Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread - Got too big

[FatalTater]

People are definitely out and about more the past couple days here in my corner of the US midwest. I've had windows open and the traffic sounds are almost back to what they were pre-plague.

 

[HTTP Error 404]

I know every state is different but I found this from New Jersey. Refusing to work because you are scared of covid-19 will result in loss of benefits.

https://myunemployment.nj.gov/labor/myunemployment/assets/pdfs/COVID-19%20SCENARIOS.pdf

https://archive.vn/xGtdY

I hope people are dumb enough to try to pull this shit, because the salt flow will be glorious.

*phone rings*
Employee: Hello?
Manager: We are opening next week, see you on Monday.
Employee: Nah man, fuck that. I make more money sitting at home collecting unemployment than working for you.
Manager: Okay, have a nice day. *click*

*two weeks later*

Employee: REEEEEEEE! WHAT THE FUCK?!‽? HOW COME I GOT DENIED UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS?

I thought I had mentioned this, but apparently I never hit send. So, here goes:

"Remember, if your job calls you back in and you refuse because Unemployment pays more, you just refused work which is an instant cunt punt off of Unemployment."

This is already happening in my state, which recently started reopening some public venues.

Expect hipster marxists living on the dole to start freaking out about this in 2-3 weeks, and the lefty rags to start crying foul soon afterwards.

 

[JosephStalin]

People are definitely out and about more the past couple days here in my corner of the US midwest. I've had windows open and the traffic sounds are almost back to what they were pre-plague.

Ya, traffic here up about 35%, depending on time of day.

 

[afternoon_tea]

But is it really about stopping it, or just reducing it/slowing it down? I thought it was about the latter. In which case, it makes sense that the more masks that are worn, a big data set will reflect improvement. So no, anecdotally speaking, it will not prevent any individual from being infected, but over a large data set it will reduce/slow down the infection rate. And since there is no vaccine and no cure, that’s what we were told was the thing to do. Slow it down so the same number of infections happen, just over a long period of time.

So I’m good with the masks and I think that if reasonable rational information was put out that said hey no, it isn’t a law, but one infected person using a mask reduces the whatever by whatever %, more reduce it by whatever, then people would understand and enough individuals would decide that sure, I’ll do my part (maybe not today, maybe today I forgot my contacts and I can’t stand wearing one with my glasses, but maybe tomorrow and the next day, and maybe not the day after that) that it would have positive impact because “sometimes” actually IS good enough if enough people do “sometimes,” since this is about hundreds of millions of people, not just you or me.

Yeah, it is more about slowing it down than stopping it. But do cloth masks actually do that? Try blowing out a candle with a thin cotton mask on, you should have no problem. Maybe it filters out a few droplets, but is it enough to actually help? You also have people constantly touching their contaiminated masks then touching everything around them spreading all the germs that did manage to make it through. How can any one trust what the CDC has to say about masks after the way they've handled this?

I'm not against wearing masks, I wear a respirator when I work or go to a place with people around. If I didn't have access to those though I'd probably be inclined to comfort myself with the idea that a thin piece of cotton is actually doing something too though.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Looks like some people want "Big Pharma" to prosper with Corona-chan.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/is_big_pharma_suppressing_hydroxychloroquine.html

http://archive.vn/lbebm

May 19, 2020
Is Big Pharma Suppressing Hydroxychloroquine?
By Jon N. Hall
In the May 14 edition of her Fox News show, Laura Ingraham interviewed Dr. Ivette Lozano, a Texas physician, who was having trouble with a pharmacy that had refused to fill her off-label prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) without submitting to new red tape. It seems the Texas pharmacy board is requiring physicians to reveal patients’ medical diagnoses before allowing pharmacies to dispense HCQ prescriptions.
Dr. Lozano’s pharmacy must have been citing Title 22, Part 15, Chapter 291, Subchapter A, §291.30. However, if one goes to Texas Pharmacy Rules at the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, and clicks on the link for Subchapter A just under Chapter 291, the webpage one is taken to does not list §291.30.
A little more digging gave me Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Response at the Texas Medical Board, which, under “COVID-19 Emergency Rules,” has this link: Texas State Board of Pharmacy -- §291.30. Medication Limitations. That link is for a webpage showing that §291.30 was an emergency action, and it makes this requirement of Texas physicians like Dr. Lozano who prescribe HCQ,: “(1)the prescription or medication order bears a written diagnosis from the prescriber consistent with the evidence for its use.”
On May 15, the day after Laura Ingraham’s interview of Dr. Lozano, The Texan ran “Pharmacy Board Loosens Restrictions on Hydroxychloroquine Prescriptions, Reversing Course” by Kim Roberts:

Because of her concern for patient privacy that seemed incompatible with the unprecedented rule, Lozano contacted State Senator Bob Hall to ask for help reaching the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. Hall was concerned about the rule that seemed to be inhibiting the dispensing of these potentially life-saving prescriptions…
Additionally, he is concerned about “collusion between the pharmacy board and pharmaceutical companies who want to prevent the use of an inexpensive drug while they develop a new, expensive drug.”

The article also states that Dr. Lozano “learned about the treatment from one of President Trump’s press conferences.” The article did not include a link to the new webpage at the Texas pharmacy board from which it quoted the new relaxed rules. Perhaps Roberts found the quote at this webpage, which outlines the rationale for issuing §291.30 in the first place. This May 15 Guidance Statement attempts to further clarify the rule. (It also states that it is “in response to several news stories,” perhaps Laura’s.) The operative language is surely this:

The intended use for the drug is not required if the practitioner determines the furnishing of this information is not in the best interest of the patient in accordance with Board rule 291.34 (b)(7). [See (7)(A)(vii), it’s on the second page of the rule.]

 

[Simpadoo]

Ya, traffic here up about 35%, depending on time of day.

Traffic in LA is about the same as when school is out. Declare yourself a sanctuary state and be shocked when people don’t follow the rules.

 

[The Pink Panther]

I went outside to help muh daddy with shit and it looks like people don't really give a shit about quarantine. Driving past a park, there were quite a lot of people outside without masks despite the 6 feet rule still being placed up.

Which is good. Good for them. Everyone sees that it's just the flu; a slight cough and a wheeze that kills the weakest of bodies. But in all seriousness, my throw-out for when things will go back to how they were pre-quarantine is early-mid July. That's my throwout. Earliest would be late June, but I'm glad that things are starting to rev up again.

 

[Quijibo69]

I went outside to help muh daddy with shit and it looks like people don't really give a shit about quarantine. Driving past a park, there were quite a lot of people outside without masks despite the 6 feet rule still being placed up.

Which is good. Good for them. Everyone sees that it's just the flu; a slight cough and a wheeze that kills the weakest of bodies. But in all seriousness, my throw-out for when things will go back to how they were pre-quarantine is early-mid July. That's my throwout. Earliest would be late June, but I'm glad that things are starting to rev up again.

I think they are trying to stop riots from happening this summer. Who knows what is going to happen when fall rolls around.

 

[teriyakiburns]

It isn't happening.

It's never happening until it is.

 

[MediocreMilt]

But in all seriousness, my throw-out for when things will go back to how they were pre-quarantine is early-mid July. That's my throwout. Earliest would be late June, but I'm glad that things are starting to rev up again.

That's probably a reasonable prediction for day-to-day life, but I'd expect things like airline travel (especially international, but yes, also domestic) to take longer to recover. And God help cruise lines.

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

People here in Cadiz have also gone ahead and completely ignored the remaining supposed restrictions we got. And the cops are literally doing fuck all about it. I mean really what's the fucking point? The day everyone went to exercize en mass was the day the peak should have happened. In the end? That peak got us to 5 ICU patients and we're currently at 2. The corrupt bullshit of Pascual and his PPE theft caused more ICUs. Fuck, it caused deaths too, whereas we have not had a single fucking person die from reopening. So what's the fucking point? I say good riddance. If in a week shit hasn't gone to hell I'll be posting that moscatel pic I promised you. This is the end of the rona.

On clownworld news. After negotiations the parties have agreed to allow the government their extention so long as it is in co-governance with the autonomies and limited to 15 days. So as we say over here, "hablando en crisitiano" this means alarm state expands with 2 conditions:

1-Every Autonomous community will have the right to add or take away whatever measures it feels like adding or taking away. Now you may think: but didn't they have the right to do that already anyway? And wouldn't they get total control if they vote NO anyway? Yep. And yep. So why did this convince them to vote YES? Fucking clown world is my best guess. I mean all that's gonna change is they'll now have the right to put on paper on the official stats what they're doing. As opposed to simply enforcing the lockdown however they want and ignoring the official stats which is what they are already doing. Which leads me to the question: If a law is passed on the forest but there's no one there to enfore it. Does it make any noise? I mean really the lockdown was held together by goodwill and happy thoughts from day 1, and now when everyone wants it gone Sanchez just got them to keep it by promising a double dose of pixie dust to go. Worst part is this means I can't decide if Sanchez is an idiot or if I THOUGHT his negotiation tactics were idiotic because I did not realize he was talking to morons. Because they fucking worked.

2-there will need to be a vote next 15 days as opposed to the flexible date Sanchez proposed. And you might be thinking. Wait a second? Wasn't that flexible bullshit obviously illegal and moronic? Weren't they just going to vote NO en masse? Yeah. And yeah. Both of those things are right. So what the fuck happened? Well from what we heard basically multiple parties that had said a hard no was incoming felt the only way to enforce the 15 day rule would be to negotiate a yes in exchange and they feared the "flexible lockdown of about a month" too much not to stop it...

So. Let me put that into context. As I explained before, Sanchez had the hard NO near guaranteed and basically no one thought it could survive this vote, ans absolutely no one thought it had any chance to survive the next, and then out of nowhere, as I explained here, he suddently tried to say this vote would be on a completely illegal timeline. So then, multiple parties who were going to vote no, and who could get away with what they wanted by just sticking to no. Even though they know the supreme court would bitchslap Sanchez's law, and they know there's no way it can pass without them saying yes anyway, decided to negotiate a flip to yes to stop the thing they knew couldn't happen anyway from happening.

I... I have no words. If you remember when Sanchez came out with that bullshit I told you he had finally lost his fucking marbles. But maybe he didn't! Maybe his idea from the start was to gain one last yes by playing these fucking idiots and he simply knew they were this fucking retarded! I am starting to be convinced Sanchez may actually be a fucking genius in disguise and I simply can't follow him because of how good he is at reading people. He might be motherfucking Poirot! Either that, or the entire spanish political caste is so god damned braindead that you can't even predict anything by using logic anymore. I CAN'T HANDLE THESE BIG BRAIN MOVES OVER HERE. I'm fucking dying of laughter. After Los Pascuales' fiasco and how real that got I needed a laugh and god damned did Spain deliver. Oh my fucking god these guys. The absolute state of congress is just delightful. Holy fuck.

I thought I had mentioned this, but apparently I never hit send. So, here goes:

"Remember, if your job calls you back in and you refuse because Unemployment pays more, you just refused work which is an instant cunt punt off of Unemployment."

This is already happening in my state, which recently started reopening some public venues.

Expect hipster marxists living on the dole to start freaking out about this in 2-3 weeks, and the lefty rags to start crying foul soon afterwards.

What kinda big brain logic is that? "Oh I'll just CHOOSE unemployment"?! Even over here unemployment benefits have a "if you get caught rejecting a job you loose the benefitz"! And we're like the farthest left it gets in europe when it comes to social benefits! When even our healthcare tourism accepting ass knows you're being retarded YOU NEED TO GO CHECK YOURSELF IN A MENTAL INSTITUTION ALREADY!

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Can you back this up at all?

Food is pretty much the textbook example of inelastic demand. It's not a luxury good. Food prices usually rise during a recession.
Prices of unnecessary shit will drop, prices of materials used in investing - steel, oil etc will drop. But shop prices for food will rise.

8 Billion people still need the same amount of food whether we're in recession or boom . Those grain elevators, cold storage facilities, vegetable cellars, coops, sties, and pastures are going to be full to the brim with food that they can't get to the usual markets with the same ease. So producers will suffer , and end purchasers will suffer. Skilled middlemen might make a killing though.

So , there's my own proof by vigorous assertion.

Actually, I'm not sure about any of this. I don't think it's simple either way. I just felt like stating the opposite side. I think a terrible recession would lead to lower incomes and lower headline food prices, hence less affordability.

Food isn't as inelastic as you think. Calories can be substituted fairly easily for cheaper ones. And we aren't running out of corn. Especially as ethanol production slows.

Want proof? Here ya go.

https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/

The Chicago Board of Trade is the main market indicator we use for future food costs in North America and it has went severely down.

 

[Disheveled Human]

I don't know its been like 2 months and the greedy usually money hungry government is still trying to keep cautious reopens and lockdowns worldwide choosing to sack the local and world economy. Is it worth it for them or is this thing worse then they are letting on? Couldn't they just fuck up are "rights" without destroying the world economy especially if every country in the world is basically playing ball with this "Scamdemic"? Maybe this shit does effect you more than you think. What are the odds they know a bit more concerning this virus then the general public?

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

I don't know its been like 2 months and the greedy usually money hungry government is still trying to keep cautious reopens and lockdowns worldwide choosing to sack the local and world economy. Is it worth it for them or is this thing worse then they are letting on? Couldn't they just fuck up are "rights" without destroying the world economy especially if every country in the world is basically playing ball with this "Scamdemic"? Maybe this shit does effect you more than you think. What are the odds they know a bit more concerning this virus then the general public?

Dude just stop with the low effort trolls you passed the line into lolcow status some pages ago it's not worth it anymore.

 

[Disheveled Human]

Dude just stop with the low effort trolls you passed the line into lolcow status some pages ago it's not worth it anymore.

Nah you are just mad you are not getting your way, you state things as if you actually know what you are talking about and assume everyone in charge who actually has access to first hand information is doing it wrong. Yeah ill take some random guy on the internet who lives in Spains word for what the proper procedure for every country is during this pandemic, because he might lose his house or job.

 

[and 3 others]

Nah you are just mad you are not getting your way, you state things as if you actually know what you are talking about and assume everyone in charge who actually has access to first hand information is doing it wrong. Yeah ill take some random guy on the internet who lives in Spains word for what the proper procedure for every country is during this pandemic, because he might lose his house or job.

Imagine how dumb you'd have to be to look at the last 4 years and say to yourself "Yeah, the social elites know what they're doing."

 

[RodgerDodger]

Yeah, it is more about slowing it down than stopping it. But do cloth masks actually do that? Try blowing out a candle with a thin cotton mask on, you should have no problem. Maybe it filters out a few droplets, but is it enough to actually help? You also have people constantly touching their contaiminated masks then touching everything around them spreading all the germs that did manage to make it through. How can any one trust what the CDC has to say about masks after the way they've handled this?

I'm not against wearing masks, I wear a respirator when I work or go to a place with people around. If I didn't have access to those though I'd probably be inclined to comfort myself with the idea that a thin piece of cotton is actually doing something too though.

It depends on the type of cloth and how the mask is made. Somewhere back in the thread are some links to some studies done comparing various cloth masks. A mask with 2 layers of quilters cotton (generally 1 piece of cloth pleated) and an inner layer of flannel tests out at 79% effective against Coronavirus's vs a standard non Respirator type n95 mask's 80%. And you can machine wash the cloth one. So a well made cloth mask using the right materials is at near parity with the medical grade stuff. The problem is the better made cloth masks don't breath as easy as the thin cloth ones made from a bandana, so many people go for the one that's easier to breathe in. Completely missing the point and defeating the purpose of the endeavor.

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

Nah you are just mad you are not getting your way, you state things as if you actually know what you are talking about and assume everyone in charge who actually has access to first hand information is doing it wrong. Yeah ill take some random guy on the internet who lives in Spains word for what the proper procedure for every country is during this pandemic, because he might lose his house or job.

The funny thing is I AM getting my way in my region. If anthing cadiz stoped enforcing the lockdown faster than I expected. And we are benefitting economically from it, quite a bit. So... You're wrong on all counts.

 

[737 MAX Stan Account]

Corona-Chan to be nominated for ICE agent of the year.

https://apnews.com/d456600cfbce4334367f1d1445bc928f

 

[MrBlueSocks]

Food isn't as inelastic as you think. Calories can be substituted fairly easily for cheaper ones. And we aren't running out of corn. Especially as ethanol production slows.

Want proof? Here ya go.

https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/

The Chicago Board of Trade is the main market indicator we use for future food costs in North America and it has went severely down.

I have no idea how to read that futures page, so I'll have to take your word for it. Could you translate it into 'tard for me?

If the corn for ethanol can also be used for food, then that makes a big difference, as dirt cheap oil should depress the demand for corn ethanol . I hadn't thought of there being any extra "cheaper calorie" capacity to quickly bring online , I was assuming the demand and supply were fixed and matched over the short to medium term. But turning industrial crops straight into food crops would do it.

I think the other factor I hadn't considered was whether your country is a net food exporter or not . That should affect your experience.

Net Importers & Exporters

https://www.indexmundi.com/blog/index.php/2013/02/19/food-exports-and-imports-worldwide/

archive

Spoiler: Map Image

Couple of surpirses in there for me.

Note:
While Googling, I found the biggest total food exporters :
This is not net, just exports, but still. Wow, numbers 2 and 3 will shock you. I had no inkling. Spain not even on the list.

Spoiler

1 USA
2 Germany
3 UK
4 China
5 France

Which Countries Export the Most Food?

The United States is the largest exporter of food products worldwide, sending massive amounts of plant and animal products around the world.

www.worldatlas.com

Also , to go back to the original point by Otterly or whoever it was, not all food stuffs will be treated the same. Bulk corn products might well be cheaper, but what about vegetables that rely on migrant labour to harvest? They might be in trouble.
This Sky article floats the idea that a third of crops might be failed to be harvested. archive
This one in Metro says unemployed/furloughed Brits have applied for the work, but more are still needed. archive


Long rambling post. Anyway, I did originally state : "Actually, I'm not sure about any of this. I don't think it's simple either way ". So that's me covered.