LightDreams wrote:
"Apparently people are protecting themselves from COVID-19 by wrapping themselves in toilet paper."

"Hope this virus situation gets resolved before tick season starts or we'll be dealing with Corona with Lyme"

"The World Health Organization has announced that dogs cannot contract COVID-19. Dogs previously held in quarantine can now be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnNyraY_UTI

LightDreams wrote:
While Canada just "closed its borders" today, they specifically exempted Canadian residents and U.S. citizens.   While both sides are telling tourists to stay home, both sides have realized that they're in a difficult situation when it comes to the Canada / U.S. border.  Canadians and U.S. Citizens are still supposed to self isolate for 14 days after entering Canada, but there are real problems with that (air crews, cross border truckers, etc, etc).

Apparently so many critical things, like food and medicine, etc, flows over the border daily in both directions, that they have to be very careful before narrowing down things further.  Everything like the business people and businesses required to keep the daily flow working back and forth, the truck drivers for all those shipments, etc, etc.

So until both sides can very carefully carve out all of the many exceptions required to make sure that the closure to people crossing the border doesn't CAUSE major shortages of core items on both sides of the border, they've delayed that part.  Joint meetings are continuing between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico trying to sort it all out.

Here in Whatcom county, just across the border - Canadians buying products accounts for 70% of our retail economy.
So this is welcome news, that would be a huge hit to sales here. Go to Costco on a Saturday and 2 out of 3 license plates on cars are BC plates. Same at Bellis Fair mall, Trader Joes, Hardware Sales and many local businesses.

LightDreams wrote:
The Dow is down another 3,000 points today.

Yep, and the bottom may still be lower.
Bear market for now, choose wisely and you could buy some bargains long term.

Crystal Rose  Make up  wrote:
A team of Australian researchers say they’ve found a cure

Nice to get some good news. Hope it works.

Tony From Syracuse wrote:
when these type of things happen, and they do, there are people who panic, and there are people who keep their heads cool. I am glad we have a president who is keeping his cool while the media is absolutely going batshit crazy. and the markets which are always jittery on the slightest thing of course drop on all this.   like every other "pandemic" this will fade out, and the media will be onto the next thing.

in the big picture view...its all such silliness.

This comment didn't age so well now has it

rfordphotos wrote:

Isnt this always the case? In every emergency situation I can remember, the best "medicine" for the "nerves" of the citizens has been clear, concise pertinent information.

Rumors, propaganda, misdirection, outright deliberate misinformation--- just dont serve any good purpose. Inevitably they are exposed as the true facts emerge, and the rumormongers, the liars, the opportunists are exposed, and shown to be the charlatans they are.

We have to get back to a world where it is ok for our leaders to admit--- "hey we dont know yet- we are working on it"

Rather than hollow hopes, admit we dont yet know, tell the truth. The flip side of that is media has to stop beating the hell out of a leader that doesnt have EVERY fact about EVERY situation immediately on hand.

Yeah, good thing Fox news and Trump finally came to their senses

Fist Full of Ish wrote:
First, that isn't a quote from Limbaugh.  That isn't what he said, so apparently you are commenting on Focuspuller's personal views.  Why?
.

Can't seem to find your apology.

Hunter  GWPB wrote:
“I’ve always known this is a real — this is a pandemic," Trump said. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."  I am surprised he didn't claim that he invented the word "pandemic."  But. one must ask, if he knew it was a pandemic before it was called a pandemic, then why didn't he act accordingly?

Previous quotes:

"I never even knew a category five existed," the president told reporters at the White House.  [i[(Speaking of hurricanes.)[/i]

“Who would have thought we would even be having [this crisis]?” President Trump said last week.  (Speaking of the pandemic that he knew was a pandemic before it was called a pandemic.)

Oh.My.God.    Never, in a million years did I expect to say this here...

We have MUCH larger problems than Mr. Trump and his loose association with truth and fact. With any luck that issue will be dealt with at the polls .  Serves no purpose even discussing him at this point- minds seem made up about him, both ways.
----------------------

What we need to discuss is how we get thru this mess.

I am 68, with just about all the "pre-existing" conditions that make this virus dangerous.  So when they talk about seniors, I listen. I am lucky, I live in an area where I can get food delivered easily (so far), and so far  transportation (Uber, Lyft) are still serving the area. I would imagine they will stop if this gets much worse. I dont have any close relatives near me, but my neighbors sort of know me, and they have knocked on the door just to check on me.

But a lot of folks are not as lucky. For a lot of reasons, too many seniors are facing this alone, without enough resources to make it.

If you can, safely, check up on those folks near you who might be in that situation. You will make a difference.

I dont know about your areas, but the grocery stores here are BARE. When the county order came thru locking us down, the stores simply emptied. There are shortages of damn near everything. I am 100% sure the stores will catch up--- everybody says there is PLENTY of food in the supply chain--- it just needs to get to the stores.

I am not worried, I am one of those folks who pretty much keeps my freezer and pantry full.... I can easily last 6 or 8 weeks.

How about you guys? How much work do you have to do if this all goes completely sideways and we ALL end up quarantined for a while....

rfordphotos wrote:
We have MUCH larger problems than Mr. Trump and his loose association with truth and fact.......

.....What we need to discuss is how we get thru this mess.

Except that the former is crippling the latter.

Focuspuller wrote:

Can't seem to find your apology.

'Sorry I didn't know that he had said that.  However, you DO understand that Limbaugh was correct, don't you?  Covid-19 is not the flu, it's the common cold, which has countless variants.  This variant is just a very bad variant. If you want to deny that, than you might be pushing for the theory that it was engineered.  It isn't a good thing that it's a cold virus.  We've never cured it to date.  We all know it's being worked on.

Hunter  GWPB wrote:
“I’ve always known this is a real — this is a pandemic," Trump said. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."  I am surprised he didn't claim that he invented the word "pandemic."  But. one must ask, if he knew it was a pandemic before it was called a pandemic, then why didn't he act accordingly?

Previous quotes:

"I never even knew a category five existed," the president told reporters at the White House.  [i[(Speaking of hurricanes.)[/i]

“Who would have thought we would even be having [this crisis]?” President Trump said last week.  (Speaking of the pandemic that he knew was a pandemic before it was called a pandemic.)

I think I understand your confusion.
"  ...why didn't he act accordingly?"  He did.  He called for a travel ban three weeks after the virus was identified, and while Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders were saying that we didn't need his xenophobia and fear mongering.  There ya go.  Those two stooges turned out to be dead wrong.  Lot's of dead wrong people agreed with them.  People you wouldn't want having any influence on your well-being.

"I never even knew a category five existed," was rhetorical, to emphasize the intensity of the Cat 5 hurricane, 'not the admission of ignorance that you would like it to be.

“Who would have thought we would even be having [this crisis]?"  That's perfectly fine.  Who would have thought we'd be having this crisis back in mid-2019?  He didn't say exactly when he was talking about.  You're assuming he was talking about a vary narrow time interval where it wouldn't have made any sense.  Why would you choose the time interval like that?

Fist Full of Ish wrote:
'Sorry I didn't know that he had said that.  However, you DO understand that Limbaugh was correct, don't you?  Covid-19 is not the flu, it's the common cold, which has countless variants.  This variant is just a very bad variant. If you want to deny that, than you might be pushing for the theory that it was engineered.  It isn't a good thing that it's a cold virus.  We've never cured it to date.  We all know it's being worked on.

most people I know try to get accurate information from qualified sources to make decisions....apparently some dont.

You choose to say Limbaugh is correct. Pretty much every other well educated, qualified source ON THE PLANET disagrees.

try reading what Dr. Fauci has to say about the virus. Even Mr. Trump is starting to pay attention to what he says.

Dr. Anthony Fauci graduated from  High School in New York City and went on to attend the College of the Holy Cross and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1966. He then completed an internship and residency at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

He is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and has been since 1984.

He has numerous awards from organizations worldwide and over 75 honorary Doctorate Degrees.

Rush Limbaugh graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri , and attended two semesters of college. He is a well known, controversial radio talk show host.

(biographies quickly extracted from wikipedia)

You choose the source you want to believe. Most people wont find it difficult... I suppose some will.

GRMACK wrote:
Got a call today from dentist.  Seems he got some CA state thing to shut down for a month...

There was an international dental convention here in Vancouver, that went ahead, against all advice.  The BC Center for Disease Control only found out about it afterwards.   It turns out a that a significant number of dentists were exposed to the COVID-19 virus (unknowingly) and then went back to their various North American cities where they worked on patients.

The well respected, knowledgeable and "permanently calm in a crisis" woman that's head of the BC CDC (that we see day after day on TV here) was as close to being (relatively!) upset as we've ever seen her over this dental convention of "medical professionals", as she called them.

That's one of the reasons why dentists are being ordered to stop all non-emergency work with patients.

Here, all elective / non-emergency medical surgeries, etc, have also been postponed so that they can free up, re-purpose and prepare as many medical personal (and hospital beds) as possible in preparation for what may come.  Retired and other medical personal are also being brought into the system.  If it turns out they're not actually needed, then everyone will be quite happy.

rfordphotos wrote:
Oh.My.God.    Never, in a million years did I expect to say this here...

We have MUCH larger problems than Mr. Trump and his loose association with truth and fact. With any luck that issue will be dealt with at the polls .  Serves no purpose even discussing him at this point- minds seem made up about him, both ways.
----------------------

What we need to discuss is how we get thru this mess.

I am 68, with just about all the "pre-existing" conditions that make this virus dangerous.  So when they talk about seniors, I listen. I am lucky, I live in an area where I can get food delivered easily (so far), and so far  transportation (Uber, Lyft) are still serving the area. I would imagine they will stop if this gets much worse. I dont have any close relatives near me, but my neighbors sort of know me, and they have knocked on the door just to check on me.

But a lot of folks are not as lucky. For a lot of reasons, too many seniors are facing this alone, without enough resources to make it.

If you can, safely, check up on those folks near you who might be in that situation. You will make a difference.

I dont know about your areas, but the grocery stores here are BARE. When the county order came thru locking us down, the stores simply emptied. There are shortages of damn near everything. I am 100% sure the stores will catch up--- everybody says there is PLENTY of food in the supply chain--- it just needs to get to the stores.

I am not worried, I am one of those folks who pretty much keeps my freezer and pantry full.... I can easily last 6 or 8 weeks.

How about you guys? How much work do you have to do if this all goes completely sideways and we ALL end up quarantined for a while....

Oh, gee.  I am so sorry.  I must have misunderstood the trajectory of many of the previous posts granting undeserved praise and accolades to "him".  Many of which, I really wanted to respond to, but I refrained from posting what I wrote.  Mostly because they didn't merit a response.  Same reason I won't be responding to another recent absurd one.  However, "he" is part of the news and part of the cause and part of the continuing problem.  "He" is largely responsible for the panic and the empty stores which you refer to.  "He" is the guy in charge and "he" denies any responsibility and his very public position of it being a hoax, in spite of overwhelming evidence otherwise, encourages and encouraged panic, because it gives the appearance that we are on our own.  It is hardly reasonable to talk about all the ways that this entirely predictable crisis (it wasn't a question of "if", but only of "when") can go completely sideways without being cognizant of his actions and inactions.  However, in deference to you, I will refrain from discussing "him", if everyone else does.  I believe I tried to encourage that, to no avail, earlier in the thread. 

I can still walk into the store and get most of what I want. I didn't check for scrapple, but they ran out of that several times this winter. Except for the crap made from turkey.  They had that.  I didn't.  I bought chocolate and peanut butter easter eggs today.  Hand made in Philly.  Zittner's.  So good.  I didn't stock up on anything before the general public understood that it really wasn't under control.  I bought chicken and frozen veggies Monday.  I can kill squirrels and deer if it comes down to it.  Time to plant peas.  Another month before frost intolerant stuff can go in.  I can piss the neighbors off again and plant corn and potatoes after the frost hazard.  They don't mind bush beans, but God forbid I plant climbing beans on a trellis.  Cut down a tree and I am set for firewood for next winter, in case supply chains of natural gas get disrupted or the cash to pay for it disappears.

A neighbor came over yesterday and told me that he had plenty of ammunition if I needed some.  But he wasn't thinking about squirrels and deer.  I don't need 357s for them.  That is rather disconcerting.  I am not sure why he is expecting large scale violence.  But he listens to a different media source than I do.  He often takes solace in his armory.

Regarding the stores: We have similar things happen before a snowfall.  A couple inches means the world is coming to an end, so people stock up on dairy, eggs and bread.  And booze.  The stores get really empty for the whopper storms of 8-12".  So funny that people don't seem to remember that their street has been plowed after every storm before, except the ice storm of 94, when the paper was delivered for weeks by a kid on ice skates.  But I guess this crisis could be different.  The stores restock quickly after snow.  It will be a little longer this time.  And once the Zittner's eggs are gone, they are gone until next year.

I know several people in China and talk to them regularly.  None of them has mentioned any concern about food supplies or toilet paper shortages.  I was told it is much harder to buy your chicken dinner squawking. Masks are becoming available in China, again.  I tried to send some, but our stores were sold out weeks ago.    A harbinger of coming things and the sense that a partial travel ban wasn't going to stop anything.  A friend told me she sent some masks from New Jersey to her son in California this week.  She is a physician, so she may have had a good supply already.

My Chinese friends don't want to catch the disease and they are a little anxious, but they aren't panicking.  Many have returned to work, though one has rearranged her living situation so she can drive to work instead of taking mass transit.  We are exchanging photos of spring flowers, so many are going out and about.  They have gone to the market all through the quarantine, as needed.  Also, I know three people who were in China when the travel ban was imposed.  Two of them are back in the states.  The third, I haven't heard from, but she wasn't scheduled to come back until sometime in March.

I look forward to the $1000 government check to offset the tens of thousands in gross income I expect to loose when this really hits home.  Business is surprisingly good for this time of year, there is no snow to interfere and I am a little puzzled as to why I am still getting new work coming in, considering the volatility recently.  We are continuing our work as needed.  It is all on the customer's site.  I am not worried.  There are far more trees than people around me and trees don't sneeze.  My employee, however is very concerned.  Despite the fact I pay significant money towards unemployment compensation, it is likely he will be denied benefits or given just a pittance of his hourly wage, because the best economy there ever was, is far below what it use to be, for us, and he only works about half the amount of time I do, even though I have pushed some of my work off to him.  That is okay.  I can't paint and carve and work 60-80 hours a week.  He can't be Mr. Mom and coach little league if we work full time.  But now our more relaxed and flexible work schedule may bite him in the ass, and worse, it may force me to replace him with technology, which I have been consciously not doing for several years.   Or I will retire and go work at Starbucks.

Sorry to hear about your health issues that put you at greater risk.  Thoughts and prayers.  I wish you well.  Seriously, in case the dripping cynicism of the rest of the post makes that unclear.

LightDreams wrote:
The best thing we could have happen is that it has a really serious positive impact on the virus's spread and, at the end of the day, some people end up claiming "I told you so, this was all hype and nothing to really worry about".   That would be great!

Yeah, I guess we could ask those who have died about that? Hmmm...

Someone I know who is usually very sensible and has a family thinks it will "go away in 3 weeks or so."
I do wish he was correct. I didn't argue with him, the truth will on that will be known in "3 weeks or so."

Be safe, everybody!!!!

LightDreams wrote:
Sorry, I should have said that might be the best that we can hope for, under the circumstances.  "Great" was an absolutely horrible choice of words.  I didn't mean to downplay the deaths that have happened, and will happen, should we get through this as "relatively" well as possible.

If we do end up with, say 40,000 deaths, there will be those who will claim that it was all over-hyped for all of the effort and sacrifice that was put into it ("similar to the regular flu", etc).  Completely missing the point that the purpose of all of the effort and sacrifice is to try and end up with a (relatively) low figure.

That's NOT to suggest, in any way, that those numbers aren't still terrible.

I got what you meant, no offense here.
Statistics can have a de-humanizing effect on all of us, myself included.
My time will come someday, I'd hate to know going in that I was just going to be remembered as a number on a chart.

LightDreams wrote:
It did get me thinking though.  Can you imagine the quandary of those, whose career it is to fight pandemics, to define when they've been "successful", or "good at" at what they do...?   Ouch.

Very difficult job, I can't imagine being good at it myself - super grateful for what they do.
Resolving that reality?
Honestly, having processed and printed film for medical clients at photo labs I think it would be the sounds and smells that would haunt me.

After a while that becomes your normal, we are lucky others can do these things.

rfordphotos wrote:
...

[earlier post] Pretty much every other well educated, qualified source ON THE PLANET disagrees.

Still think it is just the common cold Mr. Limbaugh?

'Not a matter Limbaugh can change his mind on.  It's called Covid-19 because it's a variant of the common cold virus.
Influenza includes H1N1, avian flu, and spanish flu.  It will never include Covid-19, or "The Wuhan cold", or whatever it ends up being called.  Oh and you and whoever you are speaking for are wrong, but I know you don't speak for who you think you speak for.

rfordphotos wrote:
...

[earlier post] Pretty much every other well educated, qualified source ON THE PLANET disagrees.

Still think it is just the common cold Mr. Limbaugh?

Fist Full of Ish wrote:
'Not a matter Limbaugh can change his mind on.  It's called Covid-19 because it's a variant of the common cold virus.
Influenza includes H1N1, avian flu, and spanish flu.  It will never include Covid-19, or "The Wuhan cold", or whatever it ends up being called.  Oh and you and whoever you are speaking for are wrong, but I know you don't speak for who you think you speak for.

yeah, hell--- you certainly wouldnt want facts to get in the way of a good conspiracy theory would ya Mr. Limbaugh.

it is obviously a waste of electrons to continue this with you. So---Bye

rfordphotos wrote:
yeah, hell--- you certainly wouldnt want facts to get in the way of a good conspiracy theory would ya Mr. Limbaugh.

it is obviously a waste of electrons to continue this with you. So---Bye

What the ...?  'Not going to admit you are wrong, so you insinuate Limbaugh made up a conspiracy theory and call it a waste.   'Great.

You said to me: "most people I know try to get accurate information from qualified sources to make decisions....apparently some don't."  No, buddy.  I'm accurate.

Remember this:

Focuspuller wrote:
Can't seem to find your apology.

I did admit I was wrong on what Limbaugh said, not that I thought it was appropriate for Focuspuller to insist on an apology when I was already being spoken of with such ill-founded sarchasm, and no one apologized to me.