Corona Virus

[Unorthodox]

Anecdotal -

Took the dog on the mile walk today.  There was one younger person trying to net frogs, and another that was riding a mountain bike. The rest were geezers. They tended to travel in clusters and socialize with everyone they saw, and didn't maintain distance. I was the only one wearing gloves and face covering.

I've seen pictures of the city that look vacant, so that seems to be working. I only hear trucks and ambulances on the expressway.

We're low on some foods, and the Mrs. wants to restock. I think we'll venture out to Costco or SAM's tomorrow.

Stores seem to have mostly recovered here.  I was able to get a full week's supply in one stop finally. 

I have one from work.  I was called in to the office yesterday to manage the emergency response.  We had an employee with presumptive positive symptoms, and thus shut down and had a CDC approved cleaning team in to sanitize the building. 

Fascinating situation really.  They essentially dropped in foggers, let it settle, then went in and cleaned the residue.  Kinda cool. 

However...

Guys test come back negative and he's back in the office today, and so are all the people that were supposed to isolate because of his potential.  I noped the [fuddle-duddle] right out of that entire building (not my normal building anyway).  The realities are that the tests aren't 100%.  2 tests 24 hours apart are generally needed to confirm.  And some even get worse later and test positive even after that.  Further, it don't matter.  If he was bad enough to go to a doctor, there's no reason he should be back to work now. 

I shouldn't need to be back in office for 2 weeks unless we get another positive I need to go manage the response again, and I'm grateful I can avoid the death trap. 

[E_T]

They have reported about recent False Results, bothe Pos and Neg and the need to retest several people.  And with things like taking up to 16 days to get results back, it's almost better to just Quarentine for that same time and see if they get sick or not.

Also, about 3 weeks after they had started drive through testing at the Orange County Convention Center, they had a Record today.  7 Minutes after they had opened, they shut off the line, as the 250 test that they have available were used up.  They have consistantly, had the same number of test per day as when they first started.  IMVHO, this is not only Absolute Bull{poop}, but they might as well NOT even be doing it at all.  With the Stay at Home Order, The Huge Line for the test is the only Traffic that is even in the area at all.

And the Number per Day is a FEMA Mandated number...  [[Sleezebag] speek] We will have so many test...  So many.... [/[Sleezebag]]

[Geo]

I shouldn't need to be back in office for 2 weeks unless we get another positive I need to go manage the response again, and I'm grateful I can avoid the death trap.

You're lucky in that. I need to be at work to do my job. I have a good chance to be already exposed to the virus. Too many people which have had (or still have, but are home atm) a cough are around. I'm literally at close quarters with lots of other people at work twice a day during shift change.
Right now I'm home for a week. My skin reacts badly to the disinfectant my employer uses to sanitize the working equipment, and I was one of the guys tasked to do it.
Even wearing latex gloves and my regular gloves on top of them enough of the stuff comes through to cause an allergic reaction to my hands and wrists.
I'm definitely not unhappy about that. Gives my tennis elbow some time to recover as well.

[Rusty Edge]

I feel your pain, Geo. I had a job once where I was exposed to chemicals to which I was allergic. It affected the skin on my hands. Stress compounded the problem. I wore gloves for a while. Eventually I got more careful, more relaxed, and acclimated, I guess.  I don't remember how long that took, because I tried to forget that unpleasant period.

***
Anecdotal-

Life happened and we got off to a late start. The COSTCO parking lot was jammed, so we went to two supermarkets to get stuff instead. Aside from more traffic at lunch in the fast food strip, I got the impression that it was almost like shopping during a Packer game- reduced cars on the road and people shopping, particularly for a weekend. Unlike the last time I was in a supermarket they had wipes for the carts, tape lines every six feet, and plexiglass between the customer and the cashier. Some of the shoppers had gloves and masks. While I saw employees cleaning the carts, I didn't see any wiping off the door handles on the refrigerator and freezer cases. ( I did see that last time I was in Sam's ).

Also, Milwaukee order it's first refrigerated reefer trailer to serve as a temporary morgue.

My dad's nursing home in PA has stopped giving showers. All patients are now confined to their rooms.
My MiL's nursing home in WI has had room confinement for a month or so, but they are letting them out to walk down the hall and back daily so that they don't get weak and stiff. Not sure about the shower vs. sponge bath arrangements.

[Rusty Edge]

I have an aunt. Career nurse. She was the first person I know to say that the corona virus was an international menace, and that it would be the big one. That was when it was still confined to China. She's in her 80s and suffers from early dementia- calls you up to repeat yesterday's conversation sometimes, for example.

Recently she's been worrying that she'll forget and touch her face. She will be really angry if she dies so stupidly after all these years.

[Geo]

Thanks, Rusty.

The rash on one hand is almost gone now. And on the other its improving each day.

On Corona-related news, the total tally of 20,000 confirmed infections treshold has been passed now. And the daily deathtoll is still increasing as well. 1632 now in total.
On the other hand, the curve of new confirmed cases seems to flatten out for a couple days now, and there's less IC beds occupied now. The hospitals in most areas never needed more then half their IC capacity for Corona cases, except for one province which had to move a number of patients to hospitals in other provinces.

Going outhouse restrictions are still in force for another two weeks. But I  think they will be extended towards the beginning of May.

[Unorthodox]

I still bear scars from allergic reactions it took me nearly a year to track down what was causing.  Have you tried liquid gloves before you put on your gloves?

[Geo]

I have to work with what my employer provides. Besides, if I brought something of my own to the workfloor (at my expense) you can bet it wouldn't last long.

The ideal situation would be I wouldn't have to clean working equipment anymore. There's one or two other tasks I can do which wouldn't stress my elbow too much.

[Rusty Edge]

Boris Johnson is now in intensive care.

Tomorrow is election day here in Wisconsin. It was postponed  in a special session of the legislature in favor of  a vote by mail scheme.

Went to COSTCO today, seemed like a normal Monday. They still don't have things like rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, etc. in stock. People were keeping their distance, and a majority seemed to have masks and/or gloves of some kind on. They have plexiglass barriers and tape on the floor now too. Signs about keeping distance throughout the store. As before in COSTCO, employees actively cleaning the doors and handles on the refrigerators. No more food samples, fortunately. Limited number of people allowed in, and employees were sanitizing the carts.

[Rusty Edge]

[Sleezebag] remains amazed that there are hundreds of countries in the world.

[Rusty Edge]

*[Sleezebag] was getting mad at reporters for refusing to praise him for testing more people than any other country. The other side of that is that the USA isn't even in the top 40 countries in terms of tests/1 M population.

*CORRECTION- The bit about the Wisconsin election was misreported. The governor called for a special session of the legislature to postpone tomorrow's election, but what actually happened is that he acted by decree ( I presume the GOP controlled legislature refused to cooperate ) and later today the WI Supreme Court overturned him.

I can't say I fault the court. Imagine [Sleezebag] postponing an election that wasn't going his way. Bad idea that one person could have that power and exercise it the day before.

Gov. Evers should have foreseen this problem when he locked down the state and encouraged everybody to request the vote by mail option at that time.  We did, and our ballots have been mailed back in to the local government.  That said, the Republicans suck for not addressing this problem.  Now people will probably suffer and die as a result, just when we are finally getting some traction on social separation.

* My wife informs me that while I was in the kitchen, New Jersey was excited to announce that they just had their first Corvid-19 patient to get off of the ventilator alive today.

* Yesterday I heard a New York respiratory therapist comment that pre-Covid-19 a typical patient was on the ventilator 3-7 days. The typical Corvid patient is on for 3 weeks. She wouldn't comment on the survival rate, but didn't contradict Gov. Cuomo's generalization of 20% survival.

[E_T]

[Sleezebag] remains amazed that there are hundreds of countries in the world.

A recent press conference, he claied that it was a good friend of his whom didn't know that there were so many countries in the world.... "So Many..."  And most of them are [pop]holes, too

I figure that it was his reflection in the mirror that is the good friend that didn't know that...

[E_T]

Well, according to [Sleezebag], if there was mail in Elections, no Republican would be voted in, as the Dems would do something like fake ballots or some such BS (I think that's something hbe had seen on Fox News)...

[Unorthodox]

hEt is an RT.  (Ventilators are her whole career, though she specializes in NICU).  I brought up this whole mortality rate on ventilators thing to her.  Here's her response:

VENTILATORS ARE NOT A TREATMENT, THEY BUY TIME FOR OTHER TREATMENTS TO WORK.  If patients are dying on the ventilators, it's an indication of the other things being done aren't working, not that the ventilators themselves are good or bad.  The whole measurement is stupid. 

[Geo]

In short, a high(er) mortality of people on vents are just an indication of in general more health issues before those people were even attached to the machine.
Comes down to a lacking healthcare system to me.

I know this may sound snobbish, but it is also a true assesment.