Coronavirus Updates

[Luisa Land]

Yes things can develop quickly. Here in NL we started this week with the first patient. The guy has celebrated carnival. And now we have 8 already throughout the country. Some infected by someone who was on a ski holiday in Northern Italy and some infected on the Carnival in the hometown of the first patient.
This afternoon authorities have put a whole regional hospital in quarantine. Everyone has to be tested there.

On the bright side, the first 300 people who where in quarantine on the other side of the border (a few miles from my home) are put on the loose again because they didn't develop corona like complaints.
We still have it somewhat under control. All cases are linked to a source.
Only Northern Italy is a big concern and problematic. I would say out of control.

In my province there are 15 people monitored at the moment. They have to phone in their temperatures twice a day and need to contact as soon as they get any symptoms and stay at home of course.

Tomorrow the schools start again after the usual Carnival break. I think I will skip my duties as voluntary worker on my school the coming week.
Due to my diabetes and age, I'm in the more vulnerable group too. So I guess it is best to lean back at home and wait and see. There might have been kids on ski holiday in northern Italy as well.

The problem is that we know very little to be able to assess the situation well.
Figures of infected people are being published. But more precisely, these numbers reflect those who have been tested positive. The question is, to what extent are they testing ? As I understand it, the 300 participants of the big carnival event in which patient 1 participated were probably tested in this way. And after that the number of positive persons increased strongly. But I have not found any information about who else was tested. About 1000 people were put into domestic quarantine, who were identified as contact persons.

I am now reading a report "A woman affected by the quarantine expressed doubts as to whether sufficient tests would be carried out as a precaution against the spread of Sars-CoV-2. "My husband and I both work in sensitive areas. We're going back to work tomorrow without being sure we're not infected." This is what the woman from Heinsberg county, who works in a social area, told the news agency dpa. )

What I want to say is that we are still far from seeing the full picture. So the facts that are reported need to be interpreted. And this interpretation necessarily contains highly subjective parts of the assessment
I do believe that the people in charge and the administration have worked very hard there and are still working. But still ... the situation is changing very quickly, we have to wait and see

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Beebo Brink]

Live updates: Coronavirus was probably spreading for six weeks in Washington state, study says; Rhode Island announces first likely case

The novel coronavirus has probably been spreading undetected for about six weeks in Washington state, where the first U.S. death was reported this weekend. A genetic analysis suggests that the cases are linked through community transmission and that this has been going on for weeks, with hundreds of infections likely in the state.

Two new cases were confirmed in Washington state’s King County on Sunday, bringing that state’s total to eight. Rhode Island also announced its first probable case. If confirmed, it will be the second on the East Coast, after a previously announced case in Massachusetts. The Rhode Island patient is in his 40s and had traveled to Europe in mid-February.

 

[Sid]

The problem is that we know very little to be able to assess the situation well.
Figures of infected people are being published. But more precisely, these numbers reflect those who have been tested positive. The question is, to what extent are they testing ? As I understand it, the 300 participants of the big carnival event in which patient 1 participated were probably tested in this way. And after that the number of positive persons increased strongly. But I have not found any information about who else was tested. About 1000 people were put into domestic quarantine, who were identified as contact persons.

I am now reading a report "A woman affected by the quarantine expressed doubts as to whether sufficient tests would be carried out as a precaution against the spread of Sars-CoV-2. "My husband and I both work in sensitive areas. We're going back to work tomorrow without being sure we're not infected." This is what the woman from Heinsberg county, who works in a social area, told the news agency dpa. )

What I want to say is that we are still far from seeing the full picture. So the facts that are reported need to be interpreted. And this interpretation necessarily contains highly subjective parts of the assessment
I do believe that the people in charge and the administration have worked very hard there and are still working. But still ... the situation is changing very quickly, we have to wait and see

What I understand from the Dutch media: As long as you don't have symptoms (sneezing, coughing, temperature, breathing problems) it is very unlikely that you spread the virus, even if you are infected.

My guess: Upcoming week will show a lot of new cases because the incubation time (moment from being infected until the moment you get sick) is on average between 4 and 7 days an maximum 12 days. Well, we can expect the " Rosenmontags Kinder" (Carnivals victims) from now to Friday.

What surprises/worries me, is that the number of infected on the German side of the Heinsberg/Limburg border is rising rapidly, while the ticker on the Dutch/Limburg side is still at zero (and 15 people monitored).
We must have a very strong border.

 

[Essence Lumin]

What surprises/worries me, is that the number of infected on the German side of the Heinsberg/Limburg border is rising rapidly, while the ticker on the Dutch/Limburg side is still at zero (and 15 people monitored).
We must have a very strong border.

Trump must have built it with his amazing powers. It won't affect anyone till April anyway he says.

 

[Sid]

Yeah, only the border is totally invincible other than road signs on each side of the road.

If this works, why all that crab on the US/Mexican border?

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Seems Roscinny had it wrong. Seems the correct site of Erquy is in the southern Netherlands.

 

[Caliandris]

I am in the disability affinity group at work and yes, people are worried about it.

Yeah, my daughter just said that her last employer didn't pay her for the first two weeks. I'm not sure if that was legal or things have changed a lot recently?

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

If you are an hourly worker or a kid and you take a day off of work or school and you don't have an actual written note from a doctor, you're fired. Facts of life.

That is not the facts of life, at least not in states that have reasonable labor laws. Are you in a Right to work state in the south?

If I'm sick, I can just call in sick, though my employer likes it if we give them enough lead time to get a fill-in. And part of that is being willing to fill-in when other people get sick. And then I just use sick time on the time card. I wouldn't need a doctors note, though they'd like to have one for the records if I was off several days in a row. Of which I have hundreds of hours of, enough that I could use it for over 30 of my "work days". FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) adds on to that, though it would be unpaid.

 

[NyteWytch]

Yeah, my daughter just said that her last employer didn't pay her for the first two weeks. I'm not sure if that was legal or things have changed a lot recently?

Sounds more like a lag in payroll dates. I cant imagine she didnt get paid for time worked unless she works under the table or something?

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I wanted to reply in general to the COVID-19 issue, and people are going to be unhappy with what I'm going to say in large friendly red letters:

DON'T PANIC!

I hate the fact that the US has been in panic mode since 2001 and the election of the Orange One has just made it WORSE. And thanks a lot media for using said panic for ratings points. I understand that people are concerned, but there's reasonable concern and unreasonable over-the-top concern and I see far too much of the latter in society today.

I am not stockpiling food, I am not stockpiling masks, I trust the actual CDC employees to do their jobs because the CDC Does Not Fuck Around. They ought to put that on their business cards. Remember the panic over SARS? Ebola? Remember people saying "Oh what if Ebola comes over here, they shouldn't bring people back here for treatment! Zombie apocalypse!"

What you SHOULD be doing is pressuring Wall Street to stop exploiting China's weak regulatory system for profit, and to instead encourage China to implement a proper regulatory system. Because similar incidents will just keep on happening until China does what WE did in the early 20th century...pass laws to clean the meatpacking industry up. Thank you Upton Sinclair!

And you should be pressuring our government to pressure their government to do it as well. And I'm well aware the US has its own problems environment wise. Keep on lecturing us, Greta Thunberg! Love you!

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I wanted to reply in general to the COVID-19 issue, and people are going to be unhappy with what I'm going to say in large friendly red letters:

DON'T PANIC!

You just gave my anxiety anxiety.

 

[Caliandris]

What I understand from the Dutch media: As long as you don't have symptoms (sneezing, coughing, temperature, breathing problems) it is very unlikely that you spread the virus, even if you are infected.

My guess: Upcoming week will show a lot of new cases because the incubation time (moment from being infected until the moment you get sick) is on average between 4 and 7 days an maximum 12 days. Well, we can expect the " Rosenmontags Kinder" (Carnivals victims) from now to Friday.

What surprises/worries me, is that the number of infected on the German side of the Heinsberg/Limburg border is rising rapidly, while the ticker on the Dutch/Limburg side is still at zero (and 15 people monitored).
We must have a very strong border.

The not-infectious-unless symptomatic thing seems to be untrue. The "superspreader" in the UK infected a number of people in France and didn't become ill until after returning home to the UK. He infected at least eleven people before he was tested on being contacted by the people tracing contacts of the Singapore conference attendee who infected him. He had not at that point fallen ill himself.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

That is not the facts of life, at least not in states that have reasonable labor laws. Are you in a Right to work state in the south?

Yes, but here literally the only thing "right to work" means is that unions can't force a company to only hire unionized employees - i.e., you don't have to join the union and pay union dues if you are hired by a company where there is a union. It's an employer-friendly law designed to strangle unions by cutting off their income, it has nothing to do with sick leave or anything like that. The name is propaganda, intended to suggest to the public that unions are bad because they would take away your "right to work".

Here more pertinent is the "at-will" law, which says employers can fire for any reason or no reason - my state doesn't even forbid firing for whistleblowing.

The problem with FMLA is that it only applies to long-term sickness where your recovery takes several weeks or a couple of months even. For something like a really bad cold or a flu that leaves you unable to work today but might be gone in like four days, it doesn't help you. And yeah, it's easy to say that something like coronavirus counts due to things like the mandatory at-least-two-week quarantine; but here's the thing: if you feel sick today, you don't know if you have the coronavirus. All you know is that you feel sick. You have zero way of knowing right now, today, whether what you have is going to be a long-term thing or something that's going to have you down for only a week or so, or even less. So choosing to take off work is a gamble.

Sure an employer might have a policy that taking off a day is fine as long as you or they can find someone to cover your shift; but what if you can't find anyone? What if it's the morning and it's too short a notice? Even if they let it slide, they're going to be angry at you, and that's going to have repercussions. And I have personally seen people fired at more than one of my jobs for taking more than one day off in a row without a doctor's note; I know it happens.

 

[Beebo Brink]

DON'T PANIC!

No one on VVO is panicking. So please stop shouting at us.

I am not stockpiling food...

Well, that's just really bad advice. Everyone, if at all possible, should have a stockpile of food. Not because of COVID-19, but just as a general preparedness for any number of emergencies that could strike without warning.

I'm not old enough to be in the Depression-era generation, but my parents were. Both Mrs. Beebo and I have always shared the same "be prepared for anything" outlook, precisely so we don't have to panic. If I have to lock the door and stay inside for three weeks (unlikely), I can do it without worry.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

have a stockpile of food

Hell, I do this because of earthquake risk.

bonus:

 

[Maggy Hazelnut]

I am not stockpiling food, I am not stockpiling masks,

I'm not going to reply about all your other points in your post but I would like to address the one about stockpiling food & saying that people that do that are overreacting. Bite me! I've been keeping food & other necessities stashed away for about 40 years now. I live in the mountains, far away from stores, doctors, vets, almost anything. There are many times during every year where roads here are blocked off from either floods, landslides, forest fires, snow, windstorms dropping trees across the roads. There won't be any jaunts down to the store to pick up something you forgot. In fact in some cases there won't be any jaunts down to the store for weeks! On top of that we're between 2 active volcanoes & will be up shit creek if one or the other blows up. Oh and did I mention that there are 3 dams above where I live & that if any of the 3 of them break we'll be down (not up) shit creek! Don't forget this is earthquake country here!

My point is that there are many reasons why someone (everyone!) should have food & necessities stashed away even if it's in a closet or in boxes under the bed. You might not have all the dangers that I mentioned where you live but odds are there's something - hurricane, tornado, flood, civil unrest, etc. It's not called panic! It's called being prepared to take care of yourself for a few days or a few weeks in case of emergency. It's being smart!

 

[Kara Spengler]

Right now, testing in the US is the problem. There just is not enough capacity to determine the scope of the spreading. Just because there are only a few isolated cases confirmed doesn't mean there aren't many many more that aren't confirmed yet. We'll see a large upswing in cases as testing increases, but we're a long way away from having a good picture of where we stand.

It is not just testing there is not a push to get the info out there that is known. For example, when should you suspect covid vs the flu? What should you do if you suspect covid as most people can not just ring their dr. I guess jam the ERs some more?

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

No one on VVO is panicking. So please stop shouting at us.

I wasn't shouting, I was making a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Reference:

Phrases from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"It is said that despite its many glaring (and occasionally fatal) inaccuracies, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy itself has outsold the Encyclopedia Galactica because it is slightly cheaper, and because it has the words 'DON'T PANIC' in large, friendly letters on the cover."

Well, that's just really bad advice. Everyone, if at all possible, should have a stockpile of food.

Mea culpa, I should have been more clear. Keeping some food/water around is a good idea. But what I mean stockpile, I mean "stockpile" as in bunker level stockpile. Buying crates of food, sanitizer, and things at the local Enomo-mart and causing a rush. If people start doing that, it might lead to other people thinking "do I need to do that" and lead to more panic.

but I would like to address the one about stockpiling food & saying that people that do that are overreacting.

As I just said to Beebs, I should have been more clear. Mea Culpa.

I said what I did because I want people focusing on preventing these regular occurrences, they happen because of Wall Street and China ignoring Environmental and Health issues for more Profit$$$. The fewer of them that happen, the less likely we get one like the 1918 Spanish Flu.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Mea culpa, I should have been more clear. Keeping some food/water around is a good idea. But what I mean stockpile, I mean "stockpile" as in bunker level stockpile. Buying crates of food, sanitizer, and things at the local Enomo-mart and causing a rush.

No, you shouldn't need to do that. Because you should ALREADY have a stockpile (as in bunker level stockpile) of food and basic supplies/tools already on hand. Always. The appearance of COVID-19 should just be a reminder to do a quick inventory review to make sure you're not too low on anything.