Coronavirus

[Dixie Highway]

You guys know way more than me on this. Just find it strange that the lady trying to make a virus pass from animals to humans was working in the lab outside of the market place where they said it started. But who knows what is actually true.

I’d be willing to bet it’s a natural virus, being studied in that lab, and it passed to humans due to sloppy handling as @swatski said.

 

[haknslash]

Just watched the coronavirus task force briefing for today and I'm glad to hear of their approach and plan to open the country back up. I like the idea of allowing governors to limit hot spot counties vs those less affected. Of course none of that means dropping your guard or stop washing your hands and go back to being filthy nasty hygiene people but I'm glad to hear this grainular approach. Obviously harder hit states or hot spots will still be locked down until the meet the gate criteria but it sounds promising for areas of the country that aren't as problematic as others. In other words if I see an out of state car you better GTFO of my way and state lol. J/k of course...well kinda lol.

It will take a long time before we ever get fully back to normal, if we ever do, but I'm happy to hear they are approaching it the way they are instead of turning a light switch on/off. Once we return to work nobody is going to be allowed into my office that's for damn sure lol. I was already kicking people out on the daily before our state shutdown and always have been a bit of a germaphobe wiping my hands at gas stations or using napkins. Using my elbow to open doors and never walking directly behind people in "their wake" of germs. Anyone that sneezes or coughs within 20 feet of me better watch out

 

[MattFX4]

22 million unemployed so far because of this. .0001 of the population has died. When do we reach the point the cure is worse than than the virus? We are going to have to open shit back up soon. Let’s drive this country in to the next Great Depression and the Coronavirus will be the least of our concerns.

 

[Neutron]

Went back to work today. My dealership got the federal loan so they can afford to pay all of us. Downside for me it is slightly less than my average pay but upside is i will only be working 6 days out of a 2 week pay period.
So we are working 2 days on 2 days off and repeat.
Only was on unemployment for 2 weeks.
I missed turning wrenches. Lol

 

[Bruce]

I read a lot of selfishness in these posts.

You can save lives with social distancing. Without social distancing the economy is likely to fail due to losses of productivity and lives.

Opening up without decreasing the prevalence of the virus and without the availabilty of PPE and sanitizing products would be lunacy.

 

[GTBRMC]

Note that major auto supplier Lear Corporation has made their Safe Work Playbook for COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness and Response available for anyone to download. This may be useful, in whole or in part, for a variety of different people.
Recommended reading for anyone imterested.
Download is on the red banner at the top of their home page at www.lear.com
Very impressed by Lear's decision to share this with all.

 

[haknslash]

I read a lot of selfishness in these posts.

You can save lives with social distancing. Without social distancing the economy is likely to fail due to losses of productivity and lives.

Opening up without decreasing the prevalence of the virus and without the availabilty of PPE and sanitizing products would be lunacy.

Who is saying not to social distance? Seems most are in agreement keeping your distance from people is a good way to stay safe. That and of course wash, wash, wash them hands and don't touch your face.

My new work attire for social distancing when I return to work or go grocery shopping,,.

 

[Betik]

Let’s drive this country in to the next Great Depression and the Coronavirus will be the least of our concerns.

I have had this argument at work with multiple people and they all disagree with me, but in my opinion the economy will come faster than we think. I understand each extra day cots tons of money but there is no need to rush. When this is all said and done, it will feel like the clock stopped for some time. A month or two months in the long run are nothing. As a specie we can afford that.
most people do not get the gravity until they are effected personally either through death or loss of income.
we the common folk do not have access to data that the authorities have, so I say let them make the call, the pressure on our part does not help. I do not expect a second wave, but as we all know in this forum, we can manage that first wave, but it is the second wave that f*cks you over.
No matter how much we wants things to go back to normal or incompetent we thing the government might be, I say we give them a chance to succeed.

 

[Liveto99]

For anyone who does not know someone this has affected. my kids mother is a nurse in NY. She has had 2 of her nurse co workers from her hospital die and another is on a ventilator now. Not so good.i won’t let my daughter be with her she pulls her car up and talks to her it is rough.

 

[Dean P]

This is sad. It truly is. I agree with these nurses that must go to work everyday without the proper PPE. "There's plenty of masks" I keep hearing; everyday F'n day. Doesn't this piss you off? Why can't they get them? Is there a shortage or is there a stockpile for the government (as Jared stated). I feel this whole thing was handled poorly. We should never be in this state of crisis we're in as nurses are now walking off the job. Who's fault is this?

When the ship is going down, is the captain the first one off and then directs from the sidelines? I think not...

 

[Mainah]

Civil unrest is bad and just like a virus can spread. The USA may be near 20% unemployment in our working age class as of now. What is the tipping point where the unemployment rate causes significant civil unrest? What is the tipping point where the long term impacts to the economy will mean worse things than the virus? Hospitals closing and large numbers of people not being able to afford food, shelter, and medical care would be bad. Once that happens we are already behind. On the other hand the virus ripping through food processing factories is also something that can effect large swaths of the population if they have to shut down for an extended time frame.

If everyone had followed shelter in place even in the absence of government orders early on for the good of the whole we may have been far better off. Even with orders it is not working so well for us will only moderate adherence to moderate measures. Remember the spring breakers that got so much guff? Sure they were acting privileged and stupid. What about all of the folks at high risk akin to over 70 years of age or pre-existing conditions that have gotten this because they did not take enough precautions. In general they had to do or not do something that allowed them to contract the virus. As much as I am critical of the data it seems pretty clear that 75% or more of the impact to the hospitals is being caused by the latter population. I continue to see this some in this population putting themselves at risk and refusing help from others. I continue to see neighborhood kids from different houses interacting with each other as normal and then returning home (insert facepalm). Myself and many others have taken extraordinary measures for their households (early on and still continuing) even though not personally at high risk. Not everyone has the same options to maintain safety for the good of the whole but those that do should exercise them even without being told. It is the front line healthcare workers that are being put most at risk by other peoples action just by doing their very essential jobs.

I think a couple of the problems we have as a society with this right now are entitlement and fear of oppression. What our leaders are trying to do is protect everyone. Sure there have been some missteps/oversteps and differing views on that but I do not believe that any of the leaders in the US are intent on trying to oppress us but rather truly trying to oppress this pandemic and the temporary loss of some freedoms is the byproduct. My opinion is that entitlement is driving peoples actions even more. Unfortunately many have been overly resistant to the measures, finger pointing has ensued, and deep divide partisan politics are involved. Collectively we are being our own worst enemy right now. It won't be long before we must aggressively work to restart the economy (printing debt is not the long term answer nor does it solve a large amount of the problem in the short term) or perhaps face worse consequences than the virus. I am not suggesting that money is more important than peoples health or safety but like it or not money is an integral part of human life/society that if not attended to can truly; including health and safety (forgive the regurgitation of this over used phrase) make the attempted cure worse than the disease. We may be nearing a critical triage point where we are going to need to make very difficult decisions to save the whole from possibly worse. We as a whole and as individuals could have done more and still have days or weeks to do our best so the impact is lessened.

The more that we as a whole resist social distancing/shelter in place the worse things are going to get for all of us. As individuals we all can do something. Follow the guidelines. Avoid the stores as much as possible. Help out high risk family/friends by encouraging them not to go out (perhaps take their car keys out of love), doing their shopping, and taking significant precaution when dropping off supplies outside their door. Help keep their spirits up and anxiety down with frequent virtual socialization. We have been doing this for my very high risk FIL for 6 weeks now. He has not been out except for a walk for 6 weeks. We make no more than one trip per week to a store with significant precautions taken. We are taking the dogs on more walks to get out of the house but still keep our distance. We are working out more. We have also found two other activities that allow us to keep many yards or more away from people and not touching surfaces that others have touched. If we all try to do a bit more perhaps opening the economy back up to full will happen a bit sooner too. If we resist more as a whole or as individuals we may just cause more civil unrest which is bad for us all.

 

[Wisefam22]

@Bruce
I saw on the 07s some where recut. 04-06 has a curved panel. I took it to fiberglass shop they said would need to build a display for them to use as mold.. I used HPDE and matched curver best I could then attached to a flat piece on top to mount the plotter. Looks good just not perfect.

 

[Bruce]

@Liveto99, that must be so terribly difficult for everyone involved. I am sorry that your family is going through this.

Thank you for sharing your story which helps us understand the reality.

 

[ripler]

The biggest reason for the shortage of PPE is our dependency on China to manufacture a lot of things we buy. This is only the tip of the iceberg, I'm having vendors changing their terms and conditions to say they aren't responsible for material shortages and aren't responsible for price increases, this makes it pretty hard to bid jobs. I have to mark up our costs just for the uncertainty which could easily cost us contracts.

 

[swatski]

@Mainah Thank you, sir, very well said. I truly believe in everything you said there.

I think another plague is conspiracy theorists, I wish they go to hell.
One of the hardest things for me to understand is what's happening with Gates and his foundation. Bill Gates' vocal stance on how to combat the coronavirus has made him a massive target of online conspiracy theorists. That is beyond crazy.

EDIT: Gates Foundations has been funding some of the most important research on new vaccines for many years now, they are almost as important as HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute), the largest (private) source of biomedical research funding, next to the NIH.

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[Dean P]

Couldn't and shouldn't testing be a means to opening the economy/US? Obviously no one wants to see another spike. But how do we know where it is if we cannot test? Why can't everyone get a test? Knowing your negative is the beginning to the end of this virus. Those that are negative should be allowed to leave their homes and go to work. Those that are positive should and must isolate. IMO the benefits of knowing you're negative are endless. The benefits of knowing you're positive could save your life and save the lives of others. To me, this is common sense.

I have a type 1 diabetic friend who is a pharmacist at a Super Walmart. He begged to be tested multiple times. He explained who he is and what he does. They told him no testing as he does not show symptoms. Absolutely ridiculous...

 

[Dean P]

The biggest reason for the shortage of PPE is our dependency on China to manufacture a lot of things we buy. This is only the tip of the iceberg, I'm having vendors changing their terms and conditions to say they aren't responsible for material shortages and aren't responsible for price increases, this makes it pretty hard to bid jobs. I have to mark up our costs just for the uncertainty which could easily cost us contracts.

This is so true. We rely too much on China for "everything". This could all be changed with the stroke of a pen. POTUS has the "power" to force companies to produce everything we need to beat this virus. Shouldn't this be number one priority? Am I missing something? Time is not on our side. Time will hurt us all. I feel like we're driving thru fog hoping not to hit anything.

 

[Dixie Highway]

One thing I saw yesterday was there is a testing component to the different stages recommended for opening the economy (e.g. you can proceed to the next phase IF you meet these baseline requirements WITH sufficient testing). As far as forcing companies to operate in a certain manner, I would imagine there will be a natural progression away from China for at least a little while, due to their borderline (and possibly outright) criminal mishandling of the early stages of this outbreak. The country will vote with their pocketbooks on that one.

 

[Dean P]

One thing I saw yesterday was there is a testing component to the different stages recommended for opening the economy (e.g. you can proceed to the next phase IF you meet these baseline requirements WITH sufficient testing). As far as forcing companies to operate in a certain manner, I would imagine there will be a natural progression away from China for at least a little while, due to their borderline (and possibly outright) criminal mishandling of the early stages of this outbreak. The country will vote with their pocketbooks on that one.

I agree. Money talks. I mentioned this earlier "Greed is the root of all evil." We're all so money hungry that we forget what is really important.

 

[swatski]

One more thing about covid virus "manipulation", it can be confusing.

It is actually key to develop a vaccine. For example, several US labs currently work to generate a chimeric virus that appears identical to COVID-19 on the outside but contains the replication machinery of the livestock pathogen vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) on the inside. That particular livestock pathogen does not cause disease in humans, and formed the basis for the Ebola vaccine in current use, and is therefore an appealing platform for a future Co-V2 vaccine.

Now - that's a man made virus.

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