Coronavirus/Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[I Am A Swede]

We've had our first death due to the coronavirus here in Sweden today.

Our government has banned every public gathering of more than 500 people. Break that ban and you risk up to six months in jail.

[Toups]

CNBC: NCAA March Madness basketball games will be played without fans

 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the upcoming men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be played with “only essential staff and limited family attendance,”  NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement Wednesday. No public fans will be allowed to attend.

 

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THR: Late-Night Shows to Go Without Live Audiences as Coronavirus Precaution

 

Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, John Oliver and Andy Cohen will soon be playing to empty houses.

 

Several New York-based late night shows are suspending live audiences starting March 16 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. NBC's Tonight Show and Late Night, CBS' Late Show, Comedy Central's Daily Show, TBS' Full Frontal, HBO's Last Week Tonight and Bravo's Watch What Happens Live will all continue to tape new episodes next week but will do so without in-studio viewers.

Full Frontal With Samantha Bee is going without an audience for Wednesday's show as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Soapsuds]

How is your neighbor Finland doing? I have a great friend from Finland who I went to college with. No one in the news media mentions Sweden or Finland. Although my friend has been living in Sweden. What is the case count?

Edited March 11, 2020 by Soapsuds

[JaneAusten]

Lord I hope the number of recoveries is higher than that. I'm pretty sure it is based on the death tolls we have seen so far. You realize with those numbers your stating the death toll would be close to 50%

[Aback]

 

Your government is doing the right thing. And acting very promptly I might add.
 

What you should do is avoid gathering of even 2 people. Stay at home. Work from home. Get your groceries delivered. Sanitize phone, laptop etc. Wash hands very, very often.

[Soapsuds]

My aunt called and said the media is just scarring the public. She's been around the city with crowds...at malls and is fine. We have zero cases here. The closest case is 300 miles away with one reported case. 

[JaneAusten]

Media? This is what our health professionals and the lead doctor from the NiH is saying. Italy was where we are now 3 weeks ago. You science deniers need to sit this one out. You folks are the ones who put the rest of us in danger. Keep going with the crowds and stay the heck away from my state. Tell your aunt, who I assume is over 60, the same.

Edited March 11, 2020 by JaneAusten

[Aback]

 

Whoopi won't have a show any longer in a matter of a week.

Dr. Fauci is right.

Governments should prepare for the worst case scenario. No government that I know of has done it.

 

Please stop spreading this kind of misinformation.

You might have not detected any cases so far because people can get the virus and not show any symptoms. Still they can infect other people. Tell your aunt to check the World Health Organization webpage or social media channel.

 

 

Precisely. It's just the way it goes. Viruses don't know borders.

[Huntress]

In Germany, 3 people have died so far. In my federal state, there are the most infections (ca 700 as of today). People are advised to stay home and in most federal states, all large events have been canceled, including trade fairs, soccer games and concerts. The national ice hockey league ended their game season ahead of schedule without declaring a champion.

 

Schools are still open, though. 

 

In some regions, canned goods, toilet paper and sanitizer were completely sold out. They loosened the law that grocery stores can refill their products on Sundays (usually all shops are closed here on Sundays).

 

People have been stealing sanitizer from hospitals. 

 

This is absolutely horrible and it will only get worse. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Huntress

[Vee]

I'm telling my parents to stay in. This is going to get rough.

[JaneAusten]

My mom lives in a retirement community and they are restricting access to their building. No people under 18, no visitors outside of mandatory visitation. My brother was planning to visit over the weekend, I told him not to bother. And disinfection in the dining area between seating times.

[Vee]

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Maybe most African countries know a bit more about the ravages of infectious disease and act more expeditiously to try to head off its spread?

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Meanwhile in the U.S.-

 

[xtr]

I hope we can slow down the spread of this illness. In the meantime, people should definitely should do the best they can in trying not get this illness/spread it. Be sanitary, limit travel, limit hanging around in large gatherings etc... Which is pretty much what a lot of health experts and some other folks in this thread have mentioned. Though, some suggestions are not going to be plausible for a lot of people. Like working from home. Most people do not work from home and a lot really aren't able to do that. So that could definitely be a problem for people in their work situations going forward. 

 

I have my concerns about this illness for various reasons, including how it can affect people, their jobs and the economy. Last year at work three of my co-workers came in with the flu and almost our entire/office department became sick as a result of that. I fortunately did not and I was in there a few days working by myself, as I was the only who was able to come to work those days. It was incredibly busy. Thankfully we ended up managing fine business wise during those days, in spite of all of the employees who were out sick. 

 

We've always stressed not coming in when you're sick and things like wiping down with wipes, have a bunch of hand sanitizer in the office, etc... but that still happened. This year, people have been better about that, though I still have some co-workers who seems to always have a cold, coming to work. There are a couple that always seem to have one and quite frankly it concerns me. Even more so now with the threat of coronavirus.

 

My boss did send out an email about how we could help clients with them stepping into the office, which is good, for those of them who may be sick. And in general. Some of them have cancelled appointments because they didn't want to come in sick,which is the right thing to do. If push come to shove, we could assist a lot of them, maybe even most of them online, with a lot of our services, them stepping foot into the office.

 

But some of them would still want to come in and don't want to do the online stuff. And we still would have to physically be there. A few of us have worked remotely before when we had bad weather, but it's better for our business if we are in an office. My boss did mention in the email telling us to push doing more virtual stuff for them, as opposed to them coming in. So maybe more of them may take advantage of that. 

 

Though,  general it will be hard for most working people to work from home. That just really isn't an option for a lot of people. Hopefully, they can help curtail this illness before a lot more people and businesses have to face that challenge.

 

Edited March 12, 2020 by xtr