Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

Not particularly newsy but this piece by food critic, Grace Dent is wonderful and touches on a lot of what I've been feeling/experiencing in the last few days:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/mar/27/grace-dent-my-mother-in-her-80s-is-being-guarded-like-a-rare-faberge-egg

[The Minsky Moment]

Re-assuring. Glad he explained what "invoke "P"" meant because I was clueless.

Is it some sort of legislation that was last used to make Ford churn out Shermans in WW II?

It postdates WW2 but was designed to give coordinated authority to put in place the kinds of economic measures used during  WW2

That said, I don't think Ford needed lots of prodding to sell huge numbers of military vehicles at a time when civilian demand was suppressed.

[Legbiter]

Yeah, these makeshift ventilators are just meant to bridge the gap while we expand capacity to meet this crisis. The aim is to treble the number of ICU beds.

I love the contrast between the pure, Platonic functionality of the emergency Spanish ventilator and the aesthetic Star Trek German one. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Something similar is happening in the UK. Some people will be hooked up onto these makeshift ventilators in standard hospital beds to give them a fighting chance; they are not a replacement for a proper ICU bed with all the trimmings.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Not particularly newsy but this piece by food critic, Grace Dent is wonderful and touches on a lot of what I've been feeling/experiencing in the last few days:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/mar/27/grace-dent-my-mother-in-her-80s-is-being-guarded-like-a-rare-faberge-egg

Yeah, Grace Dent is fantastic 

[alfred russel]

This may not just be about you

Give it up, cc. He's been told that repeatedly, and still, here we are.

My problem is that I don't understand who this is about.

I posted US actuarial tables earlier, they are below.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

It obviously isn't precise, but the numbers are roughly equivalent to your risk of death if you get infected with covid 19 (which makes sense: about 0.8% of the US population dies each year, which is probably in line with the death rate from a covid 19 infection--maybe covid 19 is a bit higher, maybe it is lower, but it is close).

My question is whether, at any point in your life, you would trade a guarantee not to die in return for living your life as a shut in / a prisoner?

Even at elevated ages, where the risk of death is very high (say 16.3% for a 90 year old man), I think most people would resoundingly answer the question negatively. I realize there is a value judgment there, and people will respond differently, but bringing this up doesn't make me an "edgelord".

My father, an elderly man with a heart condition, is quite concerned about this virus, but still went to a baseball game and a rodeo just before they shut everything down...I thought about advising him not to go, but these are the things he loves doing, and if he is looking at giving up the things he loves for 6 months--is that worth it? With his heart condition his life expectancy is probably around 5 years.

This isn't taking into account the financial impact--how many will be losing their jobs, how many new graduates will have their careers permanently stunted (there is a strong body of research that people graduating in a recession have permanently decreased career prospects), and people that will have to keep working years longer due to hits their retirement funds have taken (you have posted about this).

I'm just asking for costs and benefits to be rationally balanced, and that if we are going to restrict peoples lives that it only be done for rational and sustainable reasons. Right now the degree of a lockdown is significantly greater than it was for the Spanish flu, and the Spanish flu not only had a greater mortality rate, it also disproportionately affected the young.

This weekend we are going camping in Tennessee. Before anyone gets angry, the park is open for primitive camping and we will have a permit - this is not violating any rules. We will park by the side of the road, hike a trail for several miles, and pitch a tent in an area without any facilities. I'm going with my girlfriend who is a member of my household. What is infuriating to me is that this park also has climbing areas--they will be right next to where we will camp--but all the climbing organizations in the area are telling people not to climb and actively working to shut down access to climbing areas. There is no sensible reason to allow people to camp but not climb.

[Legbiter]

It postdates WW2 but was designed to give coordinated authority to put in place the kinds of economic measures used during  WW2

That said, I don't think Ford needed lots of prodding to sell huge numbers of military vehicles at a time when civilian demand was suppressed.

Makes sense. Maybe even prod the US tire manufacturers into making PPE's now that that Malaysian factory which produces half the globe's supply of latex gloves is only at half output.  Here covid testing kits and swabs production are being set up locally as fast as we can because it's very difficult to get any on the global market and the shipment might get seized en route like is happening now.

[Caliga]

There is no sensible reason to allow people to camp but not climb.

Maybe cause you're more likely to get hurt while climbing, and they want to ensure those people don't end up competing for hospital beds with COVID-19 patients?

[mongers]

Not particularly newsy but this piece by food critic, Grace Dent is wonderful and touches on a lot of what I've been feeling/experiencing in the last few days:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/mar/27/grace-dent-my-mother-in-her-80s-is-being-guarded-like-a-rare-faberge-egg

Yeah, Grace Dent is fantastic 

Oh indeed.

[Maladict]

Christ, 919 deaths in Italy today. By far the highest daily toll. 

[mongers]

An extraordinary scene in St. Peters square empty of people, save for the Pope on a platform giving the 'Urbi et Orbi' address/prayer.

Like an astonishingly beautiful but solemn scene from a sci-fi or disaster movie.

[Iormlund]

There is no sensible reason to allow people to camp but not climb.

Of course there is. We're back to the document Yi asked you to sign.

[viper37]

Til Lindemanmn (Rammstein) is in intensive care, but he's no longer critical.  At least that is positive.

In case someone still hasn't understood something, here's his picture:


Not old, not fat, not cripple, not diseased, yet infected and in intensive care.

Although true that the virus will be deadlier on older people and/or people with co-morbidity, there is just no way at this time to predict how someone will react to the virus, wether that person will experience mild symptoms or end up in intensive care.

Stay safe, stay at home, pretend Trump his mute.

[Eddie Teach]

Dorsey, the thing you're missing is the potential for lethality to spike when medical resources are exhausted.

[merithyn]

There is no sensible reason to allow people to camp but not climb.

Maybe cause you're more likely to get hurt while climbing, and they want to ensure those people don't end up competing for hospital beds with COVID-19 patients?

And the virus remains on surfaces for days at a time, so someone coming along and climbing after a COVID-positive climber risks getting it. Ergo, spreading the virus. That's unlikely to happen while camping.

But then, we're also talking about Tennessee, a Republican state. That the state parks are even still open is problematic to me. But I suppose ARs are going to AR, so fuck it. Let's torch the world. To hell with the high risk folks like me.