I’ve been trying to keep my chin up during this COVID-19 crisis, but it gets harder and harder as the news gets grimmer, both in terms of the disease itself and what it’s doing to the economy. I know most people survive the virus, although fewer in my age group do. And since I live alone, I have nobody to help out if I do get very ill. There seems no plan in place on the national or international level, and the slow and uncertain response isn’t helping bolster my mood.
I tried to think of some good news from this, but all I’ve got is it doesn’t seem to affect children, and it may dampen the stupid anti-vaxx movement. Oh, and most adults who aren’t obese and who don’t have chronic health issues probably won’t get a bad case of it if they do catch the disease.
Some people can get tested since they have influence rather than symptoms. The fact that, say, Tom Hanks, NBA players ready to play, Justin Trudeau’s wife, the Brazilian PM, Idris Elba (?), etc. are positive but asymptomatic could mean mortality rates are much lower than reported. Fingers crossed.
Perhaps as a result, research will be done leading to new breakthroughs and better medicines. Perhaps more surge capacity will be built into emergency and critical care.
The return of expertise to decisions of all types is welcome.
When you see the large stocks of toilet paper on offer next week at your grocer, you will smile. Most of it will be there for several weeks.
I’ve been worrying about an increasing move away from scientific belief. I don’t know if this will reverse that trend or not, but if it does it might bring about unaccountable deliverance from a future existential crisis we’ll never know about.
The usual hellish commute in Silicon Valley was a breeze today. But I’ll only get to enjoy it for this one day, because my firm just announced that it’s closing for three weeks.
I heard there was a glut of lobsters on the market, because American and Canadian companies weren’t able to ship to China for their New Years feasting. So live lobsters may be cheap, if you can find a seller open for business.
I heard the same thing about oysters (live and processed). The combo trade war and now this means the harvest is stacked-up at the ports with no where to go. They’ll only keep for so long.
Well, the first and third points are cheering. That second one, though, is a bit of an issue. My niece’s school district is encouraging teachers to teach online, and one issue is that some kids don’t have access to wi-fi at home. Yes, there are kids too poor s to have wi-fi. It’s not that many, but it’s some. And libraries are closing, so that avenue is gone.
Try r/COVID19. Most of the discussion is refreshingly science-based and non-panicky, and there’s a fair amount of promising news about treatment options.
Yeah I hear that. I guess what I was thinking is that during this event, districts are trying to work with providers like Verizon to get internet into homes lacking it ASAP at no cost, and then work our a deal for people to keep it afterward at low cost/ One would think these companies would jump on the chance to get more customers. Same for hardware like laptops and tablets. But it may take some time yet to get these things in place at the individual level, and at scale.
Trump and Pence have always been inept. Do you expect that to make any difference to his base? It will be interesting if, as I expect, it turns out that blue states have far fewer deaths than the red ones. Because Republicans are still into denial and reject science and reject experts. But even if that happens, they will call it fake news since they have their own facts.
