The COVID-19 Pandemic: What's happening in your part of the world?

[Quirk]

My wife eviscerated my aunt on Facebook. My aunt has always been just... dumb. She's a very successful holistic medicine "doctor" and just generally knows jack shit about existence. She torpedoes every relationship and that whole side of the family is divided based on her current fights with other family members. She has always supported me with large donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so I've always felt conflicted about her. However, today she shared some dangerous BS video about COVID-19 being no bigger deal than anything else and that we shouldn't be shutting anything down over it. Just to drive home how brain-boilingly stupid this is, the other health problems that kill more people than COVID-19 cited in this video are things like seasonal flu and heart disease. Things with vaccines and things that are not contagious. And, well, the list of logical fallacies here just goes on into infinity.

My wife commented that members of my aunt's family were at risk, namely me, who would die from the virus. Her response? Almost ANY sickness would kill me, so that's my fight.

[RVR II]

THIS.. is ALL TP that someone scarfed up around here and has resold it (possibly on ebay)!
At the Post Office, we call these giant aluminum 'tanks', BMCs. They are 6ft tall by 6ft long by 3.5ft wide and I filled it completely full of TP orders! Really pissed me off seeing this but all I could do was do my job and send them on their way to Charlotte to be processed..

The jackass came back today and filled another tank and cage so the supervisor has sent the sellers information to the postal inspector for investigation..
They'll probably be shut down some time soon.

[wihogfan]

Wife needed contact solution, so quick trip to Walmart this morning. Walmart still not as well stocked as nearby grocery store, but they did have toilet paper (didn't need any, so didn't buy) and disinfectant wipes. Stated limit on both was 1, but I bought 2 cannisters of the disinfectant wipes. Dude at work with a baby at home has been looking for them, so going to give him 1 cannister. Other for the car along with my hand sanitizer I keep there. Walmart good about having disfectant wipes available to wipe down carts. Other stores not so much, so car cannister is for when I need to visit those others stores.

[Pak-Man]

Our Walmart has paper towels with disinfectant spray, which is better than our supermarket which just has the paper towels(?). Fortunately I have a supply of disinfectant wipes in my car, so I can just bring one with me for cart-wipin'.

[The Lurker]

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/27/a-new-fda-authorized-covid-19-test-doesnt-need-a-lab-and-can-produce-results-in-just-5-minutes/

[CJones]

My wife eviscerated my aunt on Facebook. My aunt has always been just... dumb. She's a very successful holistic medicine "doctor" and just generally knows jack shit about existence. She torpedoes every relationship and that whole side of the family is divided based on her current fights with other family members. She has always supported me with large donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so I've always felt conflicted about her. However, today she shared some dangerous BS video about COVID-19 being no bigger deal than anything else and that we shouldn't be shutting anything down over it. Just to drive home how brain-boilingly stupid this is, the other health problems that kill more people than COVID-19 cited in this video are things like seasonal flu and heart disease. Things with vaccines and things that are not contagious. And, well, the list of logical fallacies here just goes on into infinity.

My wife commented that members of my aunt's family were at risk, namely me, who would die from the virus. Her response? Almost ANY sickness would kill me, so that's my fight.

https://www.livescience.com/new-coronavirus-compare-with-flu.html

Death rate of the seasonal flu = 0.1%
Death rate of Covid 19 = At least 2%, As high as 12% in Wuhan

The two are not comparable. And I have no doubt that for people with Cystic Fibrosis, the fatality rate is much higher.  And just to be clear, these aren't % of the entire population, these are % of the people already confirmed to have the virus, dying from it.

[CJones]

My Mom, who turns 79 tomorrow and is in much better shape than I am, is about to go out of her mind being stuck at home. She can't even see her grandkids for fear that they might carry Covid-19. You can only watch Star Trek on Netflix so many times.

[stansimpson]

THIS.. is ALL TP that someone scarfed up around here and has resold it (possibly on ebay)!
At the Post Office, we call these giant aluminum 'tanks', BMCs. They are 6ft tall by 6ft long by 3.5ft wide and I filled it completely full of TP orders! Really pissed me off seeing this but all I could do was do my job and send them on their way to Charlotte to be processed..

The jackass came back today and filled another tank and cage so the supervisor has sent the sellers information to the postal inspector for investigation..
They'll probably be shut down some time soon.

[Pastor of Muppets]

Woohoo! Needed bread and grocery store finally stocked up to a more normal level. Items like disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer sold out, but grilling steak for dinner. People were doing a good job of distancing and there were sneeze guards set up at all the checkout lines.

I'm seeing that too.  Toilet paper, bottled water, and paper towels are.... not exactly plentiful but at least not hard to find.  But I still can't find hand sanitizer, isopropyl alcohol, or aloe vera gel anywhere.

[Pastor of Muppets]

https://www.livescience.com/new-coronavirus-compare-with-flu.html

Death rate of the seasonal flu = 0.1%
Death rate of Covid 19 = At least 2%, As high as 12% in Wuhan

The two are not comparable. And I have no doubt that for people with Cystic Fibrosis, the fatality rate is much higher.  And just to be clear, these aren't % of the entire population, these are % of the people already confirmed to have the virus, dying from it.

Covid 19 exists in this odd little zone which can either make it difficult to take seriously, or make people take it way too seriously.

A death rate of 2% is, honestly, not that scary.  It's not apocalyptic like pandemics in almost every* TV show and movie revolving around pandemics, where every pandemic has something close to 100%.  Obviously, you let the virus run out of control and that's pretty bad.  2% of the world is still 140 million people.  That'd be bad for a year or two but the human race would go on.

For those infected, the vast majority are miserable for a week or two but get over it like the flu.

So it's hard to look at these and understand what all the hub-bub is about.  Besides that, these restrictions are a tough pill to swallow.  Humans are creatures of habit and this kind of disruption is tough to deal with.  It's a necessary evil though.  It took me a couple weeks to come around.  I don't know Quirk's aunt, but I think a lot of people can be convinced if you reason with them, take a little empathy with the fact that these disruptions suck, and explain in a non-combative way.  If you're aggressive with it, you just piss people off and make them more entrenched.

I think what convinced me was that although the mortality rate is low and I personally have nothing to worry about, the goal is not so much to stop the pandemic from spreading... but to stop it from spreading so fast that the health care system is overwhelmed.  Because I think that the prognosis is still fairly good for people with underlying conditions who might need medical care, if they can get it.  But if the health care system is too overwhelmed to provide it, then people who would have survived a slow pandemic die in a fast one.

[RVR II]

This was Just Posted by SC Emergency Management..

By order of the Governor, all visitors to the State of South Carolina from the states of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, the City of New Orleans and any other area deemed to be at high risk for COVID-19 infection must immediately isolate themselves or self-quarantine for 14 days or for the duration of their presence in South Carolina, whichever is shorter. Failure to comply could result in a $100 fine or up to 30 days in jail. (Executive Order No. 2020-14)

Everyone can help limit the spread of the virus by staying home, avoiding large groups, staying six feet apart from people who aren’t family and taking everyday precautions to stay healthy.

[goflyblind]

A death rate of 2% is, honestly, not that scary.

...

For those infected, the vast majority are miserable for a week or two but get over it like the flu.

[citations needed]

[Pastor of Muppets]

A death rate of 2% is, honestly, not that scary.

...

For those infected, the vast majority are miserable for a week or two but get over it like the flu.

[citations needed]

Only source I can remember off the top of my head is this: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

[goflyblind]

A death rate of 2% is, honestly, not that scary.

...

For those infected, the vast majority are miserable for a week or two but get over it like the flu.

[citations needed]

Only source I can remember off the top of my head is this: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

that says nothing about either of those points.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

The death rate goes up dramatically with age, orders of magnitude worse than the flu.  2% is probably high for the overall average, it's probably between 1 and 2, now think of this: if 20,000 people a year die from the flu at 0.1%, that would mean hundreds of thousands of deaths from corona if we allow it to spread just like the flu.

Read an article a few days ago that even people over 50 are much higher risk, but once you get to 70+ the rate goes up to something like 14%.  That's assuming all the people that get sick have access to hospital care, in Italy where they ran out of space the death rate skyrocketed.

Local notes:  Since the jerks that own the empty hospital in Philly wouldn't let the city rent that, Temple U. is letting the city use it's facilities for free.

Near me the national guard is refitting the Mills School (juvenile reform school shut down due to abuse) as an overflow medical facility.  Plan is if too many corona patients fill up hospitals people that don't have the virus but need to recover from surgery or other less serious injuries can be moved to that facility.