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Apart from making meals at home WAY more (probably 80%-90%), my wife and I have decided to only get take-out food specifically from a very small number of mom-and-pop local places (no chains).

There’s an incredible Ethiopian restaurant about 3 blocks from us, with just the loveliest people ever who run it. And we’re gonna get takeout from them 1-2x per week, and I’m planning to have them charge me for an extra 2 entrees each time we get food there (starting tonight), just to try and help keep some cash flowing for them. I know it’s not a lot, and not enough to make or break them. But they’re SUCH good people - really about THE nicest people at any restaurant we’ve ever frequented in all our years.

Not a penny (from us) for Chipotle any more during this crisis (which is gonna get a lot worse), or for/to any of half-a-dozen other fast-casual food chains we’ve always gotten half or more of our meals from (simply out of convenience).

Every penny (of our pennies) for take-out, (now) goes to the French bakery storefront in our apartment building (run by the sweetest older couple you’ve ever seen), or the aforementioned Ethiopian place, or maybe 2 other mom-n-pops off the top of my head — from now until life gets back to normal (or some kind of new normal, where those kinds of businesses are staying afloat ok).

 

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3 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Apart from making meals at home WAY more (probably 80%-90%), my wife and I have decided to only get take-out food specifically from a very small number of mom-and-pop local places (no chains).

There’s an incredible Ethiopian restaurant about 3 blocks from us, with just the loveliest people ever who run it. And we’re gonna get takeout from them 1-2x per week, and I’m planning to have them charge me for an extra 2 entrees each time we get food there (starting tonight), just to try and help keep some cash flowing for them. I know it’s not a lot, and not enough to make or break them. But they’re SUCH good people - really about THE nicest people at any restaurant we’ve ever frequented in all our years.

Not a penny (from us) for Chipotle any more during this crisis (which is gonna get a lot worse), or for/to any of half-a-dozen other fast-casual food chains we’ve always gotten half or more of our meals from (simply out of convenience).

Every penny (of our pennies) for take-out, (now) goes to the French bakery storefront in our apartment building (run by the sweetest older couple you’ve ever seen), or the aforementioned Ethiopian place, or maybe 2 other mom-n-pops off the top of my head — from now until life gets back to normal (or some kind of new normal, where those kinds of businesses are staying afloat ok).

 

Definitely a smart move to support small local stores and restaurants ....

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39 minutes ago, soulpope said:

Definitely a smart move to support small local stores and restaurants ....

Yes, I like that approach for sure.  Mom and Pops are also maybe more likely more careful with hygiene at this time than kids at the chains.

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I was living in the People's Republic of China in January, when the coronavirus outbreak became news.  (Excuse the vague "became news".  Remember, I was getting my news from the PRC government, so I don't really know about dissemination/perception outside.)  I've been through three quarantines of varying length, to leave PRC, in Hong Kong SAR, and in the United States.  None have been a big deal to me, especially in the latter two, where some corner of the internet was available to me, some relatively unfiltered news.  There is, though, a sense of deja vu to it all.  In China, the business started closing, the parks, the libraries...then in Hong Kong, when I was there...and the Houston Rodeo is closed now, same experience, two months on. 

As it seems PRC seems to be making progress against the virus, it has been easier to accept each subsequent isolation, loss of access to people and businesses, resources. 

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This is a New York Times article (and all their Covid19 articles are NOT behind a paywall).

There’s more context in the entire article, but I’m quoting two full consecutive paragraphs from the story. I recommend reading the whole article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/coronavirus-deaths-estimate.amp.html

Headline: Worst-Case Estimates for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths

Between 160 million and 214 million people in the United States could be infected over the course of the epidemic, according to a projection that encompasses the range of the four scenarios [See earlier in the article for more context.] That could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die [in the U.S.].

And, the calculations based on the C.D.C.’s scenarios suggested, 2.4 million to 21 million people in the United States could require hospitalization, potentially crushing the nation’s medical system, which has only about 925,000 staffed hospital beds. Fewer than a tenth of those are for people who are critically ill.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/coronavirus-deaths-estimate.amp.html

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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Stuff gets bad here in The Netherlands too. From this day: all schools, restaurants and all non essential shops will be closed for 3 weeks. I can’t imagine the economic damage. Also to my own big frustration: people are hoarding like mad men, and because they are hoarding others start hoarding too. It’s commonly known that food supplies are not in any danger. Wasn’t even the case in China or Italy. Unfortunately these situations don’t show that people are social creatures but selfish creatures. There was no bread, no baby food and no pain killer to be found anywhere. My baby boy got an ear ache. And while I can’t give him a painkiller and he’s in pain and can’t sleep, others without any disease symptoms are sitting on 5 boxes of painkillers... assholes.

I am a high school teacher for kids with special educational needs. My tutorclass is in for the exams this year. Tomorrow we’ll have to make a plan to educate them from a distance.

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57 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

This is a New York Times article (and all their Covid19 articles are NOT behind a paywall).

There’s more context in the entire article, but I’m quoting two full consecutive paragraphs from the story. I recommend reading the whole article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/coronavirus-deaths-estimate.amp.html

Headline: Worst-Case Estimates for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths

Between 160 million and 214 million people in the United States could be infected over the course of the epidemic, according to a projection that encompasses the range of the four scenarios [See earlier in the article for more context.] That could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die [in the U.S.].

And, the calculations based on the C.D.C.’s scenarios suggested, 2.4 million to 21 million people in the United States could require hospitalization, potentially crushing the nation’s medical system, which has only about 925,000 staffed hospital beds. Fewer than a tenth of those are for people who are critically ill.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/coronavirus-deaths-estimate.amp.html

I don’t find articles like these particularly helpful. It just creates further anxiety and there is enough of that already. At this point we know what we must do. 

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Some of us do. Many of us.

Some I hear in my neighborhood and among a branch of my in-laws are drinking KoolAid that tells them the media is responsible for blowing this all out of proportion and it's weaponized by Democrats and it's silly to deprive them of their sports and sports-related income. 

Sigh.

I now can't visit my Dad at his own place unless he becomes fatally ill. And they are encouraging him to isolate himself even from the dining room of his facility. I hope this doesn't continue on and on and on.

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I don’t agree it’s being weaponized and it is damn serious but some articles and television broadcast coverage are raising the anxiety level and that’s just not helpful. The Times and other newspapers have articles with dos and donts and those are helpful but predicting how many may die and so forth are not in that category. 

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29 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Some of us do. Many of us.

Some I hear in my neighborhood and among a branch of my in-laws are drinking KoolAid that tells them the media is responsible for blowing this all out of proportion and it's weaponized by Democrats and it's silly to deprive them of their sports and sports-related income. 

Sigh.

I now can't visit my Dad at his own place unless he becomes fatally ill. And they are encouraging him to isolate himself even from the dining room of his facility. I hope this doesn't continue on and on and on.

I have several friends in your situation, Lon. One has a mother who was just moved into a care facility, but her husband had to leave her at the door, and she is suffering from dementia. I know that in some places, depending on staffing, they have been able to set up a way for family to talk to their loved ones digitally on face-time, skype, or other platforms. As for me, my grandson had a slight fever the day after I transported him to a sax lesson. He got over it immediately, didn't cough at all and didn't touch me, but I was in the car with him. So, out of an overabundance of caution, I am largely staying in my house (or, as one of my Facebook friends put it, "exiled for the good of the realm!"). It's the uncertainty that is so unnerving. Well, that, and the criminal lack of available tests, but that gets into politics, and we don't do that on the Board.

Anyway, I'm deeply sympathetic to all of those in your situation.

 

gregmo

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I posted the article, and I'll defend it.  The degree of shutdown in this country (US) should be significantly greater by now.  Only hindsight will eventually tell if that's correct (or not), but we are headed the direction of Italy more and more with every passing day.

My wife is a Federal employee, but the Federal Government isn't telecommuting yet (or it's only "optional" - and only for some). That's where they should have been 7-10 days ago, but it's not clear that they'll make everyone work from home even by the end of this week.  Lower middle-level managers are privately being encouraged (by their Middle middle-level bosses) to "be bold" in granting telecommuting approvals, in the complete absence of any clear direction from above.  And every agency is on their own in deciding what to do.  It's staggering.

I won't get political, but these are all executive agencies (each headed by cabinet members), and you know what I'd probably say next.  It's not hyperbole to say that in large measure, the fate of the nation rests on the 50 Governors of our states, and each state's individual plans (and the individual strengths and weaknesses of each of those governors and states).

Articles like this about "worst cases" shouldn't have to be helpful (and I agree, under normal circumstances they probably aren't).   But when the Federal Government is completely dragging their feet, week after week (wide scale testing has been promised "next week" for 3 weeks running now, but with an extremely slow rollout), then articles like this are probably both usefully and unfortunately necessary, to get people to wake the fuck up.

I've seen polling on the news (from 2-3 different sources in just the last 48 hours) saying the degree people are taking this unfolding crisis seriously (or not), is CLEARLY correlated to the political affiliation of those being polled.  WTF??

I hope to hell that we're only looking at a couple 10's of thousands of deaths (when this is all said and done) -- but the stakes are potentially MUCH, MUCH, MUCH higher.  Which is all this article was trying to say.

A reputable guest on Face The Nation this morning said that we're looking the potential of multiple Wuhan-size events in this country alone (Washington State, and New York City being just the most likely first two instances).

Unchecked, the infection rate doubles every 6 days (I've seen 5-6 days cited a lot, as well as 6-7 days).  Exponential growth is not something you fuck around with.  Everything that can be shut down, should be.  EVERYONE should be limiting their social contact to AT LEAST 80% LESS than normal.  Notice, I didn't say 99%.  I'm not being alarmist about demanding a perfect response.  But the message from the Federal Government has been extremely muddled, and limp, and with extraordinary mixed messages -- resulting in the partisan divide on how serious all this is.

By the time it's all so bad that it's CLEAR we need to do something WAY more serious, it'll be two weeks too fucking late.  And it may already be.

Ask Italy.  Or Iran.  We've had at least 6 weeks to prepare for this, and it seems like we've only been fairly serious about it for 7-10 days, and the best laid plans seem to be about 3-4 weeks behind schedule.  And in the absence of widespread testing, our best healthcare and virologists are flying blind.

I shut up now, before I get political about it.

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Completely agree with everything you said, Rooster. And the idiocy and denial at work among the many diehard DT backers in this country is now actively endangering the population. 

14 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

I'm with you, Rooster. 

This isn't about politics.  It's about saving as many lives as possible.  The only way to do that is to take this VERY seriously.

And that means that we must do things differently than we normally do. 

Amen!

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Less than 36 hours ago (I forget which night it was, around 11pm Friday night, iirc), the DOD banned all DOMESTIC travel for ALL Defense Department employees and all Military personnel, including all Defense Contractors, and all of their families -- for something like the next 45 days.

The Military knows this is fucking serious.  You will quickly see a wall between the entire Military (and all of its support personnel), and all of the rest of us.  I'm betting DOD's orders on this will only escalate in the next 7-10 days.

Spokespersons for the Federal Government (for the Executive Branch, let's just say it), who are doctors and epidemiologists are all TELEGRAPHING that we should be shutting most everything down to some degree or another, for several weeks.  But none of them will answer any direct questions about whether we should do X, Y, or Z that is CLEARLY consistent with everything they are telegraphing -- instead saying it's up to local authorities to make those determinations.  All of whom, are also flying blind without widespread testing available.

Sound Korea can test something like 15K people for Covid19 every single day.  The US hasn't even tested 15K people TOTAL, the last I heard -- and the majority of tests conducted in the entire state of Utah were on a pro basketball team.  That got the NBA shut down, which was the first domino in shutting down all sports, pro, college, and amateur at all levels -- so that's good.  But it's a crime that something like less than 150 tests were even available in the entire state of Utah (at the time the Jazz got tested).

I'm sure testing will get better in the next 7-10 days, but where the fuck was that 3 weeks ago?  The WHO had a test we could have bought, and had an ample supply of 3 weeks ago - but we decided to go it alone.  American Exceptionalism, YAY!!

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1 hour ago, Brad said:

...At this point we know what we must do. 

Knowing what to do and doing it are not the same thing. Even predictions of worst-case scenarios are not enough for many people. Sadly, some will not change their behaviors until tragedy hits closer to home. By then, it might be too late to have an impact on the spread of this disease.

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55 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I posted the article, and I'll defend it.  The degree of shutdown in this country (US) should be significantly greater by now.  Only hindsight will eventually tell if that's correct (or not), but we are headed the direction of Italy more and more with every passing day.

My wife is a Federal employee, but the Federal Government isn't telecommuting yet (or it's only "optional" - and only for some). That's where they should have been 7-10 days ago, but it's not clear that they'll make everyone work from home even by the end of this week.  Lower middle-level managers are privately being encouraged (by their Middle middle-level bosses) to "be bold" in granting telecommuting approvals, in the complete absence of any clear direction from above.  And every agency is on their own in deciding what to do.  It's staggering.

I won't get political, but these are all executive agencies (each headed by cabinet members), and you know what I'd probably say next.  It's not hyperbole to say that in large measure, the fate of the nation rests on the 50 Governors of our states, and each state's individual plans (and the individual strengths and weaknesses of each of those governors and states).

Articles like this about "worst cases" shouldn't have to be helpful (and I agree, under normal circumstances they probably aren't).   But when the Federal Government is completely dragging their feet, week after week (wide scale testing has been promised "next week" for 3 weeks running now, but with an extremely slow rollout), then articles like this are probably both usefully and unfortunately necessary, to get people to wake the fuck up.

I've seen polling on the news (from 2-3 different sources in just the last 48 hours) saying the degree people are taking this unfolding crisis seriously (or not), is CLEARLY correlated to the political affiliation of those being polled.  WTF??

I hope to hell that we're only looking at a couple 10's of thousands of deaths (when this is all said and done) -- but the stakes are potentially MUCH, MUCH, MUCH higher.  Which is all this article was trying to say.

A reputable guest on Face The Nation this morning said that we're looking the potential of multiple Wuhan-size events in this country alone (Washington State, and New York City being just the most likely first two instances).

Unchecked, the infection rate doubles every 6 days (I've seen 5-6 days cited a lot, as well as 6-7 days).  Exponential growth is not something you fuck around with.  Everything that can be shut down, should be.  EVERYONE should be limiting their social contact to AT LEAST 80% LESS than normal.  Notice, I didn't say 99%.  I'm not being alarmist about demanding a perfect response.  But the message from the Federal Government has been extremely muddled, and limp, and with extraordinary mixed messages -- resulting in the partisan divide on how serious all this is.

By the time it's all so bad that it's CLEAR we need to do something WAY more serious, it'll be two weeks too fucking late.  And it may already be.

Ask Italy.  Or Iran.  We've had at least 6 weeks to prepare for this, and it seems like we've only been fairly serious about it for 7-10 days, and the best laid plans seem to be about 3-4 weeks behind schedule.  And in the absence of widespread testing, our best healthcare and virologists are flying blind.

I shut up now, before I get political about it.

I understand your perspective. Unfortunately, we can’t rely on the federal government; their response has been putrid but let’s not get too political as we’re all probably on the same page when it comes to that.

Except for going to doctors or the grocery store, I’ve cut off my social interactions completely: no more gym, no more bookstores or record stores, restaurants and our library is closing tomorrow for at least a month.

It's hunker down time.  I’m turning 70 this year and my wife 71. We are in good health (no underlying conditions, my wife’s recent heart surgery notwithstanding) and just hope we make it through. 

Edited by Brad
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2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

...

Spokespersons for the Federal Government (for the Executive Branch, let's just say it), who are doctors and epidemiologists ...

We should be thankful there are any Federal Govt. doctors and epidemiologists left. I assumed most had been laid off and "replaced" by a handful of ex-pharmaceutical industry lobbyists. That's been the recently prevailing "business model" for US Federal agencies.

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17 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

I think some of the worst case scenarios (i.e. we'll be Italy in 10 days time) are a bit overblown because they don't seem to take into account the different ages of the population. Italy is the oldest except for Japan. We are not. So even if the extent of infection goes as expected, that doesn't mean the total predicted deaths has to.  Unless those differences are really being worked into it ....

Anyway, my sister sent this to me, seems like legit info and I don't think it can hurt you if its not 100% accurate:

 

 

Stanford hospital internal message:

The new Coronavirus may not show signs of in

According to Mother Jones this is not really from Stanford and not entirely accurate.   https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/theres-a-facebook-coronavirus-post-going-viral-claiming-to-be-from-stanford-dont-believe-it/?fbclid=IwAR2_KqLDQ2pOyQAhgUTgj7bks-NxxVa_1RYAtM3L0D0qdLskUKNlYkJaXwk

Edited by medjuck
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