NON_POLITICAL China Coronavirus THREAD

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CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
856
126
Started getting sinus pain at work today. Checked CVS drugstore on the way home and was surprised to find that they had one smashed box of Cold-Eeze zinc lozenges. It has almost three times the zinc per lozenge than those stupid Sambucol "lozenges" that were more like gels (came from GNC). Also has 4x the number of lozenges for the same price.

Speaking of price, they had CVS brand "Cold Relief" zinc lozenges for nearly 40% less but theirs does not tell you how much zinc you are getting. It mentions homeopathy right where it should be giving you the milligrams, leading me to believe it may not have even a single atom of the stuff and is just BS... like the essence of zinc is imbued into the lozenges and strengthened through the magic of dillution! Sure hope it's not that anti-science hippie garbage because I bought some of that too. Realized it was the exact same quantity and box design (size, shape, print orietation, flap orientation, angled flap edges, etc) as Cold-Eeze so I hope it really is just rebranded.

Cold-Eeze mentions homeopathy too but at least they say their zinc lozenges are clinically proven to shorten the length and lessen the severity of colds and don't shy away from putting the amount of the active ingredient on the package. I think I'll alternate between the two. Oddly, both are cherry-flavor but end up tasting like artificial banana.

So, yeah, I guess the point of this is that some places have restocked so it isn't totally pointless to look for Cold-Eeze or other zinc lozenge alternatives at this point. They also had lemon flavor CVS Cold Relief zinc lozenges but I haven't tried those.

Edit: OK, I'm 98% sure CVS zinc lozenges are just as effective as Cold-Eeze after noting that the box claims this formulation was also clinically proven effective in a double-blind placebo-controlled test (lessening severity and shortening length of colds; not specifically testing with SARS-CoV-2, of course). Clearly packaged at the same place:
 
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nutxo

Diamond Member
May 20, 2001
6,749
422
126
I personally saw 60 people get told they were cut to 20 hours a week. I talked to a guy in another department who was walking past me with his lunchbox at 8;30 in the morning that 9 people had just been cut to 8 hours a week and he had been sent home. Some of the guys in my department were cut to 32 hours a week ( I had the pleasure of attending this meeting as well) but then got sent home 2 hours early.

I watched people I've known for years cry as they left work at 11 am. One of my best work friends sat and choked back tears when she told me she would have to move in with her mother. It broke my fucking heart.

I've had a shit day and now I have to get ready for a birthday party when I'd rather just get drunk and go to bed.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
856
126
This is getting serious. Circle-K has suspended the use of refill cups for pop. I reuse cups for months. This is like a 80% price hike overnight.
Welcome to last week here. Fast food either doesn't do refills or they replace your cup.


I personally saw 60 people get told they were cut to 20 hours a week. I talked to a guy in another department who was walking past me with his lunchbox at 8;30 in the morning that 9 people had just been cut to 8 hours a week and he had been sent home. Some of the guys in my department were cut to 32 hours a week ( I had the pleasure of attending this meeting as well) but then got sent home 2 hours early.

I watched people I've known for years cry as they left work at 11 am. One of my best work friends sat and choked back tears when she told me she would have to move in with her mother. It broke my fucking heart.

I've had a shit day and now I have to get ready for a birthday party when I'd rather just get drunk and go to bed.
I got cut down to 27. Not the end of the world.
 

killster1

Banned
Mar 15, 2007
6,208
475
126
Lol sounds like a stupid idea to have a birthday party.

Do they at least have a cool cake shaped like a coronavirus?
the birthday party is with via webcam everyone is @ their own house that way no one has to drive home, also paypal the gift money then pool it together for a great online shopping gift.
 

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
30
91
I can't imagine they have anywhere near 10k ICU beds, that's a herculean medical response.
They quite likely don't have anywhere near 10k hospital beds, including ICU. Besides, in the past 20 years, ICU beds at the average hospital have declined. See, way back when, every person who needed advanced care went to the same place, the ICU. Most hospitals had an entire floor being devoted to ICU. Not anymore. Now, that same hospital that had their entire 5th floor dedicated to ICU, has divided that floor into thirds: ICU, CCU, and NICU. BTW, CCU is cardiac care, and NICU is neonatal intensive care.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
856
126
OK, I'm 98% sure CVS zinc lozenges are just as effective as Cold-Eeze after noting that the box claims this formulation was also clinically proven effective in a double-blind placebo-controlled test (lessening severity and shortening length of colds; not specifically testing with SARS-CoV-2, of course). Clearly packaged at the same place:
 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,348
3,426
126
I have some buddies in school IT & hospital IT & they are just getting slammed. Fortunately a lot of schools already have iPads, Chromebooks, Blackboard (ick), and Google services in place for online work The school IT departments are not just managing the situation for the next two weeks, but are expecting it to be out months, if not the rest of the school year. For schools that are prepared, it will be a non-issue, but I think shipping replacement parts in for stuff like iPads & laptops will be an issue long-term over the coming months due to importing from China & other supply-chain logistical issues.

Unless the school was majority online already it wasn't prepared and even then the major online services likely used for instruction (Google, kaltura, canvas, teams, bluejeans, zoom etc) have had intermittent issues. Not to mention the overloading of communal internet services where students are trying to consume coursework

Still the scaling of those services has been impressive. Some schools added tens of thousands of users, thousands of additional meetings/classes and millions of minutes of instruction/meetings in the last couple of days. Each! (larger schools are 40k+ students. So to move everything online when it was predominantly in person can be a bit of a service load increase)
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,002
12,067
146
Unless the school was majority online already it wasn't prepared and even then the major online services likely used for instruction (Google, kaltura, canvas, teams, bluejeans, zoom etc) have had intermittent issues. Not to mention the overloading of communal internet services where students are trying to consume coursework

Still the scaling of those services has been impressive. Some schools added tens of thousands of users, thousands of additional meetings/classes and millions of minutes of instruction/meetings in the last couple of days. Each! (larger schools are 40k+ students. So to move everything online when it was predominantly in person can be a bit of a service load increase)
We hit half capacity on our campus VPN, I'm expecting it to ramp up to ~75% over the next couple days as the idiots finally get their WFH figured out, but hopefully we won't run over.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
OK, I'm 98% sure CVS zinc lozenges are just as effective as Cold-Eeze after noting that the box claims this formulation was also clinically proven effective in a double-blind placebo-controlled test (lessening severity and shortening length of colds; not specifically testing with SARS-CoV-2, of course). Clearly packaged at the same place:
I bought 8 boxes of CVS zinc lozenges like a week ago so that's good to hear. I was debating between CVS brand and Cold-Eeze and bought CVS brand because it was cheaper and they were doing buy 1 and get 50% off sale.
 
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CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
856
126
TEkzo2jl.jpg


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Right on.

 

Spacehead

Lifer
Jun 2, 2002
13,201
10,063
136
Anyone tracking the coronavirus updates that Bing has displayed, showing total cases/deaths/recoveries?

Yesterday it showed 93 US deaths, but today it's down to 85. I've been tracking it daily and that makes no sense, unless the WHO/CDC/whatever other agency decided causes of death were not attributable to C19.
I've been using this: https://ncov2019.live/data
It's hard to know how accurate the numbers from any of the trackers. If you look at the CDC or WHO sites, those aren't endlessly updating. They have a set time they post numbers for the day. I guess it depends on the sources your particular tracker is using.

Should of posted in the "victims" thread. It's sort of covid-19 related ;)
 
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spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
10,781
1,386
126
WTF is wrong with people? licking toilets as part of the corona virus challenge???? I'm not even going attach a picture since it was so damn idiotic....
 

killster1

Banned
Mar 15, 2007
6,208
475
126
WTF is wrong with people? licking toilets as part of the corona virus challenge???? I'm not even going attach a picture since it was so damn idiotic....
but if you read what people say in this thread they say you cant get it from eating infected food. SO then if you open doors with your mouth or lick toilet seats you should be fine by that logic. i still have this debate with people and some stick with no you cant get it from food and others say yes you can :) wahahah
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
Not saying I'm too scared to eat out (clearly, I'm not) but I can't delude myself into thinking it's any less risky than it is.

You are not looking at the bigger picture. The alternative is walking into the restaurant like normal, shoulder-to-shoulder with other people, touching multiple doorknobs and other surfaces. Plus the bathroom. That one point of contact is much, much less of a risk than all the crap you would get walking into the restaurant like normal.

Switching over to the takeout window is actually a big improvement. It is not perfect.

you are HILARIOUS.. you have never worked in a restaurant before?

Yes, and what you are describing is not only idiotic, but generally doesn't happen much. "Shock" video showing poor food prep does not represent the norm in any restaurant where I have ever worked. Usually the worst offenses are people that touch their hair or people who don't change their gloves often enough. There are some offenders, and I read about them in the "restaurant report card" published in the local paper every week. Most common complaint is drinks in the food prep area. Not "employees scooping food up off the floor". I've heard managers hassling employees about that (drinks) for years. Fortunately I do not work in food prep anymore. Don't miss it.

A lot of food prep employees are constantly on camera, for a reason. They can easily get fired for some of the more-egregious offenses you've mentioned above. Most of them are halfway-decent people (sort of) who will only rarely sabotage food or otherwise treat it with significant neglect. Makes me wonder how you ever eat out anywhere if you think videos of employees scraping food off the floor represent the norm in kitchens.
 
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