Manic of a panic is geopolitical

[Dr Sardonicus]

Latest from the Moscow Times:

March 22 - Russia confirmed 61 new cases of coronavirus, bringing its official count to 367

Also,

Moscow authorities again ruled out the possibility of a citywide lockdown. Meanwhile, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city's metro will not close down.

The following might also be of interest:

Exclusive: Rich Russians Are Hoarding Ventilators to Protect Themselves Against the Coronavirus
Meanwhile, doctors worry that Russia’s regions don’t have enough.

While Russia’s rich can self-isolate in splendor, there will be some hardships they might be forced to bear if the coronavirus spreads throughout the country: State-run hospitals are the only institutions taking in patients of the virus.

But The Moscow Times has found evidence, based on dozens of interviews, that Russia’s rich are setting up makeshift clinics in their own homes to ensure they can have better care than the masses if they get infected. And in what may have severe ramifications down the road for Russia's battle against the coronavirus, they are buying up and hoarding the ventilators that have proven essential in saving lives in severe cases.

"We've been able to get one so far and are trying to get two more," one family member told The Moscow Times, asking to remain anonymous to speak candidly on the subject, and noting that the device cost 1.8 million rubles ($22,500). "But there's an eight-month waiting list."

[kladner]

Originally Posted by Till

Is it that New York takes testing much more serious than other US states, or do they really have so many more cases?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
Btw. the worldometer corona pages update faster than John Hopkins, great site I think.

Thanks for the link.

I suspect that the higher NY numbers are, in part, from having large high-density and population centers, as well as better testing capabilities. At this point the latter has to be dominant, though just having more subjects to test is bound to run up the numbers when so little is known.

My partner is able to work from home, as are the rest of his working group. He started this past week.

My job is necessarily on-site. I did not go to work in that period either. On Weds, it was an offer to take the night off from the manager I was going to be working with. Things at the Center on Halsted were already seriously curtailed, so there was not much to do except to keep the homeless youth and young adult homeless patrons from hiding out in stairwells and restrooms. This sounds harsh, but we can't fix the general tragedy, and can't have people inhabiting internal fire escape stairs and the garage.

The Center is now officially shut down, though we still have to have someone there to control the lobby, which we share with our Whole Foods tenant. Staff has been told that if we are not working we will be paid what we would have made until the end of March. After that, we can use up accumulated personal, sick, and vacation time. Then we can file for unemployment. We have been given detailed instructions on the last procedure. I have accumulated hours to get me past the middle of April.

At 67 years old, I guess I should be glad to shelter at home, even if work was available. The Center has way over a thousand people pass through the lobby every day. Must state that many are on their way through the lobby to get to WFMarket. The point is that there a very many to cough and sneeze in the course of the day. It is good not to be in the line of fire.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

So your "element of truth" can range from the trivial, through the trivially trivial, to the totally meaningless.

Examples:

Illuminati conspiracies: Element of truth: There was a group called the Illuminati.

9-11 conspiracies: Element of truth: The 9-11 attacks did happen.

JFK assassination conspiracies. Element of truth: He was shot. (Not all the batst crazy "theories" concede that he was killed)

"Mass shootings never happened" conspiracies: Element of truth: Mass shootings were widely reported.

You're either unaware of the various main kinds of 'evidence' believers-in/promoter-of said CTs marshal, or being deliberately obtuse. E.g.:

9/11: Extremely symmetric, near-simultaneous stack-of-pancakes-collapse of both main towers which a professional demolition team would have been hard-pressed to match, while some nearby buildings were 'suspiciously' unscathed. (Alleged) lack of impacting-plane debris at the Pentagon. Bush administration seeking a ready pretext for its War on Terr[or|a], with Orwellian mass domestic surveillance a bonus.

JFK: Zapruder film seems to indicate some weird physical reactions to a bullet coming from the direction of the book depository Oswald used. Kennedy had allegedly been mulling a major drawdown of the Vietnam war effort, thus the DoD warheads and MIC profiteers had him taken out.

I could go on, but I suspect 'deliberately obtuse' hits it, so no point. You are so famous for quickly marshaling impressive amounts of web-links when the urge moves you, I'm sure starting with e.g. the Wikipedia articles on these various famous CTs will be quite easy for you, should you so desire.

[CRGreathouse]

Originally Posted by kriesel

Test kits for the Wuhan SARS2 virus in human patients are in short supply and so are the reagents with which the next millions of them would be built and processed.

The problem with test kits was that the CDC messed up the first generation and prohibited state labs (and others) from using theirs. There's no lack of reagents anywhere I know of; the problem is that to do a test you have to gather a sample, and that consumes valuable PPE. Right now PPE are in more demand (at least here in New York State) than reagents or test throughput. We could run still more (and we're leading the nation) if we were able to gather them. We have amazing labs and the best lab personnel; hats off to them. Without their tireless work we wouldn't have a chance in this fight.

Originally Posted by kriesel

Yet there is no toilet paper to be found in the last 3 retail stores I visited.

There's no national stockpile of toilet paper; you'll just have to wait for this one to wend its way through the supply chain. The experts I've heard say we'll be swimming in it soon as orders have all gone through and people won't buy once they've stockpiled.

Originally Posted by kriesel

Ventilators and hospital beds and gowns and masks ...

Masks are a serious problem now; gloves and OP/NP swabs I don't hear about as much, but they're getting critical as well. Actually swabs are probably the worst of it. Vents I've heard are predicted to be the worst of it eventually, and that's why there's so much emphasis about them (companies retooling to build them), but no one in the country is short of them now. (The real issue is going to be finding people to staff all the new vents -- using them takes a lot of monitoring, even the new ones which are considerably easier to use than the old ones.)

We're building several new hospitals here and increasing existing hospital space 50-100% so hospital beds will be in demand, but I don't have any idea how hard they will be to source. Honestly it will probably be much easier for New York and other states that are hit early on than states that get it later when initial supplies have been depeated.

[CRGreathouse]

Originally Posted by Till

Is it that New York takes testing much more serious than other US states, or do they really have so many more cases?

NY has the best testing in the US. But NY also has two of the hardest-hit places in the nation -- NYC and Westchester.

[CRGreathouse]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Burr wasn't the only SSCI member to sell stock this way ... and the 2013 loophole introduced via 10-second-floor-discussion amendment to the 2012 STOCK Act which allowed him to do so passed both houses of Congress by unanimous consent, and was signed into law by then-president Obama. Again, the scandal is what's legal, and the fact that it's only legal for the same clique of lawmakers who made it legal for themselves and their cronies.

Yes. Kick 'em all out!

[Dr Sardonicus]

I think what we have here is a dispute over meaning.

To me, "elements of truth" are factual occurrences whose explanations are being sought.

In the 9-11 attacks, for example, the collapse of the twin towers is a fact. I have indicated subsequent interpretations of that fact, and other non-elements or non-facts in red.

Originally Posted by ewmayer

9/11: Extremely symmetric, near-simultaneous stack-of-pancakes-collapse of both main towers which a professional demolition team would have been hard-pressed to match, while some nearby buildings were 'suspiciously' unscathed. (Alleged) lack of impacting-plane debris at the Pentagon. Bush administration seeking a ready pretext for its War on Terr[or|a], with Orwellian mass domestic surveillance a bonus.

JFK: Zapruder film seems to indicate some weird physical reactions to a bullet coming from the direction of the book depository Oswald used. Kennedy had allegedly been mulling a major drawdown of the Vietnam war effort, thus the DoD warheads and MIC profiteers had him taken out.

Call me willfully obtuse, but I don't recognize things "alleged" or that are subsequently characterized by "seems to" as "elements." I also don't recognize post hoc, ad hoc interpretations as either "elements" or "truth." Especially when they willfully ignore other facts, like the planes crashing into the towers.

(Mis)interpretation is also key to some "evidence" that the Apollo landings were studio fakes. The photographs of the astronauts on the lunar surface show a perfectly black sky. The "landings were faked" crowd howls, Where are the stars? As anyone who ever worked with photographic film could tell you, the absence of stars from the images is an artifact of how photographic film works (or "worked," since the stuff is now considered obsolete). If it had been exposed enough to show the stars, everything on the lunar surface would have been overexposed to "polar bear eating a marshmallow in a snowstorm" white.

So accepting the absence of stars as "evidence of fakery" depends on ignorance of facts.

Perhaps "elements of truthiness" would be more apt here.

[Dr Sardonicus]

I'm trying an experiment. I happened to have a large, wide-mouthed plastic container I'd used, washed, and, for reasons that were not clear to myself at the time, refrained from recycling.

I suddenly thought of a possible use: Do-it-yourself hand wipes!

I cut up some paper towels, put the pieces in the jar, and poured in a small amount of my precious store of rubbing alcohol.

The critical thing is to avoid evaporation loss. I put a folded piece of plastic wrap over the top, and screwed on the lid.

So far, not even the faintest smell of rubbing alcohol.

[Till]

Originally Posted by kladner

Thanks for the link.

I suspect that the higher NY numbers are, in part, from having large high-density and population centers, as well as better testing capabilities. At this point the latter has to be dominant, though just having more subjects to test is bound to run up the numbers when so little is known.

My partner is able to work from home, as are the rest of his working group. He started this past week.

My job is necessarily on-site. I did not go to work in that period either. On Weds, it was an offer to take the night off from the manager I was going to be working with. Things at the Center on Halsted were already seriously curtailed, so there was not much to do except to keep the homeless youth and young adult homeless patrons from hiding out in stairwells and restrooms. This sounds harsh, but we can't fix the general tragedy, and can't have people inhabiting internal fire escape stairs and the garage.

The Center is now officially shut down, though we still have to have someone there to control the lobby, which we share with our Whole Foods tenant. Staff has been told that if we are not working we will be paid what we would have made until the end of March. After that, we can use up accumulated personal, sick, and vacation time. Then we can file for unemployment. We have been given detailed instructions on the last procedure. I have accumulated hours to get me past the middle of April.

At 67 years old, I guess I should be glad to shelter at home, even if work was available. The Center has way over a thousand people pass through the lobby every day. Must state that many are on their way through the lobby to get to WFMarket. The point is that there a very many to cough and sneeze in the course of the day. It is good not to be in the line of fire.

Sorry to hear how your employer handles the crisis. The middle of april does not sound realistic with regard to the climax of the crisis, I fear. At 67, are you thinking about retirement?


My case is different, I can do home office and there is no sign yet that my salary could not come anymore.


Good luck to you!

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by CRGreathouse

NY has the best testing in the US. But NY also has two of the hardest-hit places in the nation -- NYC and Westchester.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but wasn't NYC slow to shut down various key sectors of its tourism/social-scene industry, like Broadway? It's a tough choice - shut down a huge % of your economy or not. Can't have an economy without people, but can't continue to provide essential public services without the revenue from the economy.

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

I suddenly thought of a possible use: Do-it-yourself hand wipes!

I cut up some paper towels, put the pieces in the jar, and poured in a small amount of my precious store of rubbing alcohol.

Shouldn't you be savings those precious bodily fluids ounces of rubbing alcohol for making up your next batch of Ernst's patented Miracl-Nuke Nasal Spray™?

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

but can't continue to provide essential public services without the revenue from the economy.

You can do what some municipalities do, issue "Revenue Anticipation" bonds. The rates might not be great and the pay off period will be stretched out more than normal. They are commonly used because income and expenses don't sync during the year.