Coronavirus

Don't know about America but Kuwait is still pretty serious about this. We are in Phase 1 of five phases to open Kuwait. Unfortunately, Phase 1 is still razor wire lockdown with a 12 hour night curfew and shopping appointments. Masks and gloves in shops or get arrested. Next phase involves removing the appointment system. Each phase due to last 3 weeks but can be extended, Airport opens at the end of Phase 5 which is the end of August. Curfew breaking is still a pretty serious offence and will remain so. Plenty of Kuwaitis arrested and charged under this public health emergency law.

My school is realistically assuming that actual people attending school will not be possible for a year or so. We are switching to e learning for a year from September to keep everyone as safe as possible. Obviously, job losses are possible although probably not me being a Head of Department and 20 yr experience. If they fire me it means the school has gone bust.

My wife is recovering from a stomach ulcer in the Ukraine and hopes to return at the end of August. Watching in amazement as US ignores Covid and implodes with tension. To be fair, I am very glad I don't live there.

dysjunct wrote: My local CostCo is still out of tons of stuff. On the upside, we made it out for under $40, which has never happened before.

We're reduced to essentially alcohol hand sanitizer in cooking oil pumps. The gel stuff? A thing of legend.

And for wipes, you have a better chance finding an actual unicorn.

Sorry, D. I've failed in my quest for wipes for you. I swear, the shelves were stocked and then BOOM. Nowhere.

Now, if you need TP, we have that in droves now.

ubarose wrote: I still can't find hand sanitizer, liquid lysol. bleach or toilet paper. I was able to get paper towels, so yay for that.

Uba, I can send you toilet paper. Let me know if you want me to send some to you. Nearly all the stores in my area have that fully stocked.

Hand sanitizer is available, but it's liquid and not gel.

Hey, everyone, the offer stands to anyone.

I haven't looked for specific things but stores in my area appear fully stocked. I was even able to buy Tylenol a couple weeks ago.

You’re awesome.

Rliyen wrote:

ubarose wrote: I still can't find hand sanitizer, liquid lysol. bleach or toilet paper. I was able to get paper towels, so yay for that.

Uba, I can send you toilet paper. Let me know if you want me to send some to you. Nearly all the stores in my area have that fully stocked.

Hand sanitizer is available, but it's liquid and not gel.

Hey, everyone, the offer stands to anyone.

I help out when I can.

We now have wipes and yeast, so the immediate threat is gone. Our local craft distiller is now producing hand sanitizer so if anyone wants artisanal sanitizer now’s the time to establish your hipster cred.

Costco is out of rice, flour, and beans. (Bulk.)

We've gotten TP delivered to the door from Walmart at no extra charge. We're discovering that Walmart delivery is pretty solid and very cheap if you're not in a hurry. I did Target last week and it was excellent, free shipping after $35.

I'm an Amazon guy -- send and forget. But we're starting to figure out that some of the Brick & Mortars are giving them a run for their money.

No problem.

And don't bother with paying me back. Despite the disagreements, you guys are extended family.

We still don't have a vaccine, so I'm still taking precautions against COVID-19. To be honest, even if and when we get a vaccine, I may wait a few weeks before getting it, because I suspect that such a vaccine will have been rushed through the process and potentially harmful. I am very pro-vaccine, and I have also been getting an annual flu shot in recent years. I just don't want to be a guinea pig if some safety protocols or testing get skipped.

Since mid-March, the only interaction I have had with other human beings has going to work, plus the occasional trip to the grocery store. Since maybe mid-April, I have worn a mask during all of those interactions. Since the beginning of June, our governor deemed it sake for people to get a haircut and go to the dentist, under new safety protocols for both of those circumstances. So I will be tending to those matters, though much later than some folks. I scheduled a haircut for mid-July, and a dental appointment for early-August. However, my gym re-opens this Saturday, and I don't feel ready to go back yet. I have been going to the gym an average of three times a week since 1991, but it feels too risky right now and I have stayed surprisingly fit with a modest amount of body weight exercises, some running, and a lot of yardwork.

www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-up...9-cases-in-her-state

Who could have possibly seen this coming

In AZ, our lead health person basically gave the "you gotta break a few eggs" speech yesterday to everyone. So it looks like the long-term policy is giving up. No contact tracing has been performed in AZ and it looks like it will not be.

I know I'm pounding on about this, but we all have to live in the same country so the federal inaction on this, to say nothing of the irresponsbility in some states, is absolutely just pure murder ethically, to me. It is particularly indefensible at the federal level because the federal government can issue debt and has a 0 interest rate, so we could create large programs that look something like the most successful ones in similar countries like, say, Germany.

Gary Sax wrote: In AZ, our lead health person basically gave the "you gotta break a few eggs" speech yesterday to everyone. So it looks like the long-term policy is giving up. No contact tracing has been performed in AZ and it looks like it will not be.

I know I'm pounding on about this, but we all have to live in the same country so the federal inaction on this, to say nothing of the irresponsbility in some states, is absolutely just pure murder ethically, to me. It is particularly indefensible at the federal level because the federal government can issue debt and has a 0 interest rate, so we could create large programs that look something like the most successful ones in similar countries like, say, Germany.

I'm of the opinion that the Federal Government is no longer capable of providing the kind of response you're looking for. I agree with you in every way, but I think the people in positions to carry out this sort of policy aren't qualified to do so, part of the reason they're there in the first place.

I will observe that the US Government went from the first Mercury flight to successful Moon landing in less time than we went from the last Shuttle flight to first launch of a man back into space.

USA will look incompetent to the rest of the world until further notice.

I don't disagree with you. I think US state capacity to perform a large number of functions is actually quite a bit lower than many other comparable developed countries.

That said, even just funneling money *to* states to prevent massive austerity and creating programs to force them to greatly beef up their testing and tracing using federal money would have been inefficient but at least might have made some difference.