Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #74

[COSCitizen]

Facebook extends coronavirus work from home policy until July 2021

Facebook has joined Google in saying it will allow employees to work from home until the middle of next year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021,” a spokeswoman said.

Facebook also said it will provide employees with an additional $1,000 to spend on “home office needs.”

Late last month Google also extended its coronavirus remote work provision, saying staff would be able to continue working from home until the end of June 2021.

I was speaking this morning to someone who has a relative who works for one of these companies. She pointed out that these long extensions give the employees the ability to make decision like signing a year-long lease, thus minimizing some of the stress that the employees are under during this high-stress time for all of us.

 

[BeachSky]

@10ofRods I wonder if Sturgis will be more likely to be a "super spreader" event because people who are more likely to travel to Sturgis this year, will also be the same "type" of people who would not wear masks.

Right and the 250,000 go back to all their home towns and spread, spread, spread. Insane IMO

 

[CSIDreamer]

I'm really not happy about this suspension or the threatened suspensions of all students who take pictures of their schools. Shameful.



Unfortunately, it seems like now we have high rates of both. And one reason some parents already homeschool is due to their depression and anxiety, often with a claim of bullying.

There's been no spike of kid suicides during the pandemic (under 18's) but I suspect we'll see that the combination of school openings and CoVid is not going to solve the problem - and may make it worse.

CDC isn't a group of psychiatric specialists, they are basing their viewpoint on very few facts and I'm surprised they haven't noticed that the suicides happen more during the school year than during the summer (there's some research on that - more than one variable).

If the CDC doesn't know what they're talking about we're screwed.

ETA I just realized why the CDC isn't getting direct reports any longer regarding Covid numbers. I'm glad you pointed that out.

As an aside, my own county health department put out an SOS not long ago regarding overdoses. Encouraging people to use an app, get CPR certified, and carry Narcan.

Jmo

 

[MajorHoople]

Coronavirus in Tennessee: Knox County reports 50% drop in hospitalizations

The number of Knox County COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized has dropped by over 50%, according to the latest data from the Knox County Health Department.

The Knox County Health Department reported no new deaths and 129 new cases, a 2.95% increase in the total case count. Health officials reported 111 additional recoveries on Friday.

Current hospitalizations dropped 51.5%. There are 16 Knox County patients currently hospitalized, down from 33 on Thursday.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

What a huge improvement!

Yes, nice to have done encouraging news for once!

I’ve often thought it would be a better indication of progress to publish hospital admission rates / ICU numbers instead of just case counts and deaths.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

I was reading an article about essential workers (at the grocery store) and how nasty customers can be when asked to wear a mask. A grocery worker said something to a customer like you will be preventing someone else from getting the virus if you wear the mask, and the customer said he didn't care about anybody else. That statement led me to believe that the strategy to get people to mask up has been all wrong: Let's face it, humans are self centered: some more, some less: but the most important thing to a person is him or herself. So, I think the strategy should have been that the mask prevents the virus for the person who wears the mask as well as the other person: but that is not what the message has been. the message was clear: the mask is to prevent the other person from getting the virus if you wear a mask. Recently public health workers have concluded that the mask does provide protection for the person who wears it as well. I wish these epidemiologists would change their message to indicate that the mask protects the person who wears it. The other day on MSNBC epidemiologists again said we should wear masks to protect others and didn't even mention that it can protect the person who wears it. That is the wrong message.

I get where you are coming from, but it's like the question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg.

From my viewpoint, those that say they don't care about giving others is more based upon they don't think they will get it themselves, and this comment is an offshoot of such.

MOO

 

[SA55]

Coronavirus in Tennessee: Knox County reports 50% drop in hospitalizations

The number of Knox County COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized has dropped by over 50%, according to the latest data from the Knox County Health Department.

The Knox County Health Department reported no new deaths and 129 new cases, a 2.95% increase in the total case count. Health officials reported 111 additional recoveries on Friday.

Current hospitalizations dropped 51.5%. There are 16 Knox County patients currently hospitalized, down from 33 on Thursday.

Great to hear - must be a relief.

Just a little to your east, the TriCities isn't doing as well.

Chief Infection Prevention Officer for Ballad Health, Jamie Swift, broke down the number of active COVID-19 cases at Ballad Health facilities as of August 5.

· 94 COVID-19 patients in Ballad facilities

· 22 patients in ICU

· 14 people on ventilators

· 55 PUI’s or “people under investigation” (Swift said this is a group of people that have been admitted and have symptoms of COVID-19 but are awaiting test results.)

Ballad Health: Hospitalizations continue to rise, 55 ‘people under investigation’ awaiting COVID-19 test results | WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather

 

[ilovewings]

Right and the 250,000 go back to all their home towns and spread, spread, spread. Insane IMO

Gives new meaning to "giving" to others!!!!

 

[ilovewings]

Yep. We've been watching their Sturgis cam for days (I've been in the region several times when the rally was going on - we'll see fatal accidents AND no mask wearing - as they don't wear helmets either).

Daytime looks relatively safe, although it's crowded. But tonight, the many, many bars and restaurants will be packed and that's where the transmission will occur. Average age looks to be about 60. Oddly, the only mask wearers we've seen are 2 people who look to be in their 30's.

They don't wear helmets????? that is just plain stupid

 

[ilovewings]

I guess you are right - and I'm very lucky to have been raised by an extended family where caring about others was extremely important. The self was not the focus. Then, I've been mostly involved with education, medicine and law. The composure and selflessness of jail employees has impressed me - I guess they must go home and be selfish??

If my dad had cared only about himself, he wouldn't have received his military decorations for saving others. That's just not how he rolled. In fact, as an adopted kid, I'm very grateful for all the people who did care about me and other abandoned kids. There are tons of people who do not care only about themselves.

I don't think people actually practice the rational self-interest to indicate they "care about themselves." People have been warned about everything from obesity to drug use and they don't listen.

The people in question think CoVid is no big deal and they know masks protect the wearer - they just don't think they can get it, or if they do, it will be mild. And many of them are right.

So they don't care if they give it to their parents or grandparents?

 

[tresir2012]

Yes, it's realistic. You can follow along at Coronavirus Update (Live): 19,358,362 Cases and 719,561 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer

Or the New York Times, which has the 14 day average.

You questioned these estimates before, but looking at the real figures shows more than 1166. None of us can predict the future, but yes, it's realistic.

Yesterday, we lost 1203 Americans (that we know of, a couple of states are having trouble updating their numbers).

Two days ago, it was 1319. For days, recently, it was around 1500.

The only time it drops below 1200 of late, is on Sundays.

I'd go by the CDC figures posted on Worldometer, not what the BBC's interpretation is. We are over 1000 deaths daily for more than 2 weeks, there's no sign we're changing our behavior. In fact, we're opening up schools (maskless in some places) and teachers are going home sick, one has died (at least) since yesterday.

Look for our deaths to hover around 1200-1300 for quite some time. Hopefully, the news will scare a few more people into wearing masks or staying home aside from work and essential shopping.

We have a lot of people out vacationing and driving all over the nation, as well. I don't see the numbers coming down by much - sure do hope I'm wrong. But 1166 deaths a day?

YES, it's realistic.

Estimates are there to be questioned IMO. Here's a US link if the BBC is not liked. (I thought all MSM were allowed on WS.)

A Second Coronavirus Death Surge Is Coming

The deaths began in mid March and it is now nearly mid August so that's 5 months or 150 days so I can see the past averages would be more than a 1000 but cannot believe that the US has not learnt better treatment methods and will not improve for the next 3 months. Do you think this over 1,000 daily deaths is really going to continue for 3 months?

 

[Sillybilly]

Folks, please remember the 10% copyright rule. It's not just WS being fussy, it is copyright law.

Copy the most salient point within the 10% limit, and you can paraphrase other points if you wish.

 

[tresir2012]

Both Vegas and Sturgis have similar views: it won't affect our hospitalization numbers because by the time people are really sick, they'll be gone.

And so that's how it rolls. Vast numbers of people gather (outdoors during the day, heavily packed into bars at night; in Vegas they're packed into casinos all day). Vegas is worse than Sturgis, of course. There was backlash against local media in Vegas for even mentioning this:

Vegas casino union reports 22 deaths of workers, relatives

but if you contact the union directly, you'll learn the death toll is higher.

Otherwise, the people getting CoVid in Vegas are mostly going home with it. This is a case of what happens in Vegas not staying in Vegas. Kern County knows this, but is doing little to keep its vast number of weekend gamblers/partiers away from Vegas.

TBF, some casinos are requiring masks...meanwhile, Nevada's numbers were exponential, have plateaued at a much higher rate than before reopening, of course:

Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

Nevada only has 3 million people...729 new cases yesterday, 10 deaths. That's like California having 10,500 new cases - so not good. Scary for Nevada, for sure.

That's like UK having 14,000 new cases in one day (and 200 deaths).

The Sturgis riders come from all over, but mostly from northern states, almost none of which have quarantines when the riders come back - as if those riders would quarantine anyway. They'll leave Sturgis and we will see an uptick within the interstates' main cities as they head back home. We'll probably never learn the extent to which Sturgis spread CoVid (but they're now reporting cancellations in both motels and campgrounds and have revised their estimate of visitors downward by about 50%).

Our figures in the UK climbed to our peak week May 1st when we had 7,900 deaths (previous week to that was about 5,000) but then it immediately began to fall as the next week was 3,730 deaths and continued downwards. This is why a sustained long period of high death numbers is hard to imagine for me as we did not experience it here.

 

[Tillicum]

DeWine live presser about to begin. I'm anxious to hear his remarks about yesterday's test fiasco.

Coronavirus in Ohio Friday update: 1,204 new cases, 34 additional deaths reported | NBC4 WCMH-TV

 

[tresir2012]

So they don't care if they give it to their parents or grandparents?

Most of them look over 60 themselves so probably don't have any parents or grandparents - they are the grandparents.

 

[10ofRods]

So they don't care if they give it to their parents or grandparents?

No, they don't care. And some of them are parents themselves. Or even grandparents (especially in Sturgis). I do understand that people get old enough to be thinking "I've lived my life, I am fine if I go any time" (although I sure wasn't there when this pandemic started).

But younger people who do not care are rampant and they were there before CoVid. They hate "boomers," they lump everyone in a particular age group (now down to around 50 - they're "boomers" now too), and are reckless in other ways as well. Older students mention that they are frequently bumped by walkers and skaters, they think it's their age (I think so too, that's why I walk on the grass away from the crowds where possible - my shoulders get bruised from the bumping and total lack of concern about other people's bodies being struck by heavy backpacks). This bumping never happens to me in Europe, which is one reason it has been such a delight to go (I guess we should have repaired the house instead, as now we're stuck here).

The big jump in house parties is just one way in which the young keep CV going. Hopefully we'll have a vaccine (and they'll take it) before they get old enough to have more serious consequences for themselves:

Los Angeles Mayor Says City May Shut Off Water, Power At Houses Hosting Large Parties

Everyone in my neighborhood is wearing masks when nearing someone on the sidewalk - except the under 30 crowd. And naturally, it's we older people who have to step into the street to avoid them. I do understand they need to be out of the parental home in order to have certain cell conversations - they occupy all the picnic tables in the only open park.

I was home as little as possible when I was a teenager, too, so I get it. I hope their immunity lasts (I think it's likely they'll have an easier course if they get CoVid twice). Sure wouldn't want to be a high school teacher right now.

 

[10ofRods]

They don't wear helmets????? that is just plain stupid

I don't think they have a helmet law in South Dakota, Harley Davidson is a big deal in SD.

Interestingly, the nearby Cherokee River Reservation isn't letting people cross their land in the direction of Sturgis.

Some bikers are wearing helmets out on the open highway, can see the pictures of them coming into town. But most of the ones in town aren't.

 

[CSIDreamer]

Yes, nice to have done encouraging news for once!

I’ve often thought it would be a better indication of progress to publish hospital admission rates / ICU numbers instead of just case counts and deaths.

I completely agree. I'm here in Indiana just watching our positive numbers continue blasting. But deaths, ICU numbers, and ventilators are staying low. Jmo

 

[24Roses]

Iowa news today: As of 10:30-11:00 a.m. today, we had 591 new confirmed cases for a total of 47,728 confirmed cases of which 36,257 have recovered (+782 IMO). 6 more have passed away for a total of 912. 591 COVID-19 cases, 6 deaths reported in Iowa Friday
Iowa COVID-19 Information
More Iowa parents consider home schooling over in-person, online learning
Waterloo medical center to participate in study of possible COVID-19 treatment

 

[10ofRods]

Estimates are there to be questioned IMO. Here's a US link if the BBC is not liked. (I thought all MSM were allowed on WS.)

A Second Coronavirus Death Surge Is Coming

The deaths began in mid March and it is now nearly mid August so that's 5 months or 150 days so I can see the past averages would be more than a 1000 but cannot believe that the US has not learnt better treatment methods and will not improve for the next 3 months. Do you think this over 1,000 daily deaths is really going to continue for 3 months?

<modsnip>

But the facts are the facts. The US is averaging more than 1000 deaths daily and has been for the past month.

If we go back to average around 1500 (which we probably will if you look at the way the data are running in the states that are newly linear in their increases as opposed to the states that have curtailed CoVid), it's entirely possible we'll average 1200 or even 1400-1500 deaths per day for the next few weeks, making it easy to hit the number you mentioned.

<modsnip>