COVID-19

[bens197]

There are numerous reports floating around that this, like the flu dissipates with warm weather. Hopefully that's the case and you don't see the explosion we did here as it gets cooler. 

 

Stay Safe. 

It’s not true, I wish what you were saying was.

 

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/04/covid-19-may-not-go-away-in-warmer-weather-as-do-colds/

[yungkory]

21 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

Foreign. Mexico extended their stay at home order. 

A lot of my clients who work in the construction industry are having the same issues. They are thankfully not out of jobs, but they can't get the raw materials to complete them. Especially hard here, since we're floating in the middle of the ocean.

[Peaksy68]

19 minutes ago, THEZIPR23 said:

There are numerous reports floating around that this, like the flu dissipates with warm weather. Hopefully that's the case and you don't see the explosion we did here as it gets cooler. 

 

Stay Safe. 

Hopefully it will drop off as it gets warmer, but the data from warm places like Singapore doesn't seem to follow that pattern. Unfortunately the testing levels from a lot of the equatorial region are so low that we have no real data.

I'd love to see less speculation from authorities, and more confirmed facts. 

Unfortunately it's human nature for us to give more credence to information that aligns with our own beliefs (me too) Empirical data from multiple sources is so important. Picking isolated studies or data based on their conclusions is dangerous and from any in leadership, disingenuous. 

 

[Rickp]

Foreign. Mexico extended their stay at home order. 

Yup, I can see that. I ran a small mfg company that did automotive, Tier 2.
Hope pipeline opens back up quickly.


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[sirchunksalot]

34 minutes ago, Rickp said:

Yup, I can see that. I ran a small mfg company that did automotive, Tier 2.
Hope pipeline opens back up quickly.


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That's pretty cool, what did you manufacture? I build cars, but I can honestly say I don't know much about the different tiers of manufacturers. 

 

I'm hoping it'll get going soon, but the top priority is that it can be done safely for everyone involved. 

[cnosil]

23 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I'm hoping it'll get going soon, but the top priority is that it can be done safely for everyone involved. 

Companies are putting procedures in place.   My company will be doing temperature scans for every employee entering the gates (there are 21000 hourly and salaried employees working multiple shifts).  If your temp is measured over 100* you go to a secondary screening.  If  fever is confirmed your badge will be deactivated and you cannot return until you have been fever free for 3 days without medication.  To get your badge activated you have to go through the onsite clinic. 

[sirchunksalot]

Just now, cnosil said:

Companies are putting procedures in place.   My company will be doing temperature scans for every employee entering the gates (there are 21000 hourly and salaried employees working multiple shifts).  If your temp is measured over 100* you go to a secondary screening.  If  fever is confirmed your badge will be deactivated and you cannot return until you have been fever free for 3 days without medication.  To get your badge activated you have to go through the onsite clinic. 

We just got a list of procedures that VW will be doing to safely resume production. We are also doing temperature checks, along with staggered start times, barriers up on the break tables, and a set time for extra cleaning. I'm glad to see steps companies are taking to keep the work environment safe.

 

My jaw dropped at the mention of 21,000 employees. We employ somewhere around 4,000 So I can't imagine the logistical nightmare of just doing the temperature check. 

[tony@CIC]

I think the cold and flu season has been a factor in decision making. Flu shots have been made available earlier, and to a wider spectrum for free than usual. 
My states population is about 6.5M, about the same as Indiana. We've had 1354 confirmed cases with 18 deaths, currently 18 patients in ICU. Indiana has over 17,000 with over 1000 deaths. The comparison is staggering. 
Our public health system has been carrying the load, with the vast majority of hospitalised patients and testing being done in our public system. 
For information only, our states run public hospitals, federal government run our Medicare system, which provides fee for service to the provider for most medical services. Virtually all emergency services and surgery occur in the public system. If you have a heart attack and require immediate bypass grafts, it is done with no cost to the patient. 
Stay safe, the stats from the USA are truly frightening compared to here.

Sounds like you guys did a nice job in containing the virus.


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[cnosil]

47 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

We just got a list of procedures that VW will be doing to safely resume production. We are also doing temperature checks, along with staggered start times, barriers up on the break tables, and a set time for extra cleaning. I'm glad to see steps companies are taking to keep the work environment safe.

 

My jaw dropped at the mention of 21,000 employees. We employ somewhere around 4,000 So I can't imagine the logistical nightmare of just doing the temperature check. 

For those that have to go to work,  they switched from 3 shifts to 2 (6Am - 2:30pm, 6pm-2:30am)  with the hours between being used for cleaning.    There are multiple entry points into the company (we occupy 550 acres along 2 miles of waterfront) and based on the slide deck there will be multiple people scanning and people working to maintain social distancing.    I am sure it will be a challenge.  

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

3 minutes ago, cnosil said:

For those that have to go to work,  they switched from 3 shifts to 2 (6Am - 2:30pm, 6pm-2:30am)  with the hours between being used for cleaning.    There are multiple entry points into the company (we occupy 550 acres along 2 miles of waterfront) and based on the slide deck there will be multiple people scanning and people working to maintain social distancing.    I am sure it will be a challenge.  

It’s funny you mention scanning (I am assuming temperature?) we have been doing that at our facility for about 4 weeks now....has not done anything. We have had 6 positive tests so far all of them came to work totally fine passed temperature scanning and had to leave middle of the work day. The temp scanning is a disaster from what I have read it is the last symptom to show up

[cnosil]

7 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

It’s funny you mention scanning (I am assuming temperature?) we have been doing that at our facility for about 4 weeks now....has not done anything. We have had 6 positive tests so far all of them came to work totally fine passed temperature scanning and had to leave middle of the work day. The temp scanning is a disaster from what I have read it is the last symptom to show up

Yes, temperature.    We get a daily email and  there have been about 35 cases and 13 have returned to work.   All  I know is they say the contractor is working all over the local area and has been successful.   

[yungkory]

1 hour ago, Lacassem said:

It’s funny you mention scanning (I am assuming temperature?) we have been doing that at our facility for about 4 weeks now....has not done anything. We have had 6 positive tests so far all of them came to work totally fine passed temperature scanning and had to leave middle of the work day. The temp scanning is a disaster from what I have read it is the last symptom to show up

Yeah, that's one of the tough things with Covid -- asymptomatic folks spreading it around unknowingly. This was my biggest fear due to some family members being immune-compromised. Thankfully, it looks like staying home is working for us in Hawaii, thought I wouldn't at all be surprised if we just don't have the capacity to test. Even if we did though, what are you gonna do if you test positive? Stay home!

It has been a rough 40 days but I'm very excited to report that golf reopens tomorrow at 430pm. I'm taking the first tee time I can get on Friday! I'm going to continue to do what I was doing prior to the shutdown before golf was effectively "cancelled" here. I'm not going to touch flags, I've got Clorox wipes in my bag to wipe the cart down if we're riding, maintaining 6 feet from the buddy I plan on playing with, and washing hands/not touching my eyes/mouth/face! Any other golf-related suggestions that you guys have seen implemented? Preferably ones that I can control, not "hey they got these new flag sticks that you can slide a lever up and it ejects your ball out of the cup."

[MaxEntropy]

4 hours ago, Peaksy68 said:

Unfortunately it's human nature for us to give more credence to information that aligns with our own beliefs (me too)

I wish I could like this multiple times. We all suffer from a bit of confirmation bias, but it's particularly troubling to me when people don't recognize the possibility or even know that such a thing exists.

[Peaksy68]

4 hours ago, tony@CIC said:

Sounds like you guys did a nice job in containing the virus.


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We're getting there. Hopefully we can push through the next phase.

[tommc23]

The best part of the whole lock down has been the huge reduction of accidents due to bad drivers along with a drop in gas prices. The pollution reduction world wide is nice too. I've also found some more stuff made in America because of this and I've been trying to spread the word on buying American made for years. 

[MattF]

Saw a ticker on the news this morning that hospitals in Wuhan have reported there is now airborne Covid-19 over there.

[Shankster]

Saw a ticker on the news this morning that hospitals in Wuhan have reported there is now airborne Covid-19 over there.

Say what...?

[tommc23]

31 minutes ago, Shankster said:

Say what...?

This isn't completely new there have been some sources saying it can be transmitted this way. From what I saw it is only airborne for a short period of time unless things have drastically changed. I don't trust everything coming from China at this point they are obviously not being up front with everything and haven't been.

[edingc]

We've been back on for golf since the end of last week, walking only. Clarification came Monday that there will be no driving ranges, etc., until at least May 15. We had fantastic weather last weekend and early this week (I took a half day off on Tuesday to play in the afternoon), and this weekend is looking good, too. But we are still supposed to be really cold for this time of year at least through that mid-May date.

My home course has elected not to open for a while yet. They have been taking this time as an opportunity to improve drainage and to trim back some of the trees to let more light reach the grass. So there are some positives to take away from all of this, I suppose. 

Our county is finally starting to see exponential growth in cases, basically quadrupling from low hundreds to nearly 1,500 presumptive cases in the past two weeks. I do fear that because the western side of Michigan was not initially hit hard like Detroit and surrounding areas, that we are going to be in a bad situation over the coming weeks. A lot of the opposition to the shelter-in-place order around here was based on the fact that we had few cases. Now, the order is being relaxed/lifted and people are going to be out and about like crazy just as the numbers are rising.

Still using Instacart for delivery where possible, and I'm thankful I stocked up on meat last month. I have to call around to a few local shops next week to see if I can secure some more for the next month or so as I'm expecting grocery stores will be low/out of stock on several meat products.

I had to visit one of our data centers yesterday to replace some failed hardware and had to go through the whole regimen of self reporting temperature and checking the box on no symptoms. N95 respirator (I have one from working with lead paint in the house), gloves and Lysol wipes. Worst part about it was that the elevators were not working in our building so I had to hoof five floors of stairs to get where I needed to be.

 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

3 hours ago, MattF said:

Saw a ticker on the news this morning that hospitals in Wuhan have reported there is now airborne Covid-19 over there.

There reporting is AWFUL on actual cases and deaths as well. If you have some time to do some research look up cell phone usage in China. Down significantly, coincidence?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-23/china-s-mobile-carriers-lose-15-million-users-as-virus-bites

I understand not all reporting is reputable but I am also partial tin hat and I find this type of stuff FASCINATING 

[THEZIPR23]

1 hour ago, edingc said:

Our county is finally starting to see exponential growth in cases, basically quadrupling from low hundreds to nearly 1,500 presumptive cases in the past two weeks. I do fear that because the western side of Michigan was not initially hit hard like Detroit and surrounding areas, that we are going to be in a bad situation over the coming weeks. A lot of the opposition to the shelter-in-place order around here was based on the fact that we had few cases. Now, the order is being relaxed/lifted and people are going to be out and about like crazy just as the numbers are rising.

 

 

This is the part that I fight with every day, to open everything up or not. We are approaching the tipping point in my mind, economically we can't continue this way. But on the other hand if we lose millions of people the economy shrinks as well. It's frustrating. I am still amazed that the world as a whole still doesn't have a complete understanding of the virus. 

[chisag]

20 minutes ago, THEZIPR23 said:

This is the part that I fight with every day, to open everything up or not. We are approaching the tipping point in my mind, economically we can't continue this way. But on the other hand if we lose millions of people the economy shrinks as well. It's frustrating. I am still amazed that the world as a whole still doesn't have a complete understanding of the virus. 

 

... I am amazed at how politically divisive this country has become. Add the Russian/Chinese cyber attacks and it is a complete mess. There is zero direction from the federal government concerning Covid 19. You cannot have a nationwide pandemic and leave to up to individual states to make their own rules when we have interstate travel. We are fractured as a country and no longer the UNITED States of America, just 50 random states. No longer do JFK's inspirational words "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" apply to many that live in what are called blue states or red states. WTF? We used to just have states that were united in times of crises.  

... You would think in the face of a worldwide pandemic, common sense would prevail. Obviously we can't have everyone stay in their homes forever. Equally as obvious,  we can't just say "Coast is clear, everyone back to life as normal". States like Georgia make themselves as well as the rest of the country unsafe. Common sense says begin slowly and see how things work out. We already have grocery stores, hardware stores, gas stations open and providing services and jobs. And we already have people ignoring the rules when 80,000 flock to the beach in Orange County Ca forcing the Governor to close all beaches again because people are selfish and have little community integrity. You drive to the beach and it is crowded with no social distancing? Turn the car around and go home, don't think OK everyone else is ignoring the rules so I'm going to ignore them too. 

... I guess my point is I would like to think those that follow the rules to combat Covid 19 for the good of their fellow man are the majority. If everyone followed simple safety rules it would be difficult in the short run, and for some that literally live paycheck to paycheck it might even border on catastrophic. But it would be over much sooner and we could start slowly adding business and jobs back into our lives. Maybe restaurants with tables spaced 8 feet apart. If we go I month with little increase in Covid cases, add tables and make it 4 feet apart. The same common sense would apply to other business, slowly getting back to what will be the new normal. But sadly it only takes a small minority that think the rules don't apply to them to keep spreading Covid and the cycle will continue, perhaps coming back even worse for everyone. 

... I certainly don't have all the answers and those smarter than I could probably add something or find a few holes in what I have written but I feel strongly that we are all in this together or we are all on our own. And as long as we have those at the top sowing division and not unity, along with most media outlets feeding that division and foreign interference doing everything they can to widen that division, we have little hope of becoming the UNITED States Of America again and will remain the DIVIDED Staes Of America. . 

[sixcat]

My wife was notified by her employer today, effective July 1st, her out of pocket health insurance premiums would more than triple.  Which is noteworthy in-and-of itself.  Factor in, her employer is a government entity, it gets much more noteworthy.  At least in my eyes.

Are dominoes beginning to fall in terms of economic impact of this situation?  Difficult not to think one has something to do with the other! 

[sixcat]

54 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... I am amazed at how politically divisive this country has become. Add the Russian/Chinese cyber attacks and it is a complete mess. There is zero direction from the federal government concerning Covid 19. You cannot have a nationwide pandemic and leave to up to individual states to make their own rules when we have interstate travel. We are fractured as a country and no longer the UNITED States of America, just 50 random states. No longer do JFK's inspirational words "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" apply to many that live in what are called blue states or red states. WTF? We used to just have states that were united in times of crises.  

... You would think in the face of a worldwide pandemic, common sense would prevail. Obviously we can't have everyone stay in their homes forever. Equally as obvious,  we can't just say "Coast is clear, everyone back to life as normal". States like Georgia make themselves as well as the rest of the country unsafe. Common sense says begin slowly and see how things work out. We already have grocery stores, hardware stores, gas stations open and providing services and jobs. And we already have people ignoring the rules when 80,000 flock to the beach in Orange County Ca forcing the Governor to close all beaches again because people are selfish and have little community integrity. You drive to the beach and it is crowded with no social distancing? Turn the car around and go home, don't think OK everyone else is ignoring the rules so I'm going to ignore them too. 

... I guess my point is I would like to think those that follow the rules to combat Covid 19 for the good of their fellow man are the majority. If everyone followed simple safety rules it would be difficult in the short run, and for some that literally live paycheck to paycheck it might even border on catastrophic. But it would be over much sooner and we could start slowly adding business and jobs back into our lives. Maybe restaurants with tables spaced 8 feet apart. If we go I month with little increase in Covid cases, add tables and make it 4 feet apart. The same common sense would apply to other business, slowly getting back to what will be the new normal. But sadly it only takes a small minority that think the rules don't apply to them to keep spreading Covid and the cycle will continue, perhaps coming back even worse for everyone. 

... I certainly don't have all the answers and those smarter than I could probably add something or find a few holes in what I have written but I feel strongly that we are all in this together or we are all on our own. And as long as we have those at the top sowing division and not unity, along with most media outlets feeding that division and foreign interference doing everything they can to widen that division, we have little hope of becoming the UNITED States Of America again and will remain the DIVIDED Staes Of America. . 

Everyone misinterprets the two-party system of government in the United States.  It's not left or right, red or blue or even Republican or Democrat........it's divide and conquer!!!!!

[edingc]

2 hours ago, THEZIPR23 said:

This is the part that I fight with every day, to open everything up or not. We are approaching the tipping point in my mind, economically we can't continue this way. But on the other hand if we lose millions of people the economy shrinks as well. It's frustrating. I am still amazed that the world as a whole still doesn't have a complete understanding of the virus. 

I understand that a lot of the increase in numbers is due to increased testing, and that's a positive for a couple reasons, namely that we are finally testing more and that more cases means the actual death rate is a lot less than the nine percent that Michigan is dealing with right now. (I know we know enough to know that the death rate isn''t THAT high.)

I've been keeping a close eye on hospital bed and ventilator numbers and it's scary to think that our region, which includes Grand Rapids, a metro area of almost one million people, has a whopping 127 ICU beds available at the moment.

Frustrating is the right word for it. It's just not a good situation no matter how you look at it.

 

[THEZIPR23]

9 minutes ago, edingc said:

I've been keeping a close eye on hospital bed and ventilator numbers and it's scary to think that our region, which includes Grand Rapids, a metro area of almost one million people, has a whopping 127 ICU beds available at the moment.

 

It's the same way here, some frontline workers have even been furloughed. And unfortunately we will never know the true answer to the question of, Did we over react by closing everything down to ensure hospital beds or because we locked everything down the hospitals haven't been overloaded. 

[Rickp]

That's pretty cool, what did you manufacture? I build cars, but I can honestly say I don't know much about the different tiers of manufacturers. 
 
I'm hoping it'll get going soon, but the top priority is that it can be done safely for everyone involved. 

We’re the company nobody sees. We are metal mfg company that is a “job shop”, we don’t have our own product line we make custom from 2 Prototypes to 25 million plus parts. Everything we make/made is relatively small. We even do part design when companies are in trouble with a non-working product. Automotive was about 25% of our business until NAFTA and we lost 15% of that. Medical parts remains about 20%. Can’t say a heck of a lot I’m still under NDA.


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[fixyurdivot]

8 minutes ago, Rickp said:

Can’t say a heck of a lot I’m still under NDA.

Folks that recently retire often forget about those .  

[sirchunksalot]

11 minutes ago, Rickp said:

We’re the company nobody sees. We are metal mfg company that is a “job shop”, we don’t have our own product line we make custom from 2 Prototypes to 25 million plus parts. Everything we make/made is relatively small. We even do part design when companies are in trouble with a non-working product. Automotive was about 25% of our business until NAFTA and we lost 15% of that. Medical parts remains about 20%. Can’t say a heck of a lot I’m still under NDA.


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I understand that, it can be a fine line to walk and I appreciate the answer. I honestly had to go through and check the information I have on procedures because internal memos are private and make sure there was a press release on their procedures. 

The small stuff matters in automotive, it all plays a part when it comes to performance and safety. 

[Rickp]

Folks that recently retire often forget about those .  

It’s an important Document. Mine was for 5years after I retired. They came back and extended it and made it with my while. I wasn’t going to do anything but their call.


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