What was your COVID news for the day?

[ncbill]

With the number of jobless claims just announced we here in the USA are officially at 10% unemployment now (worse than the Great Recession) with a projected ~1/3 of the labor force unemployed by the end of June.

 

[JoeWras]

Most of us here lived the majority of our lives without wipes.

I think we'll get through this.

 

[gwraigty]

Stopped watching the daily White House briefing. Not a head in the sand thing, just too arduous for the info revealed. It’s been really helpful.

Sometimes I watch our governor's press briefing later and fast forward through the parts that aren't relevant to me or are just a 20 minute rehash of what's been said every single day but they have to keep repeating themselves because the same reporters insist on asking the same questions every day even though there's no new information.

How did you enjoy the run on sentence? Watching the briefing live every day feels sort of like that.

 

[harllee]

Sorry I missed this. Yes, even when it says a package is on the truck it may just be relaying logistical information (where the package is supposed to be) and may not be accurate until there is a another physical scan on the package and the tracking information is updated - then you get an email with the update.

A lot of shippers are struggling to keep up with demand. Amazon is a month out from what I hear. Order forms and shipping labels are created and go into a bin to be picked by warehouse employees, boxed, then finally given to a shipper (UPS, FedEx).

UPS and FedEx are not experiencing any delays afaik. Volume is down because business to business is the bulk of their revenue.

I am the person with the Fed Ex problem. Turned out the package was damaged and returned to sender and I got a refund. This is the third damaged package from Fed Ex in the last few months. Since I am home now I am seeing the fed ex delivery person from around the neighborhood--they are throwing packages in driveways, on porches etc. I am going to try to order from sellers who do not use fed ex from now on.

 

[harllee]

I ordered some of my regular food staples from Amazon and they were on time if not a day early...I hear non essential might come slower but Amazon puts them at the back of the queue deliberately.

What does Amazon consider an essential? I ordered peanut butter 2 weeks ago from Amazon and still have not received it. It was shipped about a week ago and has been all over the country so far, finally got to my state yesterday.

 

[gwraigty]

Most of us here lived the majority of our lives without wipes.

I think we'll get through this.

+1

I debated buying some canisters of wipes when they were readily available. I only bought 2 small boxes for a couple of our cars in February. They're still unopened. I'm using hand sanitizer in the car and just washing my hands at home more often than I used to. I'm not disinfecting anything in our home or the cars. I bought one bottle of bleach before the panic buying started and it only gets used for the laundry whites, sparingly, now that there's none to be found most of the time.

Because of store mandates to do extra sanitizing, I think they're getting first dips on the shipments of wipes that come in.

 

[ivinsfan]

What does Amazon consider an essential? I ordered peanut butter 2 weeks ago from Amazon and still have not received it. It was shipped about a week ago and has been all over the country so far, finally got to my state yesterday.

I think food and personal products along with OTC drugs I'm guessing they had to wait for PB as I think it was hard hit in the first buying surge. I can't explain why it wandering around aimlessly though...

My 6 YO grandson has a clacking gator toy with a jolly rancher sucker attached to it. he broke it so I order new from Amazon, they air shipped from the West coast and used an Amazon truck it was at my DD doorstep within 36 hours,that for dumb but I guess candy is food.

 

[tinlizzy]

I am the person with the Fed Ex problem. Turned out the package was damaged and returned to sender and I got a refund. This is the third damaged package from Fed Ex in the last few months. Since I am home now I am seeing the fed ex delivery person from around the neighborhood--they are throwing packages in driveways, on porches etc. I am going to try to order from sellers who do not use fed ex from now on.

The damage may not be from tossing packages. We are encountering a ton of damaged packages because of all the liquids being shipped. Caps are loose or become loose rolling around a poorly packed box and bottles leak. Also collateral damage on non liquid packages loaded near the leakers on the semi.

 

[blueskyk]

Sometimes I watch our governor's press briefing later and fast forward through the parts that aren't relevant to me or are just a 20 minute rehash of what's been said every single day but they have to keep repeating themselves because the same reporters insist on asking the same questions every day even though there's no new information.



How did you enjoy the run on sentence? Watching the briefing live every day feels sort of like that.

OMG, I hadn’t thought of watching when I have fast forward functionality! At the current useful information to word count ratio, it should take about 8 minutes!

 

[harllee]

The damage may not be from tossing packages. We are encountering a ton of damaged packages because of all the liquids being shipped. Caps are loose or become loose rolling around a poorly packed box and bottles leak. Also collateral damage on non liquid packages loaded near the leakers on the semi.

That maybe true some of the time but about a week ago the Fed ex man actually threw a box on my porch while I watched from inside. The box burst open and everything scattered most things breaking open. I ran out the door yelling for the fed ex guy to stop but he jumped in his truck and sped away. I contacted the seller (Walmart) and they set me a refund for everything that was damaged, no questions asked and the said they were going to report the driver.

 

[Winemaker]

Covid 19 deaths estimated to be 60,000; far less than the 100,000-250,000 predicted last week, far less than the 2.2 million predicted in early March. I expect it to to drop further.

 

[ncbill]

And in the "more good news" department Covid-19 is now thought to be twice as contagious as previously believed.

Carriers are now estimated to infect up to 6 other people.

https://thinkpol.ca/2020/04/08/covid-19-twice-contagious-previously-thought/

 

[Philliefan33]

The governor of PA announced that schools will not reopen again this academic year. I don’t have any students in my family, but it was a sad hint that life won’t be returning to normal any time soon.

Also, I’m learning that one of my neighbors is crazy. She believes every nutty conspiracy theory and snake oil sales pitch to cure coronavirus, but won’t get a vaccine if one becomes available because that’s just big pharma trying to poison the population. Oh, and if we all pray for the next three days the virus will be gone by Easter.

We used to bike together occasionally, but I don’t believe I’ll be able to resume that once we are set free. I’ve got no time for people that think like her.

 

[pacergal]

Local school and park playground had yellow caution tape wound around the equipment. guess too many parents ignored it and let their kids on. Yesterday during my walk, there is now 5 foot chain link fencing around the entire structures! And many less families out with kids running amok.
Why do people think they can ignore rules?? Just go for that bike ride or walk and keep your distance from others!
Governor also announced, as expected, all schools closed for the rest of the school year, seniors will be able to graduate.

 

[MichaelB]

Covid 19 deaths estimated to be 60,000; far less than the 100,000-250,000 predicted last week, far less than the 2.2 million predicted in early March. I expect it to to drop further.

The positive effect of social distancing.

 

[foxfirev5]

Michigan stay at home extended to 4/30. Realistically I see it going further.

 

[USGrant1962]

The positive effect of social distancing.

Those prior numbers all modeled social distancing. The original Imperial College U.S. number was 2.2 million without social distancing, but still 1.2 million with strict social distancing (they used the term suppression measures meaning social distancing plus shutdowns). See my sig.

 

[Chuckanut]

The Easter Bunny has been declared an essential worker by the government of New Zealand.

 

[sengsational]

Carriers are now estimated to infect up to 6 other people.

Not "now estimated" at all, as it turns out.

The data analyzed is from Wuhan. So "estimated from old data", would be closer to the truth. The R naught is highly related to how people behave in the face of the disease. That site is less interested in the truth than it is in getting clicks, I'm afraid.

Results show that the doubling time early in the epidemic in Wuhan was 2.3–3.3 days. Assuming a serial interval of 6–9 days, we calculated a median R0 value of 5.7 (95% CI 3.8–8.9). We further show that active surveillance, contact tracing, quarantine, and early strong social distancing efforts are needed to stop transmission of the virus.

 

[statsman]

Those prior numbers all modeled social distancing. The original Imperial College U.S. number was 2.2 million without social distancing, but still 1.2 million with strict social distancing (they used the term suppression measures meaning social distancing plus shutdowns). See my sig.

The estimated number has gone way down, and there have been sections of the U.S. that still aren't practicing strict social distancing. What kind of models are being used to go from 1.2 million down to less than 90k? People seem to want to blame the lack of inaction around the world (and had we known earlier we would have responded earlier), but the medical experts were way off.

 

[MichaelB]

Those prior numbers all modeled social distancing. The original Imperial College U.S. number was 2.2 million without social distancing, but still 1.2 million with strict social distancing (they used the term suppression measures meaning social distancing plus shutdowns). See my sig.

The 2.2 million is unmitigated. The 1.1 to 1.2 million is mitigated. They did a detailed projection of the effect of suppression for GB but not the US. Not sure what your sig has to do with this.

 

[Aerides]

The estimated number has gone way down, and there have been sections of the U.S. that still aren't practicing strict social distancing. What kind of models are being used to go from 1.2 million down to less than 90k? People seem to want to blame the lack of inaction around the world (and had we known earlier we would have responded earlier), but the medical experts were way off.

The areas that are not social distancing are low population states. If NY, CA, LA, FL, etc had not started social distancing and shut things down ~4 weeks ago, and we'd all just gone around as normal, I can easily believe many multiples of the current stats.

 

[ncbill]

Not "now estimated" at all, as it turns out.

The data analyzed is from Wuhan. So "estimated from old data", would be closer to the truth. The R naught is highly related to how people behave in the face of the disease. That site is less interested in the truth than it is in getting clicks, I'm afraid.

Well, I hope the quarantine part works to lower R0 because nobody here is bothering with social distancing when they go out.

It's so bad our governor has now restricted how many people can be in a store at any one time:

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241884686.html

No masks on employees either...or most customers.

 

[JoeWras]

Last night Dr. Birx was scolding men for not getting tested. She rattled off a lot of stats and it turns out more women are getting tested, but more men are dying.

I think she was probably just frustrated with the fact that men tend to not seek medical care properly, even in good times.

I'm fine with her mentioning this. But what confuses me is our local health agency is basically telling us: "Don't ask for a test unless you are in trouble." So, mixed messages.

We're not going to get out of this until anyone sick can get a test. This business of "don't call us until you can't breathe" has to be resolved. (Insert your blame for that silently - we all have an opinion.)

 

[Ready]

Wait, Clorox wipes are in short supply? I still have two unopened 6 packs of those giant Clorox wipes from Costco (that is like, 1500 wipes?). I have not been wiping anything down though.

What did you plan on using them for? If there was ever a time to wipe things down with Clorox wouldn’t it be now?