@Midwest67 Our D21 can “see” girls together on Instagram on vacation in Florida whooping it up in what I assume must be a house rental since I assume hotels aren’t really functioning. These girls are from different families so, apparently, some families from our school still went on vacation for spring break. Some comments on the posts are shaming the girls but there are still plenty of “oh so cute!” comments too. UGH!!!
Many states don’t sell alcohol at those types of stores. In mine, you can buy beer and wine only at groceries, pharmacies, and convenience stores.
Shouldn’t come as a surprise but Wimbledon officially canceled.
France introduces voucher scheme for homeless during coronavirus epidemic
From Ya Chun Wang in Paris
The French government will provide 15 million euros ($16.5 million) in vouchers for homeless people to help them survive during the country’s coronavirus epidemic.
French Minister of Housing Julien Denormandie announced the voucher scheme Wednesday in an interview with French newspaper Ouest-France.
“It is a bit like a meal voucher,” he said, “that we will distribute to homeless people who have difficulty accessing basic necessities.”
“We believe half of the 60,000 beneficiaries of these new service vouchers are in the greater Paris region.”
Denormandie said the government was working closely with civil organizations and community leaders on working out which areas have the greatest need.
The new program aims to help 60,000 homeless people left without resources during the lockdown. The vouchers would provide financial assistance of US$7.68 per day per person to get access to basic necessities like food and hygiene products.
Since the beginning of the lockdown, France has also made 5,500 hotel rooms available as temporary homeless shelter, according to government numbers.
I agree. But I have a lot of other questions, too. For example, I wonder what the refund policy was? These cruises are typically booked well in advance and they are expensive. I seem to recall reading that the cruise lines themselves were reassuring passengers that it was safe, etc? I’d like to know what the cruise lines themselves were representing to their customers? Not an excuse, certainly, because so much information was public. But even more importantly, I’m wondering why the cruises were even allowed to continue operating? These cruises are typically two weeks long, yes? Why were the ports allowing these ships to sail 2-4 weeks ago?
OMG
Our liquor stores are open. But many have gone to curbside pick up…no customers roaming the stores and touching things.
In our state, beer and the like are sold at grocery stores…but nothing else alcoholic. No wine or hard liquors sold anywhere but at liquor stores.
From today’s Boston Globe:
@homerdog - WOW, that is infuriating!
Terrifying that our personal and economic health rests on everyone acting selflessly. Come on people - Stay home!
And please announce a clear and unquestionable national Stay at Home order ASAP. Yea, yea, not every area is a hot zone but how about we think of others and err on the side of caution?
Best guesses? (And they’re just guesses, I don’t know him or think he’s tipped his hand enough to know for sure) It’s some combination of these:
- He's attempting to stay in Trump's good graces with hopes he will be able to scrounge favors and federal supplies when needed. Not necessarily a dumb strategy given how unevenly things have been distributed so far, but distasteful. So he keeps referring to his consultations with federal officials who have not yet recommended a lockdown for the entire US or Florida. This strategy also may be in hopes he can deflect any future blame should this be the wrong course - "hey, I did exactly what the feds recommended!"
- He's trying to allow what few businesses are still salvageable to continue to operate. Since so much of Florida's economy is tourist based, the halt in travel now and for probably the next 1-2 years is going to be devastating to the state economy even if there were no infections. IMO, the idea of allowing some businesses to continue to operate isn't a bad one, but it would be smarter if there were guidelines requiring distancing.
- He is just looking at the total # of officially diagnosed cases there are in Florida and thinking the absolute number doesn't look bad enough to kill the economy over. What he - and many people - are overlooking is that the official numbers are low because tests are still not available in most areas of Florida in most cases. Our area still doesn't have enough for even frontline healthcare workers and it's not the only one. As of last week states that had fewer people than Florida had tested more than 6x as many people, for example. Without the testing, the data people are using to make decisions is faulty.
- He may truly not believe that stay at home is necessary for low density areas.
Looks like Florida’s governor is waiting for the president to help him with the quarantine decision:
Because he’s an idiot and Floridians are not big believers that CV is a thing. He’s moved from ignoring, to blaming - New Yorkers are at fault, “foreign” cruise ships are at fault, etc…
.
WTE of a couple of MD counties, the only place you can buy beer, wine and liquor in MD is at what we call a “liquor store” even though it is the only place to buy all three. The liquor stores in MD have been allowed to stay open, but all of the ones near me have gone to curbside pickup only. You place your order by phone and pay, then they put it in your trunk for you.
On an unrelated note, MD, especially in the area where I live by the Chesapeake Bay, has a huge recreational boating population. Our new mandatory stay at home order means no one is allowed out on their boats, except for commercial fisherman. It’s causing an uproar among boaters as they see it as a way to get out of their homes with warmer weather arriving and abide easily with social distancing. The order, however, allows paddle boarding and kayaking as these activities are considered exercise.
keeping tourist related businesses open just means you’re going to get tourists.
How is this still possible? How are there not enough tests in Florida? Its been an entire month since this blew up. All we hear about is tests, tests, tests - 5 minute ones, this company, that company. Why wouldn’t he call up his buddy, Trump, and insist on more testing? I don’t think they want to test because they don’t want the numbers.
That is why it is important to look at the numbers of dead. Those figures should be well correlated with the numbers of infected, of course with a lag.
Clearly, Florida, with fewer than 100 people dead is well behind New York, with more than 1700. Florida may well be just earlier in its curve of infection/death, the rates of infection could be much lower than those in New York, the climate and/or lower population density are reducing transmission of the virus, or some combination of those or other factors. Time will tell.
Here is an article from yesterday which sums up all the potential therapeutics and trials: https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-therapeutics-tracker
Good news:
It’s still early days, but one of our ICU’s is having success with one dose of an IL-6 inhibitor plus steroid given at precisely the right time. Too early and it inhibits helpful immune response, too late and the patient’s own immune system has done too much damage already. This really looks like it’s keeping some people off vents (so far). The immune systems of this subset of patients seem to be responding to COVID-19 with a Th17 immune response. This response is more effective for fungal and extracellular bacterial infections, and it looks like it’s counterproductive in fighting an intracellular virus. If you can use an IL-6 inhibitor to block this pathway at the right time, it’s looking good that we can keep these people from going in the wrong direction. (Source: DH)
Many of the ships that are trying to dock in Florida originated elsewhere and were heading elsewhere. So the US and Florida had no say about their departure. The Zandaam for example originally departed from Argentina and most recently from Chile.
The Zaandam was originally scheduled to sail on March 7 from Buenos Aires to San Antonio, Chile, and then depart on March 21 for a 20-day cruise to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in early April. But beginning March 15, the Zandaam was denied entry by South American ports, even before passengers reported their first symptoms on March 22. The ship approached the coast of Panama last week and negotiated permission to use the canal to reach the Atlantic Ocean on its way to Florida.
I agree. However, if this is in response to my comment about recreational boating, these are not tourists, these are people who own their own boats, live in waterfront communities with their own boat docks or ramps. They just want to be able to go on their own boats with their own families - they don’t see it as much different than going out for a walk or bike ride in their neighborhood with their kids. Please note, I am not one of these people - we don’t own a boat (we do have kayaks and paddle boards though). I’m just relaying what people were complaining about on social media and in the news locally. I personally think boaters need to stay home - the last thing we need to worry about right now are idiots out drinking on their boats and causing accidents or drownings - happens every year.
I think in a few years, when all the dust settles, DeSantis is going to be one of the biggest villains in a few movies about this crisis.
The reply I got on Facebook: “I am staying home, and teaching my kids the importance of doing the same. I just have to honor other humans and trust that they are doing the very best they can. I know people are afraid, and I try to respond with love and compassion, instead of fear. Maybe that teenager you saw is suicidal and just needed some extra love today, we don’t know what each person is going through. What I do know is that I am a parent to 4 kids and they are all struggling. My kids don’t have boyfriends/girlfriends yet, but my kids are really struggling and I’m doing the best I can to keep them home and safe. I’m also doing the best I can to trust the universe and let each human make choices for themselves. Arresting people for holding hands is not an answer.”
Sigh. Of course I responded but ack.