Did you guys read the story on MSN this morning about that a-hole who is now stuck with close to 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer he can't sell because he has been banned from websites due to his price gouging?
The one thing there never seems to be a shortage of is jerks looking to profit off of other people's fear and misfortune.
If he was a mensch he'd go distribute those in his community, for free, and consider it a karma lesson well learned... but I doubt he would.
@bluebelle, and all those who live in the Pacific Northwest: have you heard anything about a total lockdown in Washington state? I'm asking for a friend, who was just told this by someone.
In addition to my sense that they're going to find a treatment soon that is related to other viruses like HIV and Ebola (as I stated in the other thread) I'm also getting the sense that there's a vaccine already around that will offer partial or even full immunity to this virus. I keep being reminded of how in eighth grade biology we learned about how cowpox was used to make a vaccine for smallpox. Since the two viruses were so similar, inoculation with cowpox provided immunity to smallpox. I feel that there is a vaccine already out there for a different coronavirus that will work to provide immunity in the same way and that the discovery of the retroviral treatment will spur researchers to start exploring this avenue.
No, haven’t heard that, but it would not surprise me. There have been official hints at stronger measures possibly being needed here. The rate of Coronavirus transmission here is on a trajectory that matches the spread trajectory of Coronavirus in Italy. As we know, Italy’s hospitals are completely overrun and they are unable to treat all of the critically ill. They have to chose which patients to try to save and which ones to let die. If self isolation, restriction of social interaction, closing schools and encouraging work from home doesn’t work, well, if all these measures don’t slow down the spread, we will be like Italy in a matter of weeks. Weeks. It’s quite shocking and hard to absorb.
So when I observe the state of denial in other parts of the country (I’m looking at you, red states) and the fact they they are taking none of these extreme measures now in their own communities, well, I think our country is in for it. People are attending highly populated events and going about their normal social lives in public as if it’s not coming there. The Coronavirus is already in every state, spreading undetected. The next few weeks are going to be something.
Here are my crazy COVID stories from the past 2 days:
1) On Friday, I was giving a presentation to a local high school biology class about a citizen science project the environmental nonprofit I work with is conducting in the spring (surveying breeding pairs of horseshoe crabs on a beach). Just as I was getting warmed up, a woman from the principal's office came to the classroom and told me that I had to leave the campus; the school had just been notified of a new district policy barring all visitors from outside organizations from visiting school properties. So no presentation. I expect all schools in the district will be closed within the week.
2) I was supposed to get an outpatient surgery done in Manhattan at a NY-Presbyterian hospital next Wednesday (the 18th). The surgery was voluntary, for a non-urgent concern, and I had started feeling jittery about undergoing an operation in one of the COVID "hot zones." Yesterday, I decided that if NY Presbyterian did not call off non-essential operations, then I'd go ahead with my surgery. Just tonight, while reading the New York Times, I found out that NY Presbyterian hospitals were in fact cancelling all non-essential surgeries. I'm relieved.
The original plan was for me to spend the week after the surgery with my family in CT so that I could follow up with my surgeon 5 days after the procedure. But I'm still driving down to CT on Tuesday and spending a week with my folks. This is a time to be with family.
Thanks for the information, @bluebelle. I saw that trajectory you are talking about, and it is scary. It seems like your governor is quite proactive, but there are so many unknowns. I live outside of DC in Northern Virginia, and know that it's spreading here. Once you do all that you humanly can, it really is in the hands of a higher power. I am keeping all of you in my daily meditation and prayers.
The friend I mentioned has a sister who lives with her family in Northern California. They are Trump supporters and believe we are overreacting to this whole pandemic thing. So much so, that her sister is sending her daughter, off from college spring break, to Seattle for a few days to visit with a friend. As if that is not crazy enough, after her daughter comes home, then she, her mother and fragile father (cancer patient) will fly to Mexico. When my friend asked her sister how she would know her daughter was not contagious, her reply was "we will trust that she will be smart." Can you imagine? The father ends up in ICU when he gets a cold, and his lungs are horrible after septic shock 4 years ago. But this family just pretends everything is okay and believes God will keep them healthy.
Oh, oh, oh, do I hear you. My family in red states who watch Fox News every day are in complete denial. I keep telling them what’s happening here and all I’m getting amounts to a shrug. “It’s just another flu,” they say. “The annual flu kills more people,” they say. They don’t have the information to understand that this is coming to their state. It’s already there, in fact, and they are going to church functions and festivals, traveling and eating out with friends. They are so brainwashed by Fox News, they don’t have any understanding of what’s happening or any empathy for those of us in states with high Coronavirus counts. They think those of us who are concerned are simply overreacting. I have tried to explain, to warn, but again the shrug. It’s sad.
And by the way, who would send an adult child to Seattle right now? It’s a ghost town. Everyone is scared. It’s not normal life here anymore. Events are cancelled right and left. Fifty restaurants have already closed there and more will follow. The virus is spreading here.
i just saw a friend’s post on Instagram about their life in Mexico and it surely looks like their group of Americans are having a great time. Do they think Mexico is immune to this pandemic? I just don’t get it.
I'm not saying this flippantly, “Darwin keeps coming to mind.”
My mother called me this morning. She had talked to my aunt who is a doc in a hospital in Northern California. According to my aunt, they have cancelled all elective surgery and are down to their last hundred hospital gowns.
My mother and her family (including my aunt) are CRAZY conservative Republicans (I call them the #AllFoxNewsAlltheTime Family), but between that and Mr. T finally admitting that it may be prudent to have a couple weeks of supplies on hand, my parents are finally taking this seriously after weeks of proclaiming that it's all a Democratic party hoax.
I did get calls giving me a detailed blow-by-blow of everything going on at Costco this afternoon, but I was so grateful they were finally admitting that they may have to be ready for potential disaster.