Coronavirus thread

[ccmdfd]

We'll see, I suppose. My concern would be hospital floor/MICU bed capacity being tested by demand, esp. among elderly, immunocompromised, and chronically ill.

Can you imagine if this tore through an outpatient hemodialysis center, for example?

Good points

cc

[farscott]

That's a question about which I am clueless. Please elaborate, wise members.

I am not wise, but perhaps I can shed some light. So, for the most part, DoD sources stuff from the USA. That being said, components of that stuff can come from anywhere. And most of the high-tech DoD stuff is full of electronics. And lots of those electronic components are manufactured overseas. And yes, lots in China. For example, Texas Instruments. Great American semiconductor giant with a lot of exposure to China. The semiconductor die may have been designed in Dallas, but it is likely the lead frame (the thing that has the pins that get soldered to the printed circuit board) is made in China. Same for a lot of the plastic packaging in which the die is housed.

An example: my team is working on a new product that uses a not-yet-released part, and my team has some of the first engineering samples in the world. We need to get more parts to allow us to build a demo for a very important customer. Those parts are in China, and they were supposed to ship twelve days ago. And they still have not shipped. So the demo is at risk. So about $100 million is at risk.

And it goes beyond that. Raw materials for things like plastic housings, rare earth materials, and many other things come from China. China has not been functioning for more than a month, so the impact is going to be deep and prolonged. Even once things get back to normal, there will be shortages as first parts ship by air while the normal shipping channels get recharged. I would expect shortages all the way through 2020 and into 2021. It will be interesting to see how Black Friday and the holiday season go for retailers.

[RevolverRob]

Wife made the grocery run and went back to Costco at opening this morning. She said it was total chaos.

But we're stocked up with a solid 3-weeks of normal provisions + another 6-weeks of rationed provisions, with a sufficient amount of things to keep the dogs and cats fed too.

Both cars have full tanks. I guess I'll just check the go-bags in case it becomes necessary to ride out of town for whatever reason. I dunno my ammo situation exactly, but I know I have enough HST, Gold Dot, and Flitecontrol Buck to put up a serious fight.

And we have plenty of batteries, a broad-band internet connection, and video games. So we should be good to go.

[ccmdfd]

After reading Fauci's letter, I wonder if CNN and Dr. Gupta will issue an apology to the President.

Trump was quoting fatality rates similar to Fauci, whereas CNN says it's 3-4 X higher.

hate to interject politics into this thread, but damn.

cc

[45dotACP]

We'll see, I suppose. My concern would be hospital floor/MICU bed capacity being tested by demand, esp. among elderly, immunocompromised, and chronically ill.

Can you imagine if this tore through an outpatient hemodialysis center, for example?

Even a bad flu season can put my unit into a frenzy. We are set up identically to our MICU, which is a benefit a few years ago during flu season when we had to open more ICU beds by just having the stepdown floor clear rooms and route ICU patients and extra staff into the MSDU.

I suspect such measures will probably be avoided unless absolutely necessary but yeah one HD patient with COVID-19 going to HD would be pretty damn miserable. Or if it got loose in a nursing home.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[farscott]

Wife made the grocery run and went back to Costco at opening this morning. She said it was total chaos.

But we're stocked up with a solid 3-weeks of normal provisions + another 6-weeks of rationed provisions, with a sufficient amount of things to keep the dogs and cats fed too.

Both cars have full tanks. I guess I'll just check the go-bags in case it becomes necessary to ride out of town for whatever reason. I dunno my ammo situation exactly, but I know I have enough HST, Gold Dot, and Flitecontrol Buck to put up a serious fight.

And we have plenty of batteries, a broad-band internet connection, and video games. So we should be good to go.

Funny how locale makes such a big difference. My wife and I did our usual weekly grocery shopping this morning. I topped off her car as is my wont. We went to two stores, Wal-Mart and a local grocery chain that has five stores total. Both stores were well stocked with the usual items, and we noticed no shortages. The customers also acted normally. We bought our normal groceries and added a bag of sugar and a bag of flour as there was a decent sale and my wife has been baking.

That being said, we are in rural north Alabama, and prepping for and dealing with disaster (tornado season has been tough the last five years) is not that unusual. Our pantry, refrigerators, and freezer have six months of food. We have chickens in the backyard that laid twenty eggs yesterday. We are probably as prepared as can be if we are forced to self-quarantine. I could have some fun as I shoot on my backyard range.

So far, at least here, rumors of snow cause more chaos at the stores than this virus. Whereas Chicago is likely to not even think about an amount of snow that would shut down everything in north Alabama.

[Chance]

From BBC News:

Satellite images have shown a dramatic decline in pollution levels over China, which is "at least partly" due to an economic slowdown prompted by the coronavirus, US space agency Nasa says.

Nasa maps show how levels of nitrogen dioxide have fallen this year, and compared to the same period in 2019.

It comes amid record declines in China's factory activity as manufacturers stop work in a bid to contain the virus.

It's one thing to hear China has ground to a halt, but looking at that is something else.

Meanwhile, in Japan:

https://twitter.com/@twitter/status/1233643881943592960

Both stores were well stocked with the usual items, and we noticed no shortages. The customers also acted normally.

Same, lazy weekend shopping here, too.

[Totem Polar]

My concern would be (#1)hospital floor/MICU bed capacity being tested by demand, esp. among (#2)elderly, immunocompromised, and chronically ill.

At this point, #1 and #2, separately and together; and (#3) enough sick people missing shifts to have an effect on emergency response and bits of life infrastructure here and there.

I just got back from my Sat morning workout at the boxing place: an hour+ crammed elbows to assholes with 20 of my friends from all walks of life—including nurses and secondary ed teachers—on just 3 step boxes, 2 heavy back racks, and in the ring doing ab work and sweating all over each other. No way that I’m not exposed if it actually gets out into the wider population.

Plus, spring breaks starting next week, with thousands of students flying home, to Vegas, or to Mexico through California. We shall see what we see, for sure.

[Borderland]

I believe we just had the first reported US death from Covid-19 in the Seattle metro area. I could be wrong about this however but here's my source. Kirkland is east just across the lake from Seattle. This should send the markets into another crash dive on Monday.

https://mynorthwest.com/1741025/wash...-patient-dies/

[Borderland]

I am not wise, but perhaps I can shed some light. So, for the most part, DoD sources stuff from the USA. That being said, components of that stuff can come from anywhere. And most of the high-tech DoD stuff is full of electronics. And lots of those electronic components are manufactured overseas. And yes, lots in China. For example, Texas Instruments. Great American semiconductor giant with a lot of exposure to China. The semiconductor die may have been designed in Dallas, but it is likely the lead frame (the thing that has the pins that get soldered to the printed circuit board) is made in China. Same for a lot of the plastic packaging in which the die is housed.

An example: my team is working on a new product that uses a not-yet-released part, and my team has some of the first engineering samples in the world. We need to get more parts to allow us to build a demo for a very important customer. Those parts are in China, and they were supposed to ship twelve days ago. And they still have not shipped. So the demo is at risk. So about $100 million is at risk.

And it goes beyond that. Raw materials for things like plastic housings, rare earth materials, and many other things come from China. China has not been functioning for more than a month, so the impact is going to be deep and prolonged. Even once things get back to normal, there will be shortages as first parts ship by air while the normal shipping channels get recharged. I would expect shortages all the way through 2020 and into 2021. It will be interesting to see how Black Friday and the holiday season go for retailers.

Boeing also sources from other countries. They even have a plant in China. A close friend who works for Boeing was in Russia a few years ago to source a metal but I can't remember the name of it. Tungsten maybe. He said he traveled by train for a long distance in Russia to get to his destination. They'll buy metal wherever they can find it. We don't have everything we need to build aircraft.