COVID-19

[IlliniDave]

From the anecdote bin.

Heard from my boss today that her same daughter tested positive for c19. She got tested after starting to feel bad again after a few weeks w/o symptoms. She'd originally felt sick, tested positive, felt better, tested negative, then was presumed recovered and resumed normal life within the guidelines the state has been operating under. Apparently the medical people relayed that they've observed a number of people who have been through similar cycles. Of course no one knows for sure if she had a new exposure of if the virus went dormant for a time then flared back up. Although she feels sick, she has not run a fever either during the first bout of illness nor the current bout. I know a lot of places, including my primary workplace and the one other facility I work from occasionally, are using temperature screening as a safeguard. No conclusions or opinions, just FYI. The ascent of the learning curve on this virus seems like a slow one.

[Tyler9000]

The Lancet has now officially retracted the HCQ study that was very likely based on fraudulent data.

https://www.thelancet.com/lancet/articl ... ium=social

[thrifty++]

It has been two weeks of zero new cases in NZ today. We still have one straggling active case remaining. Which is weird since it was acquired 5 weeks ago and the person isnt in hospital. Lingering.

Things are starting to look increasingly normal in NZ now.

The NZ dollar has bounced back a lot to its pre-COVID-19 levels now, and then slightly more.

The govt is considering moving to level 1 alert on Wednesday next week. This would mean all social distancing rules and requirements are removed and even large events like concerts and sporting events can resume uninhibited. However, contact tracing will remain mandatory. The border would also remain closed. Govt decides whether to shift to level 1 alert on Monday.

One economist has claimed he thinks that the economy is likely less impacted due to the heavy lockdown imposed than if we did nothing. However, who knows yet. In April we had the highest number and percentage of job losses per month since recording began in 1999. It will be interesting to see how the economy of Sweden vs economy of NZ pan out. They have applied the opposite strategies. So far Sweden seems to be winning. NZ is the only country in the world that applied an elimination straregy and so far seems to be likely to pull it off.

[Freedom_2018]

This scene from the movie Outbreak I think will explain why so many nursing home and apartment type dwellers got the virus.

https://youtu.be/QN-9uPFi1Bs

Also makes me think that the hepa filters in airplanes must mostly be working well otherwise flight attendants should have been dropping like flies.

Due to this theory of mine, I have avoided booking any hotel since we came back to the US that does not have a separate A/C unit and preferably a separate entrance for each room...actually had to look at photos of the property before booking to see if they have individual external A/C units.

[thrifty++]

COVID-19 has now been completely wiped out in New Zealand.

Today after 17 consecutive days of zero new cases, we now have no active cases at all. So zero COVID19.

Tomorrow we drop down from level 2 alert to level 1. That means zero COVID19 restrictions on anything, other than the border remaining shut.

Life is looking increasingly normal here. No one is wearing masks anymore. Everyone is again going about their business.

I have been impressed with how the govt has dealt with the whole thing and how it was heavilyt backed by 99% of the populace with little discension. Thats on every level, not just the health aspect, the economic navigation through legislative change on a rapid basis has been incredible in my opinion. Everything required to run a country has been changed to suit on a rapid basis and then gradually reversed back.

The current govt has record breaking popularity under the latest poll and the opposition party has the worst support in 20 years.

[classical_Liberal]

@thrifty++
and you wanted to move away because it was too expensive

[thrifty++]

@classical liberal - I know right. Getting my money's worth now at least!

Mind you, I am still thinking about it. When I watch videos like this one the contrast is palbable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0OQ2-k ... _3Awqq0h9I

- I cant believe she is earning $80k USD in her 20s at a job like that which sounds kind of cruisey and nice. Thats about $122k NZD. Here, you are lucky to earn that much money in your 40s let alone your 20s. And it would be a high stress, high pressure "status" job that you should "be grateful" for, with long hours, demands and responsibilities . Someone her age with that type of job here would probaly be earning about $35k USD>

- I cnat believe her mortgage is only $170k. Her house is so nice. A house like that here, an equivalent would be about $1.5 million USD.

- I cant believe the crazy amount of assistance she got on her house, There is no govt assistance or programme assistance like that here,

- Im shocked her house deposit was $13k. Thats utter fucking peanuts. Here you need to scrub up with something like $150k USD to get real on anything. To put a deposit on some piece of shit.

- She is not frugal at all yet she is on "millenial finance". My god. This would be regarded as extravagant expenditure by normal NZ standards. 2 gym memberships and $100 on hair every month and nails?! Yet she is still owning it.

[Mister Imperceptible]

@thrifty

I think she should march down to the White House with the rest of BLM, clearly $64,000 in free money is not enough assistance and she is being oppressed. And she is a firm believer in “self-care.” JFC.

I had to pay off over $150k in student loans with no assistance. And when I bought real estate the bank insisted I have 20% down and approved me for way less than I could actually afford. I did not get any assistance either. Then when I wanted to refinance 3 years later, I was denied by several banks despite having tripled my income because now I was a consultant with an LLC and that meant my income was “less stable.” I had to get a loan from a subprime lender at a higher rate. The rules are definitely different for different people.



Sorry NZ is so expensive but I guess that’s the case when the world’s billionaires use your backyard as a bugout location.

[thrifty++]

Sorry NZ is so expensive but I guess that’s the case when the world’s billionaires use your backyard as a bugout location.

We definitely need to put some conditions of entry on the super rich. Require capital and business investment in exchange for inflating the cost of living.

[Mister Imperceptible]

Well, at least you live in a disease free utopia with a hot prime minister.

[thrifty++]

Well, at least you live in a disease free utopia with a hot prime minister.

Yes this is true. You think she is hot? I have thought of her as young for a PM and kind of attactive, but I wouldnt have thought hot. But then its a real juxtaposition next to Trump I suppose.

[Mister Imperceptible]

She looks quirky but the imperfections are charming. As a libertarian American who knows almost nothing about NZ society I find her politics superficially abhorrent but that would not be inconsistent with most every woman I have ever dated. It would probably be hot getting bossed around by her for about a week and then it would get old and I would start mansplaining to her why she is wrong.

[Mister Imperceptible]

Now that I have been officially cleared to leave isolation, here was the general progression:

Days 1-2: The icky feeling in my throat of becoming sick

Day 3: Tested for COVID-19

Days 3-5: Sore throat, strange taste in my mouth, copious phlegm, fever, cough, body aches

Day 5: Diagnosed positive for COVID-19

Days 6-7: Continued severe cough, body aches, fever, all other symptoms less severe

Days 8-9: Continued cough and body aches, all other symptoms gone

Days 10-14: Subsiding cough

Day 14: Cleared to leave isolation

I can out-read you, I can out-think you, I can out-learn you, and I can out-philosophize you. And I’m gonna outlast you! You think a couple whacks to my good ol boy guts is gonna get me down? It’s gonna take a whole helluva lot more than that Coronavirus to prove you’re better than me!

All that is left for Bill Gates to do is have Donald Pleasance call me and recite a Robert Frost poem to activate whatever command was programmed by the globalists into the coronavirus.

[chenda]

@thrifty - I thought you were exaggerating somewhat about COL but I was reading that the average purchasing power of salaries in NZ is little more two thirds that of UK salaries, and with less paid leave. Obviously averages are very misleading but still, it's a huge difference.

Could you ever work remotely for a foreign company ? (I dont recall what your profession is) I've known a few people here work from home for American companies, I think mostly IT people.

Great job in annihilating Corona though, the world owes you all a big slap on the back.

[thrifty++]

@mister imperceptible - wow you actuallly have/had covid19. Are you fully recovered now then? How bad was it? Was it just like a normal flu? What is your age?

@chenda - yeah it really is pretty bad. Im not sure about remote work for a US company. Not sure woudl match my skill set. But is possible. A good idea though. Yes its nice to not have to worry abut the virus at all now. Such a change from a couple of months ago.

[theanimal]

"Asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is ‘very rare,’ WHO says"
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/08/asympto ... -says.html

Preliminary evidence from the earliest outbreaks indicated that the virus could spread from person-to-person contact, even if the carrier didn’t have symptoms. But WHO officials now say that while asymptomatic spread can occur, it is not the main way it’s being transmitted.

“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agency’s Geneva headquarters. “It’s very rare.”

Government responses should focus on detecting and isolating infected people with symptoms, and tracking anyone who might have come into contact with them, Van Kerkhove said. She acknowledged that some studies have indicated asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread in nursing homes and in household settings.

[Mister Imperceptible]

I am 33. Now beginning Week 4 and the cough gets less each day. I have remained isolated. The taste in my throat was unique and not something I remember experiencing in prior illnesses. The most peculiar symptom was the body aches. Felt very uncomfortable in my lower back, gluts, and legs. Used a foam roller a lot. Even lying down was uncomfortable, and sleeping difficult without knocking myself out with NyQuil. Then I would wake up after an hour or 2 having sweat thru my bedsheets. 2-4 hot showers per day, breathing steam. This lasted a few days. Was concerned with the persistent cough but it is mostly gone and the authorities have already cleared me to leave isolation.

[George the original one]

Oregon, Washington, & Idaho cases have been on the upswing since about Memorial Day (or the week before). Nationally, the downward trend in new cases has reversed and we're back above 150k/week. National deaths have not bottomed yet, but are still above 6k/week.

Oregon infections are increasingly job-related... WFH still the norm for white collar, so infections predominantly blue-collar. Latest is over 100 people infected at Pacific Seafoods in Newport. Rumor is that California staff were transferred here when their plants were closed due to infections and the staff brought it with them. Of people I know, there is a pregnant lady who appears to have caught COVID-19 at her office in the past week as her boyfriend is still negative.

[jacob]

A peer-reviewed econometric backcasting study of regions in six countries (China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France, and the US) finds that the lockdowns and various other policies prevented or delayed 62M (46M--77M) confirmed cases corresponding to 530M (490M--580M) total infections for those countries.

As far as I can sum up, the six countries have a combined population of 1981M, so the policies prevented about 20% of the population from getting infected.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586- ... erence.pdf

People can do their own multiplication of death and hospitalization rates to find how much damage was avoided although I'm sure that if those had actually manifested [the hard way], more people would have changed their behavior on their own as many also did voluntarily. The fact that individual humans have some agency given the quick feedback between exposure and symptoms makes it hard to do "what-if" simulations.

[thrifty++]

@mister imperceptible and Bigato - good to hear that the virus was not too bad for you. You are the first two people I have heard acounts from about the virus. Its comforting to hear some real anecdotes, You only read about the worst ones in the news.