Hope you’re all safe; hope you’re all washing your hands; hope you’re all hunkering down. Our federal government (here in the US at least) has failed in pretty much every way it’s possible to fail and to a large extent we have to rely on our state and local governments — and each other.
In some ways the most horrific thing I’ve learned in the last few days was this: Trump, who hits new lows as a president and as a human being on a daily basis, has been trying to basically buy a German firm working on a vaccine that he wants to be available exclusively in the US.
Here are some other articles I’ve found useful in making sense of all this. Some of them are disturbing, but we can’t successfully confront what we don’t understand.
The Quiet Terror of Coronavirus, by Talia Lavin, GQ
Cancel Everything, The Atlantic
Social Distancing: This is Not a Snow Day, Medium
These simulations show how to flatten the coronavirus growth curve, Washington Post
The Worst-Case Estimate for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths, NYT
Infected people without symptoms might be driving the spread of coronavirus more than we realized, CNN
Please post any other articles and resources you’ve found to be helpful.
–DF
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Still no kits, but they are getting worse and we’re told to proceed assuming they have Covid-19. Not quite at hospital levels yet.
So today Mr. Parasol and I were going to make our usual grocery run. I’ve been working on the grocery list (thank you, grocery store’s app!) all weekend, making sure we got everything we needed and trying to get a few other things, too. Basically, I was in the brainspace I use when it’s flood season.
First surprise: Our grocery store was limiting its hours so they could have more time to unload trucks and restock. Okay, we thought, that’s reasonable. We waited a bit to leave the house and headed over.
Second surprise: There was a huge line, one that had doubled back on itself. I’m talking a line that reminded me of Star Wars movie lines. Turned out it was moving slowly because the store employees were letting only a few in at a time. Social distancing, I guess? Mr. Parasol has anxiety with crowds (assisted by us getting stuck in an airport on 9/11), so I offered to go in by myself, but he said I’d be stuck in there for a couple hours and he’d worry about me. I’m diabetic, so I’m officially considered at risk.
So we went to the nearby Wal-Mart.
Third (not really) surprise: There were no paper towels or toilet paper there. We’re actually pretty good on TP, but I’d been a doofushead last week and forgotten to put paper towels on the list, so right now we’re down to 2 or 3 rolls, which isn’t going to last long in this household.
Fourth (bigger) surprise: There was ONE cashier, and that was on an express lane. Just about everybody there was having to go through the self-serve scanners. But everybody was staying calm and serious, exchanging “we’re all in this together” looks, pretty much like we saw in the Houston airport baggage claim area on 9/11.
We got most of what was on the list, and after we got home and put everything away, I checked around and finally managed to order TP/paper towels to be delivered tomorrow via Amazon Fresh. First-world solution. 😛
My husband’s anxiety is still high. Every news story we’ve seen about people who’re at risk if they catch COVID-19 seems to start the list with “people who have diabetes” before they list any other chronic conditions. He knows we’re being careful, but his brain is replaying the track it took back in August 2016 when he had to rush me to the ER and he had to go home without me, wondering if I was going to die before he could see me again.
I’m focusing on small things, like how to get paper towels, and knitting on a coaster.
Gonna thank WWTH for the recommendations. Apparently a document got leaked by the Peruvian government, it looks 100% legit. It’s an Urgency Decree declaring state of emergency and suspending freedom of transit and personal liberties for 30 days.
Only supermarkets, pharmacies and similar will remain open, everything else is meant to close. The police and military will be deployed to ensure people heed these measures.
I think it’s appropriate given the new information coming in where, even if you do heal, 1 out of 4 cases seem to have permanent lung damage (around 20 to 30% loss of lung capacity).
So stay safe guya. I expect our president will come on TV in two or three hours to make the announcement official.
I can’t bring myself to participate in this project and assume that most who wanted to join it have found it already, but just in case:
https://hackaday.com/2020/03/12/ultimate-medical-hackathon-how-fast-can-we-design-and-deploy-an-open-source-ventilator/
Some basic links I found recently:
https://www.who.int/redirect-pages/page/novel-coronavirus-(covid-19)-situation-dashboard
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
https://mackuba.eu/corona/
https://www.worldometers.info/
Some data from china for medics:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30566-3/fulltext
Caring for patients at home:
http://covid-at-home.info/
Open letter from italy:
https://left.it/2020/03/13/covid_19-open-letter-from-italy-to-the-international-scientific-community/
About masks:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214
About care in general:
https://emcrit.org/ibcc/covid19/
For hacker types of people:
https://twitter.com/TahaMD_EM/status/1238017888897900544
For people who really want to earn the moniker of hacker (*fawn*):
https://hackaday.com/2020/03/12/ultimate-medical-hackathon-how-fast-can-we-design-and-deploy-an-open-source-ventilator/
Let’s see: in Ohio, all the restaurants, bars, and shops are to close down at 9:00 EDT tonight.
The schools and public libraries preceded them at 6:00 PM this past Friday–except for (local university library redacted), which is remaining open regular hours to students and the public alike–although it remains to be seen how long that lasts, and with every other computer shut down to enforce Social Distancing.
Gossip overheard during the course of a (necessary) public transit ride:
Everything is shutting down for a year.
It’s the Chinese’s fault.
It’s big retailers’ fault, and the crisis is inflated to spur a shopping rampage.
It’s Trump’s fault, because he wants an excuse to impose martial law.
It’s (((You-Know-Whose))) fault, because of course it is. (From the same speaker: are we all supposed to be it @#$%&*! hermits? What are we supposed to do for fun–go to the @#$%&*! parks?)
It’s a sign of the End TImes, because of course it is.
(Not heard so far, although I suspect it’s only a matter of time: it’s the Catholics’ fault–coronavirus restrictions requiring everybody to give up something for Lent.)
Boardgames — who does not love them?
I really enjoy pandemic the boardgame in the legacy version where thinks go totally wild (and the medics are in for a fun twist on their expectations) but everything feels a bit realistic.
Also betrayal legacy is a nice horror game about betrayand and consequences, which one can play with friends and family.
Any Cthulluh boardgame or pen and paper game works as well — most of them are also playable over the net, of course. Paranoia is a cult classic and rightly so: Fight your friends and an AI overlord / lady (?) for great justice and bouncy bouble beverage. It’s a bit sadomasochistic but overall it’s wholesome fun for adults.
There is roll20.net which is a good VT in my mind. I would offer you a seat at my table but I am currently to busy with real life and can’t play a lot :/
For computer games, I would recommend any vampire the masquarade game and paranoia the computer game, but so far I have only gotten the hype of the latter, not played it. Overcooked 2 ist a great game too, Nier: Autonoma is very fun to me (and teaches a bit of philosophy if you are into that) and Oxygen not included is…well addictive. Great for long nights in front of a computer if you are into physics and stuff. Also it’s very cutesy and brutally deadly and a bit realistic. If you want to add me, I’m Vektorfee (that means vector sprite, as in a sprite who likes to think in spatial dimensions).
Of course, you can also try and learn usefull stuff and I got some ideas if you like…but it will take a bit to compile them. They mostly revolve around medicine, communication tech and other fun projects for techy types. Have a safe isolation everyone.
@FMO
That one could have a grain of truth to it. Trump didn’t create the coronavirus, but he’d certainly be only too happy to impose martial law.
@Naglfar
Honestly at this point I wonder if Trump will have a military coup on his hands.
Well, the casinos in Washington (state) are staying open, at least for now. I think it’s a bad idea. Our biggest demographic is the most vulnerable part of the population, and casinos stay in business because hoping to get lucky almost never works.
@Anonymous
I rather doubt it. The military is still quite conservative as a whole.
@Anonymous, America organises military coups elsewhere, not at home.
I’m hearing a lot of conflicting information and it’s stressing me out. I understand avoiding large groups but not sure if I can or should still meet friends one on one? Doesn’t help that my country (UK) is basically ignoring WHO advice and our PM literally said that people are going to die but doesn’t seem to feel like doing anything about it.
The government in the UK is absolutely useless; the Health Secretary put out an article in their favoured newspaper, which was behind a paywall. It feels like they’re happy to see the vulnerable die. I’m a bit stressed. My gran is 84 and not well, my dad and step dad are both diabetic, my mum has sleep apnea, I have asthma (and near constant cold infections) and my bestie has cerebral palsy – and her lungs are under developed. I’m seriously anxious about them getting sick.
I don’t go out much, but when I go to appointments at the adult autism service or the wellbeing service I constantly worry I’m putting other people at risk. I joked with my sisters that I wouldn’t know I had COVID-19 until it was too late because I’m ill fairly regularly with cold and flu-like symptoms (as in, I got a cold in January that lasted 6 weeks, had a week feeling decent and am now 2 weeks and 2 days into my second cold of the year – this is normal for me). My colds tend to have fevers with them, depending on the infection I sometimes have a cough too. How the heck am I to know if it’s one of my normal infections or COVID-19? And what if I get it and pass it on without realising? I don’t want to be responsible for people getting ill or even dying because I can’t tell what’s not-normal.
So, since Wednesday I’ve basically stayed home. I went out last night, just before shops shut so there would be no one around, so I could get fresh fruit and some chocolate. Trying to decide whether or not to go to my support appointments this coming week. I want to because I really need to talk to my support worker, but I don’t want to risk passing on this cold, or picking anything new up.
Yes, the Tories are being predictably awful. Their stated policy of hoping to rapidly build up herd immunity in the population just seems to be a euphemism for “let them all get sick; God will know his own”.
@Ooble
I am not a doctor, but from what I know it seems best to avoid one on one meetings as well. You could accidentally transmit or receive the virus too easily.
@Moggie
Reminds me more of Marilyn Manson: “Let’s just kill everyone and let your god sort them out.”
@Naglfar
https://twitter.com/i/status/1238793637628125184
If it sounds horrible, it’s because it is.
@Naglfar
Yes, that’s what I’m worried will happen. Thanks.
@Naglfar, Marilyn Manson was just (almost) quoting Arnaud Amalric at the sacking of Béziers.
@Nagfar @Nanny Oggs Bosom
The strategy is controversial and the numbers just aren’t realistic. The low mortality rate assumes a very high level of care as seen in china. It will very likely be much much higher than that if they go trough with that.
Also: The picture of me is dated now. I’m not on active duty because of social / psychological factors. I think you can imagine….
*sigh* I hope I’ll regain a bit of my sanity / good girl points tomorrow at my shrink’s
@Moggie
I knew he was quoting something, I just couldn’t remember what. Thank you for adding that.
Here in the US we have members of Congress going on Fox to tell people to go to their favorite bars to stimulate the economy. So we seem to be spreading it rather deliberately.
@Naglfar,
Well in my country there’s hoops and loops to jump trough to get healthcare and everything is market-optimized. It was bad before the virus. It’s hard to endure at the moment. Also, I might be on the spectrum, need meds to function and have to jump trough hoops and loops again to get a permanent prescription – oh and I am one of the very priviledged people in this sector. The system just hates me for some reason.
For thoses who didn’t look at the other thread, I am ill and might or might not have indirectly contaminated an elderly under chimiotherapie. (and a bunch of 20-30 year olds people that probably should be fine).
Anxiety and stress is definitely eating at me. Recover from a flu-like disease is alway pretty shitty, but when you question yourself about what you could have done more, as well as anxiously try to monitor if things go better or worse, that’s quite horrible.
I can’t sleep more than two hours in a row it seem, I am not sure why. (once again, it’s not uncommon for me when recovering from the seasonal fly). That definitely don’t help.
Good lucj all, and take care of yourself.
Ohlmann –
Please relax and let yourself heal.
I totally understand what you’re saying, but unless you deliberately and maliciously infected that elderly person (which I am sure you did not do), then it isn’t your fault. The best that you can do for them now is to get better yourself. And, if you’re a religious person, pray for them. I will pray for them, you and all others.
Please, please release the anxiety and worry, let your body heal, then help that person and others when you are fully healed, which I hope will be soon.
Sending you wishes of good sleep and pleasant dreams.