[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Boris Johnson Made "Operation Last Gasp" Joke About Urgent U.K. Respirator-Making Project

[...] on a Monday night conference call with manufacturers, who have been urged to join a national effort to produce more medical ventilators for the impending medical crisis. Politico reports that some of the business leaders were "less than impressed" with Johnson's conduct on the call, with one saying: "He couldn't help but act the clown, even though he was a on call with serious CEOs from goodness knows how many companies." [...] The prime minister "joked" that the emergency project to build more life-saving ventilators could be known as "Operation Last Gasp."'

https://www.thedaily...report?ref=home

'High Temperature and High Humidity Reduce the Transmission of COVID-19

[...] In July, the arrival of summer and rainy season in the northern hemisphere can effectively reduce the transmission of the COVID-19; however, risks remain in some countries in the southern hemisphere (e.g. Australia and South Africa). If we plug the normal summer temperature and relative humidity of Tokyo (28 °C and 85%, respectively) into Equation (1), the transmission of the COVID19 in Tokyo will be seriously reduced between March and the Olympics: the estimated R value decreases from 1.914 to 0.992, a 48% drop!'
I'd guess this will probably have a lesser effect in areas that don't get very hot.
'India has reported around 125 cases of the coronavirus, and it is a bit of a mystery how the world's second-most-populous nation, with 1.3 billion people, has remained relatively unscathed while the number of cases explodes to its east and west. [...]

Doctors say it is either that there are many more cases in India than have been detected, because of the difficulties of getting tested, or that India has indeed managed to so far escape the worst, possibly because of quick and strict efforts right from the start.'

https://www.nytimes....oronavirus.html

The temperature in Singapore is already about 28 °C, which could be contributing to the ease with which they've contained the outbreak. But Miami is almost as hot right now, and they don't seem to be doing nearly as well....

'With a vaccine for COVID-19 still a long way from being realized, Johns Hopkins immunologist Arturo Casadevall is working to revive a century-old blood-derived treatment for use in the United States in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease.

[...] The technique uses antibodies from the blood plasma or serum of people who have recovered from COVID-19 infection to boost the immunity of newly infected patients and those at risk of contracting the disease.

"Deployment of this option requires no research or development," he says. "It could be deployed within a couple of weeks since it relies on standard blood-banking practices."'

https://hub.jhu.edu/...eSpkpa5Q3kgCzLU

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 17 March 2020 - 02:49 PM

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Minor whinge in the scheme of things, but we all got a text from work last night asking us to bring in devices to be set up to work from home going forwards.

Get in today and it's more "Lol business as usual". I'm so pleased I brought my £800 laptop which isn't insured outside of the house into work for no sodding reason. Needless to say it's going home and staying home tonight whether they've set it up or not. And we as support staff have only found any of this out because we've kicked up a fuss - naturally, the peasantry don't need to be told anything or kept informed. Yay.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 17 March 2020 - 02:51 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

So, Pillars of Eternity on lunch break then?

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Tiste Simeon, on 17 March 2020 - 02:57 PM, said:

So, Pillars of Eternity on lunch break then?

You betcha.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Hmm, Pennsylvania also announced yesterday that it has stopped all online sales of liquor.

They should have either given significant advance warning, or no warning at all (while that would certainly be unpopular and annoying...). Telling people the evening before Saint Patrick's Day that all liquor sales in the state will cease at 9 PM on Saint Patrick's Day is an obviously terrible idea.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 17 March 2020 - 03:46 PM

[QuickTidal]

On top of Disney putting FROZEN II on D+ months early (my kids already watched it twice today), and Lucasfilm putting THE RISE OF SKYWALKER out for early digital purchase, it sounds like Universal is putting three of the films it's releasing in theatres soon out for home digital at a $20 price tag for the rental (which as long as you are watching it with someone else, is a great price)...and Cathy Yan seems inclined to get WB to follow suit with an early digital release of BIRDS OF PREY.

This is a great idea to salvage theatrical releases that will get screwed by theatre closures...and I'm only waiting for Disney to do this with BLACK WIDOW which is meant to release in May. Yeah baby!

[Primateus]

Okaaaay, the Queen's going to adress the nation tonight and gatherings of 10 or more people have been banned. Also, pretty much anything that's not a supermarket is being closed down. Still possible to get takeaway, but considering that the number of infected is reaching a thousand, I guess I can see where they're coming from.

[Aptorian]

That thousand is just the ones who've been tested. Saw a projection earlier stating that as many as 90,000 could be infected but most are asymptomatic I assume.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to have to call the people who've booked our Event Hall at the library in April and cancel most of the remaining ones. Have to check with the boss but it's likely going to be a loss of at least 20-30,000 DKK.

[Vengeance]

QuickTidal, on 17 March 2020 - 05:04 PM, said:

On top of Disney putting FROZEN II on D+ months early (my kids already watched it twice today), and Lucasfilm putting THE RISE OF SKYWALKER out for early digital purchase, it sounds like Universal is putting three of the films it's releasing in theatres soon out for home digital at a $20 price tag for the rental (which as long as you are watching it with someone else, is a great price)...and Cathy Yan seems inclined to get WB to follow suit with an early digital release of BIRDS OF PREY.

This is a great idea to salvage theatrical releases that will get screwed by theatre closures...and I'm only waiting for Disney to do this with BLACK WIDOW which is meant to release in May. Yeah baby!

That gets studio's money for the film. But it doesn't do anything for the movie theaters. Those are going to be in bad shape.

[Mentalist]

The Board's cancelling in-person hearings at least until May. Meaning for the next foreseeable future I've got no need to venture out of the suburbs.

Probably gonna go for a walk in one of the rec parks later today though, because being stuck in the house with no fresh air is getting to me.

[QuickTidal]

True about the theatres. I’m not sure there is much they can do/offer unfortunately.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'"We could increase production five-fold in a 90- to 120-day period," [...] Accelerating the parts delivery might be the toughest task, he says.

The ventilator industry is getting a burst of desperate orders from China and Italy. The U.S. hasn't seen that yet, although manufacturers are bracing for it. "The time for action by the government is now," says Kiple. "[Covid] is most likely to get worse next fall."

[...] If there is a risk of a surge in need, and if it takes three months to boost part deliveries, somebody ought to be placing orders right now. But a hospital might well hesitate, given the perhaps equal risk that the extra machines will never be used. Who would eat the cost? That explains why the German order came from the government.'

https://www.forbes.c...8c#4557e0f15e9a

'"UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged engineering firms to switch production to manufacturing ventilators, a call echoed by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock. "If you produce a ventilator, then we will buy it. No number is too high," he said on Sky News.

Some believe that makers can do their part to solve the shortage. Julian Botta, a third-year emergency medicine resident at Johns Hopkins University who said his views do not reflect those of the university, put together a Google Doc called "Specifications for simple open source mechanical ventilator." In it, he lays out the key features of the kinds of ventilators used for coronavirus patients. He also proposes a design for an open-source ventilator after seeing that engineers were interested in designing ventilators but didn't know much about how they worked.'

https://www.vice.com...onavirus-demand

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 18 March 2020 - 02:49 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Spanish police using drones to yell at people breaking quarantine'

https://futurism.com...king-quarantine

'Person under coronavirus lockdown in Spain tries to leave house dressed as T. rex'

https://www.newsweek...Vwq8UEXz4yfXXz4

... no footage of the t-rex battling the drones yet.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'First Person Injected With Trial Coronavirus Vaccine In Seattle'

[Morgoth]

I've gotten a pretty rough cough the last couple of days, combined with a lot of sneezing and all the other typical cold symptoms. I might have a cold, I might soon be another zombie of the apocalypse, it's impossible to tell without testing, but as I am in no risk groups, and work in an irrelevant field, testing seems highly unlikely.

[Tsundoku]

It's best not to take chances - you need to immediately give all your lawyer mates a big wet kiss. Just in case.

[stone monkey]

Surely lawyers are immune; professional courtesy and all that

[Tsundoku]

There's some things even a virus won't touch.

But dammit, he needs to at least try!

[Aptorian]

Morgoth, on 18 March 2020 - 11:28 AM, said:

I've gotten a pretty rough cough the last couple of days, combined with a lot of sneezing and all the other typical cold symptoms. I might have a cold, I might soon be another zombie of the apocalypse, it's impossible to tell without testing, but as I am in no risk groups, and work in an irrelevant field, testing seems highly unlikely.

Good thing Macros didn't elope with you. Dodged a bullet there.

[Tsundoku]

Aptorian, on 18 March 2020 - 12:07 PM, said:

Morgoth, on 18 March 2020 - 11:28 AM, said:

I've gotten a pretty rough cough the last couple of days, combined with a lot of sneezing and all the other typical cold symptoms. I might have a cold, I might soon be another zombie of the apocalypse, it's impossible to tell without testing, but as I am in no risk groups, and work in an irrelevant field, testing seems highly unlikely.

Good thing Macros didn't elope with you. Dodged a bullet there.

Yes, but which one?