Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[trdsf]

No sign of COVID-19 slowing down in Ohio -- it's not as bad as it could have been, but it's not getting better.

[Minimalist]

So much for it "vanishing" when it gets warmer, huh?

[Fireball]

So much for it "vanishing" when it gets warmer, huh?

Well, shit, our sun not turning into a red giant soon enough is messing that up, too! 

[skyking]

where is global warming when you need it?

[Thumpalumpacus]

So much for it "vanishing" when it gets warmer, huh?

It's a seller's market for "miracles", it appears.

[SYZ]

This is the current coronavirus status across Australia (pop 26 million) as of yesterday Tuesday 16 June.
I live in the state of Victoria with a population of 6.6 million people.



And I know mine's an off-topic comment, but I have to say it's increasingly annoying to see more people
effectively derailing threads with personal attacks on each other, and/or rambling on about stuff that has
nothing at all to do with the thread topic.  This sort of behaviour does nothing to help the flow of the
thread, or add anything of consequence to the topic at hand.  The ongoing, irrelevant "debate" about
Don Quixote and Spain and Portugal are a classic case in this thread—which is supposed to be discussing
the spread of coronavirus—not geography or regional history etc.

These following quotes typify what I'm talking about, and apart from this particular thread, similar distractions
have occurred on several other current threads.  We're supposed to be intelligent, articulate, enlightened
atheists—not little kids sniping at each other in the schoolyard.

You're a bad advocate because, in addition to being an ass with shit for brains, your hypocrisy
undermines your credibility. Since you didn't get it the first time I'm forced to repeat myself in
order to make one last vain attempt to penetrate that miles thick skull of yours: I wasn't advocating
one position or the other, so your opinion, whatever it is, doesn't address what I said in the slightest,
and seems to be little more than an attempt to create a strawman you can argue against.

And to your ignorance, Don Quixote was Spanish, I am Portuguese, so to better insult me, you
could go with Gil Vicente, or Camões, oe Fernando Pessoa.

So, instead of answer the points I made, you're just going to dishonestly deflect. And you wonder
why I might consider you an ass.

But by all means, keep showing everybody what a brainless and dishonest douche bag you are.

No, the problem here is a combination of LP's general tendency toward idiocy and what I presume
are difficulties in comprehending English.

In other words you're ignorant of the relationship between Portugal and Spain.

So in other words, you don't know that the word ignorant is from the Old French, and my mother
was English. Or are you saying you don't know the relevant histories of France and England?

You're as pathetic as he is.

So you're claiming to be culturally insensitive?
I care not if your mother was a dormouse and your father smelled of elderberries.

What part of what I wrote gave you that idea? Weren't you supposed to be moving on, anyway?
Apparently you're just like LP in that you say one thing, and immediately do another.

You're the one digging yourself into a hole...
The reference is fairly blatantly a case of cultural ignorance and/or insensitivity.
By denying ignorance you imply insensitivity.

Only to someone without brains or imagination. Feel free to pigeonhole yourself if you wish.
I implied no such thing.

What part of what I wrote gave you that idea? Weren't you supposed to be moving on, anyway?

Apparently you're just like LP in that you say one thing, and immediately do another.

—I haven't provided any attribution to these quotes, as you'll know who you are.    

       

[Minimalist]

Then to get back on topic.... this is not good news.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/much-mo...ncerned/te]

‘Much more infectious’: A mutated strain of the novel coronavirus has scientists very concerned

New research on mutations in the novel coronavirus reveals that an evolved strain of the disease may possess a significantly increased ability to infect people. Physically, this mutation’s changes have increased the number and flexibility of the protein spikes on the virus’ surface.

[Deesse23]

Masks on in Wyoming strip clubs.

TMI

[Vera]

Masks on in Wyoming strip clubs.

TMI  

"Greek sex workers criticise COVID safety guidelines.

Regulations which came into force on June 15 urge sex workers to keep names and contact numbers of customers, who will lose the anonymity they previously sought.

Show ContentSpoiler:

“What client is going to give us their personal information? I tell you, people are going to go hungry,” said Anna Kouroupou, a trans-woman who heads Red Umbrella, a support group.

As brothels across the country reopened on Monday, the rules dictate the use of masks, partners keeping their heads apart, bed linen changed after each encounter, cashless payments and clients leaving a name and contact number.

“They are ridiculous and I’m putting it mildly,” said Rita, who manages a brothel in central Athens.

On Monday evening, business was brisk. But with the new requirements, sex workers wonder for how long.

Those in the industry are anxious to earn some money now as sex workers received no benefits during the lockdown. Kouroupou would do fund-raisers, and collect supermarket coupons to help others.

She and others in the business fear the new rules may force sex workers to go underground. She also dismisses the notion of orderly queues at brothels.

“They almost break down the door in their hurry to get in because they are embarrassed to be seen. How will they be expected to queue? It’s ridiculous.”

@SYZ When in an ill-conceived moment of mild boredom and nostalgia for people like Kim and Paleo and Unsapien, among others, I decided to come back for a bit, mostly to share things I thought interesting, I was stunned by how much the forum had changed. Gone were the days of intelligent, articulate posters like Girly and Kim, and Stark and many others; what it had devolved into was a bunch of people (not all by any means, but the loudest, and most empty-lifed, I guess), often well into their fifties and sixties, engaged in puerile bickering, picking up petty, meaningless fights, in both casual and serious threads, hurling insults until they got that most coveted thing, THE LAST WORD, even if it were, to quote a favourite, hurr-durr.

Someone actually tried to say something about this happening in the Floyd thread and was literally told to blow it out of his ass which, apparently, is perfectly okay and even smiled upon.

*This* has become the new level.

Oh, and disparaging a nonnative speaker of one’s own language is beyond pathetic and desperate.

3,2,1: Cue the next barrage of juvenile insults and struggle to get the last word.

[Unsapien]

Well whoever gave my wife the information that all the staff tested negative at the facility was full of crap.

She got a call yesterday from someone doing contact tracing. It was an RN in the dementia ward that tested positive. A ward that because my wife isn't just a PSW but doubles as a BSO (someone that handles residents with difficult behaviours) spends a lot of time on for obvious reasons.

So she and others were ordered to go and get tested again at a provincial testing centre, she was given a special code number to give to them that got her whisked straight past the line-up. 

Nobody is allowed to leave the house (me or my son that still lives at home) until her test comes back negative (we're told 2 days). If it's negative it'll show up on the provincial website, if it's positive we get a phone call.

Anyway last I checked our province's numbers were 189 cases a day and falling, and yesterday only 3 new cases in the city (of 1 million).


Not sure if it's safe for me to go on twitter today. Yesterday I made a humorous reply to someone that twitted that it was "unconstitutional" to make them wear a mask in a store... today a reply might get me twitter banned.

[Unsapien]

Anyway last I checked our province's numbers were 189 cases a day and falling, and yesterday only 3 new cases in the city (of 1 million).

I should of course add that's 3 new reported cases, who knows how many asymptomatic cases there maybe lurking around the city, I mean what are the chances of after all these months this thing comes knocking on our door?

[Alan V]

@SYZ When in an ill-conceived moment of mild boredom and nostalgia for people like Kim and Paleo and Unsapien, among others, I decided to come back for a bit, mostly to share things I thought interesting, I was stunned by how much the forum had changed. Gone were the days of intelligent, articulate posters like Girly and Kim, and Stark and many others; what it had devolved into was a bunch of people (not all by any means, but the loudest, and most empty-lifed, I guess), often well into their fifties and sixties, engaged in puerile bickering, picking up petty, meaningless fights, in both casual and serious threads, hurling insults until they got that most coveted thing, THE LAST WORD, even if it were, to quote a favourite, hurr-durr.

Someone actually tried to say something about this happening in the Floyd thread and was literally told to blow it out of his ass which, apparently, is perfectly okay and even smiled upon.

*This* has become the new level.

Oh, and disparaging a nonnative speaker of one’s own language is beyond pathetic and desperate.

3,2,1: Cue the next barrage of juvenile insults and struggle to get the last word.

We've always had both thoughtful posts and exchanges of insults.  You can ignore the people you think indulge in too much of the latter.  

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The cousins are trying to promote "Kiss a Stranger to Prove Trump is Right!"

You really have strange cousins GS.

[julep]

This is the current coronavirus status across Australia (pop 26 million) as of yesterday Tuesday 16 June.
I live in the state of Victoria with a population of 6.6 million people.



And I know mine's an off-topic comment, but I have to say it's increasingly annoying to see more people
effectively derailing threads with personal attacks on each other, and/or rambling on about stuff that has
nothing at all to do with the thread topic.  This sort of behaviour does nothing to help the flow of the
thread, or add anything of consequence to the topic at hand.  The ongoing, irrelevant "debate" about
Don Quixote and Spain and Portugal are a classic case in this thread—which is supposed to be discussing
the spread of coronavirus—not geography or regional history etc.

These following quotes typify what I'm talking about, and apart from this particular thread, similar distractions
have occurred on several other current threads.  We're supposed to be intelligent, articulate, enlightened
atheists—not little kids sniping at each other in the schoolyard.

You're a bad advocate because, in addition to being an ass with shit for brains, your hypocrisy
undermines your credibility. Since you didn't get it the first time I'm forced to repeat myself in
order to make one last vain attempt to penetrate that miles thick skull of yours: I wasn't advocating
one position or the other, so your opinion, whatever it is, doesn't address what I said in the slightest,
and seems to be little more than an attempt to create a strawman you can argue against.

And to your ignorance, Don Quixote was Spanish, I am Portuguese, so to better insult me, you
could go with Gil Vicente, or Camões, oe Fernando Pessoa.

So, instead of answer the points I made, you're just going to dishonestly deflect. And you wonder
why I might consider you an ass.

But by all means, keep showing everybody what a brainless and dishonest douche bag you are.

No, the problem here is a combination of LP's general tendency toward idiocy and what I presume
are difficulties in comprehending English.

In other words you're ignorant of the relationship between Portugal and Spain.

So in other words, you don't know that the word ignorant is from the Old French, and my mother
was English. Or are you saying you don't know the relevant histories of France and England?

You're as pathetic as he is.

So you're claiming to be culturally insensitive?
I care not if your mother was a dormouse and your father smelled of elderberries.

What part of what I wrote gave you that idea? Weren't you supposed to be moving on, anyway?
Apparently you're just like LP in that you say one thing, and immediately do another.

You're the one digging yourself into a hole...
The reference is fairly blatantly a case of cultural ignorance and/or insensitivity.
By denying ignorance you imply insensitivity.

Only to someone without brains or imagination. Feel free to pigeonhole yourself if you wish.
I implied no such thing.

What part of what I wrote gave you that idea? Weren't you supposed to be moving on, anyway?

Apparently you're just like LP in that you say one thing, and immediately do another.

—I haven't provided any attribution to these quotes, as you'll know who you are.    

       

Are those deaths daily or total?  Curious to know.  

Well in my town of about 35,000 people we have 

57 deaths 
191 current cases, including 2 new cases 
654 recovered 

Total 902 people 

Amazing if those are total cases that the deaths in my town are worse than any Australian state,  but it’s also true that we are near New York and had several super spreader events very early in the pandemic.

[Dānu]

Hey, at least we were bickering about an actual on-topic argument, you're just bickering about bickering. That's known in the business as "piling on." You might have lead by example by starting a separate thread instead of simply contributing further to the problem. And this, "I'm going to warn about people trying to have the last word so that I can have the last word here" gambit is one of the most hypocritically manipulative bits of cheek I've seen in a while. Honestly, if you've said something deserving of criticism, and someone criticizes you for it, this sort of pre-emptive manipulation is nothing more than abusive spin control. Vera engages in it here, and SYZ, doing himself no favors here, did the same when he decided to sidetrack a thread with bickering about my alleged ad hominems (which weren't ad hominems) in another thread.

I don't have a problem with the intermixing of serious and social dialogues. It's a healthy part of the social process, as is that of correcting the trajectory if it has gone too far.

[brewerb]

Nobody is allowed to leave the house (me or my son that still lives at home) until her test comes back negative (we're told 2 days). If it's negative it'll show up on the provincial website, if it's positive we get a phone call.

Will you self isolate regardless of the test result?

[SYZ]

This is the current coronavirus status across Australia (pop 26 million) as of yesterday Tuesday 16 June.
I live in the state of Victoria with a population of 6.6 million people.

Are those deaths daily or total?  Curious to know.  

Well in my town of about 35,000 people we have 

57 deaths 
191 current cases, including 2 new cases 
654 recovered 

Total 902 people 

Amazing if those are total cases that the deaths in my town are worse than any Australian state,  but it’s also true that we are near New York and had several super spreader events very early in the pandemic.

Sorry;  I should've clarified those stats.  They're the total since 25 January, when our
first 4 cases were confirmed in Australia; one in Victoria and three in New South Wales.

The highest death rate of 50 people was in NSW, with a population of 8.1 million.

The population of the shire where I live, Wellington, is 44,000 people, with 12 cases
and none now active, and no deaths.

—Stay safe mate.     

[Dānu]

A genetic mutation in the new coronavirus that significantly increases its ability to infect cells may explain why outbreaks in Northern Italy and New York were larger than ones seen earlier in the pandemic. Scientists at Scripps Research in Florida say the mutated virus was seen infrequently in March, but by April accounted for some 65% of cases submitted from around the world to the GenBank database run by the National Institutes of Health. The mutation, designated D614G, increased the number of "spikes" the virus uses to bind to and break into cells, and made them more stable, researchers found in the study undergoing peer review. In test tube experiments, the mutated virus was roughly 9 times more efficient at breaking into cells and infecting them. "The number - or density - of functional spikes on the virus is 4 or 5 times greater due to this mutation," said study co-author Hyeryun Choe. It is not clear to what extent the changes affect symptoms and transmission, "but it is hard to believe they do not have some effect," said Michael Farzan, another lead researcher. "However," he said, "this particular virus changes slowly, so I wouldn't expect anything as dramatic as D614G for a while. We don't expect the virus to become more deadly, just more efficient at propagating itself." Compared to virus particles without the mutation, the mutated viruses were just as vulnerable to treatment with antibodies from the blood of recovered coronavirus patients, the researchers said.

(Reuters)

[Dānu]

A new study highlights the potential risks of handling personal protective equipment (PPE) items after use by front-line healthcare workers. Researchers contaminated eight different types of protective equipment and materials with virus, including nitrile medical examination gloves, reinforced chemical resistant gloves, N-95 and N-100 particulate respirator masks, coveralls made of Tyvek (a textile common in PPE clothing), plastic, cotton, and stainless steel. Under the experimental conditions, potentially contagious virus was still present - although at extremely low levels - after 21 days on a plastic visor, 14 days on stainless steel and Tyvek coveralls, 7 days on nitrile gloves and 4 days on chemical resistant gloves. But only an hour after virus particles were applied to 100% cotton fabric, the amount of active virus had decreased by 99.9%, and it was completely undetectable in less than 24 hours. "These results have direct relevance to infection prevention and control practices, laundering and waste handling protocols in healthcare settings," the researchers write in a not-yet-peer-reviewed paper posted on Friday on the preprint server medRxiv. "These results suggest that the use of cotton-based fabrics in healthcare settings may present a lower risk during handling for subsequent decontamination and reuse."

(Reuters)

[RobbyPants]

NPR: The Rich Have Stopped Spending And That Has Tanked The Economy

Poorer Americans are pretty much spending at pre-pandemic levels, but the more wealthy Americans have cut back on spending. More importantly, they also are more likely to have kept their jobs, so they're more likely to have money to spend. Having more discretionary income, they were more likely to spend on nice restaurants, theater, and travel, which have all been hit by the pandemic.

The change in spending from the wealthiest 25% of the country accounts for nearly 2/3 of the decline in spending since January.

[Vera]

@Alan V


I do. Even when they try following me around with juvenile attempts at sarcasm or "posts" that have nothing to do with the thread I've just created.

However, thread after thread are being hijacked by the same usual suspects, who embroil yet another member in a petty, infantile fight and it's bothersome.


In all fairness, I think, it's at least partly due to the lack of theists. On TTA those with nothing better to fill their lives with than arguing online, would unleash the venom in them at theists (hey, people would do it to Shai, and he's one of the nicest people there are, when there weren't enough drive-by theists to go around). There are hardly any theists here so people are turning on each other. It was sad to watch in the beginning but I guess water has found its own level.

Then again, a minority of loud-mouthed posters are not necessarily representative of the forum as a whole. As Shakespeare said, "the empty vessel makes the loudest sound."

[Dānu]

"Conclusion not in evidence."

[Thumpalumpacus]

@Alan V


I do. Even when they try following me around with juvenile attempts at sarcasm or "posts" that have nothing to do with the thread I've just created.

However, thread after thread are being hijacked by the same usual suspects, who embroil yet another member in a petty, infantile fight and it's bothersome.


In all fairness, I think, it's at least partly due to the lack of theists. On TTA those with nothing better to fill their lives with than arguing online, would unleash the venom in them at theists (hey, people would do it to Shai, and he's one of the nicest people there are, when there weren't enough drive-by theists to go around). There are hardly any theists here so people are turning on each other. It was sad to watch in the beginning but I guess water has found its own level.

Then again, a minority of loud-mouthed posters are not necessarily representative of the forum as a whole. As Shakespeare said, "the empty vessel makes the loudest sound."

Sounds like a topic that deserves its own thread.

[Dancefortwo]

@Alan V


I do. Even when they try following me around with juvenile attempts at sarcasm or "posts" that have nothing to do with the thread I've just created.

However, thread after thread are being hijacked by the same usual suspects, who embroil yet another member in a petty, infantile fight and it's bothersome.


In all fairness, I think, it's at least partly due to the lack of theists. On TTA those with nothing better to fill their lives with than arguing online, would unleash the venom in them at theists (hey, people would do it to Shai, and he's one of the nicest people there are, when there weren't enough drive-by theists to go around). There are hardly any theists here so people are turning on each other. It was sad to watch in the beginning but I guess water has found its own level.

Then again, a minority of loud-mouthed posters are not necessarily representative of the forum as a whole. As Shakespeare said, "the empty vessel makes the loudest sound."

Sounds like a topic that deserves its own thread.

I like all the posters who are bickering with each other so I just skip past their posts.   

Meanwhile, it's difficult here in the US to discuss Covid 19 without OrangeShitGibbons name coming up.  On Monday he again
said,

“If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any,” 

So does this mean if we stop pregnancy testing we'd have very few babies, if any?  If my obituary isn't published I won't ever die?  If I stop going to the dentist I won't need my teeth cleaned, if ever?  Gee, this sounds like a stable genious of a plan, let's all jump on board The Trump Logic Train.  I'm in! 

[Dānu]

It's a shame Dom doesn't have a cadre of jack-booted thugs to fire rubber bullets and tear gas at these people. Pity.