Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

[xoxoxoBruce]

The Italians are touchy feely, the Austrians are not, neither are the Japanese. That may explain why the impact varied.

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Positive: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are out of the hospital and recovering.

[monster]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The Italians are touchy feely, the Austrians are not, neither are the Japanese. That may explain why the impact varied.

So Weinstein and all the other gropers and pussy-grabbers are doomed? I'll take it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's no way to speak of your president.

[BigV]

Field hospital opens on the soccer field just north of Seattle.

[Griff]

That's pretty real.

[Undertoad]

After combing through their data, 99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says

nearly 50% of dead had three other conditions

high blood pressure seems to be the worst co-illness - and diabetes and heart disease

[Clodfobble]

We've just gotten word from the school that the teachers will be taking the first week to develop lesson plans, and online programs won't start for real until the 30th. They clearly anticipate this is going to continue through the end of the school year.

Meanwhile, I anticipate that all their summer camps will be cancelled and I'll have to keep up some version of homeschool to keep them busy through the summer. I've pulled a bunch of resources and made a homeschooling schedule for them that will cover the coming week, at least.

On the one hand, it sucks, but on the other, I think it will be really interesting to see how many parents, once forced to do it, decide that homeschooling is actually a better option for their socially anxious kids and just stay home even when the schools do re-open.

[BigV]

A lot of parents are coming to the realization that the teacher wasn't the problem

[Undertoad]

[Griff]

Burn!

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

After combing through their data, 99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says

nearly 50% of dead had three other conditions

And that did not exist in other nations? It is called 'cherry picking'. Ignore other facts that do not coincide with a conclusion. Yes, that might be true. But if that alone was relevant, then it is also true is all other nations.

[Undertoad]

Those fucking Italians, having the nerve to only study the statistics from Italy

[DanaC]

So - about half our staff are at home now - some isolating, some home working, many left today because they are parents and schools have now closed. The number of people actually able to work from home is still small - they're testing a virtual call centre for the rapid crew, and 3 of our Specialist Team are trialing new laptops and company mobiles - they are in process of building our systems with a view to moving all the specialists to home working but we dont have a date for that yet - optimistic guess is end of next week.

I'm in a high risk category (asthmatic) and also smoke (trying hard to cut down) - advice for my category is social distancing to the degree I am able, and to make decision on how strict that shold be based on my own particular circs (how severe is the condition, how under control, feeling otherwise healthy? etc). Work have made it clear anybody in a high risk category can go home and self isolate until homeworking is available, but...we are so thin on the ground. There already arent enough of us to deal with stuff - and now it not a good time for someone to have a disaster at home and not be able to access help.

We're doing what we can to minimise the risk - hand sanitisers dotted about, cleaning staff coming round disinfecting everything through the day, strict zoning - you stay in your area don't go to other areas to talk to friends, use the chat system - people spreading out more since there are more empty desks etc.

The team leaders are providing snacks and treats to boost morale and the atmosphere is a weird mix of fear and dread with humour and good cheer

...............

Meanwhile - the two Js came back from Hanoi for a 3 week visit to be there for the birth of Janet's first grandchild - and now they cant go back. Their current tenancy is due to cease in 2 days and their new tenancy due to start - and they are not there to move their stuff. More importantly - their 2 dogs (Carrpt's bro, Merlot and his new little Vietnamese brother Biscuit) are now semi-permanent residents of the boarding kennel - at least for the foreseeable future.

Had a scary 24 hours where the kennels didnt respond to their email and facebook messages - but they have now made contact and are absolutely fine with the dogs remaining there for £400 a month. They sent pictures and both dogs look happy and healthy.

..............

Meanwhile - my SiL is head of the community nursing team in the village doing home visits etc - they only just got masks.

------------

Meanwhile - My eldest niece, Amelia and her boyfriend, currently working windfarms in Australia have been laid off and can't come home to the UK - they are driving their camper van to a remote camp site and waiting it out.

..........

Mum is still weakened by her recent operation- gall bladder removed - and more so by 4 months of almost zero fat diet while waiting for the op because even a small amount of fat could have triggered it into an emergency at any time. Was only supposed to be a 5 week wait but got cancelled and then the Christmas season was in the middle of that and so on - eventually had the op 1st feb by which time she was down to a little over 6 stone (about 88 pounds)

She is social distancing as much as possible - we mainly only see each other for dog walks or dropping stuff off atthe door. can't fully do it though, as some stuff needs us both in the car so when we do that I wear a decorators mask to try and lessen her risk.

Shopping is a nightmare. Selfish bastards stockpiling for a possible future shortage and leaving care workers and socially isolated elderly unable to get what they need. The advice is to have enough to last 2 weeks - but people are having to shop every couple of days because they can only get a few things - the shops get stock and whole sections of essential items have been emptied within an hour or so.

Supermarkets are doing what they can - bringing in stuff like the first hour of the day reserved for elderly and vulnerable - but there are stories of young healthy people going in pushing old people out of the way to get to stuff.

Home shopping systems are crashing and people cant get delivery slots at all or not for a month and even then half the stuff you order is out of stock by the time you hit the checkout button

There are enough food and necessary goods in the supply chain, but people panic buying and acting like selfish cunts is overloading it. This is before we have massive numbers self isolating and needing to shop online and before restaurants and pubs shut increasing home cooked food and therefore food shopping by several percent

People are also looking out for each other though - there's some good to be found as well.

Strange days - just generally kind of weirded out.


Enough rambling from me. I hope you all are safe and well and remain so.

X D

[Clodfobble]

Glad to hear from you, Dana. Hope your mom recovers back to full health soon! For some reason I have an image of you trying to force-feed her avocados to put the pounds back on...

[glatt]

Blood donations are way down and it’s becoming a problem.

On Tuesday, I got an email from the local blood donor services director, because I am coordinating a blood drive in early May at my church.

It was sent to all blood drive hosts and was a plea to not cancel any more drives. He reported that 50 drives had been cancelled that week to the tune of about 900 units of blood not being collected locally. He didn’t explain why, but I assumed businesses that were closing were just canceling all scheduled events, including blood drives they planned onsite.

So if you want to help during this crisis, and feel brave enough to get out there, I’m certain there is a drive going on near you this weekend and they could use your blood. Do a google search with your location. The Red Cross probably has some.

Around here, in response to Covid, they do the health screening of donors when you show up to weed out anyone with a fever before they sign in.

Covid19 patients don’t need blood, but the people who are sick enough to need blood are still out there.