Coronavirus Thread

After listening to the American update, it's pretty clear that the USA is looking to score points by closing the border first. So we may have to suck it up and let the wookie win.

And I don't think they can really mandate work from home without enforcement. And developing a work from enforcement vehicle seems like a waste of resources right now.



Expect actual information from Trudeau's address this afternoon.
 
I honestly have no interest in looking at the numbers. It's out there, we're all going to get it, whether we know we got it or not, and I'm not going to worry about it. Especially because the lag in testing is going to make the numbers look way worse. I'm obviously taking precautions, but I don't need the added stress of watching infection numbers rise.
 
My call center is preparing MANY agents, myself included, to work from home. There are boxes at almost every desk to ship our computers and monitors.

I wish I could build a fort with them. Or dress everyone up as robots and have box robot battles.

It's also INSANELY busy today. Many snowbirds coming home early. New install appointments being cancelled. Customers with overdue bills making payment arrangements. Adding new TV channels. Downgrading services to save money. It's crazy.

It was near dead the last few weeks. Hours were cut for many employees. HR giving people the option to go home early, etc. Now it's overtime city and call volume is insane.

I feel VERY lucky and fortunate to be where I'm working right now. I know a lot of people as struggling and don't have the opportunity to work from home. My heart goes out to everyone struggling right now.
 
  • Borders to be closed to non-essential traffic only;
  • Trade will not be affected;
  • Supply chains, including trucking will not be affected, so stores, supermarkets can continue to receive essential goods;
  • Trudeau also announced the government will provide up to $82 billion in direct support to Canadians and businesses to help stabilize the economy;
  • That includes: $27 billion in direct support to workers and businesses and $55 billion to meet liquidity needs of businesses and households
  • Emergency care benefit every two weeks for up to 14 weeks to people who have to stay home, feel ill, or have to take care of someone affected by the virus and don’t qualify for Employment Insurance. The benefit will be similar to EI payments;
  • Another COVID-19 emergency support benefit for people who lose their jobs, or who have to stop working because of the virus;
  • Tax deadline now extended until August;
  • Canada Child Benefit to be temporarily boosted for the coming months;
  • The GST credit will be boosted: payments to increase to $300 for adults, and up to $150 per child, starting in May;
  • Student loans: an interest-free moratorium for six months;
  • Funding boosted for shelters for those fleeing domestic violence;
  • An Indigenous Community support fund;
This mornings announcement from the Prime Minister.
 
To be fair, that's likely worse case scenario, like teh white paper that leaked out of the UK last time.

Also, if we had enough tests, and a good testing system, we wouldn't need to lock everything down again, we could just do localised ones based on confirmed cases (not that it looks like anyone will implement a adequate testing system any time soon).

And what about the people that recover, wouldn't them being immune now affect the numbers?
 
And what about the people that recover, wouldn't them being immune now affect the numbers?
Recent reports (out of Japan, I believe) suggest the possibility of reinfection (or, arguably better case scenario, simply longer viral shedding/detection window). However, hopefully there will continue to be increasing data on the risk of reinfection vs. partial or complete immunity (e.g. which age/risk groups demonstrate which types of responses) which can be incorporated into ongoing modeling.
 
It is eerily quiet around here. I hear traffic, but not even close to what I'd hear this time of day. Normally I hear buses, heavy trucks, school buses... okay, I always hear that, but that's because I'd be driving one, but you get the idea.

I am hearing a lot of planes overhead, but that's not unusual considering I'm located between three major airports (PHX, AZA, FFZ). No helicopters as of late, though.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - MPS school board has approved us to be paid until this is over. I just have to be "available for work" during regular working hours. (That means roughly 6 AM-5:30 PM AZT.)
 

Dave

Staff member
We start working from home on Monday. But if we ask we can do so before then. Pretty sure I will, but I'm not sick and I'm not at risk so I don't know if it'll be approved.
 
Traffic has been so reduced in our city they decided that it would not be necessary to salt and sand the roads last night.

Narrator "They were wrong."
 
Recent reports (out of Japan, I believe) suggest the possibility of reinfection (or, arguably better case scenario, simply longer viral shedding/detection window). However, hopefully there will continue to be increasing data on the risk of reinfection vs. partial or complete immunity (e.g. which age/risk groups demonstrate which types of responses) which can be incorporated into ongoing modeling.

current thinking is "uh...we don't know for sure"
 
No working from home unless you are living in a county where childcare is impossible to get and have kids to take care of. Or an ill family member. We are going to start checking temperatures when we come through the door. Then you can't come back to work until you have been cleared by your physician.

I basically do all my work remotely. But the culture here wants us to be under constant supervision.
 
What an awesome time for us to have such a filthy office.

And for me to have new pay issues unrelated to covid-19.

My boss seriously brought the thunder though. It was a good email. Nicer than mine to the stupid person directly responsible for one of the issues. I ripped that person a new one and she may forward it as she sees fit.
 
current thinking is "uh...we don't know for sure"
Much of the information is increasing and changing (and is of course expected as patient data increases, but is naturally frustrating from a policy-making/recommendations point of view!)

One example is defining common symptoms for this novel coronavirus in order to make all the recommendations that have been rolling out over the last weeks. Ideally, there's one or a cluster of specific things that universally and specifically identify the disease (medical term for that is "pathognomonic," for your future scrabble games!) but that's unlikely to be the case for a virus like this, so instead the most common signs (currently, dry cough and fever) have to be used as a threshhold for possible infection and implementations of precautions/quarantine/treatment. Some reports now are highlighting gastrointestinal components of disease (nausea/vomiting/diarrhea) and implications for fecal/oral transmission (another route aside from aerosol/droplet exposure). Different populations may also exhibit different symptoms (i.e. populations with greater respiratory comorbidities due to a larger population of smokers), which can complicate making "universal" recommendations.

Another example that has gained significant traction today due to new WHO recommendations regards limiting use of NSAIDs (like ibuprofen or aspirin) in place of acetaminophen (Tylenol - which is also an anti-pyretic (fever-lowering drug) and analgesic (pain drug), but different mechanism of action) due to observations of more significant disease morbidity in patients that had taken NSAIDs. I first saw this reported several days ago by the French minister of health, and both now and then information is still lacking as to whether the process is causal or correlative, that is:
a. if you are infected with coronavirus and take NSAIDs to manage your symptoms, the drug actively makes your disease worse (some people have postulated mechanisms for this, but as yet haven't had time to test them!)​
b. if you are infected with coronavirus and have more severe symptoms of disease because the disease itself is bad, you are more inclined to take a "stronger" medication than Tylenol, and so those with pre-existing worse disease are attempting to use a higher tier of drugs, and thus use of NSAIDs might actually be a predictor of worse disease symptoms/morbidity due to perceived necessity of use, rather than actually cause the greater morbidity.​
(But to be safe, if it's the former, best to use Tylenol to manage symptoms of fever right now, if you're able to!)

Sorry, this got wordier than I had intended, but I'm having slight deja vu for this situation, as we experienced it on a MUCH smaller scale several years ago in the equine veterinary world - interestingly, also with a (horse-specific) coronavirus. Historically, equine coronavirus was something we tested for, but rarely found causing disease in adult animals, until roughly 5 years ago, at which point we started seeing it with increasing frequency as a cause of contagious, acute, moderate to severe gastrointestinal disease in horses (they don't thus far exhibit any respiratory component, nor does that strain infect humans, thank goodness!)

/epidemiology rambling
 
NSAIDs are concerning in long term use for a variety of reasons so please be cautious in using them in any situation. I speak from experience.
 
Rand Paul: “life begins at conception, so abortion at any stage takes a human life.”

also Rand Paul: “Mexicans arent humans if they dont have an SSN”
 
Rand Paul: “life begins at conception, so abortion at any stage takes a human life.”

also Rand Paul: “Mexicans arent humans if they dont have an SSN”

Weird, i could have sworn libertarians are against the government having numbers to track people with...
 
China and Italy's air is clear. The canals have ducks and frigging dolphins. LOS FRIGGING ANGELES' AIR IS CLEAR.

I honestly wish people would see this and say "Can we have this all the time? How can we have this all the time?"

Like, it's one of the few actually positive ramifications of the Covid-19 virus. I really want to believe it will wake people up.

But sadly, I know it's fleeting. The air will smog up again. The canals will be filthy. The dolphins will leave. And that makes me sad.
 
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