Stay strong and best of luck.

The state of Mississippi went from "Stay at Home" to "Safer at Home" status today.
What that means is that I still can't get a hair cut, among other things, and it is starting to get out of control.
I guess I will have to procrastinate on a hair cut for another 2 weeks.

Back to work next Monday . This should be interesting as I see half ass social distancing everywhere

I'm with ya there on the hair. One of part of me is thinking of doing a buzz cut but another part says to go full Dude and show up to the first day back at work in the summer like this with a Hawaiian shirt on lol.

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Thats great....I wish our shitty Governor would pull that trigger sooner than later....

Easy.

The government asked the people to use social distancing. And the Japanese people do what they are told, for the betterment of the greater good.

They’re not popping off down the road to pick up a pinball machine, or going off for fast food, or honking their horns and waving flags at the state building. They’re doing what they’ve been asked to do.

And you can see what happens when people do what they’ve been asked to do. You get results.

rd

Talking of people doing what they were told - time for a New Zealand update!

You may recall that NZ has been locked down hard for 5 weeks. Nothing open except supermarkets and gas stations.

Pretty much all of the 5 million population has done what they were told, and stayed home for 5 weeks.

Yesterday we got down to 1 new case.

Today we have moved down to “level 3” where restaurants can have food delivered or you can pick up “contactless”. Builders can go back to work under strict rules. Still no retail stores open though ... but a little more freedom from what we had in the last 5 weeks.

As yet, I haven’t seen any angry mobs outside the town hall.

rd

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The topic about rural vs other areas is not really a medical industry topic - but one wound up rather in the larger discussion of "is the shutdown right for all places...". But what is specific to health care is those rural hospitals are far worse equipped to handle these kinds of pandemic patient loads than their larger peers. So they are more vulnerable... but if the patient load doesn't appear because the region isn't impacted... it's preparation for naught. But that's why it's about the larger topic - not health care.

As to your linked article... you should look more at what/where and article comes from.. not just their sales pitch. That's an opinion piece pleading to end shutdowns because it puts people out of work... from someone who... wait for it... is the head of hospital staffing company! The shutdown specifically cripples his business. And he gives no reason to support his argument in that article except for the point of "its putting people out of work" (like the people he makes money putting into roles). It's a completely self-serving piece without any supporting points to the argument beyond "shutdown = people out of work".. Yeah Thx Capt Obvious M.D.

Be more skeptical of your sources... look into where their argument comes from and how they support it. And look at who is writing it and their possible motivations.

Everyone wants the shutdown to end... just getting a piece published saying so doesn't mean there is more valid reason to do so (or not!). Gotta look into the arguments about why (or why not!)

Or better still, if you haven’t offended the wife in a while, beg her to help you. She might do a good job you never know.

Today's venture out observations:

1. The liquor store had a sign out front announcing no one allowed inside without a mask. They had an employee enforcing the rule and I walked past a pouting 35-40 year-old male expressing his disappointment. He was offered a free mask from the store and declined in a spoiled brat kind of way.
I thanked the store manager for their new policy.

2. It occurred to me today that I have not seen a single cop on the highways enforcing speeding laws nor has my Waze program alerted me to any.

3. I've never been much of a Tequila drinker but I'm exploring these days and finding some yummy recommended stuff.
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I'm so fucking jealous.

I naively believed locking down March 13th would be an easy solution.

I'm surrounded by a majority of people of all ages and demographic who mock me for the precautions I've made since then until now.

I so wish ego could have been outweighed by compassion and everyone just shutter the fuck down for 4 to 6 weeks and curb this for the sake of all humanity and generations to come.

So fucking let down but the inability to accomplish such a relatively easy feat versus the potential negative outcome of months or years.

This argument stands true based on economic impact alone. Regardless if you believe the seriousness of Covid or think it's a hoax.

Damnit.

I have been trimming on the edges that I can see myself. I think I can wait another 2 weeks without severe consequences... We do have some trimmers that she uses on the dog, so I think I will forego that and wait for a normal barber... We are not in the apocalypse. Barbers are just taking a vacation. I heard that in some places that you could get a haircut, but you have to make an appointment. Not sure what that is about, but I plan on waiting till normal haircuts are back in place. I have never made an appointment for haircut and I don't plan on starting now.

I received an Official Response from Cedars Sinai today." A Cedars-Sinai research team is in the pre-clinical stages of developing a technology that harnesses intermittent ultraviolet (UV) A light for treating viruses and bacteria. The technology has not been tested or used on patients. Cedars-Sinai has filed for patents related to the technology and has signed a licensing agreement with Aytu BioScience with the aim of potentially enabling near-term use as a COVID-19 intervention for critically ill, intubated patients."

People seem to overlook when something is an opinion piece. One TV news caster (news is being generous ) also is on the radio (no. It is not gasbag Rush). I rarely listen to radio in the car anymore but a few weeks ago I had the radio on and this news caster comes on and talking about so-so this, and a different so-and-so that, and another so-and-so this. There are were about 5 govt. so-and-so's up to no good. And the news caster follows up with saying, "and if that REALLY happened, da de da clang and bang".

So, with his so-and-so diatribe he managed to pillory 5 or 6 people, than cover his ass with the disclaimer. Trouble is, he planted the seed and nobody probably bothered to listen to the disclaimer. And now, these 5 or 6 people have to deal with this.

Beaches reopened in California, this is from two days ago. Looks like social distancing guidelines are in effect...

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I believe it is filtered uv(a) light on a fiber optic cable,.

So, what you are saying is that Cedars Sinai has jack for what we are dealing with now? At least that is the way I read what you just said. but something is just around the corner?

I'm like Levi. Call me with the cure. There are so many suppositional possibilities being tossed out that I cannot keep up with them all.

One thing for sure. When the restaurants open I'll be lining up for a Steak Dinner, and if it requires a hazmat suit so be it.

That's a shocking beach picture.

I say go.full dude ..looks good

I have been self isolating for the last 4 or 5 weeks. When I started there was no virus in my county. Now there are 338 cases and 6 deaths. I feel like I need to hibernate for another 4 or 5 weeks. The state has not opened up yet, but in about another week Kansas will start opening.

WV plans announced today.

https://governor.wv.gov/Pages/The-Comeback.aspx

We may not have created a Medical Military, but perhaps the new Space Force will save us instead?

"Believe me, we can blast the virus from space with UV rays. I think it will be vaporized like the Death Star blowing up and the economy will be great. Anything else is fake news."

At this point I'll be happy to see funding for medical research and hazard pay for essential workers. Still not getting it. :/

Sorry for the confusion. I added quotation marks to show the Statement from Cedars Sinai as received.

Sounds like they may try it soon.

Time to lift the stay at home order:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/california-doctors-who-administered-5-000-coronavirus-tests-data-is-showing-its-time-to-lift-stay-at-home-order

I’ve been eating delicious steak during this whole thing, whenever I want.

It ain’t rocket science to broil up a nice steak!

We passed 1 million cases of COVAD today. Has anyone here had it yet?

What's great about this is you can wear your sweats underneath and not worry about judgement. Now you don't have to worry about loosening that belt and no holding back on the sides menu either. I think I'll join ya.

Link probably not the best one, but you can google the subject and there are dozens of articles from various newspapers nationwide from various administrators of hospitals decrying the same theme.

I'm not sure if we are agreeing or not. You touched on it in your post, that one size may not fit all. That's been a point I've tried to impress is that I dont believe statewide policies are appropriate. Take my state, NC, with 100 counties. 300 some odd deaths, and most are in three or four counties, and a full 1/3 from a few rest homes and prisons. A majority of the other counties have 1 or no deaths. Yet our governor just laid out a plan that essentially keeps the entire state in lockdown for 3 more months. I was a willing participant of social distancing and stay at home when the goal was to not over run hospitals. No hospital in our state came close. Charlotte's county had a high of 94 patients hospitalized. But now we have a half dozen metrics we have to achieve in order to start lifting stay at home. The only one related to hospitals is insuring a 30 day supply of PPE. It just seems to me the goals are constantly changing.

I just flipped through the holy trinity of news channels...CNN, FOX, MSNBC (alphabetical order)....got today’s updates....

ITS STILL A FUCKING MESS!

.

Props to your Gov. Justice for best re-opening plan name yet.
Straight outta the A. Jame Manchin playbook, LOL!
(who once commended me as a 'Commodore of the Ship of State of the Great State of West Virginia').

I admire your government for the clear plan and direction and willingness of the people to sacrifice and follow the orders to get through it faster.

Here in the US, people took it seriously for about 2-3 weeks and some never did at all. Probably the reason it will ebb and flow and remain a problem for a long time to come.

No. Not me.

But a couple of days and the charts have changed. They now look like a peak. The only question is how fast of a decline we will see for what possibly could be Round 1

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It sounds like some might be experiencing a pay cut.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/success/worker-pay-cuts/index.html

"With the economy sitting at a standstill and revenue streams drying up, companies are looking for ways to reduce costs. And some are cutting salaries and benefits to help make ends meet."

"Furlough and pay reductions you didn't see as much in prior downturns. It's still scary for employees, but it's better to have 80% of income than a layoff."

"Workers who lose hours or get a reduction in pay might be eligible for unemployment benefits in some states."

"Brace yourself: Pay reductions could be just the first round of cost-cutting measures.
Some companies have also reduced retirement benefits. La-Z-Boy, for example, also froze the company's 401(k) match when it implemented pay cuts."

That has been shared here before, and unfortunately I've seen it elsewhere. It's astonishingly thin on data, critically lacking in scope, and almost hilariously contradictory in its message. It's almost as if the doctors have an agenda, and don't really even understand what they're saying.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to think "all adults must know what they're talking about". As I grew up I learned that wasn't close to true. Then I thought "wow, that guy's a doctor, he must really know what he's talking about". Then you get into the workforce and realize just because someone holds a title doesn't mean that they're necessarily good at what they do. It's unfortunate, but it's true.

A good doctor is not going to hold a press conference based on a single county worth of data, provide little other than anecdotal evidence, and declare that cautionary restrictions should be lifted everywhere as a result of their "research".

Stress is starting to take hold of our front line workers. Truly sad.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/health/top-manhattan-er-doc-commits-suicide-shaken-coronavirus-onslaught.amp

Nice to see stuff like this:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox6now.com/2020/04/15/literally-handed-me-the-keys-stranger-helped-texas-nurse-get-to-work-when-car-battery-died/amp/

I agree mostly. It's nice to hear some positive news sometimes, but imo that's only usefull if something looks promissing. Not when it's something that's just an idea and hasn't shown any first results yet. If we share those lasts, you can keep posting ideas that might help. There's no use to do that (except maybe for fund-raising, or trying to get a rise in stock value).

Just got back from the local grocery store at their 6AM opening time. I scored Windex Disinfectant (essentially the same thing as the yellow Lysol).

My other hobby is photography. This is called compression. It happens when you use a telephoto lens. Background objects end up appearing larger and closer to the foreground. So from a long distance away, and a long telephoto, it will make this look much more crowded and people will look much closer together than they actually are. Compression can trick the eye into thinking to people are right next to each other while they are 30 feet apart.

I’m NOT saying they shouldn’t be there (they shouldn’t). But I’m saying that this photo makes it impossible to tell if they are actually practicing social distancing or not. Either way, I’m irritated at them because they are making this take longer to resolve, and I’m sick of being home.

Australia is up to 84 deaths and today we had zero community infections . In Victoria most things are open , you can buy clothes , get a haircut , pretty much everything is open , accept pubs , clubs , nail salons , everything where people sit together for a while . Also you can't play golf or go fishing .

Tonight's movie is Ted 2

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That's interesting that you can do all that other stuff, but you can't golf. Here, golf is one of the few non-essential businesses that is just starting to open back up. It's pretty easy to social distance on a golf course.

Perhaps it’s because two different emergency medicine physician associations said they were making reckless and biased statements to support their own financial gain?

“As owners of local urgent care clinics, it appears these two individuals are releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the public’s health.”

https://www.turnto23.com/news/coronavirus/joint-statement-issued-by-national-physicians-groups-calls-local-doctors-statement-reckless-and-untested-musings

And fishing too ...

I just think it's about appearances . People here are cracking the shits because other states will let you play golf and go fishing . While people are staying home you shouldn't be seen to be having fun , out playing golf and fishing . I don't think it's about the act , it's more about what you need to do it , like buying petrol , buying bait , golf balls , going to the golf club -house and everything else that's involved . Stand up paddle boarding is allowed , figure that out . As RotoDave said in New Zealand only petrol stations and supermarkets were open . I'm just happy over here bottle shops/ liquor stores are open , as long as that continues , I'm not going to complain

I’m in the golf industry and we are getting ready to be crazy busy, I’m going on a road trip now to southern Illinois, not exactly excited to be staying in hotels, but I could be out of a job.

I assume they will be allowing one rider per cart, even with a foursome?