Who Pays the Coronaman? - Covid #8

[Spockydog]

59 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

The Return of the King’s tone and characterization were all wrong.

IT'S BEEN SEVENTEEN YEARS. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, LET IT GO MAN.

[HexMachina]

7 hours ago, Tears of Lys said:

So I'm reading this list of how long C-19 germs live on different surfaces, like elevators buttons 2-3 days; wood 4 days; metal 5 days . . .

and I start to think about things not listed, like paper money or coins.  Unless you use charge cards for any purchases, anytime you pay in cash you handle money, right?

Makes you think.

 

The UK has been requiring/encouraging contactless card payments only for a while now for this reason. 

Is chip and Pin still not used widely in the U. S? And do you have contactless card payments? 

6 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Paying with cards or phones is strongly encouraged here in Austria anyways because it reduces contact between store employees and customers.  They even want to increase the amount you can pay with contactless cards without having to enter you pin code(it is 25 € now). Austria is still a pretty cash heavy country though. 

A plus for the Scandinavian countries I guess.

I know the bank I am with has increased the contactless limit to £45. I didn't properly read the email but it might have said other banks had too. 

Ironically, my card no longer works for contactless payments for some reason. Have sufficient funds and these weren't large payments (ranging from £6-18) so will need to ring the bank to see what's up. 

22 minutes ago, the Greenleif Stark said:

So here's a thought........they're now saying the rona could kill 100-200,000 people, here in the US.  With obesity accounting for roughly 300,000 deaths a year and tobacco killing almost 500,000 people a year in America, why not combat those issues with the daily numbers like they're are with the rona?  People seem to be taking rona seriously, if we were hit with the tobacco and obesity numbers daily maybe they would resonate more?

Because the tobacco and food industry wouldn't want a silly thing like numbers of deaths to interfere with important matters like profits! 

 

Eta - to be more serious, it would be great if this happened, but I can't see a hope in hell that it would because there is too much wealth and profit to be made from these industries

[Buckwheat]

3 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Ironically, my card no longer works for contactless payments for some reason. Have sufficient funds and these weren't large payments (ranging from £6-18) so will need to ring the bank to see what's up. 

I thought my card was the only one with this freakish problem - it still works if I stick the chip into the machine, but the contactless function hasn't been working for months (at first I thought it was only a problem abroad, as I was in Austria most of that time, so I didn't contact the bank about it yet).

And contactless payments have been encouraged for weeks here too. Today is apparently the day when the retired get their pension, so the media are also telling them not to go to the bank today if at all possible to have it paid out in cash - this is otherwise practiced by a lot of the elderly who have grown up without cards, online banking etc.

[Arakan]

42 minutes ago, the Greenleif Stark said:

So here's a thought........they're now saying the rona could kill 100-200,000 people, here in the US.  With obesity accounting for roughly 300,000 deaths a year and tobacco killing almost 500,000 people a year in America, why not combat those issues with the daily numbers like they're are with the rona?  People seem to be taking rona seriously, if we were hit with the tobacco and obesity numbers daily maybe they would resonate more?

This logic is not really working. It’s a feature of your system, not a bug. Same with the crazy number of deaths due to the opioid crisis. Or the number of gun deaths. Or the number of alcohol related deaths (in every western country). Companies are making money and deaths are collateral damage. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, the Greenleif Stark said:

So here's a thought........they're now saying the rona could kill 100-200,000 people, here in the US.  With obesity accounting for roughly 300,000 deaths a year and tobacco killing almost 500,000 people a year in America, why not combat those issues with the daily numbers like they're are with the rona?  People seem to be taking rona seriously, if we were hit with the tobacco and obesity numbers daily maybe they would resonate more?

It's because those rates are relatively static. We're getting a daily update to show us just how quickly this is expanding. It's not like every three days we double the amount of people that die from cancer, or get in a car crash.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Ugh, the numbers coming out of Detroit are not good. Haven't seen an update from Chicago, but it can't be good there either. I keep seeing reports that the Midwest is about to take a beating, so I'm sure Minneapolis-St. Paul will start looking bleak soon too.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

IT'S BEEN SEVENTEEN YEARS. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, LET IT GO MAN.

Never.  

[DaveSumm]

20 hours ago, Arakan said:

The official wording by the UK authorities, from today (those cheeky smartasses hahaha, noooooo we don’t lie like those commie Chinese or those Allahu Akbar Iranians...you just have to read carefully). 

As of 5pm on 28 March, of those hospitalised in the UK, 1,228 have sadly died.

They’ve acknowledged this and will be realising a weekly ‘deaths in the community’ figure. It’s really hard to judge how many will be included in this, if they never went to hospital then you’d assume they were never tested? And if they died, did they test posthumously? 
 

Also, not everything is a conspiracy ... they worded it like that because that’s exactly what the figure is.

[BigFatCoward]

14 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

They’ve acknowledged this and will be realising a weekly ‘deaths in the community’ figure. It’s really hard to judge how many will be included in this, if they never went to hospital then you’d assume they were never tested? And if they died, did they test posthumously? 
 

Also, not everything is a conspiracy ... they worded it like that because that’s exactly what the figure is.

We are having about 3x as many sudden deaths as normal.  However the figures are pretty low to start off with so there is not a huge 'saving' in figures. 

We don't have figures on what the increase is from, it might be suicides due to depression, or elderly people dying of neglect due to lack of facilities.  So linked to C19, but not because of. 

[Ormond]

The reports on people who died at home not being counted in the figures are scary. 

The very first death in Nebraska was a man who died at home. And his death was not counted as being COVID-19 until four or five days later -- his family at first attributed it to a heart condition. I suppose that means it was discovered through an autopsy. But Nebraska is still way down on the curve. If Omaha gets like NYC or Detroit, they probably won't have the resources to check out cases like that.

[Arakan]

29 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

They’ve acknowledged this and will be realising a weekly ‘deaths in the community’ figure. It’s really hard to judge how many will be included in this, if they never went to hospital then you’d assume they were never tested? And if they died, did they test posthumously? 
 

Also, not everything is a conspiracy ... they worded it like that because that’s exactly what the figure is.

Who is talking about conspiracy? Tuning the figures is standard procedure in basically every large organization, be it political, social or economical. It’s basic human nature. The only question is with how much chutzpah, if you make it smart or simply don’t give a shit. In the end, every figure is a matter of how you define your samples . No conspiracy needed, just some basic knowledge of human psychology... 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

18 minutes ago, Ormond said:

The reports on people who died at home not being counted in the figures are scary. 

The very first death in Nebraska was a man who died at home. And his death was not counted as being COVID-19 until four or five days later -- his family at first attributed it to a heart condition. I suppose that means it was discovered through an autopsy. But Nebraska is still way down on the curve. If Omaha gets like NYC or Detroit, they probably won't have the resources to check out cases like that.

I’m a bit worried for the Midwest in general. Every morning my work email gets an update of the number of cases in MN and WI and the number of deaths. Looking at the three emails, the cases are jumping a coup[le hungered per say, but I think the testing is still minimal. WI seems to be about a week behind MI, and MN is probably a few days behind WI. It’s only a matter of time until it gets to Omaha.

[Arakan]

49 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

They’ve acknowledged this and will be realising a weekly ‘deaths in the community’ figure. It’s really hard to judge how many will be included in this, if they never went to hospital then you’d assume they were never tested? And if they died, did they test posthumously? 
 

Also, not everything is a conspiracy ... they worded it like that because that’s exactly what the figure is.

The last sentence is ridiculous and you know it as long as you are capable of rational thought. Of course the official wording is correct (from a „legal point of view“). But that’s besides the point. It is misleading. People read that statement and think „aha so many died of C19“. Newspapers are picking up those figures etc. But the simple truth is: the real figures are significantly higher. 
 

Example: in Germany we had some tragic cases where many people died in nursing homes (IRC 12 in one case). According to the above UK logic not a single one of those deaths would have counted. But hey we are speaking of a ruling party whose Primeminister rode the populism wave with „350 million weekly for the EU and not the NHS“. Sorry, those people have no credibility left, at all. 

[BigFatCoward]

15 minutes ago, Arakan said:

The last sentence is ridiculous and you know it as long as you are capable of rational thought. Of course the official wording is correct (from a „legal point of view“). But that’s besides the point. It is misleading. People read that statement and think „aha so many died of C19“. Newspapers are picking up those figures etc. But the simple truth is: the real figures are significantly higher. 
 

 

How is it misleading when it literally states what the figure is? 

You have no evidence whatsoever that the real figure is 'significantly higher'. 

[Jen'ari]

3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

The UK has been requiring/encouraging contactless card payments only for a while now for this reason. 

Is chip and Pin still not used widely in the U. S? And do you have contactless card payments? 

I know the bank I am with has increased the contactless limit to £45. I didn't properly read the email but it might have said other banks had too. 

Ironically, my card no longer works for contactless payments for some reason. Have sufficient funds and these weren't large payments (ranging from £6-18) so will need to ring the bank to see what's up.

Try doing a transaction and entering your pin then on your next transaction use contactless again.

My bank seems to make you enter your pin after you’ve done a certain number of payments using contactless/Applepay.

[HexMachina]

3 minutes ago, Jen'ari said:

Try doing a transaction and entering your pin then on your next transaction use contactless again.

My bank seems to make you enter your pin after you’ve done a certain number of payments using contactless/Applepay.

It works with my Pin but even after doing that the contactless doesn't work. It only started happening last week.

 

I believe tighter security measures were introduced last year sometime where you now need to put your PIN in after so many contactless transactions. I think six maybe? Came across this info when trying to find out the issue with my card

[Tears of Lys]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Ugh, the numbers coming out of Detroit are not good. Haven't seen an update from Chicago, but it can't be good there either. I keep seeing reports that the Midwest is about to take a beating, so I'm sure Minneapolis-St. Paul will start looking bleak soon too.

Does anyone even READ my posts??    I quoted a Detroit Free Press news article that basically said Detroit was "burning." 

As my husband and I are definitely in the at-risk group, you might say I'm a wee bit nervous.

 

And, yeah, a large number of people do use plastic for purchases, but there're still things that require cash to be handled.  

ETA:  C-19 germs are lurking on those keypads when you're entering pin numbers.

I feel like I'm spending my downtime thinking of ways the Covid's gonna get me.  

[Fragile Bird]

35 minutes ago, Tears of Lys said:

 

ETA:  C-19 germs are lurking on those keypads when you're entering pin numbers.

I feel like I'm spending my downtime thinking of ways the Covid's gonna get me.  

I went grocery shopping this morning, I stood in a line-up spaced out essentially by grocery cart lengths. Luckily they called out for seniors to go to the head of the line. Very limited entries.

When I got home I left the jugs of Tide and vinegar (I wash things that could get musty, like towels, with a cup of vinegar) and the 6 pack of tissue on the porch and headed for the bathroom, where I washed everything I bought in soapy water, or wiped down some things with a Lysol wipe, or transferred items to plastic containers (the strawberries, the cherry tomatoes, the mushrooms) or went to the kitchen and cut off packaging and let stuff drop into the sink (the cauliflower). The packaging has been dropped into my recycling box and then the box emptied into the recycling bin outside. Also, wiped down my telephone, because I used it to register my points card, and my car keys. Oh, and my debit card and my card case.

Then I took a couple of wipes and went outside to my car, wiping down the car door handle, the steering wheel, the turn signal, the shifter handle, the turn signal, the interior door handle, the button for the push start and the quarter I used in the shopping cart, because I wore latex gloves while in the store and who knows what I picked up.

On my way back into the house I wiped down the porch door handle, the screen door handle, the front door handle and then stepped in and wiped the door knob inside. Back to the bathroom, wipe down the faucet parts and the interior of the sink.

This routine is why my trips to the grocery store have been cut back sharply.

The stuff on the porch can either stay there a couple of days, or I will fill the sink with an inch of water and some Lysol and I will wash all the bottles. The tissue boxes can stay there for a few days.

I started this routine after reading this post by someone who had a bone marrow transplant and worked very hard to make sure they didn't die during the months needed to build up their immune system.

https://medium.com/@amcarter/i-had-no-immune-system-for-months-after-my-bone-marrow-transplant-1b097f16040c

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

41 minutes ago, Tears of Lys said:

Does anyone even READ my posts??    I quoted a Detroit Free Press news article that basically said Detroit was "burning." 

As my husband and I are definitely in the at-risk group, you might say I'm a wee bit nervous.

 

And, yeah, a large number of people do use plastic for purchases, but there're still things that require cash to be handled.  

ETA:  C-19 germs are lurking on those keypads when you're entering pin numbers.

I feel like I'm spending my downtime thinking of ways the Covid's gonna get me.  

Getting gas probably has me the most worried. No way they’re cleaning those handles and screens with any regularity.

[Tears of Lys]

10 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I went grocery shopping this morning, I stood in a line-up spaced out essentially by grocery cart lengths. Luckily they called out for seniors to go to the head of the line. Very limited entries.

When I got home I left the jugs of Tide and vinegar (I wash things that could get musty, like towels, with a cup of vinegar) and the 6 pack of tissue on the porch and headed for the bathroom, where I washed everything I bought in soapy water, or wiped down some things with a Lysol wipe, or transferred items to plastic containers (the strawberries, the cherry tomatoes, the mushrooms) or went to the kitchen and cut off packaging and let stuff drop into the sink (the cauliflower). The packaging has been dropped into my recycling box and then the box emptied into the recycling bin outside. Also, wiped down my telephone, because I used it to register my points card, and my car keys. Oh, and my debit card and my card case.

Then I took a couple of wipes and went outside to my car, wiping down the car door handle, the steering wheel, the turn signal, the shifter handle, the turn signal, the interior door handle, the button for the push start and the quarter I used in the shopping cart, because I wore latex gloves while in the store and who knows what I picked up.

On my way back into the house I wiped down the porch door handle, the screen door handle, the front door handle and then stepped in and wiped the door knob inside. Back to the bathroom, wipe down the faucet parts and the interior of the sink.

This routine is why my trips to the grocery store have been cut back sharply.

The stuff on the porch can either stay there a couple of days, or I will fill the sink with an inch of water and some Lysol and I will wash all the bottles. The tissue boxes can stay there for a few days.

I started this routine after reading this post by someone who had a bone marrow transplant and worked very hard to make sure they didn't die during the months needed to build up their immune system.

https://medium.com/@amcarter/i-had-no-immune-system-for-months-after-my-bone-marrow-transplant-1b097f16040c

A woman after my own heart.