Monday, March 23, 2020

Senior Shopping Hour

Sunday morning, 5:50am and 11°F, and heading out for Senior Shopping Hour: 
the absurd yet understandable hour of 6-7am. 
Perishables now resupplied, we’re home for weeks ahead. 
BTW, what does it say about Americans that the only shelf still completely 
bare is the paper products aisle? (Fortunately, we didn’t need any.)


36 comments:

  1. My theory is that the disappearance of all the canned beans is associated with the disappearance of the toilet paper--people are planning ahead. [he ducks] Evidently the bottled water is disappearing because of a silly rumor that frequently sipping water throughout the day (and night?) will wash the coronavirus into the stomach, where it will be destroyed by acid. At least that is less harmful than drinking diluted (I hope) bleach, another nutzoid idea that was floating around.

    I haven't checked on Vermont coronavirus news, but Fresno County is holding steady at 6 verified cases, no local transmission, no deaths. I think the first reported case has recovered--but that might be in neighboring Madera County (I'm too lazy to look it up now). Tulare County cases continue to increase--from seven to eleven at latest report. The main foci of infection in California are Santa Clara County and neighboring areas of the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and to a lesser degree San Diego.

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    1. Oh--forgot: no one hospitalized with coronavirus here--just isolated at home. So far, so good. But airliners continue to come and go (albeit less frequently) and a major highway linking southern and northern California goes through Fresno.

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  3. What the Great Plague of Athens Can Teach Us Now [Click] [One slight typographical error, evidently: "planet" for "plant."

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  4. Coronavirus Economy Will Devastate Most Vulnerable [Click] No surprise there. The question is how we will respond as a country; I am not sure. Vide supra, Athens.

    Why this Nobel laureate predicts a quicker coronavirus recovery: ‘We’re going to be fine’ [Click] Well, he *was* correct about how it would progress in China.

    Coronavirus upends the battle for the House [Click] “Trump’s impeachment is no longer likely to dominate the campaigns that will determine control of Congress.”

    How Coronavirus Is Rewiring the Political Parties [Click]

    Don’t panic over your 401(k)! It’s time to emotionally distance from the markets. [Click]

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  5. My ophthalmologist's office called this morning to cancel my afternoon appointment. Looks like there will be a quite lengthy hiatus before my next cataract surgery. That's okay with me. I'm not even sure there will be any point in calling them in April, so I'll wait until May.

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  6. Ohio, 442 COVID cases, 6 deaths, 104 in hospital.

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  7. From the Predictable News Files:

    “Many churches across the country altered their services Sunday to adhere to orders from state and federal officials. Others, meanwhile, ignored directives and had services in front of dozens of hundreds of people.

    Americans have been urged to consider social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Some states have orders in effect not allowing church gatherings.

    A pastor of one of the churches still holding gatherings said Jesus is the way to handle the pandemic, while another said the country’s reaction to the virus is an attack on the church.”

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    1. I love how religious conservatives, whatever their putative faith, throw Our Lord in your face. The fact is, He was quite clear that obeying civil authority was the way to go except in the most extraordinary circumstances. The present instance is clearly one where obedience to civil authority is necessary and responsible. You know damn well these same people who are defying orders to severely limit public gatherings will be screaming that *they* need treatment when they come down with Covid 19.

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  8. We made a run to Costco this morning. The first thing we saw was two big trucks at the loading dock; the next was a very long line of people (with shopping carts that kept them separated somewhat) waiting to enter. Then we realized the line was moving pretty fast. When we got to the front of the line we saw what they were doing--limiting the number of shoppers in the store so they would automatically be spaced out far more than usual, and the lines at the checkout counters would be short. There was a board at the entrance listing the small number of items that were currently sold out. They had closed the food court seating area and limited the items available. The inventory was pretty good, although there were purchase limits on some items. No one hawking solar panels, water heaters or suchlike; no one giving out free food samples. All in all, very well done. We were in and out a good deal sooner than usual.

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  10. Man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine [Click] There have been a number of such deaths in Nigeria, not that Trump would care about that. Here’s hoping that the man’s or couples’ (the wife is in the critical care unit) survivors sue Trump.

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    1. Herd immunity is the only way the pandemic is going to end. But stretching things out, as most countries are trying to do, avoids the possibility that the healthcare system will be overwhelmed.

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    2. Herd immunity implies widespread vaccination, which is not going to be possible for some time. And another possible way for the epidemic to end is for the virus to mutate into something less dangerous; such mutations have reportedly been found in Singapore.

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    3. Infection is equivalent to vaccination. Widespread cumulative infection and widespread vaccination come to the same thing immunologically.

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    4. I might add that the actual death rate is too low to spur evolution to something even less dangerous.

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    5. Theoretically, you might also end the pandemic by isolating every case and contact. But with so many asymptomatic cases, that implies essentially 100% testing of the population. Which isn't going to happen.

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    1. I had a feeling he might. Nice to have a bright spot. Thanks, Alan.

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  13. On a completely different note:
    For several years now, I have been using an Arithma Addiator [Click] for balancing my checkbook, and I really like it. The model I use is the one shown next to he right on the Wikipedia page—made of aluminum, so is light, and in a leather slipcase. The older brass versions are sturdier, and there are versions that can handle negative numbers, more digits (my little one will handle up to 9999.99) and [not easy to find] non-decimal currencies. There are various brands, but Arithma was the most highly regarded brand and controlled an important patent.

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  14. Trump Closed His Clubs as He Reevaluates Lockdowns [Click] Might be a little conflict of interest there, you think? But what’s a few million dollars to a multibillionaire? (Unless he is up to his eyeballs in debt to people who will not calmly forego payments.) The headline writes itself: “Trump suspends lockdown, millions die.”

    Trump Suggests Ending Social Distancing Soon [Click]

    Trump Struggles to Adjust to a Crisis Presidency [Click] “. . . rapidly losing patience. . . furious. . . berated aides. . .”

    LA Times: Will Texas or Florida be ‘the next Italy’? Red states lag blue in stay-at-home orders [Click]

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  15. From the last thread: Trump Offers to Help North Korea with Pandemic

    Forgive my cynicism, but I can't help reading that as Trump helping them to acquire it.

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    1. Or as the old saying goes, "With friends like those, who needs enemies?"

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  16. Trump’s Boosterism Of Unproven COVID-19 Cures Has Huge Unexpected Consequences [Click] Doctors writing prescriptions; that is illegal prescribing, which is punishable by imprisonment.

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    1. What I wanna know is, when is Trump going to come down with Covid 19 and be quarantined? Just getting his ugly mug off television screens for a couple weeks will make everybody feel better!

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    2. It has always been my understanding that off-label prescribing is perfectly legal. The only thing that is not legal is for the drug maker to promote such use.

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    3. There are ethical and legal limits to that. I once helped to send a physician to federal prison for illegal prescribing.

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  17. Seven more cases of coronavirus reported this evening in Fresno County, for a total of 13. Fingers crossed. The junior college student who had a possible exposure and was on campus last week has tested negative.

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  18. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, warned against ending social distancing as President Trump suggested at his daily briefing.

    Said Inglesby: “Anyone advising the end of social distancing now, needs to fully understand what the country will look like if we do that. Covid would spread widely, rapidly, terribly, could kill potentially millions in the year ahead with huge social and economic impact across the country.”

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