COVID-19

[ChuckMK23]

I wish! Personally I don't think it will play that way.

What I do wish for is a federal stimulus package/policy that isn't simply corporate cronyism. I think protecting small businesses and corporations is old revisionist thinking of Regan era economics. Give low/mid-income people a wad of cash directly and THEY WILL SPEND IT.

Small businesses don't need fiscal stimulus, they simply need demand to come back. Give every US household that makes <$65K, cash from the federal government, a $30 grand check, with DT's name on it - I think things will start getting back to normal sooner and airlines will flourish.

Protect people, not companies.

I edited my original post - there are around 50 million households with income less than $65K (seems to be the benchmark for "middle income") - 50 mm households times $30K = $1.5T which I think we can afford... anyways, I agree with @HAL Pilot that this has gone too far, too long. But now we need to get right-side up. We are a consumer economy - give people money to spend.

 

[wiseguy04]

 

[Treetop Flyer]

I edited my original post - there are around 50 million households with income less than $65K (seems to be the benchmark for "middle income") - 50 mm households times $30K = $1.5T which I think we can afford... anyways, I agree with @HAL Pilot that this has gone too far, too long. But now we need to get right-side up. We are a consumer economy - give people money to spend.

Or let them work. Stop giving away the money of people who will eventually pay for it. It’s not hard.

 

[HAL Pilot]

@ChuckMK23 I stand corrected, my math was off. I fat fingered another 0.

But the answer is not giving out more money. It's opening the country. Getting people back to work will give money to spend.

We as a country can't really afford the $# trillion we've already spent. Plus the states are all demanding more bailout money for their loss of revenue. $1.5 trillion more to the people, another $1.5 trillion to the states, etc. Where does it end.

At least one idiot on here said the Feds print the money, they can just print more. That's pure bullshit (look at the hyperinflation after WW1 in Germany when the German government tried this).

Pre-COVID, Congress argued over whether the U.S. could afford $25 million here or $1 billion there. Now they wrote $30 trillion in checks in the last 2 months and you want them to write another $1.5 trillion.

Doing this is not only fucking over today's taxpayer, it's fucking over tax payers for generations to come.

Plus again there is the fairness issue. "Live within your means". People with $100,000 means and living within their means have just as many financial problems as people with $65,000 means living within their means.

I've always lived well below my means so I am doing fine financially during this lock down. But instead of making max monthly pay and picking up some premium pay on top of that, I'm making minimum guarantee. I've taken a huge pay monthly pay cut but I can live with it. But there are many in my situation that can't. In Hawaii, public schools suck. Many of our pilots devote a huge portion of their income to private schooling their kids. Many have wives that also work to be able to afford those private schools. Their combined incomes were over $65,000. But now they are making minimum guarantee, their wives are laid off and they still have to pay that private school tuition because although school is cancelled, the private schools say they still have overhead to pay and online courses to conduct. They are hurting. Many are depleting savings and going in debt. Where two months ago they had plenty of excess income above their needs and were "living within their means", they are now going deeply into debt. Why shouldn't they be bailed out just like someone making $65,000 is bailed out?

You're right, we are a consumer economy and the solution is to get the economy open. The solution is not giving away money especially not giving it away based on an arbitrary ceiling that in no way reflects the actual need.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

US chief of naval operations to self-quarantine

The chief of naval operations will self-quarantine after he came in contact with a family member who has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a US official.

www.cnn.com

CNO in quarantine

 

[SlickAg]

So even the Chicago Tribune is saying that Illinois’ governor moved the goal posts...

“Actually, he’s being more than just cautious. He has moved the goal posts,” said the editorial. “Pritzker’s latest plan extends the benchmarks for victory from bending the infection curve to defeating the virus altogether.”

J.B. Pritzker, Illinois governor: Coronavirus restrictions needed ‘until we’re able to eradicate it’

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker defended Sunday his cautious economic reopening plan, which leaves schools and many businesses shuttered until the novel coronavirus is all but defeated, saying the state will be unable to return to normal “until we’re able to eradicate it.”

m.washingtontimes.com

 

[Jim123]

 

[SlickAg]

A distinct possibility: 'Temporary' layoffs may be permanent

WASHINGTON (AP) — In late March, Britney Ruby Miller, co-owner of a small chain of steakhouse restaurants, confidently proclaimed that once the viral outbreak had subsided, her company planned to recall all its laid-off workers.

apnews.com

 

[ABMD]

Probably better to think of it from the perspective of managing knowns/unknowns.

N95 masks are supposed to STOP infection via the respiratory tract which is why it's part of a full PPE get up (to include face/eye shields) for medical staff. It's trusted to be enough protection that we don't isolate people who use it as part of a PPE ensemble despite known contact with infected persons.

Non-N95 mask provides protection by reducing the probability, though it doesn't fully stop spreading. If you are in close contact with an infected person, but you were just wearing a cotton mask and nothing else, the medical protocol will still require you to go into quarantine/isolation...that mask isn't enough assurance that your exposure won't cause you to become another carrier. And if there is a strategy around trying to manage the spread, you'd also have to run subsequent contact tracing anyway.

My guess is that messaging around it being ineffective is more targeted at preventing people from being stupid, and creating unsafe conditions with a false sense of security.
Even if you have a mask, you can still get infected by other pathways. On the other hand, sick people who are wearing masks...that shuts down the #1 pathway a sick person has to infect others.

It's also worth noting, N95s need to be FITTED to the individual. They are not 1 size fits all. Before all this went down my wife has to be fitted for hers at work (Operating Room). It was mentioned earlier, the N95 they use in the hospital, usually blue, is not the same one you find at Home Depot or Lowes, white. Homemade masks do not offer anywhere close to the same level of protection as either N95 mask. I also see a lot of people with the mask pulled below their nose and only covering their mouths, guess they are just mouth breathers.

 

[Pags]

It's also worth noting, N95s need to be FITTED to the individual. They are not 1 size fits all. Before all this went down my wife has to be fitted for hers at work (Operating Room). It was mentioned earlier, the N95 they use in the hospital, usually blue, is not the same one you find at Home Depot or Lowes, white. Homemade masks do not offer anywhere close to the same level of protection as either N95 mask. I also see a lot of people with the mask pulled below their nose and only covering their mouths, guess they are just mouth breathers.

Average people going to the store and other routine tasks don't need the level of protection that a N95 offers.

 

[Griz882]

Average people going to the store and other routine tasks don't need the level of protection that a N95 offers.

Is my fit good?

 

[ABMD]

Average people going to the store and other routine tasks don't need the level of protection that a N95 offers.

Who are you calling average?!? J/K

There are people in that population who are carriers, and probably people who are sick and they just don't know it yet. I think we are giving people a false sense of security that any covering will protect them from getting the virus. Wearing a t-shirt over your nose and mouth may slow things down, but again maybe they weren't exposed to begin with.

 

[GroundPounder]

So even the Chicago Tribune is saying that Illinois’ governor moved the goal posts...

“Actually, he’s being more than just cautious. He has moved the goal posts,” said the editorial. “Pritzker’s latest plan extends the benchmarks for victory from bending the infection curve to defeating the virus altogether.”

J.B. Pritzker, Illinois governor: Coronavirus restrictions needed ‘until we’re able to eradicate it’

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker defended Sunday his cautious economic reopening plan, which leaves schools and many businesses shuttered until the novel coronavirus is all but defeated, saying the state will be unable to return to normal “until we’re able to eradicate it.”

m.washingtontimes.com

I'm not a doctor, Jim! but is it not true that the only virus that we have eradicated is Small Pox?

 

[Pags]

I'm not a doctor, Jim! but is it not true that the only virus that we have eradicated is Small Pox?

I think so? We've come close with polio and measles. For a lot of the other ones (MMR) even if we haven't eradicated them they've been heavily mitigated by immunizations to the extent they're no longer seen as issues.

 

[Pags]

Who are you calling average?!? J/K

There are people in that population who are carriers, and probably people who are sick and they just don't know it yet. I think we are giving people a false sense of security that any covering will protect them from getting the virus. Wearing a t-shirt over your nose and mouth may slow things down, but again maybe they weren't exposed to begin with.

Take a look at my earlier post to wink on masks. Yes, people can be asymptomatic carriers hence the current guidance for social distancing and some form of face covering.

CDC guidance on masks is pretty clear but some people can't comply for various reasons. Hence why everyone should still wear masks. You having a decent mask will help mitigate people with crummy masks. That said, you don't need an N95 for the grocery store. Those are for people who have close and routine exposure (test sites, hospitals, etc).