Back on topic, as I believe I posted before - risk of death from coronavirus jumps significantly at age 50 and beyond:
The Westchester, NY attorney who is a patient zero for a major transmission there and in critical condition in hospital is 50 years old.
It would be stupid to walk around confident that one is unlikely to face serious health consequences from coronavirus infection because one isn’t technically elderly - i.e., 65 or older. As the chart above reveals, death risk is more than 3x greater among infected in their 50s. Yes, it jumps even more precipitously in age groups above that - but we who are greater than middle aged (centenarians being not the norm), whether we like admitting our advancing age or not, are at higher risk and should be acting accordingly.
Last edited by BoSoxGal on Tue Mar 10, 2020 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
BoSoxGal wrote:Just FYI, I’m no longer reading your posts either, Guin. I’ll be lucky to make it to elderly and as a consequence I‘m guarding my time far more carefully these days. I have zero tolerance for the bitchy mean girls judgmental bullshit anymore, sorry not sorry.
That data is a month old. The CDC advice issued yesterday is as follows:
The agency also warned older adults to “take everyday precautions to keep space between yourself and others” and “avoid crowds as much as possible.”
“Starting at age 60, there is an increasing risk of disease, and the risk increases with age,” Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the CDC’s media telebriefing of an update on the virus. The highest risk of serious illness or death is in people older than 80 years old.
ETA: OFFS. Stop making shit up. I wrote nothing about walking around confident I wouldn’t get the disease. I said I’m not a high risk individual. And I’m empirically not. That doesn’t mean I’m immune, and not taking this seriously.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
As evidence of how knowledge about the virus is changing daily, this study showed that wearing a mask while uninfected in a public space actually does protect against transmission - none of the masked passengers became infected.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
In Greece, calls are growing for the Greek Orthodox Church...
One of the cruelest and most pernicious aspects of this thing, is the way it impacts religious practices...
It's precisely at times like these when people of Faith take the greatest solace, comfort, and support from participating in their religious community, but with this menace (unlike some natural disaster or other type of tragedy) prudent health considerations require that many of the religious rites and communal gatherings that provide this comfort and support be curtailed...
Of course that's when religious leaders can, and should, promote less risky alternatives to those practices; sure, some will say they are "not the same", but for those who find the practices important, this acknowledgement and endorsement of alternative practices could move some to adopt them, and comfort others who prefer to abstain from them altogether. Saying that receiving communion in a risky way is exhibiting one's faith in god or that one should listen to the scientists and then follow their heart, is akin to those fringe Christians who say you can handle poisonous snakes and not be affected by their bites because you had the faith to do so.
I'm all for personal choice, but in many religions this choice is not a free one, but imposed by the hierarchy and just followed blindly, especially among the elderly who were raised with this understanding and have adopted it their entire lives.
AC technology. Tesla is famous for promoting AC (which was far better than DC).
You're absolutely right rubato. I typed the wrong initials.
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currents
There are a lot of places where DC solar is being used today with inverters to turn it into AC for human consumption. Massive solar arrays can power cities. A smaller array powers a local high school.
A friend of Doc's, one of only two B-29 bombers still flying.
Meade - I would check with your airlines about flights if you want to reschedule, as I read that some are allowing changes without fees.
Is it too late to purchase travel insurance?
Cheers, Guin. We will be checking altho' we are leaning heavily toward WTF let's go anyway (stupid eh?). I don't think we could reorganize for a different date - but it's a long way off and (you know) La Don is sure the summer sun will burn this stuff away. (He has some science for that - coronavirus of which there are many kinds tend to die off when warm weather arrives, as does 'flu)
We have travel insurance but sadly it's just if one of us gets sick and we have a doctor's note. Our doctor is a nice guy (nudge nudge).
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
The abysmally low rates of hand washing have been documented by public health experts for decades. Observational studies of public restrooms have long determined that the majority of people don’t wash or wash insufficiently after toileting. Further, research has revealed that the biggest cause of the spread of infections in hospitals is the failure of medical professionals to wash hands between patients - many facilities have gone to great lengths in recent years to re-educate staff and provide hand sanitizer at regular intervals in rooms and on hallway walls, etc. to improve hospital rates of transmission of infectious disease. In light of that reality, it’s maybe less surprising how badly lay people meet the challenge.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
Yes it constantly surprised me at work how many guys, many of whom I respected for their technical ability or because they were overall decent people, failed to wash their hands after a pee. As a chemist, even though I might have been using gloves at the bench, I'd wash my hands before I pulled Ingemar out of my pants. I knew where those hands had been. And then again afterwards, of course.
When I was in hospital for a week 8 years ago (arterial bypass x 5; although my wife thinks they gave me a brain bypass while they were in there) I noticed that there was an alcohol hand sanitizer dispenser in every room and that the staff used them.
I pointed out (in a post that vanished in the time between when I wrote it and when the board changed format) that regardless of whatever laws are in place regarding paid sick days, many "gig-economy" workers (e.g. Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, DoorDash) are considered "independent contractors" and are SOL if they need to work to pay their bills.
ETA: I just realized that the post wasn't gone; it was in a different thread. Oops.
Last edited by Econoline on Wed Mar 11, 2020 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
— God@The Tweet of God
I figure that it shouldn't be more than another week before Trump claims that a nice big cup of covfefe is an effective preventative against the coronavirus. -"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
To the extent options like Grub Hub, Door Dash, Amazon Prime (Whole Foods) and other delivery providers (CVS announced today they will provide free delivery of all prescriptions) promote social isolation, those folks could be busy.
That doesn’t address the lack of PTO and healthcare, of course, for any contract worker.
Bernie or no Bernie, we need universal health care, provided by govt/non-profit. And we need to start transitioning to it NOW (see EW’s plan).
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
A second UK MP enters self-isolation
The York MP Rachael Maskell has confirmed that she has been advised to self-isolate after having a meeting with Mental Health Minister Nadine Dorries last Thursday – she says that she is asymptomatic.
Rachael Maskell MP
✔
@RachaelMaskell
NHS111 have advised that I self-isolate as a result of a meeting I had with the Government's Mental Health Minister last Thursday who has subsequently tested positive for Coronovirus. Thankfully I am asymptomatic. It is so important that we all follow all public health advice.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
I think it's good for them to set the example. Unlike Trump, who was potentially exposed both at CPAC and by flying on Air Force One with those who were there and are now in self-quarantine.
"The dildo of consequence rarely comes lubed." -- Eileen Rose
So we could ask why we are comparing this outbreak to the 1918 pandemic, which was such an outlier, and not the two other flu pandemics that struck in the 20th century – the 1957 “Asian” flu, and the 1968 “Hong Kong” flu. Both had CFRs much closer to 0.1%, and neither killed more than 3 million people at the most. To bring the picture right up to date, we could include the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, which killed in the region of 600,000 people. These are still big numbers, and they dwarf those attributed to Covid-19 to date. But the 1918 flu was in a different ballpark.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
A conference to discuss the impact of coronavirus on business in the US has been cancelled - because of a sudden rise in infections in New York.
The roundtable, called Doing Business Under Coronavirus, was canned after 173 cases of the infection were confirmed in the east coast city, where the conference was supposed to be held on Friday.
The Council on Foreign Relations organised the event to help support the businesses facing increased pressure from the impact of Covid-19.
Other conferences, scheduled from March 11 to April 3, also had to be scrapped - including roundtables in New York and Washington as well as national events across the US.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
