Coronavirus prep

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  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited March 2020
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Just to shift gears a bit: On this thread and other places, I'm seeing more about companies encouraging telecommuting, about companies' IT staffs quickly setting up or expanding the infrastructure for telecommuting**, and that sort of thing.

    I'm musing about two things (not drawing conclusions):

    1. Will this tip the trend in some fashion, and lead to relatively more of that on a permanent basis?

    2. Will the security of this new, perhaps hastily-set-up infrastructure be adequate for the task? As someone whose pre-retirement job included a small bite of computer security responsibilities, I know this realm is still an arms race: The highly-automated nefarious actors developing new tools, the good guys running hard to get ahead of them. Haste and under-investment are historically sources of vulnerability. It worries me a little, frankly.

    ** I've heard rumors, but not fact-checked, that in the US the current administration had been discouraging telecommuting or remote work by federal employees, and that there had been some infrastructure disinvestment or even reduction, in this area; and that this is now moving in the other direction again, toward encouraging more federal employees in some areas to work from home.

    I'm pulling for number 1 :smiley: We were recently sold to a larger company, and I ended up with a lot more responsibility with the typical "there's no extra money for you now, but we're aware you're currently underpaid". Now that they've been kind of forced to let me try working from home for a couple of weeks (though I will have to stop in to the office a coue if times at least) I intend to suggest that a great way to reward me without a raise would be to allow me to work from home one or two days a week.

    ETA: I'm not VPNing into the network, but most of my work is done by logging into different web based programs. I'm not sure if that makes it less of a security risk or not. That's why I can't avoid the office at all, I will need to get on an on-site computer for a few things.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    sdavis484 wrote: »
    How do we keep people that are quarantined home though? Is that possible? I don't think it is. What would stop an infected person from being out and sharing germs?

    It's about personal integrity. There will be those who don't exhibit any symptoms who will go out and about exposing others. Those on the front line, celebrities, health care workers, even the virus screeners and their symptoms may or may not show up later. It's all a multi-cr@p shoot, especially without testing.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
    But in terms of raw numbers of people actually dying, it doesn't matter whether its 6% of 100,000 or 1% of 600,000 people. It's still 6,000 people dead (numbers for illustrative purposes only).

    Kind of how whether or not you're counting and logging all you calories accurately, the effect on the scale will be the same, because your body is still counting. The number of people who actually die doesn't depend on our getting the math right. The scale's reaction to our actual energy surplus or deficit doesn't depend on our getting the math right.

    true; it is easy to forget the human component in all this
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    PSA regarding the https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre interactive map to which I posted a link the other day.

    The previous link IS directly to the John Hopkins map as is the one above.

    They ARE legit and do not contain malware. The map will display immediately in your browser without any prompts asking you to download, save, or install anything.

    Thank you! I did actually go back and look up the link in this thread when I opened the map up today, so I'm safe. But I'm glad you said this, because if I hadn't been able to do that, I would have started a google search, and who knows where I may have ended up!


    PAV8888 wrote: »

    I can't get in because I refuse to turn off my ad-blocker. What was the headline?
    Also, there’s a new article on CNN indicating that people are indeed likely spreading COVID-19 before they’re symptomatic. A previous study indicating such, had been subsequently contradicted, so its been difficult to know for sure. They’re now saying that people have high viral load 2.5 days prior to showing symptoms. I do wonder, how do they spread it? Random sneezes, couples kissing, germy hands from saliva?

    I think it would the be the same way we spread the flu or cold before we start showing symptoms. Apparently, just the act of talking, since that involves breathing out, can spread it.

    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm

    Similar to how Typhoid Mary spread typhoid wherever she went even though she never had the symptoms of the disease.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    sdavis484 wrote: »
    How do we keep people that are quarantined home though? Is that possible? I don't think it is. What would stop an infected person from being out and sharing germs?

    A conscience?

    And aside from that, in NZ at least, the government have the power to actually quarantine (as in put in a facility) anyone who is not abiding by the conditions of self isolation. So if you're in precautionary self isolation (eg, recently arrived from overseas), you have the choice of being a decent human being and getting a little bit of freedom, or being a jerk and getting none.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    sdavis484 wrote: »
    How do we keep people that are quarantined home though? Is that possible? I don't think it is. What would stop an infected person from being out and sharing germs?

    It depends on laws in a particular place. In the U.S., nothing. Take, for example, the JetBlue passenger that had shown symptoms and been tested. Despite currently waiting on test results, he took the flight anyway and got the text message on the plane.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,330 Member
    And you can tell its election season:

    I get a voicemail on my phone today from one of my congressmen, as a robocall to update on the virus. It really irked me because he was constantly throwing in there all HE was doing and to call HIS office for updates.....

    I'm just thinking how low can you go to use something like this as a springboard for your campaign?

    Better than the call I got from Donald trump asking me to donate to the wall.

    858 area number by any chance?
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    mph323 wrote: »
    Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is donating a million face masks and 500,000 coronavirus test kits to the US. I'm grateful for the support and hope that our government can work with people like him to tap into international sources for desperately needed medical supplies.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/14/tech/jack-ma-face-masks-us-donation/index.html

    This is really out there and sounds like a bonkers conspiracy theory, but can anyone shoot down my thought that testing is being throttled not just for lack of resources but because the fewer people who get tested, the lower the number of confirmed cases and the better the numbers look politically?

    It's dark and rainy here, and I've been sitting by myself all day recovering from trying to find tomato sauce for dinner and finding the apocalypse playing out at Safeway. My thoughts are dark.

    I guess it's just me, but I think that would require a pretty large-scale, multi-participant conspiracy, a thing that humans are historically pretty bad at sustaining for very long.

    And it would have to happen, now, in a leak-ridden political environment where plenty of journalists (and journalistic bottom-feeders besides) would be all too happy to find an break a well-documented version of that story . . . maybe even a poorly-documented one.

    If that political conspiracy is happening, it can't hold, IMO.

    You make a compelling point.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,330 Member
    Getting emails from local groceries and fast food joints about what they doing to combat the virus.

    One local big grocery store request to buy only a day necessary items and don't stock up so the supply doesn't get sold out quickly. Good luck with that.

    Taco bell might do drive thru only .. 😬
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,330 Member
    lx1x wrote: »
    Getting emails from local groceries and fast food joints about what they doing to combat the virus.

    One local big grocery store request to buy only a day necessary items and don't stock up so the supply doesn't get sold out quickly. Good luck with that.

    Taco bell might do drive thru only .. 😬

    We have a nearby Chick-fil-a doing drive-thru only. I’m wondering when restaurants will begin closing. We have 26 confirmed cases in our state, with 11 of those in our county.

    Which state are ya? I'm in MD so far the CFA where I go to still serves dine ins.