OT: All Things Coronavirus Covid-19 - Part XI - MOD ADVISORY POST 1

[sooshii]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/23/factory-masks-coronavirus-ppe/

In what they called a “live-in” at the factory, the undertaking was just one example of the endless ways that Americans in every industry have uniquely contributed to fighting coronavirus. The 43 men went home Sunday after each working 12-hour shifts all day and night for a month straight, producing tens of millions of pounds of the raw materials that will end up in face masks and surgical gowns worn on the front lines of the pandemic.
No one told them they had to do it, Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich said. All of the workers volunteered, hunkering down at the plant to ensure no one caught the virus outside as they sought to meet the rocketing demand for their key product, polypropylene, which is needed to make various medical and hygienic items. Braskem’s plant in Neal, W.Va., is doing a second live-in now. The story was earlier reported in Philadelphia’s WPVI.
“We were just happy to be able to help,” Boyce, an operations shift supervisor and a 27-year veteran at Braskem America, told The Washington Post. “We’ve been getting messages on social media from nurses, doctors, EMS workers, saying thank you for what we’re doing. But we want to thank them for what they did and are continuing to do. That’s what made the time we were in there go by quickly, just being able to support them.”

 

[Mick Riddleton]

he is a danger to this country. No other way to put it. They are all corrupt and tainted to a variety of extremes in my opinion. But for the first time in my life I see a clear danger to my country.
Unfit to hold office.

I am old enough to remember Russia being the enemy. It is obvious Donald is copying Putin step for step albeit a lot slower because of a real opposition but czar like power is what he craves. Not sure if anyone clued into what Putin is setting up - to remain leader with unlimited terms. I do not think anyone who likes to live will vote against it. Control the media, rewrite history, deflect and attack, lead by fear.

 

[Kate08]

Today was a rough day for me. I just reached the brink and was sad, angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, tired, and just generally over this whole thing. I miss people. I miss doing things. I miss solving regular problems at work, not pandemic related problems and being in co sta t crisis mode.

I mentioned on a group text with my college friends that I wanted to eat my feelings and would do illegal things for a roll of cookie dough. 45 minutes later, my doorbell rang. One of my friends had a pint of Ben and Jerry’s half baked and 2 pouches of their edible cookie dough delivered by Postmates.

we might feel lonely, but we’re not alone.

 

[Geordie Bruin]

It’s outrageous. He’s like an 8 year old giving medical advise. At least with an 8 year old you’d say okay, that’s not a good idea and lock the cleaning cupboard.

I mean it does give hope to the idiot tide pod kids that one day they can be president too.

As with us in the UK, it’s the worst possible people in charge at the worst possible time.

 

[caz16]

Today was a rough day for me. I just reached the brink and was sad, angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, tired, and just generally over this whole thing. I miss people. I miss doing things. I miss solving regular problems at work, not pandemic related problems and being in co sta t crisis mode.

I mentioned on a group text with my college friends that I wanted to eat my feelings and would do illegal things for a roll of cookie dough. 45 minutes later, my doorbell rang. One of my friends had a pint of Ben and Jerry’s half baked and 2 pouches of their edible cookie dough delivered by Postmates.

we might feel lonely, but we’re not alone.

I share your feelings. That is a beautiful gesture from your friend!

 

[Over the volcano]

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Some ordinary Americans tell their experiences of unemployment. An interesting read and a reminder of the almost unfathomable multitude of ways in which people are hurting as a result of the pandemic:

Coronavirus job losses and 'the millennial curse'

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

I want to hear that “he’s just asking questions.”

 

[Alicat]

Today was a rough day for me. I just reached the brink and was sad, angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, tired, and just generally over this whole thing. I miss people. I miss doing things. I miss solving regular problems at work, not pandemic related problems and being in co sta t crisis mode.

I mentioned on a group text with my college friends that I wanted to eat my feelings and would do illegal things for a roll of cookie dough. 45 minutes later, my doorbell rang. One of my friends had a pint of Ben and Jerry’s half baked and 2 pouches of their edible cookie dough delivered by Postmates.

we might feel lonely, but we’re not alone.

Their edible cookie dough is like crack. So damn delicious.

Glad your day ended on a positive note

 

[Salem13]

only the best people....


The Reuters report added that the 37-year-old aide has "no formal education in public health, management, or medicine." Harrison had a variety of stints working for then-Vice President Dick Cheney, the Department of Defense, and a D.C. public-relations company, before running what his HHS bio describes as "a small business in Texas." That business, evidently, was Dallas Labradoodles.
Harrison parlayed that experience into a prominent role on Azar's team at the Department of Health and Human Services, becoming what HHS described as "a key manager of the HHS virus response."

Labradoodles are awesome dogs, if I could take five years of my life to bring that breed to life at it's absolute popularity peak BTW, I would.

That's his biggest knock, not that he isn't qualified from a business and organizational sense.

Not that he has experience with other White House Operations.

NOPE that moron was business savvy enough to rake in a ton of cash breeding awesome dogs at their peak!

Doodle Haters!

 

[CDJ]

Labradoodles are awesome dogs, if I could take five years of my life to bring that breed to life at it's absolute popularity peak BTW, I would.

That's his biggest knock, not that he isn't qualified from a business and organizational sense.

Not that he has experience with other White House Operations.

NOPE that moron was business savvy enough to rake in a ton of cash breeding awesome dogs at their peak!

Doodle Haters!

It’s the department of health and human services and he has no background in either. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Don’t know if you realize that or not.

We should start hiring hedge fund managers to make the vaccines while we are at it


The doodles are probably his only redeeming quality

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

Watching her squirm as he speaks was hilarious.

This guy isn’t smart enough to run a tollbooth, much less be the President of the United States. No one with an IQ above 50 can possibly defend this.

Even for Trump, this was a shocking level of incoherence and stupidity.

Can you imagine if that brain wasn’t born into millions of dollars?

 

[member 96824]

I want to hear that “he’s just asking questions.”

Me too, it’s like going to a concert. You love to hear the new stuff but you’re really there for the hits. Maybe they can play “he was just saying it would be nice to open by Easter, that wasnt his plan”

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

Me too, it’s like going to a concert. You love to hear the new stuff but you’re really there for the hits. Maybe they can play “he was just saying it would be nice to open by Easter, that wasnt his plan”

That’s gold

 

[JOKER 192]

Proof that if your corrupt enough, even a moron can make lot's of money

 

[Smitty93]

Someone's got to put that video to this:

 

[talkinaway]

I want to hear that “he’s just asking questions.”

One of my pet peeves is the saying "there are no stupid questions". I get the sentiment - teachers say it in classrooms to help open up discussion, which is a laudable goal, and it's important that students speak up when they need clarification. But let's face it - "Why did Romeo swallow the poison?" is a question that shows you just haven't done the reading.

Asking the right questions is critical, and important. Figuring out what you know, what you don't know, and how to learn what you need to know - those are key. Asking "Can we somehow get these antiseptics, bleaches, and UV light inside our bodies?" is just plain stupid. It shows a weird and disturbing belief in magical thinking, and a complete lack of any type of scientific knowledge. It also shows that you're not aware of your role at all. No leader could ever the scientist-in-chief (except maybe Angela Merkel, because she's literally a physicist). Delegate that role to people who are genuinely good at what they do (as observed by respect from their peers), and use it.

This is just like when it was asked "Can we use the flu vaccine to fight coronavirus?" Anyone who's read any of the newspaper articles or local television reports about influenza EVERY autumn knows that the influenza vaccine is different every year, and contains 3 attenuated strains of the influenza representing the "best guess" forecast for that flu season. Thinking about that with even an iota of a critical lens will tell you immediately that there's absolutely no way the influenza vaccine could help directly.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

One of my pet peeves is the saying "there are no stupid questions". I get the sentiment - teachers say it in classrooms to help open up discussion, which is a laudable goal, and it's important that students speak up when they need clarification. But let's face it - "Why did Romeo swallow the poison?" is a question that shows you just haven't done the reading.

Asking the right questions is critical, and important. Figuring out what you know, what you don't know, and how to learn what you need to know - those are key. Asking "Can we somehow get these antiseptics, bleaches, and UV light inside our bodies?" is just plain stupid. It shows a weird and disturbing belief in magical thinking, and a complete lack of any type of scientific knowledge. It also shows that you're not aware of your role at all. No leader could ever the scientist-in-chief (except maybe Angela Merkel, because she's literally a physicist). Delegate that role to people who are genuinely good at what they do (as observed by respect from their peers), and use it.

This is just like when it was asked "Can we use the flu vaccine to fight coronavirus?" Anyone who's read any of the newspaper articles or local television reports about influenza EVERY autumn knows that the influenza vaccine is different every year, and contains 3 attenuated strains of the influenza representing the "best guess" forecast for that flu season. Thinking about that with even an iota of a critical lens will tell you immediately that there's absolutely no way the influenza vaccine could help directly.

 

[roflstomper]

Researchers say coronavirus spread 'under the radar' in US major cities since January - CNN

Running rampant since January at least, like many other intellectuals thought. Crazy that nobody even noticed until we were told to care.

 

[CDJ]

Researchers say coronavirus spread 'under the radar' in US major cities since January - CNN

Running rampant since January at least, like many other intellectuals thought. Crazy that nobody even noticed until we were told to care.

well in fairness it also says it went largely unnoticed because people were asymptomatic. So that’s a big reason why people didn’t care. When bodies started piling up that’s when people started to understand the reality of the situation

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Researchers say coronavirus spread 'under the radar' in US major cities since January - CNN

Running rampant since January at least, like many other intellectuals thought. Crazy that nobody even noticed until we were told to care.

This is undoubtedly true. The new coronavirus was already spreading rapidly in Hubei province in China in December, and China had basically fully open borders for almost all of January. Hardly anyone knew just how bad things had gotten in the initial stages in China because their government suppressed information on it. So thousands of infectious Chinese and visitors to China entered many countries in droves during a period of up to 7 weeks, including large numbers in the USA well before flights from China were shutdown. So it stands to reason that the virus was already present and spreading in America by January at the very latest, and during probably the worst possible time being late winter. The places that have felt some of the worst of it from early on make sense - west coast cities like Seattle due to their proximity to China and business links, New York and to some extent Chicago because of their status and size as tourist destinations. New York in particular copped it bad twice - Chinese carriers first, then a second source of infections from infected travellers arriving from Europe. It was therefore inevitable that the US was going to have a major problem once the case numbers really started to take off exponentially.

Which really only leaves the question of why it took longer for coronavirus to really emerge in America as opposed to South Korea, Italy or Iran. I suspect the answer lies in geography and population spread. Almost all the Chinese who went to Italy went to the industrial north around Milan, so it was mostly one big cluster that spread very rapidly from one highly infected source area. South Korea is a small country with a high population density, which again encouraged rapid, very noticeable growth of the virus. By contrast the USA covers a massive area with hundreds of cities that people travelling from China and later Europe will have gone to. So there would have been a few infected people spreading the disease in this and that city, rather than one big cluster or zone with a large outbreak. The people first infected would also in most cases have been younger, and therefore less likely to exhibit severe symptoms. So little pockets of a flu-like virus spread out over millions of miles and people would not have been very noticeable for a few weeks. It was only once things started getting really bad in Italy and people at last started to take the issue more seriously that testing began to join all the dots, and by then the number of carriers in places like New York had reached a tipping point and it got ugly really quickly and seemingly almost out of the blue, even though it actually wasn't.

Us folks here in Australia were saved from the really high case numbers seen in many other countries by a highly ironic turn of events - the massive forest fires we had in late December and early January. Australia is popular with Chinese tourists, especially in our summer, but the numbers coming here after Christmas were much smaller than they usually are due to the size of the fires we were having at that time acting as a major deterrent to travellers. So by pure chance we received a much lower 'dose' of the virus in the early days before anyone really knew what was going on than we otherwise would have. The fires cost some lives but have likely spared hundreds more. Quite remarkable.

 

[Fenway]

 

[Fenway]

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[Spooner st]

 

[Spooner st]