Love in the Time of Coronavirus (#3)

[Ran]

28 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1238486721374777345?s=19

 

Beautiful. Makes me tear up, honestly. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

36 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Fake sports.

There’s nothing fake about MMA, and I’d also suggest you YouTube “Wrestling isn’t Wrestling.” Excellent short documentary that’s truly hilarious.

[Week]

13 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

There’s nothing fake about MMA, and I’d also suggest you YouTube “Wrestling isn’t Wrestling.” Excellent short documentary that’s truly hilarious.

MMA is a sport as much as Gladiator was a movie about athletics.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

13 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

There’s nothing fake about MMA, and I’d also suggest you YouTube “Wrestling isn’t Wrestling.” Excellent short documentary that’s truly hilarious.

As to MMA, fair enough.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

25 minutes ago, lessthanluke said:

I run my own gym and if we have to close for any significant length of time I'll be fucked.

Depends. Short term probably, long term not so much. Governments are going to have no choice but to eat A LOT of debt and start printing money. I think my country should send every non-essential person home and wire every household $2,000 per adult and $1,000 per kid. Would probably cost a trillion dollars, but it would be money well spent.

[Maltaran]

The UK has just postponed all the local elections due in May until next year (various councils plus several regional mayors, most notably the London mayoral election).

[Trebla]

FYI

 

[Mauvka]

Looks like Harvard may be moving to suspend research labs for next 6-8 weeks.  They are asking each PI to limit to 2-3 essential personnel.  

 

[RhaenysBee]

Well my isolation started I suppose. My sister left, she is traveling to my hometown. I’m trying to wait it out and see what happens in the upcoming days, possibly drop home for the vet business on Monday. 

update on that: the vet is apparently on holiday till Sunday, as it turns out. Lord knows where, but if he was anywhere abroad that’s cause for concern, he might self-quarantine and not open on Monday, so we will probably visit another vet. *facepalm*

meanwhile the government claims we will be facing awful economic consequences and the emergency period won’t be over in a couple weeks. They also claim we have the healthcare system resources to handle the number of cases that are statistically rational to expect and that financial aid won’t be an obstacle of saving human lives. I wonder how that will work, unless of course we count on some powerful friends in the east to bail us out. 

as far as my little life goes, I wouldn’t be surprised if my workplace didn’t make it through this crisis. 

[Fez]

29 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Depends. Short term probably, long term not so much. Governments are going to have no choice but to eat A LOT of debt and start printing money. I think my country should send every non-essential person home and wire every household $2,000 per adult and $1,000 per kid. Would probably cost a trillion dollars, but it would be money well spent.

So far, the Small Business Administration is offering loans of up to $2 million on terms of 30 years/3.75% for small businesses with no other options. Not helpful for businesses that are too large, but its something. I expect the size and terms of loans will get more generous in the coming weeks too.

As for cash to everybody. It's been talked about, but seems like a non-starter for now. It's not even known if the House coronavirus bill will get anywhere; and that only does the bare minimum, if that. Republicans are monsters.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 minutes ago, Fez said:

So far, the Small Business Administration is offering loans of up to $2 million on terms of 30 years/3.75% for small businesses with no other options. Not helpful for businesses that are too large, but its something. I expect the size and terms of loans will get more generous in the coming weeks too.

As for cash to everybody. It's been talked about, but seems like a non-starter for now. It's not even known if the House coronavirus bill will get anywhere; and that only does the bare minimum, if that. Republicans are monsters.

That could help really small businesses, but it’s nowhere near enough. And get that loan language out of here. They’re going to have to give away billions, maybe trillions, and just deal with it on the back end. We are still just seeing the beginning of the economic ripple. This is going to get so much worse.

[Fragile Bird]

Oh, about the clothes washing question. It was answered last night on the CNN town hall.

Just like with your hands, soap and water will kill any virus on your clothing, so wash them. The doctor answering the question pointed out that if you throw your clothes in the laundry hamper make sure the hamper liner can be taken out and washed, because you can transfer the germs to the liner.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

This is what the Orthodox Church in America is doing:

Dear Friends and Faithful of SJOTL,

The blessing of the Lord!

The public response to the COVID-19 virus and its unknown rate of infection around the world, as well as in our nation, is becoming more focused as monitoring cases of the respiratory disease it causes gains more of an observable history. The Orthodox Church in America had issued a preliminary statement on the outbreak of the virus (February 29). Our own Diocese of the South issued a statement from His Eminence, Archbishop Alexander, to the clergy on this on this past Tuesday (March 10).

There is growing concern that we should take measures to slow the rate of infection so that our hospitals and health specialists are not overwhelmed by a series of spikes in the infection rate. While not a desirable measure to advise, limiting contact with others (social distancing or self imposed quarantine) may be the best way to limit the spread of the virus.

While this is good advice for those who have any cold or flu symptoms, the present situation may prove to be one where voluntary social distancing could help slow the infection rate. Slowing the rate of infection will help our hospitals remain ahead of the rush for treatment that may be needed. The growing level of concern among disease control specialists has initiated another review of the circumstances and resulted in another statement from the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America. His Eminence, Archbishop Alexander, has amplified this somewhat with his own statement is linked here.

Therefore, at St. John of the Ladder Parish, in obedience to the request of our Archbishop, only the Sunday Divine Liturgy, the Vesperal Liturgy of the Feast of Annunciation, and the Presanctified Liturgies, will remain on our church calendar through March 29.

All other social or official gatherings of the parish are canceled. This includes Church School, ESL Class, and the Parish Council Meeting (although this may take place via conference call), as well as any other services that were on the calendar.

The liturgies that will be offered will be served with a minimum number of participants: ideally, the priest (and deacon), reader, altar server, two chanters (choir members), and a greeter. Those who are at greatest risk from infection are absolutely encouraged to practice self-isolation ("social distancing"), not just from parish life, but in day to day activities. Those who are actively showing symptoms of any respiratory illness should self-quarantine.

For those who do attend any service, we ask the following: please wash your hands upon entering the Narthex (the "center" restroom will be set up as a "handwashing station"). Do not kiss any item or the hand of the priest. Icons may be reverenced with the sign of the cross and a bow instead of a kiss. Candles may be lit. The Eucharist will be administered as always: in the usual manner, for the healing of soul and body. There will not be Zapifka wine (though there may be blessed bread) following Communion. After the dismissal of the Liturgy, Fr. Marcus will not provide the cross for veneration, but rather give a blessing with his hand (but not extend his hand for reverence). After each service all liturgical objects and surfaces will be thoroughly disinfected.

As at any other time, if you desire a sick visit or for communion to be brought to you because of illness or infirmity, please contact Fr. Marcus. Provided he is healthy, he will arrange a visit.

Often times there is a piety that requires one to be at the Church, even while overcome with sickness. Under the circumstances of a pandemic, this is an unwise piety. Be vigilant with your prayers at home with a blessing to be absent until symptoms are past, and until this outbreak resolves. Since testing is lagging behind the spread of the virus, it is unwise to assume that typical viral symptoms are other than COVOD-19 for your own sake and out of love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, but also for your neighbors.

Also, stay informed using reliable sources such the following:

CDC on COVID-19
CDC on Community and Faith-Based Organizations

[Kalbear]

Here's a wonderfully sobering  take on what's happening in the US, right now. This is what a whole lot more areas get to look forward to in the next two weeks. Note that this is out of date - all schools are cancelled until April 24th. But otherwise this is pretty much what it's been like in ground zero.

There are some really good things. Microsoft announced 2 weeks of paid time off for anyone who needs to take care of their kids as they're at home. Amazon is offering money to small businesses around the HQ. But by and large, we've taken too long here. Don't be like Washington state. 

 

Quote

 

So if you're not here in Kirkland let me give you an update on our not so little town.

Our local hospital, Evergreen, one of the top-ranked hospitals in the country and literally at ground zero in the fight against Coronavirus has run out of beds as of today. The staff is exhausted, demoralized, and supplies are running low.

Because so many staff members are sick, and the operational tempo is so high, medical staff told to be in quarantine due to exposure, but not showing symptoms have been summoned back to work. So far 65 patients have entered the hospital positive for COVID-19, 15 didn't leave alive (as of 3/10).

Tom Douglas, multiple James Beard Award winner is closing down 12 of his 13 restaurants (only leaving one open because of a contract with a hotel) because business is down 90%.

Boeing, which was a hot mess with the 737-MAX issue, to begin with, is now losing more orders than it is getting as the airline industry braces for a 70% reduction in air travel. At the basement of 9/11, global air travel was off 40%.

Norweigan Cruiselines, headquartered in Seattle, has been called out for lying to customers about the safety of their ships, their capacity to protect passengers and making it difficult to cancel or reschedule trips.

Starbucks has announced they will be limited seating in their stores and ones with drive-thru will go drive-thru only.

The Seattle Mariners have moved their home openers out of the area, for now, my guess is the MLB will follow every other sports league and suspend the start of baseball.

Our school district has suspended classes until March 27, but my guess is it will go longer. Issaquah, a town nearby has suspended classes until April 24.

I was in our nearest grocery store, which is a flagship "Fred Meyer" store (Kroger corp) and all of the staples aisles were close to empty. Beans, rice, flour, pasta. Beans about wiped out, the only rice I could find was a 5-pound bag in the Asian section. Only the high-end "boutique" pasta and a few more complex dish pasta like lasagna noodles. The Jewish section had some noodles in it, and the Asian section still had some ramen.

There is no traffic. There is an eerie quiet in the air, and although the videos of people racing in Costco are entertaining, I have not seen anyone running in a store to the TP, fights over food, or other resources. There is this strange calm, but I always remind myself that history has shown we are three hot meals and a warm bed away from wanting to kill each other.

My wife has shared some other stories from her work - nothing sinister or ominous but nothing I can share and nothing that even if I could, I feel ready to share.

We no longer hear about Life Care Center. The federal government finally showed up there and now all news has stopped. The 70+ employees who are all in various states of being sick are still not tested - that we know. One-third of our town fire department is now in quarantine. If there is anything that gives me the creeps it is this. The government showed up and the news stopped.

When we returned from our trip to Africa on 2/26 and went through Customs in Seattle, there was no screening, no questions, no testing, no sorting of passengers. Nothing. Welcome back, stamp of the passport, done. The lines weren't long and the lack of any form of screening at this Asian gateway was disconcerting. It paled in comparison to the strict protocols we went through in Windhoek and Johannesburg, and the announcements and questions in Frankfurt. What we didn't know at that time is from 2/19 to 2/25, 12 patients had died at Life Care Center for unknown reasons, and the first COVID-19 death was on 2/26.

The response to the threat at a federal level was non-existent.

My opinion.

The Seattle area is about two weeks ahead of most of the United States. For those going this is just hype and this is just the flu, come fly here and see for yourself. I mean flights are cheap and planes are empty. Can even offer you a place to sleep.(no not really, but Kirkland has plenty of hotels)

The Seattle area is probably 2 to 3 weeks behind Iran or Italy at this point. The tidal wave is coming, I believe most in the general public are just in denial about it at this point.

In Italy Coronavirus is killing young and old alike because once you run out of beds, once you run out of breathing machines, Coronavirus becomes an equal opportunity killer. You get pneumonia, your lungs fill up, you basically drown.

When you can get advanced care, your survival odds are very good. Once that system falls apart, it is first come first serve, and how healthy are you. A lot of younger Americans are very unhealthy with multiple comorbidity factors.

Evergreen Hospital ran out of beds today.

Winter is coming

 

 

[lessthanluke]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Depends. Short term probably, long term not so much. Governments are going to have no choice but to eat A LOT of debt and start printing money. I think my country should send every non-essential person home and wire every household $2,000 per adult and $1,000 per kid. Would probably cost a trillion dollars, but it would be money well spent.

I'll believe it when I see it.

I'll be carrying on as usual as don't have a choice.

[RhaenysBee]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daniellaemanuel/quiz-events-cancel

This is a very silly but adorable way of spreading virus awareness. 

I’m sorry, this forum must know by now that I can’t live without my buzzfeed quizzes. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

As I type I’m on a “Town Hall” with Congressperson Joe Wilson.  I’m in the que to ask why only 87 people (Per the SCDHEC official who spoke earlier) have been tested in SC and what the specific criteria are for testing.

They didn’t allow me to ask the question.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

Beautiful. Makes me tear up, honestly. 

I cried. 

[Isalie]

Reassuring.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

3 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

As I type I’m on a “Town Hall” with Congressperson Joe Wilson.  I’m in the que to ask why only 87 people (Per the SCDHEC official who spoke earlier) have been tested in SC and what the specific criteria are for testing.

They didn’t allow me to ask the question.

Did they run out of time or did they specifically ban that question?  That’s really not great if the latter.