Coronavirus

Cold Wars, a big(?) miniatures convention in Lancaster, PA is still going on. I suspect it's because the hotel can't afford to cancel it. Reimbursing meeting sites for that sort of thing would be a possible good use of Federal dollars, assuming the Feds still didn't actually GAS about managing the pandemic itself.

I think we're kind of on our own at this point. If your place of work lets you work from home, do it. Wash your hands more and longer than you usually do. Try to resist the $50 Broadway tickets or the short lines at Disney World. Most of us will probably get COVID-19, but we want to get R₀ low enough that we all don't get it in the next month.

Michael Barnes wrote: And yet here we are with a racist, semi-sentient log of shit acting as president slurring through a speech apparently written by Stephen Miller and Jared fucking Kushner where he addresses absolutely not one thing significant or meaningful from a public health perspective. He calls it a “foreign virus” that we Americans are going to beat. What the fuck? Nothing about testing, control measures, actual steps to help those already impacted or in danger of being impacted...every single person who has voted Republican in the last 4+ years- this shit is on YOU.

We had a chance to sack this shitheel...and now people are going to DIE directly because of his lies and his total mismanagement of this situation.

I watched his speech last night, only because it came on immediately after The Masked Singer (a sad tale in itself and entirely self-inflicted). I didn't feel especially comforted afterwards; that orange taint wart was too stoned to even read a teleprompter correctly. Stock market loved it too - it looks like my 401K is now in dried cat food territory.

Metro Manila was just quarantined. We technically live just outside the Metro Manila province, so I'm not sure if that means were trapped in or out. Either way our vacation plans next week got cancelled.

Thankfully it's not too out of hand yet in the Philippines. We'll see how things go.

This is a great piece of analysis on how the containment measures could have worked in nations that didn't act fast enough, compared to those that did, and what can still be done: medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-t...ill-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

And after our (UK) govt's latest announcement today we are still not shutting anything down apart from banning overseas school trips and telling old and sick people to stay at home … and this is on the advice of all their chief medical advisors.

So we obviously are a much healthier country than everyone else and have nothing to worry about … FFS

Sorry but I find this interesting so am sharing even though tangentially related. Hundreds of hungry monkeys, normally fed by tourists, going bananas in Thailand.

nypost.com/2020/03/12/monkeys-fight-for-...virus-slows-tourism/

Apparently starting Monday, schools here in Ohio are closed for 3 weeks.

Today my entire world decided that Sean Hannity is wrong.

My kids are home from school for a minimum of two weeks. My boy's robotics team finally canceled events that put 1200 kids in a gymnasium for 13 hour days this weekend and next. Got word this evening that my contractor, the Maryland Department of Transportation, has instructed its entire office staff in all divisions to work from home until further notice.

I think Trump's speech from the Oval Office closed the deal.

Edit -- Just expanded to the entire state government.

NCAA tournaments canceled through June, NBA season suspended, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson ill, Bolsonaro ill, Justin Trudeau's wife is ill. It's a steamroller. School in session tomorrow, but not Monday/Tuesday next week (?). Disneyland shuttered after Saturday.

We are doing our slow roll stock-up in case we get quarantined, and Costco was a wild scene today. Like, all the toilet paper is gone, but there's plenty of ibuprofen and Gatorade, which is like, shit you'll actually need if you get sick.

Adepticon was (finally) cancelled.

Here's to 2021!

Our school system finally did the right thing and has shut down “indefinitely”.

Atmosphere here is almost like how I remember 9/12...lingering fear and uncertainty about what is going to happen.

Went to the grocery store- utter mayhem. I could barely walk through the store. Most purchased item- cases of Miller Lite.

Went to Sprouts (a Whole Foods-like healthy grocery)...about as busy as a weekend. Pretty normal overall.

The mall near our house has a fucking fair set up. There was one family riding the Ferris wheel when we drove by. Who the fuck thinks it’s a good idea to be touching all over those nasty old fair rides right now?

What really should be happening right now is that able Americans should be marching to remove Trump and his lackeys from the White House and run every single Republican senator out. Voting them out is not enough at this point. This has all cast into sharp relief how much damage they have done and will do to American lives. Won’t pay to test Americans and save lives, but will dump money into the stock market? Says everything.

Feel for you guys.
Even our Trump loving PM is taking precautions. Mostly for PR purposes, but it's happening. And of course our health care system is taking care of testing etc.

Schools are open, but are closing when there is a confirmed case (as happened with my kids school today

Good luck with everything.

Here, in Kuwait, the airport closed indefinitely yesterday. Gov shut down at least until beginning of April. I haven't been in school for 2 weeks and gov have continued to keep schools closed at least until April but more likely the rest of the UK academic year is a bust. I'm teaching online, a bit, from home. Tanya, my wife, is trapped in the Ukraine having had her passport stolen and Kuwait airport shut down so I'm not a happy bunny.

The social distancing is good for slowing the effect down and not overwhelming hospitals but the number of infections, in all likelihood will remain the same until vaccinations are available. We are expecting 50% infection considering that many infections are asymptomatic.

I have no comment on UK decisions as that will be driven by health care advisors at the very top of the government and I'm not privy to their point of view so I'm not going to criticise different ways of responding.

We have test kits free for everyone here. Current advice is social distancing, hygiene and reporting to a hospital if any symptoms present with a mask to prevent droplet spray. Sam Harris did an excellent podcast a couple of days ago with a top guy from John Hopkins putting everything in perspective. Can't say I'm not worried, being trapped in the country, but on the other hand, do I really want to go back to the UK?