Coronavirus COVID-19 *Global Health Emergency* #17

[Betty P]

Amazon changes warehouse worker policy for March

Amazon has told its warehouse employees that they can take sick days in March without counting toward their unpaid time off.

The change comes as labor experts have warned that hourly workers and those without sick leave could be at higher risk of both catching the coronavirus and suffering severe financial repercussions as a result.

Coronavirus updates live: World markets tumble as anxiety grows in D.C.

Not worried about the US economy. The interruption of the supply chain from China will bring jobs back to the US. Corporate profits have been at record highs for the last decade or longer. Higher wages in the working class will bring greater consumer demand, as workers have money to spend on buying a newer car, furniture, etc. U.S. consumer spending is 70% of our economy, so anything that stimulates it (jobs coming back from the China, etc. is good. Lower oil prices are always good, helping keep inflation down. The only folks getting "spooked" by these developments are the very wealthy investors. JMO

The difficulty is in keeping things going during an extended period of time as we wait for a vaccine and better containment of disease. The investments in health care infrastructure our government makes in this effort has long term benefits.

 

[Henry2326]

several California school districts have canceled classes today, including the biggest in Northern California, because of coronavirus. Stanford has moved online Expect more California schools to close amid coronavirus spread, Newsom says

 

[Henry2326]

In @CNN - why nursing homes are Ground Zero for #COVID19 in US. Restrict family visits immediately. No ill workers – & no pay loss for ill workers. What each of us, health facilities, government can do to prepare for & limit damage from the gathering storm Coronavirus analysis: It's time to restrict visits to nursing homes - CNN

 

[Henry2326]

East Coast schools now also cancelling class / going online. A faculty at Columbia even tested positive for #COVID19. Columbia Cancels Classes and Princeton Puts Lectures Online in Coronavirus Response

Eric Feigl-Ding on Twitter

 

[Henry2326]

Cruise ship stocks are getting hammered.
Royal Caribbean fell as much as 19% on Monday Cruise Companies Plunge After U.S. Says Avoid Ships on Virus

 

[Henry2326]

#US White House advisers to give President Trump policy options for coronavirus response, including paid sick leave
https://t.co/W1LIFplCxk COVID19 on Twitter

 

[Henry2326]

#Ireland
Dublin’s St. Patricks Day parade has been canceled, joining those in Cork and other cities, Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, has reported. -@washingtonpost

COVID19 on Twitter

 

[JerseyGirl]

Trump to discuss possible coronavirus economic stimulus options today

President Trump will sit down today with aides who will present possible economic stimulus options in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. He returns to the White House this afternoon.

Coronavirus live updates: Cases increase across the world - CNN

 

[JerseyGirl]

Another cruise ship held off the Florida coast for coronavirus concerns

The Caribbean Princess has received a temporary “no sail” order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the agency learned that two crew members transferred from another ship that previously had at least one guest test positive for coronavirus.

One crew member transferred more than two weeks ago and the second crew member transferred more than 10 days ago. Both crew members are showing no symptoms and are remaining in their single-occupancy staterooms.

The Caribbean Princess departed Port Everglades on a 10-day Panama Canal, Costa Rica and Caribbean voyage on March 1 and is currently scheduled to end on March 11.

Now, the Caribbean Princess will make a brief stop at Grand Cayman for test kits and then set sail for Florida. The ship is expected to remain anchored off the coast of Florida until the "no sail" order is lifted by the CDC.

This is the second ship to be held off the coast of Florida. The Regal Princess was held under similar circumstances on Sunday. Two crew members on that ship were tested for coronavirus and after the tests came back negative, the ship was allowed to dock and passengers were allowed to disembark.

Coronavirus live updates: Cases increase across the world - CNN

 

[SAMS]

Eyeroll!!!!

Sometimes I swear we are in the twilight zone. MOO

 

[JerseyGirl]

New York court bars certain visitors

The Southern District of New York is banning visitors who have recently traveled to specific countries from the courthouse.

The ban applies to....

• People who have visited to China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran in the last 14 days
• Others who have had contact in the past two weeks with those who have traveled to those areas
• Anyone who has been asked to self-quarantine
• Anyone diagnosed with COVID-19

There is no expiration for the order.

Anyone attempting to enter in violation of the order will be denied entry by a court security officer.

Coronavirus live updates: Cases increase across the world - CNN

 

[Herat]

Not worried about the US economy.

The interruption of the supply chain from China will bring jobs back to the US. (BBM)

Corporate profits have been at record highs for the last decade or longer. Higher wages in the working class will bring greater consumer demand, as workers have money to spend on buying a newer car, furniture, etc. U.S. consumer spending is 70% of our economy, so anything that stimulates it (jobs coming back from the China, etc. is good. Lower oil prices are always good, helping keep inflation down. The only folks getting "spooked" by these developments are the very wealthy investors.

I don't see the supply chain interruption having a significant improvement in US jobs.

The US is just not tooled up in manufacturing enough in the critical areas: medications / drugs, low-cost goods, textiles, small goods. And we have very high labor costs, part of which is due to employer-paid healthcare.

Korea has subtantially replaced China for electronics. India is tooled up and a secondary source of medication / drug manufacturing. Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka are also still available

It's all about the labor costs and the US just cannot match the alternatives to China.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Trump compares coronavirus to flu

President Donald Trump on Monday morning continued to downplay concern around the outbreak of the new coronavirus in the U.S.

In a tweet, Trump compared coronavirus outbreak numbers to annual flu deaths. Health experts have warned such comparisons can be problematic because the flu is reasonably predictable while much is still unknown about the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes.

Scientists are still working to get a more complete picture of the virus including its mortality rate.

Just before Trump's tweet, health secretary Alex Azar said "nobody is trying to minimize" the threat of the new coronavirus.


✔@realDonaldTrump
So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!
10:47 AM - Mar 9, 2020

Coronavirus updates live: World markets tumble as anxiety grows in D.C.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Futures in US are down about 5% on major indices, but look at the energy futures.... CRASHING
OXYOccidental Petroleum... 19.16 -28.67%
MROMarathon Oil Corp 5.00 -26.79%
DVNDevon Energy Corp 9.97 -25.43%
PXDPioneer Natural Reso... 81.58 -22.39%
COPConocoPhillips 36.73 -18.97%

Yep, crashing for energy stocks due to Russia and Saudi Arabia fight/war on oil prices that started yesterday. This thread for the viral outbreak has so many touches for many.

OXYOccidental Petroleum... -40.22%
MROMarathon Oil Corp -38.36%
APAApache Corp -35.17%
CXOConcho Resources Inc... -32.74%
DVNDevon Energy Corp -31.64%

 

[ilovewings]

I hope you and your husband stay well as you continue to enjoy the Florida sun. DH and I are always happy to escape Michigan winter for a week or two (usually on a cruise). Fortunately, we sailed in late January before COVID-19 surged.

Glad that you were able to enjoy a cruise before the poop hit the fan!!!

 

[dixiegirl1035]

WHO presser is streaming, not yet started.

ETA: The feed has been hijacked for a moment and is doing a presser in US by Azar... Hopefully will be back. It was Azar for 30 seconds who was upset and left... huh???? now this live feed is "live coverage will resume shortly" All other feeds have not yet gone live, and this one back to a frozen pic....

OK, we are back on the media room for the WHO presser.. that was strange

 

[Tadpole12]

I agree with the second tweet, I think we should be cautious until we know more. We don't really know why so few children turned up in the massive study done in China, all we know is that of the few children who did turn up in it, there were low rates of death and more severe illness.

But what if there are some behavioural things behind the smaller number of infected children in the study? What if the number of babies and toddlers was low because people often keep young babies indoors and away from sick adults when they're babies?

What if there are lower rates in children because China acted fast to close the schools and there are far more one-child families in China?

Good point wrt one-child families and number of social contacts.

 

[galiuro1]

After days of advocating the federal gov't to expand #Coronavirus testing capacity, we just received word that Northwell Laboratories has been authorized to test.
Manual testing of 75-80 samples/day will begin at Northwell immediately. Andrew Cuomo on Twitter

Andrew Cuomo on Twitter

75-80 just seems like such a drop in the bucket...while I applaud this, I still cannot get my mind around how...slow this testing thing is going. As I understand it, no way you can get containment if you can't do contact tracing, no contact tracing without testing...yet here our leaders are, telling us everything is perfect and beautiful...what a line of hot air, you are expending what little trust I had in my govt. and no, I'm not talking about the scientists and doctors

 

[FrostOwl]

Perhaps he covers this in his video, but I want to pipe in to remind everyone that sunshine is a good source of Vitamin D. If you can spend a bit of time outdoors and get some sun on your skin safely, it's good....and it's good for mental health to spend time outdoors too - the outdoors can lift spirits, which in turns, gives us energy to do what we need to do to stay healthy.

(Yes, I am aware that not everyone in every location can spend time in the sun, even for a few minutes. I am assuming people here know their own safety limits.)
jmo

It's good to be able to be out in the sunshine, but not all live in places where there are enough of sunshine during the winter. In Sweden it's only between April/May to August/September that the sunshine is strong enough to be a source for vitamin D.

To add to that, during the winter of 2019/2020 (that wasn't a winter where I live), we had only 19 hours! of sunshine in November, 34 hours in December, and 39 hours in January. February was better with 92 hours, Februari 2020 - Fortsatt mycket milt i söder | SMHI , but still, today it's gray and misty outside, and I live in a city that usually is on the top of the sunshine league in Sweden.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Cruise ship stocks are getting hammered.
Royal Caribbean fell as much as 19% on Monday Cruise Companies Plunge After U.S. Says Avoid Ships on Virus

This has been going on for a couple of weeks. We have Carnival Corporation stock, and DH monitors it daily.