Corona Virus # 3

[California]

NEW from Medscape this morning.
Coronavirus may Cause Environmental Contamination through fecal shedding.

"The toilet bowl, sink, and bathroom door handle of an isolation room housing a patient with the coronavirus tested positive

One thing anyone can do is carry your own paper napkins, to use if a restaurant etc bathroom has only a blow hand dryer. Use the paper towels or your napkins as isolation for toilet flush and to turn on/off the faucets, then on the doorhandle, then turn and toss the paper to the wastebasket.

I used the paper towels like this at a restaurant in Oakland last weekend. Another patron commented and did likewise. If most everyone wipes down doorhandles etc with the clean side of their paper towel this has to help some.

 

[hawkeye08]

Got a text from family that is with my FIL in Harborview (Seattle).. starting a 7am today, visitors have to be screened for CV (likely just a temp reading, some questions) and patients limited to one visitor (not sure if that is per day or at a time).. I'm hoping my daughter stays home this weekend and does not go and visit (my wife has respiratory issues and is over 60 so we don't want the risk)..

Governor is banning gatherings of over 250 people, etc.

I won't go into politics but much of the hype is political, both sides are trying to make the other side look bad and both sides are trying to take credit for things being done.. same as any other crisis, whether it is a hurricane or flood..

The death rate is disturbing, not because of the high number, but because so many believe it. If 80% (what they said on morning news) are mild cases and do not require hospital or doc, how do they know how many cases there actually are? They don't know is the real answer. Anyone that says it is xx% has an agenda, because it is not known. Also note, the death rate for flu is also a wild guess. They don't know how many get the flu because the vast majority don't go to the doctor or report it.

WHO has an agenda, they want more funding, they will make hay while they can. Big money to be made for Wall street folks, market has big swings, they are selling high and buying low, hoping the panic will cause the small investors to dump at lower prices.. My younger brother was a day trader for awhile, until he figured out that there was no way he could get information early enough to make big money. He made some money, but just didn't have the information timely enough to go big.. he liked the adrenaline rush for sure.

I believe this virus is serious and a higher risk to older folks, especially those with certain pre existing conditions. We need to use common sense, wash our hands, etc.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

South Korea has also done a lot of testing. They even have drive through test centers. Unfortunately our government response seems to be closer to Italy's than South Korea's.

here's an article on what's probably to come and why even with the "low" death rate it is still a huge problem: Simple math offers alarming answers about Covid-19, health care - STAT

this points out why its important to "flatten the curve"- slowing down transmission means that we won't overwhelm the medical system as much.

Some of our local hospitals have already set up big tents in their parking lots.

Thanks for the link. This is much more serious than I have been thinking until this morning. Planes have spread this world wide before we even knew what it was. Secondary infection spread talked about in your link points out while this may greatly reduce the older population as we have seen in the west coast nursing home case.

Coronavirus live updates: Gottlieb urges faster US response, WHO declares global pandemic

 

[California]

WHO has an agenda, they want more funding

Oh come on. That statement is Conspiracy Theory like you hear on talk radio. Some sort of coordinated international cooperation, information sharing, is needed when the situation has become a pandemic, and there is also a need to sustain this expertise during the calm between crises when a staff of specialists might seem unneccesary. Any large organization particularly if its mission is to face the unknown, is going to look inefficient. That's the nature of any large organization, inefficiency is unavoidable given human nature. WHO will appear to be unneeded ... right up until its expertise is needed.

 

[txdon]

Germany says 70% of it's population will get coronavirus.
Germany's population 82 million.
Chancellor Merkel is predicting 57 million people in Germany will be infected with coronavirus.
Then given a conservative death rate - half a million Germans could die from the virus.

 

[ruffdog]

This is much more serious than I have been thinking until this morning. Planes have spread this world wide before we even knew what it was. Secondary infection spread talked about in your link points out while this may greatly reduce the older population as we have seen in the west coast nursing home case.

I'm thinking spring break will help the virus spread wide and far!

 

[TnAndy]

Looks like it is now being labeled a pandemic.

Yeah....WHO finally gave up protecting their bondholders.

Here Are The 425 Billion Reasons Why WHO Refuses To Call The Covid-19 Outbreak A "Pandemic" | Zero Hedge

The World Bank launched a $425 million 2017 catastrophe bond issue supporting its Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF). There are two tranches of PEF bonds outstanding, expected to mature in July, and this means investors of the bonds will collect massive profits if the bonds aren't triggered or will lose everything if the Covid-19 outbreak continues to escalate.

It's becoming increasingly apparent why the World Health Organization (WHO) has had a difficult time calling Covid-19 outbreak a "pandemic," this is because it would cause both bonds to trigger, effectively wiping out bondholders.

The World Bank issued two tranches of PEF bonds worth $425 million in 2017. Bondholders have seen two years of above-average returns with no concern of virus outbreaks around the world that would trigger even the slightest hint both bonds would go into default, until now.

 

[downsizingnow48]

At the local grocery and drug stores where we usually shop, there is no shortage of toilet paper. To satisfy my curiousity, I went to the Costco about 10 mi away this morning. They had no toilet paper. And there was a line of people leaving the store with mountains of paper napkins in their carts.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah....WHO finally gave up protecting their bondholders.

Here Are The 425 Billion Reasons Why WHO Refuses To Call The Covid-19 Outbreak A "Pandemic" | Zero Hedge

The World Bank launched a $425 million 2017 catastrophe bond issue supporting its Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF). There are two tranches of PEF bonds outstanding, expected to mature in July, and this means investors of the bonds will collect massive profits if the bonds aren't triggered or will lose everything if the Covid-19 outbreak continues to escalate.

It's becoming increasingly apparent why the World Health Organization (WHO) has had a difficult time calling Covid-19 outbreak a "pandemic," this is because it would cause both bonds to trigger, effectively wiping out bondholders.

The World Bank issued two tranches of PEF bonds worth $425 million in 2017. Bondholders have seen two years of above-average returns with no concern of virus outbreaks around the world that would trigger even the slightest hint both bonds would go into default, until now.

It's nice that the title in the article exaggerates the amount by 1000%.

It says Billion with a B in the title, but it's only Million with an M in the article.

The world needs more proof readers.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I'm thinking spring break will help the virus spread wide and far!

I expect you will be more right than I would prefer. Dorms are kind of like cruise ships. Many colleges have exchange policies and our daughter just returned from Germany in Dec from doing her fall semester there. I would against my better judgement be in a panic if she was still there with Merkel just stating Germany could see 1/2 million deaths. The masses that have come into Germany to escape war is really going to put a load on the medical resources that may impact the locals ability to get medical care perhaps.

 

[rekees4300]

:us-indiana: Indiana Hoosiers, here is an informative article from the local newspaper.

Also the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) has a website https://on.in.gov/covid19 that includes a subscription feature so that Hoosiers can receive alerts when information is changed or added.


View attachment covid-19 page 2.jpg

 

[TnAndy]

It's nice that the title in the article exaggerates the amount by 1000%.

It says Billion with a B in the title, but it's only Million with an M in the article.

The world needs more proof readers.

Agree with the need for proofing....but the point is follow the money.

 

[California]

The World Bank issued two tranches of PEF bonds worth $425 million in 2017. Bondholders have seen two years of above-average returns with no concern of virus outbreaks around the world that would trigger even the slightest hint both bonds would go into default, until now.

Are WHO and World Bank closely related?

There are people who will bet on anything and there's huge money to be made taking the counterpart and raking in the fools losses. Until the fool's hunch proves correct.

We just watched The Big Short, a movie about the financial crisis of 2008. To summarize, a few analysts dug into the credit quality of mortgage borrowers and concluded that whole bundled batches of variable-rate mortgages - 'Collateralized Debt Obligations' would become worthless if adjustable rates rose and the borrowers couldn't make their payments. So these traders shorted CDO's and made literally billions as the banks which had agreed to bet against them, failed.

Maybe we're now seeing a similar game with the PEF bonds. High finance is weird.

 

[Ford850]

After seeing how bad this is getting in Europe, and knowing we are at the same level of infection today that Italy was just 2 weeks ago, there will be much more strict orders coming from our state and community levels across the US. I'm betting we'll have many more orders within a couple days so we don't have to ration ventilators in 2 weeks.

 

[dragoneggs]

I am not buying the 1% mortality rate that seems to be floating around. We don't even know how many are infected so the denominator is unknown. My guess the mortality rate in the end will be much lower. Not saying there won't be a significant death count. We need to make sure we are putting this in perspective (such as comparing to common flu victims and by age group).

 

[rekees4300]

March Madness becomes March Muteness. Fans banned from games. :basketball:

Only essential staff and limited family at NCAA tournaments

 

[ultrarunner]

Some simply do not buy in bulk or stockpile unless panic buying.

 

[downsizingnow48]

What I am puzzling about is why shoppers at our local stores are not panic buying toilet paper, but 10 miles away at Costco the shoppers have bought out all the toilet paper and started on paper napkins.

 

[ovrszd]

Some simply do not buy in bulk or stockpile unless panic buying.

I talked with my wife about this yesterday. She was going grocery shopping. I inadvertently discussed the fact that some areas are suffering from a TP shortage based on CV paranoia. She hadn't heard that. After a couple minutes of discussing this I asked her to not contribute to that chaos here by buying more TP than she normally would. She looked at me with that "why would I" look.

 

[hawkeye08]

Many small businesses buy at Costco... imagine running out of toilet paper in an office..