Coronavirus General Discussion

[Libertarian666]

In local sporting news, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has announced that the Indy 500 will take place on August 23rd with the stands at 50% capacity.

Tickets are all being reissued. Ticket holders with more than 2 tickets are being guaranteed 50% of their originally allocated seats. They can choose to request more than 50% with some or all possibly being moved to a nearby location, or they can skip this year's race and apply some or all of their tickets as credits for tickets to next year's race.

The 2016 race was attended by 350,000 fans, so 50% would be 175,000 but nobody expects the number to be quite that high (2016 was a special year, the 100th running). Still could be over 100,000 since the grandstands normally seat 235,000. Depends on how many people still want to attend.

I'm still not sure it's really going to happen.

My wife Susan and I have come up with a plan to replace at least some of the missing sports events.
How about having a league in which all the blue cities compete to see which one can have the highest total of carnage every weekend?
Among other statistics, they could have total injuries (hits) and deaths (runs).
Imagine a competition between the Chicago Shooters and the Minneapolis Looters!

[Tortoise]

My wife Susan and I have come up with a plan to replace at least some of the missing sports events.
How about having a league in which all the blue cities compete to see which one can have the highest total of carnage every weekend?
Among other statistics, they could have total injuries (hits) and deaths (runs).
Imagine a competition between the Chicago Shooters and the Minneapolis Looters!

Not bad! Reminds me of the big fight scene from The Gangs of New York where all the Irish gangs are calling out their names before the brawl.

[Libertarian666]

My wife Susan and I have come up with a plan to replace at least some of the missing sports events.
How about having a league in which all the blue cities compete to see which one can have the highest total of carnage every weekend?
Among other statistics, they could have total injuries (hits) and deaths (runs).
Imagine a competition between the Chicago Shooters and the Minneapolis Looters!

Not bad! Reminds me of the big fight scene from The Gangs of New York where all the Irish gangs are calling out their names before the brawl.

The whole league could be secretly sponsored by the FBI, then in a surprise season ending they could all be locked up!

[boglerdude]

Hospitals don't like empty beds. They like money, and you don't get that from having empty beds. They always try to operate as close to full capacity as possible - mine is almost always above 95%, and if it drops lower we start getting nastygrams about how we have become too lazy and need to find reasons to admit people.

So...fraud?

[dualstow]

I find it amusing that people keep lamenting that mask-wearing has "become so politicized".

How can it be otherwise? There is no hard science with which to prove or disprove that mask-wearing makes a difference in slowing down the spread of Cooties-19. It's basically all guesswork, hunches, speculation, and anecdotal observations.

In the absence of hard science, we have no choice but to fall back on things like personal risk assessment, our level of trust (or lack thereof) in government officials and the media, and the importance of freedom -- things that are clearly shaped by our political views.

I think that’s a fair assessment and yet I’m still lamenting.

[WiseOne]

The Texas Lt. Gov was on Fox last night and he said the increase in ICU usage was mostly due to the number of people who had delayed going to the hospital due to Covid fears and were now coming in with dire emergencies. I think the number he quoted was about only 20% due to Covid. In addition to the media looking for any way they can to shut things back down he also had some choice words for Dr. Fauci, basically telling him to mind his own business and leave Texas alone.

On the home front, my daughter in Colorado called me last night and told me that both she and my son, ages 43 and 45 had both gotten Covid. Neither got tested but based on the symptoms they were describing, along with the fact another family member had tested positive and exposed others, it sure sounded like Covid to me. Neither had a fever but both described searing pain in their lungs. Fortunately they got over it quickly in only two days. When I told them they were supposed to quarantine for 14 days and inform anyone they had contact with, it was like they had never heard that before. My son actually planned on going back to work the next day.

Thanks for the report! I'm glad your children are doing better. I'm amazed that despite all the attention paid to lockdowns, the messages about what to do if you're sick or exposed have been super confusing.

The media are lamenting the fact that most of the people getting COVID in the currently-surging states are in the young/not vulnerable group. i.e. what happens every year when the flu goes around. As a result I would expect that the % confirmed cases needing ICU care would be a lot lower than it was here in NY, where nursing homes were hit hard (thanks to the governor's order making them take in COVID cases). So that makes sense - plus, Texas has not cancelled elective procedures, so they can easily create more capacity.

The one big worry is that if Texas and California nursing homes haven't been hit yet, all this may change in a hurry. Instead of wasting effort trying to prevent kids from going to the beach maybe they should be protecting nursing homes. I'd do things like minimize staff contact with patients and require full PPE (and training in how to use it), daily health screening, and regular COVID tests for staff who interact with patients. And recommend that vulnerable people stay home.

Youtube interview with someone I agree with....hint, it's not the news reporter. It's the former UK Supreme Court justice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFBTrr5VFcM

[Smith1776]

You guys ready for Round 2??

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/feds-bu ... Ej6Q30UtrM

fed.jpg (125.43 KiB) Viewed 8470 times

[dualstow]

Totally ready.

[Libertarian666]

You guys ready for Round 2??

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/feds-bu ... Ej6Q30UtrM

fed.jpg

Yep.

[Mark Leavy]

You guys ready for Round 2??

It's crazy how ready this forum is. I don't think you could find a calmer group during this turmoil.

[Hal]

You guys ready for Round 2??

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/feds-bu ... Ej6Q30UtrM

fed.jpg

Yep.

I prefer this round 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA1-1DlhuXU

[Smith1776]

I prefer this round 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA1-1DlhuXU

I watched this in college (the first time) and it's honestly how I really fell in love with economics. It suddenly wasn't just some dry topic, it became a FIGHT.

In other economic news related to the crisis, there's a mini-documentary of sorts created by CNBC called America in Crisis: Economic Turning Point.

https://youtu.be/UE___HSRv3E

All kinds of different facets covered and quite interesting.

[Hal]

I watched this in college (the first time) and it's honestly how I really fell in love with economics. It suddenly wasn't just some dry topic, it became a FIGHT.

In other economic news related to the crisis, there's a mini-documentary of sorts created by CNBC called America in Crisis: Economic Turning Point.

https://youtu.be/UE___HSRv3E

All kinds of different facets covered and quite interesting.

Thanks Smith, will check it out.

Friend of mine who is right into history liked that clip so much he actually studied the Roman economic system and its eventual failure.
Here are some links to a group he belonged to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80jYxWD19S8
https://timeline.org.au/?page_id=3040

and yes.... he did make himself a Roman suit of armour

Edit: He recommended this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a95Y0na7Toc

[Kriegsspiel]

You guys ready for Round 2??

I walked in, the band just started
the crowd began yelling, "Keep a 6 foot bubble!"
Was on a mission to drink martinis but
all of the bars were quarantining

But after one round with Ole Corona
I caught myself throwing rocks through glass
And after two rounds with Ole Corona
To get through smoking rubble you needed a mask

[pp4me]

They said it was just a virus but it was much more than that.

It came to light the flames of mortal combat.

We thought the good times would go on forever.

But the goddamn virus was very clever.

Keep us all inside, shut us up tight.

Until there was nothing left for us to do but fight.

[WiseOne]

Nice poetry guys!

Ready here too. It's amazing what those unpopular slices of gold and cash do for peace of mind.

[Tortoise]

More evidence that “many people with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 demonstrate so-called T-cell-mediated immunity to the new coronavirus, even if they have not tested positively for antibodies”:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06- ... shown.html

[Hal]

More Mises

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwqnRYPcrl0

[Kriegsspiel]

Nice poetry guys!

I can't even tell if you're fucking with me.

[Mark Leavy]

Nice poetry guys!

I can't even tell if you're fucking with me.

I read it as a legitimate compliment.
Plus one.

Mark

[shekels]

Just got back from Florida, with parts of Fla and Tx requiring masks now.

This is why I seem to be getting hypoxia while wearing a mask.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QuHoMp2D8

[pp4me]

The news is reporting a new record number of cases in Florida nearly every day now so I found this graph on COVID deaths in Florida during the month of June quite interesting.

Bet you don't see any headlines about how the number of deaths is decreasing. I suppose it could be that more deaths will be retroactively reported but based on this there is a significant decline. This would correspond with the news from other places that the virus is getting more contagious but weakening. Or maybe they just have better treatment for severe cases now.

[vnatale]

Just got back from Florida, with parts of Fla and Tx requiring masks now.

This is why I seem to be getting hypoxia while wearing a mask.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QuHoMp2D8

That was a great video. I play pickleball with a bunch of 65-80 year olds. Some of these idiots are wearing masks outside on a hot, humid day (today was 92 degrees and very humid). Please stay home if you are that paranoid. One of these oldsters is going to code in the middle of a game.

65-80 year olds!!!!!

I've told you we do have a pickleball court a short ways from one of our softball fields. But I don't think I've once seen anyone use it while we were playing a game, which I assume would also be prime time to play picketball? 6 PM to 8 PM.

Vinny

[Smith1776]

Perfect face mask for this crowd!

https://news.yahoo.com/indian-man-wears ... 17710.html

[WiseOne]

Fascinating. I'm not sure how valid those O2 tests are under the mask, but it sure matches my experience. I get seriously out of breath when I'm walking uphill or fast while wearing a mask - and I'm just fine without the mask. I suspect that it's not so much the oxygen. The air you exhale has very close to the same oxygen content as the air you inhale (look it up, this has been studied - edited to add quote below). But, you're inhaling a lot more carbon dioxide than you would without the mask. And even small increases in blood CO2 can have a profound effect.

From wikipedia:

Inhaled air is by volume 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen and small amounts of other gasses including argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, and hydrogen.[15]

The gas exhaled is 4% to 5% by volume of carbon dioxide, about a 100 fold increase over the inhaled amount. The volume of oxygen is reduced by a small amount, 4% to 5%, compared to the oxygen inhaled.

Typically masks are worn by people who are very ill (e.g. patients in the midst of cancer treatments) or medical professionals on duty. Neither of these are doing anything more strenuous than standing or walking short distances while wearing the mask. The orders to wear a mask in public amount to an involuntary and unethical experiment, and I would not be surprised if some susceptible people suffer real injury (e.g. heart attacks) as a result.