Here is something I didn’t know. I received an inherited IRA when my mom died. Because she was taking a required minimum distribution, I had to do so as well.
I got a letter from TIAA CREF…apparently RMD can be not taken for 2020 if you request this happen. In my case, this RMD is a small amount and not my main source if income. I called them today and requested not to receive the RMD in 2020 (I get mine once a year in December). It will automatically happen again in 2021.
It seemed like a good idea. In the 17 years I’ve had this account, it has never dipped into the principal…but this year it would have. So waiting seems smarter.
If we had followed gating criteria, had testing in place and quarantine, this would keep it from going back to exponential growth and ‘states are just blowing past that.’ So, we are in ‘harm reduction’ instead of going to control the virus.
On antibody tests - we don’t have enough of these tests to check for false results. Too many antibody tests are not accurate. Need very low false positive rate before recommends the test.
1000 mile trip- car or plane safer. Car safer in terms of Covid 19 according to Dr. Wen.
On universities reopening in the fall Dr. Wen said she is concerned because students are not likely to practice social distancing in dorms, etc. Young people can get sick and can be vectors for transmission. Should do all we can now to increase testing, tracing, and isolation capacity. Not sure how will open safely in fall.
Would partitions between tables be as safe as sitting 6 feet apart in restaurants? didn’t say for sure but said partitions could help but are not a fail safe. Amount of time of exposure counts. Both doctors said they would not go to eat in a restaurant now. Dr. Wen expressed concern for those working in restaurants, too.
A super cute little girl asked how police are going to catch bad guys while staying 6 feet away, “they may have a mask but how are they going to stay 6 feet away?”
@HeartofDixie - it sounds like you’re doing things right (and I sympathize with you about intransigent fathers who won’t wash hands!) - I would suggest, though, that you not use Lysol wipes on your hands unless you can rinse them off pretty soon afterward. That stuff is not great for skin. You could use the alcohol-based wipes (wet ones or purell wipes) or you could use the Lysol wipes and then rinse with water or with one of the baby-wipes kind of wipe in the car.
“We’re retreating to a new strategy on covid-19. Let’s call it what it is.”
'At the beginning of the outbreak, the United States had a chance to contain the novel virus by identifying each person bringing the infection into the country and stopping it before it spread in the community. ’
How do you test for something you didn’t know existed? How can anyone or any country be faulted for not having massive amounts of testing kits for a virus which was NOVEL - so by definition NEW? Does anyone think we could have had a secret room somewhere with a HAL type computer that could take the input from who knows who - and spit out a highly accurate test? How to you test ‘people coming in’ when we didn’t even know what symptoms to look for?
wouda-coulda-shouda
Restrictions were put into place for one reason, and one reason only - at least that is what we were told - to flatten the curve. The restrictions were put into place to keep HC facilities from being overloaded. The additional requirements/wants were added afterwards. But as far as I know, there hasn’t been an official statement from any governmental agency that clearly states - we’ve changed our minds on the metric.
And that fuels the frustration, confusion and belligerence.
The closures were announced to slow the spread of the disease. But there’s no point in slowing the spread of the disease if you have no way to keep it slow once you open up again: you’d just waste the sacrifice of everybody who stayed home for the whole long time.
We need a plan and an infrastructure to keep the cases down as we open. And we have a plan: masks, continued social distance, test, trace, isolate. We need to make sure we have the resources to carry out the plan, and then we need to do it. Not just go back to the beginning and watch more people die.
We could have gotten test kids from the WHO 6 weeks earlier than we got our first testing going. If we had, we could have contained the virus. The white house guidelines talk about stages for reopening with the 2 week decline in cases and having testing, contact tracing, and quarantine ready to go before this happens. The change isn’t on the end of the people advocating we follow the guidelines but among those who decided they no longer support those guidelines.
Test, trace, isolate works when case #s are low enough that this can happen. We moved beyond that in Feb and early March when we did not get testing going in time to do so. Now we had another shot to contain things but are throwing it away.
Where I live cases are going down enough so in a week or so we’ll be at a level where we can feasibly trace. And we’re ramping up testing. They want essential workers to be tested once a month.
The other countries that got tests from the WHO did not contain this virus.
With all the international travel coming into this country there is no way we could have begun to even try have a chance without a complete lockdown of travel with no one entering or leaving the country. The virus came in from many different countries as travellers returned here or came here to visit. Once here there is no containment unless we absolutely lockdown everything, including essential workers/businesses for a month. I doubt anyone is ready to give up EVERYTHING for one month. Then, maybe after that month we could contain it. Otherwise it’s going to slow and rebound and slow and rebound until it’s reached the majority of us.
[quote="Cardinal Fang;c-22812781And we’re ramping up testing. They want essential workers to be tested once a month.
[/quote]
It’s great they are testing more. In the end that test is good for what timeframe, a day? It certainly isn’t good for a month. Absolutely test more people. In the end we’re either all essential workers or many of us are losing everything to protect less than 1% of our population that in the long run will get it either way
Either the strategy changed or we were lied to in the beginning. In mid-March, Dr. Birx held up signs that said “15 days to slow the spread”. By late March, they changed to “30 days to slow the spread”. Pretty soon, she quit holding up the signs. Governors issued 14 day SAH orders, then extended them to 30 days, then beyond.
At what point did the CDC issue the guidelines to reopen? Mid-April? Pretty sure it was after states’ SAH orders, after non-essential businesses were closed.
I’m in favor of waiting until my state has the virus under control, including testing, tracing and quarantining, and then reopening gradually. But I understand why people are frustrated. And I support the states making their own decisions, with input from their own health experts.
20/20 as they say…had we completely shut all borders and travel back in October we had a chance with this. But had we done this you can imagine what people and the press would have said? Nobody would have imagined if we didn’t, we’d be where we are now.
I have a friend in Florida who tells me it’s business as usual and people aren’t wearing masks distancing etc. We both agreed we will be very curious how that plays out.
In my area everything is closed but the big box and grocery. I really wish they would open because these stores are packed all day everyday and although people are following the rules (masks/distance), we need to spread people out. Less congestion would be better.
My area peaked in cases on April 10 which was 2 days before NYC but we remain locked down with numbers continuing to drop. The hospital has about 6 people on vents and less than 40 hospitalized with CV. The regional matrix set forth by the governor is too hard to meet. People are visiting food banks, unemployment has reached near depression levels, a friend who is law enforcement says domestic calls are like never before, and my neighbor tells me online public school isn’t working. My son tells me so many kids are smoking pot out of boredom.
It is easy for those who are financially able to sit home, entertain themselves and judge others for not doing the same. That is a luxury. My heart breaks for those who are losing everything. We have indeed reached the point where the cure is worse than the problem.
Chronicle is keeping this running list of college decisions (and links), although most have just signaled an intent so far, having pushed off decision making until June/July.
It is very difficult to balance financial and medical safety. Its also interesting to see a large news station airing reports encouraging the reopening of the country while extending its corporate work from home directive until June 15.
I am so tired of the “you all who live in a bubble” hackneyed meme. No one is rich in my family, most work in social services, non-profit, moderate to low paid work. Some are furloughed or close to let go from their jobs. One older member lost her spouse two weeks ago and hasn’t been able to have a funeral, or a hug. And found out the nest egg left has been decimated. Both my siblings live alone and have had no physical contact with family in months.
Those are all really sad things. But “opening the country” doesn’t change any of them. And we all understand what the stakes are.
And just to be clear: anyone can visit anyone any time they want. If people are isolated, it is because of recognition of the danger. There is no law against going places or visiting people in this country. Other countries did or do have those laws. But we don’t.
The fact that people are lonely is a fact of the disease and its threat, not the “closing” of the country. “Seeing people” was never closed. It’s just that the information for why it’s a bad idea exists.
As far as independent workers who don’t get unemployment–that’s an economic question. We could have the will to engineer a response that does not engineer poverty. But we don’t, clearly. And that’s a shame. It stokes dissent to set up the false health/safety vs. economic well-being dichotomy, and loads of people are dining off of the result.
(Edited to add: as far as lonely-- the exception would be nursing homes. I don’t know the answer to that. I think I’d move heaven and earth to get my person out of one, as the choice seems to be a great chance of premature death, or loneliness. I realize that’s not feasible for everyone. This disease sucks.)
I agree that being outdoors is relatively safe. However, with a situation like in Belmar, it is not. The people were definitely not 6 feet apart , very few masks and they were within this close proximity for an extended time - waiting to buy beach tags for hours.
It baffles me that a shore town couldn’t come up with another way for folks to buy their tags.
Given that the vast majority of US cases originated In NYC, containment would only have worked had we deployed the army to prevent anyone from leaving NY. Since that would have been unacceptable, spread was and remains inevitable. Those who manage to avoid COVID in this wave will likely get it in the second or third waves to come, and the results will be the same regardless.
I think some people really like to think they are in control of their own personal outcome, but they are not. Anyone who lived through the polio epidemics can testify to that.