Every farmhand at a Tennessee Farm has tested positive.

Two thoughts

1)
2). I’m surprised and impressed they tested everyone.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-29/every-single-worker-has-covid-at-one-u-s-farm-on-eve-of-harvest?srnd=premium&sref=taxRtTxi

I'm not a doctor. I dont know if this is disinformation or a useful piece of the puzzle

https://elemental.medium.com/coronavirus-may-be-a-blood-vessel-disease-which-explains-everything-2c4032481ab2

Screenshot_20200530-090641_Samsung Internet (resized).jpg

Can you imagine having to dress for work like this? Out in the summer sun? I think heat stroke would be a problem.

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FWIW - Sent this to my brother who is a board certified radiologist. He had just seen a foot MRI of a nursing home patient with very unusual issue.

Patient had tested positive, but now negative for Covid (well, at least tested negative). Says this this theory of CV being a vascular issue could fit well with what he saw on MRI. Article had my brother all excited.

If someone dies in a car accident, why would they spend the time and money testing someone for covid in that situation?

This should come as a shock to absolutely no one. Party goer at crowded pool party tests positive.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/29/us/ozarks-missouri-party-coronavirus/index.html

Relative died. Funeral is next week. Take a guess how many friends and family are wearing masks or practicing social distancing during the various get togethers...

Apparent very few people save those wearing masks are concerned about a viral transmission in several big Cities. Covid has taken a back seat for other issues.
I am impressed the mask thing has caught on with many Americans. I watched a video from Durham NC and can honestly say 90% of the participants had a mask on.
The next few weeks with re-openings occurring and close contact marches will result in a marked increase of Data as far as transmission goes.

It was hypothetical. Random testing is your short answer. There are a hundred other examples. Maybe the patient crashed into the ED when driving themselves to emergency? . The "died in a car accident" example I copied was used by a health proffesional in an interview, explaining things, on the television. Don't shoot the messenger!

Any death involving engulfment or suffocation, even if not primarily caused by covid. Test + then it is recorded under cv19. For now at least.

Also now that there are no cases, there are basically only tests being conducted on people whom are not assumed to be infected, and people whom take themselves in for testing. Random tests as well. If you die, you are going to get tested for covid no matter what, at least here now anyway, we don't really seem to be short of tests.

It is an openly and publicly stated piece of trivia from what I've watched on FTA TV, media, if a death records positive for cv19 (in Oz) then it is recorded as a confirmed cv19 (related) death. Partial cause or not, the answer is a yes/no to "Covid related?". Maybe it's a way to simplify things and not miss anything?. Who knows. It isn't my policy, it is publically reported to be the way things are going down here. Wether people like it or not. Besides, it is not like the media to ever feed the mushrooms any bulls#it ever, so it must be the way things really are, hey.

See? We still partying in NYC! It’s not all virus and protesting.

https://www.kob.com/national-news/pop-up-bar-scene-tanning-salon-test-shutdown-rules-in-nyc/5745476/

84C75808-F7DE-4B9B-9D15-5CC33A77F949 (resized).jpeg

Related tangent to that 2020 movie plot you've raised....

2020-05-31-11h13m58s101 (resized).jpg

How is the plot timing of this out of control situation going to affect transmission rates, or prevention of new outbreaks?

I never considered availability of tests, maybe it's changed but there doesn't seem an excess of tests available here.

I keep reading here that there's a emphasis on wearing masks. Right here in the Netherlands a lot of (most?) people are concerned and practice social distancing without wearing masks. It is believed here that masks can even be bad, for several reasons, a few being: it doesn't help that much and people still feel safer because of a mask and therefor are less careful, so in the end wearing a mask does more harm than good. Still, when going into public transportation, a mask will be required here as well, so that sounds strange.

When I see a person wearing a mask shouting or talking really loud though, I think 'I'd rather have him/her not wearing a mask and not talking that loud, than what he's doing now'. It's hard to judge behavior without enough knowledge.
I get the idea from this forum though that in the USA you're either doing good wearing a mask or doing bad not wearing one, without looking at the rest of someones actions. It's probably not as simple as that, but that's the vibe here that I'm getting sometimes. Judging if someone is or is not wearing a mask is of course easier than looking at the total picture of someones behavior, so maybe it's easiest to do? And maybe wearing a mask is more important than I've learned to believe?

What I read in all sorts of different articles I conclude for myself that washing your hands and keeping distance is way more helpful, and being outside with others is way better than inside, and when inside with other(s), you shouldn't use airconditioning but put the windows open to way lessen the risk infecting or being infected. That said: scientists don't all agree, and it takes more time to be sure, and probably my conclusion is not perfect and some else reading the same articles may come to (slightly) different conclusions, for having another bias to start with than I do.

There are so many different opinions about wearing masks or against wearing masks. So why there is no experiment to look into this?
Oh I forgot, scientists already did an experiment on this:
https://fightcovid19.hku.hk/hku-hamster-research-shows-masks-effective-in-preventing-covid-19-transmission/
That is not a fake news, not an opinion. That just is science and as long nobody proofs me wrong denying that masks are helping is the same as denying that the planet earth is not flat!

Thank you. He lived a long life. It was a rough year for him. I’m glad he is at peace.

Things are looking up.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/business/necco-wafers-trnd/index.html

image (resized).png

No. Just wear a mask for the next 9 months.
Its just a safety thing. 2 people wearing masks is just safer than not.

The mask thing is not a mystery to be solved, it is good advice to be followed.

Healthcare professionals are pretty keen wearing them. I wonder why?

If you are unsure about mask usage around close contact with others, in poorly ventilated areas, and public spaces in general - I’m not sure what would convince you. We have had outbreaks with meat packers, church choirs/congregations, restaurants, grocery workers, parties, funerals, and within families.

If anything we should have an all out effort to produce better masks in larger quantities, make them available to the public, and encourage their use.

If/when the Illinois Tollway System reopens their cash lanes, Toll Scofflaws will probably try using them as substitutes for quarters.
Google Steve Dahl for details.

Agreed, the world is better off without those nasty ass things.

"Congratulations to the Astronauts that left Earth yesterday. Good choice".
Andy Milonakis

Ha Ha Ha

Who-Dey,

Did you even read the article ?

Help me understand something. I thought that by practicing social distancing and wearing masks, we would still have the same number of overall covid infections. It's just that those infections would be spread out over a longer period of time. Regardless of the measures that we take, isn't 50% to 60% of the world's population still expected to contract this coronavirus? Unless hard no-travel borders go up, no country/state can prevent the eventual spread to everyone.

The ironic thing is, the better we are at locking down, the longer all this lasts, correct? The point is to spread the infections out to reduce ICU load, and buy time for better treatments, and eventually a vaccine. But we can't really wait for a vaccine right, cuz that's still 9+ months away at best. So when is the right time to open? How long is this supposed to last? I've not heard a single authoritative and trustworthy source lay out a timetable and plan of action that makes any kind of sense from a safety or economic standpoint.

I want to do the right thing, and I want our country to do the right thing, but I genuinely don't know what the right thing to do is. What is the right balance between risk and reward, between safety and ruining the financial and mental well-being of millions. It's really hard to know what "right" even looks like.

For instance, my family has chosen to keep my parents (ages 55 and 66) within our social group. This has been enormously helpful in allowing us to maintain a sense of normalcy, and has been a blessing from a practical and emotional standpoint. They're about the only people that we interact with, and us for them, so we calculated the risks, and chose not to isolate from them. And for us, it ended up being the right thing to do, as none of us have gotten sick. Some friends of ours with slightly older parents have gone full-isolation. And it's been devastating for them. The grandmother is very depressed, and frequently cries. Her and the grandkids (ages 3 and 8 ) are upset that they can't hug each other or spend any time together. All of them are very depressed and anxious.
Our friends have chosen to make the technically "safer" choice, but it's taken a terrible toll on them, and their parents, from an emotional and mental health standpoint.

So which of us is/was "right"? I don't know. All I know is that I'm happy with the decisions that we've made so far.

*Also, please note I and my parents wear masks all the time when we go to stores or the post office, but it's getting old. And I'm definitely now in the minority when I go out wearing one.

I have to agree with him that they are nasty. Surprised they brought them back from extinction.

I see my 74 year old mother and my 73 year old father and his girlfriend, but we always meet outside, and keep a safe over 6 feet (I think most of the time over 8 feet to be on the safe side) distance. That, and washing hands and being careful with handing cups of coffee and such, keeps the risk almost at zero, I think.
I think especially my mother, who is alone, wouldn't be able to cope if we as a family wouldn't see her anymore. No hugs and kissing is hard for her, but I don't want to take the risk of contaminating her. I miss hugs&handshake&kisses with other people as well, though not as much as my mother does, I think.

I think indeed besides the ICU load it is also to gain time and get to know more about the virus and how it's spread, which alone might help a lot, and in the end develop a vaccine and treatment. To be honest, I'd rather be in hospital with covid now than when it all started for already more is known than before, even though we've got a long way to go.

I'm a little worried that people can't keep living careful and what consequences that will have. Though there are some exceptions, it's not too bad here: even though it's getting way busier in the streets, most people still seem to keep their distance. We'll see what happens now since this 1th of June pubs are being opened though with distancing measures and maximum amount of people, cinemas are open with up to 30 people, high schools back open this week with parts of the classes at a time. Gyms will be opened next month. On the one hand you're glad that some things can go somewhat back to normal (well...not really, but more than before). On the other hand there's some fear of what might happen.

It is really pretty simple and people are making in more complicated than it needs to be. If EVERYONE in the world would "do the right thing" for two weeks this virus would end because it couldn't spread. Sadly in the real world that is impossible.

So the next best thing to do is to slow the spread to a point the medical system can handle it and with a few exceptions that is what has happened here in the US. Had we not had the "stay at home order" for a couple months the whole country (or at least most of the country) could have looked like NYC. What the medical community was hoping was during that couple months they would be able to find a decent treatment and save more lives. Originally when they did the stay at home order everyone "in the know" knew you could only do that for so long before people revolted - logical way to approach it was say a month or so than slowly stretch it out to close to three months in hardest hit areas. Again just hoping to find ways to help the sick & slow down the spread.

Now that three months is almost over & people are really starting to "push back". The "people in the know" and the politicians have put themselves in a great position. When the general public does stupid stuff and spreads this virus like wildfire now they can say "we tried and people didn't listen". "Had you done what we kept telling you to do this wouldn't have gotten this bad".

Bottom line at this point is the Coronavirus will be around for 2 to 3 years and will continue to kill lots of people until one of two things happens. The first would be they find a vaccine that will work effectively or second enough people get it that it stops spreading due to "herd immunity". Sadly things will get a lot worse before they get better. And it will likely be worse here in the US than in most places in the world because we have so many people "pushing back" against "doing the right thing" and using social distancing & masks to help slow the spread down.

All any of us can do is to do our best and to do our part helping to overcome this. But we have a very long road ahead of us.

The idea with the lockdown was to flatten the curve of infected, so the hospitals are not overrun. The infection would run a longer time but with less deaths. Now we now that most infected don't give away the virus, only 10 % spread it to 80 % of the new cases. So a softlockdown (like in Japan) has the same effect.
But an other goal is to prevent a contact with a massive dosis of virus. Studies are showing that with contact to more virus, the disease will be way more intensive.

The "flattening the curve" was the most important thing during the initial, exponential growth phase. It seems that we've been pretty successful at doing this. Now, it's time to try to reduce the overall amount of infections, especially in the most vulnerable populations. It is simply ridiculous to think we should all be sitting around waiting for everyone to contract this virus. That would be a terrible strategy. Hopefully, a vaccine or effective treatment will be developed before most of us have been infected. That way, lots of people are never infected, and lots of lives will be saved.

“Here Brazil, take these extra doses of a medicine proven to be at best ineffective and at worst deadly. You’re welcome.”

https://thehill.com/policy/international/500371-white-house-us-sends-2m-doses-of-hydroxychloroquine-1k-ventilators-to?amp

I realize this forum is not the stock page report. But this is why you cannot get your hopes up for vaccine when some outfit starts talking in glowing terms about how its research for a vaccine is bearing fruit. Some people in this outfit made millions last week. You all can decide if these guys were taking advantage of a situation, or not.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/business/moderna-vaccine-stock-sales-invs/index.html

" Everybody's doing that except Moderna," he said.

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said the sample size in Moderna's release -- eight -- is far too small to draw any meaningful conclusions.


"You are about to give a vaccine to tens of millions of people," he said. "I really wouldn't issue a press release about a number of people who you could invite to a small outdoor barbecue."
==============================


Pitt, the former SEC commissioner, said the episode underscores a shortfall of modern financial markets.
"It's part of the problem with our securities markets that, particularly given their volatility, it is possible for people to make enormous profits and gains based on relatively nothing of lasting substance," Pitt said.

For those Pinsiders that don't live in the US how do you view the United States right now? I'm curious because citizens here are often brought up to believe that Americans are the best at everything, that "we are #1" in everything we do, etc. It wasn't until I went to college that I began questioning that mindset. We are number one alright, number one in the number of cases and Covid-19 deaths.

The US seems like a scary place right now with everything going on. Thank goodness for the NASA / SpaceX launch over the weekend as its one of few things that can unite people and that everyone can be proud of. I think the idea and concept of America is incredible (a mix of all cultures, races, religions, etc) but that it's people are failing each other in letting that concept thrive to its fullest.

All fair concerns and points. I think the lack of leadership has made some of your questions really difficult to answer. I don't have the answers either. We've been taking this pretty seriously. We order what we can online or for pickup. It's simple, and there's really not much reason to go out. In the rare case we do need to interact with the public, we wear masks, keep our distance, and sanitize our hands immediately afterward. We're fortunate enough to be able to work from home. I think the best thing I can offer those that have to be at some sort of a physical workplace is to avoid bouncing around town.

I really don't have an issue with any of it. The more time I sit and watch how people are acting during this, the more I realize how little I want to interact with the public anyway.

My wife and I are now discussing slowly opening our circle. My parents have been doing the same things we have over the past several months. My kids go to an in-home daycare where they're the only kids other than the provider's. Even with that, I'd be reluctant to get together with my parents given that variable. We have a little over a week of vacation starting Friday. We're going to lockdown tight for that. Next weekend we're going to take some temperature checks and if everything looks good my parents will come down for a visit. They're locking down in anticipation as well. It seems excessive, but also worth it.

My wife's family on the other hand is going out to restaurants and bars, and going out without masks. We told them we're not comfortable with them seeing the kids. They're pissed. Tough cookies. I'll do what I think is best for my family in all of this. There's certainly balance, but I see no reason to jeopardize the health of my family because you can't stay out of a bar for a week or two.

We've been pretty cautious, but we just decided to take a small step towards returning to normal. Our cleaning lady normally comes once a week. We've been paying her all this time, but we haven't allowed her to come since mid March. We recently decided that we are willing to have her start working again. She will be here tomorrow morning. We are definitely a little nervous about it, but we have decided that the risk is acceptable as long as she is asymptomatic and wears a mask the whole time. We'll just keep our distance from her and allow her to do her thing.

Unless we decide to fight over who gets credit.

It's Musk and his Dracula wife.

I would like to answer your question and I hope it is ok that my answer has nothing to do with corona and is a bit longer. I grew up with American soldiers stationed around my village and they are still here. Some say we’re still occupied, I think they are here to help, so that we all could live in freedom. And I hope the american soldiers keep staying here.
As a kid I loved their ice cream on Independence Day and as a kid they let me sit in a F16 Falcon (I think that’s why I later went to the german army). They were always friendly, and I liked them. And perhaps as a kid I thought they were the best and number one in the world. I learned to speak the english language way before I got into school. In school I failed the English course because I was talking like on the street and not the british english they wanted to teach us. I watched american TV Shows, always loved the music and the culture. As a teenager I loved the book “Centennial” from James R. Michener that covered a big part of American history. I love western movies with John Wayne like “The Searcher” and my all-time favorite TV show is “Northern Exposure”. I cannot live without american music from, soul and blues, over folk to rock and metal.
Over the years I have met many American families from different corners of the country. They taught me how to love and watch American Football. And I played baseball with them and had fun. They let me sneak into the base to buy things that you could not get here in Germany. Then after 9.11. something started to be bit different many Americans started to close everything and keep for themself. I could understand this. There were times when soldiers from the Iraq war came in my pub and were broken down, after a few drinks they started crying over the things they saw there or about lost friends. Sometimes they wanted to get in fights, and I had to show and tell them that they are now under friends again. I could understand all this, also it sometimes was precarious.
And still through the years I often found good friends and with the internet I could keep in contact with them:
The Texan girl, who is a good musician and has a farm where they filmed a lot of westerns.
The guy from LA that became a member and big part of a traditional runners club in my village and had a wife here but left her and went back to the USA.
The black guy from Hawaii with the german name “Fritz”, one night I taught him very drunk a few swear words that are used in my village, only to hear him say these words to the referee the next day in a soccer match which resulted in a red card.
The Captain from a Irish New Yorker family that had run a pub in NY and always came to my similar pub cause of homesickness as long as he stayed in the US army here.
The big black guy from Belize, who is in the freemasonry and has a teacher as his wife who loved world music and my beer. And told me that he wants to come back in a few years to live the rest of his life in my village, far away from all the racism he is confronted in the USA.
I still have contact with them after they left and there were many more!
And under my good friends are still Americans living in my little village:
An American/Mexican ex-soldier who stayed here after his army time as a sport teacher and soccer coach.
Or the beautiful wife of the mayor of my village, who could not vote for her husband in his election, cause she still only has her american citizenship and wants to keep it that way.
And one of my best friends an ex-soldier from Puerto Rico who also stayed here and has a good salsa band and many kids and grandchildren who are living here now like german natives.
One of my neighbors is an old friendly lady from Jacksonville who hates Trump and she wants to live here till she dies also she misses surfing.
All these people are different, different colors, religion and view on politics, but they are all coming from the USA. They are genuinely nice, and I like talking with them as often as possible, almost daily!
2 Years ago, I went to watch my first NFL game in London. I am a big Seahawks fan, always was, no bandwagon fan! I came into the Wembley stadium and searched for my seat. Direct next to me sitting was an old guy from seattle, I would say around 80 years old. Before I could sit, he looked at me in my Seahawks shirt from up to down. Then he said that this is a big relieve for him, he thought he had to travel so far, and he was afraid he had to sit next to a Raiders fan. I told him that I am a real Seahawks fan, but that I am from Germany. He said: “Bloody Nazi doesn’t matter, as long you are no Raider!” Normally to call someone a nazi would be a big insult but I had to laugh about this. After the game he said to me: “Son you did great, cheering up the team!” And that I am a real loud “12” and that I should come to watch a game in Century field one day. That was for me like I have been knighted! Later that night I got drunk with a nice couple of Raiders fans from oakland in the London Crobar. I still have a video from her saying "Go hawks!", took me a lot of drinks to get her this far.

So why I am telling you all this? Perhaps it is not the answer that you wanted but It does not matter for me if America is the number one and the best or not. It does not matter if you start a rocket into space. When I write “Black lives matter” on facebook it is not against America, it is the opposite. As long I have so many friends from your country, and as long I am invited as a friend. I am on the side of the American people as a friend too. You have problems in your country, we have problems here, sometimes the same, sometimes different. But as people I think we almost have the same background and the same culture and, in many things, the same way of thinking. We value the same things: Freedom, democracy and human rights. We should keep working and living together in this world. Does it matter where we are born? And I think that covid shows us this more than anything else. May the force be with you!

Be good to your spouse, Remember, right now they could poison you and it would be counted as a covid death.

Thank you for the post! I'm glad you have had so many good encounters with Americans over the years. I would love to visit Germany one day.

I always thought I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Over the past couple of years, my wife and I now talk about what country we want to retire to, not what state.

I nominate this for Key Post status.

One thing to bear in mind, is that despite what it may feel like, the US is actually doing better in deaths per capita/million than many other countries. Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, the UK, Italy, France, and the Netherlands all have more covid deaths per capita than we do in the US, as of 2 days ago. Something to ponder. And for some reason, they're all Western and Northern European countries. And most (all?) have nationalized healthcare systems, if that matters in covid-response.

So I do actually wonder how "bad" we really are doing as country overall dealing with covid-19. I suppose it's all relative.

There are some countries where we are currently fairing better in per capita deaths, but many of those countries were hit earlier as well. Not really an apples to apples comparison between US and European countries as we are on differing timelines. The chart below could make you think we are doing swell until you read the title and look at a list of all the countries, not just the top 10 most affected. This chart really says we aren't doing that great. Here is the rest of the information: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

Screenshot 2020-06-01 20.38.30 (resized).png

There are alot of truly Great things!! ... America is very good at alot of stuff, Absolutely! ... although maybe not always that stuff goes to the greatest good. Same can be said for other countries though too I suppose.

Pinball is one of many great things that America has given us here!! .... and cars, our Australian made cars are American inspired. Just that instead of making them bigger than Texas with heaps of cubes in the mill, we made them a bit lighter, only as big as they needed to be, and still chucked the same mill with the same heaps of cubes and horsepower in there... what a way to have fun!

Party kind of ended in the 70's when the party pooper govt. decided that in making these pocket rockets we were producing Death Machines!

There are plenty of things that seem quite concerning. Other side of the planet in Oz here and cv19 has stepped to the side on the airwaves, now we have wall to wall reporting on nation wide US riots, during physical distancing....

View for me right now is the same as I was brought up with though, or been exposed to... although more and more people seem to be opening their eyes and seeing more as time goes forward.

Common quote here would be "Only in America! "

I can't give a full uncencored answer for your question, and also have my post published. Controvercial stuff is "taboo". There are things we are not allowed to say in this era of "free speech". On top of that, pinside has its guidelines as well.

Here we are multicultural at the core. Yep we certainly have problems of our own as well. However I seem to keep coming back to feeling quite lucky to be where I am, and there is No place at all in the world that I would rather be. Really.

I rekon believing one's self is "the best", is a bit like believing one "knows everything" .... failed before you've begun...

There are things it pays to learn and remember. Unfortunately information is not always free, or true, either.

It isn't easy.