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

  • Thread starter baldgye
  • 13,265 comments
  • 622,216 views
MedigoFlame
They did earlier during the outbreak, they provided disinfectant, hand sanitizer, and gloves. Now that we're opening our showrooms, we were given masks. But I just feel like it's not enough, considering how not every customer will treat the guidelines the same way. They did daily updates at the beginning, but went silent for a while. Not like the updates really did much good as all it did was brag that we were still employed and that no one in the company was infected.
Click to expand...
That's the one big problem for me. As individuals, we can be sensible and observe the precautions advised but we will all come into contact with people who may be taking no precautions at all.
 
MedigoFlame
On the other hand, my friend who works at the dealership I worked before was told (after taking time off) that if he didn't return they would consider it a "resignation" and he would lose unemployment. Kind of glad I was laid off from that dealership as they couldn't care less about their employees compared to the current one I work at.
Click to expand...
Many have theories/conspiracies (depending how strongly you want to view it) that is why the states are allowing businesses to open up; if people don't feel safe returning to work & don't, they're seen as "quitting" and therefore, are no longer eligible for unemployment. The theory here is that it eases up the state's unemployment burden by "dumping" off people whose jobs re-opened.
It feels more messed up when we had protests about people wanting businesses to open up for their non-essential "needs." Seeing signs like "I want a haircut" disgusts me, especially thinking how these people want to put those who don't want to be at risk to do so for their sake... Some say it's restarting the economy, but I feel like people who want their hair salon reopened just want it because they feel inconvenienced. They're not asking to go back to work, they're demanding that others work so they can live a "normal" life again.
Click to expand...
A lot of these people are just whack-jobs who don't think this virus is serious, that it's still "the common flu". They like to argue how the hospitals aren't over taxed, that the original models were all wrong, or that the deaths are being propped up. None of them grasp the correlation that the precautions they're protesting against caused those arguments to become true in the first place, all while they go, "See! Told ya this was nothing!"
 
I'm certainly not trying to make excuses for the UK Government, but it isn't particularly instructive to make too many comparisons at this stage, and especially not with highly selective data.

What would/will be unforgivable, however, would be if the UK (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't learn from this first phase and continues to ignore or fail to implement the best practices is can... that means we must up our game on testing and PPE for key workers at a bare minimum.
 
PzR Slim
South Korea confirms you can't catch the virus twice. In fact, they go so far as to say it's 'impossible' for it to be reactivated. Great news.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-scientists-conclude-people-cannot-be-infected-twice-11981721
Click to expand...
It could be a great news, yes. But we stil have 99% of the people that didn't got infected yet. Ok, 99 may be unrealistic since not everyone got tested. What I am trying to say is even if Korea is virus free today they are still in danger. They are still far away from the herd immunity.
 
PzR Slim
and it's looking more likely that Sweden has got it wrong
Click to expand...
Too early to say. If the crisis ends in a month, then yes. If it last for two years, then the economy might fare better even if it will be paid for in lives. I am not saying that money matters more than life but in the long run we need to have the economy running, even if stuff will be different.
 
RacingGrandpa
Too early to say. If the crisis ends in a month, then yes. If it last for two years, then the economy might fare better even if it will be paid for in lives. I am not saying that money matters more than life but in the long run we need to have the economy running, even if stuff will be different.
Click to expand...
Well, there is one way to completely destroy the virus, but this would be on the same wavelength as saying death is a side effect of taking a pharmaceutical.
 
McLaren
A lot of these people are just whack-jobs who don't think this virus is serious, that it's still "the common flu". They like to argue how the hospitals aren't over taxed, that the original models were all wrong, or that the deaths are being propped up. None of them grasp the correlation that the precautions they're protesting against caused those arguments to become true in the first place, all while they go, "See! Told ya this was nothing!"
Click to expand...

EXACTLY!! That's what irritates me so much about these protests. The reason the hospitals aren't full now with coronavirus patients and there isn't deaths in the hundreds of thousands in the US like was predicted could possibly happen in the beginning is because these measures were taken when they were.
 
PzR Slim
South Korea confirms you can't catch the virus twice. In fact, they go so far as to say it's 'impossible' for it to be reactivated. Great news.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-scientists-conclude-people-cannot-be-infected-twice-11981721
Click to expand...
This article is basically the same as one I linked to yesterday, but Sky have got their headline horribly wrong.

The point is that people who are testing positive 'again' are actually false positives, and that this is not evidence of second infections.

The conclusion that this means it is "impossible" for people to be infected twice is absolute nonsense though... it only means that people who have tested positive for a second time (after being infected and cleared of the infection once) is most likely an artefact of testing... but that's a far cry from saying that people cannot be infected again.

That said, it is good news, and it is possible that it really does mean that people can't get infected twice... but the evidence of that is still not available.

The problem was that these supposed second infections were being seen as evidence that antibodies raised by a first infection were not sufficient to prevent a second infection, thus calling into question the entire hypothesis of herd immunity (and, by extension, the possible usefulness of a vaccine)... these results suggest that this worry is (hopefully) misplaced, but it does not mean that people cannot possibly be infected twice.
 
Touring Mars
I'm certainly not trying to make excuses for the UK Government, but it isn't particularly instructive to make too many comparisons at this stage, and especially not with highly selective data.

What would/will be unforgivable, however, would be if the UK (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't learn from this first phase and continues to ignore or fail to implement the best practices is can... that means we must up our game on testing and PPE for key workers at a bare minimum.
Click to expand...

As far as I can see, there's no clear indication that the infections & deaths in the UK have peaked & are going down. It seems likely that the UK will end up surpassing Spain & Italy in per capita Covid-19 infections & deaths.
 
Biggles
As far as I can see, there's no clear indication that the infections & deaths in the UK have peaked & are going down. It seems likely that the UK will end up surpassing Spain & Italy in per capita Covid-19 infections & deaths.
Click to expand...
Cases in the UK have not 'peaked', but the numbers of cases being reported is a difficult thing to assess without context. The UK is massively (albeit somewhat belatedly) ramping up testing, which means more cases are being detected, which is starting to buck the otherwise downward trend.

The point is though that the UK is in the same situation as every other country on Earth - we just have to do what we can, and there's no real merit in comparisons at this stage, other than to see what appears to be working best in other countries.
 
Touring Mars
This article is basically the same as one I linked to yesterday, but Sky have got their headline horribly wrong.

The point is that people who are testing positive 'again' are actually false positives, and that this is not evidence of second infections.

The conclusion that this means it is "impossible" for people to be infected twice is absolute nonsense though... it only means that people who have tested positive for a second time (after being infected and cleared of the infection once) is most likely an artefact of testing... but that's a far cry from saying that people cannot be infected again.

That said, it is good news, and it is possible that it really does mean that people can't get infected twice... but the evidence of that is still not available.

The problem was that these supposed second infections were being seen as evidence that antibodies raised by a first infection were not sufficient to prevent a second infection, thus calling into question the entire hypothesis of herd immunity (and, by extension, the possible usefulness of a vaccine)... these results suggest that this worry is (hopefully) misplaced, but it does not mean that people cannot possibly be infected twice.
Click to expand...
I remember reading something that a bunch of scientists had agreed a second-infection seemed extremely unlikely, & that your immune system would have to be severely compromised to let a second infection happen so quickly after the first.


Edit* Damn, another record high today for us at 187. Wonder if this is signs of a peak or we're starting to see the real seriousness of this infection. :indiff:
 
Last edited:
Apparently my work is laying off around 100 people permanently. They called a bunch of people today to let them know, not sure if they are calling anyone else next week. They called a few guys on my crew this morning but I haven’t received a call yet.

I’m a nervous wreck right now. This is my 11th year at this mine site.

edit: the story is they are restructuring because of the virus. Meanwhile they are bringing people from other sites to replace the ones they laid off at ours.
 
Last edited:
One question that's been burning in my mind is how long is this going to play out in a broader sense. We'll never be really over this until everyone is over it.

Lets take just California for instance. Knock on wood, we've had a decent response and the spread of Covid has been fairly limited considering the size of the state. Let's game this out. Say we stay locked in until new cases go down to zero. Great, we beat Covid-19! Awesome. But what if another state still has a raging outbreak? Can we realistically shut the state borders to prevent another recurrence? It doesn't seem feasible. On a global scale, how long is it going to take for a country like South Korea, which has largely overcome the virus, to feel comfortable enough to let Americans in? It could be years based on how badly the US has fumbled! I could see pockets of Covid lingering in the 'States basically indefinitely. Will Americans, in particular, be subject to mandatory quarantines when traveling abroad for the foreseeable future?

I guess the answer to all of this is extremely rigorous testing infrastructure and active field teams that can quickly tamp down outbreaks without locking down huge swaths of people.

Man. This sucks.
 
This document might have been posted a few pages back, but I just learned my state is using this system's data as a factor in determining what counties get to loosen restrictions and which ones stay locked down based on how much "unnecessary movement there is". If this isn't a voluntary violation of civil liberties, I don't know what is.
https://www.mitre.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Presentation-HIMSS20-Sara-Alert-P.Jarris.pdf

Excerpt from the government's site:

"The department will also examine Bluetooth proximity exposure notification technology that does not use GPS navigation data. It is a voluntary, opt-in application which tracks other anonymous Bluetooth enabled smartphones that have been within a critical range/time (for example: within 10 feet for more than 10 minutes), and will send an alert to other iOS or Android phones if a positive COVID-19 case (who has voluntarily uploaded their COVID-19 positive status into this system) was captured in that critical range. The technology maintains the anonymity of all users. When fully developed, this technology will have the capability to alert exposed individuals with instructions such as self-quarantine, testing and other next steps."

I'm not trying to sound conspiratorial here, but this to me is like 9/11 and the patriot act all over again. This system is just ripe for abuse longer term.
 
McLaren
I remember reading something that a bunch of scientists had agreed a second-infection seemed extremely unlikely, & that your immune system would have to be severely compromised to let a second infection happen so quickly after the first.
Click to expand...
It would seem unlikely, but what is also known is that the immune response to any particular virus is different. It ought to be the case that the immune system will produce effective antibodies against a novel virus that provides immunity to a person against that virus... but it isn't known for how long this immunity lasts. So it could well be the case that people who have had SARS-CoV-2 infections are unlikely to get re-infected now (hence those who have tested positive again are very likely false positives) but there is no guarantee that immunity lasts forever.

McLaren
Edit* Damn, another record high today for us at 187. Wonder if this is signs of a peak or we're starting to see the real seriousness of this infection. :indiff:
Click to expand...
Trump (among others) have played into the narrative that this virus will naturally 'fade away' i.e. that it will peak naturally before spontaneously disappearing. This is true, but only if there were no interventions against it... and the peak would be utterly enormous and devastating. No country on Earth is doing nothing about it - even those countries who have 'no lockdown' still have made serious interventions (widespread/mandatory testing, quarantining, PPE use, social distancing etc.).

This being the case, the concept of a single, clearly defined 'peak' must be dispensed with. At the very least, we are talking about a peak, or the first peak... and if interventions (such as social distancing) are abandoned, then you will certainly get a second wave - and if that second wave overlaps with the first, then you will not see that first peak, because it will eventually end up looking like a mere bump in the rising edge of the new peak.

Those who have demonised the interventions as more dangerous as the disease could well be in for a horrible shock. Yes, some of these interventions are very costly - and some will even cost lives, not to mention the potentially ruinous economic cost to millions of people too. But the virus is bad - and IMHO we are still not at the point where the costs of intervention outweigh the cost of the disease.

Eunos_Cosmo
One question that's been burning in my mind is how long is this going to play out in a broader sense. We'll never be really over this until everyone is over it.

Lets take just California for instance. Knock on wood, we've had a decent response and the spread of Covid has been fairly limited considering the size of the state. Let's game this out. Say we stay locked in until new cases go down to zero. Great, we beat Covid-19! Awesome. But what if another state still has a raging outbreak? Can we realistically shut the state borders to prevent another recurrence? It doesn't seem feasible. On a global scale, how long is it going to take for a country like South Korea, which has largely overcome the virus, to feel comfortable enough to let Americans in? It could be years based on how badly the US has fumbled! I could see pockets of Covid lingering in the 'States basically indefinitely. Will Americans, in particular, be subject to mandatory quarantines when traveling abroad for the foreseeable future?

I guess the answer to all of this is extremely rigorous testing infrastructure and active field teams that can quickly tamp down outbreaks without locking down huge swaths of people.

Man. This sucks.
Click to expand...
Exactly. This is why the eradication strategy is problematic - it is going to be very costly (and almost physically impossible) to maintain for any great length of time. The hope is that a vaccine or successful treatment is developed during that time, but this too could be some time away.

What countries like SK, Australia and NZ have shown, however, is that it is possible to put the genie back in the bottle without resorting to Draconian measures - but they have required an extremely well coordinated and robust response, and they will need to keep doing it indefinitely... and that won't be easy. But, the more countries/states who achieve a similar result, the quicker they can return to something like normal.

I reckon it will be much more problematic for states who cannot get on top of outbreaks, and who end up being shunned from international travel etc while other countries re-open their borders to each other. As said before though, I'm not sure how some places (like the USA, Europe's Schegen zone, and the UK) can have different rules for different areas without the political or physical means to prevent cross contamination.
 
Touring Mars
What countries like SK, Australia and NZ have shown, however, is that it is possible to put the genie back in the bottle without resorting to Draconian measures - but they have required an extremely well coordinated and robust response, and they will need to keep doing it indefinitely... and that won't be easy. But, the more countries/states who achieve a similar result, the quicker they can return to something like normal.

I reckon it will be much more problematic for states who cannot get on top of outbreaks, and who end up being shunned from international travel etc while other countries re-open their borders to each other. As said before though, I'm not sure how some places (like the USA, Europe's Schegen zone, and the UK) can have different rules for different areas without the political or physical means to prevent cross contamination.
Click to expand...
We're already starting to see plans being made for air travel between several states to be allowed with no quarantine period restrictions. Northern Territory (25 days with no new cases), South Australia (10 days) and Western Australia (3 days) will be fairly easy to open up to each other as we're all central and western states. There's also a chance of flights to Auckland being allowed.

https://7news.com.au/travel/coronav...potential-international-travel-hubs-c-1008979

I think it's still going to be a long time before we can even open up to the far more densely populated eastern states. They're having a much more difficult time of it than us unfortunately, and are only just starting to be able to tentatively ease some of their restrictions back towards what we have (we only got to level three restrictions in the central and western regions while the whole of the eastern seaboard was on a much stricter level four).
 
There is great scope for criticism of the UK's handling of covid. In particular, Great Britain doesn't seem to have used its natural advantage of being an island as well as it could and should have.
 
Touring Mars
Cases in the UK have not 'peaked', but the numbers of cases being reported is a difficult thing to assess without context. The UK is massively (albeit somewhat belatedly) ramping up testing, which means more cases are being detected, which is starting to buck the otherwise downward trend.

The point is though that the UK is in the same situation as every other country on Earth - we just have to do what we can, and there's no real merit in comparisons at this stage, other than to see what appears to be working best in other countries.
Click to expand...

Comparisons, if they could be realistically made from one country/jurisdiction to another, would be key to understanding the virus & how to limit its spread, so being able to trust the stats would be very helpful. One of things that sticks out in my mind is how perfectly statistically symmetrical & measured the progress of the virus has been in Italy (& to a slightly lesser extent) Spain - as recorded. And Italy & Spain have been the countries that have been at the forefront in the outbreak as it effects the "West", so a lot of attention has been paid to what has been happening there. The progress of the virus (as recorded) seems to have been been far less predictable in every other country.
 
Liquid
There is great scope for criticism of the UK's handling of covid. In particular, Great Britain doesn't seem to have used its natural advantage of being an island as well as it could and should have.
Click to expand...

but at least the UK isn't such disgrace as Sweden which is like second China in their Covid deaths counting. Sweden is basicaly letting most vulnerable people die without treating them in ICU's or testing them, so they never show up in statistics.

https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/22/sweden-s-coronavirus-strategy-right-or-wrong

"We have good treatment statistics in our intensive care units (ICUs). However, that is probably because we only admit those to ICU who have a good chance of surviving,” he said.

“The mean age of those who have died is 20 years higher than the mean age of those treated in ICUs,” he said.

summary from Angry Foreigner
 
I just totaled up my bills and payments from the month of April. Total gas expenses $0.

That hasn't happened for a month in the entire time I've been tracking that expense... since 2006.
 
Depends where you are but it's definitely around $2/gallon. The lowest I've seen around me is 1.99 but there's also 2.15. Before this in January it was around $2.60-2.75
 
Might be interesting to some.

Ru2gWIY.png
 

Similar threads

Famine
  • Locked
PSN outage/restoration - latest news from PS Blog
Replies
0
Views
10K
Famine
Famine
amar212
Pre-release GT5:Prologue Thread Firmware 2.17 mandatory for GT5:P? (and Pictures)
106 107 108
Replies
3K
Views
383K
Beerz
Beerz
Sauc3
The reasons why Bush's government is corrupt
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
Solid Fro
Solid Fro

Latest Posts

Back