outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

Yesterday I got a tip that Hobby Lobby was secretly reopening stores and violating state-mandated closures. So I called all 39 stores in Wisconsin and Ohio and found that 36 of them reopened Monday. https://t.co/2ozUVpTcpk

— Bethany Biron (@bethanybiron) March 31, 2020

Hey, scrapbooking is in our nation's lifeblood. Not to mention macrame and decoupage. Do you just expect people to stop crocheting? What kind of monster are you?

I'm hearing that JoAnn Fabrics, Michael's, and Guitar Center (!?!) Have all remained open, citing various dubious excuses for why they are all essential.

i want all of the execs of Hobby Lobby dead

or at the very least, locked inside their own store, then boarded in

be compassionate. at least allow them one cask of amontillado to ease their transition to heaven.

where else will you buy that c-fold paper towel holder

So the FFCRA being effective April 1 really fucks a lot of employees. That means companies aren't required to offer the paid sick leave require to 4/1. Anybody who was out on leave ptior is shit out of luck. So my friend whose quarantine ended today will not get it, and unemployment is only paying her $89 a week for the two weeks she was out because of how little she earned in the previous quarters.

Also learned today states can refuse the federal unemployment enhancement. Being that the DOL is funding it, I don't think most will, but i can see some "personal responsibility" red state doing it

See Roy Andersson's 2000 film Songs from the Second Floor to get a taste of where the Swedish plan is going to lead.

I'm so worried about my family and friends in Sweden. This might get catastrophically bad.

this piece on how the lockdown is being implemented across the globe is grim as hell:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/01/extreme-coronavirus-lockdown-controls-raise-fears-for-worlds-poorest

And in Italy:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/singing-stops-italy-fear-social-unrest-mount-coronavirus-lockdown

any excuse for a bit of state violence :(

I'm so worried about my family and friends in Sweden. This might get catastrophically bad.

I hear you, Fred. I'm wondering if the Swedish woman I work with, who was trying to get flights back to Sweden for her and her children just before our work got shut down, made it back to Sweden - and if she's regretting it now.

One of the things I'm deeply worried about is the impact that the collapse in tourism is going to have on countries or regions that rely on it but experienced serious political instability within recent memory, particularly parts of South America, Asia etc.

I'd include Portugal in that category.

https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106466188-1585556988689gettyimages-1208432583.jpeg?v=1585557109&w=1910

This photo feels bizarre: Stockholm, March 27th. But it feels just as bizarre to realise an image like this already feels bizarre.

I read this comparison on Danish site TheLocal, about the wildly different approaches of Denmark and Sweden: https://www.thelocal.dk/20200320/why-is-denmarks-lockdown-so-much-more-severe-than-swedens

It's anyone's guess I suppose but I have to admit I fear for my Swedish friends as well, reading that.

FT continuing to do good graph work:

https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest

Don't know what to make of the Swedish approach. My GF is Swedish, so she's in constant contact with extended family in the Stockholm suburbs. They all seem to be taking it seriously - social distancing, kids out of school, grocery deliveries, WFH, avoiding the city - but they know that's not the norm. Seems to be gentlest of advisories, with the longest lead-time on bringing down the hammer of any EU country (I think they will, eventually).

(It's not something we talk about too much, it's too stressful; she's just been furloughed for eight weeks as a result of this anyway).

If the Chinese numbers are accurate (gigantic if I know) then that Italy levelling off is heartening and suggests there might be a decline coming soon. Obviously China has been far more draconian in its approach to the lockdown.

I don't understand the aversion to locking down early. All evidence seems to be that social distancing works and if you lock down when the virus is less widespread then ultimately you don't have to do it for as long? Sweden will surely have to follow everyone else sooner or later and when they do it will take months becuase the rate of transmission will have been so much higher. And that's not taking into account the thousands of preventable deaths.

What's Swedish healthcare capacity like relative to the population size? I guess that has an effect as well.

Supposedly it's very good, excellent in fact. And I think that is what they are banking on. But they are playing hazard. My family is taking it very serious as well, but my uncle is a doctor, so I don't think staying at home is an option here, and his health has never been good.

ahem

On a slightly unrelated note, I still have no idea what Sweden's game plan is.

― coco vide (pomenitul), Monday, 30 March 2020 19:23 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

*lagom plan

― Microbes oft teem (wins), Monday, 30 March 2020 19:27 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Healthcare only goes so far for an untreatable disease. We're trying to tell friends and family in Japan to get ahead and isolate now, not sure it's entirely getting through though.

Malaysia is turning a corner - barring any disasters, we are looking good at flattening the curve sooner than expected. We are not under strict lockdown but borders are closed and internal movement has been drastically curbed, with full lockdowns in districts with spikes in cases. Our PM repeated the phrase “just stay at home” six times in his speech announcing the measures a couple of weeks ago, just to make sure people got the message.

Our economy though is going to take a massive, massive hit - we are heavily export-oriented so this situation was bad to begin with but now we’re looking at widespread unemployment, hunger and poverty. It’s going to be a very sad Ramadan and Eid.

I really don't know why countries didn't lock down earlier or put more measures in place. Everyone wants to believe that they are different, that they are more ideally, naturally equipped to deal with emergencies because, like I referred to above, *usually* the virus stays in a faraway country we don't care about, usually we don't get sick, usually we recover. And there are very few people that are in leadership roles willing to make the correct call when it seems premature when premature and proactive is what is required.

And plus, I don't think a lot of people in positions of power really care too much about the wrong type of people dying. It's less stress on funds.

People are just believing whatever they want. I know someone who is convinced the only reason the US leads in number of cases is because we're testing more than other nations, and that Asian countries are lying about their cases, which, per capita, is just bullshit. So he thinks it's a nothingburger.

Just takes several leaders of a government thinking it's a nothingburger to lead to temporary inaction long enough to cause long term damage.

xp sounds like you really do know why countries didn't lock down earlier (or at least, I agree with you about why they didn't).

yeah i was just talking in that... I don't know why you don't know better kind of way. it's baffling.

so of the two people I know who have this, both experienced fevers for several days before any other coughing symptoms (both are quarantined in their homes; two people are not related, in different states, one here in Berkeley and one in Amherst). I got somewhat pwned on FB responding to someone who said the virus was mutating when I said there wasn't any evidence of that; apparently that's untrue, and there are like 8 strains that are being examined now. This seems...potentially bad? but maybe that explains why some people are having different symptoms start at different times?

As I continue to stress over every conceivable thing I notice about myself, I think I'm going to be the first person to psychosomatically will myself into contraction.

the different strains though, on the bright side, it makes it a little easier to track transmission.

If I understand correctly it would be natural for it to mutate slightly but not in any way that makes it functionally different, and if it did mutate that much it would be on a scale of years, not weeks. People having differing symptoms is because we don't know yet the characteristics that make people more or less vulnerable--a couple quarantined together can have vastly different experiences even though they got it from each other. I think you were accurate!

afaik that's correct, yes it mutates like all viruses, but the rate of mutation is slower so that's good in terms of vaccine effectiveness and acquired immunity.

Is there any reliable info on the idea I've seen floated that the amount of virions (?) you ingest can have an effect on the severity of the symptoms?

I've been looking for that too since it was mooted by health reporter on NY Times Daily re: deaths of doctors. All I could find was 'research needed':

"Maybe it's due to a higher dose of virus they're receiving," Hotez hypothesized in his Monday interview with CNN about why medical workers appear to be at greater risk for serious illness from the coronavirus. "We don't really know. It'll take time to study."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/health/doctors-coronavirus-health-care-hit-harder/index.html

"afaik that's correct, yes it mutates like all viruses, but the rate of mutation is slower so that's good in terms of vaccine effectiveness and acquired immunity."

that's good to hear

so of the two people I know who have this, both experienced fevers for several days before any other coughing symptoms (both are quarantined in their homes; two people are not related, in different states, one here in Berkeley and one in Amherst)...

― akm, Wednesday, April 1, 2020 7:15 AM (thirty-seven minutes ago)

get him to post here again!

aiui the same virus will most def cause different symptoms in different people. The symptoms are mostly immune responses (fever, coughing), and people have different immune systems. (Conversely you could also have the same symptoms but from different viral strains.)

Wildly oversimplifying, of course, but even with normal colds you hear those conversations comparing symptoms. "Oh, yours started with stuffiness and then became a general ache? I musta gotten the same bug."

My wife and children and I often have different experiences from what I must assume is the same pathogen, because we all live in the same tiny hive of germy goo, with the same diminuitive infection vectors.

I believe the amount of virus you...ingest?...is a factor in your likelihood of getting sick, but idk if it affects *how* sick. If a person ingests a tiny molecule of virus they might be able to fight it off, but if you're around it for many consecutive hours, your chances get higher. Hence the extreme risk for health care workers.

Yeah, I've read a few pieces now on viral load and how you're better off getting a small inital dose which gives your body time to produce antibodies before the virus becomes unmanageable. Not sure if any of it's been by actual scientists though.

As I continue to stress over every conceivable thing I notice about myself, I think I'm going to be the first person to psychosomatically will myself into contraction.

I hear you on that one.

Or, today, stress over every conceivable thing I notice about the other half, who took his temperature today after two weeks of telling me I was silly to be taking mine approximately daily.

(NB I probably am silly because the thing is still giving me temperatures in the range of 32-34, so it looks like 1. I very much do not have a fever and 2. my chosen method is probably useless for determining anything about my health. And if it goes up to 37 I hope I won't need to be on the phone to the health information line protesting that it's gone up by 3 or 4 degrees while they tell me I'm an idiot and that's the perfect healthy temperature.)

Last night I certified far more deaths than I can ever remember doing in a single shift. The little things hit you: a book with a bookmark in, a watch still ticking, an unread text message from family. Pandemic medicine is hard.

— George Hulston (@medichulston) March 31, 2020

ouch :(

Has Hobby Lobby invoked their right as Christians to put its employees and customers at serious risk yet?

Distant xpost, but as I understand it both Spain and Italy had excellent health care systems, though they may have been reduced/cut after the 2008 financial meltdown, which may explain their current struggles. Is Sweden's really still robust enough to withstand an onslaught of serious illness?

we’re about to find out

Just a wholesome Christian business spreading illness and death in the heartland.

"Hobby Lobby quietly reopened stores in at least 2 states, defying coronavirus-related shutdowns and prompting police intervention" https://t.co/LRQeBvY14q via @businessinsider

— Joshua Holland 🔥 (@JoshuaHol) April 1, 2020

Better now than never, eh? #Mask_Shift

CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield told NPR on Tuesday that it appears infected individuals are shedding the virus "probably up to 48 hours before we show symptoms."

"This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread across the country, because we have asymptomatic transmitters and we have individuals who are transmitting 48 hours before they become symptomatic," he said.

*He later added that the issue of wearing masks "is being aggressively reviewed."*

maybe they shouldn't have lied about the masks and engendered more permanent distrust of the government. they could've been honest and said "masks help but we need them for hospital workers so don't hoard them."

still giving me temperatures in the range of 32-34

Surely defective, no? The one I use always has me between close to 36 and 37 (and the couple of times it's been close to 37, stress--which is ridiculous, seeing as 37 is normal).

maybe you are just not putting it in your mouth right. it seems like you know this but taking your temperature every day is going to make you insane. also women's temperature can change due to hormonal cycle. the minute you see it go up you're going to think you have coronavirus!

You need to put it in your butt iirc.