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OK, the Corona Virus Isn't Going Away. Now What?


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Unfortunately, this behavior is natural to youth and having the POTUS and other government figures downplaying the seriousness, it's like pouring gasoline on a fire.

 

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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I've seen too many times where the reports saying that it's less fatal for younger people is taken to mean that they can't get it. I don't know how that leap was made, but it seems like it's a devastating one.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Thanks!

 

I know that, but my fingers don't. Never noticed. I am the king of typos - I even have type O blood :D

 

When I gig at the Seminole Indian Casino it's Pair o' dice

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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My mother has terminal lung cancer. Since March I have only seen her on Facetime and through a glass storm door at my parents' house.

 

I have had to make the decision to put her on hospice. Which means a nurse/aid will come into their house to help my father. Which means rolling the dice not just with her, but my father.

Now I want to see my mother, hug her, but ..... while I've tried to be safe, I had to go to a CVS a few days ago to get them something inside, where the woman behind the register was coughing. Prior to that I've had to go around a hospital in Atlanta because my wife had

knee replacement surgery, then another hospital in town fearing she had a heart attack. Janitors not wearing masks, EMTs arriving with ambulances without masks. Nurses at the hospital with masks pulled down.

 

My wife is going back to work on the 29th. Her job was considered "necessary" prior to the lock down, and the "safety" rules there are "no meetings of more than 10 people, wear a mask and distance" except what they do means confined areas, recirculated air. Someone has already died of COVID from her work (not medical), a number have become infected. People in Augusta Georgia literally act and behave like nothing is going on; people she works with has this attitude.

 

So .... will she get it? Will I? in my area, Augusta Georgia, everyone behaves like nothing is going on. I can't go on Facebook: maybe 5 out of 1,000+ local "friends" are pro-mask, the rest are on about it being a hoaz, something to make Trump look bad, the numbers are fake, etc...

 

The worst of it being the anti-mask sentiment is unreal. The "it makes it worse", "it's a conspiracy", "it makes your suffocate", "it's what the liberals want!" rhetoric is unbelievable, for those not in this area *I live here* and I can't believe the immense stupidity.

 

I shut my office down back in March, have been trying to continue giving lessons online. But more and more students ask "when are you opening your office back up?", and most people inquiring about lessons ends with "are you giving lessons in person or only online?" ?????????

 

Am I asymptomatic? I can't go in my parents' house; I don't know how long my mother has, but then I don't want my father to get infected. If I lived somewhere where PEOPLE ACTED RESPONSIBLY things would maybe be different; I have to figure out at what point I go to her, and weigh that against my father possibly getting sick. Or even shortening my mother's life.

 

Meanwhile in NY where people are finally kind of taking it seriously, the curve has gone down. Canada. But in my home town people are going to beach in groups, walking around Kroger without masks, calling people "liberal!" in public for wearing a mask. Back in March, April I was called all sorts of things while wearing a mask at an Aldi's and Lowes. On Facebook, people I've known from HS besmirching me, "hahah, you're afraid of a cold!", "you're a commie!".... it's surreal, one day out of the blue the "Bill Gates is trying to kill everyone" thing came out of nowhere, and then suddenly even my "left wing" friends started railing against masks, "it's part of the conspiracy, Plandemic!".

 

It's like I'm living in an alternate reality in North Augusta S.C./Georgia. Everyone around me has gone insane while the world burns, science doesn't exist, Trump is literally anointed by God.

 

Then I look at what's happening in the world: NBA is training their audience to think things are under control, Formula 1 is doing the same: and it's all just for money.

 

In August kids go back to school. By October kids will be getting sick. Will kids dying be enough to sway the vote? For people to take this seriously as other countries have?

Guitar Lessons in Augusta Georgia: www.chipmcdonald.com

Eccentric blog: https://chipmcdonaldblog.blogspot.com/

 

/ "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien

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So to answer the OP, apparently the answer is "deliver food for Uber Eats." Anybody got a better idea?

 

 

Lock down again, for real ala New Zealand. All essential mandated to wear masks, $1,500 fine. 12 foot distancing. Daily tv education on how fomites work, how aerobic transmission works, why masks are necessary.

 

Sit tight until the curve actually flattens. Implement quarantine procedures for eliminating who is infected by Baynesian grouping/quarantining in the military.

 

 

Put the "safe" military to work making rapid test kits and antibody tests.

 

 

When the curve is flat, implement a national effort to test everyone, trace.

 

Until it burns out.

 

 

Literally do what New Zealand almost accomplished. Make it a national project.

 

"that's not possible" - yes it is. It's just a matter of doing it.

 

 

There is presently no other way. Waiting for a vaccine isn't a solution. At some point what I'm outlining will start being discussed... around January. I wish earlier. But by then people will be tired of it and hopefully it will be obvious this has to be done.

Guitar Lessons in Augusta Georgia: www.chipmcdonald.com

Eccentric blog: https://chipmcdonaldblog.blogspot.com/

 

/ "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien

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Then I look at what's happening in the world: NBA is training their audience to think things are under control, Formula 1 is doing the same: and it's all just for money.

I don't get this statement. From what I hear, F1 has all the teams and support in "bubbles" and so far not a single positive test result. It seems to me they're doing things right.

 

It's too early to tell if the NBA has it down. MLS already lost two teams because they had too many players test positive.

 

Sorry you've had such blowback. I haven't seen it but I haven't been out much.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Sorry you've had such blowback. I haven't seen it but I haven't been out much.

 

Consider that around 137,000 people have died, and the US population is around 330,000,000 - the odds of knowing someone who has died are very small, especially since so many of them are in an older, forgotten demographic. When this becomes real to people is when they know someone who's died, or know medical professionals on the front lines and hear the horror stories about ICUs overflowing and people suffering, or know someone in New York who tells them about the 24/7 ambulance sirens at the epidemic's peak. You hear about some random kid, or teacher, or John Prine, or whatever dying, but that doesn't register with people any more than if they had been hit by a car. If for example Boris Johnson or someone equally prominent had died when he contracted the virus, I think people would be taking it more seriously.

 

It does seem that this thing hasn't run its course yet, so unfortunately, more people may experience the disease first-hand instead of just seeing news stories about it. All we can do is hope that it doesn't hit people too hard, that "stealth" organ damage isn't happening to those who have the virus but don't have serious symptoms, and that people do follow the recommended guidelines. At least we don't have people saying "Washing hands? That's infringing on my liberty! No way I'm going to wash my hands, and screw those stupid signs in restaurant bathrooms that say 'Employees must wash hands before returning to work.' What do they know?"

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We are the one species on Earth that is capable of learning outside of our own experiences, yet so many refuse to do so. :(

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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We are the one species on Earth that is capable of learning outside of our own experiences, yet so many refuse to do so. :(

 

I can see you're not including cats. That's only fair, given that they are extraterrestials.

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Sorry you've had such blowback. I haven't seen it but I haven't been out much.

 

Consider that around 137,000 people have died, and the US population is around 330,000,000 - the odds of knowing someone who has died are very small, especially since so many of them are in an older, forgotten demographic. When this becomes real to people is when they know someone who's died, or know medical professionals on the front lines and hear the horror stories about ICUs overflowing and people suffering, or know someone in New York who tells them about the 24/7 ambulance sirens at the epidemic's peak. You hear about some random kid, or teacher, or John Prine, or whatever dying, but that doesn't register with people any more than if they had been hit by a car. If for example Boris Johnson or someone equally prominent had died when he contracted the virus, I think people would be taking it more seriously.

 

 

Someone very close to me died from Covid-19. But even before then I knew it was serious when my Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner wife sent me to the grocery store to buy large lawn/leaf bags for them to wear. She was exposed again a few nights ago. A patient was admitted and was given a cursory look-over by the ER doc. My wife and a new NP who is shadowing went to work the patient up. Wouldn't you know it? Couple of days later the patient is Covid positive. Beth had a droplet mask on and a gown that's re-worn by everyone who goes in the room. Ew, Jesus Mary and Joseph, that's f*cking nasty. Personally I'm getting the sh*ts of sending my wife into the breach every shift while there are still motherf*ckers screaming about MuhFreedum!

 

Anyone want to know how big a hoax it is? Let me hook you up with Joe Diffie's son--I'm sure he's got some thoughts about Covid-19.

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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If only all the people who think it's a hoax could be corralled in one place together so they don't expose the rest of us and they can fend for themselves amongst themselves. The rest of us could then do what we need to do to fight this thing and bring it down to manageable levels.

 

And don't say Texas. They can't have an entire state. There are plenty of people here and throughout other states who are taking this thing seriously. They can have some badlands or empty prairie or something that was previously undeveloped.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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....some badlands or empty prairie or something that was previously undeveloped.

 

Oh you mean West Texas and the Panhandle and Big Bend.

 

nat

Parts of it might be suitable. OTOH, I've heard good things about Marfa and Alpine, so I don't want to give them that.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Here in Florida another one day record >15,000 new cases. And the governor now calls it just a 'blip'. It's more than the entire continent of Europe on the same day. China and India, each with a billion more people than the US didn't get that many.

 

That's record after record after record after record after record after record smashed.

 

And we have anti-mask riots from people who would rather believe a real-estate salesman than the scientists who are experts at this. What's wrong with the USA??? Have we gone crazy?

 

And they say, it's a low death rate so it's no big deal.

 

A 1% mortality rate might not seem like much, but the death rate for COVID-19 is just the tip of a massive iceberg that the US economy is heading towards full-steam ahead.

 

For every one person who dies:

 

19 more require hospitalization.

18 of those will have permanent heart damage for the rest of their lives.

10 will have permanent lung damage.

3 will have strokes.

2 will have neurological damage that leads to chronic weakness and loss of coordination.

2 will have neurological damage that leads to loss of cognitive function.

 

So now all of a sudden, that 'but it"s only 1% fatal!' becomes:

 

3,282,000 people dead.

62,358,000 hospitalized.

59,076,000 people with permanent heart damage.

32,820,000 people with permanent lung damage.

9,846,000 people with strokes.

6,564,000 people with muscle weakness.

6,564,000 people with loss of cognitive function.

 

conclusion: "The choice is not 'ruin the economy to save 1%.' If we reopen the economy, it will be destroyed anyway. The US economy cannot survive everyone getting COVID-19."

 

I figure all the historic plagues in history have ended. They have fizzled out, we have learned how to treat them, or a vaccine was developed. I am going to do my best to survive until this one fizzles out so I can enjoy the new normal when it's gone.

 

Without your health you have nothing, If you catch a terminal disease, all the money in the world will only buy you a luxurious hospital room and a nicer coffin.

 

Staying at home and wearing masks when I need to go out are an inconvenience, but not nearly as inconvenient than a singer/sax player with permanent lung damage or worse.

 

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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I see this posted all over the place Has anyone fact checked it?

 

So first assumption is that 1% of the entire US population will die. I"m thinking that something like 70% of the population would give us herd immunity. So should all these figures be decreased to reflect that? That would put the total deaths at 2.3million.

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I read a recent Twitter thread by Andy Slavitt [i HATE Twitter threads; just get a blog and post a link, or write a note and take a screenshot, but he's a respected expert so he knows this stuff and thus I'll put up with it] and he was praising TX Gov Abbott and telling the other governors and leaders to follow his example. He says there's still hope and time to do what's right here. I'm sorry DeSantis isn't doing that for FL, Bob. :(

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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We are the one species on Earth that is capable of learning outside of our own experiences, yet so many refuse to do so. :(

 

I can see you're not including cats. That's only fair, given that they are extraterrestials.

 

I recently read an article about the history of cat domestication. I believe the article concluded that the cats weren't actually domesticated by humans - they simply invited themselves in and took over. Makes sense they're also extraterrestrial.

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Well, you know the phrase "Cats don't have masters, they have staff". This is all part of their master plan...

 

I got a call yesterday from my drummer friend who's getting some friends together to play music in his driveway this Saturday and the neighbors will be sitting on their lawns, not his. Since tax season is over today, I've driving into LA to my girlfriends house and stay with her for the weekend so I told him yes I think I can do it but I have to check with her first. Her comment? "If you do this don't come back to my house, you can stay with Frank". She's very cautious about COVID and rightly so and while I think it would be safe enough, whattyagonnado? I'm certainly not going to give her any push back so I declined.

 

Just that little comment from her shows where we're at with gigging I think. And with all these surges in cases and hospitalizations and the resistance so many people have to following instructions I see our gigs just getting pushed further and further out. Now, I'm thinking maybe next summer? Or not, it could be 2022. I was thinking about surveys that show something like 30% of the population are anti-vaxxers so even if one of these promising vaccines that just got approved for 30,000 person trials work out and are successful, it's at least 6 months after that before we'll see enough doses to cover everybody and are we all going to get a shot the same day? No, of course not and here's question for everybody. Who want's to be first, raise their hand. There will be a roll out period and probably more testing to confirm it's working and that could easily go to the end of the year. But, what about those who refuse it? They're probably part of the same group who refuse to wear masks too.

 

This whole thing is just going to keep dragging on and I get more pissed off at those people every day.

 

Bob

Hammond SK1, Mojo 61, Kurzweil PC3, Korg Pa3x, Roland FA06, Band in a Box, Real Band, Studio One, too much stuff...
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There's a fascinating article about how the Czech Republic beat the corona virus. Of course I look at any article with skepticism, but their numbers don't lie, and life is more or less back to normal.

 

In the beginning of March, they locked down the country, closed the borders, and required everyone to weak a face mask. By the end of May, the lockdown was over, the face mask requirement was lifted, and everything re-opened. As of yesterday, they had 355 deaths. Almost every medical professional believes what made the difference was the requirement for universal face masks, and apparently, the Czechs were pretty hardcore about following that rule.

 

Wow. Maybe it really is just that simple.

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Yes, it is that simple except...the Czech Republic is about the size of Mississippi with a population of 10 million or the population of LA County. In other words that means nothing. It's a piece of cake to handle a small isolated country like that.

 

It's hard to keep track of all the moving parts concerning this. I was just reminded of a very important item that hasn't been talked about for months. An excerpt from an article about a livestreamed interview with Dr. Redfield of the CDC yesterday:

 

"I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are probably going to be one of the most difficult times that we have experienced in American public health becauseâ¦of the co-occurrence of COVID and influenza," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield told Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association".

 

Recall that Redfield also said on April 21, "There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through⦠And when I've said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don't understand what I mean. We're going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time."

 

The flu. Yes, of course how could I have forgotten that? Man, what is that going to do to people who catch both at the same time or one right behind the other? Now, we'll have both viruses running around everywhere. Yes there is decent immunity to the flu but not all that much. I'm not going to repost the flu stats again from the last few years but they were some pretty big numbers.

 

Bob

Hammond SK1, Mojo 61, Kurzweil PC3, Korg Pa3x, Roland FA06, Band in a Box, Real Band, Studio One, too much stuff...
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And what if another bug rears its ugly head at the same time? It could happen. I sincerely hope not.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Interesting article. If you are a herd immunity thinker, it's a "must read", if you are an anti-herd immunity thinker, it's a "must read":

 

 

This Republican governor just showed the receipts to the coronavirus 'herd immunity' crowd

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/politics/tate-reeves-mississippi-coronavirus-herd-immunity/

 

1) "Let's talk about herd immunity. I've listened to some people argue that the rapid spread of cases is a good thing, and we need to reach herd immunity in Mississippi and elsewhere to survive. I'm not a health care expert by any means, but I am a math guy. And I have thoughts:"

 

2) "The experts say we need 70-80% of the population to get COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity. Let's assume they're wrong (it's certainly possible, they have been before.) Let's assume they're being way overly cautious and we actually only need 40% infection for herd immunity."

 

3) "In Mississippi, our population is 3 million. We've had 36,680 cases so far. We'd need 1.2 MILLION infections to achieve that hypothetical 40% threshold. (Remember, experts say it's double that.)"

 

4) "Over the last two weeks, our hospital system has started to become stressed to the point of pain. We are seeing the early signs and effects of it becoming overwhelmed. We had to suspend elective surgeries again."

 

5) "On our worst day of new cases, we had just over 1,000. It has typically been between 700-900 during this most aggressive time. To get to 40% infections, we'd need 3,187 new cases every day for a full year from today. We would need to TRIPLE our worst day -- every day -- for a year."

 

6) "I'm not one of these guys that immediately dismisses any idea that challenges the expert status quo talking points. I'm pretty skeptical by nature. That's healthy. But herd immunity is not anything like a realistic solution in the short or mid-term. I wish it was."

 

7) "Unless you're willing to go without hospitals after a car wreck or heart attack, we need a different approach. Right now, despite mixed messages at the beginning, it seems like masks are the best bet. They're a hell of a lot better than widespread shut downs. Please wear one!"

 

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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And what if another bug rears its ugly head at the same time? It could happen. I sincerely hope not.

 

Yep this has been on my mind for a while - it's been a small miracle we haven't seen more outbreaks of a new virus like COVID-19 than has occurred with SARS / MERS etc, so the chances of a 'COVID-21' aren't remote although hopefully not super-likely....

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Interesting article. If you are a herd immunity thinker, it's a "must read", if you are an anti-herd immunity thinker, it's a "must read":

 

 

This Republican governor just showed the receipts to the coronavirus 'herd immunity' crowd

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/politics/tate-reeves-mississippi-coronavirus-herd-immunity/

 

1) "Let's talk about herd immunity. I've listened to some people argue that the rapid spread of cases is a good thing, and we need to reach herd immunity in Mississippi and elsewhere to survive. I'm not a health care expert by any means, but I am a math guy. And I have thoughts:"

 

2) "The experts say we need 70-80% of the population to get COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity. Let's assume they're wrong (it's certainly possible, they have been before.) Let's assume they're being way overly cautious and we actually only need 40% infection for herd immunity."

 

3) "In Mississippi, our population is 3 million. We've had 36,680 cases so far. We'd need 1.2 MILLION infections to achieve that hypothetical 40% threshold. (Remember, experts say it's double that.)"

 

4) "Over the last two weeks, our hospital system has started to become stressed to the point of pain. We are seeing the early signs and effects of it becoming overwhelmed. We had to suspend elective surgeries again."

 

5) "On our worst day of new cases, we had just over 1,000. It has typically been between 700-900 during this most aggressive time. To get to 40% infections, we'd need 3,187 new cases every day for a full year from today. We would need to TRIPLE our worst day -- every day -- for a year."

 

6) "I'm not one of these guys that immediately dismisses any idea that challenges the expert status quo talking points. I'm pretty skeptical by nature. That's healthy. But herd immunity is not anything like a realistic solution in the short or mid-term. I wish it was."

 

7) "Unless you're willing to go without hospitals after a car wreck or heart attack, we need a different approach. Right now, despite mixed messages at the beginning, it seems like masks are the best bet. They're a hell of a lot better than widespread shut downs. Please wear one!"

 

Notes

 

That there Governor has his head screwed on.

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7) "Unless you're willing to go without hospitals after a car wreck or heart attack, we need a different approach. Right now, despite mixed messages at the beginning, it seems like masks are the best bet. They're a hell of a lot better than widespread shut downs. Please wear one!"

This is one of the issues we're having here. It's one thing to say hospitals are nearing capacity or whatever, but since lots of things are still open, people are driving, construction crews are working, homeowners are doing home projects, having most or all of the hospital, ER, paramedic, ambulance capacity already taken up by COVID-19 cases is a really bad thing for the rest of us.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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