Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Tamas]

Watching Sir Whatshisname's briefing this evening in full certainly makes the UK plan sounds more convincing.

It does seem like they are trying to catch a falling knife while standing under it, with the plan of only doing extreme measures exactly at the peak, but let's hope they'll manage to do it.

[mongers]

Well, everything was officially shut down here yesterday. I am (like most people capable of it) working from home for the next two weeks, the kids are home (school and daycare closed), my GF will only teach a couple of online classes as all physical ones are cancelled. All gatherings have been cancelled, cinemas, bars, fitness centres, libraries and everything under the sun have been closed, so we are basically stuck at home, twiddling thumbs. Official advice is to keep the grandparents at a distance and not expose them to us or the kids. Pretty crazy, all told, but we'll see if it stems the tide.

Bogh good to hear from you, hope the precautions work out for Denmark.

[ulmont]

I've had a cold / cough since before Mardi Gras.  At this point I really do think it's fucking coronavirus.

Arkansas' 1st coronavirus patient 'likely' got sick in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, state says

https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_111c3024-64a6-11ea-83ee-039c0fef9d50.html?fbclid=IwAR1miWugTrCpdiDxduau_HH9y6uaYByQCnoBYClEQx2mcOcIucP9k3OnLf0

[Barrister]

4 new cases in Alberta, for a total of 23.

Albertans are asked not together in groups of 250 or more, not to leave the country, and self-isolate for 14 days if you do.

Now sure what that means for schools, as those almost all have more than 250 students.

[crazy canuck]

Ontario public schools will be closed for 2 weeks after spring break.

It hasn't been announced yet, but I have it from a first hand authority that U of Alberta will be shutting down soon.  They want to avoid putting several thousand students in a large exam room.  All remaining lecture material is to be put up on the web somehow.

Ontario unis are recalling their students studying abroad.

[merithyn]

Ontario public schools will be closed for 2 weeks after spring break.

It hasn't been announced yet, but I have it from a first hand authority that U of Alberta will be shutting down soon.  They want to avoid putting several thousand students in a large exam room.  All remaining lecture material is to be put up on the web somehow.

Ontario unis are recalling their students studying abroad.

Have your boys been affected yet, cc?

[Legbiter]

It does seem like they are trying to catch a falling knife while standing under it, with the plan of only doing extreme measures exactly at the peak, but let's hope they'll manage to do it.

Yeah it's rather alarming to watch these eggheads essentially bet the entire nation on them exactly micromanaging the disease spread via some excel spreadsheet. The local experience of "experts" is not exactly inspiring. They're functional autists to be kept in a back office somewhere with aforementioned spreadsheet, to be consulted sure, but the leaders have to show some backbone as well. Here they've thrust the chief medical officer very much forward with his Übermensch plan. If the plan then turns out to be off by a week...

[crazy canuck]

Ontario public schools will be closed for 2 weeks after spring break.

It hasn't been announced yet, but I have it from a first hand authority that U of Alberta will be shutting down soon.  They want to avoid putting several thousand students in a large exam room.  All remaining lecture material is to be put up on the web somehow.

Ontario unis are recalling their students studying abroad.

Have your boys been affected yet, cc?

Thanks for asking 

It really sucks, all their plans are up in smoke.  My younger boy is really concerned about what is going to happen to his term.  He is sitting with an A1 in all his classes atm.  The hope is he will get full credit with those grades.  But he is waiting to hear from his home university to see how they are going to deal with it.

The silver lining is that a prof at his home university obtained some long awaited funding for a lab he really wants to work in which starts in May, so he will land on his feet - literally

It is still disappointing for him to have embarked on this adventure only to have it cut short like this.

Mrs. CC was also going to go to NY week after next to watch a friend perform there.  But all Broadway shows have been cancelled so that is also off.

The silver lining for me is she will be around to hound me about washing my hands.  She is concerned about me being out and about being high risk and all but the people around me at the office are also being vigilant about avoiding contact, washing hands etc.  so I think I will be ok. 

[mongers]

It does seem like they are trying to catch a falling knife while standing under it, with the plan of only doing extreme measures exactly at the peak, but let's hope they'll manage to do it.

Yeah it's rather alarming to watch these eggheads essentially bet the entire nation on them exactly micromanaging the disease spread via some excel spreadsheet. The local experience of "experts" is not exactly inspiring. They're functional autists to be kept in a back office somewhere with aforementioned spreadsheet, to be consulted sure, but the leaders have to show some backbone as well. Here they've thrust the chief medical officer very much forward with his Übermensch plan. If the plan then turns out to be off by a week...

Indeed, my concern is the Johnson govt is saying the UK is 4 weeks behind Italy, yet the WHO case modelling indicates we're 13.5 days and the graph shelf posted suggests were only 10-11 days behind.

So we may well end up reacting 18-14 days too late. 

[merithyn]

Thanks for asking 

It really sucks, all their plans are up in smoke.  My younger boy is really concerned about what is going to happen to his term.  He is sitting with an A1 in all his classes atm.  The hope is he will get full credit with those grades.  But he is waiting to hear from his home university to see how they are going to deal with it.

The silver lining is that a prof at his home university obtained some long awaited funding for a lab he really wants to work in which starts in May, so he will land on his feet - literally

It is still disappointing for him to have embarked on this adventure only to have it cut short like this.

Mrs. CC was also going to go to NY week after next to watch a friend perform there.  But all Broadway shows have been cancelled so that is also off.

The silver lining for me is she will be around to hound me about washing my hands.  She is concerned about me being out and about being high risk and all but the people around me at the office are also being vigilant about avoiding contact, washing hands etc.  so I think I will be ok. 

I'm really pleased to hear most of this, especially the last bit.

Riley is a little panicky right now. Her volunteering over Spring Break was cancelled, and the rest of the semester will be virtual for her. She's planning to stay in Iowa for the duration. She's also concerned with how this will affect her grades. She's having one of her best semesters, and it's now going to virtual, which she hates.

[HisMajestyBOB]

It does seem like they are trying to catch a falling knife while standing under it, with the plan of only doing extreme measures exactly at the peak, but let's hope they'll manage to do it.

Yeah it's rather alarming to watch these eggheads essentially bet the entire nation on them exactly micromanaging the disease spread via some excel spreadsheet. The local experience of "experts" is not exactly inspiring. They're functional autists to be kept in a back office somewhere with aforementioned spreadsheet, to be consulted sure, but the leaders have to show some backbone as well. Here they've thrust the chief medical officer very much forward with his Übermensch plan. If the plan then turns out to be off by a week...

Indeed, my concern is the Johnson govt is saying the UK is 4 weeks behind Italy, yet the WHO case modelling indicates we're 13.5 days and the graph shelf posted suggests were only 10-11 days behind.

So we may well end up reacting 18-14 days too late. 

On the other hand, at least there's a plan.

[Sheilbh]

It does seem like they are trying to catch a falling knife while standing under it, with the plan of only doing extreme measures exactly at the peak, but let's hope they'll manage to do it.

Great description - but I feel like that describes all the options

As I say interesting stats from a LSTHM/Wellcome Trust epidemiologist:
https://twitter.com/AdamJKucharski/status/1238152492178976769

[Legbiter]

On the other hand, at least there's a plan.

Well yeah, more the plan is not to do anything unpopular. And blame the chief medical officer if things go badly. Always reactive, never proactive. Travellers from China are still not barred, thankfully China itself banned foreign travel otherwise the dears might have had to make a decision. The only reason things have not gone disastrously wrong yet is because people themselves took action, contacted the health services if they fell ill soon after foreign travel, etc and there's apparently not been a case of a massive superspreader. The contact tracing has been top-notch combined with widespread testing after the local biotech company voluntarily reconfigured one of their labs into a testing facility almost overnight.

[Grey Fox]

Still not allowed to work from home. God, these middle managers react slowly.

[crazy canuck]

Thanks for asking 

It really sucks, all their plans are up in smoke.  My younger boy is really concerned about what is going to happen to his term.  He is sitting with an A1 in all his classes atm.  The hope is he will get full credit with those grades.  But he is waiting to hear from his home university to see how they are going to deal with it.

The silver lining is that a prof at his home university obtained some long awaited funding for a lab he really wants to work in which starts in May, so he will land on his feet - literally

It is still disappointing for him to have embarked on this adventure only to have it cut short like this.

Mrs. CC was also going to go to NY week after next to watch a friend perform there.  But all Broadway shows have been cancelled so that is also off.

The silver lining for me is she will be around to hound me about washing my hands.  She is concerned about me being out and about being high risk and all but the people around me at the office are also being vigilant about avoiding contact, washing hands etc.  so I think I will be ok. 

I'm really pleased to hear most of this, especially the last bit.

Riley is a little panicky right now. Her volunteering over Spring Break was cancelled, and the rest of the semester will be virtual for her. She's planning to stay in Iowa for the duration. She's also concerned with how this will affect her grades. She's having one of her best semesters, and it's now going to virtual, which she hates.

Too bad about the volunteering gig and her term ending with remote learning, especially with great experience she has been having there.

But she is likely going to find other opportunities to help out if possible.  These are the sorts of situations where people like her can really stand out.

Let's both cross fingers.