Coronavirus thread for June

Parent Cafe
1281

I used to be on salary. I was asked back, but was switched to hourly (as were all the managers) and I’m putting in 6-12 hours? a week. Not much at all. Still qualify for UI.

The people I work for own three businesses that I help out with and none of the businesses are anywhere near full capacity.

For the BOH & FOH employees we did ask back, the managers just started calling people and asking if they were interested in working some shifts. Frankly, the vast majority of the people at the restaurant(s) are undocumented and therefore ineligible for UI. Even then, the business does not need everyone back yet and those that are working are not getting FT hours.

For ex-coworkers, they have reported a similar situation. We’re opening the patio. Do you want a couple shifts or do you want to wait it out longer? Again, these businesses do not need everyone back yet. Also, obviously, patio season is subject to the weather and getting called off for the night.

Hope that helps.

1282

I believe you - I don’t think that any of them think they are doing something ‘wrong’ but I do think they are putting lives in danger (potentially their own included) and wish they would be wearing masks. I would not knowingly patronize a place that isn’t wearing masks because it isn’t safe for me. I think that is true for many. When I hear of it elsewhere, it feels like a complete disregard for others. But I believe that what those who do that think is something else, as you said. I don’t think they are intentionally trying to hurt others. I think they either don’t believe masks work, feel influenced by others not wearing them, think it is a tiny percent who will get it so would not more be interested in wearing a mask than I was regarding when I had minor colds prior to the pandemic or I don’t know. But I don’t think it is usually a cold-hearted meanness or intentional feeling of wanting to harm others. But I do think they are almost for sure going to contribute to the spread of the virus and so that makes what they are not not safe for the public.

I hope you don’t feel judgement in what I am writing because I’m not having a moral judgement. I am friends with people who think all different things on many topics and I see the person behind the disagreement usually.

1283

Individuals looking after their own self-interests and competitions among them may work well economically for at least some of them, but these things don’t work at all against a highly infectious virus. No one is ultimately immune and all will be affected eventually. The only winning path is a collective defense and some sacrifice of individual self-interest.

1284

@suteiki77

All good. :slight_smile:

You wrote:

“…I would not knowingly patronize a place that isn’t wearing masks because it isn’t safe for me. I think that is true for many…”

I have a friend who feels much like you do.

My friend cannot believe the owner of the shooting range told me & my brother yesterday that we didn’t need to wear masks in there. Optional! This guy must have been in his mid-70s, at the very least.

And my brother, a double lung transplant recipient, in his late 60s, took his mask off right then & there, and let it hang down on his chin!

If I work a carry out shift at the restaurant, regular customers tell us (employees) we don’t have to wear masks around them. “You can take that thing off around us!”

The country is not going to have consensus on this (IMO).

1285

From today’s JHU Center for Security email:

As we have noted recently, a number of US states are exhibiting increasing COVID-19 incidence and hospitalizations, several weeks after initiating efforts to relax social distancing restrictions. We have covered several of these states already this week, including Arizona, California, and Texas (hospitalizations and testing). Other states of note include Alabama, Alaska, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Vermont.

A number of these states reported their highest daily incidence and/or highest current COVID-19 hospitalizations over the past several days. While Alaska still has relatively few cumulative reported cases, its daily incidence has returned to a similar level as its “first wave” of cases, and modeling indicates that its epidemic is currently exhibiting exponential growth.

In addition to increasing incidence, several of these states are also reporting increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations or increasing or elevated test positivity, which suggests that increased testing may not wholly account for the increased incidence.

Increased incidence is not necessarily distributed evenly across these states. Multiple outbreaks in different locations—including congregate settings such as nursing homes, meat packing facilities, and prisons or jails—are contributing substantially to these totals in numerous states.

Many of these states were not hit particularly hard early in the US COVID-19 epidemic, but they are now exhibiting increasing incidence that corresponds temporally with decisions several weeks ago to relax social distancing and permit increased social interaction. It is still a little early to identify any increased transmission related to Memorial Day holiday gatherings or protests against racial and social injustice in the United States or other countries.

1286

H and I are meeting D1 and her bf tomorrow at a local brewery on the water that a friend of ours owns. They have a large outdoor seating area and we had to make a reservation. We have loved going to this brewery and have supported them with curbside pickup while they were not open for patrons. We will have to wear our masks when we go there as it is a requirement here in San Diego. This is our first time out to a bar/restaurant since reopenings began here.

1287

Huh?! Who said anything about being embarrassed or blaming anyone? Please stop going on attack right off the bat. I did not vote for the tax cuts. I do my share and more of keeping the economy going. Do you?!

1288

Honestly, I have been quite heartened by the overwhelming majority of people in this country who want our country to prioritize fighting the pandemic and are willing to sacrifice and speak up for the common good. I have become quite hopeful again. True, there are still many who do not see it this way, but it is clear that is a minority view.

1289

Reporting in from my first day back in the office. I was pleasantly surprised. I wore a mask into the building, but took it off at my desk. Someone must have warned them all because it was almost dead silent for the first 10 min. Once I started talking, it was a bit more normal, but everyone stayed in their cubes. We can hear each other just fine from our seats. Our boss has these green circles placed in the aisles telling people to stand there to remind people not to enter the cubicle.

We had a staff meeting in the large conference room, and I was surprised that 3 others (not counting myself) wore a mask! We have 11 plus the boss. He told us of all the changes. Nobody is supposed to come into our office if possible. They get to wait in the hall and we go to them. And all public must enter through the police floor and get a temperature check and a sticker saying they are cleared. We don’t get checks yet which I think is odd, but we must wear our ID badges now. I had to dig mine out.

I got to leave at noon and burn vacation time. Next week will be full days. Not looking forward to that, but I do feel a fair bit better.

And I got my own personal container of Clorox wipes at my desk :slight_smile:

1290

Glad your first day went well.

I’m surprised your boss thought it necessary to put 12 people in a conference room to deliver that message when it could have been delivered in a way without having to have people in such close proximity. Maybe your conference room is SUPER large.

1291

There was a Sinbad routine on the early 90’s (Brain Damaged?). In it, he discussed how his kids made stupid decisions because their brains weren’t done growing. And in fact, the brain may not fully develop until age 25. From https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=3051

(But there are tons more studies and articles)

1292

@Midwest67

Do you think part of it has to do with political affiliation and feeling that masks are associated with a particular political belief or vice versa, that not wearing them is?

Everyone I know here wears masks. We had a delivery person who came not wearing one and I had to ask him to put it on. That was not a good sign to me because it indicated he isn’t normally being careful and so I was very uncomfortable having him in my house. Opened all windows, super hepa filter on full blast, all of us had masks on, disinfected all when he left.

Was the shooting range outside? Does your brother feel concerned about getting the virus?

I think maybe parts of the country differ greatly.

The delivery person was from a part of the state that skews politically aibt more to the right.

1293

What I observed lately in north Texas:
Mask wearing is down, especially outside or in Home Depot. Was able to get an instacart order at Costco for “within two hours”. Including the big package of Kirkland brand TP. Just got a text, she is in the car headed my way. I couldn’t have done it this fast myself. Plus they are now delivering beer and wine!

Cases are up in Texas. It doesn’t seem too logical to count the number of ICU beds state-wide. An open bed 12 hours away doesn’t help!

1294

It is a large room. I believe it holds 100 people and has 20 foot ceilings. I think it was originally a courtroom in the 1920s.

1295

Utah governor pauses lifting Covid-19 restrictions following spike in cases
From CNN’s Pamela Wessmann

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has paused the lifting of restrictions following spikes in Covid-19 cases over the past two weeks.

The governor said during a news conference Thursday that the increase in cases is “giving them pause.”

The state will remain in the “yellow” phase of reopening with the exception of one county, Brooke Scheffler, public information officer for Herbert, told CNN in a text Friday.

She also confirmed that Salt Lake City will remain in the “orange” phase, which is below yellow.

"What should we in fact do as a reaction to this spiking of infection? For the most part, I think the answer is that we will pause and really for the most part maintain yellow guidance in most of the state,” Herbert said Thursday.
Utah’s state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said in the news conference there was a “great spike in the growth rate of cases” after Memorial Day.

Here are the numbers, according to Dunn:

Daily state cases have been in the 200 to 300 range since Memorial Day.
In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, the percent of positive tests was hovering “around 4 to 4 ½ %.”

In the two weeks since Memorial Day, they have seen the trend increase to 7% for a weekly average and then 10% percent positive for the last week.

“There are some parts of the state that are being hit harder than others, and there’s localized outbreaks and hotspots, but by and large, we are seeing this increase in cases throughout the state,” Dunn said.

The governor said he “doesn’t want to take a step forward and then take a step backward.”

Under yellow guidance, there are no economic activities that are categorically prohibited, Herbert explained.

“We’ve not gone down the road as many other states have done of identifying essential or nonessential businesses and services,” he said. “We’ve had minimal restrictions for in house dining, public schools closing, which are not insignificant in its impact, but we have been listed as the fourth least restrictive state in America and addressing this pandemic, we’ve not closed down the economy.”

Record number of Covid-19 cases reported in Arkansas in last 24 hours
From CNN’s Pamela Wessmann

There have been a record number of Covid-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said during a news conference Friday.

“We have increased 731 cases in the last 24 hours, the largest increase in community cases and total cases since this pandemic began,” Hutchinson said.
There were 10,816 cases on Thursday and now there were 11,547 cases, he added.

At least 207 of the newly identified cases were in correctional institutions while the rest are community cases, Hutchinson said.

1296

Texas county official issues warning as coronavirus cases rise
From CNN’s Adrienne Vogt

Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in Harris County, Texas — which includes the city of Houston — said the county saw its highest numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations this week.

“We don’t see evidence that our public health interventions are being able to contain, to control, the spread of that virus, so I want to … sound that alarm that we’ve got to take action now so that we avoid a shutdown in the future,” Hidalgo said.
Harris County is the third most-populous county in the US. Hidalgo, who serves as its chief executive officer, warned the county “may be approaching the precipice of a disaster” in a press conference yesterday.

Hidalgo said they are seeing the numbers increase as the state has started to reopen over the past few weeks.

“I’ve always said I think the reopening timeline was a little too fast. I wouldn’t have done it that quickly,” she said.

“I want the economy to reopen as much as anyone. I just want it to be sustainable. I don’t want us to be ping-ponging between open and close,” Hidalgo added.
She said that while there is enough hospital space right now, it’s “alarming” that more than 15% of ICU space is being occupied by Covid-19 patients.

1297

42,000 people to participate in the next phase of this Covid-19 vaccine trial
From CNN Health’s Elizabeth Cohen and Wes Bruer

The phase 3 trial of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by University of Oxford is underway, and is expected to include 42,000 people when the Oxford-led trial is combined with a phase 3 trial led by its partner, AstraZeneca.

In phase 3, Oxford is enrolling 10,000 people in the UK, and AstraZeneca is enrolling 30,000 in the US. On June 2, the Brazilian government approved the inclusion of volunteers in their country, with 2,000 volunteers to be tested there.

The AstraZeneca portion of the phase 3 trial will begin in August, according to the National Institutes of Health, which will be conducting and funding the trials.

Participants in the phase 3 group will “receive one or two doses” of their Covid-19 vaccine candidate, or another licensed vaccine that will be the control group.

1298

TSA screens more than half a million for first time since pandemic hit
From CNN’s Greg Wallace

More than 500,000 people crossed through US Transportation Security Administration checkpoints on Thursday, the first time the numbers have climbed above that mark since travel cratered this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 502,209 people TSA reported screening is still well below typical levels — nearly 19% of the 2.7 million the agency screened on the same Thursday last year.

The passenger rates have steadily risen since bottoming out at about 3% of last year’s traffic – less than 100,000 daily travelers — in mid-April.

Airlines are operating more flights than at that point, and each plane is also carrying more passengers.

Airlines for America, representing the major US carriers, said Thursday that the average departure carries 57 passengers, compared to 50 the group reported on Monday and fewer than 20 at the low point.

1299

Four updates from me:

  1. I went to the periodontist today and felt very good about their procedures: waited in my car, touchless entry with sanitizer, everything frequently cleaned (I could even observe that); almost no one in the office and certainly no other patients. When I left, the guy after me jumped like a scared bunny away from the door when I opened it - sorry! It was opaque. I was wearing a mask; his was below his chin.
  2. My DS (age 18) did do the masked socially-distanced outside time with his young cousins this week. It ended up that the 5yo was bored and went inside. but the 2yo played under DS's supervision for some time, so my sister got a break - yay!
  3. My oldest and his wife have moved to MA and are under official quarantine. We are mulling over an outside distanced masked hello in our backyard tomorrow. They are four days into quarantine and have not had any symptoms or any exposures except being immigrants from New Jersey, where they were more or less SIP (but not as much as we do).
  4. While driving to the periodontist I saw that EVERYONE had masks on. In fact, most drivers did as well. I saw one woman without a mask, and one obviously maskless baby (not the same family) when I drove through an area with some outdoor seating. This is in Southeastern MA.
1300

Not everyone is going to be on board with Anything. I would walk out of a place where service is not wearing masks unless absolutely essential that I get the devices, and I’d stay an extra distance away from anyone in such cases. I might justify carry some sealed in plastic masks I still have with me and offer them up, and pitifully tell them I’m high risk. I’ve yet to run into that situation, however. Only an occasional patron of a place or Random person not affiliated with a business Not wearing masks around here. And of course, you can’t eat in a mask so outside dining means you’ll be in some vicinity of maskless people. I realize it’s going to have to be Neto establish limitations as things loosen up. Can it depend on the law or good will or even common sense and courtesy to prevail.

So I’ve been a terrible consumer these last few months as I’ve holed up as much as possible and am just beginning to emerge after working through the first half of this, just before it reached the crescendo. But no cases or deaths reported in my area while I was working, workplace went proactive, and citizenry was good with it. I’d ordered a box of masks— they midreoresented them, so sent me another box, still not what I wanted soI sold them to the office who distributed them to our clients as they came in, before face masks were even prevalent. In hindsight, should have donated them to the nursing homes in the area, but they’ve been unaffected, so all’s good.

I have no idea what course of action should be taken in opening up businesses and ending social distancing. I think the social distancing a good thing health wise in public as a rule. I think a lot of common colds and other nasty contagious things will be cut drastically if we continued this and the emphasis on hand washing, not touching face , and masks during “high tide” of RSVs. One thing I did notice this year was far fewer colds and other ailments among folks, who have even commented, amazed that the usual wave of illnesses passed them over. I remember thinking that Id never seen so many coughing, runny nosed kids as I did in this area—and I’ve spent my last 40 years around kids. I thought it was just that I was staying away from them but the word from family , friends, neighbors and acquaintances is that kids aren’t getting as sick. No surprise when they are quarantined. It works.