The Mad Hatter

April 5th, 2020 at 1:22 PM ^

Speaking of grocery store cashiers, I think we should be tipping them now. They're risking their lives to feed us, and doing it for crap pay and with little or no PPE.

Would it be weird for me to slip the cashier a $20 the next time I'm in a store?

NeverPunt

April 5th, 2020 at 1:46 PM ^

Thinking about paying my stimulus check forward whenever it arrives to someone in an essential role who is risking their life for this. Or someone who has been laid off. While I’ve had to take a pay cut I’m still lucky enough to be employed and WFH. I don’t think there’s any reason not to offer people tips or help out in other ways if you have the means

SFBlue

April 5th, 2020 at 3:21 PM ^

I want to do something for the Trader Joe's workers where I live in the Bay Area. It has always been a fun experience shopping there, but during the virus it really stands out. Friendly staff, clean and well-stocked stores (the only place I've seen toilet paper in three weeks!).

njvictor

April 5th, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^

Honestly not sure if they're not taking it seriously or if they're just stupid. They might be trying to take it seriously which is even worse lol

Blue_by_U

April 5th, 2020 at 1:46 PM ^

Influenza Oct1 to March 28

39,000,000 – 55,000,000
flu illnesses

24,000 – 63,000
flu deaths

Corona virus US through Apr 5

  • Total cases: 304,826
  • Total deaths: 7,616

KBLOW

April 5th, 2020 at 1:53 PM ^

You know that many states like Florida (and all of China for that matter) aren't counting deaths as Coronavirus caused unless the dead person tested positive, even if their symptoms are exactly aligned with the virus. 

Also, please go lick a toilet. 

The Mad Hatter

April 5th, 2020 at 2:16 PM ^

 Not just Florida, Michigan too. Many people have died of pneumonia the last month or so that were never tested. And they're not testing the dead.

Whitmer addressed this in an EO the other day requiring medical examiners to report confirmed or suspected rona deaths asap.

DrewForBlue

April 5th, 2020 at 2:19 PM ^

Most states are probably over-counting.  The official@CDCgov guidance for coding COVID-related deaths is as follows: any death where the disease “caused or is *assumed* to have caused or *contributed to* death.” Confirmed lab tests are not required.

We don't really know how many infections or deaths there are right now, in the US or the world.  

The Oracle 2

April 5th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^

Intelligent counter-argument. Get into bed and pull the covers over your head, even though there’s very little chance you’ll die of the virus. Meanwhile, many jobs and businesses are on the brink of going away, forever. What’ll happen then? Things will be bright and shiny and government will pay everyone’s bills? If it isn’t already, the cure for this overstated problem will very soon be worse than the disease.

Firdanoob

April 5th, 2020 at 8:32 PM ^

Are people really still arguing this?  The best science we have available says that somewhere near 100,000 people in the US will die from this.  That's WITH strong social distancing.  Without social distancing, it could be 2,000,000.  That's 2,000,000 PEOPLE who could be going away forever.

The jobs, on the other hand, will come back.  Many people will lose a lot of money.  Nobody really knows how much.  But once we have vaccines and treatments and herd immunity, we will once again need the things we needed before, and there will be jobs involved in providing them. 

Even in strictly economic terms the loss of that many people is a tough shock to absorb.  In ethical and moral terms, trading them for a few months of economic security is unthinkable.

jmblue

April 5th, 2020 at 3:11 PM ^

Most states are probably over-counting.

No, it's definitely an undercount.  Most states are short on tests and they're not going to be performing post-mortem tests.  The count we have is based on people who tested positive and then died in the hospital, which is definitely not everyone.

gruden

April 5th, 2020 at 4:42 PM ^

The NYT appears to agree with you:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/us/coronavirus-deaths-undercount.

As I posted before, I have a family member who had/has it (finally going away after over 2 weeks) and they would only test him if he went to the hospital.  Fortunately it didn't come to that, but it was close.

I saw a statement by a Chinese doctor who said officials where he was were underreporting by a factor of 50.  China was hit very hard, but having a totalitarian gov't makes it much easier to cover that up.  Shut-up or die.

Blue_by_U

April 6th, 2020 at 5:05 PM ^

It's symptomatic of arrogance vs intelligence. Arrogant fucks think they have every answer and zero sight of any probability in difference ... intelligence allows confidence in your own perspective yet understanding other perspectives have some value and may even reshape your own perspective...the 90% here really show what they are all about 

throw it deep

April 5th, 2020 at 6:04 PM ^

It's very hard to die without somebody knowing about it. Almost everybody sick enough to die is going to get tested. The number of people who are presumed positive and then die of an unrelated issue likely offsets the number of people who die without getting tested.