Masks only work for the people who are sick, to prevent it from spreading.
Here’s a further update (from today) on vaccines in development, including some timeline information:
The WHO page it references doesn’t add much.
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Once Covid hits the immigration prisons, there will be a massive disaster.
Since I hear it all the time these days, what exactly is a “large” gathering that I should be avoiding? Is it approximately thirty people at my local game store? Going to the grocery store during peak hours? Any trip to a shopping mall?
Here you go:
I suggest you don’t think about it in binary terms: ok - not okay. The larger the gathering the worse it is. Ideally, you would be alone isolated from everyone else, but that isn’t practical. The smaller the group the better. As the group size grows, the worse it is.
Harvard University, now, too. They don’t want students coming back to Cambridge so they can “de-densify” the area. They’re supposed to attend on-line classes from their homes, if they can.
I can’t search right now, so forgive me if this has been brought up. My wife was saying that some people have suggested using the Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” salute in lieu of shaking hands. Evidently they really are suggesting this to Congress:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/politics/coronavirus-congress-precautions-greeting/index.html
With all these University closings, maybe somebody is due to make a physics breakthrough.
Thanks for the dose of common sense!
Two confirmed cases at the hospital where I work. Fortunately I am not in patient care.
All restaurants in Florence, Italy close at 5 or 6 pm it’s a ghost town out there!
At least 44 people have died and hundreds hospitalized in Iran after drinking bootleg alcohol after claims that it would prevent coronavirus.
My UU fellowship (in NC) has canceled all in-person events, including Sunday services. They’re going to be livestreamed for the foreseeable future. Other group meetings will be done via videoconferencing.
A couple days ago Austria’s chancellor gave a press interview in which he implied that the country, or parts of it, could go into lockdown in the same way as Italy. As of today the government has banned indoor events of more than 100 people and all outdoor events of more than 500 people and has ordered all universities to close by Monday. (So far schools and daycares have not been ordered to close, though there are rumblings that this could happen soon.) The border with Italy has been sealed; no one goes in or out except for medical emergencies.
The director of my institute sent everyone an e-mail today saying that they can work from home if they want (though this is really a reminder, since that’s a standing rule) and that all internal and public meetings are cancelled until further notice.
The free tabloids here are reporting panic buying and supermarket shelves sold out of goods, though I haven’t observed this except for face masks, hand sanitizers, and (sometimes) surface disinfectants. I’ve gone shopping every day in the past week and there are no frenzied crowds and still lots of toilet paper, paper towels, pasta, canned goods, and all the other items the tabloids claim are flying off the shelves.
The organizers of the scientific conference I am scheduled to attend in northern Italy seem unperturbed. Unlike many other events in Europe that I was planning to attend, helping organize, or just following online, this one hasn’t been cancelled or postponed. In addition to the message I reproduced here earlier, the organizers have added a video proudly proclaiming that “Bologna is not stopping”. I’m not sure how realistic that is given that the entire country is effectively on lockdown, and I wouldn’t be able to travel there even if I wanted to. Maybe the organizers are hoping (not unrealistically, I suppose) that the situation will improve by June.
That is unbelievably tragic and sad news. I hope the perps are found, tried and, if convicted, suffer an appropriate punishment.
It’s not that simple. There’s a thread here which discusses it:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=890937
The thread also contains some links to other people discussing it.
Whoa, a day after Indian Wells–an open-air event, in the desert–cancelled, Denver cancelled its St. Pat’s Day parade–also an open-air event.
And yet, they did not cancel jury duty, NOT an open-air event, and my spouse had to show up there this morning.
I’m supposed to go there May 1 for a huge conference that the organizers continue to insist will happen.
And the new word of the day is:
DE-DENSIFICATION
I read it for the first time in an article about Harvard telling its students to go home and stay home.
I just read it in a text from my husband who is now de-densifying the horrible bench seating at his workplace.