Yes school year. They are saying kids will graduate their grade so I am extrapolating. Also a friend who teaches said they are being told plan for fall.
Hometown uni saying it like it is.
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I’m pretty sure it’s all of the above, with oxygen and ventilators being the most important.
A quick search of Twitter says this is not a big deal - it’s not easily transmissible to humans, only four known cases ever.
Of course, if we keep running how we’re running…
Possibly a literally sick brag. ;) congrats on that from a boring, married 42–year-old.
Hope you stay healthy and safe.
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Quick update from Norway, since apparently most people like some global updates.
- All borders closed effective today, with some exceptions (mostly Norwegians returning home from abroad).
- Roughly 1250 registered cases, but that doesn’t really mean much since all testing has stopped for anyone not showing serious symptoms/people in at risk groups. Only 3 deaths so far, probably because
- All schools, unis, kindergardens closed. Most restaurants closed (except takeaway).
- All public gatherings banned
- Visits to family at hospital strongly discouraged, banned at hospices, nursing homes etc
- Work from home obligatory for those who are able to do so
- Going to your cottage (like 1/4 of all Norwegians own one) is illegal due to the burden on the local health systems
- Huge package passed parliament to support business and workers (go socialism)
- Most people behaving according to the above, but a decent amount of fuckwits still being fuckwitty (police had to break up a decent amount of parties this weekend e.g.)
On a personal note my daughter was tested yesterday (we came home from Spain Feb 29th), but very likely it’s a strep infection and not corona (wife = nurse with specialization in infection treatment among other things, so that’s a bonus). Especially since I have zero symptoms, wife has next to none - but you never know. Test results likely in today.
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Also really, really curious to see how Britain’s “let’s build up dat herd immunity!” strategy will work and if/when they’ll alter course. Probably not before a ton of people are dead.
Australia is still the best case for temperature and humidity making a difference. We have had cases from China from the very beginning that didn’t lead to additional community spread even though some of them took public transport. The moment temperatures dropped and it rained the next batch of cases coming from Iran did cause community spread. We have started measures earlier than other countries so I think we are less fucked than Europe and USA although not sure how much comfort we can take from that. Also hot weather coming back this week.
I’ve been oddly calm since I watched Contagion yesterday, and I don’t know why. The movie is incredibly similar, by the way, right down to the R0. Thankfully this mortality rate is way lower. I think I’m just more worried about the long-term economic and societal impacts at this point, I’m pretty confident I can stay inside and avoid catching it myself if I haven’t already - at least until the curve is flattened enough.
So I’m just focusing on staying in contact with friends and family, making sure my loved ones know that they can reach out to me for help, and trying to work out some ideas in my head for what I’ll do in a food shortage, what I’ll do if people start looting/robbing for food, how to secure myself and my food, etc.
Update on some of my loved ones:
My 70-year-old father has some non-life threatening but urgent medical issues (his alternative is to be catheterized for a while) and needs to go in this week for an appointment and likely an outpatient procedure where he’ll have a choice of whether to go under partially or not. I’m encouraging him to grin and bear it so he’s not immunocompromised. I hate hate hate that he’s gotta go into medical facilities right now, but there’s nothing we can do. Thankfully it will not be a regular hospital, so he shouldn’t be around any COVID-19 patients.
My ~mid 70s aunt and uncle (who is fresh off his 3rd or 4th heart surgery) both have a head cold and were tested, no results yet and they… flew to Charlotte. Ugggh. His brother is in bad health and it sounds like it’s near the end, so I can understand why he made the decision, but I’m very worried about them and very worried that if they had it they spread it to a plane full of people. Part of the problem is that my uncle has felt like he’s living on free time for a while now due to the heart problems, making his peace, etc, so he’s less scared of death than most people and I think just puts the most importance on spending the time he has with his family, so if that means flying to see his brother one last time, he’s going to do it… I get it, but also hate it.
A girl I dated for a little while a couple years ago and stayed friends and in touch with now works on cruise ships for Royal Caribbean… Checked in with her and they’re currently in Barcelona, hoping Spain will allow them to unload there, but so far it’s a no go. She’s Mexican and said if she goes back there she has to quarantine and doesn’t want to. Royal Caribbean is trying to find a country in the region that will let them in. Sadly, I told her that she probably shouldn’t get her hopes up for that.
A girl I dated for a while and am now extremely close friends with lives in Riyadh. Someone in her office tested positive, but she doesn’t think she was exposed directly. Never the less, I’ll be sweating that out for the next couple weeks hoping she doesn’t develop symptoms. She went in for a persistent cough a couple weeks ago and the doctors put her on an inhaler thinking it was asthma. I’ve been worried ever since that it was actually COVID-19, but now I’m almost hoping it was since she’d basically be in the clear. They’re getting a lot of cases there, her hometown is under lockdown. So far her family is fine. I asked her if she’d stocked up on groceries - she’s living with her sister and her sister’s husband since she just moved to Riyadh for a new job, and she said her sister didn’t have any money so she’s going out to get some food herself. I asked her if she had enough money to stockpile and she said she did, and I made her promise to tell me if she needed money - I know she’s very proud and self-sufficient and would hate to, but I obviously would want to help her if she needed it.
I have a cousin in jail, he’s supposed to get out in a couple months. I talked to my aunt and she said they locked it down completely, and she was upset because his brother couldn’t get in to see him one last time. I told her I was sorry for the timing but that maybe it was a good thing if nobody there had it and they were locked down.
The girl I’m dating thinks her boss will make her come into work throughout. It’s a legal-adjacent field and I don’t understand it given that courts are going to shut down, but I also don’t know what to root for. She’d be completely broke without the job, she’s got < $500 in savings, but I don’t like her still having to risk catching this even though she’s young and healthy. There are only 3 people working in the office, the other two being her boss and her boss’s husband, so that’s good. They also have work travel scheduled in the coming months, but I’m hoping that gets cancelled. A week ago she said there was no way she’d WFH, I told her she would pretty soon. Now she thinks she might in a week, but only for two weeks. I said it’ll probably be more. She logically and intellectually understands what’s going on, but I feel like it hasn’t set in and she doesn’t grasp it or hasn’t come to terms emotionally. I’ve been trying to get her to one step at a time, but the experience has been similar to some that others have had with their significant other. She’ll say she gets it, seem committed to taking precautions, then go out shopping for the day at the mall and order delivery food at night.
Hoping they all get the right breaks and nobody catches it and my circle isn’t too impacted. I wish the same for all of you!
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It’s a very good idea where practical, but of course people have mortgages etc predicated on earnings.
A girl I was seeing ( won’t be seeing her for awhile ) works at a spa type place that does facials… and they’re still open.
I got a facial from her awhile ago and good lord that seems like the worst thing to ever do in this situation. Someone else hands rubbing all over your face for like 30 mins. Well she did it to me for like an hour but she was still learning and we were having fun.
Seems absolutely insane. Gov needs someone advising him about shit like this too.
It was also a time where
- We were tracing all cases
And - The risk profile (recent travel to China/Wuhan) was very obvious
It could be the cold weather. It could just be a numbers and a time game. I don’t think there is much to go on.
Counterpoint. The Philippines is blowing up right now.
I’ve been shook for weeks, but shook levels going up dramatically every day.
Catching the tram 2 to 4 times per day seems very much not good. Sitting in a lecture theatre twice per week seems not good. Having to go to work in a call centre seems not good. Having an 80 year old man depending on me seems not good.
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Just caught up on the thread and the amount of humblebrags is at an all-time high
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The word on the street here is France is going full lockdown, only allowed out for food, starting from tonight. Fun!
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Fitness classes still fairly booked in Long Beach/LA. Went yesterday. They’ve been giving alcohol wipes at the door and between each station (treadmill, rower, dumbbells). Don’t really touch or come into contact with anyone during the workouts. They used to say give your neighbor a high five/fist bump after a challenging section, but that’s been changed to head nods/air fives.
Jeezes…you guys are so, so fucked.
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Something I thought about while not sleeping tonight - for bartenders and servers is are their unemployment benefits based on their bullshit paychecks? Ugh
Do we do stock market developments here? In the Netherlands the market flatlined on Friday and is now down another 7.5%. So brace for impact on the Dow Jones I guess. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s getting the worst day ever, after the bubble Trump blew in it on Friday.