outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

I’m trying to at least stop rooting around my teeth with my fingernails after eating

maybe we'll all develop some healthier hygiene from all of this

the real treasure was the hands we washed along the way

I have developed a new habit of touching my neck, like my hands go up to my face and then stop short at the last minute.

It'll be interesting to see what the trends are for all communicable diseases now that everyone is washing their hands more.

communicable disease way down, cliffhanger slippages way up

if you practice you can get your finger most of the way up your nose without even touching your face

your nose holes are just the inside of your face

I mean topologically your digestive and respiratory tracts are on the outside no?

i can't stop touching my gills.

sorry wrong thread.

everything is on the outside, that's why the viruses can get u

My workplace just sent out a communique banning all work related travel both overseas and domestic (we're a telco, so we can all easily communicate over plentiful videoconf anyway).

We've also been told to be vigilant of hand washing, illness symptoms and to STAY HOME if in doubt. The comparison to how things seem to work in the USA seem stark.

(I was horribly sick 2 weeks ago and able to stay home for 2 days and work from home, so I'm lucky. Oddly, the symptoms were a weird sudden flulike illness with a cough. I only didnt worry because I didnt really get a fever but still...)

My workplace just sent out a communique banning all work related travel both overseas and domestic (we're a telco, so we can all easily communicate over plentiful videoconf anyway).

We've also been told to be vigilant of hand washing, illness symptoms and to STAY HOME if in doubt. The comparison to how things seem to work in the USA seem stark.

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, March 3, 2020 9:08 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

my usa company did all these things (except the domestic travel ban which isn't a thing here yet) but that probably says more about my company than the usa

i can work from home if i want but i sit in an isolated back corner of the office and don't have face to face meetings so it probably doesn't matter too much. the bathroom is the only hazard

my friend told me this ridiculous story today. Her firm banned international air travel a week or two ago but these two guys whose flight got diverted from one italian airport decided to just get a car to drive in. BECAUSE ONLY AIR TRAVEL WAS BANNED.

They were at Voisins waiting for Nicole, six of them, Rosemary, the Norths, Dick Diver and two young French musicians. They were looking over the other patrons of the restaurant to see if they had repose — Dick said no American men had any repose, except himself, and they were seeking an example to confront him with. Things looked black for them — not a man had come into the restaurant for ten minutes without raising his hand to his face.
“We ought never to have given up waxed mustaches,” said Abe. “Nevertheless Dick isn’t the ONLY man with repose —”
“Oh, yes, I am.”
“— but he may be the only sober man with repose.”
A well-dressed American had come in with two women who swooped and fluttered unselfconsciously around a table. Suddenly, he perceived that he was being watched — whereupon his hand rose spasmodically and arranged a phantom bulge in his necktie. In another unseated party a man endlessly patted his shaven cheek with his palm, and his companion mechanically raised and lowered the stub of a cold cigar. The luckier ones fingered eyeglasses and facial hair, the unequipped stroked blank mouths, or even pulled desperately at the lobes of their ears.
A well-known general came in, and Abe, counting on the man’s first year at West Point — that year during which no cadet can resign and from which none ever recovers — made a bet with Dick of five dollars.
His hands hanging naturally at his sides, the general waited to be seated. Once his arms swung suddenly backward like a jumper’s and Dick said, “Ah!” supposing he had lost control, but the general recovered and they breathed again — the agony was nearly over, the garçon was pulling out his chair .
With a touch of fury the conqueror shot up his hand and scratched his gray immaculate head.
“You see,” said Dick smugly, “I’m the only one.”

“sick pence none the richer”

I can’t believe y’all slept on this gem.

it felt too perfect to comment on

Why gild the lily

REACH OUT AND TOUCH FACE

Sometimes ILX feels like a doubles ping pong tournament between team deems (feat. whoever else on the thread sets up the joke) and team mookie (feat. whoever as above)

and only one person knows the score and they will never tell

it's played with the posters' souls

How does one disinfect a shaggy dog? I honestly have no idea how to keep Teufel virally clean.
We have no yard, and he must pee. I worry more about him, and what happens with him if I get sick, than I do my 70+ yo parents.

Did you just spoil everything by revealing that all your data overload anxiousness is ultimately a shaggy dog story

I am confused and intrigued about this shaggy dog situation.

time to get those puppy pee-pads out again

how about with clippers?

We have no yard, and he must pee

Man Ellison just isn't trying anymore.

The coronavirus would spread so quickly in the movie Face/Off pic.twitter.com/hS4JS34M7n

— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) March 3, 2020

JG Ballard novel in real life as rich boomers are suddenly unwanted refugees pic.twitter.com/1NlpZGRUW3

— Paul Duane (@MrPaulDuane) March 3, 2020

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/03/amazon-confirms-seattle-employee-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/amp/

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/02/28/national/just-cancel-trending-hard-coronavirus-gets-olympic-push-88-anime-akira/#.Xl95YSVxXDt

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/02/28/national/just-cancel-trending-hard-coronavirus-gets-olympic-push-88-anime-akira/#.Xl95YSVxXDt

There's still some time before the September intake but this is looking like it might be a nightmare scenario for UK Higher Education. Universities are pretty much run as a business, with many borrowing against expected revenues to drive expansion, etc. The effect of the hostile migration policy hasn't been to drive down overall numbers of international students (which have increased), it has been to lead to a massive reliance on China as learners from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, etc, have gravitated towards Australia and Canada. More or less every place vacated by a student from any of those countries has been filled with one from China.

At present, it's not clear when all of those Chinese students will be able to resume / finish their domestic education, or take the English tests they'll require to get visas. There's also a big assumption that the situation will have normalised enough by the start of the academic year to enable them to travel.

The University my wife works at in Australia is paying Chinese students to fly to a third country and self isolate there for two weeks rather than have them drop out or go somewhere else.

Term just start and she’s doing streaming lectures and group projects by zoom. Her classes are generally about 50-60% ethically Chinese but not necessarily from China.

Think I have said this way upthread, but in addition to all my in-laws still being quarantined in Hubei, the summer school I manage in England has 65% of its intake from schools in Wuhan, basically everything is fucked from multiple angles right now.

A purely selfish potential upside: online tuition (as opposed to in-person) will become de rigueur, and then we can finally move to the wilds (well, wherever there's wifi)

Virus stats tracker here: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

9 deaths from 128 cases in the US seems somewhat high - is that because it apparently costs $3000 to get tested over there?

It's because afaict they've all taken place in the same place, an old age home full of ill or otherwise immunocompromised patients.

Italy to close all schools and universities across the country for two weeks to control coronavirus outbreak, Italian news agency reportshttps://t.co/WxExbLXW9j pic.twitter.com/SiLzvZfjt3

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 4, 2020

eep Live Coronavirus: number of confirmed cases in UK jumps from 51 to 85 in a day

As long as the numbers remain so (relatively) low and specific, it gives me some reassurance. That reassurance will evaporate if the reporting shifts to a generalized "hundreds" or "thousands."

Both of my kids are sick right now and between them they totally show corona symptoms ... as well as symptoms of pretty much any illness. One has a fever, fatigue, loss of appetite and stomach ache, the other has a stuffy nose and cough. Together they're like Virus Voltron.

Other managers at my small company look at me like I am an idiot when bring up the subject of preparing for the coronavirus, such as checking with our building to ensure appropriate cleaning, buying cleaning supplies if it's not being done by the building, instruct employees to stay home in the event of illness, ensure all employees have the ability to work from home, check with key vendors re: their preparedness, etc. Dumbfucks.

i keep forwarding copy to clients with "hey we need to prepare for this on a comms end" but no movement yet

xpost I guess the UK numbers are probably more trustworthy than the US ones. I think a lot of people here in Seattle are reassured by our low numbers, not realizing that we're still barely testing.

lol that's what I told me mom last night: no numbers if you don't test!

checking with our building to ensure appropriate cleaning, buying cleaning supplies if it's not being done by the building

My wife literally did this yesterday! She contact the COO (or whomever) to make sure light switches, screens and stuff were getting extra attention. They told they thought so, but that she should contact "the building" to be sure.