[Macros]

I'm exactly in that situation now.

My work is in Scotland, I had this week booked off anyway. The facilty isn't closing as of yet. It may, but certain projects will continue as they are considered security essential. So their answer will be, 'there is work available here for you on the essential side, you chose to stay at home, no money or relief for you'

A bad timing for me as I'm self employed and my rainy day reserves have been effectivly wiped out this last year with building the apt and other stuff.

[Gorefest]

I'm going to be part of a team who process Covid-19 patient samples for research purposes, because the local NHS Trust have just indicated that they don't have the capacity anymore to combine it with their clinical activities. So no rest for the wicked.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Medical authorities in China have said a drug used in Japan to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients, Japanese media said on Wednesday.

Zhang Xinmin, an official at China's science and technology ministry, said favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, had produced encouraging outcomes in clinical trials in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 340 patients.

"It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment," Zhang told reporters on Tuesday.

Patients who were given the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after becoming positive, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug, public broadcaster NHK said.

In addition, X-rays confirmed improvements in lung condition in about 91% of the patients who were treated with favipiravir, compared to 62% or those without the drug.

[...] But a Japanese health ministry source suggested the drug was not as effective in people with more severe symptoms. "We've given Avigan to 70 to 80 people, but it doesn't seem to work that well when the virus has already multiplied," the source told the Mainichi Shimbun.

The same limitations had been identified in studies involving coronavirus patients using a combination of the HIV antiretrovirals lopinavir and ritonavir, the source added.'

https://www.theguard...WVM8zxfypaIzLp0

'When the virus has already multiplied'---does that mean that early detection could render it more effective? For example:

'Everyone In Iceland Can Get Tested For The Coronavirus. Here's How The Results Could Help All Of Us.

The small island nation’s large-scale testing strategy includes people who don’t have any symptoms.'

https://www.buzzfeed...mGdQ4ugwM3HdBI0

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 March 2020 - 05:41 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

Gorefest, on 19 March 2020 - 04:10 PM, said:

I'm going to be part of a team who process Covid-19 patient samples for research purposes, because the local NHS Trust have just indicated that they don't have the capacity anymore to combine it with their clinical activities. So no rest for the wicked.

Oi you, get back to work!

[Traveller]

Boris has just moved on from saying 'Get Brexit Done' to 'Let's get this virus.. done.'

So our schools closing, the year 6 kids might not get to see their friends again as they'll be going to high school in September, but they've announced that school will be open to some children. Me and my wife are both frontline NHS so possible that the kids can still go for the two days we can't cover their care.

My daughter came home today and wrote out her entire weeks timetable so she can do it at home from Monday. (Reminds me of Lisa Simpson with her emergency strike box!) I've told her to get her friends phone numbers tomorrow so they can all stay in touch and call each other. My boy hasn't batted an eye, he's playing minecraft and doesn't seem fussed in the slightest.

On the plus side there was actually some supplies in the supermarkets that have started to ration items. It still looked like the apocalypse is upon us though.

Freaky walking through town when the cinemas and bars are all closed in the day.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 19 March 2020 - 06:05 PM

[Lady Bliss]

QuickTidal, on 19 March 2020 - 10:40 AM, said:

Bliss, there were 475 deaths overnight in a Italy. The shutdown is definitely not worse than the virus.

475?! That’s horrible! I’ve been traveling so am a bit out of touch. I just arrived in San Francisco, and the airport looks like it is post apocalypse.

[QuickTidal]

Lady Bliss, on 19 March 2020 - 06:10 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 19 March 2020 - 10:40 AM, said:

Bliss, there were 475 deaths overnight in a Italy. The shutdown is definitely not worse than the virus.

475?! That’s horrible! I’ve been traveling so am a bit out of touch. I just arrived in San Francisco, and the airport looks like it is post apocalypse.

It's definitely pretty brutal in some places. I feel so bad for the European countries with the older populations that simply weren't prepared to handle the influx.


------

On my end, we are both working from home, and trying to manage the kids who KEEP. FIGHTING. CONSTANTLY.

And I fear my mental health is starting to take a toll...I've felt depressed now for at least 24-48 hrs...I mean I know I have it better than some, being able to work from home....but my gods, I never expected a virus quarantine would tax me so much mentally. I'm unsure what to do.

We've been trying to watch Comedy shows (KIM'S CONVENIENCE FTW!) and movies at night after the kids go to sleep to try to stay sane, but the wife and I are already feeling the drain after only 6 days.


Anyone else? Any suggestions?

[Tiste Simeon]

Still can't get nappies anywhere. People are infuriating.

Us emergency service folk are getting more and more stretched. Got to wonder where the breaking point is.

We've been told today to take our work issued phones home so if we self isolate due to a family member getting sick we can still do some work from home. Fun!

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 19 March 2020 - 06:15 PM, said:

Still can't get nappies anywhere. People are infuriating.

Us emergency service folk are getting more and more stretched. Got to wonder where the breaking point is.

We've been told today to take our work issued phones home so if we self isolate due to a family member getting sick we can still do some work from home. Fun!

Can you amazon the diapers to yourself? I feel like they might be in stock faster than the store in some cases.

Stay as safe as you can, and know that as front line emergency service people, you are the heroes in this whole thing, and everyone would be much worse off without you. You got this. We support you....even those of us who don't live in your country.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Lady Bliss, on 19 March 2020 - 09:14 AM, said:

I honestly feel like these shutdowns are worse than the virus. The impact to the economy and human life.... shit this is going to last for a decade. Homelessness is going to go up. Americans without insurance will go up. Poverty will go up. I think it would be better if we left everything open and just let the virus move on.

You may be overestimating the extent to which a large percentage of the economic activity being suspended provides substantial or lasting value (even in terms of investment in potential future output), beyond the brief pseudo-fulfillment of misplaced desires.

[Aptorian]

Saw in the news that more people have now died of the corona virus in Italy than China which seems mind blowing to me. Assuming you can trust the Chinese numbers.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Aptorian, on 19 March 2020 - 06:22 PM, said:

Saw in the news that more people have now died of the corona virus in Italy than China which seems mind blowing to me. Assuming you can trust the Chinese numbers.

Other East Asian nations with high population densities are also doing much better, percentage-wise, than Italy. Previous epidemics had struck them hard, so they were more prepared and acted quickly.

[Lady Bliss]

Ok, I’m home and caught up. I agree that there is significant risk out there, but I feel like poverty is a greater risk, as I’ve lived through it and stand to lose my own home in this mess. The. US is simply not organized to deal with a crisis like this. So yes, it may sound selfish, but the collapse of our economy is more frightening to me than this virus.

[Aptorian]

For the year? You mean all of 2020 or is this the school year that begins and ends in the summer?

[Malankazooie]

Aptorian, on 19 March 2020 - 07:06 PM, said:

For the year? You mean all of 2020 or is this the school year that begins and ends in the summer?

School year. Which typically ends late May/early June for most public school districts in America.
Here in Colorado, most public schools run from around middle August to week before Memorial day (last Monday in May).

In local news here, it's been talked about a lot. Seniors in high school who look forward to rite of passage - Prom and Graduation ceremony - are probably going to be denied those key life moments, milestones.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 19 March 2020 - 07:06 PM, said:

For the year? You mean all of 2020 or is this the school year that begins and ends in the summer?

The school year ends for summer time.

Fall is a different school year.

[Mentalist]

QuickTidal, on 19 March 2020 - 06:15 PM, said:

Lady Bliss, on 19 March 2020 - 06:10 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 19 March 2020 - 10:40 AM, said:

Bliss, there were 475 deaths overnight in a Italy. The shutdown is definitely not worse than the virus.

475?! That’s horrible! I’ve been traveling so am a bit out of touch. I just arrived in San Francisco, and the airport looks like it is post apocalypse.

It's definitely pretty brutal in some places. I feel so bad for the European countries with the older populations that simply weren't prepared to handle the influx.


------

On my end, we are both working from home, and trying to manage the kids who KEEP. FIGHTING. CONSTANTLY.

And I fear my mental health is starting to take a toll...I've felt depressed now for at least 24-48 hrs...I mean I know I have it better than some, being able to work from home....but my gods, I never expected a virus quarantine would tax me so much mentally. I'm unsure what to do.

We've been trying to watch Comedy shows (KIM'S CONVENIENCE FTW!) and movies at night after the kids go to sleep to try to stay sane, but the wife and I are already feeling the drain after only 6 days.


Anyone else? Any suggestions?

Every other day I need to go for a walk.

Sitting at home staring at a laptop for 8 hours and occasionally answering phone calls (75% of the time related to work; the other 25 playing tech support to staff who's not too familiar with how anything aside from their work computer works); then turning the laptop off and.... turning to my desktop as a source of entertainment/leisure is pretty draining.

unless I go outside and wander in a park or something, I start getting anxious with restless energy.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Dolphins and swans appear in Venice canals a week after city locks down to prevent coronavirus spread

"Venice hasn't seen clear canal water in a very long time. Dolphins showing up too. Nature just hit the reset button on us "

"After a week of lockdown... The canals in Venice are all clear and full of fishes. Kinda gives you the idea what will happen to Earth without Humans!"

https://www.standard...A7152XnLIkgGI2U



'Animals Invade Cities [Reclaim Occupied Territory] As People Quarantine Themselves At Home

[...] nature, however, does its thing nonetheless and people are noticing an unexpected outcome of the quarantine. In countries like Japan, Italy, and Thailand, people observed animals roaming the streets due to human absence.

[...] Numerous accounts of various animals (like sheep, boars and a horse!) wandering the streets appeared on Italian social media.'

https://www.boredpan...ampaign=organic






'Wartime heroine Dame Vera Lynn rallies the nation as she turns 103

National treasure Dame Vera Lynn called on the nation to evoke the wartime spirit yesterday as she delivered a message of hope in the face of the coronavirus crisis. The iconic singer was dubbed the Forces' Sweetheart during the Second World War as she helped raise morale among troops.

And now Dame Vera has marked her 103rd birthday this week with a new rallying call, urging Britons to help one another through the crisis. Speaking from her home in Sussex, she said: "In these uncertain times, I am taken back to my time during World War II, when we all pulled together and looked after each other.

t is this spirit that we all need to find again to weather the storm of the coronavirus."'

https://www.express....PnozHTWID-3f89k

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 March 2020 - 09:03 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Photo of Trump's notes shows "Chinese" virus written over "coronavirus"'

https://thehill.com/...U68cl8N1c5qLum8

'Trump's new fixation on using a racist name for the coronavirus is dangerous

The president is stoking xenophobia with his rhetoric about the coronavirus.

[...] But you'll still see some of Trump's defenders refer to the history of colloquial names that (seemingly) relied on a disease's place of origin — like the Spanish flu, Ebola, etc. — as evidence that the president is simply following a long-held practice. This tweet from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is a good example of this misconception[...]

[...] the Spanish flu didn't get that name (real name: H1N1!) because it started in Spain. It actually started in Kansas. It became commonly known as the Spanish flu because in the middle of World War I, in which Spain remained neutral, Spain was one of the only Western nations willing to report frankly on the pandemic. [...]

Or take the Ebola virus, which, despite being named for a river in Africa, actually got that name because the scientists who discovered it wanted to avoid stigmatizing the village where the disease first appeared.

One team member suggested naming it after the village, known as Yambuku, but the other scientists pushed back. As Bahar Gholipour wrote for Live Science in 2014:

But naming the virus Yambuku would run the risk of stigmatizing the village, said another scientist, Dr. Joel Breman, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This had happened before, for example, in the case of Lassa virus, which emerged in the town of Lassa in Nigeria in 1969.

[...] Here in 2020, we've seen people arrested in New York City for hate crimes against Asian Americans as coronavirus fears mount. Researchers in San Francisco found more than 1,000 reported cases of xenophobia toward Chinese Americans and their communities between January 28 and February 24; one of the researchers found in an informal survey of small businesses owned by Chinese Americans that they had lost between 50 percent and 70 percent of their business in recent days.

We all have to do our part to protect against prejudice spiraling out of control in a moment of crisis. The media must be vigilant too, as Vox's visuals editor Kainaz Amaria recently pointed out. It has become common to stick a photo of an Asian person on top of a coronavirus story, whether or not the underlying article had anything to do with an Asian country'

https://www.vox.com/...5PGHv5xk0ZJmq2E

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 March 2020 - 09:35 PM

[amphibian]

Beaver Killia, on 19 March 2020 - 09:43 PM, said:

Stupid PC bullshit. They can go to hell on this one. Imo.

Not calling this the Chinese virus in order to avoid acts of violence towards Asian American people is PC bullshit?

You leaving your whole ass out in the wind here...