outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

Virus appears to be spread by payroll taxes.

wait....tom hanks has coronavirus?

https://deadline.com/2020/03/tom-hanks-rita-wilson-test-positive-coronavirus-elvis-presley-movie-1202880431/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

sorry, sic

i was so excited i forgot to strip it out (which i normally do!)

...but tom hanks has coronavirus?

Not Tom Hanks

It's funny how much more seriously Americans took Coronavirus when they were using it as an excuse to rip on the Chinese via some really impressive concern trolling.

A slew of far right rags like the Moonies, Daily Caller, et al ran an article suggesting the Coronavirus came from bat soup, and while it was zoonotic and *possibly* did originate in the street food market, nobody knows definitively where it came from, it was just an unfounded rumor. so naturally readers were calling Chinese nationals backwards assholes who spread the virus due to their savagery.

I’m sure there’s still plenty of anti-Chinese racism in the offing.

you guys might want to know that actually the coronavirus was a biological weapon invented in a collaboration between the chinese military and french intelligence, and it accidentally got out. any reporter who tries to write about this gets fired. according to my father in law.

oh there is still totally anti anyone who looks east asian racism about it.

I.... don't entirely disagree with the Trump travel ban?

Like it's not much more than a bandaid given his bungling in the states but.... probably not a good idea to fly to countries of higher infection if it's a round trip?

Idk...

The real problem is more likely the huge amount of untested CV circulating in the US already, but eh. And excluding the UK is weird. He knows we have an open border with the rest of Europe, right? Maybe they really, really believe in Brexit.

I mean i think it will not accomplish much because we're already too late for containment.

The open border scenario came up at my rehearsal tonight

the US is, at this point, either a country of higher infection now or well on it way

Yea after i read further...

Trump made the decision in order to "keep new cases from entering our shores."

Nevermind. fuck him.

New cases are already happening you dipshit! What do you think COMMUNITY SPREAD is, something you put on bagels?

The UK exclusion was almost certainly a nod of solidarity directed at BoJo & Co., yes? It doesn't have anything to do with anything real or, y'know, potentially beneficial to the lives of others.

Can we rename this the MAGAvirus

Lakers are good
NBA season suspended

lol that was meant for hoops thread

Virtual work is bliss btw

Dying sounds better to me than working from home for a year. Work is fucking work, home is home. Also I have a lousy Verizon connection that's been esp dicey this week.

And i'm restarting chemotherapy Friday, what beautiful timing. Please wash your hands ie don't kill me.

Unreal

Good luck, Morbs!

Work feels less unbearable at home. I can put on the TV in the background!

I can lead class naked, as long as I don't turn my Webcam on!

I saw a tweet joking that Trump just wanted to announce the ban on EU travel before the EU could do the same to us, which feels like it has about an 80% chance of being true.

My manager seemed cool with my WFH request but then he talked to HR and came back to me with a canned statement saying the office remains open and we are expected to be onsite supporting the business, the company is monitoring the situation and an announcement will be made if blah blah blah

So I guess I’m using vacation days! I’d rather be supporting the business but not at the cost of riding the fucking subway right now!

but do you have a year of vacation days, Jon?

Fuck your company. Wgat bullshit

Mine just banned in person meetings of 10 or more. But tbh social responsibility was never the problem with my company. They even gave paid days off during the 2004 hurricanes.

Lol

No but I only need as many vacation days as it takes before they get to whatever trigger point the company has in mind and send everyone home

Xpost

whatever trigger point the company has

at the rate things seem to be moving i don't think it will be long

Physics Nerds

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljkz1woed8mv34n/IMG_7103.JPG?raw=1

There's technically no part of my job that I couldn't do from home but because I'm hourly I've never been given that option and I don't expect to be given that option even if things go pear-shaped so although it will suck to have to dip into my PTO if circumstances dictate that I'm out of the office for an extended stretch I can at least take solace in the fact that my very essential job functions getting very much not done will result in my place of work getting powerfucked.

Most of my friends and family can't do their jobs from home. My bro is a paid actor at a theme park.

Man if they shut that down he will freak, tho he has a contract

I have no PTO, other than the ludicrous 40 sick hours/year I can use for, y'know, cancer treatment

I can lead class naked, as long as I don't turn my Webcam on!

― sorry for butt rockin (Neanderthal), Wednesday, March 11, 2020 8:55 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

prelude to a Florida Man headline

There'd have to also be a gator or crystal meth

my work—i don't know if it's because of its union contract or being a state institution or what—actually has ~sick day drives~ where they implore people with unused time to give it to for instance cancer patient coworkers whose treatment makes them run out their own sick time. they even have an automatic web page set up where you can target the individual recipients. which in the obvious way is good and in the cynical way is zeitgeisty-typical. as if there is an imperative from on high, so many days Shall Be Worked by Someone or Other and Only So Many Shall Be Exempt From Work.

Starting to suspect Microsoft is behind all this, we just got Teams at work a couple of weeks ago, noticing tons of commercials for it lately on TV.

my state job has a leave bank. you can donate 8 hours a year to be a member so if you run out of sick leave you can draw from it. sometimes we get an email asking for donations for a sick person. i have 1100 hours! it is absurd though. just pay them and don't worry about the bank imo. must be some sort of regulation behind it.

yeah i think a lot of our rules about what we can and can't do, especially can't, are ultimately regulated and hence subject to political contestation, primarily making sure no one gets more than they 'ought to' from taxpayers

Australia giving out stimulus payments

Cue next outrage:

Reuters: White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations

The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.

Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said. “We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”

Attendees at the meetings included HHS Secretary Alex Azar and his chief of staff Brian Harrison, the officials said. Azar and Harrison resisted the classification of the meetings, the sources said.

One of the administration officials suggested the security clearances for meetings at HHS were imposed not to protect national security but to keep the information within a tight circle, to prevent leaks.

That was the story that briefly set me off earlier

and the travel ban isn't actually a travel ban. President is just a misspeaking idiot.

From CNN:

In a primetime address to millions of Americans, President Trump misrepresented the travel restrictions he is imposing on travel between the United States and Europe.

Trump said "we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days" before adding that there will be "exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings."

Those exemptions are far more extensive than the President made them out to be. They apply to all US legal permanent residents, citizens and some of their family members, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

The travel restrictions Trump is enacting are in fact far more similar to those enacted on China.

The ban also does not apply to all of Europe but to nations in the Schengen zone. That includes Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

What this means: Americans and US permanent residents who are in Europe will still be allowed to fly to Europe and be allowed back into the United States during this 30-day period.

They will simply be screened upon entry to the United States and face quarantine or restrictions on their movement in the US for 14 days.

However, it is not clear whether airlines will still fly the routes if passenger demand from European nationals dries up because of the ban.

Trump also appeared to correct himself on a ban on cargo. In his speech he said, "There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. "

A few minutes ago, the President tweeted, "...please remember, very important for all countries & businesses to know that trade will in no way be affected by the 30-day restriction on travel from Europe. The restriction stops people not goods."

This is not to say the President is not taking an extremely severe step, but it is not the all-encompassing suspension on travel between the United States and Europe that the President portrayed.

Australia giving out stimulus payments

This got us through the GFC so its not a bad move. Plus we're really exposed cos of Chinese tourism/Chinese students.

wondering what 'relief' the US has in 'store' for 'us'

since Bush gave us a stimulus Donnie clearly won't do that

Don’t even know where to post this shit anymore. But lol

Oh man!

You gotta check out this back-and-forth between Don Lemon and John Kasich in which Lemon straight-up admonishes Kasich for thinking Trump's address was fine.

"Can I finish now?"

"No, you can't, John!" pic.twitter.com/a4TaAN0qcX

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 12, 2020

now I'm wondering what happens if this shit is still going during hurricane season

you just nuke them both duh

when the National Review is begging you to "step it up":

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/president-trump-needs-to-step-up-on-the-coronavirus/