuming China's numbers are truthful....which I'm betting they aren't. Could likely be on par with Italy is my guess.

I don't believe China's numbers are legit either, but I see no reason to distrust Italy. Don't get me wrong, a 10% mortality rate is very high, but I can't see how it's 45%. That isn't right.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

The mayor of New York hasn’t had a great week

Typical run around answer from a politician. It would be a breath of fresh air for somebody to say: in hindsight we should have responded differently.

 

[Ether]

I don't believe China's numbers are legit either, but I see no reason to distrust Italy. Don't get me wrong, a 10% mortality rate is very high, but I can't see how it's 45%. That isn't right.

Yeah I agree with that aspect. I'd be curious to see how quickly new cases in Italy fall off. I think they took the virus head on (unintentionally) and will develop herd immunity the quickest. We'll find out.

 

[Northstar]

I will gladly welcome more money in my pocket, but I really don't understand how these payments will stimulate the economy. Those that have lost jobs will likely use it to pay essential bills.

Since I still have my job, I'll be putting the entire payment in my savings account in the event I later become unemployed.

The one time stimulus payment is on top of the $600/week boost to unemployment (which is in addition to whatever the state gives) so I'm guessing they hope it will be extra funds for people.

I'd imagine most people will be doing what you and I are doing and saving it though since it's really hard to spend money on frivolous things right now when everything seems up in the air.