NON_POLITICAL China Coronavirus THREAD

[Kaido]

Brick and Morter retail has been teetering on the edge of survival for years. This will probably be what shoves 50-75% of brick and mortar retail off the cliff.

I think clothing shops will survive. I hate ordering shoes & clothing online because you never know if it's really going to fit right. But yeah, I think a lot of places are headed for oblivion due to Amazon & COVID-19.

I think we're going to see a huge rise in ghost kitchens as at-home food deliveries increase, and I think they will grow & the concept will stick around as a permanent part of our culture going forward. The only thing the food delivery systems need to figure out is the costing...I ordered Uber Eats the other day because there was a $0 delivery fee offer & didn't realize they charged me almost $10 for a "service fee" until afterwards. Total bait & switch advertising

 

[DrMrLordX]

Total domestic demand is certainly hundreds of millions per month at this point. We could probably produce that if we really tried. The government has the power to guarantee purchases and loans to get there but we haven’t done it. The federal response has been extremely uneven and chaotic.

If decontamination procedures for N95 masks are instituted, we could get by with 200-300 million of the things, I guess? For any kind of funding on that scale though, it would take Congressional approval, which itself is difficult given the split legislature and other things.

 

[Kaido]

State ranking as of 2 days ago:

New York, New Jersey are among the states with the highest number of COVID-19 cases

About one-third of the 600,000 COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are in the state of New York; about 10% in New Jersey. Minnesota has the fewest, per capita.

www.usatoday.com

My state just mandated masks in public:

COVID-19 2023 Update – Ending of the Public Health Emergency

With the nationally declared Public Health Emergency ending on May 11, the Connecticut Department of Public Health has announced the State’s COVID-19 recovery plans and next steps. Please visit www.ct.gov/dph for ongoing updates. If you still can't find an answer to your question, please email...

portal.ct.gov

 

[CZroe]

I've heard that the reason that the Spanish Flu was so deadly was that it caused the immune system to overload, and as young people's immune systems are stronger, it killed them.

According to Wikipedia: "Modern analysis has shown the virus to be particularly deadly because it triggers a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system), which ravages the stronger immune system of young adults. [...] The strong immune reactions of young adults were postulated to have ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune reactions of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths among those groups"

Yes. It caused an immune system over-reaction ("cytokine storm") but that is exactly what is happening with ARDS from SARS-CoV-2 (AKA "COVID-19")... and obviously that is disproportionately affecting older people. Obviously, the immune system over-reaction isn't specifically caused by younger/stronger immune systems over-reacting. It's caused by an unusually strong response. Theoretically the unusually strong response could be related to past exposures.

Edit:

Gets mentioned about 6 minutes in.

 

[brianmanahan]

How could a 28 year old be exposed 30 years earlier?

it involves having a car that'll hit 88 mph and a power supply capable of producing 1.21 jiggawatts

 

[K1052]

If decontamination procedures for N95 masks are instituted, we could get by with 200-300 million of the things, I guess? For any kind of funding on that scale though, it would take Congressional approval, which itself is difficult given the split legislature and other things.

I was talking about just surgical masks, not N95s. N95 production does take a lot longer to ramp due to the materials used and the manufacturing process for the masks themselves. Battelle is deploying decontamination units for N95s and other equipment (face shields, etc) using vapor phase hydrogen peroxide. Each system can decon 80K masks a day. I think 5 are in operation and the pentagon paid them to build 60 more. That should substantially alleviate the N95 shortage even if loss is 10% per cycle due to contamination. N95 masks can apparently withstand 20 cycles before degrading.

 

[brianmanahan]

i find it pretty hard to breathe when i put on an n95

 

[K1052]

Cuomo announced statewide antibody testing would commence shortly. They anticipate 1000s then 10s of 1000s daily. Whatever they are using has FDA approval.

 

[TeeJay1952]

I see a future where you can get punched in the nose for wearing mask.
I see a future where you can get punched in the nose for not wearing mask.

 

[Kaido]

This was the news less than a month ago:

US coronavirus death toll crosses 1,000; stimulus plan 'terrible' for NY, Cuomo says

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed over 20,000 people around the world.

abcnews.go.com

 

[DrMrLordX]

I see a future where you can get punched in the nose for wearing mask.
I see a future where you can get punched in the nose for not wearing mask.

Should make Little Mac happy.

 

[ponyo]

Totally not surprised. I mean, who do you think shops at places like Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue and such?

While they might get SOME rich people in their doors, the majority are just middle and upper-middle class people that can't actually afford the shit - they are just dumb folks playing the "Keeping up with the Jones" game to make sure they dress like they have a million bucks when they are really in huge credit card debt.

You do know Neiman Marcus was bought out by LBO firms in 2013 for $6 billion, right? Neiman Marcus stores are normally located in big malls. Guess what? Fewer people, rich or poor are going or shopping at big malls.

LVMH, Gucci, Hermes, etc are still printing money. Hermes is usually only owned by really rich people but plenty of regular people are still buying mid-brands like Louis Vuitton and other lower brands. Downfall of Neiman Marcus has nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with their outdated business model and its parasite hedge fund owners. Companies that do LBO are stupid. Hedge funds don't care about your long term business. They're only in for the short term profits and will destroy your business while sucking and stealing any value it has left while letting it go bankrupt.

 

[CZroe]

I've heard that the reason that the Spanish Flu was so deadly was that it caused the immune system to overload, and as young people's immune systems are stronger, it killed them.

According to Wikipedia: "Modern analysis has shown the virus to be particularly deadly because it triggers a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system), which ravages the stronger immune system of young adults. [...] The strong immune reactions of young adults were postulated to have ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune reactions of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths among those groups"

Here's a video that mentioned this yesterday:

Jump to about 6:00 if the rest doesn't interest you.

 

[Kaido]

Ruh roh:

Coronavirus can survive exposure to high temperatures, study shows

The coronavirus may not be killed by high temperatures, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Aix-Marseille in France were unable to nuke the virus by placing infected African …

nypost.com

The researchers say they tested the impact of heat on the virus in both “clean” laboratory conditions and “dirty” environments.

Both settings saw the virus replicate even when exposed for an hour at the 140-degree temperature, researchers said.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@Kaido

Thought we knew that? It takes something like 225F to really kill the virus consistently. ~195F was lower than I thought. Also:

Researchers, however, noted that most patients have lower viral loads than were tested in the vials, suggesting that lower heat levels could potentially be effective after all to kill the virus.


And preliminary results from a government lab experiment support the theory that warmer weather could slow the spread of the virus, according to a report.


Department of Homeland Security briefing notes that were leaked to Yahoo News, suggested that the virus doesn’t survive long in sunlight, humidity and warmer temperatures.


“Sunlight destroys the virus quickly,” the document said, according to Yahoo News.

 

[CZroe]

@Kaido

Thought we knew that? It takes something like 225F to really kill the virus consistently. ~195F was lower than I thought. Also:

Yes. Summer heat comes with a lot of UV and UV is what really does them in.

 

[jpiniero]

It's not as simple as that - and I myself don't fully understand it - but see this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/16/coronavirus-cares-stimulus-check/



Which is pretty wide open - a lot of people take their payment in the form of gift cards - or they have to pay fees (such as state tax return fees) and they opt to take it out of their total refund to pay the fees from the sounds of it?

Regardless, the above quote is what I'm referring to.

Turns out if you owed as well, the IRS didn't use your DD information automatically.

 

[ultimatebob]

So many companies going bankrupt or are on the verge of bankruptcy:

The running list of 2020 retail bankruptcies

The pandemic ushered in a wave of major bankruptcies — 30 in total — as retailers struggled to pay rent, vendors and other expenses.

www.retaildive.com

Years after $10B deal and 10K jobs ditched, Frontier bankrupt

Control of Frontier would shift to creditors holding unsecured debt which would get...

www.thehour.com

Exclusive: Neiman Marcus to file for bankruptcy as soon as this week - sources

Neiman Marcus Group is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, becoming the first major U.S. department store operator to succumb to the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, people familiar with the matter said.

www.reuters.com

J.C. Penney considering bankruptcy as coronavirus hurts department stores

J.C. Penney is considering a bankruptcy filing as it grapples with the economic fallout from the coronavirus and ongoing challenges.

www.usatoday.com

Frontier was going to go bankrupt long before COVID-19 existed. They spent all their money buying aging infrastructure from Verizon and AT&T, and then didn't bother upgrading it.

In my town, Comcast is now offering Internet access five times faster than Frontier for the same price. No wonder they lost all of their customers.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@ultimatebob

Frontier's customer service/tech support is infamously bad.

 

[ClarkGriswold]

Yes. Summer heat comes with a lot of UV and UV is what really does them in.

Is it expected that the outbreak will die off as the summer months approach? And will we be facing a resurgence in the fall/winter?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't think we get much UV-C from the sun though, that is what kills viruses and bacteria etc. Though I guess UV-A and B might have some effect too. The heat on the other hand may make it live less long on surfaces though. Right now it will last for days if weeks on outdoor surfaces because they are below freezing. In summer when they are at a bit above room temp it will help kill off the virus faster. I always sanitize my outside door handles as thieves trying them every night can potentially spread the virus as they touch every house and car in the neighborhood.

 

[CZroe]

Is it expected that the outbreak will die off as the summer months approach? And will we be facing a resurgence in the fall/winter?

We don't know that there is any seasonality to this but there is for other respiratory viruses including flu and other coronaviruses. I heard that SARS-CoV-2 was shedding 10,000x the viral load of typical respiratory viruses or something like that, so it's possible that UV will not have as much of an effect even with the same half-life under UV just because so many more infectious agents remain. We just have to wait and see and hope while watching the southern hemisphere closely.

 

[CZroe]

I don't think we get much UV-C from the sun though, that is what kills viruses and bacteria etc. Though I guess UV-A and B might have some effect too. The heat on the other hand may make it live less long on surfaces though. Right now it will last for days if weeks on outdoor surfaces because they are below freezing. In summer when they are at a bit above room temp it will help kill off the virus faster. I always sanitize my outside door handles as thieves trying them every night can potentially spread the virus as they touch every house and car in the neighborhood.

UV-C is the most effective at killing them, yes, but UV-A and UV-B still damage DNA/RNA, which is how UV works against viruses. The ozone layer filters most UV-C but UV-A and UV-B cause sunburn, skin cancer, and all the other nasty stuff.

I use a use UV-C lamp for to keep mildew out of my crawlspace and for erasing EPROMs but there is still enough natural UV around that I make sure to cover those EPROM erasure windows on my EPROMs containing precious unreleased NES games like NTSC Turrican and Elite. Bit-rot is real and these very well may be the only copies of those games in existence (well, there are other known builds of NTSC NES Turrican).

...just don't expose yourself to them or use them for party lighting:

Partygoers left with burns and light sensitivity after Hypebeast event at The Landmark - Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Several partygoers who attended an event at The Landmark in Central last Friday have been left with “sunburn” and light sensitivity in their eyes after apparently being exposed to ultraviolet light. The venue is currently being used as a pop-up location for the work of Japanese artist Hajime...

www.google.com

 

[ultimatebob]

State ranking as of 2 days ago:

New York, New Jersey are among the states with the highest number of COVID-19 cases

About one-third of the 600,000 COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are in the state of New York; about 10% in New Jersey. Minnesota has the fewest, per capita.

www.usatoday.com

My state just mandated masks in public:

COVID-19 2023 Update – Ending of the Public Health Emergency

With the nationally declared Public Health Emergency ending on May 11, the Connecticut Department of Public Health has announced the State’s COVID-19 recovery plans and next steps. Please visit www.ct.gov/dph for ongoing updates. If you still can't find an answer to your question, please email...

portal.ct.gov

I'm kind of curious what the pushback on the mask ruling is going to be. About 45 days ago, the Surgeon General of the US was telling us that masks were useless against the spread of COVID-19, and now they're suddenly mandatory?

Useful or not, the 180 on this policy is bad optics. The conspiracy theorists are going to eat this up as well.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I'm kind of curious what the pushback on the mask ruling is going to be. About 45 days ago, the Surgeon General of the US was telling us that masks were useless against the spread of COVID-19, and now they're suddenly mandatory?

Useful or not, the 180 on this policy is bad optics. The conspiracy theorists are going to eat this up as well.

You may have noticed that they were trying to keep a limited supply available to healthcare workers. Also, the Surgeon General is not responsible for the mask mandates in NY or NJ.