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Latest in COVID weirdness
Mar. 19th, 2020 12:06 pmWe've had a case diagnosed in El Paso, 100 miles or so south of us, which means it'll be hitting Las Cruces and Alamogordo/Cloudcroft soon.
People in the USA who owe on their taxes are supposedly going to get a 90 day extension on paying, official information is not yet released. You may still have to get your filing in on/before April 15, so be prepared for that.
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Major department stores are closing for the duration: Macy's, Nordies, Needless Markups, etc. Some mall owners (in Canada?) are telling restaurants to pay your workers instead for your rent! [applauds] That should be world-wide. HUD has been ordered to suspend evictions for the duration, many municipalities have been told to suspend utility shutdowns for lack of payment.
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There's going to be a massive shortage of ventilators throughout the USA, and the world. This is something that needs to be a worldwide priority to ramp up production, and some are recognizing that this has to happen. This will also require building clean room manufacturing. Any contractors with this experience need to stop whatever they're working on and start making factories, and they need to have government protection for temporarily breaking contracts and payment assurances. This is just a bit of an emergency with literally millions of lives at stake. Including mine, not that I have a dog in the race. My dogs would just run off in random directions.
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Some very good news. There's an effective drug for early treatment from Japan: favipiravir/Avigan. It, like some HIV retrovirals, are very useful if COVID is caught early before it begins massive replication. Not very effective if its already widespread in a person.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/japanese-flu-drug-clearly-effective-in-treating-coronavirus-says-china
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Two US Navy(?) hospital ships are being deployed, one on the east coast near New York City, one on the west coast, I'd guess near LA or San Francisco. I have no idea where they're normally based or how long they'll take to deploy. They'll certainly help.
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My wife was telling me of some interesting logistics that the Chinese deployed. Basically they said THIS hospital is exclusively for people with coronavirus, THAT hospital is for people without. It led to much better usage of personal protective gear and lower incidence rates of medical staff getting sick. And I'm guessing some regularly scheduled important but non-critical surgery could continue? My wife told me in no uncertain terms to not break my ankle for the next couple of months, I'm pretty sure that was not on my calendar.
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El Presidente is getting ready to sign a war powers act which will let the United States government order industry to redirect towards specific goals, see the manufacture of ventilators above. It needs to be done, the question is whether or not he will "go with his gut" or actually listen to experts and do the smart thing.
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Tom Hanks and his wife were released from hospital in Australia, I imagine they'll be staying down there indefinitely. They'd be facing a 14 day quarantine if they came back here.
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Speaking of Australia, remember how El Presidente said the virus would go away when it warmed up? Remember how Australia is two seasons different from us? And it's late summer there? Remember those fires? They've got a lot of cases, and it's hot down there. I don't see any reason to think that it's going to calm down when it warms up here in the northern hemisphere in spring/summer.
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My boss just sent me a text asking me if I wanted to telework. I have no idea what I can do, we'll see what happens. But some income is greater than no income. Looks like "LibAnswers, a virtual library presence." There's only three of us who are permanent library employees, plus three students. Looks like they may be closing the library next week, boss says "she and I will be taking turns being in the library next week."
People in the USA who owe on their taxes are supposedly going to get a 90 day extension on paying, official information is not yet released. You may still have to get your filing in on/before April 15, so be prepared for that.
****
Major department stores are closing for the duration: Macy's, Nordies, Needless Markups, etc. Some mall owners (in Canada?) are telling restaurants to pay your workers instead for your rent! [applauds] That should be world-wide. HUD has been ordered to suspend evictions for the duration, many municipalities have been told to suspend utility shutdowns for lack of payment.
****
There's going to be a massive shortage of ventilators throughout the USA, and the world. This is something that needs to be a worldwide priority to ramp up production, and some are recognizing that this has to happen. This will also require building clean room manufacturing. Any contractors with this experience need to stop whatever they're working on and start making factories, and they need to have government protection for temporarily breaking contracts and payment assurances. This is just a bit of an emergency with literally millions of lives at stake. Including mine, not that I have a dog in the race. My dogs would just run off in random directions.
****
Some very good news. There's an effective drug for early treatment from Japan: favipiravir/Avigan. It, like some HIV retrovirals, are very useful if COVID is caught early before it begins massive replication. Not very effective if its already widespread in a person.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/japanese-flu-drug-clearly-effective-in-treating-coronavirus-says-china
****
Two US Navy(?) hospital ships are being deployed, one on the east coast near New York City, one on the west coast, I'd guess near LA or San Francisco. I have no idea where they're normally based or how long they'll take to deploy. They'll certainly help.
****
My wife was telling me of some interesting logistics that the Chinese deployed. Basically they said THIS hospital is exclusively for people with coronavirus, THAT hospital is for people without. It led to much better usage of personal protective gear and lower incidence rates of medical staff getting sick. And I'm guessing some regularly scheduled important but non-critical surgery could continue? My wife told me in no uncertain terms to not break my ankle for the next couple of months, I'm pretty sure that was not on my calendar.
****
El Presidente is getting ready to sign a war powers act which will let the United States government order industry to redirect towards specific goals, see the manufacture of ventilators above. It needs to be done, the question is whether or not he will "go with his gut" or actually listen to experts and do the smart thing.
****
Tom Hanks and his wife were released from hospital in Australia, I imagine they'll be staying down there indefinitely. They'd be facing a 14 day quarantine if they came back here.
****
Speaking of Australia, remember how El Presidente said the virus would go away when it warmed up? Remember how Australia is two seasons different from us? And it's late summer there? Remember those fires? They've got a lot of cases, and it's hot down there. I don't see any reason to think that it's going to calm down when it warms up here in the northern hemisphere in spring/summer.
****
My boss just sent me a text asking me if I wanted to telework. I have no idea what I can do, we'll see what happens. But some income is greater than no income. Looks like "LibAnswers, a virtual library presence." There's only three of us who are permanent library employees, plus three students. Looks like they may be closing the library next week, boss says "she and I will be taking turns being in the library next week."
