Semi-OT: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread III (Info. Post 1)

[Metallikid]

Trump should realize that there's millions of Chinese people that live in America and calling it the "Chinese virus" might alienate them. This guy really has no self-awareness at all. What a tool.

It is an incredibly racist scapegoating of a problem that he said not a week ago that Europe was the epicentre of. China has the less virulent strain. Europe has the more virulent strain. This is an absolutely unforgivable deflection from the seriousness of this crisis and the lack of strong, early, consistent action.

[Nuntius]

We have 6 times the population though so isn’t it good that total cases are similar?

If we are tracking something like the number of heart attacks, obese people, etc. then definitely you would need to take into account population sizes.

Since we are tracking growth of a virus starting with very small numbers, what it means to me is that if we don’t act sufficiently, the rate of infection will continue to increase like Italy and over the long run the numbers for infected people would be proportional- over the mid to long term.

Since we are not at that point, then hopefully we can try to flatten the curve as much as possible. If our curve flattens on the same timeline as Italy’s eventually does, then the total impact in our country will be proportionally much less. Also, our hospitals would not be overloaded in the same way as Italy.

So I think what the curves tell me is that we have to act now, and if we do we can avoid the catastrophe that is happening in Italy- but only if we take proper measures.

What do you think?

Sounds legit. While people get on me for not panicking enough I’ve done my part. Besides work, I havnt left my house except once to go to the grocery store. Bored as hell beyond belief, but I’m doing my part.


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Then why are you so against people urging others to do their parts as well? What you've been posting in this thread doesn't logically follow with what you're doing.

[Optimus_Steel]

We keep hearing about corporations stepping up to try to help.

That's great, but it just underscores how lacking the government's response still is.

Anybody here can get a test?

It's March 18th now.

When is a reasonable date to expect to be able to get a test? (besides "yesterday" obvious answers).

When you allow corporations to dictate public policy you end up begging for benevolent corporations to come thru but they are programmed to maximize share holder value, not save humanity, they are a major reason why the response from the Federal government has been so slow because they have become the #1 priority. As shown by the rather ease last week from the Federal government to sink in $1.5 trillion dollars without asking how it's going to get paid. When you got Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive and lobbyist running the department of health and human services, and he is asked about a potential vaccine and affordability and his first reaction is essentially making it clear he wants to make sure the phamaceuticals profit from it shows you we are not in a good place.

[steger_3434]

If we are tracking something like the number of heart attacks, obese people, etc. then definitely you would need to take into account population sizes.

Since we are tracking growth of a virus starting with very small numbers, what it means to me is that if we don’t act sufficiently, the rate of infection will continue to increase like Italy and over the long run the numbers for infected people would be proportional- over the mid to long term.

Since we are not at that point, then hopefully we can try to flatten the curve as much as possible. If our curve flattens on the same timeline as Italy’s eventually does, then the total impact in our country will be proportionally much less. Also, our hospitals would not be overloaded in the same way as Italy.

So I think what the curves tell me is that we have to act now, and if we do we can avoid the catastrophe that is happening in Italy- but only if we take proper measures.

What do you think?

Sounds legit. While people get on me for not panicking enough I’ve done my part. Besides work, I havnt left my house except once to go to the grocery store. Bored as hell beyond belief, but I’m doing my part.


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Then why are you so against people urging others to do their parts as well? What you've been posting in this thread doesn't logically follow with what you're doing.

Because there are a lot of fear mongering words and panic being thrown around in this thread. I’m being calm about this situation while being careful. I also am looking at all sides and realize the amount of lives we are saving by these measures are also ruining other people’s lives economically and we all know troubles economically lead to suicide, torn families, drug addiction, crime sometimes


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[azcatz11]

I ordered DoorDash again for lunch today. You can text the driver and they will leave the food outside your house. I tipped the guy $5

[steger_3434]

I ordered DoorDash again for lunch today. You can text the driver and they will leave the food outside your house. I tipped the guy $5

I feel most bad about the small business. I ordered curbside from a small brewery that serves food today for my family. Tipped them 100% of my bill. These are the people this affects most. They are the ones sacrificing their way of earning an income to better themselves for the greater good of America


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[azcatz11]

I ordered DoorDash again for lunch today. You can text the driver and they will leave the food outside your house. I tipped the guy $5

I feel most bad about the small business. I ordered curbside from a small brewery that serves food today for my family. Tipped them 100% of my bill. These are the people this affects most. They are the ones sacrificing their way of earning an income to better themselves for the greater good of America


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I'm with you...I'm trying to order as much as possible even though it will get a little expensive. I figure a month of ordering at least once a day supporting local businesses is a good idea. If everyone does it...it will make a difference...

FYI - there is no evidence the virus transmits via food. There is concern via packaging so wash your hands as soon as you handle the packaging and you should be fine.

[HotRocks34]

USA testing has increased about 10x over the last week according to this chart:
https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/


Tests done from March 10-11 -----------> about 2,800
Tests done from March 17-18 ----------> about 22,000


As I said earlier, solid start. Hoping we can get to minimum 50,000 per day and would be a lot happier with around 100,000 per day.



This site gives a rough overview of how many tests each nation has done to this point. Note: Some of the data is outdated (like China). But still gives some sense of comparison. I don't know if this site updates or it's just a one-time data drop. This information was put out yesterday:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-19-tests-country

China -------------------> 320,000 tests (may have slowed dramatically as virus seems handled there)
South Korea ------------> 286,000 tests (now about 308,000)
Italy ---------------------> 148,000
UAE ----------------------> 125,000
Kuwait -------------------> 120,000*
Russia -------------------> 116,000
UK --------------------------> 50,000
USA -------------------------> 41,000 (now 76,000+)
Canada ---------------------> 38,000


So, the USA has a long way to go to catch up to some of these other nations. Hopefully it can happen soon, and we can get a real grip on this thing.

* Kuwait data from here:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing-source-data

[chrismikayla]

Good grief people are doing some strange things.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-jersey-coronavirus-patient-gives-hospital-fake-name-address-then-n1162076

[Sisqo]

USA testing has increased about 10x over the last week according to this chart:
https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/


Tests done from March 10-11 -----------> about 2,800
Tests done from March 17-18 ----------> about 22,000


As I said earlier, solid start. Hoping we can get to minimum 50,000 per day and would be a lot happier with around 100,000 per day.



This site gives a rough overview of how many tests each nation has done to this point. Note: Some of the data is outdated (like China). But still gives some sense of comparison. I don't know if this site updates or it's just a one-time data drop. This information was put out yesterday:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-19-tests-country

China -------------------> 320,000 tests (may have slowed dramatically as virus seems handled there)
South Korea ------------> 286,000 tests (now about 308,000)
Italy ---------------------> 148,000
UAE ----------------------> 125,000
Russia -------------------> 116,000
UK --------------------------> 50,000
USA -------------------------> 41,000 (now 76,000+)
Canada ---------------------> 38,000


So, the USA has a long way to go to catch up to some of these other nations. Hopefully it can happen soon, and we can get a real grip on this thing.

It would be great if Canada could pick their asses up a little bit.

[lakerz12]

Trump should realize that there's millions of Chinese people that live in America and calling it the "Chinese virus" might alienate them. This guy really has no self-awareness at all. What a tool.

It is an incredibly racist scapegoating of a problem that he said not a week ago that Europe was the epicentre of. China has the less virulent strain. Europe has the more virulent strain. This is an absolutely unforgivable deflection from the seriousness of this crisis and the lack of strong, early, consistent action.

It's a little ironic that when Trump did take strong, relatively early action in restricting entry into U.S. from China on January 31st...he was also then called a racist and xenophobic person (even by Joe Biden). So it seems there's a strong desire to label Trump a racist. I'm not sure where that really gets us.

I think any animosity Trump has for China is not a racism issue. It goes back to the ongoing economic and power war between U.S. and China. He wants people to blame China for the virus.

[BladeDaywalker]

Read on Twitter

[BladeDaywalker]

Read on Twitter

[Nuntius]

Sounds legit. While people get on me for not panicking enough I’ve done my part. Besides work, I havnt left my house except once to go to the grocery store. Bored as hell beyond belief, but I’m doing my part.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

Then why are you so against people urging others to do their parts as well? What you've been posting in this thread doesn't logically follow with what you're doing.

Because there are a lot of fear mongering words and panic being thrown around in this thread. I’m being calm about this situation while being careful. I also am looking at all sides and realize the amount of lives we are saving by these measures are also ruining other people’s lives economically and we all know troubles economically lead to suicide, torn families, drug addiction, crime sometimes


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I do agree about the potential economical ramifications of a shut down. That's exactly why you need a government that is going to take care of the people who were forced to stay away from work, lose their income and potentially their jobs. Unfortunately, not a lot of countries have that kind of government.

Now, about the fear mongering words and panic that you claim to be seeing in these threads. Frankly, I just don't see it overall. Yeah, there are a couple of posters who are using the kind of rhetoric that could be construed as that but they are a minority. And honestly, when we're talking about a pandemic like this one, it's usually better to err on the side of caution than the opposite. So, even if I disagree with those takes, I'm not going to take offense to them. But that's just my opinion, of course.

[madmaxmedia]

In my post about comparing Italy and USA COVID cases, I forgot to take into account prevalence of testing which is a factor in how many confirmed cases there are.

Hopefully we can make tests much more available here soon, and we’ll see how that affects the number of confirmed cases here.

[rapstarter]

Honestly I was more hopeful today than I'd been in the last 7 days. Then I saw those Florida pics. They are the same people who are going to ignore social distancing and spread the disease when they go back to their states. Absolute morons.

[Stillwater]

The amount of public lab administered that are reporting to the CDC vs largely not reported private health lab testing continues to leave this country with mixed data.
Just looking at the large number of daily deaths in Italy in past few days should definitely make all Americans stomach turn.
And to those who think they are not at risk due to age aside from what I think of you, the reality is that so called immunity is starting to look like bad information as it just grows slower in younger infected is a strong possibility

[spacemonkey]

Read on Twitter

Edit: Pretty suspect wording in the note next to Japan, though...

[HotRocks34]

UK looking to step up their testing abilities
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/johnson-plans-to-increase-coronavirus-tests-to-25000-a-day

[NoDopeOnSundays]

NY is at 60 of a possible 600 ICU beds.


A lot of people are going to die here.