COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US) (23 Viewers)

[SaintRob]

The test as done right now is quite invasive. I think it may be a tough sell to tell people they have to get a test done if they aren't exhibiting any symptoms at all.

For what it's worth, I haven't had any symptoms, but I've been around people who have turned up positive. I had blood drawn to get the antibody test which came back negative for antibodies. I'd definitely have a nose swab once a week to see if I've gotten it. And not because I'm afraid of it, but to protect others who may be more vulnerable. I think I'd either be one of the people who have no symptoms or who don't get the worst of it.

 

[AARPSaint]

Your market may vary: Food trucks usually rely on office buildings and attractions for customers. Both are empty. Short term, most will see reduced sales. Those with social media followings who park along walking trails and outdoor amenities that are not closed, may do well. Those with the smarts to contact condo buildings for lunch events, will do well. Some restaurants are going to downsize. Trucks could see a jump in food quality as more restaurants move from brick and mortar to trucks. Some markets were already saturated with trucks. The restaurant industry is going to push for expanded seating. Industry will ask about closing streets in food corridors to allow tables to take the entire sidewalk for more distancing with more guests. That may be a solution for the "we can't make money at 25% capacity" complaints.

I am not a fan of eating off of food trucks. I've closed too many.

There is talk about closing some streets in my town so that the restaurants can do more outside seating, which is already a major part of West Chester's culture.

My wife just got back from making a deposit at Hancock Whitney here in Lafayette. Said the traffic was back to pre-pandemic levels. She was very frustrated (to put it mildly) when she returned. At the bank they had an employee outside to facilitate moving the drive through process in quicker fashion. Good idea. Except that the employee was going right up to each vehicle (no mask) and exchanging a pen and materials with customers. She was tending to those that just had deposits to make. She'd walk the materials into the bank and come back with a receipt. My wife opened a very narrow gap in the window when she was approached. While handing the checks to deposit, my wife asked if she should be wearing a mask. Her reply as she tapped her pocket (indicating she had one) was "On Monday we'll be required to wear one" and walked away to make the transaction.

My wife had to fight the urge to go full-blown Karen on HW Bank. But the day ain't over yet.

Banks need to go to drive in or ATM only. That's been the case with my bank. Now, if they would get a drive in window for AWD vehicles, it would be helpful. And, of course, it's slooooow. We simply have to adjust, just like the lines to get into supermarkets.

 

[dtc]

And do they explain how giving money to people keeps businesses that arent allowed to be open from shutting down? Or what happens when we reopen and all those jobs are gone?

Keeping people who aren't working paid would keep them from having to find other sources of income or employment when things relax. It would not be 100% effective, but if people who can't work in restaurants and bars are subsidized while this calms down, then when it does they can go right back to where they were.

In theory.

Places that are closed would be closed. Government money to keep the bills paid would be the way those businesses don't close permanently when this subsides, but that's also not going to be 100%.

Some businesses are going to close. I imagine restaurants and bars are never going to be the same and maybe years before the old normal returns. hell, 85,000 people have died. Some of those folks were like me and own businesses. If I die, my employees are unemployed. That's just a fact.

 

[gboudx]

If you are infected and you breathe into your mask, the mask is contaminated. BUT, the point of the mask is to keep the virus that you have from being spread in droplets as you speak, cough, or sneeze. The intent of mask wearing is NOT to protect YOU from getting the virus, it is to reduce the risk of me from getting it from you.

This brings up a trip I just made to the grocery store, on my way back from work. Maybe 60-70% of people wearing masks. All the store employees were but the Distributors stocking beer were not. I'm standing at the butcher waiting to get some chicken breasts and a guy walks up, takes a look at the selection, looks at me and tries to make small talk. After standing about 3' from me, looking straight at me and complaining about the selection(not wearing a mask), I pull my mask down and say "yeah it kinda sucks". He then smiles and says, "those things aren't that comfortable are they", referring to the mask. I said, "no it's fine for a 10-20min trip to the store, not a problem at all." Then he said, "oh, well since you pulled it down I thought it might be uncomfortable." I said, "no, me wearing it is to protect you and anyone else in case I may be an asymptomatic carrier. But since you aren't wearing one to protect me, then I won't extend the courtesy. What were you saying about the meat selection?" His face dropped, then he turned around and left.

 

[sammymvpknight]

Well...I may not do my study after all.

Here's the problem...the benchmarks are very clear with the states that are following the White House and CDC phased reopening plan, but those that are not using it aren't actually saying how they plan to reopen.

Let's take California for example. They use a four phased reopening plan, but it's INCREDIBLY vague. Here are the phases. Phase 1. Strictest restrictions in place (March 19-May 7). Phase 2. Lower-risk businesses can reopen with social distancing (March 8-current). Phase 3. Higher-risk business and venues may reopen with social distancing (no date set). Phase 4. Concerts, conventions and sports with a live crowd can reopen (no date set). https://www.latimes.com/projects/ca...-tracking-outbreak/reopening-across-counties/.

According to the California governor, “Politics will not drive our decision making, protest won’t drive our decision making, political pressure will not drive our decision making. The science, the data, public health will drive our decision making." But unfortunately, the rationale for the science and the actual metrics used to drive decision making is a mystery.

There is no transparency and it appears that the California governor is relying on his local governments to make decisions. It's not a HORRIBLE idea because, believe it or not, California does have a fair amount of diversity. You have a few area of the state that are incredibly population dense and very liberal, but then you have the rest of the state that is much more rural and some counties are even conservative. There is no transparency of how the counties/cities of California are actually making decisions. So, while I'd like to believe that their decisions are truly driven by science and metrics, we'll have to take their word for it.

 

[superchuck500]

If you are infected and you breathe into your mask, the mask is contaminated. BUT, the point of the mask is to keep the virus that you have from being spread in droplets as you speak, cough, or sneeze. The intent of mask wearing is NOT to protect YOU from getting the virus, it is to reduce the risk of me from getting it from you.

I think it’s all of the above at this point.

New paper this week on aerodynamics of aerosolized droplets with SARS2 virus shows droplets of significant size remaining aloft for up to 14 minutes. This and other studies pretty significantly suggest that masks also help the healthy by filtering those droplets out. Presuming of course that there are infected people there without a mask.

But if this is part of the premise, it's true that the masks need to be disposable (short use up to 1 day), or washed daily.

The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of...

www.pnas.org

 

[faceman]

If you are infected and you breathe into your mask, the mask is contaminated. BUT, the point of the mask is to keep the virus that you have from being spread in droplets as you speak, cough, or sneeze. The intent of mask wearing is NOT to protect YOU from getting the virus, it is to reduce the risk of me from getting it from you.

It boggles my mind how so many people do not understand this. The only thing that will give you 100% protection is a level 4
biohazard suit. If you want to spend up to 7 grand on one, be my guest. Surgeons and their nurses do not wear masks to prevent
getting sick while performing a surgical procedure. They do it because the patient has a controlled open wound that can easily
become infected.

 

[Charlie Brizzown]

Well...I may not do my study after all.

Here's the problem...the benchmarks are very clear with the states that are following the White House and CDC phased reopening plan, but those that are not using it aren't actually saying how they plan to reopen.

Let's take California for example. They use a four phased reopening plan, but it's INCREDIBLY vague. Here are the phases. Phase 1. Strictest restrictions in place (March 19-May 7). Phase 2. Lower-risk businesses can reopen with social distancing (March 8-current). Phase 3. Higher-risk business and venues may reopen with social distancing (no date set). Phase 4. Concerts, conventions and sports with a live crowd can reopen (no date set). https://www.latimes.com/projects/ca...-tracking-outbreak/reopening-across-counties/.

According to the California governor, “Politics will not drive our decision making, protest won’t drive our decision making, political pressure will not drive our decision making. The science, the data, public health will drive our decision making." But unfortunately, the rationale for the science and the actual metrics used to drive decision making is a mystery.

There is no transparency and it appears that the California governor is relying on his local governments to make decisions. It's not a HORRIBLE idea because, believe it or not, California does have a fair amount of diversity. You have a few area of the state that are incredibly population dense and very liberal, but then you have the rest of the state that is much more rural and some counties are even conservative. There is no transparency of how the counties/cities of California are actually making decisions. So, while I'd like to believe that their decisions are truly driven by science and metrics, we'll have to take their word for it.

You might be able to get more information here: https://covid19.ca.gov/

 

[StudioSaint]

Well...I may not do my study after all.

Here's the problem...the benchmarks are very clear with the states that are following the White House and CDC phased reopening plan, but those that are not using it aren't actually saying how they plan to reopen.

Let's take California for example. They use a four phased reopening plan, but it's INCREDIBLY vague. Here are the phases. Phase 1. Strictest restrictions in place (March 19-May 7). Phase 2. Lower-risk businesses can reopen with social distancing (March 8-current). Phase 3. Higher-risk business and venues may reopen with social distancing (no date set). Phase 4. Concerts, conventions and sports with a live crowd can reopen (no date set). https://www.latimes.com/projects/ca...-tracking-outbreak/reopening-across-counties/.

According to the California governor, “Politics will not drive our decision making, protest won’t drive our decision making, political pressure will not drive our decision making. The science, the data, public health will drive our decision making." But unfortunately, the rationale for the science and the actual metrics used to drive decision making is a mystery.

There is no transparency and it appears that the California governor is relying on his local governments to make decisions. It's not a HORRIBLE idea because, believe it or not, California does have a fair amount of diversity. You have a few area of the state that are incredibly population dense and very liberal, but then you have the rest of the state that is much more rural and some counties are even conservative. There is no transparency of how the counties/cities of California are actually making decisions. So, while I'd like to believe that their decisions are truly driven by science and metrics, we'll have to take their word for it.

The LA Times reporting has only given details of what is in place at the moment. They haven't given much of the supporting details. I've had to go directly to the sources like to http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/ to get more detailed information.

No dates have been set for anything yet, because we have to actually reach the benchmarks before we can take an action. Since we don't know what date a benchmark will be met, we can't reasonably set a future date for an action.

 

[dtc]

You've pretty much so just described the kitchen of every restaurant except for some higher end places. Except in the average restaurant there are far more people working in the kitchen in an only slightly bigger space than a taco truck.

Most kitchens we've built have massive exhaust fans which cause it to be negatively pressurized so any particles are evacuated hundreds of times per hour. The heat is not a good place for a virus to survive.

IDK about foodtrucks, but commercial kitchens - at least by the cooking line are places where you would have to spill liquid for it to hit the ground.

 

[HoustonGold]

Unless these were cases back in April it seems like the numbers are going back up again.

 

[HoustonGold]

By the looks of things I don’t see anyone enforcing the 20% policy at businesses. As long as they wear a mask that is good enough?

 

[SaintRob]

I think it’s all of the above at this point.

New paper this week on aerodynamics of aerosolized droplets with SARS2 virus shows droplets of significant size remaining aloft for up to 14 minutes. This and other studies pretty significantly suggest that masks also help the healthy by filtering those droplets out. Presuming of course that there are infected people there without a mask.

But if this is part of the premise, it's true that the masks need to be disposable (short use up to 1 day), or washed daily.

The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of...

www.pnas.org

I get that the mask may stop some particles from getting through the mask part. But there are gaps all around the sides and your eyes are exposed. It's impractical to think that microscopic droplets containing virus cant get through those gaps or into your eyes. If there are fewer droplets in the air in the first place from the infected person who is wearing a mask, that's where the impact from mask wearing has it's greatest effect.

 

[St. Widge]

Most kitchens we've built have massive exhaust fans which cause it to be negatively pressurized so any particles are evacuated hundreds of times per hour. The heat is not a good place for a virus to survive.

IDK about foodtrucks, but commercial kitchens - at least by the cooking line are places where you would have to spill liquid for it to hit the ground.

Maybe in some modern restaurants. But I worked in several back in the 90s and they were hot nasty places with little ventilation.

 

[superchuck500]

I get that the mask may stop some particles from getting through the mask part. But there are gaps all around the sides and your eyes are exposed. It's impractical to think that microscopic droplets containing virus cant get through those gaps or into your eyes. If there are fewer droplets in the air in the first place from the infected person who is wearing a mask, that's where the impact from mask wearing has it's greatest effect.

Agreed.

But if the are people around not wearing them, I think a well fitting mask has prophylactic value.