Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread - Got too big

[EmuWarsVeteran]

The UK's National Health Service is planning to put British doctors and nurses disproportionately in harms way because non-British staff have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/30/nhs-bosses-say-bame-staff-should-be-risk-assessed-to-cut-covid-19

http://archive.md/77JgL

Safe to say the 'problem' this is addressing is the result of two main factors:

1. Overrepresentation of non-British healthcare staff in London, which has been hardest hit, commensurate with their overrepresentation in general there
2. Foreign institutions like the University of the West Indies may not reach the high standards of training that British ones like the Buck New University do

In the case of #1, it seems a little odd to import British staff into London just so they can get sick and die. In the case of #2, if these foreign aliens can't cut it, why are they in Britain?

What happened to You Clap For Me Now?

Meanwhile here in spain we don't have disparity on the ethnic background of infected doctors because EVERYONE is getting infected due to lack of PPE. Yay for equality!

Jokes aside. I don't know our stats for that shit due to data protection law. (Fuck that shit so badly) but they'll come eventually after being analyzed. Will be fun to see. Either way, yeah I'm not surprised non-western doctors don't follow proper procedure. Most non-western imports are shit and their education levels most of all. Immigrant based restaurants are notorious for winding up with ridiculous fines due to lacking safety and hygiene procedures, immigrant based sweatshops (specially chinese) are notorious for exploitation and code violations. Etc. don't see why people expected any different this time.

Also, fuck the government for even proposing that shit. Once more the world seems devoted to calming me by, whenever I feel like my country is going apeshit again, puting my feelings into perspective by doing something even dumber. Hospital staff throughout this crisis have had to deal with abhorrent PPE shortages due to mismanagement. Can we not add fuel to the fire for politics? Ah who am I kidding. Politicians just can't be trusted not to suck.

I haven't posted about hospital BS in a while, had person/family/whatever vague term I can use for them take an antibody test since it was mandated for all staff in their department to get one two days ago and today they got their results back...negative...?
No antibodies so they didn't catch it yet, but they were around sick coworkers, who kept coming into work sick despite being told not to by hospital directors (not that it will stop the actual department boss from letting them come in lol), reusing the same masks (the news will say the hospital solved the issue but they're not letting other staff besides nurses and doctors not reuse surgical masks) and actually going into the floors that were converted into all corona-chan units to put away supplies.
Weird shit. Especially since they got sick for a while with the cough, shaking, fever, all the lovely corona stuff early on in March but wasn't allowed to take a day off to recover because their boss is an asshole who calls them into work every time they ask for a day off for something important. If that wasn't corona then I don't know what it was.

Also, last time I talked about the hospital there was other staff (what do you call them? morgue staff???) putting bodies in the water storage room, they stopped doing that when all the other hospitals were getting trucks instead but they also can't be assed to put in the bodies right, person caught a glimpse of some guys in the docking area just tossing in a body in the truck but then a head pops off one and then they're scrambling to pick up all the other body parts that are falling out of the morgue trucks...fun times.
EDIT for like the 20th time: When I mean head popping off I mean they're not securing the body bags right, they're not actually touching bodies without one on.
And speaking of body bags everyday there's nurses asking for like 5 body bags, better than asking for 8 like a few weeks ago, so yay progress!

And here I was ranting over the corona cardboard box room of hell. Unsecured fucking bodybags being handled without sufficient care?! What the fuck is wrong with your hospital?! Corona isn't even on the top 100 most dangerous twerkmasters you can send to the club doing thay shit!

dodgy bat dossier ...

We’re for Sydney | Daily Telegraph

All the latest news, views and campaigns for Sydney and NSW.

www.dailytelegraph.com.au

Coronavirus NSW: Dossier lays out case against China bat virus progra…

archived 2 May 2020 03:24:22 UTC

archive.li

Quote about previous research at the lab (not this virus, but stuff they were doing previously, so to illustrate the kind of work.) ““To examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs, we built a chimeric virus encoding a novel, zoonotic CoV spike protein — from the RsSHCO14-CoV sequence that was isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats — in the context of the SARS-CoV mouse-adapted backbone,”

fucking hell. If it turns out that the USA andAustralia were aware and funding this then that’s a major scandal.

Hah! Woooowee. Even if corona-chan wasn't birthed from that. GAIN OF FUNCTION INSERTS ON A VIRUS THEY HAVEN'T EVEN PROPERLY ANALYZED GENOME-WISE?! I can't even enumerate how many safety violations are involved with that shit I'd need to check the list! Hey remember how yesterday some CCP spokesperson was trying to clean china's image and act like the virus was just completely unrelated to them and "calling out" trump for rightfully pointing his finger at their practices. Welcome to why Trump is right #248472057. As always the lesson to learn is you can never defeat Trump. Reality is on his side.

They got the Cough instead of the Clap. So fuck the people who made that gross video in the first place.

All it does is expose that we shouldn't be strip mining the third word for nurses and doctors and that we need to reinforce home ground training again. The EU and globalist idiocy of constantly just skimming the planet for anyone to do the damn job is now miserably failing thanks to idiotic melting pots like London.

Of course, in previous years this was 1) a BNP talking point and 2) Seen by the moronic journalist chattering classes as super duper raciss.

Also, y'know. I suspect the british staff won't get as sick and keel over if they follow the fucking proceedures properly.

Yeah UK needs to rebuff it's education system like crazy. We can't keep trying to export laborers like that, it's a fucking nightmare both in epidemiology and economy. Fuck if you need a batch of properly trained doctors to fill the gaps while you get your population up to speed here your southern neighbors in the peninsula can send one straight to ya, it's not like they can find a job anyway. No need to depend on the awful shit coming from certain countries I swear europe's already got enough unemployment issues without importing people. You'd think that frontier erasure plan would've at least helped mobilize our own properly instead of just bring in more poorly trained idiots from chinese diploma mills.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Isn't weird and fishy then the WHO praise now Sweden as Styx mentionned?

One Youtuber gived some food for thoughts.

Butt Hz
Never have I heard gears being ground so loudly, as the WHO shifts its position.

 

[Otterly]

Any developments on the rumor that Zhengli Shi has escaped to France and is seeking US asylum?

I missed this skimming the thread. That would be extremely interesting. The only thing I can find is this, but still just speculation.

https://archive.li/wQcrb

A comment on one tweet that Sun Lijun could have helped the escape? https://archive.li/dB0dC

That would suggest some infighting in the ranks

 

[Overly Serious]

Went for a walk this morning with a friend. Masked up and two metres apart was the plan. But we were frequently forced closer to each other by dint of the sheer numbers of other people out for a walk, cycle or job. It's Sunny here in bongland today and seemed like a lot of people out and about. Saw a policeman go buy but he didn't seem to be stopping regular strollers.

There needs to be a serious investigation into how money and approvals were being used. I’m sure it’s ongoing.
And a serious talk About gain of function type work in general, and how we collaborate internationally. This is a really big deal.

What did I say about a million pages back? That after SARS, labs would be building libraries of wild caught viruses for research. That they were OPENLY doing gain of function shit is shocking.

I'm curious on your opinion as someone who knows much more than I do about this stuff. What's your view on bioweapons research like this in general? Is it best to just ban all such research or is doing the research actually less risky because it helps us prepare for such things. I no way know enough to even guess at where the balance of risk would lie.

At the beach I met a bunch of teens from North LA partying. They offered me weed and alcohol and told me I was their new best friend.

Corona-chan is a wiley temptress.

 

[OtterTrash]

I missed this skimming the thread. That would be extremely interesting. The only thing I can find is this, but still just speculation.

https://archive.li/wQcrb

A comment on one tweet that Sun Lijun could have helped the escape? https://archive.li/dB0dC

That would suggest some infighting in the ranks

I just find it funny that a thread on Kiwi Farms has been weeks ahead news wise then the media. I remember people posting the information contained in that article weeks ago. I get more up to date news on a site i originally found because of Chris Chan and Jonathan Yaniv. Sigh.

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

And now on today's facepalm. Madrid!

As I mentioned. Today was the reopening of the streets for excercize day. In most places it went smooth. With only 10 fines in the country. Though the fact that the cops were being lax probably has something to do with that. Madrid was a bit funny though.

You see. Madrid saw what happened in Malaga during the kid's reopening. And didn't want that to happen to them. So they had the biggest of big brain moves. (EDIT: Nevermind! Turns out madrid mayor is also PP now. So it's the same circus as always!) Madrid's megamind realized the parks would be a spot where people congregate and that'd put undue strain on the cops having to enforce the rules. And decided they'd just keep the parks closed. So instead of having to stay on the park to tell people to separate, the cops have had to stay on the parks to tell people to go away. Resulting in the same strain they feared. *Slow clap.*

 

[afternoon_tea]

Does anyone have an idea about why it would be spreading so much in the meat packing plants? Is it just people in close proximity? Are places like fulfillment centers having the same issues?

Maybe other businesses are just not talking about it as much, but the spread in those meat packing places is pretty alarming.

I'm really surprised there has been no internal spread at my store. A few people have gotten sick, but they all caught it outside work, mostly from family in healthcare, and two sisters who work in the cafe got it from family who vacationed in Italy. The last case was 3 weeks ago, and so far so good and no one else has gotten sick.

I expected there to be a lot of spread through the workers, especially since people in the cafe got it, and everyone gets their coffee there. I mentioned that earlier in the winter an illness with symptoms that sounded very similar to Wu flu was going around at work, and that was insanely contagious, it was like wildfire, and regular cold and flu are the same.

From what I've heard, other grocery stores and big boxes around here are about the same, they may get one or two cases, but not a lot of spread among workers. It's not like there are no cases in the general area, it's one of the worst counties in the U.S. per capita, so I'm really wondering why the stores haven't been huge hotbeds like many people predicted (not that I'm complaining!)

Most of the spread here has been in nursing homes and hospitals. I don't know if other states are having it quite as bad, but about 50% of our deaths have been in nursing homes, in some counties it's as high as 67%.

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

Does anyone have an idea about why it would be spreading so much in the meat packing plants? Is it just people in close proximity? Are places like fulfillment centers having the same issues?

Maybe other businesses are just not talking about it as much, but the spread in those meat packing places is pretty alarming.

I'm really surprised there has been no internal spread at my store. A few people have gotten sick, but they all caught it outside work, mostly from family in healthcare, and two sisters who work in the cafe got it from family who vacationed in Italy. The last case was 3 weeks ago, and so far so good and no one else has gotten sick.

I expected there to be a lot of spread through the workers, especially since people in the cafe got it, and everyone gets their coffee there. I mentioned that earlier in the winter an illness with symptoms that sounded very similar to Wu flu was going around at work, and that was insanely contagious, it was like wildfire, and regular cold and flu are the same.

From what I've heard, other grocery stores and big boxes around here are about the same, they may get one or two cases, but not a lot of spread among workers. It's not like there are no cases in the general area, it's one of the worst counties in the U.S. per capita, so I'm really wondering why the stores haven't been huge hotbeds like many people predicted (not that I'm complaining!)

Most of the spread here has been in nursing homes and hospitals. I don't know if other states are having it quite as bad, but about 50% of our deaths have been in nursing homes, in some counties it's as high as 67%.

"Spread in meat packing packs."

What country is that in? 'Cause I'd recommend not importing any meat from it in the foreseable future. That's just genuinely concerning.

 

[Allakazam223]

And now on today's facepalm. Madrid!

As I mentioned. Today was the reopening of the streets for excercize day. In most places it went smooth. With only 10 fines in the country. Though the fact that the cops were being lax probably has something to do with that. Madrid was a bit funny though.

You see. Madrid saw what happened in Malaga during the kid's reopening. And didn't want that to happen to them. So they had the biggest of big brain moves. (EDIT: Nevermind! Turns out madrid mayor is also PP now. So it's the same circus as always!) Madrid's megamind realized the parks would be a spot where people congregate and that'd put undue strain on the cops having to enforce the rules. And decided they'd just keep the parks closed. So instead of having to stay on the park to tell people to separate, the cops have had to stay on the parks to tell people to go away. Resulting in the same strain they feared. *Slow clap.*

It's less of a strain on the police as they can just sit there instead of having to patrol the park constantly, I assume. Still exceptional.

Does anyone have an idea about why it would be spreading so much in the meat packing plants? Is it just people in close proximity? Are places like fulfillment centers having the same issues?

Maybe other businesses are just not talking about it as much, but the spread in those meat packing places is pretty alarming.

I'm really surprised there has been no internal spread at my store. A few people have gotten sick, but they all caught it outside work, mostly from family in healthcare, and two sisters who work in the cafe got it from family who vacationed in Italy. The last case was 3 weeks ago, and so far so good and no one else has gotten sick.

I expected there to be a lot of spread through the workers, especially since people in the cafe got it, and everyone gets their coffee there. I mentioned that earlier in the winter an illness with symptoms that sounded very similar to Wu flu was going around at work, and that was insanely contagious, it was like wildfire, and regular cold and flu are the same.

From what I've heard, other grocery stores and big boxes around here are about the same, they may get one or two cases, but not a lot of spread among workers. It's not like there are no cases in the general area, it's one of the worst counties in the U.S. per capita, so I'm really wondering why the stores haven't been huge hotbeds like many people predicted (not that I'm complaining!)

Most of the spread here has been in nursing homes and hospitals. I don't know if other states are having it quite as bad, but about 50% of our deaths have been in nursing homes, in some counties it's as high as 67%.

So, I have a theory on the spread in meat packing plants.

Spoiler: Story time

Worked in one that was put down in early 90's. Narrow common areas, I'm talking not being able to move past one another without turning sideways and touching bellies. No access to a sink in the main entryway to building, sinks in changerooms and work areas though, just hand sanitizer on the wall when you first walk in that I saw maybe 4 other people use. Raw meat, you don't need to worry about contamination of the product, as long as it isn't visible debris, so wearing masks isn't manditory like it is for a ready-to-eat product (where the factory has a cooking process, ie a "killstep") where the packaging workers have to be extremely careful to not contaminate the product. Insuffecient space between workers, I've seen lines where 5 people stand shoulder to shoulder to work on the line. "Essential worker" status means they have no choice but to interact with gas station and grocery store workers, sometimes daily if they are struggling and have to hustle gas money every day. Overworked employees, or work hours that mess with circadian rythym, thats been shown to reduce immune response. Working most of the time under artificial light.

Tl;dr: it actually shouldn't suprise anyone that "essential" workers are getting sick. Gas station and grocery store workers are probably going to be the main vectors from here on out, IMHO. Especially in the work culture of toughing it out and coming in anyways, take a DayQuil and tell everyone it's allergies acting up, etc.

"Spread in meat packing packs."

What country is that in? 'Cause I'd recommend not importing any meat from it in the foreseable future. That's just genuinely concerning.

The U.S., allegedly. Also, apparently in Alberta, Canada, some places have gone nuts on prices. $30 for a pack of 4 chicken breasts. Just a rumor we heard though, I haven't seen any proof of that.

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

It's less of a strain on the police as they can just sit there instead of having to patrol the park constantly, I assume. Still exceptional.


So, I have a theory on the spread in meat packing plants.

Spoiler: Story time

Worked in one that was put down in early 90's. Narrow common areas, I'm talking not being able to move past one another without turning sideways and touching bellies. No access to a sink in the main entryway to building, sinks in changerooms and work areas though, just hand sanitizer on the wall when you first walk in that I saw maybe 4 other people use. Raw meat, you don't need to worry about contamination of the product, as long as it isn't visible debris, so wearing masks isn't manditory like it is for a ready-to-eat product (where the factory has a cooking process, ie a "killstep") where the packaging workers have to be extremely careful to not contaminate the product. Insuffecient space between workers, I've seen lines where 5 people stand shoulder to shoulder to work on the line. "Essential worker" status means they have no choice but to interact with gas station and grocery store workers, sometimes daily if they are struggling and have to hustle gas money every day. Overworked employees, or work hours that mess with circadian rythym, thats been shown to reduce immune response. Working most of the time under artificial light.

Tl;dr: it actually shouldn't suprise anyone that "essential" workers are getting sick. Gas station and grocery store workers are probably going to be the main vectors from here on out, IMHO. Especially in the work culture of toughing it out and coming in anyways, take a DayQuil and tell everyone it's allergies acting up, etc.



The U.S., allegedly. Also, apparently in Alberta, Canada, some places have gone nuts on prices. $30 for a pack of 4 chicken breasts. Just a rumor we heard though, I haven't seen any proof of that.

Dude. Meat packing plants at least here in spain (and presumably the rest of the EU) follow more than enough safety protocols than this shouldn't be an issue. I mean. Meat is a massive disease vector otherwise. Even when the hospital was having PPE shortages that made it look like it was a fucking WW1 situation where we just straight up can't afford to have sufficient gear for the task at hand so we're just sending in the fucking waves of expendables. The god damned food processing industry was up to prime condition. (Much to my dismay as we really did get the shaft in the hospital.) and even with those protocols some months ago we had 1 meat packing plant that decied to skim that shit and we had an epidemic before we could even locate and close that shit. (The owners got fined quite heavily once discovered. The cunts.) So if you're skimming it enough as a matter of course on north america than your packing plants are disease vectors...

Just think of it this way. Packing plant employees don't really interact much with each other. Much like most factories nowadays. Each has their station. So the one thing that consistently interacts with multiple people, is the meat itself. And yes, meat can be a vector.

Just saying, that's a serious cause for concern. Not gonna say there is no way it isn't something else. But, it's unlikely.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Does anyone have an idea about why it would be spreading so much in the meat packing plants? Is it just people in close proximity? Are places like fulfillment centers having the same issues?

1) They have the resources and infrastructure to do employee testing
2) UFCW has a hardon for them so it makes the news

Remember most folks don't show symptoms. A fever and the sniffles at worst. I'm sure the diesel desk clerks at the truckstops have just as high of rates but nobody tests them and there isn't political hay to be made by talking up their infections.

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

"Spread in meat packing packs."

What country is that in? 'Cause I'd recommend not importing any meat from it in the foreseable future. That's just genuinely concerning.

Do you wipe raw meat along your nasal passages before you cook it?

 

[Allakazam223]

Dude. Meat packing plants at least here in spain (and presumably the rest of the EU) follow more than enough safety protocols than this shouldn't be an issue. I mean. Meat is a massive disease vector otherwise. Even when the hospital was having PPE shortages that made it look like it was a fucking WW1 situation where we just straight up can't afford to have sufficient gear for the task at hand so we're just sending in the fucking waves of expendables. The god damned food processing industry was up to prime condition. (Much to my dismay as we really did get the shaft in the hospital.) and even with those protocols some months ago we had 1 meat packing plant that decied to skim that shit and we had an epidemic before we could even locate and close that shit. (The owners got fined quite heavily once discovered. The cunts.) So if you're skimming it enough as a matter of course on north america than your packing plants are disease vectors...

Just think of it this way. Packing plant employees don't really interact much with each other. Much like most factories nowadays. Each has their station. So the one thing that consistently interacts with multiple people, is the meat itself. And yes, meat can be a vector.

Just saying, that's a serious cause for concern. Not gonna say there is no way it isn't something else. But, it's unlikely.

Spoiler: more stories

worked at a RTE facility here in Canuckistan. Even with social distancing rules, was working shoulder to shoulder with other workers, not really possible to work the line otherwise. Wasn't bad in our part of the plant due to wearing full PPE, but on the RAW side, they aren't used to using masks, just the stuff to keep the food safe from them (apron, sleeves, gloves). Our facility has a cooking step between raw and RTE, though, so not much possibility of transmission that way, but between the raw workers...?

The more I hear about Spain, the more it seems like the only place in the world well adapted to Clown World. I absolutely love the anecdotes you give. Stability from chaos.

 

[AmpleApricots]

Do you wipe raw meat along your nasal passages before you cook it?

Don't tell me how to live my life

 

[afternoon_tea]

1) They have the resources and infrastructure to do employee testing
2) UFCW has a hardon for them so it makes the news

Remember most folks don't show symptoms. A fever and the sniffles at worst. I'm sure the diesel desk clerks at the truckstops have just as high of rates but nobody tests them and there isn't political hay to be made by talking up their infections.

That's a good point, it's not like most grocery stores are testing their employees. I would be very interested to see what antibody tests would come up with around here. During cold and flu season the grocery stores are the first place things start popping up, I bet a lot of our "winter colds" would have tested positive.

Around mid-March a lot of people were out sick and wanted to get tested, but at the time they just didn't have the testing capacity and you had to tick off a lot of boxes to be eligible. By the time the testing capacity increased people were starting to recover and didn't bother to go in for a test.

 

[ZMOT]

Seriously fuck this mask shit. It's just making it worse. I've mentioned people touching their masks...shit today saw a 30 something guy take his mask off delicately by the ear strap...then proceed to fold the fucker into fourths and stuff it in his jeans pocket. Then he got into his truck, took the lid off a pepsi and started drinking. This is just fucking stupid at this point.

it was always questionable. I don't have it, and even if I might have it I'm not walking around in a big cloud of corona miasma. I keep my distance and it does exactly the same (mask only makes sense in places you can't keep your distance, stuff like riding the subway during rush hour was always a good way to get whatever is currently going around).
and if I'm afraid I get it I'd get a respirator, not a piece of cloth where by the time corona manages to get on it I already inhaled plenty of it.

worse, last time getting groceries the chashier's gloves were literally deep yellow from all the gunk and other shit it accumulated over the day, touching all the stuff I was buying which is probably worse for my health in general than the coof.

Dude, it was my very first sentance:
>Receiving free money for too long
I was assuming (though, granted without proof) that the people seen behaving irresponsibly in the electronics department had pre-existing bad financial habits. I was not claiming that one hit of free money instantly destroys your moral fibre.

yes, and long-term unemployment is a thing. however most welfare doesn't have a cutoff date, why is that?
my point is some (a lot) people are stupid and do not care. free money or not isn't the issue, with any shit job they could muster to do they would still be stupid and giving no fuck (knowing from first-hand experience having lived with some of those people).

there's also a good chance even people doing fine basically getting extra money (since I doubt the background checks are that deep)

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

Do you wipe raw meat along your nasal passages before you cook it?

Well. No. But I don't trust my dumb self not to touch my face while cooking.

Spoiler: more stories

worked at a RTE facility here in Canuckistan. Even with social distancing rules, was working shoulder to shoulder with other workers, not really possible to work the line otherwise. Wasn't bad in our part of the plant due to wearing full PPE, but on the RAW side, they aren't used to using masks, just the stuff to keep the food safe from them (apron, sleeves, gloves). Our facility has a cooking step between raw and RTE, though, so not much possibility of transmission that way, but between the raw workers...?

The more I hear about Spain, the more it seems like the only place in the world well adapted to Clown World. I absolutely love the anecdotes you give. Stability from chaos.

Over here what they do is a protocol known as "cortafuegos" to stop that. Only groups of up to 3 workers can be close like that. Between groups gotta be 3 meters and they can't interact between shifts. Though what most plants have done is have tables perpendicular to the line and only 1 worker per table so the distancing is assured that way anyway. Dunno if it is due to EU protocols or spain protocols honeslty so I can't say about the rest of europe.

As for spain's resilience. That's because we've been stuck in clown world since waaaay before everyone else got there. I mean. When your country's monarch literally self-exiles and endorses the coup d'etat taking him down because fuck having to deal with the mess known as your country. Just to end with a republic whose corruption gets so out of hand that the president also self-exiles and endorses a coup d'etat against him because that shit ain't getting fixed. Yeah. I'd say that's the point at which we were officially past the point of no-return. But it wasn't even the bottom of the barrel. No that would be the clownshow better known as the civil war. I mean fuck me that was so infamously disastrous that multiple humorists (most famously Gila) made a living out of poking fun at the incompetence on both sides.

Y'all motherfuckers were used to sensible leaders. It's normal you get the cycle of grief for a while. Over here we've been stuck in crazy town since before Cervantes. And our literary tendencies show. I'd say the point at which we reached "acceptance" was when the Esperpento was formalized but even then most clasical spanish literature (cervantes, el lazarillo de tormes, etc.) Were just satires making fun of how bad the country was ran and how crazy some of its inhabitants were.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

So what is the actual verdict on COVID "lasting months"?

I'm seeing that start to emerge as a new talking point alongside "well we dont know the long term effects!", but the highest estimate I've seen is 6 weeks at most in some circumstances (usually severe cases), with most being 2-3 weeks.

Is there any data to this or just more Doomerism and boot-lickers justifying their boot-licking?

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

So what is the actual verdict on COVID "lasting months"?

I'm seeing that start to emerge as a new talking point alongside "well we dont know the long term effects!", but the highest estimate I've seen is 6 weeks at most in some circumstances (usually severe cases), with most being 2-3 weeks.

Is there any data to this or just more Doomerism and boot-lickers justifying their boot-licking?

Over here we had 1 guy that was hospitalized for a ridiculous amount of time for Covid (I believe over 2 months), was on the news but can't find shit now. Either way, I remember the explanation was he also had leukemia. So you know... that explains that. I'd say no healthy individual will take that long to heal. Patients with leukemia, HIV or anything crazy like that might take forever depending on circumstance. But that applies to all diseases not just covid.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

That's a good point, it's not like most grocery stores are testing their employees. I would be very interested to see what antibody tests would come up with around here. During cold and flu season the grocery stores are the first place things start popping up, I bet a lot of our "winter colds" would have tested positive.

Around mid-March a lot of people were out sick and wanted to get tested, but at the time they just didn't have the testing capacity and you had to tick off a lot of boxes to be eligible. By the time the testing capacity increased people were starting to recover and didn't bother to go in for a test.

I'd put grocery stores up there for doing something meaningful too. They are front-facing and have health codes and inspectors.

Unless it's food or medicine there isn't any pressure to test anyone either. We all like Bill the Mechanic. But we also don't give a shit if he is ill with a mild case.

Edit: Ok I got to looking at the data for Kansas. And yeah, this is definitely a testing thing. Ford County (pop 33k) way out in the boonies has 702 cases and it is talked up as being attributed to their meat packing. That's more then Johnson county's (pop 600k) 473. But the difference is how many are hospitalized. 7 were in Ford and Johnson 140. Their hospitalization rates per capita are near exactly the same.

How much you wanna bet that Ford county isn't the outlier here. We are. That this is actually the proliferance of Coronavirus and this rural county in Kansas is simply just one of the places where we pooled our resources and tested a large segment of the population.