No, it is not. Not any of the three cases since a week ago. Unless a skilled memory care facility for seniors does not qualify as a skilled nursing facility even though they have skilled nurses.

I only know because of the phone calls and e-mails they have sent me.

Definitely avoid all legacy news sources, they aren't news anymore but instead exist to deceive the viewer to sell commercial time. There's a reason the median age of viewers to Fox, Cnn, etc is over 60, because that age group is the easiest to deceive and manipulate. No offense to any older folk here but that's just the data, I mean there's a reason scammers target that age group all the time. Avoid them like the plague, there's lots of other places to get news nowadays.

On one of our walks we walked through a hotel parking lot and found hundreds of new Mercedes cars parked still with the sale tags on them. While modern American companies like Tesla have no problem selling cars and even break sales expectations even during the pandemic, legacy car makers on the other hand are stuck with outdated selling and manufacturing methods and hence have to stock pile them in hotel parking lots because they can't sell them. It's really a lesson to modernize or die.

Nowadays The Onion almost seems tame compared to reality.

Long term the stock market always comes back, I sold no stocks and have done quite well during all this. A basic tip is just look at what the people in power do and mimic it. One example is carefully look at how they manipulate stocks for profit with tweets all the time so they can cash in on the downturn, then they build a new position and profit again on the upturn while common folk get fleeced. I don't know why the system is allowed to be manipulated like this but it is what it is. The people don't seem to mind since they vote these people into office, so hey I'll play the profit game as well.

Conrad Black...sneaking out files in the dead of night before going to jail.

Coconut crabs are legal as pets in Australia. ..Ozzy friends here..why don't you have one??

There are several articles out on this and they all reference an interview of the person who was in charge of this strategy (no bias there, right?) and even he says he would do it differently. Here is his actual quote: "If we were to encounter the same disease, given exactly what we know about it today, I think we would reach a conclusion to act somewhere in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world did".

Their nursing homes were crushed by this, much like ours. They have terrible testing according to a Business Insider article I read. With the testing they do have, they are still one of the worst performing countries in terms of per capita deaths. Possibly undercounted from lack of testing.

Antibody tests show that only only 7.3% of people have developed antibodies to the disease - far less than the 60%+ needed for herd immunity. BTW, it is yet to be proven that herd immunity even works for Covid.

Lots of people trying to use the Swedish Model as a reason to say the US lockdown was unnecessary. Our model was more of a wink, wink, nudge nudge, effort, but it certainly helped.

They have almost 5k deaths which dwarfs the other Scandinavian countries who took the opposite approach by a large margin. They also have and one of the highest deaths per 100k in the entire world. The architect of the plan is now under intense scrutiny and criticism and has essentially admitted he would do things differently if he had it to do over again.

People need to realize here as well that “herd immunity” is accomplished via a vaccine , not throwing everyone out there, pretending you can protect the elderly and “vulnerable”, and playing survival of the fittest. Sweden has demonstrated that and yet we are currently replicating that model here in the US... and the results will be completely predictable and much the same.

Also - we don’t yet have a good grasp of what post Covid sequelae looks like - for many people who survive the infection, it may not be like shaking off a cold. There might be long term health consequences for some.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2020/5/8/21251899/coronavirus-long-term-effects-symptoms

My biggest fear about the Coronavirus is getting it and passing it on to someone I care about and having them become seriously ill of dying from it.

My second biggest fear is the long term health impact it appears to have on a lot of people. The CDC & health groups definition of recovered is: sent home from hospital - not back to normal. I have read so many horror stories about long term effects of this virus it scares the shit out of me.

Only time will tell but so far things don't look good and don't look like they will be getting better anytime soon. I know we all wish it would just go away but sadly life doesn't work that way!

From what I have seen, Sweden's death rate per capita is the highest of Sweden, Norway and Finland which are the closest comparators. Now, it remains to be seen if Sweden's death rate will taper off faster than the other two but so far they aren't reporting a high percentage of immune citizens so herd immunity does not appear to have occurred yet.

Saw an epidemiology study where they estimated that the lockdowns of the US, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy and France prevented about 60 million confirmed coronavirus cases which equates to preventing just over 500 million infections.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2404-8_reference.pdf

So for those wondering if the lockdown was worth it, here something to consider. It's not the end all, be all answer. We will never have that unless we find Rick's portal gun and can travel to the alternate dimension where no lockdowns happen but at least according to the people who study this kind of stuff for a living, it made a big difference.

I think it's interesting that new studies show a conection between blood type and how bad the corona disease will hit you.
https://figshare.com/articles/How_blood_group_O_could_be_protected_from_Coronavirus_Covid-19_infections/12019035
I read today, that for "bloodtype 0" to 50% it goes less badly than with "bloodtype A".

Crustaceans, Space, Arachnids , Sharks, Giant crabs, murder hornets. . I love this thread!

Wait until you hear about the Snailiens.

Image 6-9-20 at 9.12 PM (resized).jpg

I read that a few days ago along with it is very hard to transmit the virus if you are asymptomatic.

I believe they still know way more about the last one than they will about this one until it is over and a lot of the so called experts are still guessing. And sometimes it's just to fit what narrative they already believe. Especially if it mutates into a much deadlier strain. And it looks to be far from over.

Screen Shot 2020-06-09 at 7.38.05 PM (resized).png

I want one ..coolest pet ever!

Very interesting read, thanks. Extracts: "we estimate that there would be roughly 465 × the observed number of confirmed cases in China, 17 × in Italy, and 14 × in the US by the end of our sample if large-scale anti-contagion policies had not been deployed"

Also interesting is the analysis of the impact of individual policies - 22/29 were found to be efficient. 7 were not. For example, closing schools had little or no impact on propagation in France (it seems that, contrary to what we feared, children are not strong propagators of the virus).

For several years I have purchased a Six Flags pass and dining pass, and because I have a Six Flags just 5 miles away I was going there pretty much every night, just to get free meals. (not bad, turkey legs, bone in hot wings, pizza, etc.)

They open back up next Monday, and I will not be going back anytime soon, if ever. (they will probably be glad I am not there, with all the food I was having with their dining pass).

I am not totally afraid, but I am being very cautious, and trying to avoid any exposure as much as I can.

Currently for food I go to BJ's Wholesale about one time every 7 weeks, and that is it.

(I still have to get out and work some outdoor jobs, but never around many people, and I remember to keep my distance from the 1-2 other people that may be there).

I am trying to be as thoughtful as I can to not catch this stuff, or spread it.

At the same time also I have been posting some stuff here that is kind of funny, just to try to give everyone a smile.

I think, and hope, we will all be ok, as long as we keep being careful.

I am not letting my guard down anytime soon when I have to go to a store, or be around anyone.

We had another family over to visit about a week ago. Outdoors, and we tried to maintain our distance.

...

And failed.

The adults did great. They know we're playing it pretty safe right now, so we set things up outdoors a pretty good distance apart. I could definitely see how that would work. The problem was with their 4 kids, our 3, and a new puppy. That got pretty out of control. I was a little disappointed with how they managed their kids. Mine are younger, and I was on top of them reminding them to keep distance pretty constantly. Them, not so much. They're playing it relatively cool safe, but have a little more exposure than we do.

All that did was reinforce that I need to be really picky with who I agree to meet up with during all of this. I still want to have some interactions, but the other party needs to have at least as low of an exposure level as us, there needs to be some sort of quarantine period before meeting, or distance must be strictly agreed upon and enforced by both parties.

I didn't know that , but now you've got me thinking .... could be fun to take them for a walk like Homer and Pinchy

IMG_20200610_200458 (resized).jpg

It could mutate into a much deadlier strain, but why should it? To do this it has to mutate into a version that would go earlier into the lung. If it does so, we could see symtoms earlier and fight it sooner. I don't see the evolutionary gain for the virus to do this. It would be more reasonably for the virus to mutate into a harmless runny nose effect. So we wouldn't fight it so hard and it could infect more people. I played a lot the "Plague Inc." game. But this is not a game and in real life there is no intelligence behind the virus with the goal to kill more people. So I think we will see evolutionary developt mutations and there has to be a benefit for the mutation to be successful.
On the other side, in the world we live now and when I think about how surreal this year was, anything could happen.......

A handful of states are now at or above their previous shutdown peaks in new cases:

Texas
California
Florida (almost at peak. Approx double the new cases as May 4th when they reopened)

These just happen to be the three most populous states.

A few more smaller states are also ramping up at an alarming rate:

AZ
SC
NC
UT

Since I have been obsessing over AZ For awhile let’s use them as an example below:

6B7F0C71-1FE9-4908-B4D0-8E5449AC61E5.png

At this time in the world, everything looks more left-leaning compared to the USA

Define "did not fail"?
- Sweden: 4795 deaths (as of today)
- Finland: 324
- Norway: 235

Keeping in mind that that the Population of Finland (5.5 millions) + Norway (5.3 millions) > Sweden.
In other words, Sweden strategy costed over 4000 additional lives, for a population of only 10.2 millions.

It will be interesting to see how much these three economies will be affected and, assuming Sweden fare better than Norway or Finland, how much money was saved thanks to the sacrifice of 4000 people. Then you'll know how much a life was worth.

Yeah, we are effed. Houston and Dallas are on fire and nobody gives a damn. Everyone here is too stupid, too proud or too stubborn to take any precaution.

Everything has taken a back seat to George Floyd. With protests the past 2 weeks we'll most likely see more cases in a week or 2. This isn't even considering most states are opening back up. To date, the US still has NO coordinated plan on how to handle the virus. Its been left up to individual states to figure out how to address PPE, testing, testing supplies, tracking the infected, etc.. 2,000,000 infected with 114,000 deaths and counting. 17,000 new cases and 960 deaths reported yesterday. This is only after 3 months. The warmer weather may or may not have slowed the virus down but "winter is coming". As far as treatments...we have limited quantities of Remdesivir which run out at the end of the month. There's a bunch of random information like Vitamin D and Famotidine, sold under the brand name Pepcid could ease symptoms but nothing definite. Surprisingly or not surprisingly the CDC and has reported an increase of people (as high as 1 in 3) misusing cleaning products, including washing food with bleach, using the products on bare skin, and inhaling, gargling and ingesting them in effort to kill coronavirus. Not to mention Hydroxychloroquine which has no effect on the virus and can increase your chances of mortality...ugh. There is slightly positive news that some people unemployed due to the virus are being rehired back but unemployment is still sky high. It feels like people are becoming complacent and laxed with social distancing and wearing face coverings - some even being combative about wearing masks in stores or in public. Conspiracy theories continue including the virus is fake blah blah…

Fauci stated he has never seen a virus infecting the world in less than a month. We need to get serious or we are going to be screwed - nothing has changed.

If someone told me this would be the future 6 months ago I would have thought they were bat-sh!t crazy. Sorry, don't say bat-sh!t. 2020 is the year of wtf's.

That was the incredibly poorly worded article quoting the WHO official. There was a correction (yesterday?) that was more confusing than the original story. But the net outcome was that statement should not be treated as fact.

I should have turned and walked away---but I did not. I'm kicking myself.

My state has opened up. I went to a cafe for a particular dish of food.

The sign on the door essentially said (I'm paraphrasing) " The county says you cannot come into this establishment if you have Covid-19."

This was the first busy restaurant I have seen. It is blue collar clientele all the way. Old timers. I was able to keep a 6 foot diatance, but the shop was not doing anything special. All booths were in use. Seemed like old times.

It was stupid to go on in. I won't make that dumb mistake again. But it can be so easy to let your guard down.

I’m starting to venture out a bit. Had a couple
Friends over last night for an hour, we played some pinball. Had masks on,
Frequent hand washing. It seemed to go well. Was fun to play against someone by myself for a change.

A bunch of restaurants are cheating the phase 1 thing and setting up tables on the side walk. May get lunch with a couple friends today we’ll see how it goes.

Were you wearing a mask, and if so, did you feel like other people in the restaurant were judging you for it? I'm guessing there are a lot of people in this country that might personally feel more comfortable wearing a mask in public right now, but they probably don't because of societal pressure where they live.

Guys you dont have to be scared to go get a bite to eat or to go in a store, that is just ridiculous. All you have to do is try and keep your distance from people a little bit. Stop living your life in fear. Take precautions and be smart but dont be scared. This isnt the Spanish flu guys.

IF;
This mutates and returns to kill people in 1918 numbers (millions) would you consider it an act of War?
Or if proof comes out it was intentionally released?
Not trying to start anything, just curious. After everything else occurring this year thats about all thats left.

I've been keeping my trips minimal since so many people don't seem to give a damn... But have made a few discretionary journeys here and there.

There have definitely been fewer people wearing masks in places like grocery stores and other retail environments over the past couple weeks. Weirdly the business I saw with the most serious take on it (like, a person at the door enforcing, actually refusing entry to people without PPE, enforced distancing) was the by-the-pound Goodwill Outlet. As far as social gatherings go, the only big crowds I've been in have been the ongoing protests against police brutality, and masking was universal there. This was thanks to people tending to bring their own, the small army of volunteers distributing disposable surgical masks to the stragglers, and a lot of social pressure.

Did a pick up from one of the smaller communities northwest of the city and... Yeah no measures taken out there to speak of. The only sign of anyone thinking about the virus I saw out that way was someone with an anti-quarantining signboard going off about LIBERTY.

No one was wearing a mask. They were all shoveling food. Since a mask is not supposed to protect me and it is supposed to protect the other guy, I did not bother to put mine on. And besides, how are you going to eat with a mask on?

After I had my lunch, I went to the public city library. I walked in with my mask in my hand and someone walked up and said I need a mask on. I put it on. But the area in the library that I wanted to visit is currently closed because of the virus.

So, the county and city buildings require you to wear a mask to enter, but the same county and city authorities have opened up all commercial to Wild West conditions.

Yes definitely.

When man wishes to play God, serious repercussions will take place.

What possible reason could China have to purposefully release a virus that wipes out the economy of every trading partner as well as their own?

I was somewhat smart and sold most of my stocks and held it as cash on the way down and bought back in after 3 days of gains from the bottom. But I honestly don't think this rally is going to hold much longer and today is a pretty good indicator of that. I'm ready to cash out again if we see a couple days of losses in a row to take my 25% gains and wait for it to bottom out again.

Keep up the war talk guys, I need another entry point into the stock market since I missed the first one. /s /jk

No. Covid19 wasn't manipulated or developed in a Chinese lab and intentionally released. Its another conspiracy theory that is trying to place blame and/or divert our attention elsewhere. China could have possibly sounded the alarm sooner that there was a problem. Remember though that we had an agency called USAID/ "Predict" that was monitoring the globe for pandemics but it was disbanded in September 2019 only 3 months before the sh@t hit the fan. They were literally IN China monitoring things.

Predict Agency shut down
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-02/coronavirus-trump-pandemic-program-viruses-detection

Below is an interesting article with a timeline on how the Wuhan lab origin theory started.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/05/10/a-timeline-of-the-covid-19-wuhan-lab-origin-theory/#3ec009fc5aba

Its just the perfect storm scenario of events.

I have some friends that moved to Austin about 10 years ago for work. The husband just found a new job here and they are moving back (to Seattle), they decided it was time to get out of Texas and go back to where it's safer and their friends and family live. Staying at home for a few months has made a lot of people re-examine their priorities and re-order their lives and lifestyles. The funny thing is at the beginning of this virus, we were at the epicenter of it with the most cases and deaths in the US. But we locked down first and are still mostly locked down 2.5+ months later--which has really worked. King County, the biggest county in Washington State, had only 29 new cases yesterday.

How could you trust "the proof"?

Which news source would anybody/everybody believe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War

" The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-estadounidense; Filipino: Digmaang Espanyol-Amerikano) was an armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began..."

" The ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. As U.S. agitators for war well knew,[21] U.S. naval power would prove decisive,..."

" After Maine was destroyed, New York City newspaper publishers Hearst and Pulitzer decided that the Spanish were to blame, and they publicized this theory as fact in their papers.[62] They both used sensationalistic and astonishing accounts of "atrocities" committed by the Spanish in Cuba by using headlines in their newspapers, such as "Spanish Murderers" and "Remember The Maine". Their press exaggerated what was happening and how the Spanish were treating the Cuban prisoners.[63] The stories were based on factual accounts, but most of the time, the articles that were published were embellished and written with incendiary language causing emotional and often heated responses among readers. A common myth falsely states that when illustrator Frederic Remington said there was no war brewing in Cuba, Hearst responded: "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."[64]"

All we need is another call to go get the "weapons of mass destruction".
=================================

https://www.pbs.org/crucible/tl10.html#:~:text=At%209%3A40pm%20on%20February,and%20shocking%20the%20American%20populace.&text=On%20March%2028%2C%201898%2C%20the,destroyed%20by%20a%20submerged%20mine.

February 16 1898: Battleship U.S.S. Maine Explodes

Maine Explosion - WreckageAt 9:40pm on February 15, 1898, the battleship U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, killing 268 men and shocking the American populace. Of the two-thirds of the crew who perished, only 200 bodies were recovered and 76 identified.

The sinking of the Maine, which had been in Havana since February 15, 1898, on an official observation visit, was a climax in pre-war tension between the United States and Spain. In the American press, headlines proclaimed "Spanish Treachery!" and "Destruction of the War Ship Maine Was the Work of an Enemy!" William Randolph Hearst and his New York Journal offered a $50,000 award for the "detection of the Perpetrator of the Maine Outrage." Many Americans assumed the Spanish were responsible for the Maine's destruction.

On March 28, 1898, the United States Naval Court of Inquiry found that the Maine was destroyed by a submerged mine. Although blame was never formally placed on the Spanish, implication was clear. Recent research suggests that the explosion may have been an accident, involving a spontaneous combustion fire in the coal bunker. Some conspiracy theorists have even suggested that sensational journalist William Randolph Hearst may have set the explosion in order to precipitate a war. While historians will never know exactly what happened the night the Maine went down, it is clear that the incident was a significant force that propelled the United States into the Spanish-American War.

I can't believe Goodwill is open! I know Oregon's numbers have been low, but I'm a regular Goodwill shopper and I can't imagine going there right now (and the one by my house is definitely still closed). The whole experience shopping at Goodwill flipping through records and clothes is touching things that hundreds of other of people have all just recently touched too. It creeps me out now even thinking about it.

Because it can. And already has at least once. And nobody seems to be talking about the crazy symptoms many children have experienced because of the virus anymore.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-05/mutant-coronavirus-has-emerged-more-contagious-than-original

https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-second-wave-resurgence

I've been bummed ever since they quit Filet O Fish Fridays.