So… there’s a virus virus?
My son is at a college in a small town in Virginia. They announced a couple days back that a student was self-quarantining; late yesterday they announced that the student’s test was “presumptive positive” (no clue what “presumptive” means). They’re cancelling in-person classes through the 18th - I guess they’ll try to do them online as much as possible.
This will be an interesting test of use of technology for that purpose. 10 years back, that kind of teaching was utterly new, but a number of colleges offer at least a few classes in that format, so they’re better able to adapt than they could have 10 years ago.
Dweezil hasn’t contacted us to let us know whether he’ll come home in the interim. I have mixed feelings: he’s in an apartment, with his own bedroom, and almost never sees his roommate, so his living situation is relatively low risk - on the other hand, he’d be going to the dining hall for meals (that’s still open) which I would think is a terrible place in terms of spreading the joy.
When he was home last week for spring break, I suggested he keep a couple days’ worth of canned soup at his apartment, and make sure his car’s tank was always at least half full in case he wanted to leave town quickly w/o needing to fill up.
His long-time buddy (known since they were in 2nd grade) is back in town for a couple months; the family relocated to another country right after high school when the father took early retirement for medical reasons. They typically return for a bit about this time of year, and the boys get together as much as possible - unfortunately, with everything going on, I’d have to discourage in-person hanging out due to general social distancing, and also because the father has serious health issues :(.
I thought he even stifled coughs or sneezes a few times. He’s met with at 1 person who has been diagnosed with the virus. I don’t know if he has it but I’m sure he gets tested frequently.
Don’t forget tax breaks for “certain” individuals. Yes, by golly, I feel that the President is all about taking care of the little guy and keeping the economy on solid footing. /sarcasm
So if one of them murders the other, should we count that as coronavirus death? Seems like there’s some legal precedent that if you’re committing a crime - even one not intended to kill someone - and someone dies inadvertently, you could be charged with some form of murder, right? 
Also he said that copayments would be covered for treatment, when apparently he actually meant testing. I thought that normally Trump’s speechwriters managed to make him sound saner, but his deflections that it’s all China and Europe’s fault were gratingly whiney. As a Canadian, this is the first time I’ve been worried that the US’s bonkers medical system would negatively affect me. Fingers crossed for the next guy.
IIRC, a presumptive positive means that the first of two tests came back positive. If the second comes back positive, it is a confirmed infection.
In case anyone is wondering, there are safe recipes out there for homemade hand sanitizer. (The WHO has guidelines, Popular Science has 2 recipes online.) This was not that.
Mike Pence was interviewed on CNN this morning by Alisyn Camerota (13 minute video) and she pressed him with some tough questions which he of course evaded with a lot of Dear Leader-ing.
One of the things she pressed him on was the number of tests for COVID-19 being done in the US and she posted a stat graphic of information that I can’t find at the CDC website.
Can anyone locate this information?
In a nutshell, the graphic shows the number of tests for COVID-19 performed by the CDC and by US Public health labs from 5 March to 10 March.
On 3/5 the CDC conducted 54 tests, on 3/6 it conducted 16 tests and has conducted none since then.
On 3/5 the US Public Health Labs conducted 1192 tests. 3/6 was 1155. 3/7 was 947. 3/8 was 741 tests. 3/9 was 396 tests. 3/10 was 8 tests.
How can we know how many people are infected if we aren’t testing, was the underlying question in addition to why the fuck aren’t we testing more people?
Pence’s response was that he didn’t believe those numbers. :rolleyes:
Dear Leader hopes ignoring it will make it go away.
Whoa.
I have a good friend who is part of the production team for the Arizona Democratic Town Hall/Debate this Sunday.
She just texted me that the event was canceled and they are loading out right now.
It’s really only a matter of time before Trump gets it, if he doesn’t already.
Of course, they’ll never let the public know.
Not canceled. Just canceled from Phoenix. It will be televised from a studio.
I mean, they’d have to mention it if he dies.
'Twill be hard to keep it a secret if he’s on a ventilator for a time.
Aye; another friend in the biz just let me know they will hold it in DC.
From The Washington Post: Satellite images show Iran building vast burial trenches for virus victims.
Apparently we are now living in a god-damned zombie apocalypse movie.
I guess I’d better go oil my shotgun.
Was it this one?
The NHL has put all games on hold.