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New York Governor Announces '100% Workforce Reduction' for Non-essential Services (techcrunch.com) 127

Posted by msmash from the breaking-news dept.
In a press conference today, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced orders for residents to stay at home amid rising COVID-19 concerns. The governor was careful to avoid terms like "shelter in place" during the otherwise typically blunt presser, but noted a "100% workforce reduction," with the exclusion of services deemed essential. The rules take effect Sunday evening. From a report: "This is the most drastic action we can take," Cuomo said, following yesterday's lead of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Cuomo went on to note that things like "solitary exercise" would be excluded from the ruling, but the state will be aggressive in making sure that citizens adhere to the rules. Mass transit will remain operational and restaurants, food delivery and banks will remain in service. Cuomo wasn't able to answer a question about laundry services, but the state will make a full list of exceptions available this afternoon. The state is asking ISPs to increase data bandwidth at no charge to address increased needs from users actively social distancing. "These are legal provisions," Cuomo said. "They will be enforced." The state will issue fines for those "non-essential" businesses that fail to abide by the decision. "I am not kidding about this," he added. There is currently no plan in place to penalize individuals for gathering socially, and exceptions will be included to allow people to leave their homes for physical and mental health purposes.
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New York Governor Announces '100% Workforce Reduction' for Non-essential Services More

New York Governor Announces '100% Workforce Reduction' for Non-essential Services

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  • Allowing people out for "mental health" reasons will go about as well as allowing "emotional support" animals on planes.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 )
      Hmm...so, how's the urban life, living packed like sardines in high rise multi-family units working out for ya'll?

      Not long back, lots of people were touting that THIS was the way we all should live....

      • Right there with you even though I live in the city.

        When I went to visit a family member in a retirement home that was in a very rural area. Heard the banjo's in the background as I was traveling. I came to a conclusion. The rednecks everyone makes fun of. They will be the ones without any problem dealing with this infection. They are already secluded. They are probably the ones that still can goods, they hunt, they know how to fix things without looking things up on YouTube. They probably all have

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          The rednecks everyone makes fun of. They will be the ones without any problem dealing with this infection. They are already secluded. They are probably the ones that still can goods, they hunt, they know how to fix things without looking things up on YouTube. They probably all have their own garden. And they are already armed and already know how to shoot in case the city dwellers want to try and take from them which they have had acquire on their own. They already are use to taking care of themselves, family and neighbors...

          Coming from the background myself, you assume far too much about general aptitude and attitude across the board with respect to "the rednecks". They (we) are not homogenous as a population in terms of the abilities or proclivities you've enumerated here. For each capable folk, there are at least a handful that are incapable (of canning, gardening, repairing, coping, or shooting), which I would hazard to guess is no more or less different than people who happen not to be branded rednecks. I'm uncertain eith

          • Fair enough. The individuals I encountered I felt were in the capable category. But I also know what you say is true about others. Thank you for bringing reality to what I said. And I don't mean that as a sarcastic response.

      • Hmm...so, how's the urban life, living packed like sardines in high rise multi-family units working out for ya'll?

        Just fine. I can stay inside for a few weeks once every hundred years when there's an uncontrolled global pandemic.

        • a few weeks once every hundred years

          "A few weeks" I doubt. Some of these statewide shutdown measures, such as California, have no announced sunset date. Current law in California, for example, is "shelter in place until further notice." Though California Governor Gavin Newsom stated that he currently does not expect the order to persist for "many, many months," nothing requires the Governor to give "further notice" soon or ever. This gives the Governor power to keep the majority of the population on house arrest for the rest of their natural

  • It's about to get interesting across the board.

  • It'll be interesting how those brave GameStop execs manage to get around this one -- seeing as how they consider themselves "essential retail." [arstechnica.com]

    Then again, they're on track to reduce their workforce by 100% without any outside help [businessinsider.com].

    • The sell webcams. That people need to work from home.

      • You don't need webcams to work from home. Those are only required for bosses that feel they need to keep an eye on you all the time.

        Also: Amazon.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sjames ( 1099 )

        I'm thinking practically everyone who has a job that can be done from home already has a smartphone with an adequate camera in it.

      • An interesting loophole for any business that wants to stay open. Just stock some item that people might consider essential or could be needed to work from home. Doesn't matter if it has anything to do with your core business or not.

        Of course, for most businesses this wouldn't even be necessary, if you're being permissive enough to allow "webcams" to be considered essential, then I'm guessing almost every business sells something that can be argued to be "essential", even if it's just bottles of water in

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:Slow to implement policies. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @12:56PM (#59853558)

        Yes, things like plumbers or appliance repair are considered essential in the Bay Area order.

        I am somewhat suprised that "plumber" keep showing up time and time again as a first example of someone who should be considered essential. And then i became less surprised since it's clear that those people buying shopping card load of toilet paper in one go will soon have a desparate need of a plumber.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          I am somewhat suprised that "plumber" keep showing up time and time again as a first example of someone who should be considered essential. And then i became less surprised since it's clear that those people buying shopping card load of toilet paper in one go will soon have a desparate need of a plumber.

          Apparently some people have also been using things like baby wipes and also flushing things like the lysol wipes, clogging pipes. Might actually be a good time to be a plumber.

        • We may see that when everyone in the world stays home and stops working to keep the complex machinery of our world going that everything we all rely on to survive is suddenly gone and it may be too late to recover. It isn't always easy to see what is or is not 'essential' and if mistakes are made we will all be paying dearly for it. We are already starting to see food shortages where i live.

          The governments may protest, "but we are allowing food!" without realizing how other things that the food producers ne

          • Re:Slow to implement policies. (Score:5, Informative)

            by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @01:40PM (#59853760)

            There's a federal list of essential industries that California based its list upon. Each of those industries has a web of dependencies. Everything needed for food and agriculture should be there - transportation, electricity, water, etc. Including "critical manufacturing", which means things like steel mills, electric engines, transformers, vehicles.

            The majority of commercial and industrial sectors are falling into the essential category. Not all will be ramped up to full though. Even non essential businesses are allowed minimal operations in many cases.

            Basically, reduce unnecessary congregations of people in close proximity. Work from home when you can, when you can't use social distancing. Yes, the gyms will hurt, the bars will hurt, the theaters will hurt, the manufacturer of small nicnacs will hurt, and some businesses may end up bankrupt. But the necessary sectors to keep the food supply running are still there.

            Most people staying home will continue to work remotely when it's possible. The plug was not pulled with everyone being ordered to stop and do nothing. If there's a food shortgage now then I expect it's due to panic buying rather than less than one full week of these broad orders.

          • The governments may protest, "but we are allowing food!" without realizing how other things that the food producers need to keep producing it are not available anymore and they may as well shut down production as well until this is over.

            Yeah, things like migrant workers. When the borders close and nobody is there to pick those vegetables you are going to notice pretty shortly.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by guygo ( 894298 )
          Working plumbing is necessary to a hygienic environment. Without working plumbing, disease has all it needs to run rampant through a population.
      • My county has a downloadable pdf that lists every job and service imaginable by category and has a big yes/no next to it.

        The government disaster plans decided this long before you were born.

  • will they give 100% medicaid with no wait time? and maybe force doctors to take it with no balance billing

  • https://www.theverge.com/2020/... [theverge.com]

    Yep, it's essential that gamestop stays open...sure....

    • Re:Gamestop is essential (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nitehawk214 ( 222219 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @02:41PM (#59853956)

      Gamestop will be bankrupt in 6 months. The owners are trying to squeeze as much money as they can before this happens.

      When the lawsuits come in for endangering their employees, there won't be any money left to pay out.

    • Well yes. What do you think millions of Americans are going to do when they are stuck at home? Take up knitting?

      All jokes aside, today we had a virtual after work drinks session, which actually was more fun that it sounds. Everyone in their own home drinking, sharing music and stories. The question was what are we doing on the weekend, and one of my co-workers answered "Well I bought an Xbox today, who knows how long we're stuck inside for."

      • Well yes. What do you think millions of Americans are going to do when they are stuck at home? Take up knitting?

        Probably doing the same thing that had already had Gamestop a dead man walking. Buying and downloading games off of Steam and similar platforms.

        I agree with the other poster that replied. If they shut down now, there won't be any reopening, and they know it. This is just an attempt to squeeze the last little bit of money of it.

  • How can it be 100% if there are exclusions? That's like saying 100% of the people died except for those that didn't.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      It's right there in the title. The denominator is the number of non-essential jobs, so there are no exclusions from that figure.

  • This seems like a huge overreaction to me (Score:3)

    by magzteel ( 5013587 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @01:52PM (#59853780)

    We are destroying the economy, peoples lives, and many businesses trying to keep people safe from possible harm.

    Why so disproportionate? According to US News:
    https://www.usnews.com/news/he... [usnews.com]

    "At least 14,000 people have died and 250,000 have already been hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 26 million Americans have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms"

    This is for a normal season of flu, with no lockdowns, no restrictions, and ready availability of a safe and effective flu vaccine that many if not most people don't bother to take.

    • Sorry, didn't see your post until I posted. [slashdot.org]

      I'm inclined to agree with you.

    • Re:This seems like a huge overreaction to me (Score:5, Informative)

      by dunkelfalke ( 91624 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @03:02PM (#59854040)

      The coronavirus has already killed half of that number and its season has just begun. That is why.

      • The coronavirus has already killed half of that number and its season has just begun. That is why.

        These are USA statistics, not global.

        USA coronavirus statistics statistics today (from CDC)
        Total cases: 15,219
        Total deaths: 201

        From CDC preliminary in-season flu estimates 2019-2020
        https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/... [cdc.gov]

        38,000,000 – 54,000,000 flu illnesses
        17,000,000 – 25,000,000 flu medical visits
        390,000 – 710,000 flu hospitalizations
        23,000 – 59,000 flu deaths

        So it's hard to see this as anything but an overreaction

        • Re:This seems like a huge overreaction to me (Score:5, Insightful)

          by dunkelfalke ( 91624 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @04:29PM (#59854312)

          This only shows how much the US health system sucks. In Italy, Germany or France only a few hundred people die from the flu every year. The US population is only 4-5 times larger and the country is not nearly as densely settled, so a thousand deaths should be the norm, not tens of thousands.

          The coronavirus, on the other hand, has already killed more Italians in 6 weeks than the flu manages in a decade. If the US health system fails as miserably as it does with the run off the mill flu, then you can expect millions of Americans to die.

          • This only shows how much the US health system sucks. In Italy, Germany or France only a few hundred people die from the flu every year. The US population is only 4-5 times larger and the country is not nearly as densely settled, so a thousand deaths should be the norm, not tens of thousands.

            The coronavirus, on the other hand, has already killed more Italians in 6 weeks than the flu manages in a decade. If the US health system fails as miserably as it does with the run off the mill flu, then you can expect millions of Americans to die.

            From: https://www.general-anzeiger-b... [general-anzeiger-bonn.de]
            How bad will the next flu season be?
            Even experts cannot predict this exactly. The strength of influenza waves varies considerably from year to year. It is estimated that between two and ten million people are afflicted in Germany every season. In a severe flu epidemic, as in the 2014/2015 season, more than 21,000 deaths were estimated. However, even moderate influenza outbreaks can claim the lives of several thousand people who die as a result of the infection.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Minupla ( 62455 )

      Because 1080 people died from this thing in the last 24 hrs, and the infection and death rates are increasing logarithmically, and we have no particular reason to think that it'll stop before its infected 50% of the world's population (low-ball on herd immunity numbers). Which if trends continue will be 427,471,737 deaths. So there's only one number in the equation we can impact. R0 is the obvious one, if we can slow the spread enough, eventually it'll die out. Look at Singapore and China if you think th

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by khchung ( 462899 )

        The thing about logarithmic/exponential curves is that you have two options - Overreact or Under-react.

        This is a key point that was lost in many people like GP. Mathematically you cannot turn an exponential growth into a polynomial growth if R0 is the only thing you can change, it will either become an exponential decay (overreact) or a slower but still exponential growth (underreact).

        Overreacting is the only sane way to deal with this, especially when the outcome for underreacting is already deadly apparent by now.

      • The thing about logarithmic/exponential curves is that you have two options - Overreact or Under-react.

        Umm, I believe "react" is a fair third option that exists between overreact and under-react. Just saying.

    • Re:This seems like a huge overreaction to me (Score:5, Informative)

      by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @04:25PM (#59854298)

      And COVID-19 is about 40 times more deadly than flu, so if 26 million Americans get it half a million will die. In actually it will be far more, because the system cannot deal with that many sick people at once. Not even close.

      Have a look at Italy. That could be you in a month.

      • Have a look at Italy. That could be you in a month.

        The case count in the US is doubling every two days. If the exponential growth keeps going on like that, the US will be there in 8 days (0.08% of the population confirmed infected, as Italy today).

    • At least 14,000 people have died and 250,000 have already been hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season

      Congratulations on comparing something that is over to something else that hasn't even properly begin. If you're lucky COVID-19 will be the Y2K of our times. A completely non-issue making everyone question what the fuss was all about.

      If you're lucky. Unfortunately with people like you around it could very much be a virus to remember and make your crappy little flu statistics look sillier than they already are.

    • This is for a normal season of flu, with no lockdowns, no restrictions, and ready availability of a safe and effective flu vaccine that many if not most people don't bother to take.

      This is not normal. What you have to consider is the impact this is causing on health care facilities. They are already becoming overburdened in many areas and that's with all of these extreme precautions in place. This virus is quickly spreading despite all of the many precautions that are not taken for a seasonal flu outbreak. We get hung up on trying to compare infection numbers and fatalities when the real issue is our ability to deal with so many patients. We simply don't have enough ICU capacity to ha

  • Overreacting much? (Score:2, Informative)

    by jmichaelg ( 148257 )

    John Ioannidis, a Stanford epidemiologist, has opined [statnews.com] that we're way over reacting based on a paucity of data. The mortality rates you're seeing bandied about can be explained by selection-bias errors.

    • There's this University of Washington virology graphic [washington.edu](scroll down...) that shows a negative to positive test ratio ranging between 10:1 and 15:1. That is, despite selecting for the most ill, the actual number of confirmed cases is small.

      The incidence of positive tests has held steady instead of increasing as you might expect in an epidemic.

    • Re:Overreacting much? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MikeDataLink ( 536925 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @03:43PM (#59854172) Homepage Journal

      The mortality rates you're seeing bandied about can be explained by selection-bias errors.

      Ask all those Doctors in Italy who literally have no beds in their hospitals free if we are over reacting.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      Or do you think that's some liberal hoax and that video is fake news? This isn't a drill dude.

    • Ioannidis has done great work exposing the causes of the replication crisis and helping to improve methodology in science, but there's a major flaw with the opinion piece you linked to: while he is correct in pointing out that solid data could better inform our decisions, collecting solid data takes time and that's the one thing we don't have right now. The difference between political decisions and scientific conclusions is that political decisions must often be made with incomplete data because inaction i

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