outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

A bit of a rant:

I made the mistake of having my aunt and uncle (who live in Manhattan) over to visit, because we haven't seen them in months and also maybe because I felt sorry for them thinking they were cooped up in a 1BR apt with their dog all the time.

- We asked them to come in the late PM so it was cool enough that we could stay outside. They came at noon.
- We asked them to wear masks inside. My uncle did for a while and then took it off. My aunt refused because of something incoherent about how the dye could cause an allergic reaction (I mean, she's 75 so it's even more of a risk to her than me but w/e. I kept my mask on).
- It turns out that my uncle is working on site in a store, which they didn't previously tell us. They are also regularly going to stores, like daily.
- They did not maintain distance.
- To make matters worse, they started complaining about how "low class blacks" who they "do not like" are moving into their building. For context, my aunt and uncle are formerly successful professionals from upper middle class families who never saved any fucking money and were saved from possible homelessness a few years ago by winning an affordable housing lottery. They have an amazing apartment in midtown Manhattan for like $700/mo. Their building has tons of amenities. But they complain about it. And now they're complaining about having to live with "low class blacks" -- when THEY LIVE IN FUCKING AFFORDABLE HOUSING, and unlike the "low class blacks" have NO CONCEIVABLE EXCUSE FOR THEIR CURRENT FINANCIAL POSITION.

My aunt and uncle are not trump supporters, but they made me envision typical Trump supporters -- entitled adult children who think life is being unfair to them when they have every advantage. I felt rage. I feel rage today at the risk (admittedly in part my fault for taking it) that they put us at. I felt rage at Texas and Florida and all the places that thought they'd be fine and this would be confined to "blue states," and I had a hard time mustering sympathy even though I know that those suffering now are not necessarily those who oppose masks or were indifferent to New York's suffering. I just feel a lot of rage that I think has been building for a while but had no outlet.

That's awful. I'm so sorry.

Oh forgot to mention the part where (upon "low class blacks") I said "Can you stop speaking that way in my house?" and they ignored it and continued rambling (adding, of course "Oh we're not racist, but THESE people you would not want in your building).

Sounds like you shouldn’t have them over again

definitely not!

NEW from CDC: #COVID19 outbreak at an overnight camp in Georgia infects *at least* 260 campers & staff.
-51% of positives 6-10yo
-44% 11-17 yo
-Camp required a test <12 days before arriving & attempted "pods"
-Masks required for staff but NOT campers
(1/2)

— Amy Maxmen (@amymaxmen) July 31, 2020

it's obvious to me that the reason we haven't seen too many infections in kids is becasue they have been HOME this whole time.

So, the kids are not alright after all? /attempteddarkhumor

it's not that obvious actually. for one thing literally thousands of daycares have remained open the whole time.

https://emilyoster.substack.com/p/triangulating-evidence-on-outbreaks

every new piece of news just makes me think of Samuel L Jackson's "hold on to your butts."

And everyone, cautious or not, should leave this conversation with the sinking feeling that our data isn’t good enough

well this is unfortunate

Early on in this mess I read a quote from an epidemiologist who said quite frankly that collecting accurate statistics about an ongoing global pandemic would be impossible and that it would be a few years before the data which has been collected can be analyzed to the point where a reasonably accurate picture can be assembled. Even then it will rely on the best possible extrapolations from incomplete data.

the problem isn't as much that but that politicians want to ignore the advice of professionals, whose advice is based on caution and worst-case scenarios, and use the imperfect, incomplete statistics as the basis for their policy decisions.

an epidemiologist in March would have assumed if we had 3 cases reported in FL, we might really have, like, 300 or 3,000 due to undetected spread, and shouldn't proceed as if 3 was the true count. our Governor was all like "3? pssh, we fine!"

I thought the research was increasingly showing that kids UNDER 10 spread the virus at much lower rates, and that as you get up in age it gets closer to adult spread. I feel like that distinction gets lost every time "kids" are discussed.

my big question is how sick did the kids get

/And everyone, cautious or not, should leave this conversation with the sinking feeling that our data isn’t good enough/

well this is unfortunate

but yeah as far as I've heard the theory is that people who display light or no symptoms are less likely to spread it which is why apparently kids are less risky

otoh kids spread germs like crazy because they are children so

Cool cool

Faculty at the @uaccn received this email from their dean yesterday directing instructors with children to consider quitting their jobs so that @UofAlabama can hire replacements. pic.twitter.com/d0JZ2sp6hx

— SafeReturnUA (@SafeReturnUA) July 31, 2020

christ

my teacher friend told me a day or two ago that several of her Florida teacher friends got their replies to requests to work from home due to personal needs re: COVID

I'll let you guess what the answer was.

this being the nursing Dean is the icing on the cake xpost

I thought the research was increasingly showing that kids UNDER 10 spread the virus at much lower rates, and that as you get up in age it gets closer to adult spread. I feel like that distinction gets lost every time "kids" are discussed.

That’s what the early Korea studied suggested in March. In the meantime, a number of other studies have suggested that viral load in kids is 10-100 times greater than many adults, even while kids are asymptomatic.

I love Emily Oster, but her recent crowd-sourced analysis of spread at summer camps is.... interesting. On the one hand, it shows that with good safety protocols it’s possible to contain corona in most cases. On the other hand, summer camps are mostly outside, relatively unconstrained by space, a relative luxury, and can turn kids away. School are mostly inside, crappily ventilated, for all kids, and accept everybody.

the fact that this happened despite everyone testing negative beforehand kinda kills all hope of fucking anything opening up soon

It’s also infeasible to temp check all kids going into a school building every day! And if testing has a two-week backlog, like in my state, what is even the point?

I love Emily Oster, but her recent crowd-sourced analysis of spread at summer camps is.... interesting. On the one hand, it shows that with good safety protocols it’s possible to contain corona in most cases. On the other hand, summer camps are mostly outside, relatively unconstrained by space, a relative luxury, and can turn kids away. School are mostly inside, crappily ventilated, for all kids, and accept everybody.

this is going to end up with everyone going to university of phoenix, which will then be acquired by betsy devos

I keep feeling like I'm going to hit my head on a door swinging open, and wake up and be the kid from Flight of the Navigator lying face down in a field

uh oh, a dangerous idea is spreading

https://i.imgur.com/lHKaVJD.png

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/01/thousands-berlin-protest-coronavirus-restrictions-freedom-day-march-cases-continue-rise

BERLIN — Thousands of largely mask-less demonstrators marched through central Berlin on Saturday chanting “We are free people” to the beat of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” in a coronavirus restrictions protest that was also riddled with virus-related conspiracy theories.

The demonstration took place despite recent warnings from German health officials about a new rise in infections.

Billed as a “Freedom Day,” the protest drew around 15,000 people, according to police figures cited by German media. The demonstration was organized by Querdenken 771, a group based in the western city of Stuttgart that emerged from weekly anti-lockdown demonstrations earlier in the pandemic. Members sometimes wear tinfoil hats or necklaces in what they say is a dig at being written off as conspiracy theorists.

Yes, we do have crazies here, and 1/8th of the seats in parliament are occupied by nazis. What, did you think Germany was a utopia?

wow i did!

here's another sad story:

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/08/an-american-story

People sure do get hyped about their freedom to die horribly!

ban drinking gasoline next

People sure do get hyped about their freedom to die horribly!

― Why does this relates to Yoda? (Old Lunch), Samstag, 1. August 2020 20:30 (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The state of Baden-Württemberg, which I live in, is the last place in Germany where it's legal to smoke tobacco in bars and restaurants. If you look at this map--

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichtraucherschutzgesetze_in_Deutschland#/media/Datei:Nichtraucherschutz_in_Kultureinrichtungen.svg

-- green meaning separate smoking rooms, yellow meaning smoking is fine at concerts, red meaning no smoking whatsoever -- I'm living in the gray area, which means no rules apply.

Stuttgart, home of the crazies, is the capital of Baden-Württemberg, which is an inexplainable, random coincidence imo.

Karl, that story is infuriating.

that's awful. and they had it for 2.5 months before dying.

yeah...the relentless nature of what happened, just one thing after another, when you can see it all coming from a mile away. it really is infuriating.

Jersey dumbasses

The owners of a New Jersey gym defied state coronavirus orders again Saturday, breaking into their own business to let customers inside days after they were arrested on contempt charges https://t.co/IrEehMNG9u

— WCBS Newsradio 880 (@wcbs880) August 1, 2020

my sister in law's husband has "done some research" and concluded that he's not going to wear a mask, which means that he's not doing any shopping, which means that his wife has to do it while or in between looking after their 3 year old and 6 month old.

Ugh, sorry

She should let him know that supermarkets are discouraging people from bringing children into stores so he'll have to have them while she gets the food in

"hmmm you know I did some new research and I guess masks are ok."

i'd just say "fuck you get to the shops" but I'm not married to him.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GOhlpriGL._SX383_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Was that...meant for this thread?>

RESEARCH

uncle (who is at risk) is now back to going to the pub but still gets my mum to buy his shopping. and they all went out for a meal (inside) yesterday (only people in there, fortunately)

I wonder how Vale is doing. He's up there in years.

We have coronavirus vaccines already. We already know it is safe enough to test in 30k people. Thousands are dying. So, after thinking lately, I agree w/@StevenSalzberg1—people deserve early access if they choose. Continue Phase 3 trials, but allow for compassionate use. #covid19 https://t.co/kwfFGV9uaZ

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) August 2, 2020

I think I hate this guy more than anyone who isn't a republican politician

Feigl-Ding is worthy of the abysmal names thread.