[Darth-Apple]

I hope for you, my job is 100% safe! Professional firefighter for 31 years, I will soon retire

Wow! Congratulations on your carreer!

[tc4me]

Thanks :-)

[SpookyZalost]

Job status=stable
Night shift returns to days in a month after I spoke with my manager this morning, it was only supposed to be temporary but it's been more than the agreed 3 months.
That's the only real detriment the virus has had on my life.

[Guardian]

Still good here. Though, I am the "last in" in my position for my section, so if it did happen I wouldn't be surprised to get the axe. The one thing to make me feel better about that, is through uncomfortable conversations with my boss my work is more appreciated than my peers. So, if they're being honest with me and decide based on that, I would be safe.

Glad you're good, and hopefully it will stay that way.

[tc4me]

...... something else about corona and protective masks 

[Lain]

We're still growing, but it's very linear.
Honestly, it can slow down any day now. We still only have a couple hundred within the whole city boundaries in the population of 1M.
Like, literally. From 0-100 cases, it was rising as a curve, or exponentially rather. But from 100 to the current <700, it's been extremely linear, something like 100 cases a week. And it's been stuck at that rate for a month or so.

Honestly that's not too bad. Of course the graphs released by the municipal health board also include the fact that in the last two weeks or so, there may have been a number of unreported cases, and in the past, at later dates those cases would then appear in updated charts, which would make it seem like larger spikes for a bit, but looking back on the whole thing, it's extremely linear in terms of growth.


Notice the last two days on the graph. That'll return to the 'mean' in another couple days. Seems we're mostly on top of testing, even if our testing rate per capita is still really low compared to other countries.

I guess the city's just handling it well. I know there are still tons of people that head out for non-essential reasons, and it sounds like a couple family friends are finally breaking; they invite us over to go for a walk with them, to which we have to decline and berate them for a bit just for asking. But otherwise, seems like the majority of people stay indoors if possible, and I'm grateful for that since its effects really do show when you compare us to any other large city in Canada.

It's nice that universities are still open because that means that my work also stays open
And with more people trying to become 'entrepreneurs' online, that also gives me more potential customers for my writing services. I wrote a 16 page report last night in a couple hours for someone. Big bucks comin thru.

[tc4me]

don't let yourself go crazy! I know from a reliable source that 99% of the dead in Italy Germany and Austria had a serious previous illness and were well over 70 years old, Italy has the oldest population in the world, which is why there are so many dead. who is healthy without lung disease, heart defects, ... need not be afraid

[Lain]

don't let yourself go crazy! I know from a reliable source that 99% of the dead in Italy Germany and Austria had a serious previous illness and were well over 70 years old, Italy has the oldest population in the world, which is why there are so many dead. who is healthy without lung disease, heart defects, ... need not be afraid

I'm not really worried about dying haha. I've been satisfied with my life so far so even if I do die, I don't think I'd have any regrets.

I'm more worried about actually getting sick. I caught the flu around Christmas last year and it took a huge toll on me. Fever dreams are not fun, and I was stuck in bed for like four days, in pain, sweating like crazy, couldn't eat, etc. I just hate being uncomfortable like that. And if I were to get sick right now with exams going on, I wouldn't be very happy with grades (although I would imagine I could get an exception from the university to take exams again.)

Also, my parents are also getting older, my dad is almost 60, so if he got sick, he might have issues.
So I'm keeping myself safe so that my parents could also stay safe. At the same time, I'm keeping myself safe because I just don't want to deal with getting sick since it's just so uncomfortable and I feel like I just waste time afterwards lol.

[Darth-Apple]

They are saying that Coronavirus, in some cases, can cause permanent lung damage. I'm a singer, so naturally I'm a little concerned.

If we get it, we have to quarantee for weeks (or even months) at a time, or for two full weeks after making a complete recovery. And even if we won't die, I mean, an illness that kills 1 in 25 is not going to be pleasant, even if we survive.

The economic effects are awful though. Unemployment in America was 13% a week ago. Now it's estimated to be 17% and rising. It's an everyday battle.

Luckily I have makestation to keep me good company if I get laid off.

[Lain]

I read a different article a while back that also came to the same conclusion, but with slightly different effects of the virus.

It was something along these lines:
The virus itself isn't a respiratory illness, and most people who get infected don't get the respiratory illness, only the flu part. You can avoid respiratory illness with certain breathing techniques and what not, but the point is that the virus does not actually damage anything in your lungs.
But when the virus does get to your lungs, your lungs react similarly to someone who just inhaled a ton of smoke; your body tries to clear it out as soon as possible because of how sensitive the lung tissue is, and in doing so, the body harms itself.

So yeah. The only difference was whether it's the virus' fault that people get lung damage, or whether it's your body's fault. I think that it's probably the body at fault, since it doesn't have proper antibodies to combat the virus due to its evolved nature. Thus, it'll throw everything it can at the virus until something hopefully works.

I'll just stick to my homemade cure of copious amounts of cocaine and bleach.
It's sure to kill the virus because the virus can't survive without a host ;o

[Darth-Apple]

Hahaha, well, I mean, you don't wanna let your heartbeat flatline for this one. Let's stay healthy everyone. We have a 96% chance of surviving if we get it.

[SpookyZalost]

so... people are protesting the stay inside quarantine order...

it's like people are asking to be destroyed right?

I know young people have a higher chance of surviving it but it's like nobody realizes just how bad this is...

[Darth-Apple]

I'm tired of people saying "It's only 150K people who have died, in the grand scheme of things..." Like, I know it. Not everyone who has it gets tested, but 150K is a lot for something we know isn't widely infected in the population. And it's spreading fast. We know it's deadly.

Glad I live in a small city. Good lord.

[SpookyZalost]

@Darth-Apple Just remember, all it takes to end civilization is for %20 of the population to die.

I forget where that statistic is from but I learned of it when people were discussing the thanos snap.

not sure if that's in an area or globally but 20% of 8 billion people is lower than people think

that's about 1.6 billion.

and most of those 8 billion are in places like china, india, etc, super high density regions which also provide a lot of our manufacturing, and are also some of the most affected areas.

Before the corona virus the US population was

328.2 million

so for the us specifically if we tip over

65,640,000 or about 65.5 million dead, mostly in urban areas... civilization in this country may have a hard time coming back, and that's under ideal circumstances...

the count can be much lower if the majority of those dead are in jobs like factory workers, farmers, laborers, technicians etc, jobs that take more training than you might expect and are reliant on people who work for long periods.

so in a best case civilization ending scenario, if deaths climb to about 450x what they are right now then things might be difficult if not impossible to recover from.

in a worst case that number is much lower...

just putting that out there.

the stay at home order is affecting every single one of those jobs which prop up our civilization the most too.

outside of enterprising and smart people, home manufacturing is rare (thank god for 3D printer owners helping make up for the deficit in masks and other needed supplies and tools).
a lot of places are now telling people to avoid fresh food due to contamination risk.
most technicians can do things over the phone (I do).
but there's also tasks that require someone to go out to a site.
and if a site is contaminated with corona virus well... yeah that technician could die if they aren't prepared.

this is the world we live in right now, it's scary and the longer this goes on the harder it will be to get things going again, people will need to be trained, jobs opened up, and the death toll is only at 150K after 3 months, they're saying to not expect a vaccine before December, that's 8 months away, and that's a best case scenario.

[Darth-Apple]

It's going to be bad. Our grandparents didn't even see something this bad in their own lifetimes.

Oh, and the unemployment is probably around 15-17% right now according to the numbers. The great recession was nowhere near this bad.

[SpookyZalost]

@Darth-Apple: the scariest thing about all of this though...

just china's population nearly meets that 20% of the global population mark.

same with india.

a lot of the countries that are affected the worst could easily meet this mark if a large enough section dies off, or are prevented from re-starting trade, manufacturing etc.

we really screwed up when we allowed manufacturing majority to be done by a few people in the same place, the old all eggs in one basket bit.

[Darth-Apple]

Yea and china shutting down for all this time... A whole lot of places ran out of inventory fast. There are a number of places here that completely had nothing to sell. It's scary.

We need to diversify manufacturing for this very reason, but, well... China can do it so inexpensively that, well... People just get it done there.

[SpookyZalost]

@Darth-Apple did I ever tell you that I actually support local manufacturing when possible by trying to buy stuff made not only in the USA but in my state?

and occasionally if the opportunity comes up I still do that side gig providing support for all sorts of equipment too.

unfortunately it's rare and companies usually have their own techs but still.

we actually produce a lot here, for example, did you know that one of the biggest places that produces the main circuit boards they use in gas/electric monitoring systems are produced in a small out of the way place just outside town here?.

I learned of this after working a tempt job folding boxes and helping them ship stuff.
and now I occasionally help them troubleshoot stuff when the need arises.