~*Official #COVID-19 Thread of Doom*~ Revenge of Omicron Prime

[Chadatog]

12 hours ago, Jason said:

 

I guess no one told him that this operative was working for the Republican candidate.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

It really isn't... I'm watching the reporting on this right now and it's being reported that this is unprecedented (Trump originally wanted to sign the checks but was told that he couldn't) so now he is having his name put in the memo line of the paper checks going out. Also because this was a last minute decision, the checks had to be recoded which may or may not delay them going out by a couple of days 

Same thing as in “Guy wants to use the government as his free campaign”

[DarkStar189]

I'm still waiting for Pennsylvania to get their shit together with Unemployment Compensation.  Their website still isn't set up for self employed people.  We've been told not to sign up through the regular application because you will be assigned a pin, but then denied and it will delay your benefits.  "The self employed form is coming" they've been saying for 2 weeks now...  The only way I can pay my bills come May 1st is with the stimulus money that i'm HOPING to receive before then.  February/March is the slow time in my line of work. Come April business picks up and i'm drowning in work until the next winter.    I'm going to check with my bank tomorrow about the SBA Payroll Protection Program.  I already signed up for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL).  Took 2 weeks to finally get an email that just had some standard info about the program.  It doesn't sound that great.   I've been following posts on facebook from PA State Rep.Ryan Warner who  is trying to keep self employed people updated.  The posts are filled with comments from self employed people who have been shut down since the middle of March, receiving no assistance or income since.

[Remarkableriots]

52 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

If only a Democrat governor was in charge the right thing would be done...oh wait! If California had a Democrat governor the homeless problem would definitely get fixed...

[Remarkableriots]

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/14/governor-newsom-california-sees-single-day-high-in-covid-19-deaths/

Quote

On the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom announced preliminary criteria for easing the statewide stay-at-home order, the governor also revealed 71 more people have died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.

The governor said the number, which brings the statewide coronavirus death toll to 758, represents a single-day high since the California Department of Public Health began tracking deaths of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

“758 individuals, stories, families and lives torn apart,” Newsom said. “71 individuals that lost their lives just since the last reporting that I gave you.”

The previous single-day high in the state was 66 deaths, which was reported on April 8.

 

[DarkStar189]

Good news is that the stimulus money is suddenly pending in my bank account now

[CitizenVectron]

 

The outrage (that measures worked) is starting.

 

"The police told me that if we didn't wear seatbelts, everyone in the car could die! So we put them on, and no one died in the accident. What was the point of the seatbelts?"

[marioandsonic]

9 hours ago, DarkStar189 said:

I'm still waiting for Pennsylvania to get their shit together with Unemployment Compensation.  Their website still isn't set up for self employed people.  We've been told not to sign up through the regular application because you will be assigned a pin, but then denied and it will delay your benefits.  "The self employed form is coming" they've been saying for 2 weeks now...  The only way I can pay my bills come May 1st is with the stimulus money that i'm HOPING to receive before then.  February/March is the slow time in my line of work. Come April business picks up and i'm drowning in work until the next winter.    I'm going to check with my bank tomorrow about the SBA Payroll Protection Program.  I already signed up for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL).  Took 2 weeks to finally get an email that just had some standard info about the program.  It doesn't sound that great.   I've been following posts on facebook from PA State Rep.Ryan Warner who  is trying to keep self employed people updated.  The posts are filled with comments from self employed people who have been shut down since the middle of March, receiving no assistance or income since.

 

I had to deal with PA Unemployment Compensation years ago.  It...was not fun.

[SaysWho?]

28 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

The outrage (that measures worked) is starting.

 

"The police told me that if we didn't wear seatbelts, everyone in the car could die! So we put them on, and no one died in the accident. What was the point of the seatbelts?"

 

"I'd be happier if several 10s of thousands more died because we did less."

[Bloodporne]

13 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

This was after, Today's presser. The one you're talking about was yesterday... which seems like a month ago. And I don't know how you can watch these and see anything other than a frightened man who is in waaaaay over his head lashing out like a child.

You're right on the money. I've worked for a weak son of a nepotist just like him, and I see them everywhere in my industry, and it's like they're handed a playbook of reactions. I guarantee he expected this whole gig to be The Apprentice 2: Bigger & Better, consciously or not, just being a delusional fool who's never lived in the real world. I think his increasingly ridiculous and illogical tantrums are directly proportional to how much the reality of himself is sinking in.

[Bloodporne]

34 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

The outrage (that measures worked) is starting.

 

"The police told me that if we didn't wear seatbelts, everyone in the car could die! So we put them on, and no one died in the accident. What was the point of the seatbelts?"

I have several friends who are slowly starting to get on that band wagon now as well. The whole outrage cycle will be monumental once this even settles down a tiny bit and with how much the US mistreats and squeezes dignity and sanity out of its people, it's no surprise people will grasp onto any villain they're presented in lieu of the real culprits.

[CitizenVectron]

So are we thinking there will be a massive wave of austerity that will cripple the lower and middle classes (and this time small business owners as well!) again?

[Keyser_Soze]

If only we could go back in time and do nothing to see how many people die and compare them to the projections!

[CayceG]

I got my Trump Bucks this morning. 

 

I feel like I need to apply that to a chest freezer and some frozen food for the future. 

But also, Magic cards...

[CitizenVectron]

I think that unless you need to spend the money on essentials, you should save it. Fuck the rich who want people to be spending money to stimulate the economy for them. They have money to spend that has been hoarded for years, let them spend it (or take it away).

[Keyser_Soze]

5 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

I think that unless you need to spend the money on essentials, you should save it. Fuck the rich who want people to be spending money to stimulate the economy for them. They have money to spend that has been hoarded for years, let them spend it (or take it away).

 

Time to buy that Valve Index!

[Commodore D]

38 minutes ago, CayceG said:

I got my Trump Bucks this morning. 

 

I feel like I need to apply that to a chest freezer and some frozen food for the future. 

But also, Magic cards...

If I was to get one (I won’t, kids don’t have SSN), it would go towards the XseX; oh and right back to the government to pay some of this year’s tax bill.

[Chris-]

47 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

I think that unless you need to spend the money on essentials, you should save it. Fuck the rich who want people to be spending money to stimulate the economy for them. They have money to spend that has been hoarded for years, let them spend it (or take it away).

I think you should suck my balls. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[TwinIon]

So I imagine this is old news to many, but I wasn't aware until my brother mentioned yesterday that there are drive up antibody tests available. There are a couple in Southern California, and for $75 you can have results in 15 minutes. My brother is going today because he and his wife had a terrible cold in February and they want to know if it was Covid. My first thought was "that seems like a good idea."

 

Then this morning I was reading this Vanity Fair Interview with Fauci and he brings those tests up specifically, saying:

Quote

the antibody test says whether you’ve been infected and recovered. And now you have these proteins that historically, with other viruses, would protect you from being reinfected with the same virus. So if you have a high antibody level, you can make an assumption in most viruses. The thing that we don’t know yet about this virus, first of all, the antibody tests that are out there, disturbingly, more of them have not been validated by the FDA or the NIH. So we’re not sure if they’re really accurate, whether they’re sensitive or specific. But let’s say they were sensitive and specific. The thing we don’t know yet is what is the relationship between the level of antibody and the degree of your protection. So you may be positive for an antibody but not enough to protect you.  

So these tests are being administered may not be accurate, and even if they are, we don't yet know how to interpret the results. Seeing these antibodies could mean that you're immune, but it also might not. I suppose you would know if you had it or not, which would certainly sate a certain amount of curiosity, but it's not really actionable information.

[Bloodporne]

32 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

So I imagine this is old news to many, but I wasn't aware until my brother mentioned yesterday that there are drive up antibody tests available. There are a couple in Southern California, and for $75 you can have results in 15 minutes. My brother is going today because he and his wife had a terrible cold in February and they want to know if it was Covid. My first thought was "that seems like a good idea."

So I haven't followed this but I'm actually really curious about this bolded tidbit. I was extremely sick in early February with seemingly all the symptoms, to the point even that I had to be prescribed an additional inhaler because I felt like I was having a constant asthma attack combined with my fever, a nasty cough and so on. They didn't diagnose me, just gave me that inhaler prescription. I'm not a person to run to the doc, I have to be half-dead.

 

I've been writing it off since it seems to predate the official first cases but I've been wondering if it could've been it or if it was simply too early. Two of my coworkers suffered the same shit within the same and/or following weeks. I guess what I'm wondering is if there has been any talk of it having possibly been hitting prior to the official timeline?

[Jason]

11 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

So I haven't followed this but I'm actually really curious about this bolded tidbit. I was extremely sick in early February with seemingly all the symptoms, to the point even that I had to be prescribed an additional inhaler because I felt like I was having a constant asthma attack combined with my fever, a nasty cough and so on. They didn't diagnose me, just gave me that inhaler prescription. I'm not a person to run to the doc, I have to be half-dead.

 

I've been writing it off since it seems to predate the official first cases but I've been wondering if it could've been it or if it was simply too early. Two of my coworkers suffered the same shit within the same and/or following weeks. I guess what I'm wondering is if there has been any talk of it having possibly been hitting prior to the official timeline?

 

Quote

I'm 99% sure I got it on 12/30 here in Tucson. Different from any cough I've ever had...and I get them every late Feb and late Oct...every year since I was 14 (I'm approaching 50 now). This was deep and caused a gag reflex with a lot of throwing up which has never happened with the usual bronchitis due to allergies. But, I didn't throw up stomach contents even if I just had a big meal. Instead, it was always a white foam. Only thing I can find online is that's a symptom of pneumonia. Tested negative for everything and the doctor was downright afraid and had a mild "get the hell out of my office with whatever it is you have, please" look on his face and reaction to the tests being negative. Worst of all, instead of lasting the usual 3 weeks like the bronchitis does, it lasted a full two months until I could walk to the mailbox without causing a cough attack. Literally, 3/2 was the first time I could take a walk around the neighborhood without causing me to cough for minutes on end.

Brutal stuff that I can't believe I'm saying this but give me my usual 3 week bronchitis instead of that all day, every day. I wouldn't wish whatever that was on my worst enemy.

I suspect it's been all over the country since shortly after the first cases of it in mid-November in China - likely late November to mid-December.

 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/new-model-looks-at-what-might-happen-if-sars-cov-2-is-here-to-stay/?comments=1&post=38811103#comment-38811103

[TwinIon]

3 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

So I haven't followed this but I'm actually really curious about this bolded tidbit. I was extremely sick in early February with seemingly all the symptoms, to the point even that I had to be prescribed an additional inhaler because I felt like I was having a constant asthma attack combined with my fever, a nasty cough and so on. They didn't diagnose me, just gave me that inhaler prescription. I'm not a person to run to the doc, I have to be half-dead.

 

I've been writing it off since it seems to predate the official first cases but I've been wondering if it could've been it or if it was simply too early. Two of my coworkers suffered the same shit within the same and/or following weeks. I guess what I'm wondering is if there has been any talk of it having possibly been hitting prior to the official timeline?

The first official cases in the US were in January. If it was before that, I'd write it off completely, but I don't think February is necessarily prior to the official timeline. Early February makes it marginal, but possible.

[Guest]

The question continues to be “where are the hospitalizations?” If this thing was spread widely across the country in November or December? There are particular areas that could have had it a little earlier than previously believed (mostly Cali  and NY), but incredibly unlikely that it was particularly wide spread in those places early and even less so elsewhere in the country.

[Jason]

 

[Jason]

9 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

The question continues to be “where are the hospitalizations?” If this thing was spread widely across the country in November or December? There are particular areas that could have had it a little earlier than previously believed (mostly Cali  and NY), but incredibly unlikely that it was particularly wide spread in those places early and even less so elsewhere in the country.

 

1. Do we have numbers about pneumonia hospitalizations vs the same time period the previous year? 

2. It's possible the initial strain wasn't as deadly and then it mutated. 

[Massdriver]

18 hours ago, osxmatt said:

 

[Firewithin]

ah i see we have reached the point in stupidity where dumbfucks are having a "pro-coronavirus" protest in michigan......i hope they all get it and die

[CitizenVectron]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

1. Do we have numbers about pneumonia hospitalizations vs the same time period the previous year? 

2. It's possible the initial strain wasn't as deadly and then it mutated. 

 

1. The seasonal flu this year is quite bad, so much so that if COVID-19 hadn't occurred we'd been seeing news segments about the higher-than-expect death toll from flu. Apparently the worst flu in 10+ years. It's entirely possible many people who were very sick in Dec/Jan just had the flu. My spouse and I were very sick for the last week, but COVID tests came back as negative. They said it's almost certainly the flu, and we've never had anything so bad.

2. That's not really possible with COVID-19 for a few reasons. One is that it appears to have spread to the US, not away from it. If there was a less deadly form and then it mutated in the US, we would not have seen the death rate in China beforehand (and Europe). The second reason is that apparently, being a single-strand virus, SARS-COV-2 finds it more difficult to mutate successfully than a flu virus, especially in a short period of time.

[skillzdadirecta]

6 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

You're right on the money. I've worked for a weak son of a nepotist just like him, and I see them everywhere in my industry, and it's like they're handed a playbook of reactions. I guarantee he expected this whole gig to be The Apprentice 2: Bigger & Better, consciously or not, just being a delusional fool who's never lived in the real world. I think his increasingly ridiculous and illogical tantrums are directly proportional to how much the reality of himself is sinking in.

Anyone who's worked in New York has dealt with a Trump like personality. My old boss was a lot like him except he was actually a decent dude.

[Jason]

9 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

1. The seasonal flu this year is quite bad, so much so that if COVID-19 hadn't occurred we'd been seeing news segments about the higher-than-expect death toll from flu. Apparently the worst flu in 10+ years. It's entirely possible many people who were very sick in Dec/Jan just had the flu. My spouse and I were very sick for the last week, but COVID tests came back as negative. They said it's almost certainly the flu, and we've never had anything so bad.

2. That's not really possible with COVID-19 for a few reasons. One is that it appears to have spread to the US, not away from it. If there was a less deadly form and then it mutated in the US, we would not have seen the death rate in China beforehand (and Europe). The second reason is that apparently, being a single-strand virus, SARS-COV-2 finds it more difficult to mutate successfully than a flu virus, especially in a short period of time.

 

Regarding 1: that's why I specifically said pneumonia hospitalizations. You can make conclusions on whether or not you had a spike in people presenting pneumonia symptoms.

[Jason]

17 minutes ago, Firewithin said:

ah i see we have reached the point in stupidity where dumbfucks are having a "pro-coronavirus" protest in michigan......i hope they all get it and die

 

 

[Bloodporne]

4 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Anyone who's worked in New York has dealt with a Trump like personality. My old boss was a lot like him except he was actually a decent dude.

Actually, that's my exact situation. Owner of my company is just like him but on a much smaller scale and actually is also a decent guy when it comes down to actual hardship.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Regarding 1: that's why I specifically said pneumonia hospitalizations. You can make conclusions on whether or not you had a spike in people presenting pneumonia symptoms.

Hospitalizations would generate flu tests. If a bunch of people were coming in with pneumonia and testing negative for the standard causes (like flu), the medical community would be all over it and we would have been inundated with news stories about this mysterious illness.

 

Remember how the government and media dipped out about vaping respiratory illness? That was 2500 cases and like 50 deaths and they changed laws in a few months time once they figured out the cause.

[Jwheel86]

The antibody test seems to me just a means to generate statistical data, it's use for the average person seems pretty limited and maybe useless. We need a rapid self contained test (like an at home pregnancy test) that can be mass produced to the point they can be deployed in population bottle necks (everyone going into a grocery store for example) to catch the asymptomatic.