Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

Correct

[Dr. Strangelove]

[iam416]

Best. Pandemic. Ever.

[Dr. Strangelove]

WSJ saying JC Penny in bankruptcy negotiations. Would be the 2nd dept store chain in a week

[Jeff Buchanan]

The gym thing ....... CNN ran an article today asking the question, "how the heck did gyms get on the Phase I list of essential businesses?" The thinking was a strong fitness industry lobby group led by some of the nation's biggest gyms (Golds, Life Time Fitness, Crunch and others) got it into the Plan to Reopen America. It was also reported that several CEOs were friends of and/or donors to Trump's re-election campaign. FIne. Don't care.

I posted up thread that given the details of the restrictions that gyms would open with - physical spacing of equipment, reports that capacity would be limited to 30% previous levels. you'd have to sign up on the gym's app for entry and for any fitness classes - I'd feel comfortable going if I masked up, observed others doing the same and saw responsible behavior. Baring that, I'd leave. I have a cycling performance mask that I could wear that allows work-out level respiration. The mask has a removeable/replaceable filter over two way vents. it says it is HIOSH N99.I don't know about that but, It has been shown that two persons, each wearing masks of any reasonable type, reduces the likelihood of droplet exposure by 95%. OK, good to go. I'm wearing it in FL whenever I go into a public space indoors, not outside where there is adequate ventilation. It's pretty comfortable and I feel that i could indoor cycle while wearing it.

But, with COVID, major fear of it prevails. I just got an email from LA Fitness in Buford GA, where I have a membership, that the target opening for the facility I go to of Friday, May 1st, has been delayed indefinitely. The company did not think it was the right time to open the gyms in GA and they'll keep us appraised. There were pictures of the things they had already done to space equipment. Bikes were on the basket ball court with 6' between each one of them. Fine. I'm good with that.

We are going to see this kind of thing a lot. First, there are liability issues for gym owners and any other company that wants to open. Second, there's the bad press. Third, the fear level among the folks remains high. Lots won't go out as the most recent poll suggests that 75% of them - accross all age groups - support shelter in place until it's "safe."

Fuck, it's not going to be 100% safe until there is a vaccine and the disease is eradicated like Polio was in 1955 or mitigated like seasonal flu continues to be through annual vaccinations and I suspect this is what the folks want - 100% assurance they aren't going to catch COVID. Not EVER going to happen.

The NYT posted a link to Slate that interviewed people who had gone through previous epidemics and pandemics including the 1918 Spanish flu, SARS, MERS, Polio and Ebola. Authors wanted to know what recovery and return to normalcy felt like. It was interesting. A young woman from Hong Kong talked about SARS. The Chinese government in conjunction with Hong Kong authorities imposed strict mitigation and containment measures for 6 months. After the virus was controlled and authorities authorized places to reopen, it took months after that for her to feel comfortable going into a restaurant, public places, visiting friends without worrying about touching something or getting too close to someone. But the fear faded. A sense of normalcy returned. The total period for her, from start of stay home orders to feeling the weight was lifted off of her took a little more than a year.

The Polio epidemic in the US in the early 50s, reported by a survivor who got it at age 12 in 1952 and was crippled said he lost his early teen years and the fear of exposure persisted until Jonah Salk developed the Polio vaccine and it was eradicated in 1955. It paralyzed the nation with fear for close to 6y. I distinctly remember the vaccine delivered to us in elementary school on sugar cubes. Later we got shots. The dosing schedule has changed now but at the time I received the vaccine it was a couple of cubes during the school year and a booster shot. TBH, I never felt afraid but I never got it and neither did anyone I knew. It was a distant thing for me. I'm pretty sure my Mom and Dad were scared of it but they never let my brother and I know they were scared.

COVID is going to be tougher on a return to normalcy than anything Americans have ever experienced - probably the world has ever experienced. A good deal of the downside is going to be fueled by fear and unrealistic expectations promulgated in the press and federal health officials often adding to the fear with misplaced public statements - this in the setting of what we are learning about SARS COV 2, models and the actual parthenogenesis of the virus against what they predicted 2-3 months ago. The folks, therefore, expect absolute safety and protection from infection before they venture back out.

Welp, standby for the worst economic disaster the world has ever seen and that includes the Great Depression.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Light, sunshine, and disinfectant. Will beat the coronavirus. Yes sir, a little LSD is all we need.

[THE_WIZARD_]

No one's flying halfway across the country to eat the "6th best wings in Nebraska" or whatever. Let them reopen!!

Fuck off

[THE_WIZARD_]

DSL is a fucking imbecile. Does any rational person...which of course exludes DSL...think what we are doing is saving lives? LMAO. No. But keep towing the liberal agenda line and ruining out country to get your way.

Fucking idiot.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Light, sunshine, and disinfectant. Will beat the coronavirus. Yes sir, a little LSD is all we need.

You are a fucking moron.

[Ghengis Jon]

424.JPG

[CGVT]

FFS, the Trumpsters are so fucking stupid in the following of Jim Jones that they believe the shit he says. It's time to stop his briefings before he kills more people with his stupidity

This actually had to be said

11 hr 20 min ago Don't eat or inject yourself with disinfectant, warns FDA commissioner

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/...upDoEAN0YIsAIU

[Jeff Buchanan]

GA's Governor, Brian Kemp, did not respond yesterday to criticism of his reopening GA plan. Of course, his political opponents made hay. The Mayor of Atlanta, Cynthia Bottoms, said this is the first time she's agreed with Trump. Too soon to reopen, she says.

Nevertheless, Kemp released a 26 page set of guidelines for GA restaurants to re-open. Pretty stringent stuff. No cake walk for reopening and comments from restaurant owners throughout GA were not enthusiastic about any kind of return to normalcy. Seems like most places, if they have outside dining, that will be it. Inside dining is logistically difficult. But opening will help if only to reduce the paranoia that's been drummed up over COVID. The paranoia among the folks should subside when it becomes clear that in GA, that allegedly reopened "irresponsibly," new cases or deaths didn't go up in any substantial way....... and it's my view that is a slam dunk outcome and here's why.

I wrote last night about the LA Fitness gym situation in GA which I think is unfortunate. Certainly paranoia among gym members played a part in that decision by LA Fitness execs. Clearly, though, GA Hair salons say their clientele aren't afraid and they are flooded with appointment requests. One said she was booked solid for the next 3w. There idiots for not being afraid of COVID, right. "Experts" would have you believe that it's not "safe" to have close contact with anyone, right?

First, let's look at your overall chances of coming in contact with an infected person and getting COVID. I've seen a ton of calculations. The best of them say the probability is between 0.006% and 0.06% in a country the size and population density of the US. Worst case, then, you have a 94% chance you won't contact a COVID-19 infected person in the first place. Mathematicians actually think this 6% chance of actually coming in direct contact with a COVID infected person and getting sick is orders of magnitude high based on how the data is panning out over time. Sure, there's that unknown scary number of people actually infected. But are the experts telling us what's going on with that cohort in terms of illness and death?. I haven' seen anything. My guess is that they didn't get sick or if they did only mildly and they recoverd and may be immune. The numbers back me up on that assertion.

Let's look at the practical side of this and just use hair salons in GA as our context. How likely is it that you are going to become infected with COVID in one of these places and then become seriously ill or dying from it? The odds of you getting infected and dying? About 500:1 if you are under 40. It increases as you age. Getting in a car accident? 103:1. IOW the odds of you coming in contact with someone with COVID is incredibly low to begin with, about 6% worst case, and if you do get it, the chances of bad shit happening to you by going into a hair salon and getting your hair cut is incredibly low ...... but yeah, noooooooo. Don't go you'll die!!! Restaurants reopening? Holy shit. I don't even want to think about the "disaster" that would be!!!!

I am personally sick and tired of the paranoia over this. Is anyone actually looking past the case counts, the deaths, the visuals of people on vents and body bags stacked up, sad personal stories of suffering and doing the fucking math? Nope. Yet everyone is fine with the economy tanking. Fucking stupid and stupid to the power of 100 maybe more.

[AlabamAlum]

[iam416]

Nevertheless, Kemp released a 26 page set of guidelines for GA restaurants to re-open

Yeah, of course Kemp isn't just going to throw the fucking doors open. No one is going to do that. But he's going to catch shit AS IF that's what he's doing. That gets to what I was babbling about yesterday re politics.

We're Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Die on a stupid island or die at sea.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Depends where you are. Yeah, in New York City, the odds of encountering someone who's infected in a bar or gym is substantially higher. In Georgia, the odds of encountering someone infected in Atlanta or a extreme pocket like Albany is substantially higher than in Tifton.