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

[HotRocks34]

Ok. Dr Birx said today that there was like a 5-6 day backlog of tests waiting to be analyzed (a bunch of samples that needed to be processed to see if positive or negative).

If this data is true (it just came online; have to make sure it holds up and is not a glitch), then it looks like the backlog is over and the USA is finally fully in the test game:

https://covidtracking.com/data/

Total tests --------------> 181,804
Negative ----------------> 170,871
Positive --------------------> 8,128
Pending --------------------> 2,805


The last report that site had was about 76,000 tests with the last day having about 22,000 tests done. So if you have 5-6 days of backlog (of maybe 20,000 tests per day), that could give you the additional 100,000 test number.

Maybe i'm looking in the wrong place but I don't see any total amount near 180,000.. It says 82,510 total

It was a glitch. They switched it. Makes a lot more sense. Glad you caught this. I'll alter my original post. They just changed the info.

New numbers

Total tests -----------------> 82,522
Negative -------------------> 71,589
Positive ----------------------> 8,128
Pending ----------------------> 2,805

[Sisqo]

Ok. Dr Birx said today that there was like a 5-6 day backlog of tests waiting to be analyzed (a bunch of samples that needed to be processed to see if positive or negative).

If this data is true (it just came online; have to make sure it holds up and is not a glitch), then it looks like the backlog is over and the USA is finally fully in the test game:

https://covidtracking.com/data/

Total tests --------------> 181,804
Negative ----------------> 170,871
Positive --------------------> 8,128
Pending --------------------> 2,805


The last report that site had was about 76,000 tests with the last day having about 22,000 tests done. So if you have 5-6 days of backlog (of maybe 20,000 tests per day), that could give you the additional 100,000 test number.

Maybe i'm looking in the wrong place but I don't see any total amount near 180,000.. It says 82,510 total

It was a glitch. They switched it. Makes a lot more sense. Glad you caught this. I'll alter my original post. They just changed the info.

New numbers

Total tests -----------------> 82,522
Negative -------------------> 71,589
Positive ----------------------> 8,128
Pending ----------------------> 2,805

No problem..
The thing I don't get is how we are still hovering around almost 10% of the people tested at positive, didn't they claim it sas so much lower? I know they are only testing people at high risk of being positive but still it seems very high. Makes me believe the total number of infections is a lot higher than we might think. Ughh I hope i'm wrong.

[HollowEarth]

Still go out for a walk/run, but other than that catching up on Netflix, reading "Thinking Basketball" by Ben Taylor, and if gaming isn't your thing it sounds weird probably but I've gotten into Legos the last few years and just bought a big set (they make ones for adults/16+ that are pretty fun and complex). Also fallen into the YouTube rabbit hole a few times.

Exercising is definitely good. And yeah YouTube can be pretty addictive if you're not careful.

I might have to check out the Lego thing, it actually sounds interesting. I might get a Jenga set as well. It sounds kinda lame but at least it'll give me something to do in the meantime.

I actually was looking for stuff like that too tbh, but couldn't find it. Would recommend the Lego Creator Expert sets, they have some good ones (I built the James Bond Aston Martin and that was cool, along with some buildings). Their site or Amazon usually are the best prices, bigger sets are $150+, but if you've got time it's worth it for me.

Also, if you're stuck with roommates this has been a good time to game. I've been playing Mario Party and the old school Disney platformers with my fiancé. If you wanna try any old school local co-op games, Ima reccomend:
Space Invaders (Atari 2600)
Chip and Dale (NES)
Bubble Bobble (NES)
World of Illusion (Genesis)
Rolling Thunder 2 (Genesis)
Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)
Wild Guns (SNES)
Super Bomberman (SNES)
Crash Bash (PS1)
Crash Team Racing (PS1)


If you're interested in getting into physical board games, I'd recommend Guillotine, Azul, and Word Slam. Those have some depth, but they're also the kind of thing that anybody can hop into. Spice Road and Gizmos are fantastic and slightly more complex.

I've also really been making an activity out of cooking. Recent items include: a chicken and sausage gumbo starting from a whole chicken, some homemade danishes with gooseberries, roasted asparagus, pasta aglio e olio, a spinach/artichoke/tomato quiche, and tomorrow we're doing pad thai gyoza as a couple. If you're trying to get into cooking, an easy entry point is roasting vegetables. It's by far the tastiest way to do a lot of veggies, it's pretty easy, it's cheap, and you can start experimenting with flavors. My favorite veggies to roast are: green beans, asparagus, turnips, cauliflower, and kale.

Reading loads of books. I've got books I've been wanting to read. If you don't wanna splurge on books, Project Gutenburg has all the public domain classics (Poe, Dickens, Joyce) online for free: https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top
And many modern authors have some of their work available online like Kelly Link (https://kellylink.net/read-me), Neil Gaiman (http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/neil_gaimans_free_short_stories.html), and Thomas Ligotti (https://www.ligotti.net/forumdisplay.php?f=82)

Making art. I love to create poetry, to write. I've been lightly sketching pencil outlines of photographs onto postcard-type cards and running them through an old typewriter to stipple with words.

I got a bad ass shark kite.

Foraging. Dandelion, Sorrel, and Thistle are all flourishing right now. Gathering veggies is like an excuse to explore the countryside. I'm really hoping for Oyster Mushrooms, but every dead tree I check just has slimy mold. All the berries are going to ripen up next month, so I'm looking forward to that

Repairs. I've had a few things I've been meaning to do around the house. I've been cleaning and repairing things. I helped my brother yesterday change his oil, filters, and wiper blades on his car.

Phone calls. Even though I can't see people, I've been calling people in person to stay in touch. It's far more personal to me than texting, which I normally prefer.

And working, but that just depends on your job.

[HotRocks34]

The thing I don't get is how we are still hovering around almost 10% of the people tested at positive.

It's a great question and I don't know the answer. Some of the testing info is not included in that site, not all of the testing places have to report data. Birx is working to get ALL testing data consolidated and on a site. Hopefully that happens soon.

Also, I'll say that Birx said yesterday that the new info coming from the private companies doing tests is about a 7% positive rate. It started at like 1-2%. And she implied, I think, that the reason the percentage is so high is because of a lot of testing being done in hotspot areas, for now.

[niQ]

Read on Twitter

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

Are you referring to mask-wearing? It might have legs though. Apparently everyone in Hong Kong also wears mask.

Now, you've probably heard some people say, "It doesn't protect you from the virus, it just prevents you from spreading it. So there's no point in wearing it if you feel just fine."
But that is exactly it. As we've already seen with celebrities (Idris Elba) and NBA players (Gobert, Mitchell), you can "feel just fine" even if you've contracted the virus. Which means you can be a carrier.
If everyone proactively wears a mask, it could help prevent transmission from asymptomatic carriers.

BUT, that will probably not happen anytime soon in the USA (or even Canada for that matter) where it's "discouraged to the point of becoming socially unacceptable."

https://time.com/5799964/coronavirus-face-mask-asia-us/

Cheryl Man is usually the only one wearing a face mask on her New York City subway train. She notices this, but other people on the train notice, too. Usually she just gets odd stares from other commuters. But on Tuesday morning, when she was walking to school, a group of teens jeered at her and coughed in her direction.

[HotRocks34]

One other mathematical item, based upon the current data from these two sites:

https://covidtracking.com/data/
8128 positive tests in 82,522 tests taken

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
9436 positive tests


The site on the top, as Sisqo just said, is showing about a 10% positive rate for testing. That is, you get about 10 positive tests for every 100 run (in that data). Birx said the other day that the current rate they are seeing of positive tests being done by private companies is about 7%. But let's just go with the higher 10% as like the max.

The upper site lags in terms of when it gets test info. The lower site gets info extremely fast.

9436-8128 = 1308. So there's a gap of that many more positives than the upper site is reporting.

If you use the 10% figure for positive tests, then that would mean that at least 13,080 more tests have been run to get those new positives. So the real test figure for the USA is likely, at least,

82,522 + 13,080 = 95,602

[Stillwater]

Crunch data all you want, I don't trust it yet.
Almost 500 died yesterday alone in Italy , now that's data you can chew on.

[Richfield]

Crunch data all you want, I don't trust it yet.
Almost 500 died yesterday alone in Italy , now that's data you can chew on.

Isn't that.. uh.. data?

[Stillwater]

Crunch data all you want, I don't trust it yet.
Almost 500 died yesterday alone in Italy , now that's data you can chew on.

Isn't that.. uh.. data?

Yep it's factual data not data that's under manipulation.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51952712

[Sisqo]

:oops:

Crunch data all you want, I don't trust it yet.
Almost 500 died yesterday alone in Italy , now that's data you can chew on.

Isn't that.. uh.. data?

Yep it's factual data not data that's under manipulation.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51952712

Did you bother to look where the data on the other site comes from? The same source you just quoted is one of them.

[spacemonkey]

Read on Twitter

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

Are you referring to mask-wearing? It might have legs though. Apparently everyone in Hong Kong also wears mask.

Now, you've probably heard some people say, "It doesn't protect you from the virus, it just prevents you from spreading it. So there's no point in wearing it if you feel just fine."
But that is exactly it. As we've already seen with celebrities (Idris Elba) and NBA players (Gobert, Mitchell), you can "feel just fine" even if you've contracted the virus. Which means you can be a carrier.
If everyone proactively wears a mask, it could help prevent transmission from asymptomatic carriers.

BUT, that will probably not happen anytime soon in the USA (or even Canada for that matter) where it's "discouraged to the point of becoming socially unacceptable."

https://time.com/5799964/coronavirus-face-mask-asia-us/

Cheryl Man is usually the only one wearing a face mask on her New York City subway train. She notices this, but other people on the train notice, too. Usually she just gets odd stares from other commuters. But on Tuesday morning, when she was walking to school, a group of teens jeered at her and coughed in her direction.

No I fully agree with mask wearing and everything you've said in this post. In fact, part of why such a dense city like Hong Kong or Singapore has been so successful in limiting spread is because of mass public buy-in into doing things like wearing masks, and social distancing.

And you're absolutely right that the stigmatization of mask wearers in the West is stupid and illogical.

When I said 'suspect wording', I was referring to the note of "obedience" which seems like the sort of thing someone who still uses the term "Chinaman" and "Orientals", and who characterizes Asians as "meek" would say.

As though Japanese people only wear masks out of "obedience" and not because they actually give a damn about the virus.

It's suspect because it can be easily interpreted as being kinda racist.

[niQ]

Read on Twitter

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

Are you referring to mask-wearing? It might have legs though. Apparently everyone in Hong Kong also wears mask.

Now, you've probably heard some people say, "It doesn't protect you from the virus, it just prevents you from spreading it. So there's no point in wearing it if you feel just fine."
But that is exactly it. As we've already seen with celebrities (Idris Elba) and NBA players (Gobert, Mitchell), you can "feel just fine" even if you've contracted the virus. Which means you can be a carrier.
If everyone proactively wears a mask, it could help prevent transmission from asymptomatic carriers.

BUT, that will probably not happen anytime soon in the USA (or even Canada for that matter) where it's "discouraged to the point of becoming socially unacceptable."

https://time.com/5799964/coronavirus-face-mask-asia-us/

Cheryl Man is usually the only one wearing a face mask on her New York City subway train. She notices this, but other people on the train notice, too. Usually she just gets odd stares from other commuters. But on Tuesday morning, when she was walking to school, a group of teens jeered at her and coughed in her direction.

No I fully agree with mask wearing and everything you've said in this post. In fact, part of why such a dense city like Hong Kong or Singapore has been so successful in limiting spread is because of mass public buy-in into doing things like wearing masks, and social distancing.

And you're absolutely right that the stigmatization of mask wearers in the West is stupid and illogical.

When I said 'suspect wording', I was referring to the note of "obedience" which seems like the sort of thing someone who still uses the term "Chinaman" and "Orientals", and who characterizes Asians as "meek" would say.

As though Japanese people only wear masks out of "obedience" and not because they actually give a damn about the virus.

It's suspect because it can be easily interpreted as being kinda racist.

Oh I see. I don't know if obedience is the right word but I do notice Japanese culture is very strict on rules and "doing things by the book." I was there 2 years ago and experienced it firsthand. Things like eating in public is frowned upon and literally no one there does it.

edit: I did a quick google search.. maybe better wording would say they follow strict "etiquette?" https://walkjapan.com/japan-information/japanese-etiquette

[Lazy Faizy]

Exercising is definitely good. And yeah YouTube can be pretty addictive if you're not careful.

I might have to check out the Lego thing, it actually sounds interesting. I might get a Jenga set as well. It sounds kinda lame but at least it'll give me something to do in the meantime.

I actually was looking for stuff like that too tbh, but couldn't find it. Would recommend the Lego Creator Expert sets, they have some good ones (I built the James Bond Aston Martin and that was cool, along with some buildings). Their site or Amazon usually are the best prices, bigger sets are $150+, but if you've got time it's worth it for me.

Also, if you're stuck with roommates this has been a good time to game. I've been playing Mario Party and the old school Disney platformers with my fiancé. If you wanna try any old school local co-op games, Ima reccomend:
Space Invaders (Atari 2600)
Chip and Dale (NES)
Bubble Bobble (NES)
World of Illusion (Genesis)
Rolling Thunder 2 (Genesis)
Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)
Wild Guns (SNES)
Super Bomberman (SNES)
Crash Bash (PS1)
Crash Team Racing (PS1)


If you're interested in getting into physical board games, I'd recommend Guillotine, Azul, and Word Slam. Those have some depth, but they're also the kind of thing that anybody can hop into. Spice Road and Gizmos are fantastic and slightly more complex.

I've also really been making an activity out of cooking. Recent items include: a chicken and sausage gumbo starting from a whole chicken, some homemade danishes with gooseberries, roasted asparagus, pasta aglio e olio, a spinach/artichoke/tomato quiche, and tomorrow we're doing pad thai gyoza as a couple. If you're trying to get into cooking, an easy entry point is roasting vegetables. It's by far the tastiest way to do a lot of veggies, it's pretty easy, it's cheap, and you can start experimenting with flavors. My favorite veggies to roast are: green beans, asparagus, turnips, cauliflower, and kale.

Reading loads of books. I've got books I've been wanting to read. If you don't wanna splurge on books, Project Gutenburg has all the public domain classics (Poe, Dickens, Joyce) online for free: https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top
And many modern authors have some of their work available online like Kelly Link (https://kellylink.net/read-me), Neil Gaiman (http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/neil_gaimans_free_short_stories.html), and Thomas Ligotti (https://www.ligotti.net/forumdisplay.php?f=82)

Making art. I love to create poetry, to write. I've been lightly sketching pencil outlines of photographs onto postcard-type cards and running them through an old typewriter to stipple with words.

I got a bad ass shark kite.

Foraging. Dandelion, Sorrel, and Thistle are all flourishing right now. Gathering veggies is like an excuse to explore the countryside. I'm really hoping for Oyster Mushrooms, but every dead tree I check just has slimy mold. All the berries are going to ripen up next month, so I'm looking forward to that

Repairs. I've had a few things I've been meaning to do around the house. I've been cleaning and repairing things. I helped my brother yesterday change his oil, filters, and wiper blades on his car.

Phone calls. Even though I can't see people, I've been calling people in person to stay in touch. It's far more personal to me than texting, which I normally prefer.

And working, but that just depends on your job.

Those are all great ideas. Thanks for the suggestions!

[OkcSinceSGA]

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[OkcSinceSGA]

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Elon Musk is ignorant way too often in his tweets. Nate Silver calls him out. Legion of posters point out the shortages around the world right now on comments below. How dumb is Musk? He's unaware that there is a huge shortage?

[G R E Y]

So what's everyone doing for the next few weeks? I've been working from home but during my downtime I've been playing COD, watching basketball highlights on YT, jogging on the treadmill a little and basically just being bored out of my mind. I know social distancing is necessary and I feel like I'm doing my part, but I'm going a little stir crazy here. Help.

Reading.

Some gardening.

Trying out new workout routines.

Trying out new recipes.

Reading.

Trying to learn a new language (but that started before all of this, so more like continuing. Italian *sigh*)

Watching movies.

Staying in touch with family and friends.

Reading...

p.s. I posted these earlier, but you can also visit a virtual museum - https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/tour-2500-world-famous-museums-from-comfort-your-own-sofa/

and

join an online group to read and discuss novels - https://apublicspace.org/news/detail/tolstoy-together

[BladeDaywalker]

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[BladeDaywalker]

Here is an interview that Devin Nunes did earlier today:

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[therealbig3]

Read on Twitter

**** idiots.

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using RealGM mobile app

Obviously, they're morons.

But who is really to blame for their stupidity? Them, for clearly not recognizing how serious this is, or at least, not recognizing that even if they don't get too sick from coronavirus, they could transmit the virus to someone who IS at risk? Should they be held responsible for the level of ignorance and/or selfishness they're demonstrating?

Is it their parents' fault for not instilling better values and teaching them how to properly prioritize things?

Is it the fault of American culture, that says we can do whatever we want whenever we want?

I find it hard to blame 21 year olds for being selfish morons without any sort of perspective on world matters, that's kind of expected. I think the blame is moreso on the people around them responsible for educating them and teaching them the appropriate values, as well as the culture that they've grown up in.

[G R E Y]

All we had to do is test every single person and quarantine the positive tests and it would be almost over. The problem is we're still waiting on tests.

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So...why can't we throw like $1B on tests? How much does every test cost? Or is the problem supply?

Apparently they don't have the supply.

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So...why can't we throw like $1B on tests? How much does every test cost? Or is the problem supply?

Supply has been a big issue. The tests are based on testing for viral genetic markers, which involves DNA testing process and equipment. It’s harder to scale that sort of testing up, among other things.

I know it's unrealistic...but imagine if we took over the Tesla factory like some were saying and just produced test kits day and night. We could send the kits to the outbreak areas (every citizen) and could eliminate this in weeks

"GM, Ford studying how to make ventilators to fight COVID-19"
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2020/03/18/gm-ford-studying-how-make-ventilators-fight-covid-19/2871290001/


Would be huge if they can help on this.

At least two of Detroit's three automakers are studying the feasibility of producing vital medical equipment, such as ventilators, as the nation tries to combat the coronavirus pandemic, echoing the industry's conversion to building tanks, trucks and planes during World War II.

After announcing they both will temporarily suspend production amid coronavirus concerns, General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. confirmed Wednesday that they have been in contact with governments in the United States and United Kingdom about evaluating ways to produce the ventilators experts say doctors are expected to need to treat seriously ill coronavirus patients.

All good insights. Transforming existing factories into other industries has been done before:

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