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Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) resources and discussion thread (Discussion guidelines in OP)

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Addi

Addi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,400
Wollan said:
Norway has sanctioned the biggest ever non-war-time action(s) the country has ever seen. Government will start paying for every worker lay-offs after 48 hours (usually firms have to pay the worker for the first 15 days of lay-off before government takes over) where a lay-off can traditionally last 26 weeks before being let go or moving onto other options (Norway will pay anyone out of work near full-salary for a year and then a lower sum for the years beyond that). This in addition to several other big actions like lowering the tax, injecting billions into the health industry, air-industries, tourism etc., lots of prevention against firms going bankrupt and asking retired health-workers to return (where they will earn pay on top of their retirement payouts).

My parental company (energy, oil & gas industry) is basically shutting down everything starting today, putting hundreds of people in lay-off, and cutting off funding for our software development project using force majeure (usually we would have required a 90-day warning but the virus is not something they could have avoided hence they use force majeure). Thankfully most employees of Norwegian firms won't be suffering economically thanks to the government but there's always corner-cases. I was asked to keep the fort (support & maintenance) on the particular software project while ten of my colleagues are relocated.
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I personally freelance, so I'd have to pay taxes on March 15 (4 times a year), but they have now pushed it to May 1st. Sounds good and all, but the next payment is May 15th, I'll have to pay taxes two times in two weeks. I don't really see how it's a relief. You can't really spend that money now because you'd need to earn it back before May, but with all gigs getting cancelled, that's impossible. I'll wait and see, I'll just save the money for now and see if the government does more.

Also, I want to relay something my musician and actor friends are posting everywhere right now: if you can, don't ask for refunds for cancelled shows and concerts. As always, it's the performers that are getting fucked in these situations and the last ones to get paid.
 
Calamari41

Calamari41

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,191
All of these cancellations are going to do absolute wonders for the numbers here in the US. People are hunkering down on their own, as well, and businesses across the board are taking big steps. For the first time since the first reports out of Wuhan, I'm feeling optimism.
 
SSF1991

SSF1991

Member
Jun 19, 2018
3,263
So there are now positive coronavirus cases sprouting up one Virginian county away from me now. I knew it was only a matter of time.
 
Kendrid

Kendrid

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,140
Chicago, IL
NW Chicago burbs here with a huge school district. They are doing School From Home next week (every kid has a Chromebook). The following week is spring break, after that they will decide what to do based upon how things are looking.
 
LegendofJoe

LegendofJoe

Member
Oct 28, 2017
12,141
Arkansas, USA
Joni said:
Belgium has taken another drastic step: the political parties are actually considering forming a government after not having one for more than a year. Only takes a global pandemic nowadays.
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Wow, I feel sorry for Belgians. The Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia split is brutal. It's an amazing country though, so hopefully someday unity will come more easily.
 
Hero_of_the_Day

Hero_of_the_Day

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,618
One of my co-workers is here feeling fine, but her roommate was sick yesterday. Tried to go to the hospital but was turned away for not having enough symptoms. Today she is worse, including a fever. So... this is all very cool.
 

lonnie413

Member
Jul 9, 2018
53
Calamari41 said:
All of these cancellations are going to do absolute wonders for the numbers here in the US. People are hunkering down on their own, as well, and businesses across the board are taking big steps. For the first time since the first reports out of Wuhan, I'm feeling optimism.
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I wish you could share that optimism with me, I literally called a therapist this morning to set something up because of my anxiety.
 
SolidSnakex

SolidSnakex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,097
What time does Italy's update usually come in? Hoping that we start to see positive results from all the measures they've taken to get it under control.
 
Trice

Trice

Banned
Nov 3, 2018
2,653
Croatia
Fuck I just figured out I'm due a haircut, my hair is getting messy.

Gonna have to self-cut if they start closing down stuff
 

Deleted member 17092

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
20,360
Calamari41 said:
All of these cancellations are going to do absolute wonders for the numbers here in the US. People are hunkering down on their own, as well, and businesses across the board are taking big steps. For the first time since the first reports out of Wuhan, I'm feeling optimism.
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I agree with you 100%. I was feeling terrible on Tuesday and now I feel pretty good.
 
thepenguin55

thepenguin55

Member
Oct 28, 2017
12,113
I have a few 24 hour grocery stores around me and I'm something of a night owl so I might be making a 2am supply run just to avoid as many people as possible. I also plan to go to the least populated park in my area (there's a few REAL dead parks near me) to walk my dog so that he can get his exercise as I don't have a yard to let him out in. Other than those two things, I will be holed up in my place this weekend with RE2, Drive to Survive, Castlevania, catch up on Giant Bomb stuff, etc.

I'm fortunate in that I generally would say that I have a pretty strong immune system in that it's extremely rare for me to come down with much of anything so I'm going to hope that gets me through this.
 
Kyrios

Kyrios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,155
Calamari41 said:
All of these cancellations are going to do absolute wonders for the numbers here in the US. People are hunkering down on their own, as well, and businesses across the board are taking big steps. For the first time since the first reports out of Wuhan, I'm feeling optimism.
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I would be right there with you if my company would get off their asses and tell us what their plan is besides "WE'RE MONITORING THE SITUATION CLOSELY" lol

Edit: As most of them work from home.
 
penguindrum

penguindrum

Member
Feb 10, 2019
774
My college finally cancelled all in class instruction for like the next three weeks. Good call, even though I have research to do in the lab and I might still have to go in twice a week for that. Fingers crossed I don't have to. I was excited about my project but I'm super worried about this virus and bringing it home. At the same time, I'm already feeling kind of uneasy about being inside all this week, so it would be nice to have somewhere to go even if it's to the lab.
 
KayMote

KayMote

Member
Nov 5, 2017
1,326
Well, there it is.
Schools and universities are closed till 19th April here in Germany. I am in a dual study system though: studying Social Work and also working in an institution where we are in charge of people with disabilities that need to be looked after. I haven't heard anything official from my workplace, but I wonder what happens when somebody gets sick in there... on the one hand we have a responsability of course, on the other hand probably anybody working there will be infected as well as soon as the virus gets in there...
 
Rowsdower

Rowsdower

Shinra Employee of The Wise Ones
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,432
Canada
20 new cases in Ontario, Canada.


Not gonna copy the whole thing, but some notes:

All but one case is self-isolating. A 80's male in Niagara region is hospitalised. Transmission type is pending.

Sophie Trudeau is case 66 (40's female, travel from England, self-isolating).

Five cases have (75-79) have no info. Age, hospital, transmission, and whether self-isolating or hospitlized are all "pending".

A lot of transmission is stil travel or close contact. A fair number of travel cases have not listed the country (pending).
 
Dany1899

Dany1899

Member
Dec 23, 2017
4,219
SolidSnakex said:
What time does Italy's update usually come in? Hoping that we start to see positive results from all the measures they've taken to get it under control.
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According to this virologist, the peak in italy is to expected for the end of March.
Considering that the lockdown conditions have been applied only this week (and only two days ago all the non-essential commercial activities have been shut down), two weeks will be really needed to understand to the situation is improving or not.
 

elty

Member
Oct 31, 2017
1,970
People were (legitimately) questioning about China handling of the virus in the early days. Their decision to censor information and holding some huge event is a huge mistake for sure and I think people are rightly to be critical.

But just look at how everyone else (save a few country like S Korea, Singapore and Taiwan) is handling it now. It is a total disaster despite it is no longer a completely new virus. People who raised alarm is being attacked by populist government (elected "democratically"). People are still going on vacation despite things started to shut down left and right. The government doesn't give a shit (until now), and some people still don't give a shit at this very moment. Compared to China, who after the initial mistake went in full force to battle the virus. Or South Korea who learn and improve from things China did.

Ignoring and silencing scientist is certainly not a unique feature of a authoritarian government.
 
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Axe

Axe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,853
United Kingdom
My company has said today they'll close us down if necessary with full pay to everyone. Certain roles will continue work from home (I presume they'll get some kind of bonus to keep things fair) and the rest of us just keep indoors I guess.

I hope it doesn't come to that point, but reassuring to know they have plans.
 
kc44135

kc44135

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,735
Ohio
Calamari41 said:
What this is certainly going to do is bring production of medicine, medical supplies, and medical equipment back to the US on a subsidized basis. I expect this to happen across the world, and countries like China and Taiwan are really going to be hit hard. This could happen across any number of industries, depending on how seriously supply chain managers are looking at their weaknesses right now.



The long and short of it is that agencies like FEMA are activated start rolling out. This same thing happened even under Trump during certain massive wildfires and regional floods.
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HipsterMorty said:
It doesn't do anything on it's own, but it gives the president special powers to take actions they normally wouldn't be able to from a legal standpoint;
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dred said:
Not that unusual, this will be Trump's 6th.

List of national emergencies in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Might increase panic levels quite a bit, though.
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Gotcha. Thx guys.
 
mcfizzle

mcfizzle

Member
Oct 27, 2017
297
Germany
KayMote said:
Well, there it is.
Schools and universities are closed till 19th April here in Germany. I am in a dual study system though: studying Social Work and also working in an institution where we are in charge of people with disabilities that need to be looked after. I haven't heard anything official from my workplace, but I wonder what happens when somebody gets sick in there... on the one hand we have a responsability of course, on the other hand probably anybody working there will be infected as well as soon as the virus gets in there...
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I'm studying at Hochschule Fresenius and they've cancelled class up to April 3rd. We were due to start on Monday.
 
Rowsdower

Rowsdower

Shinra Employee of The Wise Ones
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,432
Canada
Federal government is announcing flight restrictions for Canada. Also a cruise ship ban.

www.citynews1130.com

Feds announce flight restrictions, cruise ship ban amid COVID-19 outbreak | CityNews Vancouver

The federal government is taking additional steps in an effort to try and slow the spread of COVID-19, including implementing restrictions and bans.
www.citynews1130.com www.citynews1130.com

  • Flight restrictions will mean aircraft flying into Canada from overseas will be limited to a smaller number of airports
  • Cruise ships carrying more than 500 people will be banned from docking at Canadian ports until July
 
thepenguin55

thepenguin55

Member
Oct 28, 2017
12,113
Calamari41 said:
All of these cancellations are going to do absolute wonders for the numbers here in the US. People are hunkering down on their own, as well, and businesses across the board are taking big steps. For the first time since the first reports out of Wuhan, I'm feeling optimism.
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We'll see. St. Patrick's day is this Tuesday so I fully expect idiots to be out and about. Still, it would be nice if we beat the estimated projections.
Crazyorloco said:
New York Times finally took down their paywall for coronavirus articles.
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More outlets should do this. I get that these places need to make money but when there's a literal pandemic happening your financials should be secondary.
Trice said:
Fuck I just figured out I'm due a haircut, my hair is getting messy.

Gonna have to self-cut if they start closing down stuff
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Slim Action said:
I have literally just been debating whether to leave the house to get a haircut.
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Just go full Robin Williams in Jumanji. Then you emerge healthily from your places after we all make it through all like

thumb_what-year-is-it-img-ace-wow-classic-and-a-62227026.png


lol
 
Orb

Orb

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,465
USA
We know of at least 3 people who have the disease who came into close contact with Trump over the last week. I'm sure there are more we don't know about. It seems unlikely to me that he doesn't have it.
 
TrAcEr_x90

TrAcEr_x90

Member
Oct 27, 2017
831
Glad I can into work today. I just planned to show face for a bit then peace out early to go home. They just told us to leave and go do any shopping we need to do and take the rest of the day off.
 
CrankyJay

CrankyJay

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,318
Rowsdower said:
20 new cases in Ontario, Canada.


Not gonna copy the whole thing, but some notes:

All but one case is self-isolating. A 80's male in Niagara region is hospitalised. Transmission type is pending.

Sophie Trudeau is case 66 (40's female, travel from England, self-isolating).

Five cases have (75-79) have no info. Age, hospital, transmission, and whether self-isolating or hospitlized are all "pending".

A lot of transmission is stil travel or close contact. A fair number of travel cases have not listed the country (pending).
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If it follows the trend I've seen a fair bit of them will be from the US.
 
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