Coronavirus

[BigN8]

My company officially sent out a directive this morning suspending all international travel and said no domestic air travel is allowed unless critical customer facing meetings are required.

 

[gwrace1]

I work as an IT project manager. My company is restricting travel to several countries and if your returning from one of those countries you are required to work from home for two weeks. They have also switched all hands meetings to WebEx from your desk to reduce close contact with others. HR and IT communications also have policies in place to deal with these situations. Were also being asked to provide enhanced tools for working from home in the event things gets worse. Were also looking at business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

 

[anmut]

Golfed with a guy with IBM yesterday. He was telling me that IBM pulled out of some big conference in Vegas due to this virus. Said they wanted to get a jump on it now and exercise their exhibitor insurance before the exhibitor insurance companies go bankrupt! My company is one of the title sponsors for a big conference 3rd week of March. It will be interesting to see if that conference gets cancelled.

Shop Talk? We're attending (and watching the news closely).

 

[GTBRMC]

Interesting discussion on impact on the upcoming concert season (from Detroit Free Press):

Detroit concert industry is alert, primed to act as it monitors coronavirus

The mood in Detroit's entertainment industry is cautious and occasionally anxious as U.S. coronavirus updates arrive daily, even hourly.

www.freep.com

 

[biglar155]

Had a day-trip to Chicago yesterday. We were supposed to hop the train from Milwaukee but decided to grab an SUV and just drive ourselves down. The guy at the rental desk said that he had just rented a car to a person from Johnson Controls. The person needed to get to Pennsylvania but apparently JC has put a moratorium on public transportation so he had to drive out.

When we got where we were going, we had the usual check-in stuff to get visitors badges. They added a series of questions about our personal travel history and if we were feeling any symptoms. (A bit of an unrealistic question this time of year as EVERYONE around here seems to have at least a sniffle right now.)

 

[anmut]

I was just notified that our convention in Las Vegas at the end of March, Shop Talk, has been delayed until September.

 

[Dixie Highway]

I’ll add the latest...we service many large industrial international companies (think refineries, nuke plants, steel mills, food and bev) and we have been given directives to plan for a 14 day “lockdown” of these facilities and how we can man our particular part of their process during this. As in, ”your people won’t be allowed in or out but you have to have someone on site” type thing. I really do feel that here in the U.S. the worst is behind us on this, but geez. Seems like an outright international travel ban would be safer and cheaper in the long run.

 

[anmut]

It's unfortunate to me that we have two political parties that seem to have drawn lines on covid-19. One seems to encourage panic, the other doesn't want it to hurt the election and economy and seems to underplay the seriousness of it.

Either way, the republic will suffer greatly if these two groups aren't able to come out with one message and action plan.

 

[Dean P]

Really sad that this will have to get much worse before getting better. Unfortunately several more people will die. Any volunteers!?!?!?!? I didn't think so, but it WILL be in the news everyday.

 

[Peelz]

It's unfortunate to me that we have two political parties that seem to have drawn lines on covid-19. One seems to encourage panic, the other doesn't want it to hurt the election and economy and seems to underplay the seriousness of it.

Either way, the republic will suffer greatly if these two groups aren't able to come out with one message and action plan.

my thoughts yesterday as I learned of the confirmed cases in my home state. sigh.

 

[DavisAR195]

We are now enacting everyone can work from home and finding out that our VPN connection cannot handle the load.

 

[Liftr]

FedEx and UPS air operations are going balls to the wall in China, Korea, Singapore, all of Asia.
With all the passenger carriers cancelling flights, the decrease in available lift, via wide body airplane belly space, there is $Billions in freight backlog.
The big problem is, a lot of countries want to quarantine pilots if they have been in China in previous 14 days.

 

[anmut]

We are now enacting everyone can work from home and finding out that our VPN connection cannot handle the load.

Glad you posted that - I just emailed our IT guy to ask him if we've run that scenario.

 

[MattFX4]

What’s the latest mortality rate look like? Seems like the ones who are hit hard are the elderly and immunocompromised people. Haven’t heard much if any about it affecting kids. So is the real concern the mass hysteria and panic, and not the sickness itself?

 

[Troch1]

What’s the latest mortality rate look like? Seems like the ones who are hit hard are the elderly and immunocompromised people. Haven’t heard much if any about it affecting kids. So is the real concern the mass hysteria and panic, and not the sickness itself?

Impossible to say what the mortality rate truly is until you know how many people are actually infected. Can’t do that unless you are widely testing, which we aren’t. While you are correct about the mortality being greatest in the elderly and sick (as is the case with many diseases) to underestimate the impact would be foolish. This is a new virus that has the potential to impact at least as many people as the flu (please everyone look up how many US citizens are hospitalized and how many die EVERY year from the flu). We all need to do our part to minimize the spread. Yes, people hoarding sanitizer/masks/toilet paper/etc are idiots and causing far more problems than they are solving. Yes it’s serious, yes, we should all be worried for our parents and elderly friends and families.

 

[Liveto99]

South Korean data.

 

[Liveto99]

If your under 60 it is less than the Flu, but the Flu has killed 20k in the US this year.
But planes are 1/4 full, vacations are very cheap right now and places are empty.
You can work from vacation spot as well as home.

 

[Dixie Highway]

Last I heard yesterday a CDC doc said mortality rate is probably far LOWER than it looks. We know for sure who dies from it, but don’t know how many people are actively infected or carrying it. Responsible adults should be using good hygiene year round, and especially during flu season, but the political/media machine has certainly run with this one. As Rahm Emmanuel said, “Never let a disaster go to waste”.

 

[Dixie Highway]

I heard another good one yesterday too. Corona virus has killed 12 people in the U.S. I don’t remember who said it but as they put it, Jeffery Dahmer ate more people than that.

 

[biglar155]

Worrying is clearly effective: The majority of the things I worry about never actually happen.
(Not being snarky, just something my Mom always says.)