What was your COVID news for the day?

[Moemg]

Florida is starting to open today .It will not change what I am doing but it suddenly feels so freeing .

 

[MuirWannabe]

I just got back from a trip out to the store. To me, everything felt a little bit different as well. Texas began a phased reopening. It’ll go slowly, but there was a liberating feeling in the breeze today.

If this goes well, let me be the first to propose May Day becoming a nationally recognized day for years to come. The day many states began reopening and the start of overcoming fear. Take May Day back form the communists and make it a day of celebrating liberty.

Now, if this doesn’t go well, to quote Gilda Radner, never mind.

 

[REWahoo]

To me, today feels like a giant roulette wheel was given a big spin. We won't know for 2-3 weeks whether it lands on red or black. Step right up and place your bets.

 

[MuirWannabe]

To me, today feels like a giant roulette wheel was given a big spin. We won't know for 2-3 weeks whether it lands on red or black. Step right up and place your bets.

What if it lands on green?

 

[REWahoo]

What if it lands on green?

Then I'll kick myself for not having more of my AA allocated to stocks.

 

[harllee]

My theory about vaccines is proving likely. I opined the fact that our children receive a lot of vaccines may be protective. It appears that live virus vaccines such as polio (which is no longer in use in the US) and tuberculosis vaccine (which we don't use because our incidence is very low) may activate innate antibodies. Both of those vaccines are administered orally and are cheap. These vaccines wouldn't provide long term specific protection but they would buy us time until a targeted vaccine is available.

Interesting theory--have you read anything to back it up? At age 68 I have had several vaccines over the last few years--2 pneumonia shots, 3 shingles shots, tetanus, and of course flu shots every year. Would your theory apply to those too?

 

[MichaelB]

Then I'll kick myself for not having more of my AA allocated to stocks.

Here in the withdrawal phase I believe long term portfolio survival is more important than return, so I’ll not kick myself if I’m missing an opportunity for portfolio growth by keeping a “low-ish” equity allocation.

 

[Brat]

Interesting theory--have you read anything to back it up? At age 68 I have had several vaccines over the last few years--2 pneumonia shots, 3 shingles shots, tetanus, and of course flu shots every year. Would your theory apply to those too?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/opinion/coronavirus-vaccine-innate-immunity.html

Also in an interview on TWIV podcast.

Who knows about the vaccines you mention, I don't think the epidemiologists have researched that. Of the various health care systems, Kaiser would likely have the most complete data.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

To me, today feels like a giant roulette wheel was given a big spin. We won't know for 2-3 weeks whether it lands on red or black. Step right up and place your bets.

I'll bet that the states that open are glad they did and there is no massive 2nd wave of cases.

 

[MissMolly]

The people I know in the states that have opened are not at all glad. They think it's a huge mistake although they recognize the negative impact on the economy. There is no one right answer to this.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) ready to provide full medical services: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2020/04/30/UPMC-coronavirus-COVID-19-hospitals-provide-medical-services-resume-testing/stories/202004300161

With a low prevalence of COVID-19 cases countywide, UPMC hospitals and medical facilities soon will resume providing preventative testing (colonoscopies and cancer screening, for example), elective surgeries and other medical services for patients who aren’t infected.
...
UPMC has informed Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and the state Department of Health of its intentions, he said, in anticipation of state plans for areas with declining infection rates to begin reopening their economies beginning May 8.

The interesting part (to me) is that the counties in that area are still "red" in terms of the PA state restrictions. https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/allegheny-county/gov-wolf-expected-announce-reopening-plan-friday/NW4V4GA77FG4HL67WVZVHE7BFA/

So a bit of a disconnect there - the by far largest hospital/research center in the area is ready to go, but the state isn't.

And there is this article: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/04/umpc-argues-covid-19-not-as-deadly-as-feared-says-its-hospitals-will-shift-back-to-normal.html

A UPMC doctor on Thursday made a case the death rate for people infected with the new coronavirus may be as low as 0.25% — far lower than the mortality rates of 2-4% or even higher cited in the early days of the pandemic.
...
“We’ve learned that way more people, far, far more people have actually been exposed to the infection without any knowledge of it. That makes the overall death rate much lower,” said Yealy, who is UPMC’s chair of emergency medicine. “Many people just didn’t feel sick at all and recovered without difficulty.”

 

[Winemaker]

UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) ready to provide full medical services: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2020/04/30/UPMC-coronavirus-COVID-19-hospitals-provide-medical-services-resume-testing/stories/202004300161



The interesting part (to me) is that the counties in that area are still "red" in terms of the PA state restrictions. https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/allegheny-county/gov-wolf-expected-announce-reopening-plan-friday/NW4V4GA77FG4HL67WVZVHE7BFA/

So a bit of a disconnect there - the by far largest hospital/research center in the area is ready to go, but the state isn't.

And there is this article: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/04/umpc-argues-covid-19-not-as-deadly-as-feared-says-its-hospitals-will-shift-back-to-normal.html

Our county south of "The 'Burgh" has a population of 200,000. We have 115 cases, 2 deaths, total. My circle of friends, relatives, tenants, contractors, winery customers and Home Depot & grocery store cashiers knows of no positive tested persons.

We are still in lock down mode.

 

[Ready]

Our town is having another protest today. The downtown area is flooded with people. Today is the first day that our Governor banned access to our beaches, but people are out there anyway waving their American flags. This is getting really intense.

 

[Chuckanut]

Today, the governor of the Great State of Washington has told us his plan to reopen the state. It has four phases and we are only in phase 1. There are a bunch of little dials that have to be pointed into the low-risk areas before we go to the next phase.

I am disappointed, but realistic. Like my old grandpappy used to say "Why is there never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it again." Let's not do it again.

https://coronavirus.wa.gov/what-you-need-know/covid-19-risk-assessment-dashboard

In any case most state parks are re-opening for day use only with appropriate social distancing. That's good as it will take pressure off the local parks and dilute their usage.

About 10 low population counties will get an exemption to so they can go into Phase 2 soon. Many of these counties have CV Counts of under a dozen cases and no deaths. The rest of us have to hang in there until the dials agree the risk is low enough to jump to the next phase.

If we get a really good treatment or vaccine, we might be able to toss this all out and just go back to living normal again (new or old, I'm not sure).

 

[harllee]

Our county south of "The 'Burgh" has a population of 200,000. We have 115 cases, 2 deaths, total. My circle of friends, relatives, tenants, contractors, winery customers and Home Depot & grocery store cashiers knows of no positive tested persons.

We are still in lock down mode.

You are very lucky --my county, smaller than yours with a population of about 150,000 has 217 diagnosed cases and 15 deaths (about a 7% death rate) and the numbers are increasing rapidly. I know a couple of people who have tested positive, several more who probably have it and cannot get tested and one person who died (just died today). I am very very glad we still have the stay at home order (it is not called a "lock down" in my state).

 

[Time2]

Yeah, I think it's way too soon to start returning to normal life. It will be interesting to see what happens in a couple weeks from those areas that opened anyway.

I've only done takeout once. I ordered a pizza online, picked it up, and by the time I made the 20 minute drive home it was cold. At least pizza is still decent when it's cold.

A few years ago I loved leftover Sam's pizza, the second day, I would turn it upside down on a plate and put it in the toaster oven on broil, watch it until the crust was crunchy brown. It was Sooo... good. Then they changed their crust. I don't buy it anymore. :-(

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

My Covid news is in LA County, the death rate for Asians and blacks is 13%. 10% death rate for whites. And 6.5% for Latino's.

Total cases are 51% male, which is less than I have heard from other area's.

 

[Calico]

My news is that I received an email from my car insurance company today informing me that they are mailing me a check in the amount of $50 as part of the "rapid relief premium savings" program. Every customer gets $50 per auto policy (not per driver).

At the beginning of April they emailed saying this would happen. I didn't hold my breath; I figured if it really did that was great.

I am a little annoyed (and surprised) that they are mailing an actual check. I assumed they would apply it to my account. I will need to sign up for my credit union's "digital deposit" feature, because their lobby has been closed for six weeks, and even if they were open I am not going anywhere these days. Oh well - I've been wanting to learn how that works anyway!

 

[Sunset]

My theory about vaccines is proving likely. I opined the fact that our children receive a lot of vaccines may be protective. It appears that live virus vaccines such as polio (which is no longer in use in the US) and tuberculosis vaccine (which we don't use because our incidence is very low) may activate innate antibodies. Both of those vaccines are administered orally and are cheap. These vaccines wouldn't provide long term specific protection but they would buy us time until a targeted vaccine is available.

The Gov't should just mail them out to us with instructions. Would make it super cheap and fast to disperse, and nobody would have to line up and spread Covid-19 for it.

 

[W2R]

My news is that I received an email from my car insurance company today informing me that they are mailing me a check in the amount of $50 as part of the "rapid relief premium savings" program. Every customer gets $50 per auto policy (not per driver).

Hey, that's terrific! Allstate sent me the whopping sum of $21.76 as my auto insurance rebate due to coronavirus. Oh well, still, it's nice that they at least recognize that people aren't driving as much these days.

 

[W2R]

Louisiana has not started the "opening up" after lockdown yet, and won't until the 15th. BUT - - Our Governor made one tiny change. He said that restaurants that are providing take-out, can have outside tables, sufficiently distant from one another, where people can eat their take-out as long as there is no service from the wait staff.

So, today we drove past several restaurants who had this set up in their parking lots, and we actually saw OTHER PEOPLE TALKING AND EATING as we drove by. OMG, it looked almost as though we live in a community full of real live people! They were all at least 10 feet apart, except couples were eating together. But everyone was enjoying the bright sunshine and talking loudly between tables; I saw some big smiles and laughter too.

Hard to describe, but after a couple of months at home it was so cool to see some people having fun.

 

[Calico]

Hey, that's terrific! Allstate sent me the whopping sum of $21.76 as my auto insurance rebate due to coronavirus. Oh well, still, it's nice that they at least recognize that people aren't driving as much these days.

Thanks; I really shouldn't complain!

Don't spend the whole $21.76 in one place.

 

[Dtail]

Hey, that's terrific! Allstate sent me the whopping sum of $21.76 as my auto insurance rebate due to coronavirus. Oh well, still, it's nice that they at least recognize that people aren't driving as much these days.

Still haven't received our rebate from Liberty Mutual which could be a few hundred.
Lots of advertising of it on tv though.

 

[martyp]

I live in Bangkok. Thailand is lifting some restrictions May 3rd including the much anticipated lifting of the ban on alcohol. They will re-evaluate in two weeks. This is what it sort of looks like.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

The people I know in the states that have opened are not at all glad. They think it's a huge mistake although they recognize the negative impact on the economy. There is no one right answer to this.

No one I know is unhappy about our state opening up which suggests that your (everyone's) peer group has a lot to do with your perspective. Most of my friends have kids at home. We're struggling with home schooling, tired of working at home and desperate to do anything that looks like normal.