NON_POLITICAL China Coronavirus THREAD

[zinfamous]

spring break here at UofM was moved up by exactly one day today, after the day before extending the holiday by essentially 2 weeks, and another week of online classes only until April 10. So campus is shutdown to students for a month now, and they are only resuming classes, online in some not-yet-planned way, 2 weeks from now.

College town, so that means things will be empty here for a while; maybe reduce the chaos at stores. Big problem of course is that there will be some students returning home where they actually don't have resources: dependable internet access, and even regular meals.

I wonder what schools will do for tuition remission, housing costs, meal plan refund, parking refunds, etc...

 

[Kaido]

It's possible. But, wouldn't you rather err on the side of caution then be taken by surprise? I had an argument with my father whose in his 70s. He told me not to worry because there are no confirmed cases in our area. I'm like "don't go outside!!" BTW, Michael Osterholm thinks otherwise.

I think there's a pendulum with 2 extremes:

1. Not caring & writing it off as a bad flu
2. Going nuts & hoarding & listening to the non-stop fear-mongering news coverage

I think we should go to the middle, i.e. err on the side of caution. I mean, look at the CNN headlines just now:

1. "America is on hold"
2. "The US faces new norms as coronavirus outbreaks show no sign of slowing down"

How about...we've been asked to chill out from hanging out in public for a couple weeks. The virus is going to take off no matter what we do, and there is absolutely a risk of dying from it, but we can limit the impact by doing some simple self-isolation type of stuff. The world isn't going to stop - things are just going to slow down for a bit. Our economy will probably take a hit that will take a couple of years to recover, but many people can also work remotely & we have lots of great delivery services available.

What I don't appreciate is the fear-mongering the media is doing. They need to chill and be more reassuring. They know we'll get through this, but they also know that people will click on their site 57 times an hour for the latest updates & they'll get massive ad revenue for the next month by hyping the virus up. I mean, gimme a break. American isn't on hold, people are just taking the recommended precautions. The CDC says we have 1,215 confirmed cases out of 327 million people. Yes, the virus will spread. Yes, schools & businesses are closing for a couple of weeks. Yes, there will be an economic impact & a pause in normal life. The same thing happens during bad snowstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.

I'm just not real happy that the news media is going the fearmongering route when they could be reassuring the public instead of fanning the flames. And I do place a big part of the blame for people panic-buying on headlines like the ones below, because people see the news & then react accordingly. The media is hugely influential socially. They need to step up and do a better job.

 

[brianmanahan]

I wonder what schools will do for tuition remission, housing costs, meal plan refund, parking refunds, etc...

 

[IronWing]

I wonder what schools will do for tuition remission, housing costs, meal plan refund, parking refunds, etc...

There was an interview with a professor about that on NPR yesterday. She had all sorts of good advice to profs/students about how to weather the storm and handle remote classes. When the interviewer asked about refunds as the students wouldn't be getting what they paid for? Dead silence followed by a half mumbled comment about how she couldn't relate to that idea followed by some crap about how students would probably rather not get refunds and go with the work arounds or just start fresh next semester (without addressing the tuition aspect at all). This isn't a new attitude, colleges pretty much never give refunds without a judge ordering them to and after all appeals are exhausted.

Edit: what brianmanahan said.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

There was an interview with a professor about that on NPR yesterday. She had all sorts of good advice to profs/students about how to weather the storm and handle remote classes. When the interviewer asked about refunds as the students wouldn't be getting what they paid for? Dead silence followed by a half mumbled comment about how she couldn't relate to that idea followed by some crap about how students would probably rather not get refunds and go with the work arounds or just start fresh next semester (without addressing the tuition aspect at all). This isn't a new attitude, colleges pretty much never give refunds without a judge ordering them to and after all appeals are exhausted.

Edit: what brianmanahan said.

Yep, huge amount of backlash on my campus right now wrt refunds. Lots of students aren't happy about discount education for premium prices.

 

[highland145]

Refunds...lolol...Elizabeth Warren answered that one.

The kid gets another week off and then online classes.

@zinfamous BFFs kid goes to Emory and they're kicking them out as well but there are supposed to be special accommodations for the cases you mentioned.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Today was the last day of school before March break and they just decided to do a snow day lol. I think they figured "F it we'll just close the schools early". 3 weeks off for the kids from this point on. Should be interesting for parents that have kids too young to be home alone though... I guess some of the older kids can be hired to babysit.

 

[highland145]

Someone should load up a costco cart with condoms and wheel it around the store. Video, please.

 

[IronWing]

Someone should load up a costco cart with condoms and wheel it around the store. Video, please.

Sam's Club® would be a great name for a condom brand.

 

[K1052]

Bolsonaro reportedly positive for COVID-19

Masters postponed.

UK parliament suspended.

 

[CZroe]

Sam's Club would be a great name for a condom brand.

Big K
Stop'n'Go
Buy-N-Large (from Wall-e)
Bannanna Republic
Champion Sports
Dick's Sporting Goods
Blimpie
...

 

[TheVrolok]

anyone think we might see another baby boom about a year from now?

Just said this to an obgyn friend of mine, business will be busy in about 9 months.

 

[IronWing]

Just said this to an obgyn friend of mine, business will be busy in about 9 months.

Could go either way. Having the kids home from school for 2-3 weeks could be enough to trigger a spike in snipping operations.

 

[Muse]

(b) are they quite sure that those who have had the virus and survived and recovered, will in fact be immune to getting it again? If people don't acquire immunity, or if the immunity doesn't last very long, this plan isn't going to work, surely?

Well, it must be the case that recovering from covid-19 confers some immunity for a while. That in itself will slow down the pandemic hopefully to the point where vaccines and/or antibody injections can further tamp down the problem.

 

[K1052]

Swiss reinstating border checks.

Spain to declare state of emergency. Anticipating 10K cases next week. Military to be mobilized.

Canada suspends its parliament.

 

[CZroe]

Swiss reinstating border checks.

Spain to declare state of emergency. Anticipating 10K cases next week. Military to be mobilized.

Canada suspends its parliament.

Can we start calling this Spanish Flu Too?

China has already been caught directing their officials to call it "Italian Virus" (leaked documents). They also tried Japanese Virus and now they've moved on to blaming the USA.

Edit:

De-Sinicizing the Virus: How CCP Propaganda Is Rewriting History

Secret documents instruct Chinese diplomats to call COVID-19 or “Italian virus,” and promote Xi Jinping as the heroic leader who defeated the virus.

bitterwinter.org

 

[sdifox]

Can we start calling this Spanish Flu Too?

China has already been caught directing their officials to call it "Italian Virus" (leaked documents). They also tried Japanese Virus and now they've moved on to blaming the USA.

they can flail all they want, it's the Wuhan SARS like virus.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Swiss reinstating border checks.

Spain to declare state of emergency. Anticipating 10K cases next week. Military to be mobilized.

Canada suspends its parliament.

I wonder if my idiot coworker will actually make it back from Spain. Curious if they'll suspend flights (he was supposed to fly back today or this weekend?)

 

[Muse]

Herd mentality. Happens in the beginning. Just wondering if this is prolonged. What will 3 months look like? 6 months? This is some scary shit for most people.

I milled at Costco yesterday, walked out without braving a line. Saw hundreds upon hundreds of people buying things that mystified me. Didn't say a word to anyone except a "what the fuck are you doing?" to a guy who was riding a cart like a skateboard in the middle of the store and almost ran into me.

I wanted to know but didn't ask anyone... Why in the world are you buying a 5 years supply of toilet paper (for me a 15 year supply)? Couldn't find Kleenex, wipes, alcohol, zinc lozenges (they never stock those OTC's), beans, rice, organic peanut butter, I was out of there. Parking didn't exist! Yeah, herd mentality is, I suppose, the proper idea here. People were just here I am in this, pushing their carts.

 

[brainhulk]

Bolsonaro reportedly positive for COVID-19
.

Who did he have contact with here again?

 

[K1052]

Who did he have contact with here again?

Dined right next to Trump at Mar-a-Lago

 

[sdifox]

Dined right next to Trump at Mar-a-Lago

lol peas in a pod

 

[CZroe]

Bolsonaro is denying that he tested positive.

 

[echo4747]

Wanted to get some coffee and tea and was driving by a Sav a Lot and the parking lot wasn't overly crowded so I stopped in. I hope you cant get infected with coronavirus from fart vapors. As I went into the coffee/tea aisle, walked right into a giant stink cloud. Whoever the offender was must have quickly abandoned that aisle. Not a good shopping experience at all. Glad I dont need to shop today or the upcoming weekend

 

[Red Squirrel]

Auction shows are about to get real interesting.