Off Topic: How's everyone here handling the soft lockdown?

I know this is off-topic for this board, and I could have found another place to post it on the site but the truth be told I just wanted to know how the rest of my dysfunctional family here is doing and wondering how you are dealing with this shit.
I hope those that can stay in place do it, those that can't take whatever precautions you need to to stay healthy.
Since by my own choice have the lung capacity of a gnat I can't afford to get sick with this shit. The last place I want to be is in a hospital room (or tent) with no outside visitors and no dog.
From here on out I'll have my groceries delivered, and I have a buddy that has a liquor store on speed dial to deliver to me. This is also a good time for me to do a freezer purge, but other than that I have plenty of food, weed, and alcohol to get me through. I'm so glad I have a bidet because I really don't understand the logic with acquiring a stockpile a toiler paper that will long outlast any food stores you may currently have.
It seems many carry this fear, and if we don't know exactly what that fear is......apparently we buy toilet paper.
Stay healthy and safe everyone.

 

Cannot match your wit and cannot surpass your inscrutable charm, tuna. But an opportunity to respond to someone I’ve enjoyed reading for a long time arose, and the times demand that I stay silent no longer.

If you read the hockey boards you may recognize me, but as the one solitary fucking Buffalo Bills fan on these boards, one!, I am probably unknown. It may be better to keep it that way. But, as some noted, these is weird days, so here I go.

I recently moved to Portugal and that may be the safest place in Europe. Still, people are taking it safety-first, and that’s the way it’s gotta be. I got a fresh supply of oranges every day by wandering to the back yard. Otherwise I have nothing but enjoying the sunshine to do around here.

On a side note, I think the Bears suck, but not as bad as what most reading this seem to think. Oh, and I think the Bills WILL NOT SUCK, when (and if) we get back to the seriousness of NFL football.

 

I've been working at home the last 2 weeks with my office closed. I do realize how fortunate I am to be able to telecommute and actually still have a job while millions can't.

The two weeks before that I was sick. My symptoms were fever/chills, dry cough, shortness of breath, and loss of sense of smell. Was tested for flu and that came up negative. They refused to test me for COVID-19 because I hadn't recently traveled from China, Iran, Italy. My dad is a physician and he strongly suspects I had it, which hopefully if true means I'm now immune. I've since fully recovered. Side note: didn't pass the sickness on to anyone in my family or friends who I was in contact with while I had symptoms.

Going to resist the temptation to comment on the precautions federal/state governments have been taking and their overall responsiveness. But I will say I'm very restless being stuck at home. Considering going somewhere warm like South Florida if my company decides to close through April. Always wanted to telecommute while living somewhere nice.

 

Wow! that's incredible I can't even imagine the arguments you must have on that board.

I was sick myself about a month ago with a sore throat and cough that I woke up with and no fever, but that was before all this shit hit the fan here. I didn't go to the doctor. I don't think it's possible I had it though it was way too early in this.
I just hope people take this seriously and stay home so that we can make this manageable.
You guys stay safe and healthy

 

Given that until very recently there's been a complete lack of testing, I think it's possible that the virus has been here longer than know. Most cases are mild and folks recover so it is possible you had it then.

 

I agree. A month ago I had a fever and severe dry cough. Felt like hell for about 3 days, and was totally run down for an entire week. Sounds exactly like the symptoms of corona.

Anyway, this fuckin’ sucks. I have two kids at home now too with no spring hockey, no volleyball and no school. Good news is - plenty of TP.

 

Love how tuna clearly states why he put this thread here only for the first reply to come from some random heh.

We know it originated in China* and when, so if it did arrive to the US sooner than thought, it won't be by very much. What they really don't know and are still guessing at is its true level of infectiousness. I suspect that is gonna show that many more people have been infected than expected, as you and bear-man seem to have been. Glad neither of you ended up in hospital btw.

A cure might be around a year away, but much sooner than that will come some kind of antibody test, which will be able to accurately tell if you've already had it. And that will be like turning on the lights.


* Having been to China many times im not one bit surprised this outbreak originated there. There are many parts of China where food hygiene standards are unbelievably bad. And they have clear form for this kinda shit with the SARS outbreak etc.

Everyone quite rightly is only thinking about trying to get to grips with the virus itself right now. But eventually things will level out enough to take stock of what happened and why. And at that point the world needs to come together and break its foot off in China's ass. Because while Trump obviously keeps calling it the China virus/Wuhan virus just to shift the blame and cover for his own pathetic response to the crisis, the label itself is accurate. This needs to not happen again, but probably will after China isn't held to account for this one.

 

By late December cases were increasingly pretty rapidly in China and at that point it may have been brought here and to Europe by travelers. But the first official documented case in the US wasn't until Jan 20th. Could have already been here and spreading rapidly for weeks.

Agreed, but they won't be held accountable. What bothers me more isn't so much that it originated there (although those food markets are disgusting) but that the Chinese govt tried to cover it up and then lied about what was going on. This probably allowed the virus critical time to spread abroad before precautions and any real research into could be undertaken. Another case of the cover up being worse than the crime.

 

Spot on blang buddy. The only chance for an easy solution was for it to be contained to China. But they squandered that and made it far worse for the exact same reasons as they did with Chernobyl. They treated information as the enemy and were more interested in saving face than saving lives.

Fucking commies.

 

First, stay safe and healthy guys and gals. Be smart, be kind, and don;t be like the idiot kids on Spring Break in Florida.

For me? I've been lucky to only get the weather-change sniffles after it went from mid-60s and balmy last Thursday to 30s, dry, cold, and fucking snow the other day. Ahhh....nothing beats "fake Spring" in Chicago.

I'm stuck working from home. Dont like this at all. A--my couch is 10 feet away from makeshift "office" where I'm trying to focus when I cant, and B--anyone who lives in the city also having People's Gas rip up their sidewalks/streets to replace gas lines and install the new meters?

My conference calls/anything that involves a phone or Skype are fucked because the construction jackhammers on my block haven't stopped since last Friday and its giving my 85 lb shepherd all kinds of anxiety which she channels into scaring said People's Gas workers...

I guess I should preface with this: Skip this part of post if you're not one for angry political rant, but you probably need to read it anyways because we Americans should remove our heads from our asses a little faster.

The Chinese doctor who told everybody about the virus' origination sure died unexpectedly...

Our (the US) entire government system hasn't been held accountable. The shitbag senators/congresspeople who sold their stocks for millions weeks before the market collapsed will also get off scott free, regardless of breaking the "insider trading" laws.

We live in a really stupid 2-party system where both are lying, bought-and-paid-for cunts who line their pockets off our taxes, and a country of 320 something million people who cant figure out whether someone runs as a Democrat or Republican means nothing, but rather the content of actions and choices (not words) because we aren't getting fixed until that point.

Until then, shit's going to be unnecessarily stupid and worse because Orange Julius called the entire thing a hoax on January 20th and did nothing to prepare, and continues to bungle things left and right, like saying when cases and deaths keep piling up that everything should be reopened on Easter. As Blang points out, the president keeps calling it the Chinese virus to give the extra emphasis.

The good news is, people are slowly starting to figure out that said shitbag politicians are now having a whole lot more light shed on them and their actions than ever before. People are starting to see its about "haves" versus "have nots" and the "have nots" sure outnumber the haves, and have an awful lot more in common with eachother than the media/politicians want them to know. I wish they'd go a little faster than they are now with figuring out

George Carlin said it best: "Its a big club, and you aint in it."

I guess the LT Governor of Texas coming out on television, in the open and saying older people should be happy to die rather than let a second Great Depression happen helped out. That's how fucked up our priorities are, to those who don't luckily live in the states. Money and socialism for those who have too much of it and dont need it, rugged individualism and being stuck with the bill and daily reduced freedoms/rights for the rest of us.

I prefer American Bastille Day to get here sooner rather than later. Nothing against France, but that'd be a party and a half in the states, and we'd do it bigger and better with all the shitbag corporate CEOs, lobbyists, pundits, political "analysts," and politicians who don't give a fuck at madam guillotine.

 

While I won't dispute this as being spot on. Saving face isn't only for countries and corporations, but the Catholic church has a hand in covering shit up as well.

This is where we need to be. Was China covering up? Was this administration slow on the draw? Yes, but right now none of that should matter. Fingers are being pointed in every direction, and right now at the end of the day it just doesn't fucking matter, but making it to the end of the day should.

My daughter is a respiratory therapist at a major trauma center here in Chicago and she told me clearly "stay the fuck home." She said each unit has two to four negative pressure rooms where they can do better at containing shit like this and TB. Once that limit is reached you could likely see a spike in the spreading in spite of all the precautions they take. They are desperately short any type of masks as well as N-95's and don't get me started on the need for ventilators. I agree with the administration that this is a war but I wish this administration would treat it as one since he invoked the defense production act and demand these corporations ramp up production of these items instead of it just being so far voluntary. I know retooling production today is so much different than it was when they did it in WWII and our capacity to do it is so much less, but it needs to be done before the situation becomes unmanageable and end up with basically the death panels they feared Obamacare contained that Italy has now.
I didn't like either stimulus package that either party presented one was basically a corporate grab and the other was full of shit that had no business in there altogether. How is it that many people that live paycheck to paycheck are somehow supposed to have a month's savings for times like these, and corporations that got all these big tax breaks in a soaring economy can't survive a week of this shit. Why the fuck is that?

 

Patg, I agree with most of your post.

Where we might disagree is I don't think it's immoral to be having a conservation about the economy and the long-term impacts that all these precautions might have. I say that not in the interest of corrupt politicians or greedy Wall street execs but for those who are less privileged than myself. If we're able to get this thing under control in a few months, with hopefully only a few thousand deaths of elderly/sick, what will the cost have been? A depression lasting a decade+ will be unimaginably horrible for millions of people in this country, they may never be able to regain any financial/professional/health stability. And we all know our govt cannot be relied upon to improve their situation. That's my major concern here. I've got to trust that people much smarter than myself are making the right decisions, but who the fuck knows.

 

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/oxford-study-coronavirus-may-have-infected-half-of-u-k.html

According to a team from Oxford’s Evolutionary Ecology of Infectious Disease lab, half of the population of the United Kingdom may have already been infected with the coronavirus. If this modeling is confirmed in follow-up studies, that would mean that fewer than .01 percent of those infected require hospital treatment, with a majority showing very minor symptoms, or none at all.

If this study is confirmed, it's very good news.

 

That's a good number if it's true, but regardless it shows how ill-equipped we are to handle an even a minor contagion. The treatment rate looks similar to the seasonal flu numbers fatality rate. The fatality rate they first projected here when so little was known about Covid-19 was .02-.03 that number is now around .013 -.014 based on death to survival numbers. That number would grow significantly if the system became overwhelmed as it did in China and Italy because the world fatality numbers are at around .04 last week. The lack of immediate testing because of the protocol for doing the testing boggles my mind. My daughter an RT says the protocol for testing is:

• fever 38.7 which is 101.6 f sore throat, body aches, cough, flu symptoms
• test negative for flu
• direct exposure to a confirmed case

blang you said yourself you didn't get tested even though you met the first two criteria. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the science of that logic.
It's like they're playing Where's Waldo, and you didn't know the secret handshake to get a test. I bet Rand Paul knew the secret handshake.
This president boasted numerous times yesterday about how we tested more in one week than S Korea did in eight. Why the fuck are you comparing this country to a single country the size of Indiana and 50 million people to this country of 330 million people?
This president just needs to shut the fuck up and let the task force do the talking he sounds like the kid in 4th grade who didn't read the book and is then asked to stand up and give his book report.

 

I'm not opposed to big corporations getting and utilizing money to keep paying their people and keep things afloat and to not send the economy into a bigger nosedive than what it appears to be now. What bothers me are A--stock buybacks and B--bonuses to leadership. Big Corporations proved after the bailouts in 2008 they cannot be trusted unless there's a gun to their head, because the workers get the shaft with reduced benefits, reduced wages, and the threat to leave the state and move somewhere else for cheaper labor in the even a regular old American asks to be paid an actual living wage/cost of living amount.

What needs to change are the willing bootlickers who are poor, who think these rich asshole executives rigging the system and getting away with loopholes are the real heroes and patriots, not the thieves they actually are. There's sadly a lot of them in the country, and they don't seem to get the point until it clocks them over the head. But it also says a lot about the country where people respect the bank robbers because the security protecting the bank doesn't give a shit.

I'm afraid to ask for the total cost when this starts winding down too; because again, el Jefe in the White House on January 20th said that 15 cases of this shit will go to 0, and its all a hoax by big media and the blue team to derail him in an election year. Oops.

For what its worth, the blue team is gonna fuck it up in November and we're getting 8 years of a reality star at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

I'll defend Blang. I work for corporate America right now, and if you don't have Corona Virus, the tests and care given to Blang would be astronomical. He'll walk out of the hospital/office with thousands of dollars in bills, and given recent bills passed under Orange Julius and the assclowns in the Senate/House, his primary health insurance can change its mind on a dime what's "in network" or not. I don't blame him for taking that risk.

I also don't blame him for doing what other Americans would do, stay home/self quarantine to keep away. Some of the ass clowns partying on the beaches in Florida for Spring Break within the last few days now have this shit...

At least a few mayors/local government leaders have called out testing for only being for celebrities. But the buck in this country tends to stop at "words" only, no action.

 

Agree, and for the record both stock buybacks and executive bonuses were not permitted in the original stimulus plan the Dems shot down on Sunday night.

My concern is less about the stimulus plan and more about the long-term impacts of the lock down precautions. Tens of thousands of small businesses that may never recover. Other industries, even big corporations, decimated beyond repair. Perhaps I'm worrying about the worst possible outcome but it's hard not too when it seems like we're all (not just the US) flying by the seat of our pants.

Yep, but I was saying this prior to the pandemic.

I wanted to get tested and had they (the urgent care place I went to) allowed it, I would have risked it with my insurance. This was the last week of February. Fortunately I wasn't ill enough to the point of being hospitalized so at worst I would have been stuck with the cost of the test, which for me would have been manageable. The problem was a complete shortage of tests at the time, which is only marginally less problematic now.

 

pat but if he met the criteria on the first two he should have given the test. They didn't have to admit him to the hospital unless he got worse, but a positive test would have at least documented the case. I do wonder what kind of instructions were given to him before he left.

 

Just a heads up for you guys. Because of the Coronavirus electric, water and gas can’t be turned off for nonpayment. So if you are tight financially just let them go fuck them selves and use your money for more essential items like food and toilet paper.
Keep safe and alive

 

They weren't. But a random, half trillion fund that only the Secretary of the Treasury has an eye on and swears he will be "accountable" for is a problem.

As am I. Joe Biden isn't exciting anybody the same way Hillary didn't. "Orange man bad" is a terrible campaign to run on while you look like you have dementia every time you're on TV. But it goes to show you how shitty and corrupt the DNC is. They didn't learn in 2016, 2004, 2000, or 1988 by shoving the "safe choice" down everybody's throats. They don't want to learn. They get paid win or lose.

Smart man right here. As a PSA even with the political topics discussed/lamented--please utilize Urgent Care/Immediate Care clinics. You won't have multiple, absurd hospital bills that the billing department can gouge you. A MD or NP typically is present, you'll save tons, and if/after you meet your likely absurd healthcare deductible, your insurance loves them.

In a perfect world, Tuna? Yes. That's what should happen. But here's the problem, you make sense.

The lack of trust Blang points out and I've witnessed/experienced personally (on a completely unrelated matter I was taken to an emergency room after getting T'd by a drunk driver who felt his red light was optional last year) that hospitals aren't your friend and care you receive isn't in their top 5 priorities. You're a dollar sign to them (I communicated in my experience my neck, shoulders, and chest hurt from airbags/seatbelt--so naturally they unnecessarily run 2 CT scans on my lower body/extremities and charge me over $4000 a a piece; and when I pried/went "down the rabbit hole" asking why--the billing department said they dont deal with that and sent me to another person who gave me the same answer) and a collections notice two weeks later if you just put your name on the form. That, and instead of assessing what's wrong with you, their first question is "who is your insurance?"

Its such a fucked system, and it baffles me how people don't care until they end up at an ER like I did.

 

I am at the epicenter of the US infestation. Right smack dab in the middle of NYC as I write this. As some may know I am an executive chef at a midtown Manhattan restaurant. I am in a financial area so we had to close till this blows over. Not enough people around to do take out and delivery. So me and 3 others are security guards for the restaurant. The owner still wants someone in the building 24/7 so for half pay I am doing the over nights 11pm to 7 am 5 days a week. And I am fortunate. Had to lay off 30 or so kitchen staff. At least 40% of which will not be able to collect unemployment do to residency issues.

My wife is the store manager of a supermarket so she is bringing home the bacon for now. My mother in law who lives with us out on the island is a hospital nurse. Shit is going down hill fast.

So far we are all healthy thank god. With the number of people testing positive there is no way this shit just started a few weeks ago. It’s been here a while so hopefully the peak is close.

It’s crazy being part of an industry that just vanishes in an instant. The entire hospitality industry just stopped on a dime. I know it’s not the only one but it’s the only one I have ever been a part of and can hopefully still be once the dust settles.

I hope all you guys and gal are doing what you can to get through this. And I hope that no other cities have to get hit as hard as we are right now. When the dust does settle get out and bring the business back to all the small businesses out there. Fuck the corporate giants take care of the little guys.