@ucbalumnus
Thank you for the links!!
Please do NOT attempt this at home. Do NOT throw a battery into salt water (as shown in the wiki link) and expect to use the water for disinfection.
Regarding TB: I wish that we had access to the TB vaccine in the states. I wonder why USA doesn’t routinely vaccinate for TB?
Texas has a lot of open hospital beds and some 1500 open ICU beds. So they’re not going to be in trouble in the next few days. But, y’know, exponential is exponential. They’d better watch out. About a third of hospitalized cases end up in the ICU.
@MarylandJOE Perhaps your son’s high school can throw a graduation together.
Outdoor graduation ceremonies will be allowed in Maryland starting Friday, governor says
From CNN’s Jaide Garcia
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced that the state will be allowed to reopen further on Friday.
Phase two of his Roadmap to Recovery will permit indoor dining to resume at 50% capacity, while maintaining “distancing and following strict public health requirements consistent with the CDC, the FDA and the National Restaurant Association,” Hogan said at a news briefing on Wednesday.
Phase two allows outdoor graduation ceremonies to be held with the proper capacity and social distancing measures. Outdoor amusement parks and rides and miniature golf and go-carts will also reopen safety protocols.
Hogan announced that gyms and other indoor studio fitness facilities will begin to reopen on June 19 at a 50% capacity, along with casinos, arcades and malls – all with strict health and safety protocols.
Coachella and Stagecoach festivals canceled over concerns about coronavirus spread
From CNN’s Madeline Holcombe
The annual Coachella and Stagecoach festivals – two of the largest music events held in Southern California – have been canceled over concerns about coronavirus spread, local health officials announced Wednesday.
“I am concerned as indications grow that COVID-19 could worsen in the fall,” Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser said in a statement announcing the cancellation of the festivals. “Given the projected circumstances and potential, I would not be comfortable moving forward.”
…The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival were originally scheduled to be held in April but were postponed until October under the direction of Riverside County health officials.
I have tickets for Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (my favorite all-time band.) It was originally scheduled for March 21, then postponed to June 25th. Now rescheduled for June 20…2021. Okay with any luck I’ll be there and maybe no masks will be required.
Texas has a lot of open hospital beds and some 1500 open ICU beds.<<<<<<<<<
Are you sure that is the whole of Texas? Where are those numbers from? 1500 ICU beds in the whole of Texas?
Thanks for thinking of my son.
In the end it’s a day late and a dollar short. “Graduation” finished yesterday at his school.
I appreciate the thought though.
As @doschicos stayed above. Maryland is opening up more in the coming weeks. Actually we’ve opened up more than some places already in the last month.
The reality is, even though we’ve been opening up, even though there have been protests and beach goers, and people not following recommendations, etc, we haven’t seen ANY uptick in cases.
In fact our daily deaths have been on a decline since the beginning of May. Our hospitalizations on all levels have declined since the beginning of May. Our testing positivity rate has been declining since mid-April. We are also in the Mid-Atlantic right smackdab in the middle of major metropolitan areas.
I am so looking forward to more opening up and our economy getting going again for more people. I think it’s also critical for people’s mental health. Yes, we may get some extra cases because of this but the reality so far is we have not. And yes, it’s been a month since we started to reopen some things. I just don’t think it’s going to be catastrophic in any way.
So far Maryland has confirmed 1% of our population has tested positive (by the numbers provided). In a state of 6 million we’ve had 59,000 positive cases and 2,700 deaths (tragically the majority of which have been in nursing homes). This while being part of the I-95 corridor containing Washington DC, it’s metropolitan suburbs and Baltimore City.
We’re not in bad shape. We should be opening more and THANK GOD we are soon. Our hospitals are far from overwhelmed. Our numbers have been steadily declining. Many are ready to get out and about. Of course many are still scared to death and will stay inside which is fine too.
Here is the website with our numbers if you’re so inclined to look at them.
I just saw it on the news, UT’s former governor is tested positive for covid. It appears some staffers in the campaign are also infected.
I would appreciate it if people who aren’t getting useful information from this thread or disagree about its value would quit insisting it be closed. Why should you get to control what the rest of us get to discuss? You have several other options. You can skip posts you don’t like, take a break from the thread, put people on ignore, and/or remind people to be more respectful if lines are crossed. Nobody is forcing you to read any thread you’re not interested in.
CC’s readership is on a steady decline even with all the Covid thread traffic. Are you paying attention to what the paid staff are telling you? Expanding beyond elite institutions, asking us what we want, and actively targeting a more diverse audience are not things happening in a vacuum. There is a reason and they aren’t being shy about sharing it. They aren’t really interested in driving away users. Silencing the majority because of the complaints of a few are likely to do just that. I like to think they’re too savvy to take that risk.
Another vote to not close the thread. People need to learn to quit reading posts or the entire thread if they know something is going to bother them. I like reading the range of thoughts.
Today I’m going grocery shopping for the first time in 4 weeks (to the day). It’ll be interesting to see what changes have happened. I’ll probably go this week and next, but then skip again for a while due to probably heading back to FIL’s for the 4th of July. I think there will be more virus around with opening up/protests and the virus will still kill FIL if he gets it. That hasn’t changed.
H went to our DMV to get a picture card (renewed license). He’s tried twice before, but the line was way too long to wait in. Today he’s there an hour before it opens and texted me that he’s #2 in line and #s 3 and 4 just showed up as he got there. I wish they would take appointments! But this is his window to get it done between trips to his dad’s. The frustrating thing is about a week after he renewed the license online PA decided anyone who hadn’t yet done it could just get last time’s picture on the new license. He missed the cutoff by doing it early in the month. (sigh)
Otherwise, we’re content keeping mostly to ourselves and letting the potential tidal wave roll over. No stress mentally about it at all. I like being at home on the farm, esp with H and youngest + his wife here.
The two kids will be heading out Sunday to an AirBnB to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. Their plan is kayaking and hiking, along with whatever else one does by themselves on a wedding anniversary. 
I’m glad they share our views. If not, they could return to their apartment in a city. We’re not forcing them to be here.
I am paying attention to the admonition that people be civil and respectful, and I’m certainly not seeing that. If this is how the Admins want CC to be presented, then fine, but I have been given warnings and put in “jail” for much less in the way of personal attacks- even considering the lighter moderating. It just continues to seem that the same rules don’t apply to all, and judging from the PMs I have received, I’m not alone in feeling that way. Yes, I can ignore the thread, and I should, but it had the potential to communicate some useful information, and I felt I had useful information to contribute due to the nature of my work. But no one wants to hear much except “the world is ending” and anyone who might be willing to actually start back to living a little bit is immediately hit with the “killing grandma/grandpa” rhetoric.
Thanks for this link! It’s very interesting and sobering to see where it fits into the US daily death rate. I also find it interesting to see where the other causes of death fit in… It’s off track, but I wonder where homicide would be.
Anyone not is hit with “killing the economy” rhetoric and assured how dumb they are by twisting numbers. It goes both ways.
There is no perfect answer to Covid. Since it affects lives (both ways), it makes sense that people will be sensitive. If people can’t read “the other side” without getting frustrated the answer is to quit reading it (either the posts from certain posters or the entire thread). It’s not getting the thread shut down because no one should be able to read it. The virus is still out there, a ton is still unknown, and many of the rest of us want to be able to continue talking about it.
Moderator Note:
Please do not use specifically call out others when you don’t agree with them. The topic is Covid.
Keep the thread open.
Do these doctor friends actually work with several Covid patients? Or are they in different specialties?
I’m seeing a big difference between the two. The first is concerned about people not being intelligent with reopening - not wearing masks, etc. They think things could be done, esp since they know more about the virus and have more supplies, but they don’t see it happening in a way they would like. They worry about the near future.
The latter is more concerned about people ignoring other symptoms and staying away from health care.
My family of four did not interact in person with anyone, following the guidelines put in place by the Governor.
We’ve just started socializing with our family - outdoors.
I did let my 16 year old attend a local protest on Monday. He wore a mask, was outside walking from one location to another and it was all over in 1 1/2 hours.
I’m actually very proud at how seriously my kids and their friends have been taking this and their respect for others.
Even though some people are very cavalier about the lives of those who “have a shorter life expectancy “ anyway, my kids understand that this is a truly sad attitude to have.