Corona Virus & Day to Day

[mainshipfred]

I'm genuinely struggling with resolving my personal stance on this whole thing. It's almost impossible to believe my opinions have any weight or validity when, like it or not, they are so heavily influenced by my personal situation. Like quite a few of you I'm semi retired or retired depending on the day of the week or my mood. I've got very few monthly expenses and have a little rainy day money set aside. I strongly believe (I think) we need to stay as shut down and distanced as possible for quite a while longer especially considering how mixed the info we're getting is. It's pretty easy to take that stand though when it comes with few personal consequences.
However,
If I were 10 or 20 years younger, still had a business open to the public, had 15 or 20 employees depending on that weekly check or I was depending on a weekly check and that business had to shutter, I'm sure my view would be completely different. I'm also sure I would strongly believe in that view.

Chuck E's couple of lines say it well and I'll do what I believe is best for me and mine. They may open things back up early to improve the economy but I don't see businesses thriving because of it -lack of customers- and if anything I see it doing more damage and prolonging the time it takes to get past this.

Stay safe and thoughtful and considerate of others.
I'll climb down now but do feel a bit better sharing those thoughts.

Mike

Very well stated Mike, my feelings exactly. I do have employees that wouldn't be able to survive without their weekly pay check.

 

[1d10t]

Yes, personal circumstance will shape opinion. But, look at the personal circumstances of those on the front line pleading with others to do their part. If front line combat troops were pleading for bullets would you be out target practicing?

 

[sour_grapes]

Even if your state "opens for business" you still can make the choice to stay in your home. As humans, we have to evaluate the risks of living individually.

That is certainly true. However, collective actions greatly influence those risks. For example, in most locales, it is not legal to discharge a firearm in a residential area. Although that rule limits my freedom to discharge a firearm as I please, we collectively decided to put those strictures in place to mitigate one of the "risks of living." So, yes, we must evaluate risks individually, AND we owe it to each other (collectively) to mitigate risks to others.

 

[Boatboy24]

I don't follow the charts as much right now. Reporting guidelines have changed. Testing is still ramping up. Fatalities is sadly probably the most accurate figure right now and even that has some room for improvement. They have now found people in California that died back in February from the disease so this hit the shores much earlier than known and the requirements for who was tested were way to limited.

I'm facetiously putting on my tin foil hat when making the comment about today's numbers, but you make a very good point. As an example, Virginia's numbers (beginning this week) are given in total, and also broken down between positive test results and 'presumed' positives where no test was given but symptoms are present and a contact is confirmed/likely. What I don't know is were the presumed positives included prior to this week or not. If not, it very easily explains and delegitimizes yesterday's 'largest single day increase'. I'm always trying to get data and news from as many sources as possible - and that is even more true now. Bottom line is we (John Q Public) are lucky to get fully non-biased, non-partisan, non-agenda bearing information so it's important to consider your sources and seek to confirm with solid data. A lot of 'facts' being presented out there with "I fear that..." or "If this trend continues...", etc. While some of these will start with hard data, the conclusions are based on assumptions or worse.

I try to start with assuming good intent. Sometimes I'm better at that than others.

 

[1d10t]

One reporter for Cleveland dot com has been doing a decent job while admitting the numbers seemed to be getting harder to parse. Today he posted this article about it.

 

[cmason1957]

I have begun to wonder what all the fuss is about. Oh sure we've had large numbers of people catching this and deaths from it, but nowhere near the numbers predicted and certainly the death rate (very thankfully has been much smaller than expected). Certainly some who get it have had a really rough time of it, many days in the ICU, much cost, but so far, the hype has not equaled the response we have given it and maybe that's a really good thing and due to all the distancing and such. I really don't know. For me it hasn't made much difference, except on weekends, when I would normally have been out and about more. I am among the lucky where we are continuing to be gainfully and fully employed.

I read that the numbers of people with antibodies are much, much higher than numbers of people reported with it and to me that sounds like a good thing, many less percentage points are very negatively impacted by being exposed. I just don't even know what to think anymore. Maybe that's all I'm trying to say.

 

[GreginND]

Even if your state "opens for business" you still can make the choice to stay in your home. As humans, we have to evaluate the risks of living individually.

The problem for those who are most vulnerable, is that this doesn't give them a choice. They must remain isolated the longer we drag this out and others are making that choice for them. I definitely see your point, though. I don't have any easy solutions and personally am very mixed about this as well. So, I look for data which is spotty and won't be fully understood until we are well past this pandemic. Sweden has been touted as a poster child for not shutting down and doing great! Well, that is not really true. All of their neighbors have peaked and numbers of new infections and deaths are going down. Sweden is still rising. And their economy is barely better than the rest. So, I guess we won't know until we know. I want to open my business. But other areas of the world that have eased up are having to shut down again because of spiking new cases and deaths. At this point I err on the side of protecting people with the best information I have.

As a good friend of mine recently said, "The goal of this is to have as many of us alive on the other side as possible."

 

[Stressbaby]

I read that the numbers of people with antibodies are much, much higher than numbers of people reported with it and to me that sounds like a good thing, many less percentage points are very negatively impacted by being exposed. I just don't even know what to think anymore. Maybe that's all I'm trying to say.

It's good in that herd immunity might be achieved sooner than was previously thought. However, we don't know a lot about these tests and their sensitivity, specificity. Further, the predictive value of these tests depends upon the prevalence of the disease, and we don't really know that either.

 

[Steve Wargo]

Just a smidge of research before spreading lies??? No? OK, let me help. This is the same guy, Lenard Wells, who was both a RETIRED police officer from Wisconsin AND a professor in Memphis (his retirement gig). He passed while in Wisconsin, where he was saluted for his contributions there in the PD, but his passing was also recognized where he lived and taught, Memphis. So you see, he didn’t die twice, he just meant something different to the two communities he touched. If you’d like to see for yourself, click these two articles:


I did some but obviously did not do enough research pertaining to the posted pic. I apologize to the group and the Wells family. Thank you for bringing this to my attention

 

[Boatboy24]

Another daily record here in Virginia. Not a good thing. I can only hope it's due to increased testing.

 

[Kraffty]

I wrote a few days back about being gouged and ripped off by a seller on Ebay...well... I received back today the 20 rolls of TP we returned as undeliverable because the seller closed his doors and left no forwarding address. Ebay returned our money and additionally they banned the guy as a seller. I don't know how that works and would guess he'll be back under a different name but regardless of that it all caught up to him in this moment.
Mike

 

[OilnH2O]

So much is being learned that will be helpful in the future. But, the differences in locale are profound; just as my biggest worry is getting to be bud-break while others are posting pictures on "show us your clusters!"

Montana begins our gradual opening Sunday, beginning with houses of worship (within guidelines of course). Then phased over the next few weeks. I look forward to being able to get a haircut - with my barber I had to make an appointment before, and it was just the two of us. I suppose he'll have to wear a mask in his shop now!

I know some are against this, but the screen shot below (taken April 24th) shows the difference between Montana and elsewhere. Our big hospitals in Billings, Missoula, Bozeman and elsewhere have laid off many doctors and nurses who are not dealing with the C-19 outbreak. Over 600 in Kalispell Regional Medical Center alone. Note below - today, only 12 cases are hospitalized across the state (thus 2-3 in each hospital) with a total of 59 hospitalized since the first case was presented (March 11). The peak cases/day was March 26 and declined ever since; there were two new cases yesterday - shown below at the right of the chart. It's not on the screen shot but Montana has had (as of today 4/24) a total of 444 cases.


https://montana.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b
Some will say that we, along with other states, "shouldn't open at all" because of not enough of this test, not enough PPE, or there is an increased risk to others. But, people are making decisions about elective surgeries and diagnostic procedures - those are "non-essential" as are some other procedures, but some delays can be detrimental to the patient, too.

It's a complex issue, for sure, but I hope we all get through this okay and back to worrying about bud-break, late frosts (in my case) and how many camden tabs to add between rackings!

 

[GreginND]

While there is great news for numbers in New York City, the number of new cases in the rest of the country are not declining. And, unfortunately, active cases continue to rise. Along with that, the number of deaths will continue to rise. *sigh

 

[opus345]

"I look forward to being able to get a haircut - with my barber I had to make an appointment before, and it was just the two of us. I suppose he'll have to wear a mask in his shop now!"

I checked, Flowbees are sold out on Amazon and Walmart.

 

[Boatboy24]

"I look forward to being able to get a haircut - with my barber I had to make an appointment before, and it was just the two of us. I suppose he'll have to wear a mask in his shop now!"

I checked, Flowbees are sold out on Amazon and Walmart.

I went to order some clippers from Amazon a couple weeks ago. The only name brand I knew was Wahl. Those were all sold out. I did find some at Target though.

I've learned some valuable skills. Did my own sides and back of my head twice, my kids once. Last Sunday, the whole head, with the top longer than the sides and back. Top is a tad shorter than I normally get it cut, but not bad at all. If I do say so myself, a pretty decent haircut. But the rest of the head isn't much to work with, so perhaps there's only so much damage one can do with the hair alone.

 

[Kraffty]

If I mentioned this before forgive my memory but my wife went to hair dressing school straight out of High School and worked in salons for 10 or 15 years. She cut my hair in my 20's - think david cassidy style nonsense, in my 30's - young professional grooming, on and off and after we took a long hiatus from each other we picked up with the hair cutting in my late 40's - more Drew Carrey I guess now. Yep I got me one valuable wife now fellas....
Mike

 

[sour_grapes]

Pardon me if I mentioned this before. I decided to buy clippers early enough that I still had my choice on Amazon. Being the cheap-*** that I am, I opted for the Conair $12 special from Amazon rather than the $20 Wahls. I buzzed my head the same length (#4) all over. It is/was a horrible job, but that will change with time! Not like I care at the moment...

 

[1d10t]

I just let it grow so this has been no problem for me.

 

[Kraffty]

gal durn hippy freaks.......

 

[Boatboy24]

Pardon me if I mentioned this before. I decided to buy clippers early enough that I still had my choice on Amazon. Being the cheap-*** that I am, I opted for the Conair $12 special from Amazon rather than the $20 Wahls. I buzzed my head the same length (#4) all over. It is/was horrible a horrible job, but that will change with time! Not like I care at the moment...

Try a 4 all over, then a 3 on the sides and back (or maybe even a 2). Lots of good YouTube videos on how to self-cut.