COVID-19 Thread

[superfly]

I *personally* went 8 days without being able to get my seizure meds refilled because my doctor wasn't able to be in his office, and his nurse was working clinics and was not able to take my calls to refill my prescription. Being without seizure meds for 8 days was not just inconvenient, it was dangerous. I had my April 14th neurology appointment cancelled (not rescheduled, cancelled) specifically due to Corona virus concerns and backups. Do you think I'm the only person this kind of stuff is happening to? There are people who NEED medical attention who aren't getting it *because* people aren't staying at home and are taxing the healthcare system. But by all means, keep calling it an overreaction and sensationalism.....

 

We all know it’s bad brother. Nobody wants people like you to be behind on your medications and anything else. This is what happens when people depend on the government to make life function. I hope millions of eyes are being opened during this crisis and we make a sincere effort to fix the healthcare system in the near future WITHOUT government bureaucracy taking it over.

 

Also....

 

Please do explain who “isn’t staying at home.” Have you looked at the economic data? Were heading in record time to a place that will make the Great Depression look like a romper room. Tens of millions of our brothers and sisters have lost their livelihood in 4 weeks time with more to come. Are we headed back to a forage off the land lifestyle? Unless we are the people filling the grocery store so we can eat, the people making sure we have gas in the gas pump, etc etc are not “not staying home.” They’re out and about doing their duty to America and their families. The people that haven’t changed their lifestyle are the people that don’t see other humans for miles.

 

https://ibb.co/mFTX6Cg

[PeaveyFury]

The people that haven’t changed their lifestyle are the people that don’t see other humans for miles.

 

 

You should talk to the people in my suburban neighborhood, then, who have had block parties the last two days in the nice weather.

 

If you believe most people are 'staying home' unless they're going to work providing 'essential services', you're incorrect. A lot of people are doing what they're supposed to do, but there are also a lot that are only doing so when it doesn't create an inconvenience for themselves.

[OldHeidelberg]

I have friends who are old enough and smart enough to know better but search for restaurants they can still eat out at. They just can't give up that part of their life. But I am one to talk, I have went to Kwik Trip just to buy beer a couple of times and those are pretty tight spaces that are still busy.

[LouisEly]

Many of the wrong people are being blamed and punished though.

 

In Chicago, the mayor shut down all of the walking/running/biking trails in the city along with the parks and playgrounds because of "congregating". In response, people have been asking the mayor to shut down some city streets so that people have room to run/walk/exercise and be able to distance from others. The mayor said she has no plans of shutting down streets, and that she "isn't against exercising, (she's) against congregating."

 

Yes, there were some people gathering in parks and on beaches. But what "congregating" was there on the actual walking/running/biking paths? People aren't standing around on the paths, they are moving. And did it ever occur that most of the people who aren't distancing themselves from others and are walking/running with other people on these paths are couples/families/roommates who live together? Kind of pointless to distance yourself from someone you live with. And if you're telling people to exercise, which experts are, but are shutting down some of the exercise outlets, you're just pushing people to fewer areas where there will be more people. The trails outside of the city have been packed.

 

Are enough people taking the right precautions? No. Is there also some proverbial "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"? Yes.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I have friends who are old enough and smart enough to know better but search for restaurants they can still eat out at. They just can't give up that part of their life. But I am one to talk, I have went to Kwik Trip just to buy beer a couple of times and those are pretty tight spaces that are still busy.

 

This is a big part of the problem. We've labeled food as essential which it absolutely is obviously. So people are going to ice cream shop to get a cone. There's a Frosty Freeze in Janesville and there are pictures of 20 and 30 people standing around shoulder-to-shoulder waiting to get cones and sundaes. There's nothing essential about an ice cream cone and when people are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in groups of 20 and 30 not only are they violating the whole idea, they're congregating at a place that ais serving food that has damn near no nutritional value at all. They're not going there to eat. They're going there to get out of their houses. I absolutely understand that. But the longer people hang out at places like this and keep spreading this around with the longer we're going to have to do this.

[LouisEly]

I *personally* went 8 days without being able to get my seizure meds refilled because my doctor wasn't able to be in his office, and his nurse was working clinics and was not able to take my calls to refill my prescription. Being without seizure meds for 8 days was not just inconvenient, it was dangerous. I had my April 14th neurology appointment cancelled (not rescheduled, cancelled) specifically due to Corona virus concerns and backups. Do you think I'm the only person this kind of stuff is happening to? There are people who NEED medical attention who aren't getting it *because* people aren't staying at home and are taxing the healthcare system. But by all means, keep calling it an overreaction and sensationalism.....

Honest question, does your doctor/health care system not have an on-line portal/system where you can request refills? Can your pharmacy not request refills for you? Seems strange that you have to call and speak to your doctor's office to request a refill, but maybe that's due to the type of medication you are taking.

 

Everything I've heard about medication availability, with exception of a few specific drugs, is that the main issues have been insurers initially not granting early refills or not granting extended supplies (3 months).

[igor67]

Washington state has a density of 103/ sq mi compared to WI 105, there are some indications that they are getting things under control. Louisiana is somewhat lower at 93.8 for a density. So there is certainly the potential for places to get full on as hot spots with comparable densities. Though it's not really clear what magic number the contrarians are hanging their hats on at the moment. Milwaukee certainly is perfectly dense enough. Undoubtedly NYC can generate more total bodies, but overwhelming healthcare resources can easily happen anywhere. Rural areas might in some ways be more vulnerable since so many of those hospitals have spent years sending the worst patients to nearby cities. Some of the rural counties would be at risk of running out if a single large family got sick at the same time.

 

I looked at the state specific numbers and the MN thing is in fact super weird. It is the only state in the country where the active cases are smaller than the recovered.

[igor67]

Not sure how not being able to get scrips filled by a private practice doctor is a point in favor of private healthcare working.

[homer]

Washington state has a density of 103/ sq mi compared to WI 105, there are some indications that they are getting things under control. Louisiana is somewhat lower at 93.8 for a density. So there is certainly the potential for places to get full on as hot spots with comparable densities. Though it's not really clear what magic number the contrarians are hanging their hats on at the moment. Milwaukee certainly is perfectly dense enough. Undoubtedly NYC can generate more total bodies, but overwhelming healthcare resources can easily happen anywhere. Rural areas might in some ways be more vulnerable since so many of those hospitals have spent years sending the worst patients to nearby cities. Some of the rural counties would be at risk of running out if a single large family got sick at the same time.

 

I looked at the state specific numbers and the MN thing is in fact super weird. It is the only state in the country where the active cases are smaller than the recovered.

 

I don't think MN has done extensive testing.

[homer]

Many of the wrong people are being blamed and punished though.

 

In Chicago, the mayor shut down all of the walking/running/biking trails in the city along with the parks and playgrounds because of "congregating". In response, people have been asking the mayor to shut down some city streets so that people have room to run/walk/exercise and be able to distance from others. The mayor said she has no plans of shutting down streets, and that she "isn't against exercising, (she's) against congregating."

 

Yes, there were some people gathering in parks and on beaches. But what "congregating" was there on the actual walking/running/biking paths? People aren't standing around on the paths, they are moving. And did it ever occur that most of the people who aren't distancing themselves from others and are walking/running with other people on these paths are couples/families/roommates who live together? Kind of pointless to distance yourself from someone you live with. And if you're telling people to exercise, which experts are, but are shutting down some of the exercise outlets, you're just pushing people to fewer areas where there will be more people. The trails outside of the city have been packed.

 

Are enough people taking the right precautions? No. Is there also some proverbial "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"? Yes.

 

Yeah just take a walk down Division yesterday and it was just as crowded as any walking or biking trail would have been.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Washington state has a density of 103/ sq mi compared to WI 105, there are some indications that they are getting things under control. Louisiana is somewhat lower at 93.8 for a density. So there is certainly the potential for places to get full on as hot spots with comparable densities. Though it's not really clear what magic number the contrarians are hanging their hats on at the moment. Milwaukee certainly is perfectly dense enough. Undoubtedly NYC can generate more total bodies, but overwhelming healthcare resources can easily happen anywhere. Rural areas might in some ways be more vulnerable since so many of those hospitals have spent years sending the worst patients to nearby cities. Some of the rural counties would be at risk of running out if a single large family got sick at the same time.

 

I looked at the state specific numbers and the MN thing is in fact super weird. It is the only state in the country where the active cases are smaller than the recovered.

 

I don't think MN has done extensive testing.

 

They haven't, but the testing they have done (24000) has led to 789 total confirmed cases, a 3 percent infection rate on the people most likely to have contracted the disease. I'm sure there are many more infected that haven't been tested, but if most of those cases are asymptomatic and people largely follow the rules to slow the spread, then there wont be a spike in severe cases.

 

All this economic damage isnt being done to "stop the spread" - it's to slow it. Absent a vaccine and even with one, there probably isnt a way to just end coronavirus by staying at home for five months only to not have a country anymore. The disease ultimately will run its course through the population. Frankly, if cities and population centers have too many people still congregating in tight spaces, there's zero point in continuing these stay at home orders for suburbia/rural areas of the country and the revised guidance needs to simply emphasize social distancing and give people the ability to use their heads. Maybe not right this instant, but as the calendar rolls into May something has got to change.

[Samurai Bucky]

I *personally* went 8 days without being able to get my seizure meds refilled because my doctor wasn't able to be in his office, and his nurse was working clinics and was not able to take my calls to refill my prescription. Being without seizure meds for 8 days was not just inconvenient, it was dangerous. I had my April 14th neurology appointment cancelled (not rescheduled, cancelled) specifically due to Corona virus concerns and backups. Do you think I'm the only person this kind of stuff is happening to? There are people who NEED medical attention who aren't getting it *because* people aren't staying at home and are taxing the healthcare system. But by all means, keep calling it an overreaction and sensationalism.....

Call your pharmacy. My daughter works at some of the Meijer pharmacies in the Milwaukee area. The way they have handled it is to fax the information to the doctor's offices. It sounds like the doctor's offices have been responding to those.

 

You can't call, but they have experienced that the doctor's offices usually respond to fax.

[stoutdude04]

Washington state has a density of 103/ sq mi compared to WI 105, there are some indications that they are getting things under control. Louisiana is somewhat lower at 93.8 for a density. So there is certainly the potential for places to get full on as hot spots with comparable densities. Though it's not really clear what magic number the contrarians are hanging their hats on at the moment. Milwaukee certainly is perfectly dense enough. Undoubtedly NYC can generate more total bodies, but overwhelming healthcare resources can easily happen anywhere. Rural areas might in some ways be more vulnerable since so many of those hospitals have spent years sending the worst patients to nearby cities. Some of the rural counties would be at risk of running out if a single large family got sick at the same time.

 

I looked at the state specific numbers and the MN thing is in fact super weird. It is the only state in the country where the active cases are smaller than the recovered.

 

My buddy is an EMT in Seattle and I spoke with him last night. He said Washington is probably the best place to be in the US right now because everyone is actually following the guidelines. FWIW, he basically scolded one of our other friends via videochat for not taking this as seriously as he thought he should.

[ilikewisco]

We all know it’s bad brother. Nobody wants people like you to be behind on your medications and anything else. This is what happens when people depend on the government to make life function. I hope millions of eyes are being opened during this crisis and we make a sincere effort to fix the healthcare system in the near future WITHOUT government bureaucracy taking it over.

 

Also....

 

Please do explain who “isn’t staying at home.” Have you looked at the economic data? Were heading in record time to a place that will make the Great Depression look like a romper room. Tens of millions of our brothers and sisters have lost their livelihood in 4 weeks time with more to come. Are we headed back to a forage off the land lifestyle? Unless we are the people filling the grocery store so we can eat, the people making sure we have gas in the gas pump, etc etc are not “not staying home.” They’re out and about doing their duty to America and their families. The people that haven’t changed their lifestyle are the people that don’t see other humans for miles.

 

https://ibb.co/mFTX6Cg

 

I'd have to disagree on both above points. This is what happens when we can no longer depend on our federal government to make a coherent plan and be prepared. This is not political, they were poorly prepared and are sending mixed messages throughout this. Also, there is not one manufacturing sight in my area which is closed due to the pandemic. Where I work there are over 100 people in and out of the site daily, no temperature check, no verification they are not ill. And in no way are we essential. They are using that to keep running but it's not accurate.

[owbc]

Washington state has a density of 103/ sq mi compared to WI 105, there are some indications that they are getting things under control. Louisiana is somewhat lower at 93.8 for a density. So there is certainly the potential for places to get full on as hot spots with comparable densities. Though it's not really clear what magic number the contrarians are hanging their hats on at the moment. Milwaukee certainly is perfectly dense enough. Undoubtedly NYC can generate more total bodies, but overwhelming healthcare resources can easily happen anywhere. Rural areas might in some ways be more vulnerable since so many of those hospitals have spent years sending the worst patients to nearby cities. Some of the rural counties would be at risk of running out if a single large family got sick at the same time.

 

I looked at the state specific numbers and the MN thing is in fact super weird. It is the only state in the country where the active cases are smaller than the recovered.

 

My buddy is an EMT in Seattle and I spoke with him last night. He said Washington is probably the best place to be in the US right now because everyone is actually following the guidelines. FWIW, he basically scolded one of our other friends via videochat for not taking this as seriously as he thought he should.

 

The best thing that happened here was the voluntary work-from-home suggestion from companies going out the week of March 9, over a week ahead of any government orders. The last time I was at work in person was March 14 and even by that point there was almost nobody there. I really think it was a matter of 2-3 days where we were about to hit the exponential explosion, an employee at one of the busiest Starbucks downtown tested positive and could have potentially exposed thousands of people.

 

That said, the positive tests are still coming in at a steady pace. Not much decline. So not quite there yet.

[OldHeidelberg]

I have friends who are old enough and smart enough to know better but search for restaurants they can still eat out at. They just can't give up that part of their life. But I am one to talk, I have went to Kwik Trip just to buy beer a couple of times and those are pretty tight spaces that are still busy.

 

This is a big part of the problem. We've labeled food as essential which it absolutely is obviously. So people are going to ice cream shop to get a cone. There's a Frosty Freeze in Janesville and there are pictures of 20 and 30 people standing around shoulder-to-shoulder waiting to get cones and sundaes. There's nothing essential about an ice cream cone and when people are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in groups of 20 and 30 not only are they violating the whole idea, they're congregating at a place that ais serving food that has damn near no nutritional value at all. They're not going there to eat. They're going there to get out of their houses. I absolutely understand that. But the longer people hang out at places like this and keep spreading this around with the longer we're going to have to do this.

 

Agreed and it's not just people like me filling up the Kwik Trip for beer, I see people buying cigarettes by the pack and even a guy just buying lottery tickets. We are so convenience oriented these days that even if you take away a lot of our social hangouts we still mingle everyday. makes me feel like we were doomed all along to be screwed by this virus.

[superfly]

I have friends who are old enough and smart enough to know better but search for restaurants they can still eat out at. They just can't give up that part of their life. But I am one to talk, I have went to Kwik Trip just to buy beer a couple of times and those are pretty tight spaces that are still busy.

 

This is a big part of the problem. We've labeled food as essential which it absolutely is obviously. So people are going to ice cream shop to get a cone. There's a Frosty Freeze in Janesville and there are pictures of 20 and 30 people standing around shoulder-to-shoulder waiting to get cones and sundaes. There's nothing essential about an ice cream cone and when people are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in groups of 20 and 30 not only are they violating the whole idea, they're congregating at a place that ais serving food that has damn near no nutritional value at all. They're not going there to eat. They're going there to get out of their houses. I absolutely understand that. But the longer people hang out at places like this and keep spreading this around with the longer we're going to have to do this.

 

Agreed and it's not just people like me filling up the Kwik Trip for beer, I see people buying cigarettes by the pack and even a guy just buying lottery tickets. We are so convenience oriented these days that even if you take away a lot of our social hangouts we still mingle everyday. makes me feel like we were doomed all along to be screwed by this virus.

 

Were “doomed” any way you look at it. As with all coronaviruses the population ends up developing an immunity to it and well move on with life.

[FVBrewerFan]

These pics/ stories of groups out in public ate the definition of small sample size. Yes, it happens. But if you total up the number of total human interactions each day, I bet it's down 80%. Even when you go out, you may have 1 or 2 interactions. Not a multiplw of that by going out to eat, bars, Brewer games, not to mention many, many people essential or not are working from home, laid off, or furloughed.

 

My small sample. Drove by Brookfield Square this afternoon, then west all the way down Capitol Dr. It was a ghost town, on a Sat afternoon. I think Wisconsin, or at least WI gets a A- in quarantine efforts.

 

Finally, I said it back in page 1 or2 of this, but a month or so of this is all our society can take fir a lit of reasons. By the end of this month, we need to get back to normal as much as possible. Barring this getting much worse by then. Quarantine older folks, and anyone else at risk can make that choice for themselves.

[TURBO]

Went for a walk yesterday with my wife. Saw a group of about 6 or 7 teenagers, in parked cars, moving from car to car, messing around. No social distancing there whatsoever, in fact, it was the complete opposite of social distancing.

 

On my street yesterday, there were 9 or 10 pre-teen boys congregating. Again, practically on top of each other. I know some of their parents, and thought they were a lot ore educated than what they are showing, allowing this to happen. They were even riding double on bikes, again, on top of each other...

 

I know parents these days don't like to say No to their kids, but c'mon...

 

Also, someone I teach witnessed a house party two houses down on Saturday night. She said there were 10-12 cars, at least 20 people, probably more, in and out of that house all night...

 

I drove into school on Friday to grab some things, and in the park and ride that I normally use with my car pool partner, there were 7 or 8 cars. That would mean that there are still people carpooling during this pandemic, and even with gas at around $1.15 per gallon? Who would still be carpooling?

 

Yes, the majority of us are doing what needs to be done, but there is a certain percentage of the world that just can't bring themselves to do the greater good.

 

Idiots.

[homer]

I find the John Krasinski videos a welcome break but I do wonder where the revenues are going (there are ads in the videos). Has he setup a non profit?

[thebruce44]

Many of the wrong people are being blamed and punished though.

 

In Chicago, the mayor shut down all of the walking/running/biking trails in the city along with the parks and playgrounds because of "congregating". In response, people have been asking the mayor to shut down some city streets so that people have room to run/walk/exercise and be able to distance from others. The mayor said she has no plans of shutting down streets, and that she "isn't against exercising, (she's) against congregating.".

 

Is this correct? My family and I just went on a hike this weekend in a City Forest Preserve. I thought it was just the Lakefront, 606, and Riverwalk?

[PeaveyFury]

Went for a walk yesterday with my wife. Saw a group of about 6 or 7 teenagers, in parked cars, moving from car to car, messing around. No social distancing there whatsoever, in fact, it was the complete opposite of social distancing.

 

On my street yesterday, there were 9 or 10 pre-teen boys congregating. Again, practically on top of each other. I know some of their parents, and thought they were a lot ore educated than what they are showing, allowing this to happen. They were even riding double on bikes, again, on top of each other...

 

I know parents these days don't like to say No to their kids, but c'mon...

 

Also, someone I teach witnessed a house party two houses down on Saturday night. She said there were 10-12 cars, at least 20 people, probably more, in and out of that house all night...

 

I drove into school on Friday to grab some things, and in the park and ride that I normally use with my car pool partner, there were 7 or 8 cars. That would mean that there are still people carpooling during this pandemic, and even with gas at around $1.15 per gallon? Who would still be carpooling?

 

Yes, the majority of us are doing what needs to be done, but there is a certain percentage of the world that just can't bring themselves to do the greater good.

 

Idiots.

 

It was really bad in the city parks by us as well. Lots of people playing organized sports, etc.

[igor67]

Mixed bag on the News front with a 1 day drop in New York of new cases. Oddly enough I had looked at some research last week that used some high level population genetics (similar to what is used in Ancestry.com tests) in tracking the virus and it indicated that China may not have horribly under reported its initial cases. There were fairly broad ranges on the estimates they were able to generate, but the current total was well within that range. Despite it being solid researchers and a well understood science that's not enough to convince me yet, but given that they seem to be being open with their current struggles to keep cases low as they try and re open. Of course that is probably the biggest downer news for the day that those numbers seem to start popping up as soon as they start to open.

[Thurston Fluff]

Whatever the official count was I find it hard to beleive China would shut down major portions of their country and tank their economy if they thought only a few hundred thousand out of 1.386 billion people had it. Not saying they intentionally hid anything or not. Just saying I think they believed the number of cases was much higher than the official count and rapidly spreading.

[LouisEly]

Many of the wrong people are being blamed and punished though.

 

In Chicago, the mayor shut down all of the walking/running/biking trails in the city along with the parks and playgrounds because of "congregating". In response, people have been asking the mayor to shut down some city streets so that people have room to run/walk/exercise and be able to distance from others. The mayor said she has no plans of shutting down streets, and that she "isn't against exercising, (she's) against congregating.".

 

Is this correct? My family and I just went on a hike this weekend in a City Forest Preserve. I thought it was just the Lakefront, 606, and Riverwalk?

Which one? I don't believe there is such thing as a "city" forest preserve from what I can tell. They may be in Cook County, but they are not in the City of Chicago.

 

Also heard that Waterfall Glen closed off access to non-locals (DuPage County residents only) due to overcrowding coming from the city.